I used to play MTG many moons ago in my early teens, maybe from 1997 - 2002 ish. I've still got loads of cards in the loft somewhere, most will be the expansions I remember (after looking at a list) like Mirage, Tempest, Urza's Saga up to Seventh Edition maybe. As a collector/player I've also got loads and loads of cards all the way back to Alpha/Beta.
I sold a lot of my valuable cards (£5+) when I stopped playing so what I broke up loads of my old decks etc.
I want to just play very casually, most likely just once or twice a week with a colleague during lunches etc, but having looked at the new sets/expansions in shops and briefly speaking to staff it seems like a lot has changed. There's guilds, which I have no idea about, and some weird power cards.
Can someone just fill me in on what I've missed, what new card types there are etc, and how useful it'd be to dig my old cards out (even if just for lands)?
And also any advice on the easiest/cheapest way to get back into it and get 3/4 playable decks, likely pre-made.
Nowadays there are many different formats. In the 8th Edition Modern was introduced and from that era of magic not much made it into the current Standard environment. However Pauper and Commander are both formats which use these old cards and are fairly easy to get into.
Moved to Magic General, since this isn't a rules question.
So between 2002 and now, 17 years have elapsed. That's an obvious fact, but what might not be immediately apparent is the number of sets in the intervening time. Since Onslaught, which was the final expansion released in 2002, there have been 53 expansions alone. To put it another way, by the time the next expansion set, War of the Spark, releases, there will be three times as many Magic expansions published as there were in 2002. This doesn't even count products other than expansions that have new cards in them, such as the half-dozen-plus core sets since Magic 2010 that have new cards printed in them, Commander sets, Planechase, Conspiracy...
From a rules perspective there have been quite a few rules changes along the way, the most major of which I believe were in Magic 2010. They were relatively minor compared to the ones from Sixth Edition, however. The card frame has also changed - once majorly with Eighth Edition, and a few times minorly since.
The Guilds of Ravnica (as a concept, not the set) are by this point a realllly old idea in Magic design, and there have been three blocks (well two and the current "block") set there.
The easiest way to get back into the game depends on how you want to play. For Limited, that's as easy as it always was - once you relearn the rules you can just sit down at a Draft event and play. And from there, once you have a Draft deck, you have the most basic foundations of what could become a Standard deck.
I would recommend Commander, but it has somewhat different rules from mainstream Magic and is the most frankly complex format of all time. However, if you can get past the learning curve, it offers a lot of opportunity to use old cards, even/especially obscure ones, and most groups that play Commander are pretty causal.
There is really only one new type of card: planeswalkers (eg. Liliana Vess).
(There's also tribal, but that was simply a gimmick to allow creature types on noncreature cards; the card type doesn't appear on its own, only in conjunction with another card type.)
Planeswalkers have a special set of rules about them, and are usually very powerful (mostly by providing repeatable effects). They enter the battlefield with a number of loyalty counters as printed in the lower right corner of the card (where a creature's power/toughness is found). Planeswalkers are not creatures, and they are not players, they are their own unique thing: planeswalkers. I think, this confusion has lessened over the past years, but was quite prevalent early on.
A planeswalker's abilities can be activated with sorcery timing (so during your main phase, when the stack is empty, and you have priority), but only one per turn and only once per turn. The cost is to remove or add a number of loyalty counters as indicated before the ability. If the planeswalker has at least as many loyalty counters as needed to activate a negative cost loyalty ability, you can do that, but you will lose the planeswalker (see below).
Planeswalkers can be attacked with creatures as if they were players, and the defending player can block with his/her creatures to defend the planeswalker.
Planeswalkers can be dealt damage, both combat damage and noncombat damage, and any damage they receive removes an equal amount of loyalty counters.
If a planeswalker has 0 loyalty counters left, it goes to the graveyard as a state based action (basically before anyone can do anything about it). And this is not destruction, so effects like regeneration or indestructibility don't help.
