The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Magic Online - Sign ups be closed! League starts 11/2!
ChaosHat
Hop, hop, hop, HA!Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
Hop, hop, hop, HA!Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
So, many of you are probably familiar with Magic: The Gathering. Did you also know there's also an online client? Magic Online brings all the awesome fun of Magic to the computer, so you can play in your underwear at midnight while watching The Tonight Show and no one will be the wiser! The game has cards from Invasions block to the current latest set (Alara Reborn) so it's fully compatible with just about every format except vintage/classic.
Announcements!
10/19 - Sign ups for league season 3. (Zendikar sealed only at the moment)9/26 - Full Zendikar Spoiler!
8/8 - Parings and spreadsheets announcement.
7/28 - Direct sign up link. Go read the announcement below still.
7/24 - Sign ups post for season 2. Please read the whole thing.
7/17 - Season 2 format discussion/draft sign ups.
7/16 - Season 2 timeline announced.
7/13 - Discussion starter on League Season 1 ending/League Season 2 format. Go weigh in.
Zendikar!
Zendikar (pre)release data to come soon. Full spoiler here (and linked like three other places on this page for you blind motherfuckers). Cool things from Zendikar include traps, landfall, kicker, allies, quests and uh...vampires?
Magic 2010!
Magic 2010 has finally come to the internets and is available for prerelease play all weekend!
F.A.Q.
Q: Where can I procure this game?
A: Right here, at the official Wizards site.
Q: What does the game look like? Warning, you'll need the world's best processor and graphics card to run this. (Lie)
A: Here are some screenshots (spoilered).
Q: What is there to do in the game?
A: More like what ISN'T there to do in the game! The game provides access to tournaments in standard, extended, mtgo classic, vanguard, pauper, singleton, prismatic, block constructed, limited (booster drafts, sealed deck) as well as trading, chat, and just casual play of all kinds around the clock. No matter what aspect of Magic you liked the most, there's something here for you. Unless you liked the feeling of cardboard in your hands the most, to which I say get with the times old man.
Q: Okay, sounds fun! Is it hard to learn? I find learning a bajillion cards and all these rules COMPLICATED!
A: It's really not as bad as it seems. 90% of the rules are pretty easy to understand, and all the cards have little reminder text to tell you what the abilities do. Here is a good starting point. If you're struggling, we Penny Arcadians would be happy to lend a hand either in game or in this thread. We're also pretty friendly and helpful, and Magic Online has an awesome free demo, so feel free to jump in and dick around.
Q: How much is this shit going to cost me?
A: There is a free demo, and while new accounts cost ten dollars, you get a free voucher for ten dollars in cards, so the account is effectively cheap as free! If you want to know the price of the cards, check the spoiler.
A: I recommend CardHoarder as they are consistently pretty cheap. MTGO Traders is also very very nice.
Q: How could anyone pay that much for fake cards?
A: I hate you so much.
Q: I hate you too. Where can I find the REAL Magic thread.
A: Here is the post in Critical Failures, which deals with your archaic paper cards. Now get out of here before you start telling us "Well in my day we had to walk five miles uphill both ways to a hobby shop to play magic, and white mana symbols had different icons."
Q: Is there somewhere I can learn all about the online game?
A: Here is the official Wizards of the Coast (WotC) FAQ. You can try that.
Q: I'm ready for some advanced tactics! What do you have for that?
A: StarCityGames has long been a repository of competitive magic info although they have gone the vile way of subscriptions. Channel Fireball is a pretty good site too.
Q: I just got this! Where the hell do I get lands?
A: You get a bunch of lands for free for signing up. Check out your collection and open the pack.
Q: I want free things, I LOVE free things. Is there someone or some...bot-y that could give me some free cards?
A: That was a horrible pun. You can search the classifieds for "free" and find some bots who will give you free shit. 'Marlon's Freebot', 'Carbot Free Cards' and 'MTGOTradersFreebot' will all give you old common cards for free. This includes wads of land. Some of this was plagiarized from Jam Warrior.
Q: Is there somewhere I can hang out to play some casual matches and just all around hang out?
A: We've claimed the Anything Goes room as our own, so try there!
Q: How do I link cards in the chat windows?
A: Just put the card name in curly brackets. Like this. {Terror} Or like this {Elspeth, Knight-Errant}
Q: This profanity filter is wonky and stays on when I turn it off! What can be done about this?
A: We are coming up with PA approved replacement swears. Right now, Shit = Sith, Fuck = Frak. If people have other sci fi IP references we could use for other profanity, I am all ears.
