So 2 articles and you have peacocked several times. Your title piqued my interest but only provided your accomplishments and what you plan on doing. Why not have written an article about 1) Drafting and then a look at things to come.
In all truthfullness, I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on the subject matters you listed. As a average player (1800 constructed, 1700 limited), I can keep my head above water. But it would be nice to take the next step and I think I can learn something from you. It is always worth hearing other peoples opinions and views on matters. The subjetc matters you listed can help players become better if the advice is sound. I have feeling you will give us sound advice. But lose the attitude, you come across as smug.
The funny thing is, and I failed to mention this in my review, but if this game cost a flat amount ($20-$30) and gave you all the current content with in game ways to unlock it, and free multiplayer, which patch support and occasional DLC... I'd probably buy it. It's not that they're using a free-to-play model, it's that the one they're using is just ten kinds of awful.
Krebmart: thanks for the advice. Based on the review above, I would have downloaded the free trial to see how it is. But if SOE is kneecapping the secondary market by requiring ALL trades to be done in real dollars with 15% going to them, then I can tell that this game will go NOWHERE. MTGO is bad enough. I didn't know about MTGT until today, and I'll put it out of my memory.
Yeah, this game is really bad. And you didn't even touch the awful trading system. There is no way to directly trade between two players. Instead, everyone has to use the auction house. There, you post a card (a single card at a time, which itself is silly) asking for a certain amount of gold. And you have to pay gold in order to do that. The amount of gold you pay scales up the higher you price your card, and also scales up the longer you want it to be posted. Then, SOE takes 15% of the sale price if your card sells. Ugh.
Honestly, if you're looking for a game that is what MTGT should have been, try Pox Nora. It is established, stable and a LOT cheaper.
I played almost all SOE online ccg´s, from the beginning of autoassault, the takeover (I still hate them for this) of Starchamber (most awesome game), from Pirates, Stargate to Starwars galaxies ccg, I played them all.
And I saw ALL OF THEM fall down due to mismanagement of SOE. no more updates, no bugfixes, no involvement at all, unless you had payment problems.
They take your money, you enjoy the first 1-3 expansions with your friends, and then SOE just moves on to another moneymilker, and you wonder why you invested so much in it.
please stay away from it, you´ll thank me later...
Eh, in the past I've alluded to other bots and other websites, but have done so in perspective. The key is not bashing MTGOTraders or PureMTGO, and since the collective "they" is fantastic to work with in the first place, there's no reason to bash them anyway.
"5) Finding a Good Set of Bots to Sell and Buy From"
is going to have to either be an MTGOtraders advert or not get published on this site? Then again, nobody seems to edit the majority of the articles that go up, so perhaps you'll just get it through!
I played 3 online SOE trading card games in the past and all I can say is this: Stay away from SOE! Seriously! I witnessed firsthand how they turn pure gold into worthless junk in no time (which even includes the mighty Star Wars license).
Poor customer service, not fixing bugs in time, the whole "non-US can't participate in tournaments" nonsense, a lot of broken cards (due to insufficient playtesting), tons of errata (that's what you get if you release broken cards), lack of advertisement, lack of information, lack of communication...
Do I have to continue?
I haven't tried this one and I will definitely not try it. I sinked a lot of money into SOE's games in the past so I know what I'm talking about. Just stay away from it. You have been warned!
I can't say I had high hopes when I tried this game, since I had totally forgot about it from the first time it was mentioned. The marketing method of it was bad, to say the least. I thought I could play it on my birthday for an hour or so, but when I saw the download still wasn't there I just did something else - again, quite happy to put it down to launch bugs but again it's certainly something that needs to be ironed out of the industry. No installation issues, no crashes, so a point in MTGT's favour.
The actual skeleton of the game seemed quite interesting, and the graphics were very easy on the eyes. The game play really needed a bit of spicing up since a lot of the creatures felt very vanilla - none of them seemed to do anything particularly interesting. I started with the RB Intro and was incredibly disappointed by the deck. I know it's a starter and all, but I couldn't think of a situation where I would prefer one of the enchantments to another creature (though preferably a more exciting one). One removal spell in RB (!) was disappointing, but again I put it down to being a starter.