Planeswalkers have their own subtypes (Liliana, Garruk, Dovin, etc.), but other than as a reference for certain cards, they don't have any meaning anymore. All planeswalkers are now legendary permanents (a very recent change, so many of the cards are not printed with the "legendary" on the type line), meaning, they are subject to the legend rule, which cares about the exact same name of two or more legendary permanents under the same player's control. That player has to put all but one of those into his/her graveyard as a state based action. (There were several changes to the legend rule since you last played. This is the most recent version.)
I mention planeswalkers because you will most definitely encounter them with any opponent with a more recent collection. They are very powerful and worth playing. Deal with them quickly or lose.
(There's also tribal, but that was simply a gimmick to allow creature types on noncreature cards; the card type doesn't appear on its own, only in conjunction with another card type.)
But between cards like Bitterblossom and All is Dust you'll still see it pop up a fair bit here and there.
The only really significant thing Tribal does from a player standpoint (since the average player doesn't care about needing Tribal to exist so Sorcery and Enchantment can have creature types) is pump Tarmogoyf though, which is largely outclassed by Gurmag Angler so it doesn't see nearly the play it used to.
Counterspell became Cancel, which is itself outclassed at rarities higher than common every single block, but you don't really get two-mana unconditional countering anymore.
Stone Rain's not really a power card, but there's usually not three-mana land destruction anymore just to prevent games from locking out early. You can argue the merits of this forever and people have been doing so. For my money red should maybe have more control tools, but at the same time, it currently does have quite a few (Risk Factor).
Lightning Bolt has been downgraded to Shock for a long, long time. It actually came back to Standard in between 2002 and now and while it absolutely is warping to the kind of creatures and planeswalkers that are viable in Standard, it's not so overpowered that it couldn't return again.
Meanwhile, look at the case of X burn and see how badly outclassed Blaze is at higher rarities these days. Wrath of God got a barely perceptible downgrade/sidegrade in Day of Judgment and there are a ton of more expensive variants that are quite scary. While a normal Wrath usually stops you from losing the game, for example, a deliriant Descend Upon the Sinful more or less should end the game. That's not mentioning the many instants and sorceries that are super important in Standard and Modern. Hell, the Drakes and Phoenix decks both rely on playing as many as possible.
Guilds are just the flavor-of-the-year set gimmick. Like the Enchantments gimmick in Urza’s block, or the mana interaction gimmick in Masques block.
The game’s been blowing up in popularity, and it’s probably worth scanning your old cards to see if anything’s gained value. Some old card prices have spiked when new combos came out with new cards and new rules.
Most of the cards from when you were playing are going to be out of date for the Modern and Standard formats, so you probably couldn’t just take them into a game store’s Magic Night and compete, but they’re still fine for casual non-competitive.
Also don’t be surprised if some of your older cards have officially had some new rulings on how they work under some of the rules revisions.
There were two major rules updates, one near the tail end that you played, and one with 10th edition rules. If you aren’t familiar with the Stack, that was a big deal around 6th edition, and 10th edition revised some further elements of it, most importantly involving damage resolution. There have also been some meaningful rules changes over the years about Legends, Planeswalkers and mulligans, which might not work the way you remember/expect.
Thanks for all your help everyone. I definitely need to go through my old collection, I've got boxes of thousands and a few baseball card-style folders with ones I obviously deemed good at the time but not worthy of selling for whatever reason. It's funny when people name old cards as it brings back so many memories. I definitely had Lightning Bolt, Armgadden and possibly Ancestral Recall; whether I sold them I have no idea.
Thank you for the detail re: Planeswalkers, that's what confused me most as they featured on the front of some of the first boxes I looked at and I was like "where has power/toughness gone?!".
All commons which you may have several Pauper staples already. Decks don't cost a lot each. From 20 to 60 USD for most decks and if you have some of the "valuable" commons it could be far cheaper.
You get to duel like you remember from the "old days".
Catch up on the rules and have some fun. You can play some of these decks on Magic Online for less than 10 bucks if you are interested. Good luck.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
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Planeswalker function like pseudo-players so they only have the equivalent of a life total called loyalty. Loyalty is also tracked like a life total so they don't heal between rounds.
