Really been enjoying cube play. It's been a huge hit with my friends, so much so that I have more than 10 interested in playing! This is a long shot question, but I wonder if you had a list of 'extras' or other recommendations for a cube list to look at for adding around 180 cards (4 more players). Thanks for all the work on the cube again!
I tried out the beta version this week. First time playing MTGO. Hated almost everything and uninstalled after about 5 games. I would rather just play duels of the planeswalkers if I am going to do an electronic version.
I can definitely understand that reaction, the clients are really bad. They will let you play full magic, but it takes awhile to build up a tolerance to their terrible UIs. There are some configuration options that made the experience a little better for me. After many games, I am now mostly comfortable with using the UI, but it is still tedious for me during important game situations. Overall for me, it was worth going through the pain as I really enjoy being able to play magic whenever I want.
I would register now. The included new player cards have no real value anyway. However the free phantom points and being able to play in a M15 pre-release for free with them is awesome. 6 packs of M15 will likely be worth more than any junk they include with the starter.
Hello, I just gave your latest episode a listen and thought I would provide some feedback. I am pretty new to magic still, but I've listened to over 1000 hours of game-related podcasts. I have found most of the MTG podcasts to be 'unplayable'.
Your podcast was good, especially for being so early in your episodes. I like that you stay on topic (of magic!) and don't go into personal side conversations with each other that that most listeners would not know anything about. I felt the conversation was relavent.
I do have a few suggestions, based on things I found worked well for me in other podcasts.
1) When you are going over cards, if you could please make sure to clearly state the name and then a quick review of its stats. Something like "Cogwork Library, it is 4 colorless for a 3/3. And then read the text on the card or at least summarize it." Without this, the discussion about the card is nearly impossible to follow unless I happen to know what it does by name. If I am by a computer or able to pull up the card some other way, I can kind of make it work... but usually I listen to podcasts in the car in some other location where looking at a screen isn't possible.
2) I like the show notes and the structure you have to the show. Perhaps at the start of the show, you could go over very briefly the topics you plan to cover during the show. When you shift topics, make a point about it. Something like "ok, well we've wrapped up talking about our thoughts on various conspiracy cards, now lets move on to our discussion of super-ramp in green."
3) I know this one is hard with 3+ people and not recording in the same location, but be careful with talking over/interrupting each other. I thought you guys did a great job of not doing it too much, given the situation, but it really makes things hard to follow when 2 people are talking at once. I don't have any experience with how to make this work better. I imagine it comes with time together as well, where you can pick up when to start talking and stop.
Thanks for putting this podcast together, you guys are already ahead of most of the other ones that I have listened to.
Hello, I am pretty new to magic, but I have been following your cube. I am wondering if you could share your thoughts on the inclusion of the draft manipulator conspiracy cards. At this stage is it a test / temporary thing, or do you view these cards as a long term addition to the cube? From my new player perspective, they don't really seem like 'normal' magic cards compared to everything else in the deck.
Thanks for your work on the cube, I really appreciate being able to take advantage of your knowledge to make my magic experience more enjoyable.
By game, I was referring to individual games within a match. I have not done premier daily events. Most of my play has been in just pick up games. I can play quite a few games rather quickly in that format, as I am not waiting an hour each round. I've played for hours at a time, although not 6 hours, and have not had issues myself.
I was just trying to convey my experience from a different perspective than many have. There really is no reason to question "what kind of sessions" I am running, I have no reason to lie about this. It may well be that a 6 hour tournament would not work as well for me, but I am no where near at a skill level to play in something like that.
I just began playing mtgo online a few weeks ago and wanted to provide a little perspective for any new players thinking about playing. After reading all of the reviews and such on the v4 client, I almost didn't bother but I am glad I did. After playing over 100 games, these are my thoughts as a new player who's only seen v3 in videos.
The Good
The interface - while not pretty, can be configured to be functional. There are many way to position the elements on the screen to suit how you would like to see them, including if you have multiple screens. After some amount of effort, I find all the information I need to be easily accessible. I can do everything I need to play and enjoy magic.
The rules enforcement - I am not expert, but I've not run into any issues here. Everything interacts how it should, although understanding what is going on can take a bit of effort at first.
Stability - I have had 1 or 2 crashes in all the games and countless hours I've played. I run the game in a virtual machine (vmware) or a mac in 1GB of ram, too, so that would not necessarily be the most stable way to run it. So I've had no problems there. This includes a number of 3 round tournaments. Not perfect, but quite acceptable to have a fun experience.
Collection - the search filters for collection management an deck building work well and the display for this is good for me.
The game - this is magic in all it's glory. Easiest and most accessible way to play magic whenever and wherever you want.
