Magic: The Gathering and other card-based RPGs

[Angst]

Hearthstone's look is incredible and I played it for a bit because of that exactly.

But yes, it's very grindy which I don't enjoy, and actually the range of possible playstyles isn't very big, as such it's not very rewarding to play casually.

I know it's not that much of an issue when you're used to PC games based around card games, but coming from a position where you're used to all the cool alternate formats available in paper Magic, especially "multiplayer" Magic (which means 3+ players) and casual games outside of a ladder system, it feels very limiting to play that game.

That's actually where the old Magic the Gathering game was marvellous, it used its pc base to allow for a game style which is impossible to do correctly in paper - the game is very grindy, but the grind is the game and basically translates into having a paper deck and improving it over time, just as you actually do in real life. So the grind is not so much a grind as it is a very colorful way of playing the very game itself. It works brilliantly as a concept.

 

[bhavv]

I dont think its too hard to get a competitive deck as a beginner, the basic free cards are very decent enough to make a good deck.

Frem the free, well 100 coin decks so far, the game kept giving me Leper Gnomes. Due to getting so many I thought 'groan, this must be a crap card', until I checked out what it does. Now its a staple in all of my decks, most powerful 1 mana cost card for sure.

Spoiler :

I finished the basic grind of getting all my heroes to level 10 to unlock all the basic cards, plus I got a few extra nice ones from the free decks I earned so far.

 

[bhavv]

Gurubashi is such an OP basic card:



I got a sunfury protector card so Gurubashis and / or snapjaws are a staple in any of my decks with strong healing (mainly paladin + priest).

Same again. I managed to bait the opponents polymorphs against mid tier units and then used this and put all my upgrade cards on the Gurubashi (2 each of +4 att and life, and +3 att cards).



Rogue players would be able to counter this well as they get lots of options to remove opponent's cards.

 

[Angst]

In my opinion, the one flaw in the Hearthstone game design is that each class can do a too large range of abilities. This is partly because that the neutral creatures have a huge share of the game's mechanics. Magic is much better balanced this way; five colors is a great soft spot for distributing mechanics and strengths and weaknesses. I actually wonder whether Blizzard is going to keep the current direction or restrict individual class mechanics; early Magic: the Gathering also featured a very chaotic color pie with every color being able to do way too much and then blue being able to do do even more than the rest.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Frem the free, well 100 coin decks so far, the game kept giving me Leper Gnomes. Due to getting so many I thought 'groan, this must be a crap card', until I checked out what it does. Now its a staple in all of my decks, most powerful 1 mana cost card for sure.

I once got this in a booster pack:

...I think the game was angry. Very, very angry.

Also:
Wanna see combo wombo? THAT is combo wombo!


As for 1 cost cards: Leper Gnome is good for Undertaker decks, but there are actually better 1 cost minions out there:
Zombie Chow (2/3, 1 mana, heal 5 to enemy on death) is an insane card for control decks and probably the best overall 1 cost drop
Flame Imp (3/2, 1 mana, BC: deal 3 damage to yourself) is a great warlock card
Argent Squire (1/1, 1 mana, Divine Shield) is a *really* powerful and sticky one drop

Gurubashi is such an OP basic card:

Not really. It has the same problem as the Divine Spirit + Inner Fire combo from priest: It is way too slow and way to easy to disable.
But it is a decent basic card. Quite nice for mage, actually.

 

[bhavv]

I was mostly playing as a Paladin because I like being able to spam 1/1 cards in the early game. I decided to purchase 40 decks because I'm enjoying the game a lot, and this happened:



Golden legendary! And I got lots of other nice cards for all the classes.

I got a pair of a few windfury cards now too, I won a game with ease when I was lucky enough 1/1 windfury card plus both +4 / 4 paladin upgrades in the first few turns, and I also just got the double a minions health card too.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Well, Tirion is probably the best class legendary out there - well picked!

 

[bhavv]

I'm using a windfury + taunt minion deck now with all the paladin upgrade cards:

Spoiler :

Can make super tanky taunt cards, or 20+ attack windfury cards. I dropped the leper gnomes for the argent protectors instead, also I've not been able to make use of 2 x blessing of wisdom cards in a match yet, but with only one in the deck I have the half the chance to get one early on.

I want to add +1 spell damage somewhere to make the consecrations more powerful against low cost card spammers. Or I can copy them and fill up on raid leaders and sunwell elves ...

 

[Verarde]

I had watched some friends play Magic before, and had borrowed a deck to play a game or two, but I never got into it until a friend decided to give away a bunch of commons/uncommons for free...I think I got over 300 cards from it. I started learning the game over summer, and part of my core friend group ended up getting into the game as well. Now we play pretty regularly, and it's one of my favorite games.

Local Walgreens is currently having a buy one, get one free sale...and packs are only $3.50. They're restocking on Friday and we're planning on buying every single pack.