They start with an amount of life points equal to the number in the lower right corner. Each turn you can activate one of their abilities which modifies their loyalty. If a ability would reduce loyalty the planeswalker must currently have at least that much loyalty to activate the ability. If a planeswalker loyalty drops to 0 he is defeated and leaves the battlefield.
Planeswalker can be attacked like players so you tap you creature and you say that you want to attack the planeswalker instead of the player and the player can then decided to block the creature you are attacking with or not. Even if it is not explicitly written on the card all planeswalkers, all of them are legendary meaning you may only control one planeswalker card with the same card name at the same time.
The flavor is that you call a friend to help you to beat down your opponent with their deck of card. Also planeswalker don't suffer summoning sickness, they are used to jump between planes.
I hope that explains it. It plays rather natural, so even if I wrote a bit of text it is not really that complicated.
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The only really significant thing Tribal does from a player standpoint (since the average player doesn't care about needing Tribal to exist so Sorcery and Enchantment can have creature types) is pump Tarmogoyf though, which is largely outclassed by Gurmag Angler so it doesn't see nearly the play it used to.
Okay... let me clarify. A thing that I often have to explain when it comes to planeswalker is that you can activate the abilities of planeswalker in the turn you play them and you don't have to wait an turn.
You are absolutely correct in pointing out that when Gideon transforms into a creature he can't swing to attack. However people who are not used to play with planeswalker cards also often are not sure if you can activate their ability straight away. That is what I tried to convey...
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Fair enough. That's one of those things I don't really personally see as a point of confusion, but then again I've never intuitively thought an un-suspended creature should be able to swing right away (this ambiguity is why suspend grants haste, because playtesters would keep trying to attack the same turn), so I'm probably not the best representation of the average player.
Confusion about planeswalkers can be funny. I've a friend who's been playing(very casually) since 2002. He still treats planeswalkers as though they're just fancy creatures. The other night he refused to attack an unguarded planeswalker because he thought that its loyalty were power and toughness, he didn't want his creature to die. His son and I kept trying to explain how this was not the case. It happens every game session with him. I have more than one friend who thinks like this, sad to say.
And also any advice on the easiest/cheapest way to get back into it and get 3/4 playable decks, likely pre-made.
Hi Russinating, and welcome to MTGS! I'm going to jump right in and suggest that the recently released Guild Kits are a great way to get a fun, reasonable deck. Pick your favorite color pair and get a preconstructed deck for £16 or so. They aren't overpowered, but they aren't trash either. They've got a bunch of useful cards that you can repurpose once you're done with the deck. They're also fairly balanced against each other, so if you want to grab a few and bring them to work, you can put them on the table and tell your colleague "Pick one" and you can have it out without either of you being at a severe disadvantage.
If you're looking to figure out if any of your old stuff is worth anything, join me over at Market Street or DM me a list and I can help you out on that end of things as well.
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Along with many mods, I've moved shop over to MTGNexus. Come check us out!
You can also look up prices for various printings on a site like Scryfall or TCG Player, or just paste a list into SCG's deck builder if you just want to get through things quickly so you can identify what cards might have gone up in price since you played last. It's easier than laboriously, manually sorting through a whole bunch of chaff.
Right, here we go...! First card that looked of any worth that I stuck into SCG was a foil Moss Diamond, $25 so not a bad start!
Still, I must have thousands. Assuming quite a few are worth selling are there any dealers/shops that buy in bulk? I don't have the inclination to sell them individually to separate buyers.
Right, here we go...! First card that looked of any worth that I stuck into SCG was a foil Moss Diamond, $25 so not a bad start!
Still, I must have thousands. Assuming quite a few are worth selling are there any dealers/shops that buy in bulk? I don't have the inclination to sell them individually to separate buyers.
from experience - find someone who can quickly run through your collection and can pick out the expensive stuff in an hour or so. Some cards are worth hundreds and to a trained eye are easily recognisable when scanning through cards quickly. It wouldn't be too laborious.
your profile says Bristol - is that Bristol UK or US? if you're in the UK you could swing by my LGS a little further north of where you are, and I'd be happy to help. I can also advise on best ways to sell old cards quickly without sacrificing much of their value.
