Does anyone miss how playing Magic used to feel?
General forum
Posted on Dec. 29, 2010, 9:28 a.m. by keithroule
I started playing Magic around the time Starter came out, what r the chances right :), me and my best friend played vanilla creatures and turned them sideways and I loved it. Dont get me wrong, i plan on playing in the San Jose Legacy Open next month but competitive magic just feels so different from the game I remember. Does anyone else miss playing poorly assembled piles of cards with no win conditions?
Aye, magic when it was building into its crescendo, back in the early days, playing was fun with an environment that was less competitive and more explorative and inquisitive. When you're first learning now a days its the same way, but the moment your foot hits a competitive event the world shifts, sickeningly so. Everyone has built a deck costing more than they should, and has read every tip on how to play it right. More than half of the matches are mirrored and you end up running into at least one guy (or gal) who has decided they want to complain because you didnt tap you Island 90 to the right, or that you're cards are marked or distracting because you are using sleeves that are shiny.
Now, its normally about competition... Archenemy soothed that for a bit, but we found modifying the decks made it constructed with big cards, so it slowly died off. (while I still enjoy an out of box game from time to time)
I resort to Pack Wars and Drafts for my fun, while I can usually best top 3 in local tourneys if I'd like, I hate playing some of the folks that I see.. The game has lost some splendor for the casual player, but hey.. Something is always on the line so it makes sense.
December 29, 2010 10:35 a.m.
A million times yes. Even though I only started in Odyssey, even then the game was completely different. Where I played there was very little competition beyond winning the next big group game, and nobody had extremely streamlined decks.
Now everything is super competitive, even multiplayer.
December 29, 2010 11:25 a.m.
withoutdoubtlongestusernamever says... #5
ya....then god rained heaven from the skies on some dudes and they designed something called pauper tournaments where u could only have a limited number of rares in ur deck and no mythics :)
December 29, 2010 11:53 a.m.
Erg, I wish I had started playing back then, even if I do not have that nostalgia I still get the feeling current magic is to fast, competitive and expensive.
How was it like before?
December 29, 2010 11:54 a.m.
BaconCleric says... #7
I only started playing about 2 months ago, but from listening to the old school players, it seems like Magic has lost something. I agree with Zungx, I wish I had started playing way back when.
Speaking from experience, getting into the game was difficult. I went to my first standard and got destroyed by decks where people had spent probably well over 100 dollars, and all I had at the time was a modified starter deck.
There's a high learning curve to everything now it seems, and it's kind of frustrating if you're new and people get mad at you because you don't know every card in standard by heart and you have to read a lot of them during play just so you can try to figure out what your opponent is doing. The being new aspects especially applies to the different phases of each turn and know when and when not to do something and trying to anticipate what your opponent can do at any time.
I found a place that isn't very competitive to play FNM at, but I still feel like it used to be much different.
December 29, 2010 12:20 p.m.
same with Zungx
i started with the Zendikar block, though i played Alara decks extensively during my year or so life with MTG
i do remember when i was like 12, i picked up a magic deck, and saw Erg Raiders and went "wtf is this?" then went back on my merry way of playing pretend Power Rangers.
December 29, 2010 12:21 p.m.
xeratheenigma says... #9
I moved this thread to the general forums section due to it being a discussionary topic. sorry for any inconvienice. ~Xera
But yes I miss the days when me and my friends built decks outta of card that we thought were cool and not because they costed a lot of $$$ or because they would win the game if they came out. back then none of us new what a top 8 was because we had never went to a tournament before. i think those were the magic games in which i had the most fun.
December 29, 2010 1:07 p.m.
I came into the game back in December of 1993. I used to play a classic style Red and green deck and I loved how it wasn't all about massive combo's and how expensive certain cards where. I mean when I did go to tournaments Necropotence was the most feared deck but people did have answers to it. Theme's used to be a rampant part of the tournaments I played in. I took a hiatus from MtG between 2000-2005, I came back for Ravnica block then left again until Scars came out.
I miss when people would actually build decks from their own collections and had fun instead of going online to see who did what on a World/National level and then go out and copy those decks. I think NETdecking is one of the biggest reasons MtG has lost allot of its true potential as a game of strategy.
December 29, 2010 1:55 p.m.
KrazyCaley says... #11
I have way more fun playing now than I did back in '94 when I was running my Craw Wurm deck. I do kind of miss the days when competitions were completely open-ended and unpredictable, but anyone can still slap together a crazy rogue deck and go win their FNM. Magic is a much bigger world, card-wise, than it used to be in the old days. There are more deck ideas than I can fathom, and the tools to put them together, no matter how crazy the idea, generally exist.
I do miss some stuff about the old days, but I mainly enjoy the Magic I play now over the Magic I played then.
December 29, 2010 10:14 p.m.
Browncoat67 says... #12
@ BaconCleric and anyone else who's a newer player - you should absolutely send feedback to Wizards about what you found hard about getting into Magic. The lively hood of the game is dependent on new players like you and they do listen.
You can go right to the Magic website (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Default.aspx) and contact the designers and developers directly there.
January 4, 2011 9:39 a.m.
