Avian Gamers Network

OK, so I wanted to share my new hobby with you all and see if any of you have tried this out or might be interested in it.

I used to be a big Magic: The Gathering TCG fan 10 years ago. I always see the cards at stores and wonder what the game is like. I recently checked out the website and decided to check out the Online version of the game called Magic Online.

It was built in 2002 or so... the graphics aren't much... but the rules are all handled for you and it's quite easy to play. I'm having a lot of fun playing Magic! It's a very simple concept... it's a place to go play and trade Magic cards with other people. There are tournaments and leagues going all the time as well. There are practice rooms for those that don't have a deck and just want to learn the game. There are New Player rooms for those just starting out (like me), and then there are other rooms for tournaments, leagues, and casual games.

Those of you that have played fantasy card games know that the cards can be quite expensive. I was able to build a solid deck to play in the "New Players" room with for $3. Here's how getting cards works... when you download the game you must pay $10, but you get that credited towards a purchase. Then they direct you to the online store where you can buy premade theme decks... there are a lot to choose from... about 25 total. You can also buy boosters or starter decks. Several expansions have come out so there are thousands of cards to use.

I actually just bought event tickets with the 10 bucks and went to the casual trading room in the game. There are lots of "bots" that sell players cards and you can get 32 commons for $1 and sometimes 32 uncommons for $1. $1 = 1 ticket. So I spent about $3 and bought a bunch of red cards... goblin and direct damage spells. I've been playing for a few days and buying new cards here and there as I see them to enhance it... and I've been having a lot of fun! The community is small but they are good people and trading in itself is a lot of fun... not to mention playing.

You can demo the game in a practice room with premade theme decks at no cost. If you're interested at all... go check it out there first!

Magic Online

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TheMole
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Oh no...don't tempt me...arrrrrgh...I read the Magic website every day (check it out, there's an awesome new set coming out called Time Spiral with lots of nostalgic references to the past) and I've played in all the prerelease events for big sets plus a few drafts here and there with some Japanese guys I found at one of the tournaments. I've been avoiding Magic Online since I think I would spend a ton of money doing drafts there.

Oh, also MtGO 3 is coming out some time soon, I don't remember exactly when. Should have better interface, more options and stuff.

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65 min: Fastest Accepted Member in Avian History (as far as I'm aware)
ARCHITECH (Peace to GG)

I played MtG:O a few years ago during one of my SWG breaks. I still have the account but have not played in ages. The decks I have must be cycles ago.

I would be up for the odd T1 game.

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"I built me a bomb and dropped it on every MFer who got in my way!"

no, bad bad moneysink....no more moneysinks needed here...

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The Cord
Occasional Caretaker of the Horde Maelstrom Guild
Ex-Section 3 Director

Dude, I ruled MTGO back when SWG tanked. I had 4 different killer decks. My squirrel deck was the absolute best. I won countless tournaments with it. Also had a black shade deck that was fun. Red burn decks are cool too. *sigh* ah.. I miss it. But I spent probably $1000 on cards. THAT, I don't miss.

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"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Well, if you would have played in real tournaments you could have won that money back.

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"Loose with Dignity"
Robert
Second President, Avian Gamers

DDO - Cannith - AlistairItor - Rogue/Ranger (5/3) - Main
DDO - Cannith - Guijanitor - Paladin/Rogue (4/1)
DDO - Cannith - RicochetItor - Rogue (5)

yeah, just spent close to $200 on some new and older cards not to far back. Last semester my buddy and me would sit in the campus coffee shop playing cards.

I made a pretty good all red burn deck. my best deck would have to been a blue/white deck i made back in the day. life generation and counterspells, lol

Yeah, no doubt. With the online game, you just won more cards. I sold my whole collection when I was done playing for like $400 I think.

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"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense

How does that work? You just win tickets for placing in the tournaments? Is there an entry fee for constructed? I'm sure drafts have an entry fee, do you keep what you draft?

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65 min: Fastest Accepted Member in Avian History (as far as I'm aware)
ARCHITECH (Peace to GG)

Yeah, you keep what you draft, and the entry fee is tickets (different amount for different tournaments). And the prize pool is usually tickets and/or packs of cards. I loved that game. Now I'm feeling tempted. bunch of jerks got me thinkin about it again.

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"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Come on Talon... join the club! I'm having a lot of fun with it. I joined a Sealed Deck league for around $30 for a month... you buy 8 packs and give 2 tickets and you keep the cards at the end.

Here's how it works... You open 5 booster packs to start and make a deck out of those cards only. No trading allowed. You play 5 ranked games a week and the top 128/256 players get packs as prizes. Each week you can open another booster pack to make your deck better. You can also play as many additional matches as you want that serve as a tiebreaker. It's a good chance to get a lot of practice in with a relatively even playing field.

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TheMole
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oh yeah! i forgot about the leagues.. man that's fun. must ... resist... temptation....

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"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Well... never knew there were leagues. I just played a couple draft tourneys. Dind't place high enough to win anything tho so I got discouraged. I am so far behind in knowledge of the new sets (since the trilogy that had bushido as a play mechanic) that I'd have to catch up.