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
The only really significant thing Tribal does from a player standpoint (since the average player doesn't care about needing Tribal to exist so Sorcery and Enchantment can have creature types) is pump Tarmogoyf though, which is largely outclassed by Gurmag Angler so it doesn't see nearly the play it used to.
The only other thing you need to know is, for rules reasons, tribal cards exist the way they do so noncreature spells can have creature types. So, basically, it's trinket text. But it does have its purposes. Say I have Scion of Oona and Bitterblossom on the battlefield. Now, my opponent doesn't like that, since churning out 2/2 fliers every turn for the cost of 1 life every turn is a very favorable trade; Bitterblossom was in fact key to Faeries when it Lorwyn block was in Standard. So he wants to cast Naturalize. Exceot he can't: Bitterblossom has shroud, so neither of us can target it.
The flavor is that you call a friend to help you to beat down your opponent with their deck of card. Also planeswalker don't suffer summoning sickness, they are used to jump between planes.
Eh? No. When you activate a planeswalker's abilities, you don't tap them. You can, however, only activate one loyalty ability per turn.
However, if a planeswalker becomes a creature at any time before your next untap step, they still can't attack or use abilities with t in the activation cost (e.g., if you have Cryptolith Rite out, you can't tap an activated Gideon Jura for mana that first turn) unless you give them haste. Just like if you animate an artifact, land, or enchantment.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Magic has two official online platforms: Magic Online and Arena. Online is the full game, and Arena essentially only has cards from Standard, but Arena has a tutorial and overall more polished features since it's much newer.
I sold a lot of my valuable cards (£5+) when I stopped playing so what I broke up loads of my old decks etc.
I want to just play very casually, most likely just once or twice a week with a colleague during lunches etc, but having looked at the new sets/expansions in shops and briefly speaking to staff it seems like a lot has changed. There's guilds, which I have no idea about, and some weird power cards.
Can someone just fill me in on what I've missed, what new card types there are etc, and how useful it'd be to dig my old cards out (even if just for lands)?
And also any advice on the easiest/cheapest way to get back into it and get 3/4 playable decks, likely pre-made.
Also hope this is the right forum...!
https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Pauper
https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Commander_(format)
Hands to the sky
Give a round of applause
For the great Miss Y!
So between 2002 and now, 17 years have elapsed. That's an obvious fact, but what might not be immediately apparent is the number of sets in the intervening time. Since Onslaught, which was the final expansion released in 2002, there have been 53 expansions alone. To put it another way, by the time the next expansion set, War of the Spark, releases, there will be three times as many Magic expansions published as there were in 2002. This doesn't even count products other than expansions that have new cards in them, such as the half-dozen-plus core sets since Magic 2010 that have new cards printed in them, Commander sets, Planechase, Conspiracy...
From a rules perspective there have been quite a few rules changes along the way, the most major of which I believe were in Magic 2010. They were relatively minor compared to the ones from Sixth Edition, however. The card frame has also changed - once majorly with Eighth Edition, and a few times minorly since.
The Guilds of Ravnica (as a concept, not the set) are by this point a realllly old idea in Magic design, and there have been three blocks (well two and the current "block") set there.
The easiest way to get back into the game depends on how you want to play. For Limited, that's as easy as it always was - once you relearn the rules you can just sit down at a Draft event and play. And from there, once you have a Draft deck, you have the most basic foundations of what could become a Standard deck.
I would recommend Commander, but it has somewhat different rules from mainstream Magic and is the most frankly complex format of all time. However, if you can get past the learning curve, it offers a lot of opportunity to use old cards, even/especially obscure ones, and most groups that play Commander are pretty causal.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
(There's also tribal, but that was simply a gimmick to allow creature types on noncreature cards; the card type doesn't appear on its own, only in conjunction with another card type.)
Planeswalkers have a special set of rules about them, and are usually very powerful (mostly by providing repeatable effects). They enter the battlefield with a number of loyalty counters as printed in the lower right corner of the card (where a creature's power/toughness is found). Planeswalkers are not creatures, and they are not players, they are their own unique thing: planeswalkers. I think, this confusion has lessened over the past years, but was quite prevalent early on.
