The Inside Scoop on Gaming

It turns out the original Collectible Card Game, the first entry in a whole new hobby, apparently hasn't been reviewed yet here. I know there are some roleplayers who resent the game (and others of its kind) for dragging people away from RPGs, resulting in (among other things) TSR getting gobbled up by WotC which in turn got gobbled up by Hasbro, but speaking as one who plays both I see no inherent conflict. MAGIC has an obvious fantasy element but nonetheless primarily appeals to a player's sense of strategy, as opposed to an RPG's emphasis on imagination and taking on a part. And of course, both hobbies survived.

So, the basic explanation of the game. The players take on the role of powerful magicians battling over an entire "plane" of existence. (Though this is no more role-playing than CLUE.) They play and tap land cards for mana, allowing them to cast spells. Mana comes in five colors: white, representing life and "good"; black, representing death and evil and decay, etc; red, representing chaos, earth and fire; green, representing nature and growth; and blue, representing order, water, air, and the mind. Spells come in a number of categories. Creatures are what you summon to battle with your opponent's creatures- if a creature attacks and no opposing creature blocks it, it does damage to your opponent. If an opponent loses all of his 20 life, he's out. Sorceries and Instants have powerful one-shot effects like gaining life or destroying creatures. Enchantments are spells with permanent effects, that are either continuous or can be "activated" by paying mana. Artifacts can be paid for with mana of any color, and also provide permanent effects (and some act as Creatures.) There are also lands that provide other effects besides mana, spells that "counter" other spells, etc. There. Rules summary over.

The official 'setting' for the game is Dominia, a multiplanar universe, and Dominaria, one of the worlds in that universe, is often the focus. Expansion sets (both large and small) have dealt with a war between two powerful mages called Urza and Mishra, an Ice Age, and other developments in the planes. Right now the game's slogging towards the end of a huge multi-expansion storyline about an evil plane called Phyrexia planning to invade Dominaria by way of the artifical plane of Rath. Things get complicated. All that you really need to know is that the setting (expressed in card art and "flavor text" that doesn't affect gameplay) is a bit different from traditional Tolkienesque fantasy- it has a definite late 20th/early 21st century bent. There are highly advanced artifacts working like machines (any sufficiently developed magic is apparently indistinguishable from technology), all sorts of stuff about "planeswalking" and interaction of universes that comes close to science fiction, and a host of weird and interesting creatures. Well, most of them are interesting. Granted, this isn't an absolute departure from tradition- there are expansion sets based on more traditional concepts like the Arabian Nights, creatures include the usual goblins and elves (not many dwarves and orcs, for some reason), and of course dragons. The art is generally fine, and I've often found myself playing with cards that weren't particularly powerful just 'cause they looked cool.

Gameplay itself is quite strong. The system of tapping for mana, then spending it on spells is intuitive and simple, and combat works on a similar level that makes sense, but also allows for a number of clever strategies. Like a lot of great games it's easy to learn, not so easy to master.

Of course, one flaw here is that sometimes it gets a bit too intricate. Because of tournament gaming, where players stand to make money from being good at MAGIC, some horribly abusive card "combos" creep up from time to time. These revolve around generating things like infinite mana loops, card-drawing loops, then finishing off with big "kill cards." A good game of any kind should not last only three turns, but as it is the current "expert" environment for MAGIC is way too fast and cutthroat. Not to mention expensive- in order to keep the big tournaments from being dominated by the same powerful cards all the time, the most popular and widely supported "Type 2" tourney environment allows only the most recent basic set and 2 most recent expansion "blocks" (one large expansion followed by two smaller ones.) And of course getting all the big cards from each set involves either buying whole booster boxes or paying mucho dinero for single cards. Yipes. I'm also taking off one point for style simply because the imaginative aspect of the game doesn't blend in as well as it does in other CCGs- there are a lot of cards with effects that can't really be imagined in terms of the premise.

