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tegyriusAfter a few days poking at Magic: The Gathering Online (first impressions here), I'm actually experiencing a bit of cognitive dissonance.
I got out of paper Magic around 1995 or 1996, when I sold off the bulk of my collection to finance a trip to Atlanta. At the time, organized tournaments with serious prizes were a relatively new thing and casual play was still the focus of the fan base and design community. Today, the game is all grown up, and not in a way I think the original designers ever anticipated. I can't quite say it with a straight face - out of shock, not disdain - but there is a professional circuit with cash prizes in excess of the value of my car. Competitive tournament play requires the investment of hundreds of dollars to assemble a deck that has a remote chance of winning. Apparently, this holds true for both paper and online versions. It's a bit intimidating for a nostalgic old fart like me.
Consequently, I haven't yet done anything with the mainstream formats, aside from grabbing a bunch of interesting-looking common cards from the tradebots that offer them free as loss leaders. I have a vague intention of trying to play in the Pauper format (which allows only common cards), but even that has so much theorycrafting behind it that I'm not sure I want to work hard enough at it to have a chance of winning. All of my actual play time so far has occurred in the Planeswalker format, where I at least might not fall on my face.
Planeswalker is a sandboxed MtGO format intended as a bridge between the XBox's Duels of the Planeswalkers and full-on MtGO play. As I noted in my last post, the initial $10 sign-up fee includes a block of several hundred Planeswalker cards in addition to a stack of 11th Edition. Unlike the 11th Edition cards, the Planeswalker cards aren't subject to random draw when you acquire them - everyone who gets this block of cards gets the same cards in the same quantities. Planeswalker cards use the exact same rules set as mainstream MtGO, but they're sandboxed. By that, I mean they can't be traded, mixed with non-Planeswalker cards, played in tournaments, or played against non-Planeswalker decks. The only use for the Planeswalker set is playing against other people who are using the same limited, known pool of cards that you are. It's a semi-controlled environment where you can learn (or re-learn) the basics before venturing into the vastly more complex (and expensive) mainstream play formats.
Of course, WotC wants to make at least a pittance off players who are content to stay in Planeswalker. In addition to the initial block, three more Planeswalker blocks are available. Each one provides about 200 more cards for $5. Like Block I, Blocks II-IV provide known lists and quantities of cards. They expand your basic Planeswalker resources in a controlled fashion, without overbalancing the sandbox's play environment. I went ahead and grabbed them because I was curious, but I think I could have stayed fairly successful without them (right now I've played ten or twelve games with about a 40% win rate).
Planeswalker, I think, is the closest I'm going to be able to find to the limited complexity and card lists of the game's early days. I've invested a grand total of $25 and I think I'm going to get my money's worth out of that piece of the entertainment budget. The one problem I'm having is one I expected: the general lack of social interaction. When you aren't playing with a friend, there's no table talk, and the competitive aspect really comes to the forefront.
So. Does anyone want to risk the initial ten bucks and try to set up a semi-regular night to get online and toss cards and bullshit?
I got out of paper Magic around 1995 or 1996, when I sold off the bulk of my collection to finance a trip to Atlanta. At the time, organized tournaments with serious prizes were a relatively new thing and casual play was still the focus of the fan base and design community. Today, the game is all grown up, and not in a way I think the original designers ever anticipated. I can't quite say it with a straight face - out of shock, not disdain - but there is a professional circuit with cash prizes in excess of the value of my car. Competitive tournament play requires the investment of hundreds of dollars to assemble a deck that has a remote chance of winning. Apparently, this holds true for both paper and online versions. It's a bit intimidating for a nostalgic old fart like me.
Consequently, I haven't yet done anything with the mainstream formats, aside from grabbing a bunch of interesting-looking common cards from the tradebots that offer them free as loss leaders. I have a vague intention of trying to play in the Pauper format (which allows only common cards), but even that has so much theorycrafting behind it that I'm not sure I want to work hard enough at it to have a chance of winning. All of my actual play time so far has occurred in the Planeswalker format, where I at least might not fall on my face.
Planeswalker is a sandboxed MtGO format intended as a bridge between the XBox's Duels of the Planeswalkers and full-on MtGO play. As I noted in my last post, the initial $10 sign-up fee includes a block of several hundred Planeswalker cards in addition to a stack of 11th Edition. Unlike the 11th Edition cards, the Planeswalker cards aren't subject to random draw when you acquire them - everyone who gets this block of cards gets the same cards in the same quantities. Planeswalker cards use the exact same rules set as mainstream MtGO, but they're sandboxed. By that, I mean they can't be traded, mixed with non-Planeswalker cards, played in tournaments, or played against non-Planeswalker decks. The only use for the Planeswalker set is playing against other people who are using the same limited, known pool of cards that you are. It's a semi-controlled environment where you can learn (or re-learn) the basics before venturing into the vastly more complex (and expensive) mainstream play formats.
Of course, WotC wants to make at least a pittance off players who are content to stay in Planeswalker. In addition to the initial block, three more Planeswalker blocks are available. Each one provides about 200 more cards for $5. Like Block I, Blocks II-IV provide known lists and quantities of cards. They expand your basic Planeswalker resources in a controlled fashion, without overbalancing the sandbox's play environment. I went ahead and grabbed them because I was curious, but I think I could have stayed fairly successful without them (right now I've played ten or twelve games with about a 40% win rate).
Planeswalker, I think, is the closest I'm going to be able to find to the limited complexity and card lists of the game's early days. I've invested a grand total of $25 and I think I'm going to get my money's worth out of that piece of the entertainment budget. The one problem I'm having is one I expected: the general lack of social interaction. When you aren't playing with a friend, there's no table talk, and the competitive aspect really comes to the forefront.
So. Does anyone want to risk the initial ten bucks and try to set up a semi-regular night to get online and toss cards and bullshit?