Magic: The Gathering is a popular game that has been gaining popularity since its return to tabletop play and real-life events in the 2022-2023 season. To get back into the game, players can either continue enjoying Arena, get friends into MTG, go to a game store (LGS), participate in tournaments, or just get to know the game.
To get started, download Magic Arena and use the Wizards Store and Event Locator to find your FLGS(s). The best way to get into Magic is to purchase physical cards to build a deck for your favorite format. Research the most recent Magic sets and purchase a bundle box or set.
Magic: The Gathering games get complicated quickly due to special abilities and special abilities of cards. To get up to speed with cards and rulings, Arena is a great way to get up to speed. If you’re just returning to Magic after some time away, here’s a guide to what’s new, what’s the same, and how to get back in the game.
In the end phase, creatures heal and any creatures that weren’t destroyed during combat return to full health. Players can use their old cards or favorite decks to get back into modern play. To get back into modern play, buy a deck builder and a Fat Pack, build a deck, and go play. As you already know the cards and their functions, you need time in the seat to learn and improve your skills.
📹 Getting back into Magic TCG after 12 years
Thank you to everyone who helped me make this video about coming back into Magic the Gathering after 12 years! (BTW, I forgot …
Can your life go over 20 MTG?
It should be noted that there is no maximum lifespan total.
Why is my Magic: The Gathering not launching?
To resolve the issue, ensure your machine meets minimum system requirements, has the latest version of Windows or MacOS, updates your graphics card driver, perform a clean boot, and run MTG Arena without other software. If this doesn’t work, reintroduce other software one program at a time until you identify the conflicting program. Reinstall MTG Arena and follow the provided link for further troubleshooting.
What is the toxic rule in Magic The Gathering?
Phyrexian creatures, including the Paladin of Predation, have a new keyword ability called Toxic. When a creature with toxic damage deals combat damage to a player, they receive poison counters equal to the creature’s toxic value. These counters are handed out in addition to the damage dealt, making it difficult for the player to deal damage on multiple axes. A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game. The toxic value and power of a creature are not necessarily connected, and poison counters are not helpful if the creature deals damage to another creature or a planeswalker.
Toxic counters have been a popular choice for alternate-win conditions, but they have been mostly all or nothing. Corrupted is a new ability word that highlights abilities that make cards stronger if an opponent has three or more poison counters.
What are the rules for retrace in Magic The Gathering?
Casting a card using its retrace ability is similar to casting any other card, except that it is cast from your graveyard rather than your hand and requires discarding a land card. The card follows the normal timing rules for its card type and must pay its mana cost and discard a land card. When a retrace card resolves or is countered, it is put back into your graveyard and can be cast again. If an active player casts a spell with retrace, they can cast it again after it resolves, and the active player has priority after the spell resolves. Casting a card with retrace from the graveyard moves it onto the stack, preventing others from affecting it.
Cards granting Retrace include Deeproot Historian (merfolk and druids), Six (nonland permanents), and Wrenn and Six (instants and sorceries).
How do I recover a game?
Some games autosave progress when signed in with the Google Play Games Mobile App, allowing you to sync your game data and start from where you left off. To restore game progress on a new Android phone, sign in to the same account. If your game is missing progress, check if it is using the Google Play Games Mobile App and ensure you’re signed in to the correct account. Clear storage if Achievements or Leaderboards aren’t found.
What happens if you forget to draw in Magic: The Gathering?
One may conclude that the only scenario in which a draw from an empty library results in a loss is when the library is empty, rather than merely containing no cards. In a deck that employs the strategy of “burning” the library, the optimal turn is to utilize the “mill” strategy from Millstone. The mere presence of an empty library does not result in a loss of the game.
How old is the average magic player?
The typical tabletop player is approximately 30 years of age, with the majority falling within the 13-45 age range. One-third of players have less than three years of experience, one-third have up to ten years, and one-third have over ten years of experience.
Why is my Magic band not working?
In the event that your MagicBand+ persists in exhibiting malfunction, it is recommended that you attempt a factory reset. To do so, press and hold the button for a period of fifteen seconds. Following the emission of three vibratory signals, the MagicBand+ will emit a glow of rainbow colors, thereby indicating that the device is undergoing a restart sequence.
Why is my Magic: The Gathering not starting?
To resolve performance issues in a game, ensure you are playing on a supported device, have the latest app update, check your internet connection, force close other background applications, uninstall and reinstall the app, and be on the latest operating system. For troubleshooting steps, contact your device’s manufacturer. It’s not recommended to compete in Magic Esports events on a mobile device, as players assume all responsibility for gameplay or connection issues they experience.
How does recover work in Magic: The Gathering?
