Magic: The Gathering

[Urza!]

Triggered abilities that trigger off of spells being cast still trigger if the spell is countered.

[Genosync]

Triggered abilities that trigger off of spells being cast still trigger if the spell is countered.

Sweet, just wanted to make sure that a crazy play earlier where I countered my own Dig through Time to proc some more Prowess was legit. Was a draft online, had two of the 4/2 Hexproof Prowess things out, and a Dig, Stubborn Denial, and that 3R +1/+0 and fight card (terrible card but worked out here). I needed to do 15 damage and my opponent went all in the turn before with nothing left to block. Exile 6, pay UU, cast Dig, 5/3s. Counter Dig, 6/4s. Play fight card, 7/5 and an 8/5, take out one of his dudes, swing for game. Probably one of the craziest sequences I've ever had; I'd have never seen it coming if it happened to me.

[Weltall]

Boetcher is ass, and that other kid who got popular a few years ago on the SCG cirtcuit cheats his ass off too, Lewis Laskin. I am 4-0 against him lifetime, and I caught him cheating once, but didn't call a judge and just made him cut my deck an additional time; he couldn't have won anyway given my board so I just said fuck it.

Whatever happened to Gerry T?

[Ghost_Wheel22]

Been grinding that Pro Tour and GP circuit. In fact I believe he should be at GP Santiago this weekend.

Also if anyone attending GP: New Jersey is interested in selling their Brainstorm sleeves or a playmat shoot me a PM.

[AidenCarby]

Just started playing, why is this so addictive? Went down south for a friends wedding and he and his buddies all played, don't think I've had this much fun nerding out in ages man. Where do you guys buy your stuff? Any online resources? Amazon seems to be a let down in this department, and there really aren't any local card shops in my area that draft. Come to think of it, there really aren't any local card shops period, I'd have to get my shit at wal-mart.

[BaneTheBrawler]

a lot of places that aren't card shops sell cards. walmart, obviously. usually up by the registers with the pokemon and yugioh cards. around here there's a bookstore, a boardgame store, and a general toy/hobby store that all sell cards, in addition to the card shop. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure the book store opens boxes and pulls out the packs most likely to have expensive singles, then sells the singles. I don't particularly object, but when I buy cards I want a shot at those nice singles, so I don't buy from them.

for online, i use Card Kingdom. They seem to have good selection and prices. Personally, I object to using StarCityGames at all. They do some unethical/shady/uncool/whatever stuff, imo.

[Viserdes]

tcgplayer is usually the go to place to buy singles, then you have ebay which you can get cards for as cheap or cheaper then tcgplayer, but make sure to buy from a reputable seller of course. Sometimes card kingdom and channelfireball will have sales that makes their prices worth buying from. Ive only bought from SCG one time, it was fine but honestly they charge waaaay to much for their cards and id personally avoid them unless your looking for a particularly hard to find card.

Basically, i just buy from tcgplayer, occasionally card kingdom if i have store credit (i sell my cards to them from time to time when particular cards spike in price).

[GoggleHead]

Just started playing, why is this so addictive? Went down south for a friends wedding and he and his buddies all played, don't think I've had this much fun nerding out in ages man. Where do you guys buy your stuff? Any online resources? Amazon seems to be a let down in this department, and there really aren't any local card shops in my area that draft. Come to think of it, there really aren't any local card shops period, I'd have to get my shit at wal-mart.

If you're looking to buy singles, you should start here just to get a handle on where the market is at any given moment. Some online shops charge a little higher so you might want to shop around.

[Jakson]

Like everyone else said, tcgplayer,com / starcitygames.com / cardkingdom.com are all decent sites (Whats the scg stuff you're talking about, Bane?) and don't buy from places like Walmart or Target; I've heard that they all don't get a discount that your local game store (LGS if you aren't with the lingo yet) gets, so they're always going to be more expensive, and you run the risk of getting a return that someone pulled something good out of. Buy a booster box or two, you'll understand why it's so addictive, then realize how inefficient it is, then you'll start building decks by buying individual cards bought from the sites mentioned. Come to think of it, aren't you BG's resident rich guy? Or was that someone else?

[Genosync]

Like everyone else said, tcgplayer,com / starcitygames.com / cardkingdom.com are all decent sites (Whats the scg stuff you're talking about, Bane?) and don't buy from places like Walmart or Target; I've heard that they all don't get a discount that your local game store (LGS if you aren't with the lingo yet) gets, so they're always going to be more expensive, and you run the risk of getting a return that someone pulled something good out of. Buy a booster box or two, you'll understand why it's so addictive, then realize how inefficient it is, then you'll start building decks by buying individual cards bought from the sites mentioned. Come to think of it, aren't you BG's resident rich guy? Or was that someone else?

Other bit is, if you're going to shop at your LGSes, look around. There's two where I am within 15 minutes of each other. One has a much smaller store with a much smaller playing area, and one is bigger with a larger play area and way more events. And the smaller one charges nearly 20% more for everything.

