Magic:The Gathering

A couple years ago I got the bug to collect Portal: Three kingdoms, of course being based on the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. They have great art and the English run is actually smaller than Alpha, because Australia was the only English-speaking country it was released in. The value in just the last few years alone has skyrocketed. Boosters are already in the $130-$150 range apiece. They were half that when I was collecting them!

P3K did catch my eye at release, made me think of Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Koei. I never understood why they gave them white borders though, considering that the set was comprised of original 1st release cards. A printing blunder by WotC I suppose. I never did buy any sealed P3k, but wish I did. I did however catch the bug to collect 8 or 9 pack fresh Imperial Seals perhaps 4 years ago for an average of $200 to $300 which was full price at the time and was presently surprised to see them spike as high as $800 just a couple years later. Still holding on to all of them, though prices seem to have stabilized and even cooled off a bit. Bought them for my decks but turns out that Vampirc Tutor and Demonic tutor provide enough fetch in most cases. Tried Grim Tutor and found it to be a terrible choice for vintage.

T.A.P. said:

Does that mean you'd sell one to me?

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I'm using singles from all of my open sets for my play decks. Out of a dozen or so CE/ICE sets, I only have one CE and one ICE set that remain factory sealed, but those are for collection purposes. If you're having trouble finding a set, they seem to always be readily available all year round from eBay sellers. Far cheaper to buy the set instead of each CE/ICE individually. One could probably make a living by just buying CE/ICE sets to sell the cards individually. The probability of a factory sealed CE/ICE set appreciating in value over the coming years is very high, considering that people are always opening the sealed sets to sell the cards as pack fresh for far more than the set alone sells for.

I also played in high school. Right when The Dark came out, or maybe revised not sure. But Revied was my main set that got me into it. It sure wasn't Fallen Empires. I quit around Ice Age, or maybe Homelands was what drove me to quit. I also really enjoyed the weird sets. I can't remember the names, but one was a bunch of samurai's with a eastern theme. I don't even think those sets are legal anymore.

I started playing online last year again, because i'm old and don't have time to hang out with a bunch of sweaty 16 year olds. I do miss my after school magic days though. When I played a bunch of people had all the really expensive cards. Full dual land sets, with black lotus, mana drain, recall, etc... I could never afford those cards then. I remember wanting to save my lunch money and get a black lotus for $120.00 bucks from my local comic shop where we all played. Sure wish I had done that now. And I swear I remember I had multiple copies of that Green misprint Hurricane that's worth a small fortune.

I do really enjoy the online. I started again during Return to Ravnica. And it was a good time to get back in. It was the most popular set ever. And I like how much more balanced the game is now. I still hate that cards cost usually at least $40.00 bucks each for any good card you need to be competitive, and you always want 4 of them. I like playing the online drafts. They're a lot of fun, especially when you learn the sets first and know when to pass a rare for a strong common. With practice you can make out almost every time if you play smart.

The most popular formats are of course standard.

Also pauper is popular and cheap. All commons are used. Commander is a lot of fun. And since I played forever ago I like Legacy, or whatever it's called.

Another popular format is tribal wars. Which is all just cards of the same race or type. Elves, goblins, vampires, knights, etc...

But for online the best and easiest format is standard. By FAR the most popular.

Check out THIS WEBSITE http://www.mtgtop8.com/

There you can see all the top decks in tournaments and see what you will be up against. Because people just copy these decks like a bunch of turds cause they can't make a deck on their own.

If you sign up online dont use the Planeswalker cards they give you for free, and never buy those cards, they are not legal in real games. And never buy packs! Onlly buy tickets i the mtgo store and buy from bots. MTGO Traders and Hot Bot are the best and only bots you need.

You can add me if you want. Jeremy_Forrest

I would also like to add, now is the perfect time to get back in. Because Geist of Saint Taft is finally phased out. That card was fucking cheap and everyone used it.

I got into Magic as a kid in 1995, so naturally all of the totally awesome expensive cards had vanished by that point and I was stuck playing with the worthless dregs like Fourth Edition, Fallen Empires (which I actually kind of like), Chronicles and Homelands.

I wasted so much money on that crap over the years.

Shawn said:

If you're having trouble finding a set, they seem to always be readily available all year round from eBay sellers.

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Sadly eBay never seems to have what I want in the condition/price I want it.

Dr Shroom said:

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I actually used Unglued cards when I played this in college. I have also used and tore that card up before.

T.A.P. said:

Homelands.

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Ouch. I have one Homelands card left in my collection:
Most of my stuff is Urza's Saga mixed with some Exodus, Tempest and Mirage.

I think its funny that 20 years later all of these Magic cards have shot up in price except those sets.