The Bad
The interface - it's completely functional to play magic and manage collection, but it's not very pretty. It's very hard to learn how to get around and play through a game. Some things are far from obvious and not intuitive. So the learning curve is huge.
Performance - the in game performance is pretty decent to me. Managing collections and switching around to different areas inside the app is sluggish. I even tried it on a native windows machine, and had the same results as inside my VM. For me it's almost fast enough to not be annoying.
Summary
Overall, the application is not 'good' or pretty, when compared to most other games. Ultimately you are playing mtgo because I want to play magic in spite of the program, not because of it. Having said that, after a few weeks of using mtgo, I find it to be an enjoyable experience and the application ends up being good enough. If you are a new player who likes magic, don't be scared off by the client. It has been very playable and enjoyable for me (after initial pain).
I just wanted to say how awesome your web site is. It saved me tons of time in some projects I was working on. Particularly the /card/ option. Thank you so much for putting this together!
I can definitely understand that reaction, the clients are really bad. They will let you play full magic, but it takes awhile to build up a tolerance to their terrible UIs. There are some configuration options that made the experience a little better for me. After many games, I am now mostly comfortable with using the UI, but it is still tedious for me during important game situations. Overall for me, it was worth going through the pain as I really enjoy being able to play magic whenever I want.
Your podcast was good, especially for being so early in your episodes. I like that you stay on topic (of magic!) and don't go into personal side conversations with each other that that most listeners would not know anything about. I felt the conversation was relavent.
I do have a few suggestions, based on things I found worked well for me in other podcasts.
1) When you are going over cards, if you could please make sure to clearly state the name and then a quick review of its stats. Something like "Cogwork Library, it is 4 colorless for a 3/3. And then read the text on the card or at least summarize it." Without this, the discussion about the card is nearly impossible to follow unless I happen to know what it does by name. If I am by a computer or able to pull up the card some other way, I can kind of make it work... but usually I listen to podcasts in the car in some other location where looking at a screen isn't possible.
2) I like the show notes and the structure you have to the show. Perhaps at the start of the show, you could go over very briefly the topics you plan to cover during the show. When you shift topics, make a point about it. Something like "ok, well we've wrapped up talking about our thoughts on various conspiracy cards, now lets move on to our discussion of super-ramp in green."
3) I know this one is hard with 3+ people and not recording in the same location, but be careful with talking over/interrupting each other. I thought you guys did a great job of not doing it too much, given the situation, but it really makes things hard to follow when 2 people are talking at once. I don't have any experience with how to make this work better. I imagine it comes with time together as well, where you can pick up when to start talking and stop.
Thanks for putting this podcast together, you guys are already ahead of most of the other ones that I have listened to.
Yes, I am in Arizona, but up in the Phoenix area (updated my profile to show that).
Thanks for your work on the cube, I really appreciate being able to take advantage of your knowledge to make my magic experience more enjoyable.
I was just trying to convey my experience from a different perspective than many have. There really is no reason to question "what kind of sessions" I am running, I have no reason to lie about this. It may well be that a 6 hour tournament would not work as well for me, but I am no where near at a skill level to play in something like that.
The Good
The interface - while not pretty, can be configured to be functional. There are many way to position the elements on the screen to suit how you would like to see them, including if you have multiple screens. After some amount of effort, I find all the information I need to be easily accessible. I can do everything I need to play and enjoy magic.
The rules enforcement - I am not expert, but I've not run into any issues here. Everything interacts how it should, although understanding what is going on can take a bit of effort at first.
Stability - I have had 1 or 2 crashes in all the games and countless hours I've played. I run the game in a virtual machine (vmware) or a mac in 1GB of ram, too, so that would not necessarily be the most stable way to run it. So I've had no problems there. This includes a number of 3 round tournaments. Not perfect, but quite acceptable to have a fun experience.
Collection - the search filters for collection management an deck building work well and the display for this is good for me.
The game - this is magic in all it's glory. Easiest and most accessible way to play magic whenever and wherever you want.
The Bad
The interface - it's completely functional to play magic and manage collection, but it's not very pretty. It's very hard to learn how to get around and play through a game. Some things are far from obvious and not intuitive. So the learning curve is huge.
Performance - the in game performance is pretty decent to me. Managing collections and switching around to different areas inside the app is sluggish. I even tried it on a native windows machine, and had the same results as inside my VM. For me it's almost fast enough to not be annoying.
Summary
Overall, the application is not 'good' or pretty, when compared to most other games. Ultimately you are playing mtgo because I want to play magic in spite of the program, not because of it. Having said that, after a few weeks of using mtgo, I find it to be an enjoyable experience and the application ends up being good enough. If you are a new player who likes magic, don't be scared off by the client. It has been very playable and enjoyable for me (after initial pain).