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When did "magic: the gathering" jump the shark?

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  • Apreche said:

    ThatGent said:

    Having friends that play cardfight constantly, it's pure bunk. The game's clan system is similar to Magic's colors, except you put yourself in a severe disadvantage if you use more than one clan. Even then, the decision making is reduced to only one effective strategy per clan. The game itself heavily relies on luck to either hit or to even bother continuing in the game.

    They also had a brief stint at Weiß Schwarz and called the rules pointlessly convoluted.

    Oh well. That guy did a really good job of selling it, though.

    Why can't tabletop games of licensed properties be good?
    I'll completely agree with you here that for the most part they are crap. *cough*CRYPTOZOIC*cough*. I do think that Fantasy Flight does a pretty good job with it, though. The Game of Thrones board game stepped into "really good" territory for me with the 2nd edition revisions, and of course you know I'm nuts for X-Wing. Looking at my shelf, the only other good licensed game I can spot is Discworld: Ankh Morpork, which is a really overlight medium-weight euro from Martin Wallace (area control w/ hidden roles). I recall the Marvel RPG they put out a few years back being not too shabby either. It was at least a pretty decent superhero scenario sandbox.

  • pence said:

    EDH is rad, it's the best casual way to play Magic. I have old EDH decks that I'd still break out - my favorite is the UR deck where every card is a land, a clone, or a fork.

    Do people still call it EDH, or has 'Commander' finally won out?

    I think Cube is the best way to play MTG now, but I agree, EDH is pretty awesome.

    One Cube - 8 players draft out of it. The cube is your own creation. Only the cards you want to play with. My Cube is 100% proxy! It cost me about $100 for the sleeves and photo paper I used! Means we all get to draft Moxes, Baneslayers and Jaces to our hearts content.

    Cube = MTG the board game. As in, one person owns/brings the cube, everyone plays out of it.

    Cube is SO GOOD.

  • Cube is great. I've built one of my own, mostly from cards that I had lying around. Just wish people here would be more ready to draft it.
  • edited April 2014
    chaosof99 said:

    Cube is great. I've built one of my own, mostly from cards that I had lying around. Just wish people here would be more ready to draft it.

    Like any board game, you need to make sure the people you invite or meet up with are there for the purpose of playing cube. Any MTG players should be keen to try a new cube :) And if it's a fun, they might want to draft it again :)

    Even with 2 players, you can either do a virtual 6 booster sealed, or a Grid Draft

    Post edited by InvaderREN on
  • Alex Steacy of Loading Ready Run recently introduced me to a concept on their MTG podcast, which is essentially a two-player cube. I'm considering putting this together or a variant of it, just to play before a draft when we meet up.
  • edited April 2014
    In case anyone is interested, here is My 540 proxy powered Cube list.

    When you draft out of a cube that size, you often only see a small percentage of the total cards each draft. The amount of variance you get between drafts means every draft feels very different. And hence, the decks always feel unique.

    Cube and EDH are so good for us casual players.

    Oh, and check THIS SUPER AWESOME ARCHIVE OF PROXY ALTERS! If you don't know much about Super Art or Proxies then prepare to be amazed. Some of these proxies are very good. You just pick the cards you want, print to a nice laser and BOOM, instant cube...

    I wonder if Netrunner could be Cubed? I don't see why not...
    Post edited by InvaderREN on
  • For me, I stopped playing around Fallen Empires and haven't looked back since. The first thing that angered me was when they said a bunch of cards I owned were 'illegal' now in tournament play and basically not allowed anymore. The second was the expansions that opened my eyes to the pay-to-win schtick that the game was.
  • Arabian Nights.
  • Arabian Nights.

    Like Arabian days.
  • Churba said:

    Arabian Nights.

    Like Arabian days.
    More often than not.
  • Banta said:

    Churba said:

    Arabian Nights.

    Like Arabian days.
    More often than not.
    Are hotter than hot.
  • Banta said:

    Churba said:

    Arabian Nights.