Q: What the hell is this new planeswalker card? NONE OF THESE NUMBERS MAKE SENSE!
A: Settle down, it's actually pretty easy. Check this nifty little guide by Wizards.
A: Right here, at the official Wizards site.
Q: What does the game look like? Warning, you'll need the world's best processor and graphics card to run this. (Lie)
A: Here are some screenshots (spoilered).
A: More like what ISN'T there to do in the game! The game provides access to tournaments in standard, extended, mtgo classic, vanguard, pauper, singleton, prismatic, block constructed, limited (booster drafts, sealed deck) as well as trading, chat, and just casual play of all kinds around the clock. No matter what aspect of Magic you liked the most, there's something here for you. Unless you liked the feeling of cardboard in your hands the most, to which I say get with the times old man.
Q: Okay, sounds fun! Is it hard to learn? I find learning a bajillion cards and all these rules COMPLICATED!
A: It's really not as bad as it seems. 90% of the rules are pretty easy to understand, and all the cards have little reminder text to tell you what the abilities do. Here is a good starting point. If you're struggling, we Penny Arcadians would be happy to lend a hand either in game or in this thread. We're also pretty friendly and helpful, and Magic Online has an awesome free demo, so feel free to jump in and dick around.
Q: How much is this shit going to cost me?
A: There is a free demo, and while new accounts cost ten dollars, you get a free voucher for ten dollars in cards, so the account is effectively cheap as free! If you want to know the price of the cards, check the spoiler.
Preconstructed Starter Deck: 12.29 (41 card deck, comes with 15 card booster)
Tournament Pack: 9.99 (Only for older sets apparently, 75 cards, 20 something are lands)
Booster: 3.99 (15 random cards, 1 rare, some uncommons, some commons)
Q: Where are good places to buy singles?Tournament Pack: 9.99 (Only for older sets apparently, 75 cards, 20 something are lands)
Booster: 3.99 (15 random cards, 1 rare, some uncommons, some commons)
A: I recommend CardHoarder as they are consistently pretty cheap. MTGO Traders is also very very nice.
Q: How could anyone pay that much for fake cards?
A: I hate you so much.
Q: I hate you too. Where can I find the REAL Magic thread.
A: Here is the post in Critical Failures, which deals with your archaic paper cards. Now get out of here before you start telling us "Well in my day we had to walk five miles uphill both ways to a hobby shop to play magic, and white mana symbols had different icons."
Q: Is there somewhere I can learn all about the online game?
A: Here is the official Wizards of the Coast (WotC) FAQ. You can try that.
Q: I'm ready for some advanced tactics! What do you have for that?
A: StarCityGames has long been a repository of competitive magic info although they have gone the vile way of subscriptions. Channel Fireball is a pretty good site too.
Q: I just got this! Where the hell do I get lands?
A: You get a bunch of lands for free for signing up. Check out your collection and open the pack.
Q: I want free things, I LOVE free things. Is there someone or some...bot-y that could give me some free cards?
A: That was a horrible pun. You can search the classifieds for "free" and find some bots who will give you free shit. 'Marlon's Freebot', 'Carbot Free Cards' and 'MTGOTradersFreebot' will all give you old common cards for free. This includes wads of land. Some of this was plagiarized from Jam Warrior.
Q: Is there somewhere I can hang out to play some casual matches and just all around hang out?
A: We've claimed the Anything Goes room as our own, so try there!
Q: How do I link cards in the chat windows?
A: Just put the card name in curly brackets. Like this. {Terror} Or like this {Elspeth, Knight-Errant}
Q: This profanity filter is wonky and stays on when I turn it off! What can be done about this?
A: We are coming up with PA approved replacement swears. Right now, Shit = Sith, Fuck = Frak. If people have other sci fi IP references we could use for other profanity, I am all ears.
Q: What the hell is this new planeswalker card? NONE OF THESE NUMBERS MAKE SENSE!
A: Settle down, it's actually pretty easy. Check this nifty little guide by Wizards.
ChaosHat on
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We're forming a Penny Arcadian League that emphasizes cheapness (of cards, not of tactics).
League F.A.Q.
General Questions
A: League 3.0 is going for consistency, not depth or breadth of play. This means that we are being selective with our recruitment process! Proposed formats for the next version of the league are: Zendikar block sealed, Type 2, block constructed, pauper and fantasy standard.
Q: Is there a prize?