 

[Angst]

I had watched some friends play Magic before, and had borrowed a deck to play a game or two, but I never got into it until a friend decided to give away a bunch of commons/uncommons for free...I think I got over 300 cards from it. I started learning the game over summer, and part of my core friend group ended up getting into the game as well. Now we play pretty regularly, and it's one of my favorite games.

Local Walgreens is currently having a buy one, get one free sale...and packs are only $3.50. They're restocking on Friday and we're planning on buying every single pack.

Wow that's cheap. I'd definitely buy a huge bunch of that.

What do you like playing?

 

[bhavv]

Its a shame that trading cards isn't an option in hearthstone. And the crafting is way too inefficient, like having to break down 9 extra cards to gather enough dust to just make 1.

 

[bhavv]

From reading some advice, it seems its not too useful to keep lots of healing cards as they clutter your deck and waste offensive space. I want to keep the holy lights because you can heal buffed minions with those, but I'm gonna remove the too expensive guardian of kings for a pair of the 1/1 windfury minions as they can easily win a game if you get one in your opening hand along with buffs, and remove one mogu shan taunt card for a brewmaster. Play a sunwalker or tirion, if it survives and loses its shield and a chunk of health, or if tirion gets silenced, brewmaster it and play it again will be awesome.

A single mogu shan is all I need for a mid game buff spam base card if I don't don't get an early windfury card and buff hand. Against priests I need to buff it on the turn its played to 4 attack to nullify their instakills which only work on minions with <3 or >5 attack, so the mogu shan is a great card to upgrade with a single blessing of might for strong mid game controll.

2x sunwalkers, windfury harpies and a tirion is more than enough end game presence, the guardian of kings always just overclutter my hand with too many expensive cards, usually forcing me to play them if my hand gets too full.

Hmm, and I should only need a single windfury harpy too. Preferably play it after a sunwalker or tirion to bluff the opponent into focusing on removing the taunt cards, and then spam buffs at the harpy. I've never yet even played both of them.

 

[Verarde]

Wow that's cheap. I'd definitely buy a huge bunch of that.

What do you like playing?

Currently playing a white/green deck that focuses on buffing a few creatures that have a lot of support around them, plus some healing spells. I'm still learning a lot about the game though, and over break I plan on doing some serious deck building.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

I'm using a windfury + taunt minion deck now with all the paladin upgrade cards:

I don't think that this deck has any chance against aggressive rushlock/undertaker decks. Also seems really vulnerable to silence.

Mogushan Warden and Windfury Harpy are bad. Really bad. I'd rather take Sen'Jin Shieldmasta and Boulderfist Oger instead.

And you should certainly try the Wild Pyromancer + Equality combo. For two cards you can clear the whole board.

 

[bhavv]

No, mogushan and windfury harpy are better for paladin buffs. The mogushan survives longer to make plenty of use of a +3 art buff, and any windfury card can be buffed up and hit twice each turn.

A lot of things are susceptible to silence, moreso paladin and priest decks because they rely a lot on buffs.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Do as you wish, I can only speak from experience.
Sen'Jin doesn't need another card and can still go 2-for-1 and Windfury Harpy is useless if you ever face big minions or fall behind.

And since I have just noticed it: I'd replace Holy Light with Earthenring Farseer. Much, much better for just 1 extra mana.

You also won't see any buff priest decks past rank 20. The only buff card a priest runs is "Power Word: Shield" - but that one is a special case because the card cycles itself, is used in the Wild Pyromancer combo against aggro and occassionally enables a favorable trade.

 

[Angst]

Currently playing a white/green deck that focuses on buffing a few creatures that have a lot of support around them, plus some healing spells. I'm still learning a lot about the game though, and over break I plan on doing some serious deck building.

That sounds pretty cool. One of my friends is heavily ingrained in white-soldiers-with-green-support. He mostly goes wide though.

I myself like durdling or losing life to win. Black decks centered around my own lifeloss or sacrificing creatures helps this. Otherwise I've been a red player for most of my competetive experiences. Fire is cool.

 

[bhavv]

Yes I will change holy light to the earthenring farseer, I wanted to put those in but couldn't fit them at first.

This deck gives me lots of opportunities to use my buffs, so I can choose to use them at the appropriate time. If I get a dragonling and blessing of might / wisdom in my opening hand and the opponent puts up no board presence on the first few turns, I can use the buffs immediately, or save them for a later windfury or taunt unit.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

That sounds pretty cool. One of my friends is heavily ingrained in white-soldiers-with-green-support. He mostly goes wide though.

I myself like durdling or losing life to win. Black decks centered around my own lifeloss or sacrificing creatures helps this. Otherwise I've been a red player for most of my competetive experiences. Fire is cool.

Blue 4 lyfe.

Too bad Wizards of the Coast has been steadily neutering it for the last 15+ years.

 

[Angst]

Blue 4 lyfe.

Too bad Wizards of the Coast has been steadily neutering it for the last 15+ years.

Yeah, blue pretty much deserved the nerf.