All in all, I agree with your review. Early days it may be, but it has shown very little promise to me and so I have uninstalled it. I may come back to it in a few years to see if it's improved any, but I wouldn't count on it.
And as the above poster has mentioned, just play Shandalar instead.
I had no problems installing it (win xp, lowend homebuilt system), and it ran fine at max settings. I tried playing it the first day it was released and there was too much lag for a pickup game against someone else. Tonight most of the lag was gone (though enough was there to remind you that its affiliated with wotc).
I played for a little bit but was so bored that I quit and uninstalled the game. Basically nothing happens in this game. The graphics appear to be 3-4 years outdated, and the gameplay is slow and feels pointless. The deck that you start out with is horrible and filled with spells that are completely useless.
In fact I cant find one thing to recomend about this game. I give it a 3/10 if only because it did install properly and run without major issues.
I of course didnt pay for boosters, or enter tourneys, so my opinion is only based on the mission and pickup games.
Pathetic game. Play SHANDALAR instead. btjunkie has it, much better game.
I think the biggest problem for me was buying stuff that probably has no resale value. Unlike mtgo, the game is in its infant stage. An year down the road, all the stuff you bought could be worth nothing.
Gameplay was reasonable but I only tried the beginner's deck. There were a lot of cards that made me wonder why it was there.
The interface was very rudimentary too. It needs a status screen to tell me why something happened. For example, if crushing blow happened it's much better to see the dice roll. It's addicting and gives players some level of involvement.
I think magic has two aspects that it has over other games. The trading part and the meta game part. Tactics hasn't shown either yet and it will take time before the game develops a secondary market and player involvement.
Then again, it's free to play for couple of hours. Nothing is stopping you and it was very very easy to install for me.
I'm looking forward to hearing your perspective. I don't think that there is one singular solution to going infinite, so I like how you've broken everything out. Can't wait!
Thanks for this review. It solidified what I had already heard elsewhere which kept me from trying to get a download going. I may still download it at some point but it sounds like it went the way of D&Donline which was also a huge disappointment to me (mainly because of terribly controls and graphical UI problems.)
My opinions of TRPGS was forever changed by Tactics Ogre which imho is the best one of the genre. FFT copied it (in fact the same programmers defected to Enix from Atlus soon after making Tactics Ogre) I played it long after I put my ps1 in storage in favor of my ps2. It is the only game I still play occasionally from the ps1. Disgaea and it's ilk (about 30 or so other games) are a sort of next generation of the genre. I think as Tactics Ogre defines the initial genre, Disgaea defines the next for certain. Now Culdcept is one of the few games I have actually written and posted a FAQ for which should tell you how much I enjoyed it. I never played Culdcept Saga (which must be a sequel.) I recommend you find the original (for ps2) if you can. It should be in the $5 bin by now.
On Dragon's Breath it is okay if you stay at 1 or 2 targets(Emrakul or Titan) and have 2 Breaths for a 60+% chance of revealing a Breath to your Oathed creature. Can also be hardcast on Titan, but not on Emrakul.
Nice catch! I have to admit to owning that entire set at one point but forgetting where that picture came from. Unless they are still at my parents' house somewhere...
1. Brainstorm each turn to burn him in cards - While brainstorming each turn would speed up my clock, what I am worried at this point is him drawing enough burn before I finish him off. Post sideboard the deck only has 4-5 counters IIRC (been playing UW this week) and if I brainstorm lamely a couple of turns I could just be dead to a few burn spells. While the chances aren't great that this happens it could.
2. Fateseal off lands - Drawing that many spreading seas was a bit of weird luck, knowing that I would have drawn them all I may have switched to this line, but I had already adapted the third line of play so I stuck with it.