A: If you win, you get this sweet prize:
A: Well, in an itemized list form:
A: Iolo has contributed a fantastic guide below:
Q: So, what cards do I need for this?
A: This is a sealed deck league. We will be using the Shards of Alara block for this, and to start your deck you will use two boosters of each Shards of Alara, Conflux and Alara Reborn. You may not add cards from other sets, or cards you didn't get from the six boosters you just opened. Scout's honor.
Q: How the hell am I supposed to keep track of these from my existing collection?
A: You could make a second account to keep it all sorted out, but Duo has a nice guide if you don't want to do that. Excel/google spreadsheets are nice, but not so good for initial deckbuilding.
First of all, you'll need to go get Magic Workstation (hereafter refered to as MWS) and install it. You can download it here.
Then you'll need to download the list of cards for Magic, which you can get here. You'll want the MTG Card Database, though which specific download you use doesn't really matter.
Once you open up MWS you'll be treated to a nice "give me money" window, which is nice considering that this thing hasn't been updated since the year two thousand five. But I digress.
You should start out in Library mode, which is what we want. Go File -> New Library -> Personal Library.
This will start a new library, which is what we'll actually be using to keep track of all these cards. Name it whatever you'd like. I named mine "PA Tourny"
If you take a look in the main screen now, you'll see the top part is the master library, and contains all the magic cards, ever. The window right below that is the new library you just created.
We're almost ready to open up your packs, and document all the cards you just got, but first I should mention the filters. Right above the master window you'll see lots of little icons. We want the one to the right of the magnifying glass, which is the "Complex Card Filter." Hit that and up at the top left select "None" then just select Shards of Alara from the list below and hit OK.
This will make it a lot easier to find the cards as you're going. So go ahead and open up that first pack. For each card, you can use the small text field next to the green down arrow, which is a very basic card find feature, but is just perfect for our needs. Type in the name of your first card, and it'll select that card in the list below. You'll see a black arrow next to the selected card. Hit the green down arrow once to add that card to your library.
Rinse and repeat for the rest of the pack.
When you get to your Conflux cards, you'll want to change the filter. To do that, you'll need to reset the filter first, which you do with the button to the right of the save button in the master window. Then go back into the complex card filter and just select Conflux and hit ok.
Before you finish up with the last pack, make sure that one of each basic land is in your personal library. Makes deck making in MWS easier later on.
Once you've got all the cards in your personal library, you can go File -> Open Libraries. Select the file we made a little while ago. This will put your list of cards (with quantities) into the bottom pane. Now go view -> Deck Edit and then switch back to Library mode. I really recommend using the Library mode in this case for deck building because it is easier to keep track of quantities of cards you have. You can also change the quantities as you're adding them by clicking in the quantities box.
I must say, MWS really wasn't built for this sort of thing, but neither was MTGO.
Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions or anything.
A: Every week after the first, you will add one booster pack to your deck, to be determined. There is no trading in season 2.
Q: Are there any deck restrictions?
A: You are building a 40 card deck (you can put in more, 40 is just the minimum) and you may use basic lands from other sets, but that is all.
Constructed
Constructed is any format in which you bring your own deck premade (as opposed to limited formats, where you build a deck out of a limited card pool). For the most popular formats, you must build at least a sixty card deck, with an optional fifteen card sideboard. Right now, the new hip thing here is Alara Block Constructed, and you should jump in on that.
A: A sideboard consists of exactly fifteen cards, that you may substitute in for other cards in between rounds of a game (not in between matches) to give your deck advantages (or remove disadvantages) against a certain player's deck. It is completely optional, but recommended.
Q: Why do you guys play Block Constructed?
A: It's mainly a thing of cost and value. Cards from Lorwyn will rotate out soon, which will drastically reduce their value come this fall, when Zendikar comes. Instead of shelling out for Lorwyn cards, we're just doing block constructed for this season, unless there's a huge audience that wants standard, extended, or constructed. Right now, block constructed is just Alara block, which has the sets Shards of Alara, Conflux and Alara Reborn.
Q: What other constructed formats should I know about?
A: There are lots, but the main ones you'll see bandied about in this thread are Block Constructed, Standard, Extended, Pauper, and occasionally Vintage.
Q: What is Standard?
A: Standard (also known as "type 2") is the most popular competitive magic format, as it is a little more stable than Block, but more interesting and dynamic than classic/extended. When playing type 2, you may use cards from the two most recent blocks and the two most recent MXX Core Sets. So right now, Type 2 is Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, Eventide, Magic 2010, Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn. When Zendikar comes out, Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor and Eventide will all rotate out and will no longer be legal for Type 2 play. When Magic 2011 comes out, it will be legal with 2010.