    Like Arabian days.
    More often than not.
    Are hotter than hot.
    Well, Ali Baba had them forty thieves,

    Scheherazade had a thousand tales.
  • I'm a little colored here since I was making money playing tournaments. Not a lot of money but when you're an 18 year old punk kid, any money is a lot of money.

    That said, I stopped playing about Fifth Dawn.
  • Being a young'un, I played the Kamigawa Block, 9th Edition, and quit in the second set of Ravnica. I feel that Magic jumped the shark before I started playing, though.
  • I had a few packs here and there, spanning Ice Age to 4th Edition. Don't think I played the actual game more than once or twice though.

    Meanwhile, sales of Magic cards have been lifting Hasbro for years, hitting higher and higher peaks. Shark or not, the game is a force.
  • Apreche said:

    Banta said:

    Churba said:

    Arabian Nights.

    Like Arabian days.
    More often than not.
    Are hotter than hot.
    Well, Ali Baba had them forty thieves,

    Scheherazade had a thousand tales.
  • Being a young'un, I played the Kamigawa Block, 9th Edition, and quit in the second set of Ravnica. I feel that Magic jumped the shark before I started playing, though.

    I jumped right around the time travel block, but from talking to people who started later, original Ravnica is considered one of the best blocks in a long time.
  • Zendikar and the newest block (Battle for Zendikar) are some of the best Tammy blocks that have ever existed. Do you like huge stompy bullshit? Cus we've got huge stompy bullshit.
  • I never got back into Magic after they added Planeswalkers. Overpowered, extra rare cards that created a new border of difficulty/money for new players. Whoever plays the Planeswalker first gets a free Avatar with amazing powers.
  • Nukerjsr said:

    I never got back into Magic after they added Planeswalkers. Overpowered, extra rare cards that created a new border of difficulty/money for new players. Whoever plays the Planeswalker first gets a free Avatar with amazing powers.

    They're not that OP, really. Except Jace, The Wallet Sculptor, and he's banned in most reasonable formats.
  • MTG at it's core, is a fun game. (I said fun, not good).

    If it was an LCG like Net Runner I may even consider playing. Although it is always hard to go back to MTG after NR, as both were made originally by same person, and Dr Garfield thought that in NR, he 'fixed' MTG...

    So I just proxy a cube now, and toss in any new cards that look fun. Cost? Well, it was about $40 for the sleeves and I have a colour copier, so... I play MTG for free. With friends of course.
  • When I was young my dad got us into MTG with the earliest sets around 93 and we played up to Urza's Legacy. I had stopped playing and was no longer current with what Magic was up to. Later on at PAX when I actually encountered the kids playing MTG again I realized that they made all the cards look like, and read like Portal cards.

    Portal was the old "intro" edition that dumbs it down and makes it easier to get into. Much like WoW they jumped the shark by lowering the bar to get players, instead of just making the game better.

    image
  • YOu mean that thing that never happened that everyone says happened?
  • MtG has never jumped the shark. It's kept doing its thing consistently for most of its 20+ years, even if some blocks are better than others.

    Joke answer: when people started calling EDH "commander" or something. This is the hill I have chosen to die on.
  • Loving that Raise Thread card.

    Also, play Netrunner instead.
  • pence said:

    MtG has never jumped the shark. It's kept doing its thing consistently for most of its 20+ years, even if some blocks are better than others.

    Joke answer: when people started calling EDH "commander" or something. This is the hill I have chosen to die on.

    To be fair, you don't have to use Elder Dragons anymore, so EDH as a name doesn't make a ton of sense...
  • pence said:

    Joke answer: when people started calling EDH "commander" or something. This is the hill I have chosen to die on.

    It's a good hill.

  • Crittle said:

    [Raise thread card]

    saved.
  • The best MTG I've played in recent years has been with a more restricted form of the Pauper format where we would play with only commons from the current Standard blocks.

    Even so, I recently picked up the Netrunner core set and am hoping to never look back. At least on the surface it looks like MTG for responsible people (with a budget and other time commitments). I don't know, though, there are a lot of little counters and markers and coins and shit... so we'll see, we'll see.
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