I started playing when 8th Edition and Mirrodin were in Standard, so my first tastes of reading stories about the card game were from the Mirrodin books. My favorites, however, were the Time Spiral novels. I have wondered for a long time what happened to Karn, and I think we will find out when the Scars of Mirrodin block is complete. My interest in the stories behind the card game has continued, and the change from three block novels per year to one has increased the quality and clarity of the stories.
I still feel like I missed a good, long story by not playing the game during the Weatherlight saga, which, to me, begins with Weatherlight and ends with Apocalypse. That's 13 sets of flavor!
I'd love to see Wizards of the Coast create a lengthy, good story that spans several sets. Eldrazi, Phyrexians, and the machinations of Nicol Bolas creating a two or three block story arc would be sublime.
For years I didn't even want to bother with reading the books. Then my play group started annoying me becasue they were always talking about the story, and I had no idea what they were talking about. I started collecting the books on evay one at a time and reading them. I have completed all of the main story up until the end of the invasion when Karn becomes a Planeswalker.
Even so I still like reading these articles. It refreshes my memory.
This brings me to another point. I am currently down sizing at home and need to get rid of the books I read. I am willing to ship them to anyone in the U.S. I only ask you pay the shipping. I have all the books from the Thran to Apocalypse, and a few of the non cycle books that aren't part of the major story as well.
If interested, contact me at Lythand AT Earthlink DOT net
Bah....Akers missing 2 field goals makes me angry....Andy Reid not going for it on 4th and 1 in the 4th quarter makes me angry....But hey there is next year
We have played spades....I just find hearts more rewarding. My family finds it better because then I dont critique their game play. Also there is something rewarding about holding the Queen of Spade and dropping it on someone.
Last night I pulled off this amazing bluff in Hearts.
I pass the Kspades and 2 clubs (no clubs after this) to my left...The person passes me the Queen of Spades and 2 low hearts. My hand is a lot of diamonds, 4 hearts (2,5,7,J), (Q spade and 2 Spade). Im thinking to myself that Im screwed and im eating the queen.
The clubs start....I go into a think tank. I could throw a high diamond but that doesnt really accomplish anything...Cant throw the queen or hearts...So I figure I throw the 2 of spades and show that I want to run it. everyone at this table sees it and start looking at each other nervously.
Second trick person leads spades, next chair breaks hearts, I slam down the queen, the person I passed the queen to slams the king down and says to the table, "you can thank me now". I end up getting 0 points that hand...Oh and that person that took the queen was my wife. She is now withholding for "lying" to her.
Thanks all for the comments, I'm glad you're enjoying this series. I'll have to touch on the Keld when I finally go into the Invasion, but a more in-depth look will probably come at a later time. After I get to and finish Mirrodin lore, I plan on revisiting several other aspects of lore, much like in my Vampire article.
I agree with Paul. I like my games with a little luck (Ameritrash games)....Skill and deal making is a huge part of Catan. Theres a reason catan was game of the year and decade for a reason.
The games you mentioned are Euro's...while they can be fun at first, they can get tedious....I like games where you have to use both your head and gut to win.
There's just waaaaaaaaay, way to much luck in Catan for it to be a good game.
First, any game involving dice is going to involve a healthy amount of luck. But Catan takes this to the extreme by connecting resources with die rolls.
Second, the "chance" cards are waaaaaaaaay, way too swingy. Half of them are akin to powered up Magic Rares, i.e. Wrath of God, and a bunch of them do absolutely nothing, i.e. Healing Salve. Drawing one and not the other goes a long way to having the edge in the game.
Third, related to point #2, is that like half the cards punish the player in the lead, thus the game is always close. Unless the die rolls are horribly skewed in your favor, which does happen for time to time, no one can ever get more than 1-3 points ahead due to the nature of the cards, and that people will automatically target you with Robber.
Not to say that you can't learn anything from Catan that you can transfer to Magic, but I think Catan is a horribly unbalanced game that has so much potential to be a rich, strategic game akin to C&C, Starcraft, Warcraft, etc.
As a lore guru I can't believe you left out tawnos, and urza's son, and his Wife Kayl bin-Kroog...lol just kidding. I think these articles are entirely fantastic for what they are. They give players an overview of the story which is very concisely written and hits all the major points. If people want all the details they can read the books. So I'm really looking forward to the next one. Hopefully you dedicate one whole article to the bloodlines of keld though. the With0King Kreig was always a favorite of mine.
I'm sorry my esteemed friend but you are wrong. Both are inferior versions of Bridge. They are however both equally fun and strategic card games imho. Spades is more about the partners aspect of Bridge and Hearts is more about the math.
i know you mentioned hearts, but really thats just an inferioir spades. back around oddysee block i started playing spades heavily. and this deffanatly helped my magic game. although it helps paper far more then modo. however when your counting up 3 other players cards from the first play, you can use that to count magic decks. sure you need to know the opponents list pretty well for you to count their deck, but im tournys thats not so hard as long as their not rouge. yea the color not the d and d class.
Lol, I wish I was then I"d be just as cool. I've always been involved in media, communications, broadcasting and yes, writing too. So I can appreciate this kinda stuff, good and bad, that much more. Even if I was involved with "The Eh Team" my personal integrity would stop me from falsifying information to the audience.
I love Dominion and Catan, though at first I tried applying Magic theory to Dominion and just failed utterly because the game dynamics are very different. With Catan, not sure how flexible it is in terms of switching game plans once you've placed your initial settlements. Of course you can switch strategies between games, but the game is very path dependent in that once your initial settlements are down, you'd be a fool to try for Cities/Armies strategy when you don't have access to ore, or the Longest Road strategy if you're being blocked off at every corner. Yes, you can try and trade for those key resources but then you're clearly not playing to your comparative advantage.
hmm. why is sun titan listed like 6 times?
if rath is not phyrexia, where is phyrexia? is there seperate plane, i dont think so
Cosmic Encounters is a game that changes your strategy pretty quickly. Maybe helps with Commander? Make some allies or get ganked.
I started playing when 8th Edition and Mirrodin were in Standard, so my first tastes of reading stories about the card game were from the Mirrodin books. My favorites, however, were the Time Spiral novels. I have wondered for a long time what happened to Karn, and I think we will find out when the Scars of Mirrodin block is complete. My interest in the stories behind the card game has continued, and the change from three block novels per year to one has increased the quality and clarity of the stories.
I still feel like I missed a good, long story by not playing the game during the Weatherlight saga, which, to me, begins with Weatherlight and ends with Apocalypse. That's 13 sets of flavor!
I'd love to see Wizards of the Coast create a lengthy, good story that spans several sets. Eldrazi, Phyrexians, and the machinations of Nicol Bolas creating a two or three block story arc would be sublime.
I use Magic strategy when playing Ascension: Chronicals of the Godslayer. After all it was made by Magic Pro Tour Players.
http://puremtgo.com/articles/semi-pro-videos-101-basic-recording-encodin...
Searching the article library under Westane did the trick.
That is quite generous. Sadly I haven't the room OR the shipping lol.
Westane, can you provide a link to the article you did about doing videos and editing them? I lost it when I had to do a format/re-install
For years I didn't even want to bother with reading the books. Then my play group started annoying me becasue they were always talking about the story, and I had no idea what they were talking about. I started collecting the books on evay one at a time and reading them. I have completed all of the main story up until the end of the invasion when Karn becomes a Planeswalker.
Even so I still like reading these articles. It refreshes my memory.
This brings me to another point. I am currently down sizing at home and need to get rid of the books I read. I am willing to ship them to anyone in the U.S. I only ask you pay the shipping. I have all the books from the Thran to Apocalypse, and a few of the non cycle books that aren't part of the major story as well.
If interested, contact me at Lythand AT Earthlink DOT net
Bah....Akers missing 2 field goals makes me angry....Andy Reid not going for it on 4th and 1 in the 4th quarter makes me angry....But hey there is next year
We have played spades....I just find hearts more rewarding. My family finds it better because then I dont critique their game play. Also there is something rewarding about holding the Queen of Spade and dropping it on someone.
Last night I pulled off this amazing bluff in Hearts.
I pass the Kspades and 2 clubs (no clubs after this) to my left...The person passes me the Queen of Spades and 2 low hearts. My hand is a lot of diamonds, 4 hearts (2,5,7,J), (Q spade and 2 Spade). Im thinking to myself that Im screwed and im eating the queen.
The clubs start....I go into a think tank. I could throw a high diamond but that doesnt really accomplish anything...Cant throw the queen or hearts...So I figure I throw the 2 of spades and show that I want to run it. everyone at this table sees it and start looking at each other nervously.
Second trick person leads spades, next chair breaks hearts, I slam down the queen, the person I passed the queen to slams the king down and says to the table, "you can thank me now". I end up getting 0 points that hand...Oh and that person that took the queen was my wife. She is now withholding for "lying" to her.
Greatest Bluff ever !:-P
Thanks all for the comments, I'm glad you're enjoying this series. I'll have to touch on the Keld when I finally go into the Invasion, but a more in-depth look will probably come at a later time. After I get to and finish Mirrodin lore, I plan on revisiting several other aspects of lore, much like in my Vampire article.
I agree with Paul. I like my games with a little luck (Ameritrash games)....Skill and deal making is a huge part of Catan. Theres a reason catan was game of the year and decade for a reason.
The games you mentioned are Euro's...while they can be fun at first, they can get tedious....I like games where you have to use both your head and gut to win.
Catan has luck yes but it is mainly a political game. If you play your opponents correctly you should win no matter your start.
There's just waaaaaaaaay, way to much luck in Catan for it to be a good game.
First, any game involving dice is going to involve a healthy amount of luck. But Catan takes this to the extreme by connecting resources with die rolls.
Second, the "chance" cards are waaaaaaaaay, way too swingy. Half of them are akin to powered up Magic Rares, i.e. Wrath of God, and a bunch of them do absolutely nothing, i.e. Healing Salve. Drawing one and not the other goes a long way to having the edge in the game.
Third, related to point #2, is that like half the cards punish the player in the lead, thus the game is always close. Unless the die rolls are horribly skewed in your favor, which does happen for time to time, no one can ever get more than 1-3 points ahead due to the nature of the cards, and that people will automatically target you with Robber.
Not to say that you can't learn anything from Catan that you can transfer to Magic, but I think Catan is a horribly unbalanced game that has so much potential to be a rich, strategic game akin to C&C, Starcraft, Warcraft, etc.
How bout them packers?
Welcome back!
As a lore guru I can't believe you left out tawnos, and urza's son, and his Wife Kayl bin-Kroog...lol just kidding. I think these articles are entirely fantastic for what they are. They give players an overview of the story which is very concisely written and hits all the major points. If people want all the details they can read the books. So I'm really looking forward to the next one. Hopefully you dedicate one whole article to the bloodlines of keld though. the With0King Kreig was always a favorite of mine.
But anyone with common sense also knows this is not always true.
I'm sorry my esteemed friend but you are wrong. Both are inferior versions of Bridge. They are however both equally fun and strategic card games imho. Spades is more about the partners aspect of Bridge and Hearts is more about the math.
i know you mentioned hearts, but really thats just an inferioir spades. back around oddysee block i started playing spades heavily. and this deffanatly helped my magic game. although it helps paper far more then modo. however when your counting up 3 other players cards from the first play, you can use that to count magic decks. sure you need to know the opponents list pretty well for you to count their deck, but im tournys thats not so hard as long as their not rouge. yea the color not the d and d class.
True, but they also say, the customer is always right.
Lol, I wish I was then I"d be just as cool. I've always been involved in media, communications, broadcasting and yes, writing too. So I can appreciate this kinda stuff, good and bad, that much more. Even if I was involved with "The Eh Team" my personal integrity would stop me from falsifying information to the audience.
Great stuff mate, I definitely enjoyed reading it. I don't know what those lore gurus have to say, but to me this was an excellent read.
Thanks!
LE
I love Dominion and Catan, though at first I tried applying Magic theory to Dominion and just failed utterly because the game dynamics are very different. With Catan, not sure how flexible it is in terms of switching game plans once you've placed your initial settlements. Of course you can switch strategies between games, but the game is very path dependent in that once your initial settlements are down, you'd be a fool to try for Cities/Armies strategy when you don't have access to ore, or the Longest Road strategy if you're being blocked off at every corner. Yes, you can try and trade for those key resources but then you're clearly not playing to your comparative advantage.