Casting Magic

| Sunday, September 19
So, randomly, this weekend, I decided I wanted to try and learn how to play Magic: The Gathering. The hub played quite a bit in the past, so he agreed to teach me. We set out to buy some pre-made decks and a box of cards for deck-building, just in case. (Good thing we did, as I'd soon find out.)

Knowing nothing about the game mechanics going in, I tried to figure out what kind of deck I'd want based on what I read on the boxes and what the hub had told me about the various colors. I ended up getting a Blue/White deck, and he chose a Red/Green deck so that we had cards in a variety of colors. They were very pretty. :)

We played an open game so I could see what was happening, and he could explain things as we played. Early on, we could see he was going to annihilate me because I wasn't drawing any land, so he started playing nice. I wholeheartedly took advantage of this. I know, I'm awful! I ended up beating him because I put his creatures to sleep. I had been hiding my Sleep card so he didn't know it was coming. :)

Then we decided to build a deck. I thought it would be fun to play Red/Black after looking through all the cards we'd bought. How right I was!

First I played against a Blue/White deck, and other than his flying creatures I couldn't block and that he used Pacifism on my Dragon, I beat him fairly easily by pinging away at him with my Blood Seeker and Giant Scorpion. Deathtouch, FTW!

Then, he decided to try his Red/Green deck again that he'd played with last night. He could've beat me with that one and all of his giant Wyrms, but I discovered some more lovely things in my black deck. They are cards that took care of his insane attacks. I also had a bunch of little, relatively worthless creatures out blocking for me, so when he attacked with a +20/+20 buffed Wyrm of some sort with Trample, I only tool 13 damage, and I'd buffed back up to a full 20 at that point. And since I blocked with a Deathtouch creature, his poor Wyrm died. (I'm not sarcastic or gloating at all. Such a sore winner - and sore loser.) I then managed to take him out using things like Doom Blade and Hideous End.

I've decided I really like playing with this deck we built. It's very much a strategy deck that plays more defense and slowly whittling away at the opponent's life, but for now, I feel safe with it. And that's what I want for a newbie. We also have some friends who still play, so I'm hoping I can play more, and lose graciously. That'll be my biggest challenge...

5 comments:

Eleni said...

My older brother used to have a lot of Magic cards which he used to play with a few of his friends back in middle school, but sometimes we'd make decks out of his cards and play with each other. His favorite was always his Red/Black deck, but I guess I never played enough to form a favorite. I wonder if he still has his cards stored away somewhere.

Hearing terms like "Trample" really bring me back :) I'm glad you're having fun with the game.

JasonSeas said...

It can be fun once you figure out how to use the cards properly, but I had the unfortunate luck of playing with people at one time that always supered their decks and they were so slanted and unfair that it wasnt fun to play with.

But when youre playing with people that are there to have fun, its a great time.

Even though I havent played in a long time, one of my favorite decks I currently have is a theme deck that is red/green and all the creatures are cats. I just like it. :)

Amy said...

This is a lazy thing for me to say, but Magic seems... confusing. I think part of this is that I've tried to learn from the box rather than an experienced player.

Ruth said...

I need a friend to teach me. I have some starter cards, but nothing else. And while I might be able to figure it out on my own, I think having someone experienced to play with would make a huge difference (based on my experience w/things like D&D, Mouse Guard, etc).

Alex and Ben said...

I'm a big Magic fan :) me and my friends have 8 way tournaments where we try to piss each other off as much as possible. I play a 5 color dragon deck. It's infuriating for all!

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