I currently have not used magic online ever but as I work 2nd shift I do not get to play as much commander as I would like. I would love to hear form the people on here that play on magic online how is your experience on there? Does it just bug out to much? Do you get a lot of games in during the day. Just looking for general feed back from users of MOL who play commander.
I currently have not used magic online ever but as I work 2nd shift I do not get to play as much commander as I would like. I would love to hear form the people on here that play on magic online how is your experience on there? Does it just bug out to much? Do you get a lot of games in during the day. Just looking for general feed back from users of MOL who play commander.
I signed up for MtGO, but I was instantly turned off to the fact that there is no way for you to buy cards all at once for your Commander deck. You have to buy individual event tickets at $1 each, and then have to haggle/trade with either bots or people for tickets. It is a system that will take you weeks to get a single deck starting out from scratch. Also, there are quite a few cards that aren't on MtGO. My advice is just use Cockatrice, even though it is one of the most troll filled toxic programs I have ever used. It unfortunately is the only and best option.
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"People are the worst. The worst thing about music is that people play it." - Mike Patton
I currently have not used magic online ever but as I work 2nd shift I do not get to play as much commander as I would like. I would love to hear form the people on here that play on magic online how is your experience on there? Does it just bug out to much? Do you get a lot of games in during the day. Just looking for general feed back from users of MOL who play commander.
I signed up for MtGO, but I was instantly turned off to the fact that there is no way for you to buy cards all at once for your Commander deck. You have to buy individual event tickets at $1 each, and then have to haggle/trade with either bots or people for tickets. It is a system that will take you weeks to get a single deck starting out from scratch. Also, there are quite a few cards that aren't on MtGO. My advice is just use Cockatrice, even though it is one of the most troll filled toxic programs I have ever used. It unfortunately is the only and best option.
I disagree with basically this entire post. MTGO has its issues regarding Commander, but this is certainly not one of them. You can either buy tickets from Wizards and then go to reputable bots like GoatBots, Cardhoarder, or MTGOTraders and trade for your entire deck right then and there. MTGO also has a wishlist feature. You can import a deck and if you don't have all the cards, they will show up with a striped border. You can then right click on them and add them to your wishlist. Then when you go into a bot, you can load your wishlist and only those cards show up. It is actually pretty slick.
The other option, if you don't want to deal with bots in the client, is just buy directly from Cardhoarder or MTGOTraders. Their site allows you to pay for the purchase in tickets or they give a small discount if you pay via PayPal. The entire process is kind of tedious if you have a lot of cards, but you can have your entire deck purchased an ready to play in about 20-30 minutes.
As to Cockatrice being the "only and best" option, that is not true. Other than cost, I feel MTGO is superior is nearly every other way. I think it does have every card, but that is because there is no rules logic that needs to be programmed for cards so it is easier to include them in Cockatrice than something like XMage. But, the lack of rules support, combined with the general ignorance/stubbornness of some people to not accept a specific interaction makes the platform less attractive overall.
To the OP: the main problem I had with Commander on MTGO was the fact that you never knew what you were going to play against. And I don't mean the commanders. I mean you never know if you are going to play against people with precons or someone with a turn 3 infinite combo. In real life this isn't as large an issue as you can tailor your decks to a specific playgroup. The other issue that is mitigated in real life if you are entering an unknown meta is that in real life you can get crushed in the first game by that turn 3 combo and then next game you can play a different deck against the same people. In MTGO, that isn't really an option. If you re-enter the queue with a hyper-competitive deck after getting beat, you then might become the person playing the infinite combo against others who want to play a long drawn out game of Commander.
It is a great platform to get a bunch of games in and, though it has its bugs (especially prevalent in Commander due to the variety of cards being used) it is fairly stable overall. In any case, it is much better than Cockatrice since a) it has rules support so there are no disagreements over rules and b) it is infinitely less toxic. As to card availability, every card newer than Invasion is present and anything older is almost certainly present. Some off the wall cards are not there. I think I have only had one card I wanted to use that was missing (Koskun Falls) and I ended up cutting it anyway so it never really mattered.
Worth noting that I have not played since they implemented the 1v1 format, so the issue of hyper-competitive players in the multiplayer queues may not be as much of an issue as it once was.
the biggest drawback of playing commander on mtgo is the lack of social interaction. talking to your friends while waiting for your turn is one of the best aspects of commander and while there is an in game chat box, it is rarely used. another downside is sizing on your monitor. in a four player game the board becomes crowded fast which can become confusing or lead to game play mistakes. it never becomes unplayable as you can hover your mouse over cards to get information, but its just not as easy as in real life.
