Magic: The Gathering

Tillie

My hubs coerced me into asking you all about MTG. Incredibly geeky, I know but....we all play Achaea, so, I figured I'd give it a shot.

If you play: what format do you like the most? favorite cards and color combos? favorite deck? 

Also...the main reason I wanted to post this was to ask: What color combo do you think each city in Achaea is? Anytime I try to explain Achaea and its culture to my friends (namely, my guy friends because they're the only ones that'll listen), I end up comparing the cities to stuff in Magic.

My thoughts:
Cyrene - Blue/White - Azorius (Lawful Good..but with magic bits)

Mhaldor - I first thought Red/Black (Rakdos), but they tend more towards just plain out masochism and cray. Mhaldor seems more disciplined in its debauchery, so maybe it's more Red/Black/White (Which is Mardu, which is in the new set or whatever).

Ashtan - Blue/Red - Izzet

Hashan - Blue/Black - Dimir

Eleusis - White/Green - Selesnya

Targossas - White/....Red? - I kind of wanna say Boros, but at the same time, may be a bit too much. Idk.


..Yeah. I feel like a dweeb.

Praxides

I haven't played in a while, due to it being a fairly expensive hobby for my poor person budget, so mostly play anything but standard since I can't keep buying new cards with friends or the (really lame) Steam games.

Colourless decks, blue or black are usually what I play.

Jace mill decks are my favourite

Kaden

Used to play. I preferred limited formats and tended towards Blue/White decks.

Been playing Android: Netrunner recently instead.

Tillie

Praxides said:

I haven't played in a while, due to it being a fairly expensive hobby for my poor person budget, so mostly play anything but standard since I can't keep buying new cards with friends or the (really lame) Steam games.

Yeaaaah, it can get super-duper expensive. Fortunately a few friends of ours have been buying cards/rares on and off for years, so we have a nice collection we all pool from. We play EDH, primarily - but I have a short attention span. When you're playing EDH with seven people, you tend to get a little glossy-eyed (I go and play with the cat  until it's my turn, haha).

Standard though, is still SO much fun, particularly with the new sets. I've been to a few drafting events and the smaller deck sizes can be really refreshing.

I always end up going Blue/White or Blue/White/Black. My EDH deck currently is Azorius with Bragos, King Eternal as my general. Blinkety-blink stuff.

@Kaden, never heard of it. Looks interesting, though!

I played Sphinxes for a while...in my blue/white before it was just blue/white and was blue/white/black. Only because the sphinxes are so cool.

Wish there was a relatively decent form of multiplayer we could all play together, somehow. Cockatrice used to exist but...doesn't anymore. Oh well!

Talysin

I played standard back in the day (2010-2011). When infect hit, I made a pretty successful blue/black control infect deck.

Huge fan of Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Berenene

I used to enjoy playing. However, the only deck I played with was the darksteel set. But I do prefer blue heavy decks and abilities that reflect or bounce back damage. 

Drodak

I haven't played since the late 90's but back then I was all about red. I went in with goblin grenade/fireball style burn decks. I've since tried a couple of the console versions but I just couldn't get back into it. Love the art though.

Daslin

Back in the day, I had a stupid joke deck that nobody could beat. Had Last Stand in it. GG.

Ernam

I differ in opinion on some of the combos you picked, and I think it's pretty fair to say that some of the cities are mono-colored.  I would definitely give Ashtan Dimir though.  Nobody gets mono-blue, because no city is awesome enough.  Here's my list:

Targ: mono-white
Shallam: old-school mono-white

Mhaldor: Rakdos (black/red)

Cyrene: Azorius (blue/white)

Ashtan: Dimir (blue/black)

Eleusis: Elves.  (fuck elves)   (Could also be Golgari, which is black/green)

Hashan: Artefact lands (should never have existed)

A-team: Power 9, 4X-force of will / Hatred deck, with 73% chance of winning before other player gets a turn.

Zii

Red and Black, lots of little creatures.

Notably: Keldon Warlord

Avatar of Woe x2

Sadistic Glee x2

Sengir Vampire x2

Zii

I gave my deck away when I was turned away from the last tournament I tried to enter.  Too many whiners against my powerhouse squad of 12/12+ stat cards.

Orzaansyn

I played a very long time ago. It was in Revised Edition, then Ice Age. I stopped after that, because I lacked money and it was not fun to lose 99% of time.

I had a zombie deck, with the (probably poor) combo Zombie Master/Scathe Zombies/Evil Presence.

I also used 4 Hypnotic Specters, a Royal Assassin and a Sorceress Queen.

I aways liked to create custom cards, also.

Tillie

Thanks for the responses, folks!

Whenever I go to tournaments (which isn't terribly often), there's a lot of chatter about players that play really hatey decks - which is a good strategy,to win... particularly when you're playing to win money or cards or whatnot. Our playgroup usually plays for fun, though: i.e, games that takes literally hours to play through. 

I took my U/W deck to an EDH game at a shop recently,and added black back just so I could be relatively mean:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220509

^My favorite sphinx. He's such an asshole. But in EDH, when your life total is 40, he's pretty fun.

Talysin

Yeah, my esper EDH deck fishes that thing out right quick with Tinker.

Kazu

I played standard in HS about the time of the Kamigawa series. I'd usually roll a Green trample deck with the snake shamans powering my larger cards.

Kresslack

I got dragged into this recently, since sometimes there's little else to do. Old Navy buddy pulled out his deck from the 90's and a few of us got together and started playing. I started playing with a friend's mono-black, but eventually got my own M15 core set and built a black/green and a white/blue out of it, both of which seem to be working pretty well.

Still working on getting my first Planeswalker. We did a booster draft and I got some pretty good cards that I might use to make my own mono-black with.