You have only one chance to use a card’s recover ability. Once a card with recover is placed in your graveyard, any creature from the battlefield triggers the ability. The ability can be used to either pay the recover cost and return the card to your hand, or you can exile the card. If a creature with recover is placed in your graveyard from the battlefield, it doesn’t trigger its own recover ability. Similarly, if another creature is placed in your graveyard at the same time, it won’t trigger its own recover ability.
If multiple creatures are placed in your graveyard at the same time, the recover ability of a card already in your graveyard triggers multiple times. Only the first trigger will cause the card to move. By the time any other triggers resolve, the card is no longer in your graveyard. You can still pay the recover cost, but nothing else will happen.
What is the rule 0 in Magic The Gathering?
Rule 0 is an unofficial rule in Commander that allows players to modify the rules of a non-competitive game with the approval of all other players involved. It allows exceptions to the official rules with the approval of all other players involved, such as using a non-legendary creature as commander or playing with banned or silver-bordered cards. Rule 0 is named after the fact that it precedes all other rules in the game, as it is often listed numerically in rulebooks and instruction manuals.
This allows players to modify everything that follows if they wish to do so. Rule 0 is similar to the concept of “house rules” in Magic. It is important to discuss rule 0 after the game to understand what players enjoy and what should be discussed before the next game.
📹 Starting Magic: The Gathering as a beginner in 2024! #mtg
Magic: The Gathering can be an intimidating hobby to get into. There is a little bit of a learning curve and like me, you will no doubt …
23:32 when I got into magic, still a young teen, I was with my parents at a local game store during an MTG night. I had fun and noticed all the older teens/adults were buying boxes or packs at the end of the night to open in store before leaving. I scrounged up the last of my saved up cash and bought 2 packs. I sat down at a table w my dad and opened to see a funky blue dragon. I was still hella new and I had no idea what a “planeswalker” was, my parents didn’t play they were just there for me, so I went up to the clerk and asked what does this card do/mean? Clerks face went white and then he shouted “THIS KID PULLED A UGIN!!!” Again, I had no idea what that meant or how rare he was until iirc 5-6 full grown adults ran over to me and started trying to beg me to trade my card for their’s. My dad pulled me out of the pit and we went home. My dad and I spent the rest of the night researching Ugin and turns out I pulled that exact Ugin from the graphic about a week after he launched. Luckiest pull I have ever had, I still have him in 2 protective sleeves :,)
That Torment of Hailfire nope right there at the end deserves more than a like. Congrats on getting back into Magic! Hope you like the hellhole it can become. Definitely love Commander myself. I only got into Magic during the time of Return to Ravnica in 2012, and the Sanguine Bond//Exquisite Blood combo was legal in standard at the time. Then we got Fetchlands a few months later. It was utterly amazing. I just really got into Commander recently though and built myself a Ghen, Arcanum Weaver deck that I have been having fun with. Also, from how Courtney started off her commentary speaking about how she likes value cards (or as she calls them cards that give her the moneys) then shows two modal cards, yeah. She definitely knows exactly what she is doing. Hope you guys continue enjoying the game just as much as I do!
The door to nothingness reminds me of a time I was playing a 10 person commander game. A blue player at the table who was playing mono blue group love used the card “Willbender” to morph up and redirect door to nothingness back to its owner. Which redirecting card abilities is pretty rare as is. Was incredibly funny. I miss the good old days of MTG.
I played MTG in high school and stopped around entering college. I tried getting back into by going with my friends to a draft tournament at our local game store. They didn’t tell me about planeswalkers and I passed up a planeswalker in the pack I opened because I didn’t know what they were. I facepalmed so hard afterwards….
I got out of the game after College. I honestly feel like the power spikes, speed of product coming out and increasing price were all too much to keep up with. Also I was always into the old lore, but they seemed to shift away from having good complicated stories after a while. Also every nearby LGS dying didn’t help. I still have a few classic decks somewhere, like an old burn deck and a commons and uncommon cube that might see some use in get togethers. But keeping up with the rat race isn’t for me anymore.
Ah yes, Magic, a game I too would like to return to were it not for the cost and the ever-elusive “friends”. For anyone interested in Commander though I highly suggest the website The Command Zone. Their answer to the unbalanced nature of the game is to have everyone in the group agree on a power level for their decks they’re going to play that day (for which they have a article explaining power levels) and which effects are not allowed (like mass land destruction). Lots of good information for anyone getting into the format as well as some great games to watch. Also I have to say my favorite card is Mindslaver (6 mana artifact, pay 4 tap and sac to take control of someone’s next turn). The effect alone gives me the giggle fits, but I mainly like it for my memories with it. I brought it to a small tournament and won one game by bringing back Mindslaver each turn and stealing every single one of my opponent’s turns (with Bringer of the White Dawn), and in the most satisfying game I’ve played I used it against the top tier deck at the time which was almost entirely artifacts, even the lands were artifacts, and when I stole their turn off the top of their deck I drew an artifact creature that allows you to sacrifice artifacts to make it bigger. So I made him sacrifice everything after which he called a judge and then quit. (For anyone wondering I was playing a Tooth and Nail variant – ramp into big combos and win – and the deck with the artifacts was Ravager Affinity.) In the finals of that tournament I played against someone with almost the same deck as me, we both got Platinum Angels and were at negative life but I was the only one with an answer to his in my main deck.