Q: What is Fantasy Standard?
A: Fantasy Standard is a completely made up PA only format which we play only with cards from Magic 2010, Onslaught Block, Ravnica block and the 10 rare painlands in Tenth Edition. Other than that, it follows all the rules of regular standard! We made this up because it's waaaay cheap to build and more fun than pauper.
Q: What are Extended and Vintage?
A: Extended and Classic are the bigger formats. Extended basically consists of every set from the last seven years. This would mean that out of the core sets, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth and Magic 2010 are all legal. From expert level expansions, Onslaught, Mirrodin, Kamigawa, Ravnica, Time Spiral, Lorwyn and Alara blocks are all legal. Classic is similar to extended, but differs in that EVERY set is legal. There are banned and restricted lists for these formats, so you should keep those in mind when making a deck. Restricted means you can only use one copy of a card in your deck, banned means you may not use any!
Q: Okay, what's Pauper?
A: Pauper uses all the above formats (extended, vintage, type 2, etc) but with one big caveat: you may only use commons when building a deck.
Q: Where can I get deck ideas?
A: Deckcheck.net is a good spot for most constructed formats.
Tournament Mechanics
A: We will playing a modified swiss tournament format. Right now it looks like we'll be divided into roughly two conferences of players. If you're new to swiss, basically it means that we'll play a fixed number of rounds. Every round, you'll be awarded points based on your performance, four if you win, one if you lose, two if you draw for every game. Then, the next round, you'll be paired against a player with a similar amount of points, to help make sure that the matches stay fairly competitive. I'm not sure how many rounds we'll play, it depends on the end player count, so check back friday. After the swiss rounds, the top eight from each conference will advance to single elimination playoff bracketing to fight for the right to be called League Champion, and get some sweet forum signature action.
Q: How do I actually start the match?
A: If you don't know how, Iolo has provided a nice guide.
1) Arrange to meet your opponent in the Anything Goes room (Menu --> Play --> Casual Play --> Anything Goes)
2) You or your opponent should create a "New Game" with these settings:
A: All rounds are best 2 of 3 games. Your points will be awarded PER GAME, so I need the results of individual games. Time limit is up to whatever the two players mutually agree on. If you can't agree, 30 minutes a piece is fine.
Q: How do I report my rounds?
A: First, check who your conference leader is, that is the person responsible for your nonsense. We don't need anything fancy, but something like "ChaosHat (2) > SomeoneElse (1)" would be fine, indicating that ChaosHat won 2 games, someone else won 1.
Q: When will new rounds be posted and what is the deadline?
A: All round pairings will be posted on fridays, you will have one week to complete the match. If you do not complete on time and do not request a time extension, I will not hesitate to just award both players draws (or a win/loss if one player was available and the other falls off the earth). We have a lot of players and a lot of rounds, so a couple players here and there can really gum up the works, so try to get your matches in on time. If you're not going to make the deadline by a day or two, please notify me as soon as you know.
Q: Where can I check on how I'm doing and what my next match is?
A: A nifty google spreadsheet is viewable here.
Q: How are points going to work in the new League 2.0 format?
A: Basically, players will use the above point systems for their given formats, but when totaling a composite league score (relevant only for players who are competing in multiple formats) the points will be combined based on a ratio of the sizes of the formats. For example, if sealed has 40 players, block constructed has 20 and draft has 10, points from sealed will get full points, points from block will be cut in half, and points from draft will be worth 1/4th their draft format value.
Everything Else
A: This isn't a rule but a suggestion. Wednesday nights are officially League Night! We're going to try to get as many people as possible into the Anything Goes channel for a big group where we can play our league matches and watch each other play. You're free to play your matches anytime in the week you want, but if you can wait for wednesday it should be a good time for all.
Q: What are the odds that these rules will be the same the next time I look at them?
A: I dunno, pretty good. Trying to keep things consistent, but as always I reserve the right to change these rules at a moment's notice on a whim.
Q: How long is this going to last?
A: We're shooting for around six to seven weeks.
Q: Okay, this sounds pretty fun, where do I sign up?
A: Sign up right here.
Q: I don't like these rules!/I was assigned a loss because I didn't post or get it done on time/Other whining.
A: I'm going to need a 3T form then.
