Partial Spoiler for ” Morningtide “ November 20, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : TCG & CCG Card Games , add a commentCame across this post this morning over at ” MTG News ” about a partial spoiler for the second block of Lorwyn called “Morningtide “. Click here for the post.
To Magic Online or not to Magic Online, that is the dilemma!
Posted by 54071 in : TCG & CCG Card Games , add a commentA nice title and a legitimate question which I shall attempt to answer this weekend.
If your a Magic The Gathering player ( and who isn’t now a days ) than you are probably familiar with the online game but the real question here is ” is it worth investing your hard earned dollars on the version of the widely popular game?
I’ll answer this question on Friday.
I’m getting serious about Magic’s Lorwyn Block November 13, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : TCG & CCG Card Games , 1 comment so farAs I said in an earliar post concerning my return to playing Magic, Lorwyn was my basic return to playing the game…
well to take this a bit further, I have purchased several different cards that are needed to make a few of the standard decks that are being played in standard at this time, along with trying some of my own ideas…and I realize that this is not EARTH SHATTERING news to most of you, but for me at this point, it is a major commitment on my part to actually care about playing this game.
Even my buddy Ken was surprised when he learned that I had 4 copies of Garruk Wildspeaker , along with mutiple copies of all the Planeswalkers.
I am even reading articles on Magic.com
Tomorrow, I start to go thru my cards and start making a deck or two…well truthfully, I will start the process of going thru the cards and hopefully get a deck or two put together before this Saturday.
And the adventure continues….
Oh, and just for my own info….
I’m starting to look at the next generation of gaming consoles and have narrowed my choices down to
Microsoft’s X Box 360 or Sony’s Playstation3 with it’s Blue Ray technology…right now I’m leaning towards the XBox….have an opinion on what’s the better system, I’d be interested in hearing it..
You can leave your comments here or you can email me at
snewmark@hvc.rr.com
and just to let everyone know, I’m more of a Roleplay type guy than a Sports nut…just in case you wanted to know…
Lew
your fanboy@50
Drafting Lorwyn and Lorwyn Pre-Con Decks November 5, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : TCG & CCG Card Games , add a commentAs I have said earlier in my post about Lorwyn’s Planeswalkers, this would be my return to actually playing Magic again on any real level what so ever. So last weekend myself and my two buddies Ken and Chris got together and drafted Lorwyn.
The first things I noticed , was there there were a hell of a lot of creatures in these packs ( we drafted 12 packs altogether ) and I was a bit disappointed that there were not alot more instants or enchantments to choose from. And I have gathered that the Planeswalkers are going to be the scarce cards to get in these packs, although Ken got a box of cards, and did somehow mange to get four different Planeswalkers out of that box, while I got two boxes of cards and only manged to get two sets of two Planeswalkers, and Chris only manged to get one ( if my memory serves me correctly ) but I think we all knew that this would be the case with this block.
The draft itself was fun, I believe that Ken wound up drafting two colors, Chris two colors and I wound up going three colors, black, red, and a splash of blue.
I didn’t win the draft, and we played about three games with the pre-con decks, and I didn’t win those either, although I should have won the last game, but was playing very conservative and so I did not play the deck the way I should have. This was a deck that generated tokens, gave me life and let me pump up a creature to almost a 17/17. The problem with the deck was the fact that it was a pre-con so it did not have enough of the key cards needed and I was afraid of losing key cards that I only had one copy of, thus the conservative play and the loss. I will be re-doing this deck and and adding a few extras that I feel are needed.
I will have to do another post about the pre-con decks, due to time and having alot of work to get done between today and tomorrow.
Planeswalkers: Magic The Gathering Lorwyn Block October 16, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : TCG & CCG Card Games , 1 comment so farAfter having played the game of Magic for many moons, I became disenchanted with the game because I felt that the game had become stale ( at least ) for me anyway and so I journeyed to other games for a time…but I have returned to Magic because of this new block that had caught my interest…
Lorwyn!
A new verdant world to explore, and I have started my exploration, and what have I found…I have found the
PLANESWALKERS!
Planeswalkers are a new card type being introduced in the Lorwyn Block.
Planeswalkers are allies that can be played only when you are able to play a Sorcery, and is considered a Permanent, so that when the sorcery resolves, the Planeswalker comes under your control.
Planeswalkers are not Creatures, so spells that effect creatures, do not effect Planeswalkers, thus if a card effects a creature, it will not effect a Planeswalker.
Loyalty, is a characteristic associated with the Planeswalkers. Each Planeswalker has a Loyalty number, which is printed on it’s lower right corner. This is not a power or toughness, this is a new value.
Planeswalkers come into play with a number of counters that correspond to their Loyalty number. As counters are added or removed, these counters become the Planeswalkers Loyalty number, and the printed number on the card is ignored.