Premise: I was a MTG player during the Mirrodin-Kamgawa-Ravnica cycles in high school, so I stopped playing Magic around 2006-07 (14-15 years ago). That said, that’s my emotional roller-coaster during the article: – Before clicking the article: uhhhh a article of Ben talking about Magic, hooray ( ்ꈊ ்) – During the first five minutes: OW, RIGHT IN THE FEELINGS :’-) – 5:01 -> talks about Planeswalkers: wait a minute, PLANESwhat? – 5:05 -> talks about mana burn: WAIT, WHAT?!? HOW IS IT BETTER??? – 5:14 -> talks about Commander format: uhu, neat… I guess? – 5:30 -> talks about having a 100-card deck with only one card per type: THAT’S IT I’M DONE!!! – from 6:14 to 7:50 -> YOU BETRAYED ME BEN! YOU JOINED THE DARK SIDE!!! (repeated in loop) – from 7:51 onwards: begrudgingly continuing to watch the article, like a 350-year-old Dwarf looking at past grudges. Bonus: love the Atogatog, second best card I have ever seen. First place, however, still goes to Questing Phelddagrif <3
I tried getting into Magic: The Gathering so I could make friends in college. Bought some cards, made myself a Black deck, even bought some rare OP stuff. Spoiler alert: I had the same number of friends by the end of the week as when I started. And now I got a ton of useless cards I don’t care about for a game I can’t play.
Shoutout to Aminatou. Best girl in the mtg universe. Mix her with powerful cards like Mystic Remora (Reset the cumilitive upkeep each turn with her -1; Other planeswalker that have static stax effects like Narset, Parter of Veils or 3 cmc Teferi; Strong ETB cards like Sun Titan and Grasp of Fates to remove others important pieces temporarily. -1 on Grasp to re-snatch other, more powerful permanents). I love her absurdly.
I love that you’re cards are very much chaotic cards, if I could recommend some insanely fun chaotic cards for you, try Hivemind and Possibility Storm! Hivemind makes it so when someone casts a instant or sorcery, EVERYONE casts the instant or sorcery!! Wooo! Possibility Storm is basically you cast something, then reveal cards till you reveal a card of the same type, you play that instead. Ah yes I play my 1 cost elf and instead play a giant dinosaur, or oh I wanna take an extra turn! Oh wait it’s a counterspell… with nothing to target
Haven’t played in over 15 years. Was playing local tournaments in high school and the game stopped being fun and started being a job where I would spend hours pouring over my collection trying to make a “perfect” deck. Have to share my personal favorite combo, and this only worked in Grand Melee games. Elf deck based around Wellwisher with a touch of black for Last Laugh (every time a creature is placed into the graveyard from play, Last Laugh deals 1 damage to every creature and every player) and Terror. Play your elves, get a crapload of life while you get ignored because “it’s just a stupid elf deck,” and wait for a nice full board of creatures and people are starting a little lower on life. Play Last Laugh and Terror on yourself, win by default.
I quit Waaaaaaaay back when Visions came out. That was when power creep started, all “new” cards were slightly buffed or slightly nerfed versions of existing cards, tanking the value of the older cards. Then they implemented the rule that cards older than certain sets were illegal for tournament use completely bottoming the value of your old cards. This was all a big “Fuck you” to those of us that had been playing since the beginning, if a company has no customer loyalty then I’m done with them.
Back when I was playing, (what they call legacy I think), my #1 go to deck was a red burn deck with no creatures and 2 artifacts. A bridge which prevented ALL creatures from attacking and Skullcap which let me draw cards faster. Also had 20 mana in 60 cards. So just burn spell their creatures to buy time as I got my bridge set up. Then creatures don’t matter, now directly target player HP.
Puffin, if you see this comment (maybe) I got gifted about 700 cards recently. I talked my gf into playing and helped build her deck, she beat me. . . Hard. At this point gloves were off and I reworked my decks (and hers) to be more competitive, I ‘slipped’ and fell into buying another 2400 for more decks 😂, anyway we play occasionally but if you ever fancy a Skype/stream game sometime would love to play! (Maybe not with those broken ones though 😂) anyways, as always love the articles! Keep up the great work and beware of the magic the gathering app! Great fun but the temptation to spend money is high! My love of physical decks is my only defense to its guiles 😂. Also, does anyone remember sliver decks? They used to be crazy unless you played black anti swarm or blue counter decks!
