Magic: The Gathering

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Ok, I do not know a lot about this, so I hope that is OK. I have a 7 year old who does not have friends yet, so that is why I am asking here.

I am trying to introduce him to some new games to see if he will like them. (He likes Mystic Warlords of Ka'a, but yeah, I know that is a much simpler rip off of Magic) I bought 2 intro decks (one for me and one for him) from the Avacyn Restored expansion. (Blue and Green and Blue and Black because that is what they had at the store) Should I have waited for the 2013 Core Set or the new stuff in October? I do not really understand the product cycles.

We don't need any super expensive cards, or anything because right now he is going to just play against me, but does anyone have any suggestions of things to teach him in the event that he does make a friend who will hopefully be into these kind of things.

magic the gathering is definately a way to encourage socialization.

i havent played for almost 5 years, that might change with the 2013 core set as it allows you to play with your deck online using their own tool, every card will have a small code so you can get a digital copy as well.

that said, usually people do play with older and newer cards mixed, the rules for doing so can be a bit complicated as some cards are "removed" and so those old cards cant be used, others are changed so the text doesnt match what they actually do in the new version and finally there are cards that havent changed much since the beginning fo magic several decades ago.

i hope it helps,

good luck with the games.

Thanks for the response. That would be cool if you could play it online without paying per month.

I have looked up the rules online, as the rules that come with it are not very comprehensive, and I think I understand it well enough to run a test run with the two decks. Once I think I can explain it to him, I can teach it to him. I think he will like it once he gets the hang of it.

Thanks, again.

you can always send me a pm if there is anything you would like to ask, or ask here.
im amazed im the only one to reply to this thread so far

there are some decent guides on youtube as well, so you can see how it happens practically, might help with comprehending the rules.

I miss MTG, I use to have tons of cards I brought back when Urza's Saga and Tempest were big. I mainly liked the pictures on the cards, especially the black and red ones. Only person who ever played me was Mom . Once or twice but we did have a good time, considering I made both our decks. Social games where you're there IN FRONT of the person are really fun unless the person is a dick that complains if you take too long. Why I could never cut it at tournies. I'm a big, big advocate of TCGs, tabletop and pen and paper roleplaying games anymore.

I tried looking into getting back in but a thread on another forum deterred me. So much banned stuff and I don't know anything about the game anymore. Are all the colors pretty good or are you forced to make certain color decks if you want to win? I really to make a badass mono-black deck. My favorite card I can remember was Order of Yawgmoth, it was so gnarly. I also like the plague rats (I think you call them that?).

I've tried (and failed) to teach my parents and sister to play MTG, so at least you had family to play with

MTG introduced me to a good deal of the friends I have now, and I've enjoyed many fun evenings playing Magic with a can of beer or soda at my side.

There are many different styles of play in Magic: Vintage (older cards only), standard 60 card, 60-card with 15 card sideboard, 75 card, singleton (multiple instances of a card not allowed in a deck, except basic lands), commander (effectively 99 card singleton with a commander card on the side that can be called anytime for its mana cost) and Draft (played with 4 boosters for each, a card is taken from the booster for each player, then the pack is sent on, from the cards you get, you make a 60 card deck (add lands yourself) and a tournament is held... works best with 4-6 players).

Intro decks are a good start, another good idea is to get a fat pack along with it (do that when 2013 comes out), it contains a collection of basic lands (good for deckbuilding), a box, a poster and 5 booster packs. There are also online shops that specialize in trading card games, and here you can get cheaper boosters, fatpacks, booster displays, individual cards and sometimes an amount of common, uncommon and rare cards that have been unpacked and randomized. Good deals can be found in these repacked cards, usually 100 commons , 50 uncommons and 20 rares can be acquired for a good price. They also contain older cards from previous decks. RL stores also sometimes have a box of cards where you can pick X cards for a price.

The product cycle is relatively simple today. Around October, you get the yearly collections (eg. 2010,2011,2012,2013), while a further expansion to the yearly set is usually released in spring (avacyn etc.).