deck building is fairly simple as is acquiring cards. purchase the tickets, go to a reputable bot, get the cards you want, and the deck fills in itself. a ticket is essentially 1 dollar and card cost will be based off of that. another feature with the bots is they will save any remaining ticket value that becomes credit for future use with the bot. it is really simple and the larger bots are well stocked. prices for cards can be absurdly small as well with many cards costing less than a nickel. i have built a couple decks for less than three dollars. obviously you will have cards that carry a higher cost, but in relation to paper magic the cost is usually quite less. another way to defray cost is that there are a few free bots that allow you to take a certain amount of cards for free. these usually arent the best cards, but free is free.
it can be tricky getting in a "good" game considering the many different decks and players out there, but you can always buddy up with players you meet who share a similar game style as you. i log in at weird hours (due to living in Japan) and i usually dont have to wait to long for a 4 player game to start and can usually hop right in to a 1 v 1. im sure you would find players on at any time of the day or night.
Its worth keeping in mind that there are actually two different versions of Commander online as well: Traditional and 1v1 banlist, the latter of which uses a custom wizards designed banlist that sucks for multiplayer but is better for 1v1. You can play either banlist as 1v1 or multiplayer, but most multiplayer games use the real banlist and most 1v1 games use the 1v1 banlist (though more people play the real banlist 1v1 than play the 1v1 banlist in multiplayer). Because of this, be prepared to make two versions of your deck if you feel like playing it both 1v1 and multiplayer.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I'm a heavy MTGO commander player, and the pitfalls are that there is no real way to get a balanced set of decks in a queue. You really do get $1 dollar decks against $1000. So it causes a lot of confusion and isn't always the greatest as far fairness or balanced games. Its just like paper Magic, if you want the decks, then you have to spend a decent amount of money. Don't get me wrong, I specifically put together a deck for $18 tix, which is super competitive. You can do it. But once it comes to making varieties of decks, then you have to start spending a good deal of cash.
So I would try Cockatrice first. Get a variety of decks together and eventually you might feel like you're OK with spending money to further an online experience with Magic.
I'm a heavy MTGO commander player, and the pitfalls are that there is no real way to get a balanced set of decks in a queue. You really do get $1 dollar decks against $1000. So it causes a lot of confusion and isn't always the greatest as far fairness or balanced games. Its just like paper Magic, if you want the decks, then you have to spend a decent amount of money. Don't get me wrong, I specifically put together a deck for $18 tix, which is super competitive. You can do it. But once it comes to making varieties of decks, then you have to start spending a good deal of cash.
One thing I'll point out that's a huge draw to MTGO compared to paper is only ever having to buy one copy of any old staple and the ease of access of finding old singles from a decade ago.
I just played a game, and this will give you an example of the toxic environment on Magic Online. I had a control deck, but rather than just take a loss when the game turns, people get really vicious. Its pretty sad all in all.
There are factors to consider: your commander, power level differences, playing with/against control, and 1v1 vs multiplayer.
I played MTGO when Oloro came out and people were salty as he was legal 1v1.
Also, in a lot of cases on turn 2, I could Mind Twist for 4 or play Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
The good stuff is you can play any time anywhere.
Also, to buy and sell cards, I used MTGOTraders (aka Cape Fear Games). They have their own thread here and will talk to people.
People seriously scoop if they don't resolve their Sol Ring? Wow. I understand it's probably far from a majority, but how often would you say that happens?
People seriously scoop if they don't resolve their Sol Ring? Wow. I understand it's probably far from a majority, but how often would you say that happens?
I sold out of MTGO a while back. A lot of people leave games early due to control or lots of hand disruption. I feel most do not want to attempt long grindy games when they can instantly start/join another. Again, this was before leagues and current rules.
I play Commander (EDH) on MTGO nearly every day. Occasionally I run across people who are immature, abusive and can't stand when other people win. For the most part things go well much like paper when, from time to time, I encounter toxicity across the game table but most people are healthy and respectful.
For example, BadBowler1971 who, interestingly, has some unsavory comments on display in a transcript above that has no connection to me, swore up and down and had a hissy fit at me for dismantling his pillow-fort Olero empire with Axis of Mortality.
This just made it more fun for me though to see his reaction, but I understand that some people could take offense.
I end up playing some of the same people over and over so I know their decks and play styles. I would encourage people to play MTGO for commander because it keeps things a bit fresh. MTGO has it's issues but I prefer it for EDH over the Xmage client. I love Xmage for brewing 60 card constructed and drafting but the interface is more frustrating than MTGO for multiplayer in my opinion.
I brew new EDH decks all the time. Here's my system:
- Use tappedout.net to put together a decklist.
- One button click loads your decklist into Cardhoarder's deck pricer
- One button click to find the cheapest version of each card
- One click to remove cards you already own (you can import your collection into Cardhoarder's account members tool)
- Purchase with PayPal to get the discount
- Export decklist from tappedout into mtgo client
- By the time I've done that the bot usually is ready to hand over my cards
- If there are any mismatches or different versions conflicting with cards in my collection MTGO client lets you know
- Done. Jump into or host a game.
