The Magic Begins
Since Gavin is being super rad at getting people to follow me on Twitter, I decided to be relevant and discuss the beginnings of me getting into Magic: The Gathering. Since I’m literally just starting out, I’m hoping that this will make the old pros nostalgic for their humble beginnings and get some other people who have never tried it to dive in.
After talking to Gavin, I downloaded Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers for Xbox Live Arcade to get a feel for the rules and how the game was played. I suck really, REALLY bad at it… but I like it.
So last week Christina and I headed down to Harrison’s, the comic store in the mall. The people who work there are super nice and they’ve got nick-knacks for literally any interest you could have, but most of the time I feel bad because we go in, talk to the guys a little bit and then leave without buying anything. This time, though, I knew we’d be buying something.
I talked to them a bit about wanting to get into a CCG and they said Magic is really the only way to go. They hold weekly play sessions on Thursday nights, and apparently people only buy the World of Warcraft cards to try for the loot cards.
Turns out one of the guys is really into it, although both of them played. He gave me a quick rundown of what the game entails and the playstyles of each color. Christina and I each picked out a 2011 starter deck, me blue and white (“Power of Prophecy”) and her red and green (“Stampede of Beasts”). I feel kinda bad because as I was looking at the box, someone came in looking for a blue and white starter deck and it was the last one. Whatever, though. That guy didn’t look half as cool as me.
We brought them home and looked over the rules, trying to combine what that said with what we had learned from the video game. It seems like a lot at first, but once you go over it a few times you learn that the game has a very natural flow to it and you get the hang of it pretty quickly.
Interesting to note, though, that Christina is blowing through the Xbox game with almost no trouble on the default difficulty. I am playing on Easy and I can’t beat the second match. However, when we’re playing with actual cards, I’m untouchable.
Still, they say the best way to learn the rules is to have an actual human sit down with you and play a few games, and the guy at the shop (whose name I REALLY need to learn) said that we can come down any night and he’ll open up a deck and teach us how to play. We were busy this past week (wedding stuff) so we didn’t get a chance to head down, but I’m really itching to get into it next week and start playing it for real.
When we were at Target the other night we decided to get a booster pack each. Usually when we buy cards from Target, it’s either from a new series of Pokémon cards or I feel like trying my luck for a loot card from the WoW game. It was a bit weird to open a pack of cards and check to see what each card did… I liked it!
It’s really exciting at this early stage… I feel like there’s so much for me to learn. I’m dying to play against people who have been playing for more than a week. I hope to one day get a chance to play against Gavin, and be subsequently crushed by his mad skillz.
8 Comments
I heard from a friend at summer school that Magic had some complicated rules compared to other card games. Is that true or did you learn them instantly?
I didn’t have a very hard time, but the video game has a tutorial that does a pretty good job explaining things. I supplemented it with a little research and I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of how to play, but I really need to sit down with some real players to get properly educated.
Ill throw down with you the next time were on XBL together.
I might get into it. Sounds cool.
Haha yes Megafan, my legion grows.
The rules are pretty simple to understand. The game has a lot of complexities as you move forward and get into some of the more complex cards, but to start out with a couple of intro packs it’s fairly straightforward. I also agree with Joe in that the 360 arcade game does a good job teaching.
For some reason, it tickles me a little that Christina is blowing through the 360 game, while you seem to have the upper hand in real life. I wonder what will happen as your real life decks change. It’ll be exciting to find out! I look forward to hearing about the next leg of your adventure!
Back when I actually cared to play TCG’s, getting booster packs meant that you checked every single card. If one fit into your deck, or there was one you wanted in a future deck, then it wouldn’t help to just browse the names and throw the cards aside.
Ah, the days of buying a billion of those clear, plastic card-holding pages to put into binders. Then there was the clear plastic single card holders. Last time I went to a Target, they had both, which I found mildly amusing.
I got into Yu-Gi-Oh a while ago. Built myself a nice deck, played with friends for giggles, then we kinda fell out of it almost as quick as we got into it. But for the most part, my earlier days were spent playing Pokemon TCG, back when they had Pokemon League held at places like Books-A-Million.
I think, for the most part, my involvement with TCG’s is pretty much over.
Interesting read. Brought back memories. I now play only MTGO. Much easier than paper M:tG: keeps track of the score and rules. What a relief not to have to worry about all that! Also, can play a game from the comfort of home 24/7. Try the free trial! Am glad that u r enjoying MTG! Look me up on MTGO (GFROSS) and let’s have a game!
I went to a summer camp where all the guys were nerds who played MTG all the time. I learned the basic rules and played a couple games with borrowed deck, though I wasn’t very good. I get the feeling really getting into the game would be fun, but a big commitment.