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geswaldo's Magic the Gathering (Other)
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| [February 5, 2013 06:57:47 AM]
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Game Type:
Turn-based strategy card game
Two or more players (team or free-for-all)
Terms:
Lands (mana)– specific cards used as a summoning cost for creatures and spells usually has a color associated with it. Only one can be played per turn.
Library - the remaining cards of the deck that is drawn from.
Graveyard - a pile of face-up cards that consists of discarded, destroyed and used spells/creatures.
Tapping – the activation of a card by turning it sideways if indicated so by the card, also shows that a creature is attacking. A tapped creature can not block.
Stack – a series of cards that have been played in conjunction with one another. Resolves from the last card played to the first card played, when cards/abilities are no longer being placed on the stack.
Instant spells – spell cards that can be played at any time during any players turn.
Sorcery spells – spell cards that can only be played during one of the two main phases by the active player. Sorcery spells can not be played if the “stack” has not resolved.
Generic Deck Types:
Blue deck – a control heavy deck, usually consisting of creatures with low attack/high defense and spells that inhibit an opponent from casting his/her spells.
Red deck – a fast attack deck, usually consisting of creatures with low attack/low defense and spells that can directly deals damage to creatures/players.
Black deck – a deck that usually sacrifices its own player's life for some benefit, usually consisting of ability heavy creatures.
White deck – a defensive deck, usually consisting of spells/creatures that can negate damage or gain the controlling player extra life.
Green deck – a big attack deck, usually consisting of creatures with high attack/high defense and spells that can boost your creatures.
Setup:
To play this game a deck of 60 cards and one or more opponents is required. This deck should have a mix of land, creature, spell and/or artifact cards, the ratio of these cards depends on personal preferences. Which colored deck you decide to play with will have a direct impact on whether this game is enjoyable to you or not. Different playing styles are represented through the different colors and to truly enjoy the game you need you find the mixture of colors that suits you best. Starting out as a new player I would recommend starting off with a pre-constructed starter deck. Depending on the game type each player's starting health differs: for a team battle each team starts with forty health, for a free-for-all game each player starts with twenty health. Before the game starts each player shuffles their deck, draws seven cards and then places the remainder of the deck face down next to the battlefield. The generic setup for the battlefield is land placed in a horizontal row closest to the player and creatures in a horizontal row in front of that. The graveyard is usually face-up cards placed next to the library.
End Game Scenario:
When a player is unable to block a creature that is attacking him/her, that creature deals damage to there health equal to the creatures attack. A player may also take damage by being targeted by a spell that deals damage and can target players. A player loses the game if his/her health reaches zero or can not draw a card at the beginning of his/her upkeep (unless otherwise stated by a card).
Rules:
There are too many rules in Magic The Gathering for me to explain them all. A player may not end his/her turn with more that seven card in there hand. One of the most important rules needed to play is the proper use of the “stack”. The “stack” simply refers to playing instants/abilities in response to a spell being played, these stack on top of each other in “first in last out” order. Once cards are no longer being played in response, the stack will resolve with the last card played happening first. The most important rule in Magic The Gathering is that "what a card says, happens", unless another card says otherwise.
Game flow:
This is a turn based game with the exception of instants/abilities which can be played at anytime. A player's turn consists of five phases: Beginning, pre-combat main, combat, post-combat main and ending (in that order).
1. Beginning phase – all “at the beginning of upkeep” effects happen, untap all tapped cards you control on the battlefield (unless otherwise stated by a card), draw a card.
2. Pre-combat main – can summon creatures, play instant/sorcery spells and/or use card abilities (unless otherwise stated by a card).
3. Combat phase – by tapping a creature in this phase you can make it attack another player. The defending player chooses which creature will block which attacking creature (unless otherwise stated by a card). Destroyed creatures are placed into the graveyard.
4. Post-combat main - can summon creatures, play instant/sorcery spells and/or use card abilities (unless otherwise stated by a card).
5. End phase – all “until end of turn” effects end, active player discards down to seven cards in hand (unless otherwise stated by a card).
Game-play:
The game-play of Magic The Gathering is varying because of the randomness of the draw. The randomness of the game can be controlled to an extent by computing the probability of drawing certain cards along with mixing in cards that let you search for other cards but even with this there is still a chance that you will spend a good portion of the game praying that you will draw a certain card. With that in mind, I did not expect this game of “chance” to be a strategy game but has turned out to be one of the most strategic games I have ever played. While the strength of the strategy depended on the depth of cognitive thought of the opponent and whether or not the deck I created was at an advantage or disadvantage, playing with a blue/black deck required me to anticipate what and when my opponent would play key creatures/spells. After several games with the same opponent Magic The Gathering can turn into a “I know that he knows that I know what he knows” type of stalemate match that draws out until one person makes a move, so it is advised to play against varying opponents with different playing styles. Diplomacy is another aspect of this game that I was not anticipating. When playing against multiple opponents it is advantageous to use diplomacy and trickery to not only keep yourself from being attacked by all the other players but also to be able to take advantage of an opponent who leaves an opening. Depending on the type of deck you are using the diplomacy in this game can vary, some decks with large and/or high mana cost creatures would benefit more from a stalemate in the beginning of the game while a quick deck with lots of small and/or low mana cost creatures would much rather push for continued attacks in the beginning.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 5th, 2013 at 07:15:54.
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geswaldo's Magic the Gathering (Other)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Monday 4 February, 2013
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