Shawn said:

P3K did catch my eye at release, made me think of Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Koei. I never understood why they gave them white borders though, considering that the set was comprised of original 1st release cards. A printing blunder by WotC I suppose. I never did buy any sealed P3k, but wish I did. I did however catch the bug to collect 8 or 9 pack fresh Imperial Seals perhaps 4 years ago for an average of $200 to $300 which was full price at the time and was presently surprised to see them spike as high as $800 just a couple years later. Still holding on to all of them, though prices seem to have stabilized and even cooled off a bit. Bought them for my decks but turns out that Vampirc Tutor and Demonic tutor provide enough fetch in most cases. Tried Grim Tutor and found it to be a terrible choice for vintage.

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Imperial Seal only has a casting cost of (B), so it's an insanely good tutor card. I'd use 4 of those over any other. Sadly, I have never got any from a pack, and there's no way I'd buy one at the current asking price.

P.S. - I'd love to play a P3K only tournament. None of these dorks in my area appreciate these cards.

It's all about Horsemanship.

T.A.P. said:

It's all about Horsemanship.

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Fuck yeah man! I imagine not many players have even heard of P3K and it's unique abilities.

Imagine yourself going to a legacy tournament or casual event and whipping those out! There wouldn't be anything they could do against your forces.

I thought i would bring this topic back up since the Pre release for the new set Khans of Tarkir is this weekend. Anyone plan on attending, and what clan do you plan on playing? I'm going to one pre release on Saturday and i play on rocking the Abzan clan (white,black,green) Plan on going to another one on Sunday and at this moment I'm not to sure which clan i will choose for that event.

http://mythicspoiler.com/ktk/index.html

http://www.magicspoiler.com/khans-tarkir/

I was heavily in to the Innastrad Block. From a thematic standpoint it was fantastic. I loved the lore and the stories you could tell through your decks.

I likewise thought the next two blocks were excellent as well thematically and from a lore standpoint.

I'm not one who will nerd out trying to find the perfect combos. I prefer casual play, variant based play. I really liked themed decks.

Not sure how I feel about the new block, doesn't reach out and grab me.

I played in middle school and a little bit in high school. I stopped when 5th edition was out. I had a killer red direct damage deck none of my friends could beat.

We moved and they got boxed up and I've never seen them since, probably got sold at a yard sale or some shit.

I played the Xbox 360 game a bit a few years back, it was alright I guess

Illusions/Donate with Necropotence and Firestorm before everything was restricted - best deck idea ever - I get my fix with Hex nowadays, really well done clone with some differences that make it interesting

I don't particularly care for a lot of the directions Magic has gone in. Mythics are stupid - artificially raising the cost of and barrier to entry of Standard mainly. Everything is multicolored - manafixing is now too easy in basically every format, and manabases even in Standard are almost exclusively rare outside of monocolored decks. Obscene power creep - especially planeswalkers. Everything is creature-focused - the recent SCG Standard Atlanta top 8 is 8 aggro decks. There seems to be a concerted effort to make Magic entirely about combat and removal. I think that's incredibly boring.

Combined with the increasing expense of the Eternal formats I used to enjoy, I haven't touched a Magic card in years. I bought an Underground Sea for $20 around 2004ish I would say. That same card is worth about $300 today. That's a 1500% jump. With increasing support for Eternal events like the SCG series, I don't see Legacy format staples getting any cheaper. A playset of lands costs half as much as a Lotus. The manabase of the winning Legacy deck at SCG Atlanta costs nearly $1500 before you even get to cast a card, and that's not even that expensive compared to some of the other decks in that top 8.

You can say 'Magic has always been a rich kid's game' but it really hasn't. The best Standard decks used to be a couple hundred bucks tops, and you could get by with less. That's becoming a lot less possible. I used to work in the Magic buying/wholesale industry and seeing where prices are now is mindblowing to me. I can no longer justify owning a deck as expensive as my car, never mind hoping to play more than one deck in a format. Magic Online used to be a viable alternative to paper. Online versions of cards are almost always cheaper, however the client gets worse and worse with every revision, and prize support continues to get slashed across the board. MTGO customer service is some of the worst I've ever had to deal with.

I've played more Magic than any game on earth, and I miss it, but I think it's done for me.

^ Standard is something i dabble in. But my favorite format of play is limited. I really enjoy drafting, and playing in sealed deck tournaments. I don't play older formats (modern, legacy) because they cost to much, and I usually try to build a cheap standard deck, which i feel can still be done.

Hey guys, anyone wanna buy my P3K cards? I don't have the desire to collect anymore.