Playing a Planeswalker’s card abilities, can either add or subtract counters from Planeswalker.
If a Planeswalker’s Loyalty number equals 0, the Planeswalker is put into the Graveyard, as a State-Based-Effect.
Planeswalkers cannot attack in combat, but they can be attacked. I won’t go into how this works for now, but I will detail this in a future post.
There are five Planeswalker cards in this set and you can click the links below to find out more about the Planeswalkers;
And that’s the skinny about the Planeswalkers, the new guys on the ( or is that ) in the Lorwyn block. Planeswalkers will add a new depth to Magic, something which has been sorely been missing from the game of Magic for some time now.
Now, I have to go and open my five Lorwyn pre-con decks and see what is the skinny with those.
Magic’s Newest Block :Lorwyn October 10, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : TCG & CCG Card Games , add a commentHi all!
Nothing like being almost a week late with writing about this latest block, but there is a reason…I have been actually playing the game of Magic again, something I have not enjoyed doing for several years now. I also have to admit that I have not liked the route that the game had taken over the years, and I also have not seen alot of innovation added to the game…in other words, the game just became stale for me.
I had gone the way of the restless traveler, constantly looking for a new game with innovation…and I did find some that I enjoyed playing, and I felt were a bit different..
The VS System from the Upper Deck Company was a game I enjoyed playing and collecting, Decipher’s Lord of the Rings game was interesting and was very hot during the run of the movies trilogy, and the hot game out of the blocks now is Upper Deck’s World of Warcraft game.
Of course, during my self imposed exodus from the worlds of Magic, I found a few other games to wile away the time, but few are what Magic is….but I was still waiting for a reason to return to the Multi-verse of Magic, and now the time for my return has come…
On October 12th thru the 14th, the cry of Lorwyn, will ring thru the land, heralding a new block release and of course, new release events at your local retailer ( if they participate of course ) along with the goodies premium cards that you will be able to acquire there.
So lets look at the first block shall we…The first set consists of 301 cards and I’ll give you the basic breakdown of colors for now, with more detail to come in further posts…
White Cards - 49
Black Cards - 49
Red Cards - 49
Green Cards - 49
Blue Cards - 49
Multi Color Cards - 8
So, I get a total count of 253 cards in this set ( at least from the spoiler list ) and I’ll have to find where the rest of the cards come in and from.
At least from what I have seen so far, the colors seem pretty balanced as far as distribution goes, but of course the real question becomes which is the stronger color in this block, a question to be answered in a future post, but don’t worry there will be more to follow to stay tuned.
Tomorrow, a look at the best thing to hit Magic in some time…
Planeswalkers
Magic’s new block of cards..Lorwyn September 18, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : TCG & CCG Card Games , add a commentHi there!
After all that I’ve been thru these past months, I finally had some of my friends over this past Saturday and played a few hands of Magic. We booster drafted, and after not playing in general for several months it was quite enjoyable.
And so while trying to get back into the swing of things ( if not very slowly) I think I will have to take the time to talk about Magic the Gathering’s new set Lorwyn, which is due to release on October 12th, with of course the usual pre-release tournaments at a DCI sanctioned card shop near you.
I’ll talk more about this set in a later post.
Magic the Gathering: An Overview of the #1 CCG Game Part 3 July 2, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : TCG & CCG Card Games , add a commentOkay, as promised here is the last part of my ” Overview of Magic the Gathering ”
In the first two installments of this overview, I went over the Colors of Magic, and how they relate to building a deck & color in reference to Mana.
I also went over Creatures and Items in Magic.
I thought to end this overview, with basic gameplay and some basic terms ( some of which I might have already mentioned ) used in the game.
Basic Gameplay
In playing Magic, two people ( you and an opponent ) come to the table with a deck of cards with a minimum count of 40 cards.
You both draw seven cards.
You and your opponent decide who will play first.
The person who plays first, plays a card from his (or her ) hand, if they are able to. Usually, this first card will be a land card ( if they have one in hand to play ). If they have been able to play a Land Card, they may also be able to play another card ( if ) the card has no Mana cost to play, or if the card has a Mana cost of one. When the first player is done with his ( or her ) turn, they declare they their turn is over.
Then it becomes player two’s turn. Player two starts his turn, by taking a card from his deck. At this point, player two is now holding eight (8) cards in his ( or her ) hand. Player two will now play a card if able to. If not, he will also at this point state that his turn has ended.
Play goes back and forth between both players in this manner.
Let’s go over the Parts of a Turn
1) Untap - untap and tapped cards.