Q: What's that?
A: Tough Titties Turkleton!
We don't have a list of total players right now, since we just use one big happy clan to keep track of who is on and about. This also makes your friend list very nice and tidy.
Howling Banshee causes both players to lose life so it can be used to kill an opponent instantly if they're low. It doesn't do your opponent's job for him, it lowers everyone's life total so it makes the game shorter which as an aggressive deck should generally be to your advantage. Besides that, you get a moderately big flyer out of the deal and decent sized flyers are always a nice thing to have.
If you're too low on health, Sign in Blood can always be used as an unblockable form of damage to your opponent so it's never useless.
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
Cynic, I might be down to do another. But first I'm gonna try and hope Artful is still on so I can try and wrap up season one and then sell off my goodies.
So it's just me and you, Tiger. Me and you.
EDIT: Also, since there's no trading in M10 League - The Wreckoning, does that mean I can feel free to sell things that have no bearing on my league deck? Because that's how I feel, and, you know, I'm the Vice-President of League Affairs and would really appreciate making all that moolah off those U/W duals that I don't need in B/G Token deck.
Anyone want to play their sealed M10 deck vs mine right now?
Not as good as last nights, but still.
I'll be on tomorrow around 8pm EST, big guy. Maybe tonight, but that's less likely.
I don't believe so.
Excellent, chief. I'mma prepare with my Hulkster Diet of yellow bandanas and fluorescent lights.
Good luck, Unsane!
I think it's safe to say M10 is the best Core set ever. Even though PWs are cheap bizness.
Someone do it for me.
Edit: So for some reason the game matched me up with what should have been Unsanes opponent, which means WotC saves 3 boosters as the bye went to someone with 0 points. Gogo greed.
Toast, you should move the free agents into their respective divisions and get rid of the "will play anyone" box because those fools never post.
That's part of my update.
???
SteamID: steamcommunity.com/id/lehmancm/
BnS: Draggan (Server:Poharan)
No stress, Lehman, the Season hasn't started. Folk are just enjoying the excitement of the new set/prerelease business. I figure the M10 League won't really get underway until the 10th or so.
And foolish, I'll definitely join one, I'm just busy trying to sell some cards. But see you on later.
I just want to make sure that's right, because I know I'm going to want to open up my boosters right way when I get them on Monday.
Unsane left at 3-0. The guy he would have played, who had also gone 3-0, ended up being matched with me. I kicked his ass thanks to T4 Garruk both games, and as a result, I "won" the tournament at 3-1. Of course, I got prizes for 9 points, and with no one having 12 points, Wizards saved 3 boosters in prize payouts.
Also, signed up for the IPA tourney tomorrow. More people should.
Ahhhh, weird, but I suppose it should come as no surprise.
Edit: @barrabas - Open your packs whenever. Honor system all the way.
To pauper or not to pauper, that is the question.
(seriously, what format are we going to run?
I have a spot on my back that's sooooo itchy but I can't reach it!
*puppy dog eyes*
Yes. Bearing the OP is a vocation of terrible responsibility. Godspeed friend, godspeed.
Someone go tell me if the picture of M10 product in the op breaks hscroll badly. I have a big resolution so I don't know what you peons look at.
It's done for now. I'm sure there's more to do, but if people wanna comb through and come up with FAQ questions they'd like/think need to be answered, that would be great, as well as formatting errors/inconsistencies and whatnot.
As far as the big list of players, the clan thing is way outdated, I'm just going to purge it and replace it with fresh names for the new league. Also, the actual clans are going to be separated from their conferences, since I don't want to deal with having to resort people in conferences and stuff. So you can be in a clan, and be in a different conferences. The conferences are probably going to get different names this time around to reduce confusion. Active players can now petition leaders for whichever clan they'd prefer to be in if they are not already in a clan. People to pester respectively:
The New Hampshire Darkmagics: ChaosHat (ToasterPilot on mtgo).
The Painkeep Players: metaghost (metaghost on mtgo).
Spots are first come, first served. I'ma boot some inactives when I get on later.
So... all commons are valid, Cranial Plating being the only banned card. Straight up pauper.
(sorry, I have big picture too)
I vote T2 for Pauper. I don't care about the other choices. T2 ensures the metagame is changing at a decent rate and doesn't have an uber high power level (as high as Pauper can get anyways).
Anyone who votes differently is probably a nazi.
Doesn't WotC already differentiate between Standard Pauper and Vintage? I could have sworn there were two different types to choose from.