A planeswalker's abilities can be activated with sorcery timing (so during your main phase, when the stack is empty, and you have priority), but only one per turn and only once per turn. The cost is to remove or add a number of loyalty counters as indicated before the ability. If the planeswalker has at least as many loyalty counters as needed to activate a negative cost loyalty ability, you can do that, but you will lose the planeswalker (see below).
Planeswalkers can be attacked with creatures as if they were players, and the defending player can block with his/her creatures to defend the planeswalker.
Planeswalkers can be dealt damage, both combat damage and noncombat damage, and any damage they receive removes an equal amount of loyalty counters.
If a planeswalker has 0 loyalty counters left, it goes to the graveyard as a state based action (basically before anyone can do anything about it). And this is not destruction, so effects like regeneration or indestructibility don't help.
Planeswalkers have their own subtypes (Liliana, Garruk, Dovin, etc.), but other than as a reference for certain cards, they don't have any meaning anymore. All planeswalkers are now legendary permanents (a very recent change, so many of the cards are not printed with the "legendary" on the type line), meaning, they are subject to the legend rule, which cares about the exact same name of two or more legendary permanents under the same player's control. That player has to put all but one of those into his/her graveyard as a state based action. (There were several changes to the legend rule since you last played. This is the most recent version.)
I mention planeswalkers because you will most definitely encounter them with any opponent with a more recent collection. They are very powerful and worth playing. Deal with them quickly or lose.
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Another very notable change is the power of creatures. It was intentionally increased A LOT, so that creatures become more present in tournaments. Think Spirit of the Night is powerful? Meet Doom Whisperer, Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Archangel Avacyn, Carnage Tyrant, Primeval Titan, Lathliss, Dragon Queen, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. To name a few.
On the other hand, many of your old instants and sorceries probably outclass their modern counterparts by far.
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But between cards like Bitterblossom and All is Dust you'll still see it pop up a fair bit here and there.
The only really significant thing Tribal does from a player standpoint (since the average player doesn't care about needing Tribal to exist so Sorcery and Enchantment can have creature types) is pump Tarmogoyf though, which is largely outclassed by Gurmag Angler so it doesn't see nearly the play it used to.
Counterspell became Cancel, which is itself outclassed at rarities higher than common every single block, but you don't really get two-mana unconditional countering anymore.
Stone Rain's not really a power card, but there's usually not three-mana land destruction anymore just to prevent games from locking out early. You can argue the merits of this forever and people have been doing so. For my money red should maybe have more control tools, but at the same time, it currently does have quite a few (Risk Factor).
Lightning Bolt has been downgraded to Shock for a long, long time. It actually came back to Standard in between 2002 and now and while it absolutely is warping to the kind of creatures and planeswalkers that are viable in Standard, it's not so overpowered that it couldn't return again.
Meanwhile, look at the case of X burn and see how badly outclassed Blaze is at higher rarities these days. Wrath of God got a barely perceptible downgrade/sidegrade in Day of Judgment and there are a ton of more expensive variants that are quite scary. While a normal Wrath usually stops you from losing the game, for example, a deliriant Descend Upon the Sinful more or less should end the game. That's not mentioning the many instants and sorceries that are super important in Standard and Modern. Hell, the Drakes and Phoenix decks both rely on playing as many as possible.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Premodern/Middle School are formats that use cards printed ‘95 to ‘03.
http://premodernmagic.com/
http://www.eternalcentral.com/middleschoolrules/
The game’s been blowing up in popularity, and it’s probably worth scanning your old cards to see if anything’s gained value. Some old card prices have spiked when new combos came out with new cards and new rules.
Most of the cards from when you were playing are going to be out of date for the Modern and Standard formats, so you probably couldn’t just take them into a game store’s Magic Night and compete, but they’re still fine for casual non-competitive.
Also don’t be surprised if some of your older cards have officially had some new rulings on how they work under some of the rules revisions.
There were two major rules updates, one near the tail end that you played, and one with 10th edition rules. If you aren’t familiar with the Stack, that was a big deal around 6th edition, and 10th edition revised some further elements of it, most importantly involving damage resolution. There have also been some meaningful rules changes over the years about Legends, Planeswalkers and mulligans, which might not work the way you remember/expect.