It was pretty easy for me to get in once I found T/O. I only started when Scars came out. Being able to use any cards in history to build your decks is awesome. I'm not really competitive about the game and stuff, and I really just buy cards when I find one that I think would be fun to build around. Now that's fun Magic.
January 9, 2011 11:26 a.m.
bunghole69 says... #14
Personally, I blame planeswalkers. They changed the game massively. For me, it was in a bad way.
January 9, 2011 12:27 p.m.
LuminousDemonProductions says... #15
I started in the kamigawa block. Yes, the crazy-@ss "every rare is a legendary" block. I remember thinking: ok, just read the rule book, you'll be fine. And I was, for a while at least. Then I got bored and left the game. I came back just about a week before NP launched. All I can say is that Legacy sounds pretty good right about now. And I'm glad that manaburn is gone.
June 24, 2011 5:08 p.m.
Justarsaus says... #16
i agree with net decking i have tried to play with a pro level mythic conscription deck (back when it was standard) and had the worst time playing magic ever i played... the most fun i have ever had in any type of event was my very first FNM i took a really crappy elf deck with a lot of one of's
June 25, 2011 12:42 a.m.
WhatTheBleep says... #17
It's great to some of the same nostalgia that I have for Magic. Cheers to you all!
July 2, 2011 3:50 a.m.
Justarsaus says... #18
honestly its pointless to complain that magic doesn't feel the same when we all (well at least most of us) go to some sort of competitive event it doesnt matter if its just a local FNM or a PTQ the fault lies withen ourselves if you want to get the "fun" back into magic talk to your play group set limits as to much everyone can spend on decks or how many rares each person can have hell even make your own rules up
July 2, 2011 4:18 a.m.
keithroule says... #19
Thank you everyone for contributing. I love reading all your posts about how you feel about magic and where you feel the game is headed. I find myself complaining a lot about small aspects of the game like the art direction of newer cards and how there aren't more cards that look like Time Walk , (seriously, fucking sweet abstract art!) but I will always love magic so to all of you that miss that unique warm and fuzzy feeling slinging cardboard gave you i hope you find that piece of the puzzle you've been missing. Please continue to post your stories of when you started playing and what you think of the game now cause i assure you i will continue to read them.
July 2, 2011 6:43 a.m.
The_Murderauder says... #20
I started a while ago (late 90s, early 2000s), and it was FUCKING SWEET. I think things were just better back then. Perhaps part of the appeal was discovering something new. Whenever a saw a sweet-ass dragon, or a kick-ass angel I was just like, AWWW YEAHHH.
I hate to admit, but I am one of those old bastards that complains about power creep ruining the game. Competitive play is too intense, too expensive, and too stale for me. Netdecking is a huge problem. I personally believe it reflects a greater trend in society that is moving away from individuality and towards a "whatever works best" attitude. But I digress.
Don't get me wrong, I love some of the things wizards is doing (keyword some), and the Johnny in me (that is, every fiber of my being) loves to see some new, whacked-out card that does something completely unheard of. Just don't make it kick too much ass.
I think Ravnica was my favorite set, in terms of overall world feel, realistic power levels, and variance in deck archetypes.
I only play casual, with a moderately sized playgroup, and if any of us has a problem with the way somebody else is playing, we just say something like "quit being a douche, and stop playing Tinker ." Works like a charm.
July 6, 2011 5:12 a.m.
The_Murderauder says... #21
Also, fuck mythics. The three-tier rarity system kicked ass.
July 6, 2011 5:13 a.m.
I started playing with Antiquities and remember the games where you would have 4-6 turns ppl just put there lands into play and maybee a manaramp till you got some hughe badass creature out XD - those were the days - the creatures had greate artwork but where bad as %&?%
Never really liked competitive gaming cose you would just build some direct-damage or controll deck and rule em all or have some weird mirror but i quite enjoyed the occasional draft.
But my nostalgia left out the window when I finished my cube and now in our magic-group we only play cube and the wakky unpredictable badass games are BACK =) and by now I love MTG for every overpowered card that comes out and every card that does the same as an old one only costs less .... mana ... =/
and to all you ppl crying for the good old days... sorry to say but competitive magic was never anything else than streamlining your deck to be able to kill faster better and most importantly faster XD
so i leave with this final words"Casual Cube Play FTW"
P.S. all typos are copyrightet by ME =)
September 22, 2011 10:59 a.m.
Net decking blandifies(so a word) everything and can not be cured(I once designed an epic deck only to find out that it was already made :( ).
Wizards need to create more cards that have the ability to perform competitively, we should be seeing 15 different decks at least, at nationals not 3.
I want to create a spirit deck for standard at FNM because it reminds me of Kamigawa(my favorite) but I'm just going to get stomped on by the guy playing Birthing Pod loose my money and have no fun.
September 22, 2011 12:10 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #24
Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to do some 2-person Winchester Drafts with some packs of Ice Age I found on eBay. Seeing and playing with the cards made me feel like I was in middle school again, in a good way, but the games themselves were pretty terrible. Creatures were so bad back then, and part of me wondered how any of us even managed to play at all.
