Philip Newman
United States
Richardson
Texas
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MATCH 24
Combat Commander Series vs. Magic: The Gathering
The nearly universal answer to one of the first GCL Mafia discussion questions, will it hold up in this format? Magic: The Gathering was nominated by Philip, Christopher, and Rishi, with an average placement value of 4.38.
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Ubergeek
United States
Camas
Washington
Be Happy in your Game!
I spent 100 Geek Gold and all I got was this lousy overtext message!
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Deck Building. There will be one built for my beach chair on the island. But as far as card games go, this is the one I'm taking. Along with all the expansions, four of each card ever printed and a subscription for all future sets in Fat Pack or themed decks to include any old, current, and new championship decks. I hesitated for a moment and thought maybe Dominion would be a better choice but decided that this one still offers much more variety over Dominion and meets my Thunderstone theme need as well.
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Steve Bauer
United States
Gilbert
Arizona
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Owners / Plays / Plays Per Owner
11525 258585 22.4
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Ok, here's the deal. I'm the proud owner of a really, really sweet power cube - that is, a collection of cards ranging from the very first to the most modern sets that is designed to be used as a drafting pool to create a high-power yet balanced environment.
Maybe the odds are low, but if there's anyone interested in doing a draft, short or otherwise, I'll bring my cube.
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Tiago VIP
Brazil
Will you still look into my eyes with warmth even if you saw my shadows?
How many strips there are?
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55 Magic: The Gathering x 64 Chicago Express
Preliminary Rd 1: d. Letters from Whitechapel - 84 x 80
Comment: It was a tough first round, but Magic went through. Will it gather more votes this time?
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Richard Bright
United States
Rancho Cordova
California
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The Betrayal group transitioned into this.
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James Sitz
United States
Illinois
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Okay, make that 1993.
This one even has wizards and stuff.
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Scott B
United States
San Diego
California
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Ebayed (kinda). Oh boy, here we go again. I've been SERIOUSLY into Magic no fewer than 4 times over the last 19 years, twice with "real" cards (twice on Magic Online). Anyway, I had a serious collection, but my main opponents were former co-workers. I no longer saw them, and my collection was worth some cash, so I had to get rid of it. I put it up on Ebay as multiple auctions by expansion. As it happened, somebody local saw them, and wanted to outright buy them. I was okay with that, so long the auctions didn't have bids on them. So, he bought the ones that were un-bid, we met, went through the cards, and he paid me. Only a couple of auctions wound up fully going through Ebay. I was pretty happy with the money I got, but I miss playing (really, I miss building decks and talking strategy...).
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Tom J
United States
Richmond Hts.
Ohio
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Invasion Expert level deck. $.69 at Unique.
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Pat Johnston
United States
North Liberty
Iowa
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$0.88 at Marion GW. Invasion Deck. Don't know a thing about Magic. Anybody point me to a simple buy site to see if any of these are valuable? I assume they are not.
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Neil Wilson
United States
Tacoma
Washington
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Captain's Log
1 x Magic: The Gathering draft (2 packs Dark Ascension, 1 pack Innistrad)
? x Scrabble (against AI)
So it seems like I might be getting slightly sucked back into M:TG -- not that I can really afford to do it for long, unless one of my job applications finally gets a positive response.
Last Thursday I went to a local comic book store that hosts sanctioned Magic tournaments, figuring I would go ahead and try a draft to ease myself back into playing. This was probably a mistake: I should have researched the cards to expect so I would have a better idea of what archetypes were most likely to work.
Still, I managed to piece together a pretty "sick" Red/Black deck with a splash of White. I ended with largely mediocre creatures along with a fair deal of removal (1 Tragic Slip, 2 Burning Oils, 1 Fires of Undeath, 1 Fling, 1 Typhoid Rats) and splashed token makers (1 Lingering Souls, 1 Midnight Haunting). At the time I was unaware of the Vampires archetype for Red/Black, which might have helped my choices if I had decided to stay with that path.
The first round I was up against somebody who was also unfamiliar with the cards, so we spent a lot of time reading each other's cards. In addition, we had to call in the judge on two occasions (!), in part because I'm so old that I was playing under the impression that damage was still "put on the stack" (which is no longer the case). Although I'm fairly sure I would have ended up winning the match, we were eventually called on time, so the match ended with a draw.
Second round went very badly; I decided to keep a hand that had 5 lands, and the one good thing I can say about the game is that I never missed a land-drop. I was pretty much beat-down whilst being land-flooded. The second game was going decent until he dropped a 5/5 common that I just had no way to deal with. I spent four turns blocking it with Spirit Tokens (from Undying Souls), but I never managed to draw an answer (or have a playable answer in my graveyard using Flashback).
Third round I went up against a very efficient Green/Red werewolf deck. His games consistently seem to go: first turn Young Wolf, second turn Hinterland Hermit / Somberwald Dryad / Dawntreader Elk, and then third turn he always seemed to have Ulvenwald Bear (which capitalizes on Morbid abilities, i.e., if a creature died that turn). The first game we managed to trade decently well, but after he used Increasing Savagery on a Feral Ridgewolf (which has a 1/2 body with trample, and can get an additional +2/+0 per turn), I had no chance to win unless I drew my Tragic Slip -- which I naturally failed to do! Second game my opponent got stuck at two mana and had no plays to make, which allowed me to flip two Hinterland Hermits and beat him down for 6 each turn. When he finally drew his third land, I had enough removal in my hand that he didn't have a chance. The third game, though, went pretty much exactly like the first. Except he used Increasing Savagery on some other creature, and I once against failed to find my Tragic Slip. Alas!