Sometimes I try to get as many cards as i can for my decklists from the free bots to save a few cents but it can be time consuming and doesn't save much money anyway.
Also, playing online allows you to play with cards not available irl due to price. For example, paper version of Moat is $350-450, whereas online it's 4-5 tix.
Also, playing online allows you to play with cards not available irl due to price. For example, paper version of Moat is $350-450, whereas online it's 4-5 tix.
Another factor is you probably want a real big screen. Playing a 4 player game on a laptop is rough. You want to play for stakes too, the casual rooms are a mess and just a waste of time (says someone who loves casual and Pauper but its a clusterf on MTGO). With stakes you are at least getting someone who is invested in the process.
Too be fair, even though I have been hating on MTGO here, its the same for any client where you are playing randoms. Its just people in general that make any random playgroup a clustf, like maybe a quarter of the time. But it always the bad games that you remember, so the experience is waned. My friend plays Cockatrice and its just filled with hate.
Also, playing online allows you to play with cards not available irl due to price. For example, paper version of Moat is $350-450, whereas online it's 4-5 tix.
Paper moat isn't so bad..........
Says the Kaalia player.
And a reply from the player who uses it in the Sigarda GW Enchantress deck....
I bought mine at $175 a while back. I still use it but wow the price is sooo high now. 3 fold easily for me.
Also, playing online allows you to play with cards not available irl due to price. For example, paper version of Moat is $350-450, whereas online it's 4-5 tix.
Paper moat isn't so bad..........
Says the Kaalia player.
And a reply from the player who uses it in the Sigarda GW Enchantress deck....
I bought mine at $175 a while back. I still use it but wow the price is sooo high now. 3 fold easily for me.
My Italian one was...idk, I think I spent $240. Happy with that. But good lord, yeah it's like $600 now. It's gonna hit Tabernacle levels before the end of 2018, bet. At least Workshop levels.
I signed up for MtGO, but I was instantly turned off to the fact that there is no way for you to buy cards all at once for your Commander deck. You have to buy individual event tickets at $1 each, and then have to haggle/trade with either bots or people for tickets. It is a system that will take you weeks to get a single deck starting out from scratch. Also, there are quite a few cards that aren't on MtGO. My advice is just use Cockatrice, even though it is one of the most troll filled toxic programs I have ever used. It unfortunately is the only and best option.
The other option, if you don't want to deal with bots in the client, is just buy directly from Cardhoarder or MTGOTraders. Their site allows you to pay for the purchase in tickets or they give a small discount if you pay via PayPal. The entire process is kind of tedious if you have a lot of cards, but you can have your entire deck purchased an ready to play in about 20-30 minutes.
As to Cockatrice being the "only and best" option, that is not true. Other than cost, I feel MTGO is superior is nearly every other way. I think it does have every card, but that is because there is no rules logic that needs to be programmed for cards so it is easier to include them in Cockatrice than something like XMage. But, the lack of rules support, combined with the general ignorance/stubbornness of some people to not accept a specific interaction makes the platform less attractive overall.
To the OP: the main problem I had with Commander on MTGO was the fact that you never knew what you were going to play against. And I don't mean the commanders. I mean you never know if you are going to play against people with precons or someone with a turn 3 infinite combo. In real life this isn't as large an issue as you can tailor your decks to a specific playgroup. The other issue that is mitigated in real life if you are entering an unknown meta is that in real life you can get crushed in the first game by that turn 3 combo and then next game you can play a different deck against the same people. In MTGO, that isn't really an option. If you re-enter the queue with a hyper-competitive deck after getting beat, you then might become the person playing the infinite combo against others who want to play a long drawn out game of Commander.
It is a great platform to get a bunch of games in and, though it has its bugs (especially prevalent in Commander due to the variety of cards being used) it is fairly stable overall. In any case, it is much better than Cockatrice since a) it has rules support so there are no disagreements over rules and b) it is infinitely less toxic. As to card availability, every card newer than Invasion is present and anything older is almost certainly present. Some off the wall cards are not there. I think I have only had one card I wanted to use that was missing (Koskun Falls) and I ended up cutting it anyway so it never really mattered.