3. Fateseal off burn spells - creatures were fine I had removal in hand as well as mystifying maze and creeping tar pits I could use to trade with, post sideboard and at 4 life I can't rely on my few counters to protect a fragile life total, fatesealing is the best way to deal with burn at that point.
The turn I attacked for lethal I ultimated him, it wasn't necessary, but fun :P
The one thing I was not certain about was your play when you got Jacew up to Ultimate. In that match you had three spreading seas, so you were effectively denying him mana. You had three lines of play with Jace there once you got him out of Lightning Bolt range:
1. Brainstorm each turn to burn him in cards
2. Fateseal him off lands
3. Fateseal him off spells
Now, Your spreading seas were functioning as a form of pseudo land destruction, so I think that fatesealing him off spells was the weakest of those three lines of play, because he had spells in his hand he couldn't cast and you were effectively digging him closer to red mana sources. In addition, ramping Jace up to ultimate was of no value since you were attacking for lethal that turn anyway. I think that brainstorming was the corect line of play to best create the conditions that he could not come back from.
That picture of White Queen -- I swear that is from an X-men trading card from the '90s -- maybe "X-men series 1" by Impel, 1992 perhaps? Or maybe Marvel Universe Series 3 (1992?)
Ugh -- now I have to google it or break out my old collections.... oooorrr google, FTW!
Personally I love Chains as a sideboard option but I don't think it's for this deck . Dark Times should be running chaines to stop the flow of Gush, Brainstorm and Jace Ability #2.
Yep, that's essentially what I'm running into here. I start strong but then falter over the long game. I'm thinking a bit more aggression would be the best bet.
Like the list, but UB is pretty heavily dependent on 4 Jace Mind Sculptor for maximum power if you can afford it. Not a huge fan of smother atm, though I know that it does deal with unique threats like Vamp nighthawk.
Nice review! You always do a good job with your articles.
So 2 articles and you have peacocked several times. Your title piqued my interest but only provided your accomplishments and what you plan on doing. Why not have written an article about 1) Drafting and then a look at things to come.
In all truthfullness, I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on the subject matters you listed. As a average player (1800 constructed, 1700 limited), I can keep my head above water. But it would be nice to take the next step and I think I can learn something from you. It is always worth hearing other peoples opinions and views on matters. The subjetc matters you listed can help players become better if the advice is sound. I have feeling you will give us sound advice. But lose the attitude, you come across as smug.
You forgot the Shining Force series.
The funny thing is, and I failed to mention this in my review, but if this game cost a flat amount ($20-$30) and gave you all the current content with in game ways to unlock it, and free multiplayer, which patch support and occasional DLC... I'd probably buy it. It's not that they're using a free-to-play model, it's that the one they're using is just ten kinds of awful.
Krebmart: thanks for the advice. Based on the review above, I would have downloaded the free trial to see how it is. But if SOE is kneecapping the secondary market by requiring ALL trades to be done in real dollars with 15% going to them, then I can tell that this game will go NOWHERE. MTGO is bad enough. I didn't know about MTGT until today, and I'll put it out of my memory.
Yeah, this game is really bad. And you didn't even touch the awful trading system. There is no way to directly trade between two players. Instead, everyone has to use the auction house. There, you post a card (a single card at a time, which itself is silly) asking for a certain amount of gold. And you have to pay gold in order to do that. The amount of gold you pay scales up the higher you price your card, and also scales up the longer you want it to be posted. Then, SOE takes 15% of the sale price if your card sells. Ugh.
Honestly, if you're looking for a game that is what MTGT should have been, try Pox Nora. It is established, stable and a LOT cheaper.
I can only agree with Lord Erman.
I played almost all SOE online ccg´s, from the beginning of autoassault, the takeover (I still hate them for this) of Starchamber (most awesome game), from Pirates, Stargate to Starwars galaxies ccg, I played them all.
And I saw ALL OF THEM fall down due to mismanagement of SOE. no more updates, no bugfixes, no involvement at all, unless you had payment problems.
