What do you love/hate about Magic?
General forum
Posted on June 6, 2015, 10:05 a.m. by shagmonkey
Hey guys,
I am a long time Magic player but there are times where I wonder why I still play. It just seems like Magic has some inherent problems. I was thinking what the perfect TCG would be like.
What do you hate about Magic?What are things you think should be changed about Magic?What things do you love about it?
I think this could be an interesting discussion. One of my biggest gripes about Magic is variance. Mana flood, Mana screw, mulligans, etc.
ThisIsBullshit says... #3
I love the camaraderie that comes with magic. You set a deck down and even if you're way away from hom, you can immediately make a friend by playing some Magic. I also like the skills that it takes, and the sort of analytical thought that goes into making a good deck.
I don't like the players that are poor sports about winning and losing, or the ones that are blatantly creepy or make sexual comments that I don't appreciate (I'm a girl). However, I'm usually willing to look past those particular bad apples and get some great games in.
Damn that was long.
June 6, 2015 10:19 a.m.
I love variance. Variance drives smart deck production. If you want to draw more lands - run more. You raise the odds of drawing them. If you rely on a combo - run tutors. You raise the odds of drawing them.
Having the freak chance for your deck to fail or to beat someone you really shouldn't is at the heart of this game. It surprises you. It stays fresh. It can really boost your confidence.
I love the card pool, I love the variance. Im a big fan of creativity, and I enjoy the community. Most of magic I really like.
What I don't like is the falling power level of instants and sorceries in the new sets. Some have been far too good, but /most/ have been a bit lacklustre.
June 6, 2015 10:19 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #5
The span of cards. There are so many different ways to build a deck, so many different combinations, plays, strategies, etc...
June 6, 2015 10:21 a.m.
Oh I forgot to say what I actually like and dislike.
I really like all the room for creativity. I'm an artist in a few different mediums (writing, playing music, drawing/painting) and to me magic feels the same.
My biggest gripe, though, is money. The game seems to be getting more and more expensive to play, especially formats like Modern with growing popularity. This is especially frustrating when it's due to opportunists exploiting the secondary market. It feels so... filthy that people do that. It takes fun away from other people for monetary gain.
June 6, 2015 10:24 a.m.
Eliiiiiiiiiiiiiiza says... #7
I like the social aspect of multiplayer games. I've heard EDH described as more of a board game than a card game, and I love the idea of making and breaking alliances.
June 6, 2015 10:44 a.m.
I don't like the current mulligan system, I prefer something similar to Hearthstone's "mulligan", usually, while playing with friends we use a similar system.
June 6, 2015 11:29 a.m.
dantekratos says... #9
that mulligan system is meant for competitive play.I mean, could you imagine an amulet bloom deck with partial mulligan?
June 6, 2015 11:33 a.m.
I love that Magic has a lot of variety in it's cards and possible combinations. I especially love EDH, and how practically any card can be made viable in the right deck.
Things I dislike?
The Netdeck. Personal misgivings that the netdeck will ruin magic eventually aside, it gets boring when all I see is the same five--perhaps six--decks at FNM.
Hypercompetitiveness. There's not a lot of friendly play to be had at the card shop, and it only gets worse as the rank goes up. In my experience, the best magic is played on casual nights or just before a DnD session.
Mana-screwed. Mana problems is one problem innate to Magic's design. Even the best deck loaded with man-lands will fail to deploy between 5 and 10% of the time, which ruins the fun of both victory and defeat. My friends and I have started using a fudge rule: begin with two basic lands in exile. You can play one tapped as your land for the turn.
June 6, 2015 12:26 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #12
Mana-screwed is actually a good thing, because it makes it so that no deck can reliably win 100% of the time. Part of MTG is the luck factor, and part of the luck factor is drawing lands. Egann that sounds like a really horrible idea... I mean, for some decks, having two guaranteed lands is game-winning.
June 6, 2015 12:29 p.m.
I didn't say it would work for competitive circles. In our group it's mostly for midrange vs midrange. We almost never play it with aggro.
And defending mana problems is very much Stockholm syndrome; any deck which reliably wins results in cards getting banned, anyway. Having a mechanic which ensures no one deck can win all the time (a problem 0.01% of the time or less) by ruining 5% of games for all players everywhere is a terrible, TERRIBLE solution.
June 6, 2015 12:48 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #14
"any deck which reliably wins results in cards getting banned"
Um, what???
June 6, 2015 12:50 p.m.
I would like to point out that mana screw is nowhere near 5% of games if you balance your deck properly.
June 6, 2015 12:52 p.m.
Coinman1863 says... #16
What I personally like about magic is, at least where I am, is the LGS and the people who I get to meet there. One of my favorite events we do are the two headed giant prerelease which can be hilarious just because of the casual play and the conversation playing around the table.
One of the things I personally dislike about magic is having different circle of magic to play in. I have my LGS, where people have usually descent decks and I can basically use whatever I want. Then I have my boy scout troop where most of the players are beginners and I have to use dual decks because if I use my regular deck (Mono black ramp/discard, not one to encourage new players) it would crush their decks and might prevent them from playing again. Or even better, I sometimes have to use my EDH deck sans commander to even play evenly with them.
Yeah, two drastically different MTG environments are hard to cope with.
June 6, 2015 2:43 p.m.
canterlotguardian says... #17
I'm actually with Coinman1863 on this one, but I consider it less of a dislike and more of a challenge to overcome. Before my LGS parted ways with this world, I was one of the ones who would teach new players how to play the game, particularly EDH. My build of choice around that time was Intet, the Dreamer combo/control, and I dared not bring that out against their precon decks. So I built an intentionally derpy, durdly deck with Lady Evangela as the commander. That became my go-to "teach people how to play Magic/EDH" deck (and it was really fun at that).