Thank you for the detail re: Planeswalkers, that's what confused me most as they featured on the front of some of the first boxes I looked at and I was like "where has power/toughness gone?!".
All commons which you may have several Pauper staples already. Decks don't cost a lot each. From 20 to 60 USD for most decks and if you have some of the "valuable" commons it could be far cheaper.
You get to duel like you remember from the "old days".
Catch up on the rules and have some fun. You can play some of these decks on Magic Online for less than 10 bucks if you are interested. Good luck.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
They start with an amount of life points equal to the number in the lower right corner. Each turn you can activate one of their abilities which modifies their loyalty. If a ability would reduce loyalty the planeswalker must currently have at least that much loyalty to activate the ability. If a planeswalker loyalty drops to 0 he is defeated and leaves the battlefield.
Planeswalker can be attacked like players so you tap you creature and you say that you want to attack the planeswalker instead of the player and the player can then decided to block the creature you are attacking with or not. Even if it is not explicitly written on the card all planeswalkers, all of them are legendary meaning you may only control one planeswalker card with the same card name at the same time.
The flavor is that you call a friend to help you to beat down your opponent with their deck of card. Also planeswalker don't suffer summoning sickness, they are used to jump between planes.
I hope that explains it. It plays rather natural, so even if I wrote a bit of text it is not really that complicated.
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Sure they do. You can't just play Gideon Jura, animate him, and take a swing with him.
Let's not muddy the waters with flavour discussion when doing so can easily lead to someone making gameplay errors.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
You are absolutely correct in pointing out that when Gideon transforms into a creature he can't swing to attack. However people who are not used to play with planeswalker cards also often are not sure if you can activate their ability straight away. That is what I tried to convey...
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Hi Russinating, and welcome to MTGS! I'm going to jump right in and suggest that the recently released Guild Kits are a great way to get a fun, reasonable deck. Pick your favorite color pair and get a preconstructed deck for £16 or so. They aren't overpowered, but they aren't trash either. They've got a bunch of useful cards that you can repurpose once you're done with the deck. They're also fairly balanced against each other, so if you want to grab a few and bring them to work, you can put them on the table and tell your colleague "Pick one" and you can have it out without either of you being at a severe disadvantage.
If you're looking to figure out if any of your old stuff is worth anything, join me over at Market Street or DM me a list and I can help you out on that end of things as well.
Still, I must have thousands. Assuming quite a few are worth selling are there any dealers/shops that buy in bulk? I don't have the inclination to sell them individually to separate buyers.
from experience - find someone who can quickly run through your collection and can pick out the expensive stuff in an hour or so. Some cards are worth hundreds and to a trained eye are easily recognisable when scanning through cards quickly. It wouldn't be too laborious.
your profile says Bristol - is that Bristol UK or US? if you're in the UK you could swing by my LGS a little further north of where you are, and I'd be happy to help. I can also advise on best ways to sell old cards quickly without sacrificing much of their value.
And delirium likes tribal.
The only other thing you need to know is, for rules reasons, tribal cards exist the way they do so noncreature spells can have creature types. So, basically, it's trinket text. But it does have its purposes. Say I have Scion of Oona and Bitterblossom on the battlefield. Now, my opponent doesn't like that, since churning out 2/2 fliers every turn for the cost of 1 life every turn is a very favorable trade; Bitterblossom was in fact key to Faeries when it Lorwyn block was in Standard. So he wants to cast Naturalize. Exceot he can't: Bitterblossom has shroud, so neither of us can target it.
Eh? No. When you activate a planeswalker's abilities, you don't tap them. You can, however, only activate one loyalty ability per turn.
However, if a planeswalker becomes a creature at any time before your next untap step, they still can't attack or use abilities with t in the activation cost (e.g., if you have Cryptolith Rite out, you can't tap an activated Gideon Jura for mana that first turn) unless you give them haste. Just like if you animate an artifact, land, or enchantment.
On phasing:
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena
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