Battle Spirits

[gadu]

I tried out both programs briefly and I would reccomend Magarena because it has nicer interface, faster gameplay, better A.I., undo button, prebuilt files (but for some reason they are all multisphere). I feel kind of stupid waiting for hours downloading pictures for the other program since I ended up deleting it.

Downside is less cards, but that's kind a plus for me. I made a newb blue/white merfolk file that is doing well. My main issue with the game so far is the pace of the game with the resource sytem. It's not too exciting waiting to get you lands set up so you can do stuff. Depending on how frequently you draw lands, the game can be over before a player even gets started. Also, having to click through instant timings and such is pretty tedious.

[wakka9ca]

Well about lands, you can try playing green. They have ramp file that fetch you extra lands. Or use Garruk although I'm not sure planeswalker are implemented in Magarena yet.

I tend to play randomized decks (i.e. no editing just random) for the fun and unpredictableness. It's like playing a game of solitaire and you never get bored due to the sheer variety of cards. After all, Momir Basic is one of my favourite format lol.

[gadu]

Wakka, what kind of files do you like to play?

I made a Vampire file that can field wipe with -4/-4 counters every turn and a beatdown Cat file. It seems the A.I. files can't really compete with my file and it's too easy.

That's why I also like just doing random file matchups too, but then, some of the files seem poorly put together.

EDIT: I mean decks, still stuck in Alteil lingo.

[wakka9ca]

Wakka, what kind of files do you like to play?

I made a Vampire file that can field wipe with -4/-4 counters every turn and a beatdown Cat file. It seems the A.I. files can't really compete with my file and it's too easy.

That's why I also like just doing random file matchups too, but then, some of the files seem poorly put together.

EDIT: I mean decks, still stuck in Alteil lingo.

Lol at the "Battle Spirits" topic transformed into MTG.

When transferring to MTG from Alteil background, people tends to use tribal themed MTG a bit like using Alteil mentality. It works but MTG allows many more ways to win and play compared to Alteil. For Magarena, you can play against better decks that are not random such as Affinity for instance with Monte Carlo (cheat). The decks aren't so great however (i.e. none of them are really competitive). I'll see if I can build some good AI decks with available cards in my spare time. Against rush decks, you always have stuffs like Wrath of God

For tribal-themed decks, I'd like to play (Legacy Casual):
-Goblins (Goblin Recruiter + Goblin Charbelcher)
-Slivers: With Sliver Overlord to fetch, Sliver Legion to boost, Gemhide sliver to provide rainbow mana and Crystalline Sliver to give shroud.

Otherwise I play some non-tribal themed decks like Blue/Black control.

And don't run broken decks like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZu013GyxkQ
It's no fun lol. Okay, maybe for a few games for the lulz.

[gadu]

Well, nobody was talking about BS, so might as well talk about something. I haven't played MTG in depth yet, but I think BS is more of an "evolved" game since the resource system doesn't require land cards, "spheres" kind of have more individuality with their unique traits and creature types, and BS is one of the most balanced card games I've played (but I haven't played it for a while and new sets and battle mechanics have been released, so not sure if it's still as balanced as before. Also, Purple/Amethyst is/was OP ).

A lot of the matches in MTG are one sided stomp fests where me or A.I. gets destroyed, I'm guessing because of opening draws.

I was looking at tribes just because there was a filter for it and wasn't sure where to begin looking at cards @_@. But even still, I do wish Magarena had more cards.

[wakka9ca]

Well, if you ever play against the AI Affinity deck, prepare to get stomped if you are not running some really good decks lol.

The opening hand is not good? You can always mulligan. Make sure your land composition and everything is carefully crafted. Making a MTG deck is a bit different from Alteil in the sense that you need to compute the optimal number of lands based on which mana curve you are doing. Same with the mana costs of cards and the distribution of them. In order to "topdeck", you would use cards that manipulate library and drawing. A lot of MTG cards may not look very powerful to a beginner but are in fact very broken. For MTG I admit you do have to slowly get into more depth in order to fully appreciate the subtleties of control and topdecking.

Also, there exist 1 competitive deck without any lands. Yes, without any lands.

There is a "poker" element in MTG due to the opening hand and drawing. A balanced match usually only happens between two human players. The game is too complex for AI to effectively balance it out.

[gadu]

Affinity deck is crazy strong and I also find packing your file with legendary creatures is also a pretty good strategy destroy everything

Which deck doesn't need to use lands? I find that the optimal amount of lands is around 16, but I guess it depends on how you distribute your low cost and high cost units. I'm starting to think well made rush files are strongest.

[wakka9ca]

Affinity deck is crazy strong and I also find packing your file with legendary creatures is also a pretty good strategy destroy everything

Which deck doesn't need to use lands? I find that the optimal amount of lands is around 16, but I guess it depends on how you distribute your low cost and high cost units. I'm starting to think well made rush files are strongest.

You haven't seen the original Mirrodin Affinity... The Magarena Affinity is the "new" affinity, which is much fairer, using Metalcraft instead of true affinity. The original affinity is the epitome of brokenness (i.e. you essentially play cards for free and draw cards like mad to refresh your hand)

For a 40-card deck, 16 lands is ok
For a 60-card deck, 22-25 lands are ok depending on what your goal is.
Also, Magic decks have no max deck size. There are 300 cards decks out there:
http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=13494
If you play Commander, you need 100 card decks with only 1 copies of each except basic lands:
http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Commander

No land decks:
1) http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/look-ma-no-lands/
2) http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=118086
I can't find the article few years ago on MTG official site where there was an outlandish no-land deck. It was pretty cool.

Rush dies horribly to:
Wrath of God

Legendaries are poweful? Sure! They are like characters in Alteil. Cards like the following does exist though:
Mirror Gallery
Leyline of Singularity
Hero's Demise
No one uses hero's demise because unlike Alteil, Legendary and big creatures are not that game-changing and are easy to deal with simple spells like:
Go for the throat
or control:
Sower of temptation

What cannot be dealt with is Legendary Flying Spaghetti Monster at its finest:
Emrakul the Aeons torn
Annihilator 6 means that whenever that creature attacks (no need to deal damage, just declare attack), the opponent must immediately sacrifice 6 permanents (lands, enchant, creature, artifact, etc)
However, stuffs like:
Final Judgment
Oblivion Ring
Still work on it. However, if emrakul is out, it's usually gg.
Otherwise, big world snake works too:
Progenitus
After all, it has protection from everything!

Take a look at the new cool dual-face transform card legendaries:
Elbrus/Withengar

[skillll7]

Lol at the "Battle Spirits" topic transformed into MTG.

This. If you wanted an example for a thread that's been derailed, look no further!

[fargone]

Did someone say mtg game play is better than alteil's?

LMFAO

I could not disagree any more than I do with this statement.


MTG has one thing going for it - it was the first and therefore is well established... that is all.

There are games that have come out after that do it better, but lacked the finances and marketing... like this one (though this one is digital only by necessity).