How to play magic ?
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How to play magic ?
by Aberrant Mage K » 15 Jun 2009, 21:04
Hello everyone. So, I just downloaded the game today and I am sort of figuring out the rules and stuff. I just have some questions and hopefully someone can answer them or maybe show me where to go?
1--The most important question: How do you actually play the game? I know it sounds a bit stupid, but how do I find out what the rules are and stuff? (I should mention I've never played this game before, like ever)
2--I think I downloaded most of the updates but I'm not entirely sure. Is there a list somewhere of all the updates I have to download so I can play the game the right way?
3--are the cards supposed to have pictures? Most of them have a blank space and text on the bottom. If they are supposed to have pictures, where do I have to go to get them? Thanks for your help.
I know my questions seem newbieish, and its probably because until today I never actually played Magic. So any help anyone can give me will be great.
Thanks
1--The most important question: How do you actually play the game? I know it sounds a bit stupid, but how do I find out what the rules are and stuff? (I should mention I've never played this game before, like ever)
2--I think I downloaded most of the updates but I'm not entirely sure. Is there a list somewhere of all the updates I have to download so I can play the game the right way?
3--are the cards supposed to have pictures? Most of them have a blank space and text on the bottom. If they are supposed to have pictures, where do I have to go to get them? Thanks for your help.
I know my questions seem newbieish, and its probably because until today I never actually played Magic. So any help anyone can give me will be great.
Thanks
- Aberrant Mage K
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 15 Jun 2009, 18:46
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Re: First Timer
by Wally » 16 Jun 2009, 05:13
Hi there, there is a downloadable pdf with the basic rules for Magic that you can find here:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/rules/Magi ... 10E_EN.pdf
and yes all the cards certainly should have art. If you are missing art you will have to download them from this site. Look for the graphics thread.
I've attached a basic introductory primer I wrote for a friend I was introducing to the game:
Magic began in August 1993 with a cardset of 302 cards. It was intended to be a strategy game that was easily teachable and could be played in a relatively short time at gaming or role-playing conventions. I first encountered it in this context at Conquest 1994. It was a runaway success, beyond the ability of Wizards of the Coast to satisfy demand, and cards from the first set are consequently expensive. The most expensive card (Black Lotus) from this set retails for about 1200 USD. Each successive set was printed in larger quantities then its predecessors, consequently no card printed after 1994 has a price even close to the early cards. From 1995 onwards each expansion had a print run of 300 million or more cards. The game has since grown to circa 10,000 different cards and a playerbase of about 6 million. New card expansions are released both in paper and online 3 or 4 times a year. This is both a commercially successful strategy and a dynamic that keeps the game constantly re-inventing itself.
The base mechanics of the game are fairly simple and I’ve taught people how to play in an hour. Its infinitely replayable however as the high number of cards available and the regular addition of new ones mean there is an phenomenally high number of possible card interactions and combos. It can be played at a simple level of cast creature, attack with creature until someone is dead. It can also be played as a highly variable and complicated strategic game involving complex decision making.
CATEGORIES OF PLAY
There are 2 broad categories of play, limited and constructed.
In a ‘limited’ game your deck is limited to the contents of a pre-determined number of packs. You don’t have all the answers and will need to run multiple colours. You will be forced to run sub-optimal cards. Limited play is tactical and a game of adaptation and improvisation. In the 1996 PC game you can play limited games by going with the sealed deck option.
In a ‘constructed’ game, you play with a deck that you have constructed to pursue a particular strategy. You tailor your deck and stack it with the cards you will need. Constructed play is more deliberate and strategic. Constructed decks can be extremely efficient, and may include extensive card-drawing and library manipulation to reduce the random element and ensure you draw what you need when you need it.
Either approach ‘limited’ or ‘constructed’ can be played in many different formats. The most commonly played format is called Standard, in which the cardpool in use consists only of the most recent expansions. As new expansions are released, they enter the Standard format and correspondingly one of the older Standard expansions leaves the format and ‘rotates’ out. The set rotates into the Extended format which is all the cards from Standard plus several years worth of earlier expansions. After several years in Extended, the set will eventually rotate out of Extended as well. It will rotate out into what are called the Eternal formats, these are formats that allow the use of all card sets (individual cards may be banned or restricted however.).