Oh you picked a great time to play magic again. The new sets are all really fun and while the competitive scene is a bit rough rn, it’s a super fun time for non competitive players who just wanna play for fun. Also probably the best way to describe the commander format for new players. Its unfortunate that your first experience wasnt as great, and MAN shuffling 100 cards sucks, but the mystery and booster packs feelings are spot on
I noticed all five mana colours in commanders… May I introduce you to… Child Of Alara, I’ve got a deck that I’m not necessarily supposed to win with, but I’ve got an Abyssal Persecutor and Harmless Offering in the deck. The idea is that people keep me alive since I stop them from losing and then I give it to someone else or blow it up with Child Of Alara and now I either can’t lose, or everyone can and potentially multiple players lose at this point. I also use colourless artifacts, two colour lands (that allow me to gain 1 life when I play them there’s 10 in the deck and they’re useful in the early stages), and artifacts that allow you to add one of three mana colours to your pool. I also run Kruphix and Endless One, no draining mana pool and a creature who gains more counters by spending more mana to cast it
I won a tournament once using nekrataal/vanishing combo before it was reruled that phasing did not affect the “enter to battlefield” effect. Still never beat my counterspell/discard deck though! Was a long time ago. Been trying out MTG Arena but it seems to suck. From the article, what is a Commander? I did notice in MTG Arena the format has changed greatly, I did not see any option to recreate the play style that I enjoyed back in the day. I tried playing with one of the preconstructed decks that would allow me to play against another person vs a bot, but it was so terrible… In a deck that does not have much flying the only flying card I got could not even block (cost me the game). Sorry to my opponent for taking time to try and read the new cards tbh! I have not yet seen a reason to spend money on buy virtual cards. If for every card I bought I would get a physical copy, ok cool. Force me to buy 20 cards to get them, ok. Seriously, let me build a deck then just tell me the price if i want to run it or not… But I would like the hard copy too…
Use Fiery Gambit with Krarks Thumb. For every coin flip you flip 2 times, and pick the flip you want. I had a Seismic Assault deck with dingus egg and shifting sand. Fiery Gambit was the fuel for that deck. 8/10 times when I played it I got all 3 flips. Would draw like 7 lands and discard them to Seismic Assault.
Favorite card: Shahrazad. Played in a 10 player game, which was then copied by ar least 4 forks. 12 hours later this one game was still going. Demonic attorney. A friend made a deck around this card, back when people played for ante. He would have half his opponents deck in the ante, and before he lost he would jeweled bird to replace his contribution to the ante. He would dark pact best cards from the ante pool before loosing. No one would play against this deck if they knew what it did, lol.
So uh… at the end when Dracko kills Novice, that technically wasn’t legal, as Yurlok is a mana ability, which can’t be responded to and does not use the stack, just thought I’d point that out. (End result would have been the same, as Dracko could’ve responded to torment on the stack and killed Novice, which also would remove torment from the stack)
My two favorite cards: Mycosynth Lattice: Everything is now an artifact. (it has so many combos you can work with) Phyrexian Obliterator: When a source deals damage to it, that source’s controller sacrifices that many permanents. (Do you have a destroy or exile effect? If yes, then I counter. If no, then you basically lose, because trying to get rid of this guy will probably forfeit your game.)
“There’s a lot more variety when you’re only allowed one copy of a card.” In theory, but they’ve print a lot of functionally identical cards with different names. Like, how many 2 drop blue instant spells are there that basically say “look at the top 3/4 cards put one in your hand put the other on bottom/top in any/random order”.
so my favorite card is platinum angel. is an artifact creature 4/4 fr 7 drop (ik, it sounds trash) however, as long as it remains on the field, you can’t lose the game and your opponents can’t win the game. in the deck i play it in i have tons of enchantments and auras that give all my creatures things like hexproof and indistructable making it relatively impossible to kill and it definitely has led me to victory a few times with literally -6 health. another really good card is more of a 2 card combo; sterling grove and privileged position, practically gives all my permanents shroud protecting each other from destruction…until a board wipe happens
I’m sure someone else has pointed this out, but Fiery gambit pairs well with Zada, Hedron Grinder and Mirrorwing Dragon. Ink-Treader Nephilim too, but its color requirements are harder to fulfill in a deck. Better to just stick zada as your commander and run mirrorwing as a backup. Also given the fact your table is running things like Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood and Oath of Druids, please someone give Courtney a Staff of Domination.
as much as I used to love commander, when I started playing online, I found a lot of commander players to be really obnoxious and the play patterns to be really boring after a while. Getting into more competitive formats was actually great for me. I really love legacy, and have a fun time casually brewing around in the format to see what I can make work. Mtg is great, it can allow for so many forms of play.