Two really stupid questions, (probably)

1-What is the difference between the 2013 Core Set that they are releasing in July and whatever it is they are releasing in October? Is it just that you have to wait until October to get the smaller (cheaper packs) or it an actual qualitative difference?

2-From what I have read, there is only one stack. So if you have multiple creatures out-- you can still stack on top of more than one creature, right? It is considered one stack because the order is based on the order the cards are played in, regardless on which creature? Is that right.

Thanks!! !

"The stack" is where (last time I read the rules) most spells "go", but it's not an actual place to put cards, it's a way of explaining what order they "resolve" (do stuff) in. The name stack is used presumably because it works the same way the "stack" data structure works-first in last out. So both people play cards, those cards go on the stack (pushed) then when each player is done responding, they resolve in reverse order (popped). Then you get a chance to play cards again. In practice this does not really matter-it only matters when, say, you have one spell that does enough damage to kill a creature and another spell gives it enough extra toughness to survive. Creatures that resolve end up "in play" (on the battlefield? Not sure what the current terminology is) and any number of them can be there.

I'm not sure I really understood the intricacies of it until I had to manually work out a computer algorithm involving stacks for a computer science test. It's really only there for those edge cases.

Thanks, that helps a lot. I was confused and thought it was a place on the battlefield. We'll probably simplify it to resolve each creature as separate stacks, just to simplify it for now, even though it is technically not right. I think it will be easier to keep track of, for our immediate purposes. I will just qualify it to him as house rules, since my son understands that about other games. This way when he gets older and plays the right way, it will not throw him for a loop.

Thanks, again.

I highly recommend starting out with the core sets to teach him how to play. The decks are designed for players new to the game and so the mechanics are simple and easy to grasp. Expansions such as Avacyn Restored will have more advanced mechanics that might not be easy to understand until you've had some experience playing the game. The stack you refer to will become easier to understand in this type of game because the spells and abilities will be more straightforward.

The stack is a series of spells or abilities that have been cast but not yet "resolved", or in other words take effect. Whenever a spell(a creature, an instant, a sorcery, or any other type of card you pay mana for to lay on the table) or ability(a cost you pay on a card in play) is cast, each player(starting with the opponent) has the option of playing spells(only instants!) or abilities as a "response". When this happens, the most recently cast spell or ability is placed "on top" of the previous spell or ability, creating a stack. This goes on until neither player wishes to play another spell or ability. At that point, you resolve(have spell or ability take effect) each spell or ability played, starting with the most recent, and working through the stack.

Example: Your opponent has a creature with 2 toughness(the second number on the bottom right of the card). You play "Shock" targeting that creature(an instant that deals 2 damage). As a response before your Shock resolves, your opponent plays an instant that gives his/her creature +0/+4 until end of turn. That spell resolves first, giving his/her creature 6 toughness until end of turn, and then "Shock" resolves, dealing 2 damage but it's no longer enough to kill the creature.

This probably sounds confusing, but the core sets are designed to teach this thing and include rulebooks that you can refer to on how to play. As far as playing other people goes, a Magic Online account is a one time fee of $10, which includes a code that you can use to buy $10 worth of product from the Magic Online store. Any further product from Magic Online is bought from the store at retail prices and the cards are stored on your account online. Alternatively, there's a series of video games called Magic: the Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers for PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. The newest one called Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 just recently came out. While I haven't played them, these games almost certainly include a tutorial and therefore would be an excellent way to learn how to play the game.

I'll also give a brief mention that there may be events in your area such as Friday Night Magic(FNM), whose tournament rules are very lax and cater to new players. I don't really recommend this for your son quite yet as in my experience, the age group for these events tend to be a bit older(teenager and above), though there isn't any actual age restriction. Nonetheless, there's a store locator on the Wizards of the Coast website that has event schedules for stores in your area.

Feel free to PM me or post if you have any further questions. Good luck!