Magic: The Gathering

[Deku]

Does anyone here play Magic?
Its one of the oldest running TCG's, and I recently started playing about 2 or 3 months ago.

[Rev Rabies]

i played when i was really little with my 20-some year old brother, and in high school a friend re taught me, and i always beat him.

[Deku]

Yeah, I've stopped buying booster packs, and now I'm just buying individual cards online. I think the highest priced card I've seen was $12.50

Crazy huh?

[Uximadesk]

The last TCG I played was YuGiOh, but now I dislike all TCG's, I'm not into anything right now.

[Mysterious F.]

I also used to like trading card games, but now I despise them. They're simply ploys to gain corporations money. Every time someone gets a substantial pack of cards, a new set is released that overpowers those previously released and introducting several abilities that, in effect, make older cards worthless. And, because we don't know what we get, people resort to buying cars online, where half of the people selling the cards are people working for the corporations and divide the cash, the other half people actually selling them (and, because they would have to buy them, the corps get money anyway).

[Keaton]

I also used to like trading card games, but now I despise them. They're simply ploys to gain corporations money. Every time someone gets a substantial pack of cards, a new set is released that overpowers those previously released and introducting several abilities that, in effect, make older cards worthless. And, because we don't know what we get, people resort to buying cars online, where half of the people selling the cards are people working for the corporations and divide the cash, the other half people actually selling them (and, because they would have to buy them, the corps get money anyway).

Yes, but they're fun.

[Gamefreak]

Been a while since I've heard a good evil corporation rant, thank you.

But I used to be into Yugioh, and to a lesser extent Pokemon.  I quit though when I realized the effort was fruitless.

[DW]

I also used to like trading card games, but now I despise them. They're simply ploys to gain corporations money. Every time someone gets a substantial pack of cards, a new set is released that overpowers those previously released and introducting several abilities that, in effect, make older cards worthless. And, because we don't know what we get, people resort to buying cars online, where half of the people selling the cards are people working for the corporations and divide the cash, the other half people actually selling them (and, because they would have to buy them, the corps get money anyway).

Thank you for describing capitalism. The aim of the cards is indeed to make a profit. But if the people buying them enjoy the cards, big deal.

Hell, why do you play video games?

[Uximadesk]

It's different, a video game is timeless and still worth on its own, in a TCG you have to always buy the most recent cards or you're just out of the game.

[Mysterious F.]

It's different, a video game is timeless and still worth on its own, in a TCG you have to always buy the most recent cards or you're just out of the game.

Exactly. Cards you buy are worth something only if you keep following it all the way through with the latest editions. Cards released two years ago are probably outdated compared to those from today in any card series. With video games, once you buy one, that is it. Sure, there are series of video games, but you don't have to buy another to enjoy the ones you already have.

[Deku]

Yes, before 3 generations back, those cards are illegal(in metagame). But thats because they were overpowered. The cards back then were serous game winners. The game was also commended by MENSA as a strategic card game. Let me tell you, as far as analytical thinking goes, this game gets your mind going. I absolutely love it. My dad was calling them my "Dork cards" until he saw a few students a PAC (the college he works at) playing Magic. He was pretty shocked.

Straight from Wikipedia:

White is the color of order, equality, righteousness, healing, law, community, peace, absolutism/totalitarianism, and light, although not necessarily "good". White's strengths are a roster of small creatures that are strong if used together in groups; protecting those creatures with enchantments; gaining life; preventing damage to creatures or players; imposing restrictions on players; destroying artifacts and enchantments; and the ability to "equalize" the playing field. White creatures are known for their "Protection" from various other colors or even types of card, rendering them nearly impervious to harm from those colors or cards. Numerous white creatures also have "First Strike" and "Vigilance". White's weaknesses include its difficulty in directly destroying opposing creatures, a focus on smaller creatures, and the fact that many of its most powerful spells affect all players equally.

Blue is the color of intellect, reason, illusion, logic, knowledge, manipulation, and trickery, as well as the classical elements of air and water. Blue's cards are best at letting a player draw additional cards; permanently taking control of an opponent's cards; returning cards to their owner's hands; putting cards from an opponent's library into their graveyard (known unofficially as "milling", after the first card that did this, Millstone); and countering spells. Blue's creatures tend to be weaker than creatures of other colors, but commonly have abilities and traits which make them difficult to damage or block, particularly "Flying" and to a lesser extent "Shroud". Blue's weaknesses include having trouble permanently dealing with spells that have already been played, the reactive nature of most of its spells, and the fact that its creatures tend to be comparatively inefficient.

Black is the color of power, ambition, greed, death, corruption, and amorality, although not necessarily "evil". Black cards are best at destroying creatures, forcing players to discard cards from their hand, and returning creatures from the dead. Furthermore, because Black seeks to win at all costs, it has limited access to many abilities or effects that are normally available only to one of the other colors; but these abilities are disproportionately expensive, often requiring the sacrifice of life, creatures, or other resources. Black is known for having creatures with the ability "Fear", making them difficult to block. Black's main weaknesses are an almost complete inability to deal with enchantments and artifacts, its tendency to hurt itself almost as badly as it hurts the opponent, and difficulties in removing other Black creatures.

Red is the color of freedom, chaos, passion, creativity, impulse, fury, warfare, lightning, the classical element of fire, and the non-living geological aspects of the classical element earth.[21] Red's strengths include destroying opposing lands and artifacts, sacrificing permanent resources for temporary but great power, and playing spells that deal damage to creatures or players. Red has a wide array of creatures, but with the exception of the extremely powerful dragons, most of them are fast and weak, or unbalanced with strong power and weak toughness, rendering them more easily destroyed. Some of Red's cards can turn against or hurt their owner in return for being more powerful for their cost. Red also shares the trickery theme with Blue and can temporarily steal opponents' creatures or divert spells, although generally not permanently. Many of Red's most famous creatures have the "Haste" trait, which lets them attack and use many abilities earlier. Red's weaknesses include its inability to destroy enchantments, the self-destructive nature of many of its spells, and the way in which it trades early-game speed at the cost of late-game staying power. Red also has the vast majority of cards that involve random chance.

Green is the color of life, instinct, nature, reality, evolution, ecology and interdependence. Green has a large number of creatures, which tend to be the largest in the game for their cost. Many of its spells make them stronger temporarily. It can also destroy artifacts and enchantments, increase a player's life total, get extra mana sources into play, and produce the other four colors of mana. Green creatures often have "Trample," an ability which lets them deal attack damage to an opponent if blocked by a weaker creature. Green's weaknesses include its difficulty destroying creatures directly; a distinct shortage of flying creatures (though some of its creatures have "Reach", making them able to block as though they had flying), and having few gameplay options besides large creatures.

T'is why I play Blue/Red.
I also have a beastly multicolor deck.

[Gamefreak]

Or, to expand on Whocares' point:

In the case of Yugioh, they've actually banned some cards from play. 

Expensive cards.

[Keaton]

...but they're banned from tournament play only.  I use Magic: The Gathering Unglued cards when playing with my friends often, it just all depends on what you want to get by playing the card game.

Ungluedcards are hilarious, by the way, mostly because they're actually official and made by WotC.

[Pyrgusfinn]

I used to play when I was younger...
I think I still have some of my cards, but I'm not sure...

[FunTykoon]

CARD GAMES.

Pesonally, I hate them. Eveerything that who cares said plus you cant play with them in the pool.