Magic always seemed interesting but always gave me the feel of ‘pay to win’. Having a style of play where everyone draws from the same deck is really neat. It would be cool if they sold an intro deck built for this format (can be all commons but ones that make a cohesive deck) that could act as a gateway teaching tool for all us board game fans…
The first time I watched this article: those look like some pretty neat cards. perusal this article after after getting into Magic: flips table EXQUISITE BLOOD IS A BITCH CARD! DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY DIFFERENT CARDS CAN USE IT TO MAKE A TWO CARD INFINITE COMBO? I BET YOU USE TUTORS TO GET THEM OUT FASTER AAAAAAHHHHHHH!
MissingNovice had priority and tapping for mana doesn’t use the stack, so he shouldn’t have been able to be targeted by a spell or ability (due to that player not having priority to activate an instant) until after the spell went on the stack, but he would have died before it resolved so it doesn’t make a difference anyway.
As someone from a country that has a horrible economy, and especially a heavy inflation since 2016 – I saw magic decks go from around 29 bucks 15 years ago to around 200 bucks currently and it sucks. Magic is PURE HASBRO/WOTC GREED in my country – it’s INSANELY expensive and they don’t seem to understand that no more kids are playing magic because the parents can’t afford it.
I would list Fiery gambit too, but when its taken….Also exluding total bombshells my favourite but staple cards as lightning bolt as it is fairy poweful yet simple all around used and known card across the decks and formats. Honorable mention is SKRED as it is namesake to variety of monored snow control decks Im contantly building around (R: instant deal damage to the crature equal to the snow-c permanents you control). Now for another modern card it is MANA TITHE (W: intant, counrer target spell if caster doesnt play 1). As with monored control (fairly unstandart colour for that archetype) Im venturing off colour with white counter, but to successfully gotcha with this card and one untapped white land it is feelsgood moment (for me at least). Second card would be from EDH format and it is funny to me in sort of meta way. BOWER PASSAGE (1G: enchantment. Creatures your control cannot be blocked by creatures with flying). The flavour and design of the cards are centered around possibility for your big bulky green muscle monsters attacking through dense forest freely, not to be bothered by the little pesky flying ghosts or pigeons. Now consider me playing bird tribal, where all creatures already has flying that is solid evasion ability of itself playing that card in adition to that. Not only im normaly flying over the heads of those groundbound green muscly dumdums and can be stopped only by flyiers exept not. Now I am sending all my murders and flocks under the save cover of dense foliage instead of serving roasted chickens to that enemy dragon.
i had the pleasure of introducing a small group of friends to MTG and getting them hooked creating a playing circle for us evil laugh its great to see how they’ve taken to deck building meaning I’ve had to step my game up, we’ve been discussing trying a Commander game an after this vid will have to look more into it. Glad your back Puffin! Much love from the Golgari Swarm (Black/Green) <3
My Fav card would half to be “Lurrus of the dream-den” & I would put her in a token deck with cards like “dreadhorde invasion” & “Griffin aerie” & then I could run stuff like “doomskar” & wrath of god like effects & have equipment like “sword of body & mind” & things to buff the tokens that I would have every turn even if someone was to clear the board, so I could run alot of board clear stuff, o & “torment of heilfire”, O fun times. Would u like to play against it? (if u could)
For me Innocent Blood and Silent Spector, nobody playing Oath of Druids expects to sacrifice a creature for some reason but I have pissed off a bunch of people at the same time playing Innocent Blood, Silent Spector is a morph card it takes two black three colorless for flipping him or four colorless and two black to summon if it deals damage your opponent discards two cards, it’s expected after the first time so I usually paired with a 5/4 zombie that requires 5 life points to flip, as a bonus I did also make a fun deck about website and Earthquake to basically nuke big games, it was funny doing it twice in eight player games :3
Braids isn’t even that powerful all things considered anymore for Commander. It’s more so banned because it’s “not fun” which is a completely arbitrary and subjective bullshit reason to ban something. Especially in a format as open ended as Commander. It’s one of the few reasons I actually still have yet to even bother to play Commander since Braids is one of my favorite cards. It’s a fucking 4 mana 2/2, that’s stupid easy to deal with.
