My love and hate affair with MTG
May 7, 2008MTG (Magic the Gathering) is a trading card game, where each player has a deck of their own cards. In a standard game, each player has 60 cards in their deck and start with 20 life. The objective of the game is to reduce the opposing player’s life total to 0 or less. However there are alternate ways of winning the game, an example would be a player would lose the game if he no longer has any cards that he can draw. Another way would be by winning through a card’s ability.
My friend warned me against playing MTG stating that it is an expensive hobby. Some how I did start playing MTG despite his warnings.
The learning curve was steep. There was alot to learn in a single shot. MTG players usually jump from beginner level to expert level quickly as there rarely is any place for beginners to play. This is because players normally do not play using beginner cards as they are not as versatile or effective as expert cards.
I enjoyed playing MTG for quite a long time, frankly I still do…
However there are many reasons why I stopped.
One of it was because of the amount of money I had to spend. MTG keeps itself fresh by introducing a new batch of cards once in awhile. When they do this, an older batch is deemed “outdated” or is no longer “standard”. I got tired keeping up with this and I did not have the resources to do so. And so I stopped buying new cards.
Another reason is somewhere tied with the reason I gave above. To keep the card economy alive, some cards are much powerful than others. Some cards are worth RM 200. I am not really concerned about the card worth, even though it did attribute to why I stopped MTG as I could not afford to buy the cards I wanted to complete my “dream deck” nor was I enthusiastic to rely on my luck to get the cards I wanted by consistantly buying a different batch of random cards. The keyword is “imba” which is short for IMBALANCED. To demonstrate how imba cards can be, take 2 creature cards. Would you prefer a creature or a creature which is essentially the same creature but with enhanced abilities with no drawbacks? There are tonnes of cards like this, sometimes I would say to myself, “why don’t they make all their cards this powerful?”…
What else? First turn combos/intant wins? Yes, it is possible to win on your very first turn. Having the appropriate cards at hand would depend solely on luck but it is very possible. I used to think luck played a small part in MTG and that strategy and skill could overcome luck. I was wrong.
Finally I reach my final point. Counter cards. Some cards are meant to go against certain cards. I feel it is a somewhat one sided concept. For an example, if my deck used black “evil” creatures, an opponent uses a card that makes black creatures weaker. I would feel like I am wasting my time playing against him. He built his deck with the purpose of defeating me and specifically me. Why should I play on an uneven field? Why are such cards created in the first place? In my opinion, if you have to create such cards, it means you acknowledge the fact that some cards are imba. In fact some decks are so imba that a specific counter deck is required in order to triumph against it.
Oh MTG…. How I once loved you. I wonder what I will do with my cards? A grand way to waste my money you are.
I will now respond to every argument of this nonsense, mainly because I hate to see such a good game ruined by someone who obviously quit at the ”I’ma n00b and i’m tired of getting owned so instead of admitting other people are better than me i quit” stage.
1) keeping up with standart: you don,t sound like a tournament player. you sound like a timmy, a guy who plays for FUN. why bother with standart? your gaming group won,t play you because your deck isn’t standart? get some real friends, then. I often play a guy who still has his old kamigawa block deck(3 years ago) and I don,t complain.
2) individual card market: the average cost of a deck is around 70 dollars. with that, you get a decent budget deck. If you,re playing against pro players who spend 400-500 dollars on their decks, ask them to lend you a deck, or a playset of rare cards. hell, these players are often awesome and help you improve your existing decks a tenfold with your available(and theirs) common/uncommon card pool. don,t wanna buy boostera? l2draft.
3) Imbalance: in rare occasions, R&D makes mistakes. if they see a card becomes too imbalanced and ruins the format, they ban or restrict it. research «ravager affinity» on google for the most b0rken deck in existence. cards that hate black(as stated in your example) are sideboard tech, or ”hate”. the answer to this is finding black cards that hate white and putting them in a 15 card pile beside your deck. this is called sideboarding(because i assume you are not aware of the practice). when you face that hating deck, swap some white hate(swapping a black knight is awesome against White Weenie). every color in magic has cards hating other cards. they print those cards mainly for tournament play. in Casual, color hating depends on your metagame. more often than not, it’s a liability.
4)first turn win/combos: first turn wins are rare and tend not to happen twice. in the current standart, the best win possible is a turn three win, and even then, with a shoddy combo no one plays because it’s easy to disrupt. there are multiple card that hate on combo decks, too. Extirpate, Jester’s cap, Etc. usually, if a deck wins turn one, it’s not your fault. and even then, some turn one plays are not as desperate as they seemed. a reanimator deck i play against once got an Akroma Angel of Wrath on turn one.(Swamp+Dark Ritual+Entomb+Animate dead). and you know what? I had an untapped island and an Unsummon in my hand. he was the one to concede. Luck is and always was a part of MTG. even the strictest and zaniest control decks can die to a lucky draw. that’s why we play the game. you never know when the tables will turn.
if you could not reach these conclusion by yourself, then I recommend you really do stop playing MTG. Stop being a sore loser and actually LEARN how to play. that, or you could just go back to playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
-Hyuga, magic player since onslaught block
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