2) Draw- draw (1) card
3) Main Phase - plays cards
4) Combat - creatures attack
5) Main Phase - play cards
6) End of Turn - player’s turn ends
Winning the Game
In a game of Magic, both players start with a Life Total which is 20.
To win the game, you have to bring your oppanant’s life total down to zero.
You do this by causing direct damage to your oppanant’s life total.
Basic Terms in Magic
Tapping - This is a term that describes when a player turns a card sideways, either for mana, to play an ability, or when you are using one of your creatures for attacking another creature or player.
Mana - Used for playing creatures or items. In order to use mana, you have to tap a land card, or an artifact card that produces mana.
The Stack - This is a term that references what happens when both players are playing cards at the same time. Whens both players are playing cards at the same time they are placed on a stack. These cards then resolve in a last in, first out structure. This is more of an advanced term that should be covered in a future post.
Instants - these are cards that you can play at any time during the game, as long as you have the mana to pay for them.
Sorceries & Enchantments - these are cards that are to be played at certain times in your turn.
And this is the end of my basic ” Overview of Magic the Gathering ” and I am quite certain that I have probably left out something or somethings that are important to the beginner wanting to pick up the basics of this game, so if anyone out there has something to add to this post, please feel free to comment here or you can just send me an email at gamesgalore@citlink.net
Lew, your fanboy@50.
Wizards of the Coast vs Wizkids Games Part 2 June 8, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : TCG & CCG Card Games , add a commentOkay, it is official. And it’s been reported alot already on other sites, so I won’t dwell too much here on this….
Wizkids games did bring a suit against Wizards of the Coast, after Wizards announced that they had acquired a patent dealing with Constructible Card Games.
What is really interesting about this little item is if you look at the newly released Transformers 3d card game from Wizards, on the pkg, it states that ” the Patent ” is still pending. In other words, this game was released even before the patent was official yet.
While all of this is an interesting little tidbit, I have to wonder if Wizkids is biting off a little more than they can chew here….
My thinking is that the field of gaming in general is a pretty large pond, and I would think that there is enough room in the pond for everyone to play in.
I remember when I first saw the pirates game and I thought, this will never float ( pardon the pun ), but better than three years later, not only is Pirates doing well, but Wizkids also has a few other constuctible games to boot.
And I can understand their wanting to protect their interests, I mean to be fair, they have built a nice little niche here with these games, and Wizards wait’s till they have a patent to release their Transformers game.
I’ll end this with just a little quote that I’m sure a few of you have heard in the past..
” don’t wake the sleeping giant “
Magic the Gathering: An Overview of the #1 CCG Game Part 2 June 7, 2007
Posted by 54071 in : TCG & CCG Card Games , add a commentHi there everyone.
In case you missed the first part of this article, you can just click here and do a little catch up, if you want…or…
you can just jump right in to part 2 of my overview of Magic the Gathering!
Okay, in my last post, I left off with ” The Colors of Magic ” and gave you a basic run down of Creatures, and I still need to mention items, and how both of these aspects relate to the Colors of Magic so….lets look at those colors again shall we..
In Magic, each of the colors are represented by a land, and each land when ” Tapped ” which means that you turn the card sideways, produces a resource or a ” Mana “.
White- The Plains - When one (1) card is tapped or turned sideways, produces one (1 ) mana of white.
Red- The Mountains- When one (1) card is tapped or turned sideways, produces one (1 ) mana of Red.
Blue- The Islands- When one (1) card is tapped or turned sideways, produces one (1 ) mana of Blue.
Green- The Forests- When one (1) card is tapped or turned sideways, produces one (1 ) mana of Green.
Black- The Swamps- When one (1) card is tapped or turned sideways, produces one (1 ) mana of Black.
And this is what Land cards are used for, to produce Mana.
Now what is this mana used for?
Mana is used to summon ” Creatures ” and “ Items “.
Now lets look at the colors again in reference to ” Creatures ” first.
Creature cards are also given colors.
Some creatures are assigned only one color, while others might be assigned two or more.
Usually a creature that has more than one color will take a few turns ( or rounds ) to summon or bring into play.
They also tend to be cards that have alot of abilities and they tend to be hard to destroy.
More about this aspect in a future post I promise.
Now lets look at ” Items “
Items in Magic also have colors assigned to them, just like creatures do.
You also use mana in order to play an Item card. Item cards are used in Magic to work with other cards in the game.
Item cards can be Equipment cards, Enchantments or Artifact cards.
Equipment cards are usually attached to another card to give this card a ” Bonus ”
Artifacts cards are cards that can either be a creature or an item that can be used by a player
Enchantment cards cause an ” Effect ” that will make the enchanted card stronger.
Here are some examples of cards below that I referred to below…
You can click on these cards to see their stats and get more info..
Part three of this Magic overview to follow soon.