June 6, 2015 3:23 p.m.
Coinman1863 says... #18
Yeah canterlotguardian, that is also part of the fun as well, in having two different environments you can have the more laid back one (Scouts) where one missplay might not kill you, and my LGS where one missplay will definitely get you quartered in the town square.
So for me anyway, the two environments are also beneficial as well for giving me places where I can relax and play competitively.
June 6, 2015 3:40 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #19
Yeah, my playgroup is basically divided up into 5-6 players that are really pretty good and rather brutal when you play Kaalia t4 with haste in a 4 player game, and 7-8 newer players who don't know all the ins and outs of the game yet. It's nice to be able to play a more casual, less edge-of-the-seat game after I get my ass handed to me by the competitive dudes.
Not to say that I'm not competitive - I'm actually one of the top three in our playgroup, I think, but sometimes I just can't beat four other players who happen to be ganging up on me.
June 6, 2015 3:56 p.m.
Eliiiiiiiiiiiiiiza says... #20
I actually agree. There's a time and place to be hyper-competitive, but it certainly isn't all the time.
June 6, 2015 4 p.m.
CharlesMandore says... #21
I like the art and story behind it all. I like the complexities, though perplexing as they can be sometimes. I like the game more than the people sometimes, and I love exiling my graveyard and casting Treasure Cruise for one U and drawing three.
June 6, 2015 4:25 p.m.
I hate RDW. I fail to see how RDW is fun for anybody in the game.
June 6, 2015 4:47 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #23
The salt levels are rising rapidly, kids. Buckle your seatbelts.
Personally I love burn/rdw but I do understand why people hate it so much.
June 6, 2015 5:06 p.m.
canterlotguardian says... #24
Of all the flavors of ice cream you could have chosen, why did you have to pick salty?
June 6, 2015 5:09 p.m.
Eliiiiiiiiiiiiiiza says... #25
This is what this comment thread is turning into.
I've always wanted an excuse to reference that card, and I thank you for this opportunity.
June 6, 2015 5:41 p.m.
MinscAndBoo says... #28
Playing Magic is fun, but building decks is my favorite part. Growing up, my friends and I all designed our own.
Then this newfangled IntarWeb thingie came along, and now "brewing" is the exception rather than the rule. That's weird to me, given that the game is all about finding synergies and putting pieces together.
I guess it makes the game easier to get into when you don't have this daunting task of building something you don't yet understand. We also have this amazing site to prototype with, and looking up card prices on Familiar means no more worries about getting ripped off in trades.
My real pet peeve with the game has nothing to do with Magic itself; it's not really Wizards' fault, but poorsports--and immaturity in general--can leave a bad taste in one's mouth. To the extent that would-be newcomers opt out of returning to that one FNM where some wiseass complained their turns were taking too long, then destroyed them with their netdeck.
The jackasses are a minority, but they're a loud one, and I wish there was a more sportsmanlike culture surrounding Magic and gaming in general. It might help if there were a truly casual alternative to FNM, still a sanctioned tournament but one that was truly friendly to newcomers. That's a subject for another thread, though.
Wizards itself epitomizes the love-hate thing for me. They're extremely smart and have perfected both card design and marketing. They are just parsimonious enough with "good" cards to keep us buying, while ensuring there is plenty of filler that spends most of its time in cardboxes. If that's a necessary evil, so be it, but it's wasteful. It's gotten better in recent years, though. And Ancient Carp turned out to be a bomb!
All told, much more love than hate. I wouldn't be here otherwise.
June 6, 2015 6:19 p.m. Edited.
I guess I really can't complain though, as my first FNM placing was my rakdos aggro deck. I scumbagged four people with damned Hellrider, Spike Jester, and Pyreheart Wolf.
June 6, 2015 9:48 p.m.
shagmonkey says... #30
I can definitely understand where a lot of this is coming from. Have any of you played other TCGs that solved some of these problems?
June 7, 2015 9:06 a.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #31
I'm not sure a different game will solve the douchebag issue. As for mana screw/flood and broken cards, I think Hearthstone sort of fixes that, but I've never actually played so I have no idea.
June 7, 2015 9:35 a.m.
Hearthstone removes mana issues but it makes it a super dull game. Honestly a game without random variance is not as fun.
June 7, 2015 10:19 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #33
MeMinusMyself I fell on the ground laughing at that XD
June 7, 2015 10:21 a.m.
Eliiiiiiiiiiiiiiza says... #34
Chief, I think the random variance is one of the defining aspects of the game and one of the things that make it so fun. For every time you get topdecked on, there are a dozen times you get super lucky and it feels so good.
The variance also applies to the douchebag issue, as it's entirely up to chance who you'll get paired up against at, say, FNM. that person could very well be a douche. However, even if you're playing against someone you know and like, they could be just be having a bad day and could just say something douchey.
I'm not sure how much sense that all made. My brain was going faster than my thumbs and I had some difficulty making everything coherent
June 7, 2015 1:26 p.m. Edited.
I only know a couple of douchey people at my FNM. Most of the people are genuinely friendly and everybody has a good time. You will people like that in everything, not just a part of magic.
Jay says... #2
I think that variance is necessary. It means even an amateur could theoretically take on a pro and win. Would it be for the right reasons? Debatable. But the game is never over before it starts.
June 6, 2015 10:15 a.m.