They take your money, you enjoy the first 1-3 expansions with your friends, and then SOE just moves on to another moneymilker, and you wonder why you invested so much in it.
please stay away from it, you´ll thank me later...
Gullecram from starchamber...
Eh, in the past I've alluded to other bots and other websites, but have done so in perspective. The key is not bashing MTGOTraders or PureMTGO, and since the collective "they" is fantastic to work with in the first place, there's no reason to bash them anyway.
I can't help but think that;
"5) Finding a Good Set of Bots to Sell and Buy From"
is going to have to either be an MTGOtraders advert or not get published on this site? Then again, nobody seems to edit the majority of the articles that go up, so perhaps you'll just get it through!
I played 3 online SOE trading card games in the past and all I can say is this: Stay away from SOE! Seriously! I witnessed firsthand how they turn pure gold into worthless junk in no time (which even includes the mighty Star Wars license).
Poor customer service, not fixing bugs in time, the whole "non-US can't participate in tournaments" nonsense, a lot of broken cards (due to insufficient playtesting), tons of errata (that's what you get if you release broken cards), lack of advertisement, lack of information, lack of communication...
Do I have to continue?
I haven't tried this one and I will definitely not try it. I sinked a lot of money into SOE's games in the past so I know what I'm talking about. Just stay away from it. You have been warned!
LE
I can't say I had high hopes when I tried this game, since I had totally forgot about it from the first time it was mentioned. The marketing method of it was bad, to say the least. I thought I could play it on my birthday for an hour or so, but when I saw the download still wasn't there I just did something else - again, quite happy to put it down to launch bugs but again it's certainly something that needs to be ironed out of the industry. No installation issues, no crashes, so a point in MTGT's favour.
The actual skeleton of the game seemed quite interesting, and the graphics were very easy on the eyes. The game play really needed a bit of spicing up since a lot of the creatures felt very vanilla - none of them seemed to do anything particularly interesting. I started with the RB Intro and was incredibly disappointed by the deck. I know it's a starter and all, but I couldn't think of a situation where I would prefer one of the enchantments to another creature (though preferably a more exciting one). One removal spell in RB (!) was disappointing, but again I put it down to being a starter.
All in all, I agree with your review. Early days it may be, but it has shown very little promise to me and so I have uninstalled it. I may come back to it in a few years to see if it's improved any, but I wouldn't count on it.
And as the above poster has mentioned, just play Shandalar instead.
I had no problems installing it (win xp, lowend homebuilt system), and it ran fine at max settings. I tried playing it the first day it was released and there was too much lag for a pickup game against someone else. Tonight most of the lag was gone (though enough was there to remind you that its affiliated with wotc).
I played for a little bit but was so bored that I quit and uninstalled the game. Basically nothing happens in this game. The graphics appear to be 3-4 years outdated, and the gameplay is slow and feels pointless. The deck that you start out with is horrible and filled with spells that are completely useless.
In fact I cant find one thing to recomend about this game. I give it a 3/10 if only because it did install properly and run without major issues.
I of course didnt pay for boosters, or enter tourneys, so my opinion is only based on the mission and pickup games.
Pathetic game. Play SHANDALAR instead. btjunkie has it, much better game.
I tried it and honestly I can't recommend it.
I think the biggest problem for me was buying stuff that probably has no resale value. Unlike mtgo, the game is in its infant stage. An year down the road, all the stuff you bought could be worth nothing.
Gameplay was reasonable but I only tried the beginner's deck. There were a lot of cards that made me wonder why it was there.
The interface was very rudimentary too. It needs a status screen to tell me why something happened. For example, if crushing blow happened it's much better to see the dice roll. It's addicting and gives players some level of involvement.
I think magic has two aspects that it has over other games. The trading part and the meta game part. Tactics hasn't shown either yet and it will take time before the game develops a secondary market and player involvement.
Then again, it's free to play for couple of hours. Nothing is stopping you and it was very very easy to install for me.
I'm looking forward to hearing your perspective. I don't think that there is one singular solution to going infinite, so I like how you've broken everything out. Can't wait!