The game itself is a lot better now, but the combination of my impressionable mind at that age and the way the design methodology incorporated flavor so strongly (often at the expense of power) was the perfect situation to get me interested and keep me going, so I wouldn't want to change any of it.
September 22, 2011 1:21 p.m.
I was first introduced to MTG when Portal came out, and I started to get into it when Sixth edition was released. I remember playing decks with crap like Trained Orgg , and I got some older cards from a couple of friends that also played; some good (Dark Ritual ) and some bad (Skittering Skirge ).
I stopped playing for a while, and came back for the Odyssey block, which I thought was very fun. The first 'real' decks I remember using were a modified B/R theme deck for Torment's nightmares and an U/G homebrew with Thorn Elemental and a bunch of Apocalypse cards. They weren't awesome decks but I had fun playing with a good group of friends. And that's what I've found to be the most fun part about Magic - getting together with some cool people and tapping cards. After middle school I slowly stopped playing again, as I wasn't a competitive player and didn't find many people who player or still played.
Then I went to college and found that one of my roommates played. I dug out my boxes of old cards, checked out some new ones, and began to play again. After my roommates moved out, I began to play less (a recurring theme, it seems) but one day I saw the two new guys playing some MTG on the Xbox 360 one had. It was the first Duels of the Planeswalkers, and the idea of being able to play on a game console piqued my interest.
I told my roommates about paper Magic and convinced them to try it out. They bought a bunch of old cards, slapped together some awful decks (one tried a B/G control deck with over 100 cards in it), and it was like I was playing back in the early days again. The nostalgia was great, and I still enjoyed playing the game, but all of my decks were far too powerful (they still shudder at the phrases "Sliver" and "Desolation Angel ," for example). I helped them get better, and the games became more fun. One guy made a mono-black Wither deck that was brutal in multiplayer, and the other made a fantastic Furnace of Rath burn deck.
They made a MTG club at the college, which attracted a surprising number of people. Three of the players that showed up were competitive players that entered tournaments, and one in particular had a lot of experience and some excellent decks with him. We all had to get better quickly in order for games to be as fair and fun as possible, and most of us turned our focus from casual Legacy to competitive Standard. Competitive is a lot of hell, but I think it's almost just as fun as casual games. It's exciting (with the exception of netdecking and facing the same decks every tournament) with the downside of being a lot more expensive. It requires a hefty investment of time and money, but I still like it. I've become a much better player by playing with good players and making countless decks, always fine-tuning them for maximum potential.
September 22, 2011 4:24 p.m.
If it wasn't for competitive entering my life I wouldn't be nearly as good as I am now, and I like brewing decks. I do kind of miss the old days where you could slap down a 1/1 vanilla on turn 1 and it took people by surprise, and I think there's an incredible amount of power creep that's heavily shaken up the game (along with Planeswalkers and the mythic rarity, but I think I like most of the Planeswalkers), so I'm glad Innistrad is here to start turning that tide of power creep back. The fast games just aren't as fun as the mid-paced ones. But for me, it's still just about having a good time with my friends and wondering what crazy deck will pop up next in our play group.
September 22, 2011 4:25 p.m.
The_Murderauder says... #27
Just for the record, I'm not saying being competitive is bad. Magic is still a game, and it is still about winning! I'm just saying I find it much more fun to become more advanced and more competitive about the game on my own terms. It's not fun being forced into a format where there's absolutely no leeway; where you either have to play one of these four decks, or you just cant win, period. That is what many high-level constructed tournaments are, now. Which is not to say they were much different back in the day. There was maybe just a little more variation in deck archetypes at any given tourney.
Although, I will say this. I'm very excited about the Modern format. It looks like it's been shaping up well, and there seems to be a fair amount of variance. I'm also looking forward to Innistad bringing back much of the flavor that Magic once had.
September 22, 2011 6:09 p.m.
You probably don't need to play a top deck to win. After all, the top decks weren't always top decks; somebody somewhere had to be the first to put the deck together.
I think there are a few different types of competitive players. There's "I must get first place," "I'd like top 4 or 8," and "I just like to play, but somewhat competitively." These all combine with "I must play the best deck," "I want to play a good but fun deck," and "screw everybody else, I'm going to play whatever I feel like."
The different flavours of competitive give it its interesting edge, I think, although it's sad when the majority of players seem to be "I must get first place" + "I must play the best deck." The game just seems like it wouldn't be very fun for them, unless they only get fun from winning.
I personally like to win, but I also refuse to play one of the top decks that everyone says you need to play in order to win. The only top decks I've played on a competitive basis, I've put together only because I already had the cards lying around being unused, and I just played them a handful of times for the fun of it. I think it's a lot more fun to try and win with decks that you never find on top 8 lists, and it feels more satisfying when you do win.
TimProctor says... #2
Yes.
I started playing back in BETA and played until Visions or Weatherlight. I left the game because it was getting ridiculous.
I started playing again about 4 months ago and with all of the new cards, the sophomoric rules lawyering, and such it was reminding me of why I left.
But, I really do like the popularity of Drafting, Cubing, and other formats like Commander, or the good old theme deck.
December 29, 2010 9:36 a.m.