You know perusal this article, I got a little teary eyed because I realized something… i miss playing magic the gathering ;-; I use to play back in college. Had a Rakdos and a Sphynx artifact deck. It was so much fun to play with… but then they got stolen. I even ran into the guy who did it but chouldent prove it was my deck so yeah he got away. But perusal this, I want to get back into it. I think I’ll make a trip to my card shop and buy bulk packs and a few commanders
See Blood funnel as cards no one uses I guess no one has made you guys feel the misfortune of dealing with an Mishra EDH deck. A funny card for EDH that is a head scratcher, since his effect is if you play a card, search your deck/library/graveyard for a card for the same name and put it into play. Than shuffle your deck. I recommend him as prob one of the best EDH make people think outside the box with combos. While making everyone think you stuffed your commander slot with a Lemon, to making sure he never see’s board presence.
Don’t play anymore, but I hated commander. Every time I tried to play it, nobody would ever let me do anything. Once borrowed someones deck to play (because I was fed up with my deck), and after about 4-5 turns, I spent the rest of the game just drawing and messing around on my phone and not interacting with the game, because every time I tried to cast a spell, it was countered or removed, the other 3 players literally ganged up on me for no reason until I just stopped playing, then one of them eventually won and I was like “neat” and handed the borrowed deck back to its owner and said “never playing commander again”.
Alan: “So uh…my favorite card is Ugin the Butthole Dragon. He’s very well loved on Arena among Historic players. Pretty much, you cheat him into play turn 4 using aetherworks marvel or maybe turn 2 using Tibalt’s Trickery or maybe you just ramp him into play turn 5 at latest. Then you basically win the game because…it’s Ugin. Sure, they can kill him with a murderous rider or whatever, but he’s coming back. You know he’s coming back. There’s always another Ugin. Then they rage quit and it’s funny. …and that’s Ugin.
As someone who doesnt play it, listening to people talk about Magic feels like trying to have a conversation with an enthusiastic alien who wants to tell you about their culture but you’reusing a broken universal translator so every so often some words that are important to understanding context of your conversation just sound like static, and you’re left hoping it doesn’t lead to being devoured by rabid hell dogs or something… but it probably will because that might actually be something in Magic.
I remember MTG…….people HATED my Elf deck. Lemme break it down as to why I had in ONE single deck Infinite Creatures Infinite Mana Infinite Lives Infinite Deck Shuffling via being able to put my graveyard back into my library whenever I wanted to Infinite +1/+1’s Infinite Turns Oh and I had a combo wombo that allowed me to basically go “Oh, no creatures untap anymore, unless I summon a creature.” Also had a way to take flying away from creatures also
I related to this article in the same way. I dropped out of magic when I left for college (Onslaught block started) and was at my local game store playing D&D when I say the Magic players with these large decks. I was thinking, “is everyone playing with Battle of Wits? Why?” So I asked out loud. They said, that they were playing Commander or EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander). Obviously I had to ask more. When they started to explain it, I immediately understood the Highlander reference (“There can only be one!”). So after finding out more, I set out to make my first deck. I looked at the cards in the glass case and knew which ones I still had at home and decided then, I was going to build a Sliver Overlord deck (immediate groans in the store.) But I did it anyways. Then COVID shutdown everything around here (March 2020) and I had to build without anyone’s help but the internet. I changed the commander to The First Sliver and then found that I was only missing about 10 cards for a decent deck (including TFS.) Also, during the shutdown, I got to looking through my cards. Found loads of gems: Gaea’s Cradle, Sierra Sanctum, a guru Island, and more. TL; DR: I’m enjoying Commander and have about 8 decks currently.
welcome back to MTG….. BTW, there’s really only one format to play. Commander/EDH/CEDH. And “Gladiator” on ARENA. It’s actually really nice how Leveler is actually nice to have. There are actually alot of really good legendary creatures on the cheap that are really good. Also, i’d recommend aiming to play competitive commander because then people don’t really care what you play because everyone’s actually intending to win turn 1, 2, or 3.
I see… Your problem with shuffling, is your shuffling. : ) There are many styles to shuffling, but I can see why yours is less accommodating for large decks. Clearly you didn’t play many games that required several standard 52-card decks of cards growing up — Once you add the third or fourth, your’re roughly in the EDH zone.
“Getting back into magic” What is “things I wouldn’t advise”, Puffin? /jk Ha, that’s not a commander issue. Scute swarm – mutate is still solid in standard. And by “solid” I mean a gargantuan pain in the ass that doesn’t have a high win rate but in Arena bogs everything down like a nightmare, runs away with itself way too easily, and demands immediate answers or you’re boned. Oh. We deckbuild super differently, but then I never worried about being competitive. I run 1 offs all the time. Love Shane’s picks, Arcades is great, I have beef with Exquisite blood though. I think it infinite loops too easily nowdays.(I wouldn’t ban it at all) Aminatou is hilarious. Marco had some interesting choices, I like those. I have never seen Mirri and I instantly love her. Not crazy about permanent control stealing but who cares…Mirri. This requires a new line. FUCK Ugin. Yes, because I love Nicol Bolas, but more because he’s an 8 drop game winner in no colors that every trash-ass control deck loves. I hate him, hate him hate him. Most of that’s because I play Arena though. Not sure what he’d be like in commander. (A lot of that’s unfair but I don’t care.) Oath of Druids is cool but I have a feeling I could not play with Alan…. I think I adore Will though… Poor Missing Novice….I feel his pain.
