COME YELL ABOUT MAGIC THE GATHERING WITH US Ngl I'm mostly here for the lore at this point because what is disposable income, but yes! Here we are! I could swear there was a thread for this but I can't find it so eyyy
My boyfriend's semi-professional (hoping to go full pro) and I'm casual as fuck. He knows a ton about the lore as well, I just... buy boosters for the pretty pictures. My only contribution to this thread until I can convince him to join us here.
I'm just starting to get into it the main thing that kept me from ever looking at it was "ugh, competitiveness" but then I was listening to my friends talk and was like "huh" and started looking up characters and lore and crap and *screaming forever* at least I have no money to spend on cards or stuff. (did anyone see the lil stuffed gremlins that are a thing now? because cute.)
ANYWAY YES LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT ASHIOK @emythos Spoiler: I really should go to bed but here I am okay SO I dunno where you are in the lore (because honestly continuity reeeally only starts around Lorwyn and even then it's a little janky), but Ashiok shows up in Theros, the greco-roman-flavored plane. Their card actually started out as cliche mirror-universe "evil Jace"- blue/black milling, steals critters, great fun to play. Flavorwise, though, the character kind of fell by the wayside as the plot for the block developed, so Ashiok became less a direct antagonist and more "that creepy person in the corner who may or may not be a problem" ANYWAY Ashiok's whole deal is that they can mess with people's dreams, make nightmares come to life. They believe that since all sentient beings experience fear, fear is the greatest equalizing force in the multiverse, and they're Doing A Questionable Science when we meet them on Theros. Theros is a plane where the inhabitants' belief gives certain hyper-powerful creatures ("gods" according to those who live there) their power-- but surely if belief in good has power there, so does belief in evil, in the dark things in the night. We don't really know just why Ashiok's so interested in this, or the power boost it gives them. They do some questionable things, dick around with Theros's God Of Deceit (who fuckin loves them, despite otherwise being generally disdainful of mortals), annnd-- we get cut off just before we find out what they plan to do with their new handy-dandy power source. Remind me tomorrow to look up the stories told from their POV-- one of the authors in specific does a great job ramping up the subtle horror of "amoral scienmage strutting their stuff", it's gr8 We've seen so little of Ashiok and I want to know more bc honestly nowadays Wizards doesn't leave a lot of dangling plot threads and I am So Hype for the return of this wonderfully creepy mage Also look how fab they are Spoiler: big pic? I'm on mobile I dunno Eta: goddammit picture broke, hang on while I find another fixed
@Loq well, I've been kinda skipping around (the guys who got me into it were p gung ho about me reading shadows over innistrad, so that mess is where I'm starting because FUCK IT) but yes HELLO NONBINARY NIGHTMARE SCIENCE BB OF MY HEART they have just rocketed up to favorite tier (up with chandra who has FIRE HAIR and therefore I was immediately attached) pic not showing, cannot see the fab
Eyyyy casual hi-5 o/ I got lucky, I got into the game originally cos my Stepdad played and he has. A literal Tower Of Cards running frommmm 4E through like the first Mirrodin? So none of my actual decks are Official Legal Pro Shit and I'm bad at pro play anyway :p THE GREMLINS ARE ADORABLE Boooooo I shall try again
yes I KNOW RIGHT Life Goals(TM) there's no other way, you're just gonna have to half-decapitate me bro Also in the interests of finding more delicious representation, just off the top of my head: Karn's agender and can most recently be found in the Scars of Mirrodin block (fair warning, their flavor of agender is "I give so few shits I'm not going to bother correcting anyone who refers to me with gendered pronouns including the narrator sometimes"), Alesha in Khans of Tarkir is a trans lady... have you found the lesbian hunters in SoI yet?
