~Beyond the Border~ > Akyu's Arcade
Cardboard rehab: TCG/CCG thread
commandercool:
Re: Magic
Played in an Oath Of The Gatewatch sealed earlier. It wasn't two-headed giant like I was hoping, but oh well. I placed first which was unexpected. Played white/red because I opened so much removal in those colors that I couldn't even play all of it, supplemented by a balanced spread of kind-of-shitty creatures. I don't know if my deck was good or I got lucky, but I never really tripped over or choked on my mana base for the entire event. I only lost a single game out of four rounds, and that was due to a huge misplay on my part (although my opponent had an equally big misplay earlier, so I guess it evened out). I didn't pull anything incredible, but I opened a couple of moderately-valued mythics, so whatever. I was really hoping to get a bunch of Bonds Of Mortality because it's so heroic in Commander, but I didn't pull a single one out of the 18 packs total I opened. I traded for a foil one, but I still need three more at least.
I mentioned before that I didn't understand Battle For Zendikar. I couldn't wrap my head around the themes or archetypes. Oath Of The Gatewatch was completely different. It didn't help re-contextualize BfZ in a way I could understand like Dragons Of Tarkir did for Khans, but as a freestanding thing I found it to be intuitive and interesting. I had option paralysis three different times where I found myself on turn three with three land in play and a hand containing Endless One, Lantern Of Insight, and Wall Of Resurgence. Even with no other cards to consider there are so many possible plays there it's amazing. I did something different each time, and it worked out each time. The choices felt interesting and relevant, the environment felt fast-paced and balanced, and overall it was just a very pleasant experience (and not just because I won, although that did help). Almost wish I had played earlier in the weekend so I could squeeze in a second sealed after how much fun I had at this one.
MatsuriSakuragi:
I'm in the process of learning both MtG and Force of Will. Not really sure where to start on either of them, they're both so complex. I kind of want to lean toward Force of Will since it's newer and thus less catch-up for me to have to do (20+ years of MtG is a lot of info to learn), but I don't want to invest in a game that no one plays, you know?
What should I do?
commandercool:
I don't play Force Of Will or know anyone who does, so I say learn Magic personally.
Any of the recent Magic video games are probably a good place to start. They're a little simpler than normal Magic because they don't give you all of the cards to play with, but the ruleset they use is 100% genuine Magic so they're a good place to learn.
Tamer Anode/Cathode:
--- Quote from: Enoshimatsuri Junko on January 18, 2016, 12:31:59 PM ---I'm in the process of learning both MtG and Force of Will. Not really sure where to start on either of them, they're both so complex. I kind of want to lean toward Force of Will since it's newer and thus less catch-up for me to have to do (20+ years of MtG is a lot of info to learn), but I don't want to invest in a game that no one plays, you know?
What should I do?
--- End quote ---
Seconding Duels on Steam as a jumping-on point; it does a good job of slowly introducing the rules to you. Also, don't worry about having to learn 20+ years worth of cards and mechanics; the commonly played formats limit it to far less (usually only about the most recent year and a half).
MatsuriSakuragi:
Hmm. All right, I may fire it up tonight.
It's funny really. At the card store, the employee who taught me gave me some free starter decks and he used a white deck and l picked a blue one. I ended up winning because while his deck revolved around healing and attacking, mine was purely defensive and attacked by forcing discarding. He almost beat without me doing a single point of damage, but I exhausted his deck and won. It was pretty funny.
Do all the colors have different specialties/play styles? I've only seen white and blue in action and it seems that blue seems to focus in deck fuckery and defensive crowd control and it's pretty fun.
Still wanna try Force of Will though, too. The game itself seems faster-paced and the cutesyness of the art style is an aesthetic selling point. The game itself seemed really complex though.