Oh boyyyyyyy MAGIC is a whole can of wurms to me. – Magic has that old school charm (90s amiright?) – Modern is a fast and the furious game of top trumps….except against control decks, they can heck off. – Legacy is the wild west of magic where anything is possible if you try hard enough and have money. Commander is pure shenanigans and fun. – My favorite cards are Baleful strix because its card advantage and deathtouch is pure value. It’s ALSO A BADASS BIRD and Queen Marchesa (LongMaySheReign) because she give you that “queen and her castle kind of vibe” with politicking and commanding a board presence where you can use table politics to work out deals and plans of attack against the table that purely benefit you and only you in the end.
Not a commander deck, but is my favorite deck to play randomly with friends. The infinite Squirrel deck/slightly modified. Green+Black Squirrel Nest: Enchant Land, tap land and put a 1/1 green Squirrel into play. Earthcraft: Enchantment, Tap an untapped creature you control to untap target basic land. Squirrels burst from the ground as far as the eye can see. Your turn… When combined with Essence Warden: Gain 1 life when creature enters battlefield. Infinite life with the Galaxy of Squirrels The black is for Diabolic Tutor which lets me search my library for any card. To allow for faster combo.
I never heard of that play all style. I used to play Magic too back in school (during Onslaught) and remember having a lot of fun with it, despite there being some balance issues. (A rich friend made a Slifer deck that trounced everything) I stopped playing not by choice but because my mom went full religious nutcase and tossed everything I had. A few years ago I tried to get back in but noticed a huge issue with the gameplay scene where I live anyway… Every MTG game basically boiled down to who could place the biggest wad of cash on the table. Who could afford the best and most pricy cards would win nearly every time, and a “newbie” like me (they changed/added so much I was BASICALLY new again) had basically no chance to compete… Though the play-all style WOULD fix that since you’re all pulling from the same mega-deck… Whenever I make that co plaint people tell me to just play Draft then, but that kinda ruins the point of a COLLECTIBLE card game when you can only use them once. I’ll just play a article game for that experience and spend less money. Overall though, MTG made me lose taste for card games as a whole. Now whenever I see a game utilizes cards and deck building it turns me off from it immediately.
I remember when my brother got me into Magic. He’s the type to give you a fighting chance unless he was bored and just went for it. He ran a Sarkhan Vol deck that went White/Red/Green. Specifically his deck’s plan is to get as many saproling tokens as possible, and either eat them if you have a quick board wipe he thinks you might have with Hellkite Overlord or otherwise use every saproling to swing into you. All 200 of them. Which is why I now run a zombie deck that spawns a zombie and by my next turn I’ve got like 6 of them. (Given a perfect setup.)
Two suggestions: 1) for Fiery Gambit, Zada, Hedron Grinder is going to be your best bet. She allows any spell you cast that targets her (first flip effect requires a target) to get copied to all of your other creatures. You might lose a creature if you win, but the big mana, card draw, and burn bonus is HUGE. 2) If you feel like playing with high power cards, but don’t feel like dropping $250 on a single cardboard rectangle, I recommend looking up a card called Villainous Wealth. Just cast one spell and make the guy with the most fun toys in their deck cry.
Favorite card has to be Maskwood Nexus; second favorite is probably Grip of Chaos. Which doesn’t work in every deck but is really really good in some decks and can totally screw up some other decks. Honorable mentions Orvar, Hive Mind, Nyxbloom Ancient, Fiery Emancipation, and all doubling effects. My Nekusar deck would run Grip of Chaos and Hive Mind… the deck never targeted anyone with any abilities or spells but dealt damage equally. The only thing that targeted anything was Lightning Greaves but due to 0 cost to equip I could just retry it infinitely till I got it equipped to the right thing, usually the Nekusar, and it would screw up all the other effects that target. Like somebody tried to go off with their Niv Mizzet curiosity combo this one time… but they forgot Grip of Chaos was in play and then they realized they were stuck in a loop of drawing their deck and dealing damage totally randomly including to themself and to niv mizzet. The infinite combo that usually enabled a win was totally screwed up with targets randomized, as was basically every targeted removal. It was beautiful. It also ran Hive Mind, but this was less about the chaos. For one thing, it counters counterspells and copies removal and ramp and whatever else useful, but then secondly in Nekusar something you want to do frequently is wheel people… what if every wheel became 4 wheels instead of one, well that’s what Hive Mind did, forced everyone to copy the wheels, which was enough to kill people and has ended some games outright.