What this all means is that Standard has a relatively small cardpool of the most recent cards, Extended has a much bigger cardpool, and Eternal formats have the biggest cardpool of all. The bigger the cardpool the more powerful and fast a deck can be (because it can draw upon more possibilities and has many more possible card interactions).
Other common formats are Singleton (no more then one copy of a particular card per deck), Pauper (common cards only), and Multiplayer.
DECK STYLES
Regardless of the format, decks are often considered to fall into one of three broad types, Aggro, Control, Combo. These are broad strategic archetypes defined by the major method of achieving victory and there are many different decktypes within each. The archetypes blur at the edges and some decks are classed as Aggro-control or Control Combo.
An aggro deck typically focuses on the early game and expects to defeat its opponent through sheer aggression, early attacks and constant pressure on the opponent. Aggro decks typically focus on small efficient creatures (often called weenies), or they may be ‘burn’ decks. Examples of aggro decks are white weenie, goblin decks, suicide black (this type of deck trades its own life to apply early pressure). These evolve over time and say a white weenie deck of 1994 would be very different from one from 2009.
Control decks do not aim at early defeat of the opponent. Their aim is to survive and to take control of the game. If they succeed in establishing control, they will get around to killing the opponent in time. Control decks come in different forms. Counterspells are common as is ‘stealing’ an opponents creatures or preventing them attacking. Some control decks are what are called prison decks, these aim at locking the opponent out of the game by preventing him drawing cards or denying him turns or stopping him from being able to untap. Some control decks aim at mana denial, and focus on destroying or tapping their opponents lands. Other control decks attack the opponent’s hand with discard effects.
Combo decks focus on assembling a particular combination of cards that together will instantly win the game. They may typically deploy neither the early threats of an aggro deck nor the delaying tactics of a control deck but focus on tutor effects (cards that will draw the required parts of the combo engine). Combo decks may appear to do nothing to you until bang an instant death occurs. Some combo decks aim at assembling an infinite engine or constant loop that will gain them infinite life or deal infinite damage.
It is sometimes said that there is a rock-paper-scissors aspect to these three archetypes. Aggro decks tend to defeat Control decks by overrunning the opponent before he has time to establish his long term game plan. Control decks tend to defeat Combo decks by preventing through countermagic the combo engine. Combo decks tend to defeat aggro decks which may have difficulty preventing the combo kill from happening. These tendencies force deck diversity, if for instance aggro decks are struggling against a currently popular combo strategy, then aggro players will adapt by incorporating control cards into their deck to handle the combo, this mutates them towards an aggro-control style (and conversely weakens them towards a more ‘pure’ aggro deck that didn’t weaken its offensive elements). The rise and fall of different deck types and strategies is called the metagame. A decktype rises in popularity as it preys upon popular strategies, then it becomes prey in turn as players start preparing to face it.
The Colours:
Magic is made up of 5 colours of card, each with different strengths and weaknesses. The colours are different by design and there is no pretence that they have equivalent capabilities. More often then not, decks are built with more then one colour to minimise vulnerability.
Black: Evil, Night, Undead. Black is highly destructive and destroying creatures and discarding cards are major themes. Black is very vulnerable to artifacts and enchantments as it has no easy way of dealing with these.
White: Good, Light, Order. White gets defensive spells, efficient small creatures, life gain and healing, and can easily destroy artifacts and enchantments. It has limited card drawing ability.
Blue: Water, Air, Intellect. Blue is the tricky colour. It gets counterspells and card drawing. It probably cant kill your creature in play but can counterspell it, steal it or bounce it back to your hand. Blue is somewhat vulnerable to artifacts and enchantments, it cant destroy them but can counterspell or bounce them.
Red: Fire, Chaos, Earth. Red gets land destruction and burn spells. It can destroy artifacts easily but is extremely vulnerable to enchantments. Red gets limited card drawing
Green: Nature, Life, Growth. Green gets mana acceleration, and bigger creatures. It can handle both artifacts and enchantments. It has limited ‘reach’ and may find it very difficult to remove a problematic creature. It gets very few flying creatures and is weak in the air.
Historically Blue and Black have been the strongest colors, with Green regarded as the worst.