Thanks for this review. It solidified what I had already heard elsewhere which kept me from trying to get a download going. I may still download it at some point but it sounds like it went the way of D&Donline which was also a huge disappointment to me (mainly because of terribly controls and graphical UI problems.)
My opinions of TRPGS was forever changed by Tactics Ogre which imho is the best one of the genre. FFT copied it (in fact the same programmers defected to Enix from Atlus soon after making Tactics Ogre) I played it long after I put my ps1 in storage in favor of my ps2. It is the only game I still play occasionally from the ps1. Disgaea and it's ilk (about 30 or so other games) are a sort of next generation of the genre. I think as Tactics Ogre defines the initial genre, Disgaea defines the next for certain. Now Culdcept is one of the few games I have actually written and posted a FAQ for which should tell you how much I enjoyed it. I never played Culdcept Saga (which must be a sequel.) I recommend you find the original (for ps2) if you can. It should be in the $5 bin by now.
Nice.... Classic stuff !!! Woooot!
On Dragon's Breath it is okay if you stay at 1 or 2 targets(Emrakul or Titan) and have 2 Breaths for a 60+% chance of revealing a Breath to your Oathed creature. Can also be hardcast on Titan, but not on Emrakul.
Oh and Thanks for the shout out Whiffy!
hamtastic, love the price charts. Is there any way to view them for cards not highlighted above?
Nice catch! I have to admit to owning that entire set at one point but forgetting where that picture came from. Unless they are still at my parents' house somewhere...
Thank you for the comment.
In regards to the lines of play I saw it thusly:
1. Brainstorm each turn to burn him in cards - While brainstorming each turn would speed up my clock, what I am worried at this point is him drawing enough burn before I finish him off. Post sideboard the deck only has 4-5 counters IIRC (been playing UW this week) and if I brainstorm lamely a couple of turns I could just be dead to a few burn spells. While the chances aren't great that this happens it could.
2. Fateseal off lands - Drawing that many spreading seas was a bit of weird luck, knowing that I would have drawn them all I may have switched to this line, but I had already adapted the third line of play so I stuck with it.
3. Fateseal off burn spells - creatures were fine I had removal in hand as well as mystifying maze and creeping tar pits I could use to trade with, post sideboard and at 4 life I can't rely on my few counters to protect a fragile life total, fatesealing is the best way to deal with burn at that point.
The turn I attacked for lethal I ultimated him, it wasn't necessary, but fun :P
Great article Jake.
Your play was to a very high level.
The one thing I was not certain about was your play when you got Jacew up to Ultimate. In that match you had three spreading seas, so you were effectively denying him mana. You had three lines of play with Jace there once you got him out of Lightning Bolt range:
1. Brainstorm each turn to burn him in cards
2. Fateseal him off lands
3. Fateseal him off spells
Now, Your spreading seas were functioning as a form of pseudo land destruction, so I think that fatesealing him off spells was the weakest of those three lines of play, because he had spells in his hand he couldn't cast and you were effectively digging him closer to red mana sources. In addition, ramping Jace up to ultimate was of no value since you were attacking for lethal that turn anyway. I think that brainstorming was the corect line of play to best create the conditions that he could not come back from.
That picture of White Queen -- I swear that is from an X-men trading card from the '90s -- maybe "X-men series 1" by Impel, 1992 perhaps? Or maybe Marvel Universe Series 3 (1992?)
Ugh -- now I have to google it or break out my old collections.... oooorrr google, FTW!
Impel, 1992
http://www.checkoutmycards.com/Cards/Non-Sports/1992/Impel_X-Men_Series_...
Both of them have their strong points.
Personally I love Chains as a sideboard option but I don't think it's for this deck . Dark Times should be running chaines to stop the flow of Gush, Brainstorm and Jace Ability #2.
Like the list, but UB is pretty heavily dependent on 4 Jace Mind Sculptor for maximum power if you can afford it. Not a huge fan of smother atm, though I know that it does deal with unique threats like Vamp nighthawk.