My favourite cards? the Kaldra trio. In a way the three are a bit like Exodia from the Yugioh – in that unless your deck is purpose built to search for them (or you are taking up 12 card slots with them) – getting them all out onto the battlefield is… unlikely. But each is powerful on their own. I usually run this equipment set with, say, elves (llanowar, etc). So my mana growth is accelerated by relatively small creatures that I can turn into behemoths. The sword gives +5/+5 and removes creatures it dealt damage to from the game. The shield makes creatures indestructible, and also protects the Kaldra set from from destruction (exile still works) The helm is the cheapest of the thee and gives haste/first strike/trample. I also have an equipment-centered deck that allows me to equip as an instant effect. Oh, you’re blocking the sword-equipped creature with a puny token, but are destroying my 3/3 with your 10/10 behemoth? Hey, guess who has the sword now? But it gets REALLY fun if you manage to get all three out. Because for the low cost of 1 mana and no tapping, the helm puts a 4/4 legendary creature into play (and moves all three pieces onto it). someone tries to put a bad enchantment, gain control, or otherwise affect your token negatively? Just summon another, and the legendary rule melts the first. Also, I have all three promo-foils from the pre-releases.
I vaguely remember having lots of fun with unglued/unhinged in highscool… someone had and entire deckbox filled with chaos confetti so they could replenish their deck after they used one… Also creating forbidden words with that one enchantment. Popular words to make forbidden; mana, attack, upkeep, (un)tap, damage…
I made a mono green elf deck with elvish archdruids, elvish mystics, llanowar elves, elvish promenade… Oh and Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger. In the same deck. Yunno. The guy that makes opponents mill 20 whenever he attacks, exiles shit the second he comes in, oh and is a 10/10 with indestructible lmao
I think my two cards would be because I love silly ways to win: Shared Fate (Enchantment) – I discovered this card and had to build a deck around it. Instead of drawing, you remove a card from an opponent’s deck from the game and can use it like it’s in your hand. Nobody can lose by card draw. Nobody can make each other discard (other than the hand they had before Shared Fate). My friends would groan when they saw me play this one. I thought it was a blast perusal 4+ players (one time in an 8 player game) realize they’d be drawing someone else’s deck for possibly the rest of the game. (Also, yes, my deck was basically useless. Card draw and discard.) Magistrate’s Scepter (Artifact) – This little gem was from Mercadian Masques set (AKA “old”) and I discovered it back when Mirrodin block was big. Now, by itself, this scepter isn’t that scary. Spend 4 colorless to put a charge counter on it. Ouch. Expensive. Alternatively, tap it and remove 3 charge counters to take an extra turn. Yeah…thing is, Mirrodin sets introduced basically handing out charge counters to everything. This became an easy infinite turn combo. The card was cheap so I had to buy it just to give people that one moment when I win the game by using an old card to take infinite turns and win against all of them. Imagine realizing Someone just beat a table full of opponents with a 3 cost artifact.
Ben, you haven’t lived until you’ve cast Batwing Brume on an ‘arrogant to the point of being legitimately offensive’ Rhys, The Redeemed player with 100,000,000,000,000 tokens out, in the middle of their combat. I could kill a slug the size of Jupiter with the amount of salt I received from him for that one.
Not a commander setup, but oh good god the second eldrazi sets were fun. Set up a small eldrazi swarm and mana ramp, use ‘from beyond’ and ‘conduit of ruin’ to get yourself a ‘deceiver of form’, drop it on the field, and get yourself a ‘bane of Bala-Ged’ onto the top of your library, and exile your opponents entire field with your 7/5 scions with essentially annihilatior 2. Fun stuff, nothing competitive, but fun nonetheless. Also, r/w racing dwarvws from kaladesh is also wild. Fun tip, you can use a crewed vehicle to crew another vehicle. Also, ‘consulate dreadnought’ costs 1 mana, and with a crew cost of 6, becomes a 7/11. I assure you, there’s some shenanigans you can pull with that bad boy.
Sapphire Leech, makes blues more expensive. One thing you can do with it, is exchange control of it with another players creature, increasing their spell cost. Look up “Scornful Egotist”, considered one of the worst cards ever. But, he works great in conjunction with spell that use “Converted Mana Cost” to fuel damage.
You can get an infinite turn when you combo Sphinx of the Second Sun with Aggravated Assault. Aggravated Assault // 2R Enchantment 3RR: Untap all creatures you control. After this main phase, there is an additional combat phase followed by an additional main phase. Activate only as a sorcery. Sphinx of the Second Sun triggers on each combat phase. And since you get an untap step, you’ll have the mana to pay for another combat phase. The never ending turn.