Bump, so a few months ago I mentioned MTG to my cousin and his eyes lit up. He told me he used to play a little back in the late 90's and he'd like to try it again. So now I'm playing again... lol

Currently building a UG Tron deck (modern legal), but it might be moving more in the direction of just a deck that cheats out large creatures, like the Eldrazi, Wurmcoil engines, etc. by using cards like Elvish Piper, polymorph, and quicksilver amulet. I think it's gonna be fun once I get it done. I have most of the cards I need already but I need to tweak this thing.

So far I have these cards to work around:

Land:

4x Urza's Mine
4x Urza's Tower
4x Urza's Powerplant
4x Yavimaya coast
2x Forest
2x Island


Mana Fixing artifacts:

1x Mox Opal
1x Mox Diamond
2x Gilded Lotus


Creatures:

4x Steel Overseer
4x Master of Etherium
3x Wurmcoil Engine
3x Trinket Mage
3x Treasure Mage
2x Emrakul, The Aeons Torn
2x Elvish Piper
1x Platinum Angel
1x Sundering Titan
1x Etched Champion


Spells:

4x Explore
3x Stoic Rebuttal
3x Summer Bloom
2x Polymorph


Other:

4x Voltaic Key (probably won't include these)
1x Swiftfoot Boots (for Platinum Angel)
1x Darksteel Plate (for Platinum Angel)

Planeswalkers:

1x Garruk Wildspeaker (gives nice polymorph fodder)


So anyways, my win conditions are basically:

1) cheat or better yet cast an Emrakul out
2) Get platinum Angel out and Darksteel Plate it and/or swiftfoot boot it.
3) Beatdown with steel overseers and scupltors


Elvish Pipers would be the easiest way to cheat an emrakul out. Polymoprh can be good too, but unpredictable. However saccing wurmcoils with the polymorph is nice because then you get 2 more wurms. Quicksilver amulet probably won't make it into the deck because it's expensive to cast, but it's an option.

I feel like I should trim the other artifact creatures like the overseers and sculptors, because that would make the chances of polymorphing to a win condition critter that much better.

BTW, I'm tempted to do the pre-release of Fate Reforged, anyone else thinking the same?

(Ugin the Spirit Dragon would be nice in my deck.)

ki_atsushi said:

I love discard decks. I like the newer sets that have cards where if your opponent discards they take damage too. I had a nasty deck that did that. If they didn;t die from the damage, they would run out of cards and lose that way. Vicious.

P.S. - I am starting to forget all the names of the cards and what they do. I guess it's been too long since I've played.

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I played in the mid-90's using a black/blue discard deck (ice age/4th ed) as well. Had millstones and hypnotic spectres with a mindtwist. Dark ritual was terrific.

I've got a friend who is really into it. Since I've moved back to Seattle a few months ago, I've been joining him at league play and pre-release events. I'm going to the pre-release event this Saturday. It's $20 to play, and I sell the cards back to the store for store credit for more than the entry fee. It's a fun way to play Magic and not get too carried away with spending a lot of money. The rules are so complex now though.. I loved the new morph mechanics.

oh man, I still have boxes and boxes of these cards, some from the really early series

I should really dig them up and photograph the whole set

You probably have so much money worth of cards you could unload. I've got a buddy here how is buying and selling cards, the dude is crazy about it. He just goes and buys people's old collections for cheap and then sells off the expensive cards online.

hyper said:

oh man, I still have boxes and boxes of these cards, some from the really early series

I should really dig them up and photograph the whole set

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You should... I might even be interested if you want to unload them. Although modern is more my thing.

I got back on the crack during Ravnica, which I guess was the best selling set of MTG of all time. I use to play in junior high. I started during The Dark. So I played guys with all the early cards like Moxes, Mana Drains, Black Lotus, etc... I actually use to have a few of the power cards back in the day. I feel like a real dumb ass for selling all my cards. I swear I use to have that blue hurricane card too which I recently found out is really rare.

Anyway I play strictly online. I wish I could meet up and play in a sweaty stinky nerd lair in some drafts. That would be great. There's even a few places right by me but i'm just so damn busy anymore. I do really enjoy the online though. Actually it's pretty awesome. I can draft after work at 2am,or anytime. I see and compete against all the popular clone decks on a daily basis, and I can get common and uncommon complete sets for less than $10.00 on ebay normally. Which is great because I never want all the rares.

If anyone wants to play online my id is I believe (jforrest1980)

I don't think I have a standard deck right now, it's been a few months since I got on. But I wouldn't mind playing a few rounds.


EDIT... Looks like I posted pretty much this exact same thing a few posts up. But I am still down for online. So hit me up.

I haven't gotten used to the new GUI of MTGO. Even though the old one was plain, simple is sometimes better. Also, I got tired of spending real money on imaginary cards... to me it's just like DLC. I hate DLC.