That is fab, and excuse me while I yell at the boyfriend for not showing me them and spawning an interest in the lore sooner.
adopt a whole bunch, feed them all your broken stuff! it's like recycling but cuter! I'm here for this being the new nonbinary trend I HAVE FOUND THE LESBIANS they are good. protect them
MORE YELLING ABOUT ASHIOK because I'm collecting the stories they're in now that I'm on desktop. Fair warning, while Theros block was being published Wizards failed to acknowledge singular-they as a pronoun, so depending on author the narration can get kind of clunky while they replace every possible pronoun just with "Ashiok". Their first appearance, in which it's stated two sentences into their appearance that they're probably agender. Also a great look at their nightmare powers :D The Phenax who starts narrating after the letters is this dude, Theran God Of Deception. (Not coincidentally, his card plays really well with Ashiok's :P) The next time we see them Ashiok's doing Questionable Science on how Theros works, playing around with what a dream really is, and still being enigmatic as fuck about what they actually plan to do once they get results. Aaaand then we haven't heard from them since unless they showed up in the ebook, which is unfortunately not free so I haven't read :P (Other things I found in my archive-dive: random star-crossed gay side Therans, a take on deification I actually like, and the semi-animated trailer that seemed So Cool when it first came out.) Honestly I could watch the trailers for hours :D (Anyone who's up for body horror, check out All Will Be One, the Phyrexian preview for Scars Of Mirrodin. Wizards actually conlanged for the Phyrexian language and it is so cool.)
aaaaaaaa this week's story is up more sassy Chan♦Lili yesgood Spoiler: screaming TEZZERET IS BACK ARTIFACT TRASH SON ...if Lili drags Jace in to chase him I'm gonna be salty. Let Jace Rest 2k16
@Loq THANK MUCHLY, will read once I'm finished with my current reading. and then will watch trailers. ... okay, not gonna skip ahead. not gonna do it not going to skip even though that sounds wonderful
The Magic channel has conveniently compiled a playlist of all the trailers! Whiiiich for some reason is in reverse chronological order, but. They're there! honestly if I had to pick a favorite it would probably be Born Of The Gods just bc the voice actor is so obviously having fun with it but shhhh
Heyyyy Magic thread! I played semi-competively from New Phyrexia until the first set of Theros, and boyfriend is a state champion, so I'm seriously into the metagame because I am a nerd. Hilariously, it's only after I stopped playing (I mostly played Standard and that shit's expensive, but to be fair Modern is even more expensive) that I really got into the lore. Now I just want all the angels and artifacts and dragons forever, and I stare wistfully at set spoilers and think how cool it would be to build a deck with them. Edit: here is our enormous card collection. It's mind and his from several years of semi competitive play, plus his collection from playing 20ish years ago. Spoiler: Image That's a laptop on top of white boxes, for scale.
Modern is cheaper than Standard once you get into the numbers game. And Legacy is even cheaper. You'll spend $2000 on a Tier 1 Legacy Deck, but have to spend $400 for a tier 1 Standard Deck (On average) every three months. Sure, some of that carries over. So it's more, an investment of maybe $100 every 3 months. But every 6 is a cycle, which causes a giant drop in price indexes. Which means you're spending 400 and maybe being returned $100. But, now we look at that $2000 we spent on our Legacy deck say, three years ago. It is still at it's value. Actually, it probably rose in value because of the (disgusting) reserved list. Over the long run, your eternal and non-rotating formats are actually more financially safe. Unluckily, the main way to get into them is to already have spare money. While Standard is easier to get into, playing it over a course is much much much more expensive.
That's probably true, but letting alone the money issue (and I don't have the money all at once or the patience for a modern or legacy deck, and the meta changes differently than standard so that's less fun for me, haha) the people who play Standard in my town are much less douchey about an AFAB person playing than the Modern folks, unfortunately.
the money stuff is terrifying to me (also the rules and shit, but ssshhhhh i'll figure it out) my friends are like "FOR CHRISTMAS WE WILL GET YOU STARTED WITH CARDS" and i'm like "that is sweet but like, isn't all this shit terrifyingly expensive pls no"
The rules luckily, aren't that hard once you play enough. Generally, the game is really simple when you're talking about the kitchen table. And if a complex situation comes up, come online and ask a Judge. We're always here to help! And if you're in store, they should have a Judge or Rules Adviser ready that would also be glad to help. And when people talk about getting you started, it's usually a starter deck or two to. Well. Get you started! You don't need to jump in with a full wet suit on. You can come in with just some flippers. At an FNM level, you're here to have fun. Not win. At least that's how it's aimed. That's fair! Hopefully the people around you invite you, because the Magic Community should be inviting to all people interested in playing our lovely hobby. I know I've always tried to make my play areas safe spaces for anyone.