That said, if you play with the right people- i.e., friends and gamers who don't care about first turn kills and just want to have a bunch of creatures and spells flying- MAGIC can be a lot of fun. Buy the starter set, maybe a few boosters and tournament decks to customize and create your own decks, and play.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Magic: The Gathering
Author: Richard Garfield (at first) Category: CCG Company/Publisher: WotC Line: Magic: The Gathering Cost: 9.99 for starter set Page count: n/a Capsule Review by Evan Waters on 06/27/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	It turns out the original Collectible Card Game, the first entry in a whole new hobby, apparently hasn't been reviewed yet here. I know there are some roleplayers who resent the game (and others of its kind) for dragging people away from RPGs, resulting in (among other things) TSR getting gobbled up by WotC which in turn got gobbled up by Hasbro, but speaking as one who plays both I see no inherent conflict. MAGIC has an obvious fantasy element but nonetheless primarily appeals to a player's sense of strategy, as opposed to an RPG's emphasis on imagination and taking on a part. And of course, both hobbies survived. So, the basic explanation of the game. The players take on the role of powerful magicians battling over an entire "plane" of existence. (Though this is no more role-playing than CLUE.) They play and tap land cards for mana, allowing them to cast spells. Mana comes in five colors: white, representing life and "good"; black, representing death and evil and decay, etc; red, representing chaos, earth and fire; green, representing nature and growth; and blue, representing order, water, air, and the mind. Spells come in a number of categories. Creatures are what you summon to battle with your opponent's creatures- if a creature attacks and no opposing creature blocks it, it does damage to your opponent. If an opponent loses all of his 20 life, he's out. Sorceries and Instants have powerful one-shot effects like gaining life or destroying creatures. Enchantments are spells with permanent effects, that are either continuous or can be "activated" by paying mana. Artifacts can be paid for with mana of any color, and also provide permanent effects (and some act as Creatures.) There are also lands that provide other effects besides mana, spells that "counter" other spells, etc. There. Rules summary over. The official 'setting' for the game is Dominia, a multiplanar universe, and Dominaria, one of the worlds in that universe, is often the focus. Expansion sets (both large and small) have dealt with a war between two powerful mages called Urza and Mishra, an Ice Age, and other developments in the planes. Right now the game's slogging towards the end of a huge multi-expansion storyline about an evil plane called Phyrexia planning to invade Dominaria by way of the artifical plane of Rath. Things get complicated. All that you really need to know is that the setting (expressed in card art and "flavor text" that doesn't affect gameplay) is a bit different from traditional Tolkienesque fantasy- it has a definite late 20th/early 21st century bent. There are highly advanced artifacts working like machines (any sufficiently developed magic is apparently indistinguishable from technology), all sorts of stuff about "planeswalking" and interaction of universes that comes close to science fiction, and a host of weird and interesting creatures. Well, most of them are interesting. Granted, this isn't an absolute departure from tradition- there are expansion sets based on more traditional concepts like the Arabian Nights, creatures include the usual goblins and elves (not many dwarves and orcs, for some reason), and of course dragons. The art is generally fine, and I've often found myself playing with cards that weren't particularly powerful just 'cause they looked cool. Gameplay itself is quite strong. The system of tapping for mana, then spending it on spells is intuitive and simple, and combat works on a similar level that makes sense, but also allows for a number of clever strategies. Like a lot of great games it's easy to learn, not so easy to master. Of course, one flaw here is that sometimes it gets a bit too intricate. Because of tournament gaming, where players stand to make money from being good at MAGIC, some horribly abusive card "combos" creep up from time to time. These revolve around generating things like infinite mana loops, card-drawing loops, then finishing off with big "kill cards." A good game of any kind should not last only three turns, but as it is the current "expert" environment for MAGIC is way too fast and cutthroat. Not to mention expensive- in order to keep the big tournaments from being dominated by the same powerful cards all the time, the most popular and widely supported "Type 2" tourney environment allows only the most recent basic set and 2 most recent expansion "blocks" (one large expansion followed by two smaller ones.) And of course getting all the big cards from each set involves either buying whole booster boxes or paying mucho dinero for single cards. Yipes. I'm also taking off one point for style simply because the imaginative aspect of the game doesn't blend in as well as it does in other CCGs- there are a lot of cards with effects that can't really be imagined in terms of the premise. That said, if you play with the right people- i.e., friends and gamers who don't care about first turn kills and just want to have a bunch of creatures and spells flying- MAGIC can be a lot of fun. Buy the starter set, maybe a few boosters and tournament decks to customize and create your own decks, and play. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Magic: The Gathering