Some Links:
The basic rulebook:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/rules/Magi ... 10E_EN.pdf
Advanced (comprehensive) rulebook (stay away from this unless you’re really keen)
http://www.wizards.com/magic/comprules/ ... 081001.pdf
Official sites
The Magic website:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Default.aspx
The Magic general forums:
http://forums.gleemax.com/forumdisplay. ... orumid=131
The Magic Online forums
http://forums.gleemax.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142
Non-Official sites:
Star City Games
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic.php
MTG Salvation
http://mtgsalvation.com/
Magiccards Info
http://magiccards.info/
http://www.wizards.com/magic/rules/Magi ... 10E_EN.pdf
and yes all the cards certainly should have art. If you are missing art you will have to download them from this site. Look for the graphics thread.
I've attached a basic introductory primer I wrote for a friend I was introducing to the game:
Magic began in August 1993 with a cardset of 302 cards. It was intended to be a strategy game that was easily teachable and could be played in a relatively short time at gaming or role-playing conventions. I first encountered it in this context at Conquest 1994. It was a runaway success, beyond the ability of Wizards of the Coast to satisfy demand, and cards from the first set are consequently expensive. The most expensive card (Black Lotus) from this set retails for about 1200 USD. Each successive set was printed in larger quantities then its predecessors, consequently no card printed after 1994 has a price even close to the early cards. From 1995 onwards each expansion had a print run of 300 million or more cards. The game has since grown to circa 10,000 different cards and a playerbase of about 6 million. New card expansions are released both in paper and online 3 or 4 times a year. This is both a commercially successful strategy and a dynamic that keeps the game constantly re-inventing itself.
The base mechanics of the game are fairly simple and I’ve taught people how to play in an hour. Its infinitely replayable however as the high number of cards available and the regular addition of new ones mean there is an phenomenally high number of possible card interactions and combos. It can be played at a simple level of cast creature, attack with creature until someone is dead. It can also be played as a highly variable and complicated strategic game involving complex decision making.
CATEGORIES OF PLAY
There are 2 broad categories of play, limited and constructed.
In a ‘limited’ game your deck is limited to the contents of a pre-determined number of packs. You don’t have all the answers and will need to run multiple colours. You will be forced to run sub-optimal cards. Limited play is tactical and a game of adaptation and improvisation. In the 1996 PC game you can play limited games by going with the sealed deck option.
In a ‘constructed’ game, you play with a deck that you have constructed to pursue a particular strategy. You tailor your deck and stack it with the cards you will need. Constructed play is more deliberate and strategic. Constructed decks can be extremely efficient, and may include extensive card-drawing and library manipulation to reduce the random element and ensure you draw what you need when you need it.
Either approach ‘limited’ or ‘constructed’ can be played in many different formats. The most commonly played format is called Standard, in which the cardpool in use consists only of the most recent expansions. As new expansions are released, they enter the Standard format and correspondingly one of the older Standard expansions leaves the format and ‘rotates’ out. The set rotates into the Extended format which is all the cards from Standard plus several years worth of earlier expansions. After several years in Extended, the set will eventually rotate out of Extended as well. It will rotate out into what are called the Eternal formats, these are formats that allow the use of all card sets (individual cards may be banned or restricted however.).
What this all means is that Standard has a relatively small cardpool of the most recent cards, Extended has a much bigger cardpool, and Eternal formats have the biggest cardpool of all. The bigger the cardpool the more powerful and fast a deck can be (because it can draw upon more possibilities and has many more possible card interactions).
Other common formats are Singleton (no more then one copy of a particular card per deck), Pauper (common cards only), and Multiplayer.
DECK STYLES
Regardless of the format, decks are often considered to fall into one of three broad types, Aggro, Control, Combo. These are broad strategic archetypes defined by the major method of achieving victory and there are many different decktypes within each. The archetypes blur at the edges and some decks are classed as Aggro-control or Control Combo.
An aggro deck typically focuses on the early game and expects to defeat its opponent through sheer aggression, early attacks and constant pressure on the opponent. Aggro decks typically focus on small efficient creatures (often called weenies), or they may be ‘burn’ decks. Examples of aggro decks are white weenie, goblin decks, suicide black (this type of deck trades its own life to apply early pressure). These evolve over time and say a white weenie deck of 1994 would be very different from one from 2009.
Control decks do not aim at early defeat of the opponent. Their aim is to survive and to take control of the game. If they succeed in establishing control, they will get around to killing the opponent in time. Control decks come in different forms. Counterspells are common as is ‘stealing’ an opponents creatures or preventing them attacking. Some control decks are what are called prison decks, these aim at locking the opponent out of the game by preventing him drawing cards or denying him turns or stopping him from being able to untap. Some control decks aim at mana denial, and focus on destroying or tapping their opponents lands. Other control decks attack the opponent’s hand with discard effects.