Worth noting that I have not played since they implemented the 1v1 format, so the issue of hyper-competitive players in the multiplayer queues may not be as much of an issue as it once was.
deck building is fairly simple as is acquiring cards. purchase the tickets, go to a reputable bot, get the cards you want, and the deck fills in itself. a ticket is essentially 1 dollar and card cost will be based off of that. another feature with the bots is they will save any remaining ticket value that becomes credit for future use with the bot. it is really simple and the larger bots are well stocked. prices for cards can be absurdly small as well with many cards costing less than a nickel. i have built a couple decks for less than three dollars. obviously you will have cards that carry a higher cost, but in relation to paper magic the cost is usually quite less. another way to defray cost is that there are a few free bots that allow you to take a certain amount of cards for free. these usually arent the best cards, but free is free.
it can be tricky getting in a "good" game considering the many different decks and players out there, but you can always buddy up with players you meet who share a similar game style as you. i log in at weird hours (due to living in Japan) and i usually dont have to wait to long for a 4 player game to start and can usually hop right in to a 1 v 1. im sure you would find players on at any time of the day or night.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
So I would try Cockatrice first. Get a variety of decks together and eventually you might feel like you're OK with spending money to further an online experience with Magic.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I played MTGO when Oloro came out and people were salty as he was legal 1v1.
Also, in a lot of cases on turn 2, I could Mind Twist for 4 or play Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
The good stuff is you can play any time anywhere.
Also, to buy and sell cards, I used MTGOTraders (aka Cape Fear Games). They have their own thread here and will talk to people.
Edit - I love t1 concedes with I Swan song or Mental Misstep a Sol Ring
I buy HP and Damaged cards!
Only EDH:
Sigarda, Host of Herons: Enchantress' Enchantments
Jenara, Asura of War: ETB Value Town
Purphoros, God of the Forge: Global Punishment
Xenagos, God of Revels: Ramp, Sneak, & Heavy Hitters
Ghave, Guru of Spores: Dies_to_Doom_Blade's stax list
Edric, Spymaster of Trest: Donald's list
old thread
old thread
old thread
R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
I sold out of MTGO a while back. A lot of people leave games early due to control or lots of hand disruption. I feel most do not want to attempt long grindy games when they can instantly start/join another. Again, this was before leagues and current rules.
I buy HP and Damaged cards!
Only EDH:
Sigarda, Host of Herons: Enchantress' Enchantments
Jenara, Asura of War: ETB Value Town
Purphoros, God of the Forge: Global Punishment
Xenagos, God of Revels: Ramp, Sneak, & Heavy Hitters
Ghave, Guru of Spores: Dies_to_Doom_Blade's stax list
Edric, Spymaster of Trest: Donald's list
For example, BadBowler1971 who, interestingly, has some unsavory comments on display in a transcript above that has no connection to me, swore up and down and had a hissy fit at me for dismantling his pillow-fort Olero empire with Axis of Mortality.
This just made it more fun for me though to see his reaction, but I understand that some people could take offense.
I end up playing some of the same people over and over so I know their decks and play styles. I would encourage people to play MTGO for commander because it keeps things a bit fresh. MTGO has it's issues but I prefer it for EDH over the Xmage client. I love Xmage for brewing 60 card constructed and drafting but the interface is more frustrating than MTGO for multiplayer in my opinion.
I brew new EDH decks all the time. Here's my system:
- Use tappedout.net to put together a decklist.
- One button click loads your decklist into Cardhoarder's deck pricer
- One button click to find the cheapest version of each card
- One click to remove cards you already own (you can import your collection into Cardhoarder's account members tool)
- Purchase with PayPal to get the discount
- Export decklist from tappedout into mtgo client
- By the time I've done that the bot usually is ready to hand over my cards
- If there are any mismatches or different versions conflicting with cards in my collection MTGO client lets you know
- Done. Jump into or host a game.
Sometimes I try to get as many cards as i can for my decklists from the free bots to save a few cents but it can be time consuming and doesn't save much money anyway.
Hope this helps someone.
I buy HP and Damaged cards!
Only EDH:
Sigarda, Host of Herons: Enchantress' Enchantments
Jenara, Asura of War: ETB Value Town
Purphoros, God of the Forge: Global Punishment
Xenagos, God of Revels: Ramp, Sneak, & Heavy Hitters
Ghave, Guru of Spores: Dies_to_Doom_Blade's stax list
Edric, Spymaster of Trest: Donald's list
Paper moat isn't so bad..........
Says the Kaalia player.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
And a reply from the player who uses it in the Sigarda GW Enchantress deck....
I bought mine at $175 a while back. I still use it but wow the price is sooo high now. 3 fold easily for me.
I buy HP and Damaged cards!
Only EDH:
Sigarda, Host of Herons: Enchantress' Enchantments
Jenara, Asura of War: ETB Value Town
Purphoros, God of the Forge: Global Punishment
Xenagos, God of Revels: Ramp, Sneak, & Heavy Hitters
Ghave, Guru of Spores: Dies_to_Doom_Blade's stax list
Edric, Spymaster of Trest: Donald's list
My Italian one was...idk, I think I spent $240. Happy with that. But good lord, yeah it's like $600 now. It's gonna hit Tabernacle levels before the end of 2018, bet. At least Workshop levels.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.