If you don't, here's a very short rundown of the basic game.
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Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game published by Wizards of the Coast(currently a division of Hasbro). It's played with decks of 60 to 100 cards(With some variants affecting the number of cards used.), one deck per person. Most local comic stores hold a weekly tournament each Friday, called Friday Night Magic, with other tournaments occasionally popping up. Some are free, others have a small buy-in, at the friendly level of the game. The goal is to utilize your cards to reach one of several outcomes in the game: Reduce your opponent to zero life, or to cause your opponent to have to draw a card when he has no more cards available to draw.
Intro Packs, which currently include a 60-card deck and two 15-card booster packs are a great way to start playing, and have an MSRP of US$14.99. If you choose to go this route, however, Wal-mart is selling Intro Packs for the current expansion, Gatecrash, for 14 dollars. While you're never required to buy another card past that to play casually, to play in tournaments requires the occasional update of your deck. To do this, you can either buy additional booster packs, at US$3.99 a pack, MSRP, or purchase cards one or two at a time through your local game store, Amazon.com, or eBay.
***Warning: Due to a few people who have worked out a way to figure out which packs out of a booster box are most likely to contain the value cards, you're best off buying booster packs at Wal-mart or your FLGS. This technique is called Box Mapping, and is fairly complicated to do on your own.***
For the rules of the game, and additional information, please visit http://wizards.com/Magic and then click Trading Card Game near the top of the screen, then click the link labeled "New To Magic".
If you want to learn about the game and never hold a card in your hand, there is a digital product available. It is called Duel of the Planeswalkers, the current edition is 2013, and it is available through Steam, PSN, Xbox Live, and, new to this addition, on the iPad App Store. It will additionally be available through the Android Store once 2014 is released.
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For those who are already familiar with the game, the new expansion, the last in the Return To Ravnica block, is titled Dragon Maze. The prerelease event is scheduled to occur on April 27, 2013, and will be MSRP $25.00. Players will be able to choose between one of 10 possible guild packs. Each Dragon Maze prerelease guild pack will contain 4 Dragon's Maze booster packs, one prerelease booster pack for the guild you choose, and one prerelease booster pack for a guild that shares one color with your chosen guild.
What does this mean?
It means that if you choose Golgari, whose colors are green and black, inside you'll find the Golgari prerelease pack from Return to Ravnica, as well as the prerelease booster pack for either Orzhov(Black/White), Rakdos(Black/Red), Dimir(Black/Blue), Selesnya(Green/White), Gruul(Green/Red), or Simic(Green/Blue).
After you assemble your deck, then the fun begins!
I plan to visit Knight's Comics and Games in Henderson, KY for my prerelease. I'm rolling either Golgari or Dimir. Who knows? I might see one or more of you there!
Hopefully, from this point on, this thread will be used to discuss the game, the cards, how to play, and what decks you use, or plan to use. This thread is currently, and will remain a positive thread, at least in regards to posters. If you have opinions on a deck or some cards someone else is running, then be sure to be constructive with your comments. If you have an opinion on WOTC, the game itself, or the public face of magic, feel free to go wild. Of course, board rules apply.
Edited by kizudarake, 16 April 2013 - 04:26 AM.
