Are the cards I used to play Magic with, 10-12, years ago still compatible with the game, or have they changed the rules?
Still compatible. Some will be odd, because they may not fit with the modern deck styles, but still compatible. If you play competitively, you may want to check the errata for each card (check out Gatherer on the MtG page at www.wizards.com for that). They simplified the text for many cards and may have information on how it fits with other new cards.
New cards don’t have certain abilities. Banding is no longer used, mostly because no one liked it. But the ability itself is still good on older cards.
There might be some changes in the restriction/banned list. For instance, strip mine and necropotence are now restricted.
Otherwise no, there shouldnt be any problem. Other than that your deck is probably not very good, since the new cards keep getting more powerful. (unless you have power 9)
I’ve found that older cards hold up fairly well. Maybe not 10-12 years old, but my Tempest (Rath-Cycle) Decks kick most people’s asses. I love Shadow.
That is a gros oversimplification. Older decks regularly kick immense butt.
There was a major rules change a few years ago (when Sixth Edition came out), but all the older cards have been given new wordings to work essentially the way they used to.
Most of the rules changes made will just change the actual rules to be closer to what the casual player actually played. Odds are that you were never quite playing interrupts, damage prevention, or characteristic setting abilities correctly, as the rules actually stated, because they were needlessly complicated and counterintuitive.
The biggest changes (that non-rules gurus are likely to know about) are:
[ul]
[li]Artifacts no longer “turn off” when tapped. A few artifacts (Howling Mine, for example) were given special wordings so that they only work when untapped, but the general rule of them turning off is no longer true.[/li][li]Tapped blocking creatures now deal combat damage. You still have to be untapped to block, but once blockers are declared, you can tap the creature for some ability and still have it deal damage.[/li][li]Interrupts = Instants. If you knew the rules well enough to know about the interrupts window and “successfully cast” triggers, well… they no longer exist.[/li][li]And the biggest one: Combat damage is put on the stack, just like an ability or a spell. Example: you attack with a Grizzly Bears(2/2) and I block with a Prodigal Sorceror (Tim) (1/1, T: deal 1 damage to target creature or player). After blocking, I tap Tim to deal 1 damage to the Bears. Combat damage goes on the stack (1 assigned to Bears from Tim, 2 assigned to Tim from Bears), and in response, I play Unsummon to bounce my Tim back to my hand. Effects resolve in LIFO order, so Tim goes back to my hand, then the Bears takes 1 damage, killing it. Since Tim is no longer in play, he can’t take the damage that would be dealt to him.[/li][/ul]
I agree with the others, though. In any serious competitive environment, your old decks will be toast. Cards that old are only playable in T1 or Legacy, and those formats have evolved considerably in the last 10 years. You can still have fun in a more casual setting, though, and some of your old cards will likely be quite strong.
Echoing others: Some older cards were so ridiculously strong that they had to be banned. Some were so narrow, expensive or weak that they were laughably bad. The game’s design has come a long way since then. That’s not to say broken and bad cards aren’t still printed, but over all, it’s amuch smoother and more cohesive design. It’s a good bet that 99% of cards printed nowadays see play somewhere. (Last year, One With Nothing was touted as the worst card ever printed. Well, last weekend it showed up in the sideboard of the Pro Tour, which is the most competitive regualr tournament short of the World Championship.)
If you just plan to play casually, whatever cards you have will work fine, although brushing up on current rules and wording would be a good idea.
Yeah, but that was just hot air from people who didn’t know what they were talking about. I mean, One with Nothing at least does something, and does it well. It puts cards from your hand into your graveyard, efficiently. The worst rare ever has to be Pale Moon, which fails to even accomplish its purported purpose: hosing non-basic lands.
No they don’t. T1 decks include a certain set of older cards that kick butt, the so-called “power” cards (plus Bazaar of Baghdad and some others that weren’t recognized back then), but an older deck is going to be hopelessly outclassed. Taking an old deck without Force of Will, Duress, Tinker, various Storm cards, modern goblins, Oath, 3Sphere, etc. to a T1 tournament would just be lambs to the slaughter.
I didn’t say T1. I said older. robdavsuss’s cards would probably be toast. Older cards in general are not neccessarily.
The rules have changed, mostly for the better. Many card updates “called Errata” have been made to older cards retroactively to make them fit in the new rules frameworks. I’d recommend reading section 3 of the Comprehensive Rulebook as a refresher, most of it will be familiar, and study the first few bits of section 4 as they relate to the stack and how to use it. Those are probably the biggest changes. You may want to look at the Oracle Judge’s Reference which contains the current “official” wording of each card. You can look cards up individually in Gatherer(an online database hosted by Wizards with all the info they refused to give us in the old days like rarity and actual card images) and check their “Oracle text” section to get current wordings of specific cards if you want.
If you’re wanting to get back into the game, here’s my advice. Start small, find some people who play casually and get your feet wet again. Do NOT trade with anyone for your older stuff until you get the hang of it. Most stuff from ten years ago is not all that valuable, but stuff from twelve years ago could well be.
Enjoy,
Steven
I’ve not played for years. In my day, power decks were the ones with some very rare cards that everyone wanted. Mana denial decks that had lots of stone rains and destroyed your opponents lands as soon as they were laid. Mox jewels. Multicoloured lands. How would these do against modern decks?
A good land destruction/mana denial deck works better now than ever. Wizard had been trying to slow the game down in recent years.
haha, that pale moon sure is damn bad.
If the opponent just has some basic lands, its close to useless.
Hmm, also, can the opponent not just tap his lands in response, and get the colored mana.
If you still have those Moxen, prepare for some good news.
Would one of my old Counter/Kismet/Stasis decks be able to keep up?
The honest answer is “we can’t tell you”. We could analyze a decklist, if you provided one, figure out what formats it would be legal in, analyze the prevailing metagames in those formats based on reports from various events for the decktypes which are prevalant or successful and try to estimate how your deck would do against them, but none of this is exactly scientific. The metagame as percieved through reports and articles published on the Internet will almost certainly be vastly different from any real-world games you play. Even if we were exactly right about the prevalant decks and the players in your local M:tG scene were building decks from Internet decklists(which is common, but by no means universal) the biggest factors are the players piloting those decks. Especially for counter-based control decks. You have to know what is a threat to you and what isn’t. When to use a counter and when not to.
The overall strategy behind Counter-Stasis decks, resource denial, is still sound. You just need to get a feel for your local players, the decks they play, and what tactics you need to use to beat them.
Enjoy,
Steven
Stasis deck = Carpet of flowers. I played this against one guy who only played Stasis. He never played stasis again.
if you dont want to get back into the game… you can always just give me your cards.
But yes… they should be fine. I would suggest buying the newest set only… as most mechanics have truthfully come and gone in your break from the game.
And agreed, old cards will kick butt. WOTC has all but said it will not reprint “Counterspell” need I say more?