Rob’s Collectibles – Magic Cards
July 2nd, 2009 by Rob
There are only two Magic: The Gathering cards that remain in my “collection.” My playing career spanned from 1994 through 1995, (early high school days) and when I was done there was a great sell-off. A kind of Armageddon + Wrath of God, if you will.
My favorite Magic story involves two guys in my high school playing for ante, which isn’t done anymore, and one guy loosing a rare card and getting so pissed about it that the school administrators found out we were spending a bunch of time playing and made us stop.
The Nightmare was spared because it was my favorite card. It’s not necessarily the card that I thought was the coolest, but just my personal favorite to throw down during the middle of a game that usually meant the beginning of the end.
War Elephant found its way into a very strange white deck that I had, and was part of a trade that I made at a local fantasy / comic shop. I also didn’t know anyone else who had one and it’s part of Arabian Nights, the very first Magic expansion set.
The artwork on both of these cards is great – especially considering that they were early cards. The quality of the illustrations was spotty at the beginning.
Why Magic, and why now? The recent release of Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers on XBox Live Arcade has me buzzing with nostalgia for these cards, so I dug them out of a box that contained my non-baseball sports cards. I thought I had more than these two left, but I guess not.
The XBLA game is perfect for me right now, because I’ll never go back to playing with the actual cards again, and it takes all of the hassle out of what’s now a casual interest. The art on some of my old favorites has changed, and some of them are missing completely, but for the $10 that the games costs you’d never be able to have as much fun with a paper deck unless you printed one with artwork from a Magic wiki.
If you play(ed) Magic or are into the newest digital version, let me know. I’d love to hear some stories.
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Im loving this as well. Have you tried the challenges yet? Im on #6 and boy is it tough. We will have to duel soon. Enjoy!
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:51 pm
I love trading cards. I’ve collected various sets, but never actually played them. I just love looking and them and organizing them. I really like the two cards you have left!
July 6th, 2009 at 10:54 am
I’ve played on and off again since about the same time. Started around maybe half a year before they cut revised and released 4th edition.
I started up again this year after a friend got interested.. and now we’re dragging others into the game with us.
My first early favorite combo was a classic to-your-face move with a mana flare and a fireball. Thankfully, you can create some much more interest combinations now with tens of thousands of cards out there.
Yeah, the artwork now is a lot more professional looking. My gaming friends at the time always looked for stuff by Mark Poole.. especially his stuff in Ice Age.
I thought about getting the xbox game (and did get the trial).. but it just seems…. uh.. obsessive? to play the online game AND the physical card game. If I knew for sure they won’t just be releasing expansion sets on the 360 I might go for it.
Great Article btw!
PS: Prodigical Sorcerer > Nightmare!
July 6th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
The Mana Flare + Fireball or Disintegrate (to take someone’s favorite creature completely out of the game) was pretty killer.
For black decks, having some Mox Jets, Black Lotuses, and Dark Rituals could get you off to game-crippling head start.
Yes, I did play with people who had Black Lotuses in their decks. Like I said on the show, these guys were in early. Those things are over $1,000 now, and several thousand for Alpha and Beta editions. Crazytown!
July 18th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Heh, just got back from vacation earlier this week, and was catching up on shows. I loved all the Magic talk!
I started playing towards the end of Revised (3rd ed.), not to far from when 4th was starting. I know Chronicles had just been published, and Fallen Empires was out too. I always had a soft spot for Thallids.
I played off and on, up until Torment, I think. The best, though, was when they were doing the beta for the online game. They let you play, and gave you a set amount of cash to spend in the game every day FOR FREE. I played the hell out of it then. If they had made that game a flat monthly fee instead of the same price as the cards, I’d still be playing it. Alas…
It was playing that game that I got really good at Magic, too. Having the rules strictly enforced made me much more aware at how the game worked, and the little things you could do to make a big effect. That really opened up the game for me, because that stuff really matters. Especially in Limited formats, which I almost always preferred. I really hated Normal deck-building–it seemed it only mattered if you read the latest great thing on the internet and spent enough for that deck. Building a good deck in a Sealed Deck or Booster Draft made you rely on your own skills much more, and was much more satisfying for me.
I’m starting to ramble here, but I do want to mention my favorite card: Overrun. GGG3, Sorcery; every one of your creatures gets +3/+3 and trample until the end of turn. In a Limited format where creature combat mattered so much more, that card KILLED. It was like game over right there. I loved it.
Listening to the episode, I was trying to list the CCGs I’ve played. Legend of the 5 Rings (that one was great), UFS, Star Wars, Marvel Trading Card Game (though only on the DS), Culdcept (video game), Battletech…but I never visited any of them as much as Magic. I am downloading the demo now.
July 19th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
You’ll be happy to hear that Overrun is in the all-green deck!
Get it and join us, we’ve got three right now (if not more) and it doesn’t take too long to unlock a few extra cards in your favorite deck.