[AidenCarby]

Like everyone else said, tcgplayer,com / starcitygames.com / cardkingdom.com are all decent sites (Whats the scg stuff you're talking about, Bane?) and don't buy from places like Walmart or Target; I've heard that they all don't get a discount that your local game store (LGS if you aren't with the lingo yet) gets, so they're always going to be more expensive, and you run the risk of getting a return that someone pulled something good out of. Buy a booster box or two, you'll understand why it's so addictive, then realize how inefficient it is, then you'll start building decks by buying individual cards bought from the sites mentioned. Come to think of it, aren't you BG's resident rich guy? Or was that someone else?

I bought a theros and khans of tarkir box for me and my buddy was getting married so as his wedding gift I bought him a few boxes. We had booster battles, was pretty fun. He helped me put together a list of cards I needed, nothing outlandish left I pulled a fair bit of what I needed though no thoughseizes, so substituting with despises for now, and still need some heros fall or w/e. I pulled a holo fetch land on my third or fourth booster, he freaked after I gave it to him. And well, yeah I have $ but still don't want to throw money at wal-mart when I could support a local business or something.

[Jakson]

What genosync said...I've got three within a few minutes and it's either I get a small selection for good prices, or a great selection that's 50-200% more than everywhere else, so check yours out if you find some in your area. And yeah, I was just wondering if deck prices for the major formats (Standard, Modern, Legacy) were going to come as a bit of sticker shock to you, as the cheapest of which is going to run you like $300 to play competitively any time soon. Legacy/Vintage decks can easily run $3k.

[Genosync]

What genosync said...I've got three within a few minutes and it's either I get a small selection for good prices, or a great selection that's 50-200% more than everywhere else, so check yours out if you find some in your area. And yeah, I was just wondering if deck prices for the major formats (Standard, Modern, Legacy) were going to come as a bit of sticker shock to you, as the cheapest of which is going to run you like $300 to play competitively any time soon. Legacy/Vintage decks can easily run $3k.

Well, you can probably get away with super fine tuned $100ish budget decks in most areas, but it depends on whether or not you're dealing with something that hard counters what you run. Budget decks always have a hard time in a matchup that's obviously bad for them, both because of typically the turn-behind mana base which is where budget decks cut a lot of costs on, and the usual slightly lacking sideboard.

Standard, while usually pretty balanced, gets expensive as hell to play at a high level. Just think--you can either buy a current gen console, or a properly built Standard tier1 deck. Yeahhhhhh....

[Urza!]

My advice if you're just getting in to the game. First off: find a group of people locally to play with, or start a MtGO account. Usually this means locating your local LGS (I use the word local pretty lightly my LGS is 40 min away).
Secondly: pick a format and focus on that; for most beginners this means Standard as that is what most people play, but depending on your local meta could be Moder or Legacy or even Comnander (my personal favorite).

Acquiring cards is actually the easy part. Your LGS will gave a lot of what you may want/need, but not all. The best site online to buy singles is hands down tcgplayer.com because they actually search dozens (maybe more) sites for the best prices and offer you a range of selections for the card you're looking for.

Welcome to the best hobby in the world. Enjoy your stay :D

[AidenCarby]

Currently working on a blue and black deck, it's only got like 3-4 creatures in it and the rest is counter/piss you off. It's pretty fun, I'm sure it's standard format. Might pick up some perilous vaults and the other stuff I need online if the single cards are reasonable. We allowed to buy/sell/trade here? Don't want to throw up a wtb post in the thread and get banned.

[Genosync]

Currently working on a blue and black deck, it's only got like 3-4 creatures in it and the rest is counter/piss you off. It's pretty fun, I'm sure it's standard format. Might pick up some perilous vaults and the other stuff I need online if the single cards are reasonable. We allowed to buy/sell/trade here? Don't want to throw up a wtb post in the thread and get banned.

Probably a WTB thread in the buy/sell/trade forum, and link to it here.

[BaneTheBrawler]

the SCG stuff im referring to is that they essentially treat magic like their own personal stock market. they buy a shitton of boxes, then sit on them for years until they have the only ones left, then start selling them at exorbitant prices. i also wouldn't be surprised if they do the select-box opening.

they're why innistrad is so expensive.

[Moridam]

yeah, as others have said, i shop locally and do my online purchasing at tcgplayer.

in other news, i traded in that foil delta for $85 this afternoon for a normal delta, mire, sorin, a couple ashclouds, an ensnaring bridge, and a pack of khans which netted me a flooded strand. my luck with pulling fetches is apparently unstoppable

[Myrrh_Quetz]

Jesus fucking Christ I am a fucking moron.

Modern tourney. Round 1, game three. I have three noble hierarchs and 1 glistener elf out. Opponent plays an engineered explosives for 1. I pact of negation, he lightning Helixs my noble, I pay 4 life and double mutagenic growth it. He passes his turn. Without thinking I fucking Drew my card and lost

Fuck fuck fuck

[BaneTheBrawler]

i hate that kind of mistake. i was playing my spirit deck, had a huge army of unbeatable spirit tokens out. about 2 turns prior i'd gotten a chance to see what my opponent had in hand. it was aetherize. i forgot and attacked with everything.