Fourth round was very interesting. My opponent was running a Blue / White mill deck; and he could either mill himself or me. The first game he played a Curse of the Bloody Tome on me, and it immediately milled off my Undying Souls, which I cast (using Flashback) that turn. My Spirits then proceeded to beat him down before he could do anything about them while I mucked up the ground. The second game he had a much faster start, choosing to mill himself and then getting out very fast Stitched Drake. He also apparently had some tricksy white geists and plenty of Saving Grasps. Although I managed to "kill" at least three of his fliers, he kept saving them with his Saving Grasps and I eventually fell to his aerial assault. The third game was a real nail-biter; he played a third turn Curse of the Bloody Tome on me, and also put up some fliers and just started mucking up the board, putting me on an effective 10-turn clock. Although I had a Fires of Undeath in my graveyard, I never managed to hit 6 mana (required for it's Flashback cost), which would have very easily let me get rid of one of his pesky blockers. The game went down to the very last turn; I had one card left in my deck, attacked with everything, and then used Fling to stick him with the final 2 damage for the win.
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Eric Portney
United States
Bremerton
WA
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A sealed plastic bag of Magic cards... mixed with about 50% Wyvern cards! ...
 The only visible magic card was a Fallen Empires Homarid. Didn't bode well, even if it was a couple hundred cards.
$4.95 at SVdP.
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Tiago VIP
Brazil
Will you still look into my eyes with warmth even if you saw my shadows?
How many strips there are?
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55 Magic: The Gathering x 94 Letters from Whitechapel
Comment: This is one of my bets to make a long run in the Championship. Let's see if I'm right.
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Joe Childers
United States
Dayton
Ohio
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High depth, it has a professional tour after all!
Medium-to-high complexity, depending on the keywords in play.
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Michael Cox
United States
Summerville
SC
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Mike W and dotGames patrons
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Richard Bright
United States
Rancho Cordova
California
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As more gamers started arriving later a few games of Magic broke out.
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Joe Thomas
United States
Coshocton
Ohio
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I just don't get this game. Everybody have to build their own decks in advance?!? So, if someone buys a lot of packs and gets the "Great" cards that they're unbeatable?!?! That's BS! Everybody should start on equal ground.
I try this a couple of times and just didn't enjoy it at all. It was with different players and they seem insulted that I didn't know "all of the cards"!
Maybe I'm just stupid but I don't see how this is any fun without spending a lot of money! Then at that point, you just spent a lot of money for the game!
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Bryan Nelson
United States
Washington
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3.5 inches of sleeved cards from Ravnica, Guildpact, and Dissension. A few foils too.
The rares were: Govern the Guildless, Ratcatcher, Nihilistic Glee, Lyzolda the Blood Witch, Pillar of the Paruns, Omnibian, Leyline of Lightning, Pride of the Clouds.
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sean heath
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
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One Sealed box of Dark Ascension
Starting Price: $85
Buy It Now Price: $90
Note, I have 3 of these available if interested.
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Jonan Jello
United States
the enclave Newark
California
Cedar Waxwing & Western Scrub Jay
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Saturday night, I met my buddy for five games of Magic. It was our second match with the latest Dark Ascension release. We played with all five decks: Swift Justice, Relentless Dead, Dark Sacrifice, Monstrous Surprise, and Grave Power.
Our game nights have gone back to mid-2005, playing Heroscape and other games as much as we could in our busy schedules. Now we're done to Magic whenever he's well enough to play. I visited him in the Post Acute Care Center in San Leandro. It was a relaxing yet sobering game night.
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Tricky Nishidake
United States
Washington
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Pretty much a guaranteed mood-killer. You just try explaining this one to a newbie.
3 mins into explanation: 
7 mins into explanation: 
10 mins into explanation: 
I pride myself on giving simple, distilled rules explanations that non-gamers can easily grasp, but I won't touch this one with a ten-foot-pole when it comes to trying to teach the uninitiated.
It's not that Magic is complicated. It just sounds and seems that way because of all the keywords and abilities that create exceptions to the fairly simple core mechanics. It's like Dungeons & Dragons in that way.
Yet, I have had a little success teaching this game by just letting people play the tutorial in the video game version, Duels of the Planeswalkers. I mean, no one's head just explodes like usual, but they still sit there with expressions on their faces like aqua-phobic, water wing clad children at a big-ass wave pool.
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Gleb Semenjuk
Estonia
Tallinn
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...and it should be upgradeable indefinitely.
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Gastel Etswane
Spain
Peterborough
Ontario
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I do magic tricks. Mostly card tricks. Mostly for my kids, but also for my students. Been doing this for about 6 years.
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Lee Ambolt
Sweden
Lund
Skåne
Ingen Reklam Tack!
Linus Per Ambolt 13.12.2010
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MATCH #21
a heavyweight gaming legend that inspired whole genres of games
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Magic, magic, magic!! It's still fun, just don't spend too much money! Sorry Slider!, Innovation, and Carcassonne saw some action after gathering some dust. Rex has been fun, not something I want to play all the time, but I do want to explore it more. Break the Safe should be great for the nephews, but us adults played it a couple times first.