I don't have much time now to restart but maybe in the spring once my new professional accounting course is over I can get into things again when the new series releases in Feb.

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"I built me a bomb and dropped it on every MFer who got in my way!"

I don't have the funds to be playing this right now. I played a league and had a lot of fun, but without some money to invest in some cards and tourneys my options are limited.

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TheMole
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Same here. I definately do not need to start playing this again.

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"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Played in a PTQ of real Magic in Kobe yesterday, I guess that's not really on topic but it was fun. I beat a veteran pro and then dropped to draft with friends. I love sealed and draft and I believe myself to be pretty good, but can't bring myself to play with no cardboard.

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65 min: Fastest Accepted Member in Avian History (as far as I'm aware)
ARCHITECH (Peace to GG)

Never got into Magic but me and my roommate in college where addicted to the star wars card game. God forbid if that (or even the need Eve game) ever came online.

In general it looks like an excellent business model though.

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Moge

I played the Star Wars game in high school for about a year... it was fun.

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TheMole
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Yeah, I played that one too. It was pretty cool for a while. Lost interest fairly quickly though.

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"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Star Wars (I assume we're talking about the original SW:CCG, not the even more terrible ones that came after) was pretty interesting at first, but it was too self-referential to make a good card game, with like Vader and Vader's Saber and Vader's TIE and Vader's Cape and Vader's Hat and Vader Goes to Town and Vader is Mildly Upset Today and an excess of cards that were too narrow to use for anything, like a specifically named rifle for the lead Tusken Raider. That and the fact that some of the best decks won by purposely avoiding combat and instead slowly sucking the life out of people on Dagobah or the like.

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65 min: Fastest Accepted Member in Avian History (as far as I'm aware)
ARCHITECH (Peace to GG)

Yeah, but that's what made the game so "collectable." You would have to build decks around certain themes. Where magic you could build a deck that was sucky but still functional, the Star Wars decks were much more difficult to build a functional deck.

So for the cards you're talking about, you had to center your whole dark side around Vader and maybe a couple Storm Troopers. You would have to have a few cards in the deck that would allow you to dig Vader out of your draw pile and/or dead pile. All the modifying cards would just beef Vader up until he was invincible.

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"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Well it worked fine when the decks were coordinated with the opponents, although it was pretty much Dark Side wins Space with Star Destroyers and the like, while Light Side wins the ground with all the main movie characters. At the end of our stint playing we just made a dedicated pair of Tatooine decks, Yavin decks, Bespin decks, etc. so that we would actually have the opportunity to interact, instead of it being "Force Drain you for 6 at these planets, done. Ok, Force Drain you for 4 on the ground, move this guy over here, done." People generally just lost when fighting Vader.
Not saying there weren't plenty of fun times, and probably being involved in that was what got me interested in Galaxies and thus brought me here eventually. I also liked Star Wars' resource system, using the cards as life and to play cards, so you had to choose carefully whether to draw, leave active Force, or play the cards in your hand. I just think Magic is the superior card game, precisely because of that broad functionality. As a game, I guess I prefer the strategy required with attacking and timing spells in Magic to the occasional "Luke just landed on Tatooine and slaughtered a Skiff full of Niktos" moments of SWCCG.

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65 min: Fastest Accepted Member in Avian History (as far as I'm aware)
ARCHITECH (Peace to GG)

No doubt Magic is the superior game. Are there any other CCG games out there that come close?

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"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense

My much younger cousin is into Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh... no idea if those games are better but they seem to be very popular.

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TheMole
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I've heard good things about The Spoils, but never tried it, and it just looks like a Magic ripoff.
I've played quite a few card games. Star Trek I thought was awful, but that was only based on one game I played where I put some card into play that let me have two turns to the other guy's one, so I destroyed him. Dragonball Z did feel pretty much like the show, sitting around powering up and then throwing around crazy punches, but that's not really a good thing. Babylon 5 I really did enjoy, but it was a super multiplayer political game, not terribly fun for one-on-one. Wyvern is awful because of the card set and the art, the idea of having face down cards in a grid that you attack is reasonably interesting. Legend of the Five Rings was very solid, it had a few ways to win and was very fun, with cool flavor. I guess Lord of the Rings the newer version (based on the movies, not the old Middle Earth game) is pretty good, but it seems too limited to the movie storyline to me. VS, the Marvel/DC game, is also quite popular, it's pretty fun, but it's full of extremely obscure characters. There are some sports and wrestling games that I never got into, but were pretty popular in the Indiana game scene. Yu-gi-oh and Pokemon are pretty good for what they are, but they totally lack the subtleties of Magic, and Yu-gi-oh in particular has about three extra zeros on all the numbers just to make them look big and powerful.

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65 min: Fastest Accepted Member in Avian History (as far as I'm aware)
ARCHITECH (Peace to GG)

I played the LoTR game for a while. I love the idea of managing the pools of magic and whatnot. And the burden/wound system is cool too.

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"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense