I went ahead and spent some money on it. For $2.55 I got a complete 4X set of Legions commons by winning an eBay auction – 220 cards in all. I also spent another $5.29 for a booster and two tickets. I wanted to see what buying a booster is like, and spending $3.29 for 15 cards will hold me for awhile. I then traded the two tickets for about 40 lands, 8 uncommons, and probably a dozen other commons.
Anyway, I’ve spent less than $8 and I have 380 cards and I won my first two games with a new blue deck I built. Those morph cards are cool.
Now I just have to restrain myself, because I had a lot of fun. Oh, and I bid on another couple of eBay auctions that end later on Sunday. The fever’s got me!
It’s true! I won another eBay bid – this time a 4X 7th edition commons set, 440 cards, for $6.01. Now my collection will be over 800 cards. It’s growing like an oil spill.
My in-game name is the imaginative markasher. You can do that /add buddy thing and add me to your friends list if you like.
Dumb question: Since I assume these are actual, physical cards you’re purchasing, how does the game know what you have? Or are you buying “virtual” cards? I know nothing about the game, but it sounds…I dunno, wierd.
They’re virtual cards, not physical. The chief complaint of the players is that the cards are overpriced because the virtual cards and physical cards cost the same. If you get a complete set of virtual cards, say all the Scourge edition cards, Wizards of the Coast will redeem your virtual cards for real ones if you want.
Anyway, I think they’re overpriced too, which is why I’m bargain-hunting on eBay. I have enough now to build decent decks for play against average players, I think. I shouldn’t have to spend too much more, though I can see the lure of buying boosters, etc.
I can see the good and bad of Ebay. Its a cheap way to get cards but you don’t know what the quality is. Your bidding on several hundred cards but are they potentially all crap, like 50 1/1 skeletons in the bunch or something. If there are some quality cards then good for you.
What I’m buying are complete sets of commons, 4 of each common. I got 4 each of all the Legion commons and should be getting 4 each of all the 7th edition commons. Yeah, I know a lot of these are cards that players may never use, but it gives me cards to build decks with for a couple of bucks. I’m mostly building creature decks anyway right now since they’re the easiest to play. So I don’t mind 1/1s, 2/1s, 1/2s, etc. (There are also 4X sets of uncommons on sale at eBay for $4-5 range. They’re usually about 4 each of maybe 5 uncommons. The sellers usually group them by theme – zombies, goblins, soldiers, etc.)
I don’t see that I have much choice. Buying boosters at $3.29 a pop is madness. To build a collection that way would cost me hundreds of dollars.
The way I look at it is that I’ll never compete with the really good players who know how to build great decks and are willing to spend a lot on cards. If I can learn how to build decent decks with what I can afford, however, I can maybe win some matches in sealed deck, etc., where it’s not my feeble card collection against a really good collection. Anyway, if I get to this point I’ll then be building my collection through boosters purchased for entry into tournaments, which is still a bit expensive, but I’d be getting more bang for my buck.
This is my biggest problem with CCGs and one reason I’m happy to leave them behind. I love deck building and organizing collections. I love the element of chance. I love the game mechanics for some of the better CCGs: my favorites were Vampire nee Jyhad and Decipher’s Star Wars (before all the lame expansions diluted it).
But I refuse to participate in something where the person who spends the most money has an advantage. It’s absolute folly, particularly in a directly competitive environment. Fuck that. That would be like playing an online game, say Battlefield 1942, where the price of your video card determines how much damage you do.
Mark has the right idea. Control your spending, keep it casual, and play other like-minded players.
Yes it seems like a lot to pay for a “virtual” card, but I have a real hard time poking holes in WOTC’s reasoning for keeping total price parity. Simply put, they want a virtual card to be worth exactly what a real one is, so they’re cross-tradable. Ie… you can tell your buddy “I’ll give you this real rare card for this other rare MTGO card” and not have to do some kind of “but it’s only virtual” conversion factor.
Plus the trade-in complete sets thing.
You know, I’ve never ever bought a single thing off ebay, but Mark’s post might make me go do it. It’s a cheap way to get a load of commons and uncommons.
just wondering though… what’s to stop an ebay trader from just not giving you the cards?
I love the game mechanics for some of the better CCGs: my favorites were Vampire nee Jyhad and Decipher’s Star Wars (before all the lame expansions diluted it).
I was REAL good at Star Wars when it was new (I stopped all CCGs after the first expansion). For some reason, in my circle of friends and the people at my local card shop, I was the one who could “see” all the combos in that game. I dabbled in Vampire, and what I liked about that, if I’m remembering correctly, was that it was really meant to be not just a 1 on 1 game, but a group game. I loved playing 4 or 5 person games. I wasn’t really good, but I was good enough not to be the first or second guy to drop out each game, and that was fun enough for me.
Anyway, my favorite thing about MTGO so far, besides the fact that there’s no greasy geeks busting out the rules book to argue with me, is that it’s such a collection of players in one spot that it’s very easy to find tournaments. Drafts and leagues where it’s more about skill and luck of the draw than spending money.
In real life, I had to search far and wide for a draft tournament or something. Mostly it was just matching up with some guy who would break out fourteen longboxes of cards, and play with his extra special deck that was worth so much money he insisted on using card protectors.
just wondering though… what’s to stop an ebay trader from just not giving you the cards?
Nothing. But you can have the same worry about any eBay trade. You bid on something. You win. You send money and hope the guy on the other end is honest.
Anyway, my favorite thing about MTGO so far, besides the fact that there’s no greasy geeks busting out the rules book to argue with me, is that it’s such a collection of players in one spot that it’s very easy to find tournaments. Drafts and leagues where it’s more about skill and luck of the draw than spending money.
Yeah, I think this will be the long-term draw. There seems to be plenty of players on at any time so you can always find a game, and there seems to be some kind of tournament or event starting almost every hour.
The game’s also popular enough that it will keep being refreshed with new cards.
I think Mark is trying to do something that will be very hard to maintain in the long run. Getting all the commons for a few bucks is one thing, but there will be a constant temptation to get “just that particular rare card” because it’s cool/efficient/fun or whatever. My guess is that before you know it, you will have spent more money than you planned for.
Instead of doing it that way, go with a way more level playing field. One where varying degrees of poverty is not an issue. In short, play leagues.
For $17 you get to play how much you like in one month, against people that have the same amount of cards that you do. After that month you get to keep the cards. The true cost will increase to $26 the first league, but subsequent sales of your cards from the previous league and the occasional prize booster pack will keep yor monthly payment to about $15-17. Even lower if you’re skilled and lucky enough to win a lot.
To me that’s affordable AND avoids the problem where the size of your wallet decides who wins.
Instead of doing it that way, go with a way more level playing field. One where varying degrees of poverty is not an issue. In short, play leagues.
This is what I’m likely to do eventually. Right now, I need to learn how to build decks and learn about the cards that are out there. I need a pool of cards to do this. That $17 a month you referred to will get 500-1000 cards to fool around with.
I do see what you’re talking about, though. Everytime I play and some new and powerful cards get played against me, I want them. :)
Okay, I haven’t been following Magic for several years, but it’s my impression that WotC is much better about trying to level the playing field in that most cards are still worthwhile putting into a deck regardless of rarity. For instance, rare cards tend to be quirkier and allow for weirder combinations, but they aren’t necessarily better.
I would contrast this with a game like the Lord of the Rings CCG, where utility/power is commensurate with rarity. Sure, that might drive sales in the short term, but people don’t like to lose, and I expect it would drive away a greater number of casual players who are hesitant to continue investing in a game which they seem to continually lose to wealthier players.
To respond to Tom’s gripe, yes, there is a certain threshold that you need to reach in order to become competitive, but I suspect that Magic is not particularly biased towards acquiring larger numbers of rare/expensive cards. The thing that turned me off to the game was the continual influx of new cards and retirement of old cards. In short, it felt like too much work to stay on top of things. It would be like a MMOG changing its rules every other month.
Pokemon started out pretty well balanced for a kids’ CCG - you could buy a Theme Deck and have a chance of winning right off the bat, then hunt for your favourite characters simply because it was Pikachu or Charizard or whoever. They got the obsessives, the fans and the people who just liked playing card games in one pretty good punch - and with a very simple ruleset. It probably stuffed it up in short order, but I remember it working well originally.
I am not reading anymore in this thread as this sounds like fun and addictive. I like your strategy as well Mark and I hope you can keep to it. I own about 2000 dollars worth of Shadowfist cards I have collected over 7 years so I know about the allure of CCG’s
Has anyone played this? Would it be a good free initiator to someone who hates compulsive collecting and the sad sacks who indulge in it, but would like to try the basic gameplay?
The Microprose version of Magic was one of the better ones out there, and the last project Sid was working on before leaving the company. The adventure mode is great and you get a nice mix of the old sets of cards. If you grab this, make sure you get the expansions.
The one big downside is that the AI at times is woefully lacking. It is great at being able to handle the basics of summon big critter/attack when beneficial/etc., but was easily suckered into decks that took a bit of finesse (hard pressed to recall an example, but I’m thinking cards like Stasis, Winter Orb, and even Wild Growth would confuse it and it would hurt itself on mana burn).
That said, I would take 100 of these over any one of the dreadful Acclaim(?) RTS version of Magic:the Gathering, which I was suckered into buying long LONG ago.
I love Microprose’s version. The little overland map in the adventure portion (Shandalar) was agonizing to navigate, but it was great fun overall. You collected cards from monsters you killed and your deck scaled upwards in power accordingly. The duel’s against multiple pre-made deck opponents are still great fun. I will load it up, play for a week or so and get my fix. I have staved off taking the MtGO dive once already by doing this.