Combo decks focus on assembling a particular combination of cards that together will instantly win the game. They may typically deploy neither the early threats of an aggro deck nor the delaying tactics of a control deck but focus on tutor effects (cards that will draw the required parts of the combo engine). Combo decks may appear to do nothing to you until bang an instant death occurs. Some combo decks aim at assembling an infinite engine or constant loop that will gain them infinite life or deal infinite damage.
It is sometimes said that there is a rock-paper-scissors aspect to these three archetypes. Aggro decks tend to defeat Control decks by overrunning the opponent before he has time to establish his long term game plan. Control decks tend to defeat Combo decks by preventing through countermagic the combo engine. Combo decks tend to defeat aggro decks which may have difficulty preventing the combo kill from happening. These tendencies force deck diversity, if for instance aggro decks are struggling against a currently popular combo strategy, then aggro players will adapt by incorporating control cards into their deck to handle the combo, this mutates them towards an aggro-control style (and conversely weakens them towards a more ‘pure’ aggro deck that didn’t weaken its offensive elements). The rise and fall of different deck types and strategies is called the metagame. A decktype rises in popularity as it preys upon popular strategies, then it becomes prey in turn as players start preparing to face it.
The Colours:
Magic is made up of 5 colours of card, each with different strengths and weaknesses. The colours are different by design and there is no pretence that they have equivalent capabilities. More often then not, decks are built with more then one colour to minimise vulnerability.
Black: Evil, Night, Undead. Black is highly destructive and destroying creatures and discarding cards are major themes. Black is very vulnerable to artifacts and enchantments as it has no easy way of dealing with these.
White: Good, Light, Order. White gets defensive spells, efficient small creatures, life gain and healing, and can easily destroy artifacts and enchantments. It has limited card drawing ability.
Blue: Water, Air, Intellect. Blue is the tricky colour. It gets counterspells and card drawing. It probably cant kill your creature in play but can counterspell it, steal it or bounce it back to your hand. Blue is somewhat vulnerable to artifacts and enchantments, it cant destroy them but can counterspell or bounce them.
Red: Fire, Chaos, Earth. Red gets land destruction and burn spells. It can destroy artifacts easily but is extremely vulnerable to enchantments. Red gets limited card drawing
Green: Nature, Life, Growth. Green gets mana acceleration, and bigger creatures. It can handle both artifacts and enchantments. It has limited ‘reach’ and may find it very difficult to remove a problematic creature. It gets very few flying creatures and is weak in the air.
Historically Blue and Black have been the strongest colors, with Green regarded as the worst.
Some Links:
The basic rulebook:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/rules/Magi ... 10E_EN.pdf
Advanced (comprehensive) rulebook (stay away from this unless you’re really keen)
http://www.wizards.com/magic/comprules/ ... 081001.pdf
Official sites
The Magic website:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Default.aspx
The Magic general forums:
http://forums.gleemax.com/forumdisplay. ... orumid=131
The Magic Online forums
http://forums.gleemax.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142
Non-Official sites:
Star City Games
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic.php
MTG Salvation
http://mtgsalvation.com/
Magiccards Info
http://magiccards.info/
- Wally
- Posts: 234
- Joined: 05 Mar 2009, 04:39
- Location: Australia
- Has thanked: 2 times
- Been thanked: 17 times
Re: First Timer
by Aberrant Mage K » 17 Jun 2009, 20:40
Thank you SO much! Those links and the description/overview of the game really helps. I was going a little crazy for a minute trying to figure out some of the stuff I was reading on the wizards.com website (none of that made any sense to me!)
- Aberrant Mage K
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 15 Jun 2009, 18:46
- Has thanked: 0 time
- Been thanked: 0 time
Re: How to play magic ?
by monopoman » 20 Nov 2009, 09:41
This is one of the most complex games ever made seriously. Especially if you are speaking from a strategy standpoint.
The basics are not that bad but there are so many subtle interactions and minor rules that really make the game a lot more complex then it seems.
So if you don't think your learning it fast enough you probably are doing great for how little you know.
The basics are not that bad but there are so many subtle interactions and minor rules that really make the game a lot more complex then it seems.
So if you don't think your learning it fast enough you probably are doing great for how little you know.
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