Jacen

My gf and I play, and I also bought the Steam MTG game. Its tons of fun.

Kresslack

Jacen said:

My gf and I play, and I also bought the Steam MTG game. Its tons of fun.

I've been thinking about getting the Steam version, just to keep in practice aside from face to face games. Have you tried it?

Ernam

I cashed out for $5,400 in total, bought the top-of-the-line macbook pro and paid two month's rent, haven't looked back.

Magic is a pretty amazing game, but I think it's simply something for kids IMO.

It's also very heavily dominated by who has the most cash (I had a deck with a 71% first turn win percentage which ran about $4,500 for a 60 card deck [and only that low because my power 9 were all scuffed up]).

EDH and standard kindof helped, as are gentlemens' agreements, but I think what really ended up killing it for me was the proliferation of the ubiquitous cookie-cutter decks on the internet, which by about 2005 was all you'd ever see (which basically required you to do it too if you wanted to compete).

Kresslack

I don't think it's mostly for kids, just my opinion. It's very strategy oriented. I don't plan on playing in tournaments or anything like that, just really like the good time myself and a group of friends had playing it. Couple of them are in their 30's and have been playing recreationally for years.

It's just good times I guess when you play with people you know. For instance, one was using a mono-black deck and brought out a Nightmare, and was able to get it to 18/18, then went to take out the last person in play. They forgot they had Typhoid Rats out, which has deathtouch, though.

Perfect Leeroy Jenkins moment.

Ernam

Yeah at face value I'd agree, and the strategy can be fascinating.  It's just that even at low to moderate skill levels, the "google" deck-build/strategy is not just incredibly easy, but typically so effective that it's necessary to use (since everyone else is too).

Kresslack

I would think using online deck builders takes the fun out of building a truly unique deck, since apparently there are near endless possibilities. Having only just started, I greatly enjoyed building my own deck, which works off life drain. I threw some green in there just to be able to deal with artefacts and enchantments, which a mono-black deck apparently can't do. One of my friends runs a pretty annoying white deck that utilizes are lot of artefacts and enchantments, and has about two or more artefact cards which can be popped to clear all non-lands off the board.

Jacen

Kresslack said:

Jacen said:

My gf and I play, and I also bought the Steam MTG game. Its tons of fun.

I've been thinking about getting the Steam version, just to keep in practice aside from face to face games. Have you tried it?

Yeah its pretty nice. Doesn't compare to real play, but they do a damn good job with it. Will definitely help you practice. I used it to help me learn how the moves and stack and stuff work.

Kresslack

Jacen said:

Kresslack said:

Jacen said:

My gf and I play, and I also bought the Steam MTG game. Its tons of fun.

I've been thinking about getting the Steam version, just to keep in practice aside from face to face games. Have you tried it?

Yeah its pretty nice. Doesn't compare to real play, but they do a damn good job with it. Will definitely help you practice. I used it to help me learn how the moves and stack and stuff work.

I'll have to check it out then. Thanks for mentioning it.

Saurrocene

Play a LOT of limited, top 8'd a PTQ in a sealed event in Tampa a few months back. Favorite formats would be limited (draft/sealed) and modern. Have played Splinter Twin over the past year with great success at local events, but have the most fun piloting goof decks I make (Goryo's Vengeance, Elemental Combo, etc.)

Would say your color designations for each of the cities are pretty spot on. Of course there can be some debate, but the color pie is always debated.

Kitiara

 I play a lot of magic.  I run legacy a lot. My favorite combination is black/red I also have mono black zombies, all color dragon deck, slivers(yes very annoying just like elves) my favourite edition is ravnica and I love me some pretty unhinged lands.  I spent a lot of money since junior high addicted to this game I enjoy fnm drafting too. Also don't get me started on my husbands oath deck, makes me grumpy. 

Kitiara

I thought this was appropriate:



hehe

Hhaos

Proud control player residing in Hashan XD

Hhaos

Kresslack said:

Jacen said:

Kresslack said:

Jacen said:

My gf and I play, and I also bought the Steam MTG game. Its tons of fun.

I've been thinking about getting the Steam version, just to keep in practice aside from face to face games. Have you tried it?

Yeah its pretty nice. Doesn't compare to real play, but they do a damn good job with it. Will definitely help you practice. I used it to help me learn how the moves and stack and stuff work.

I'll have to check it out then. Thanks for mentioning it.

Make point of trying. XMage its the best free client out right now

Hhaos

Nightmare has flying it wouldn't be able to be blocked by rats...

Kresslack said:

I don't think it's mostly for kids, just my opinion. It's very strategy oriented. I don't plan on playing in tournaments or anything like that, just really like the good time myself and a group of friends had playing it. Couple of them are in their 30's and have been playing recreationally for years.

It's just good times I guess when you play with people you know. For instance, one was using a mono-black deck and brought out a Nightmare, and was able to get it to 18/18, then went to take out the last person in play. They forgot they had Typhoid Rats out, which has deathtouch, though.

Perfect Leeroy Jenkins moment.

Kitiara

Hhaos said:

Nightmare has flying it wouldn't be able to be blocked by rats...

Kresslack said:

I don't think it's mostly for kids, just my opinion. It's very strategy oriented. I don't plan on playing in tournaments or anything like that, just really like the good time myself and a group of friends had playing it. Couple of them are in their 30's and have been playing recreationally for years.

It's just good times I guess when you play with people you know. For instance, one was using a mono-black deck and brought out a Nightmare, and was able to get it to 18/18, then went to take out the last person in play. They forgot they had Typhoid Rats out, which has deathtouch, though.

Perfect Leeroy Jenkins moment.

Perhaps it was blue black with levitation?