I know his email address, that’s why I said the username fit 
If it is him then he’ll be off playing Friday Night Magic ATM(it’s roughly 9PM in the isles as of my posting) so the more silence actually weighs in favor of your supposition. If it is him(snicker) then he’ll definitely let us know. He always was a fiend for following up on threads and such. He’ll definitely check back in here and I doubt he would be shy about admitting his identity, at least not to us.
Enjoy,
Steven
just wandered in here…but this is great. i played magic about 6 years ago. i can’t imagine how much its changed since then.
the cards previously mentioned in this thread were always the ‘wish list’ cards. i didn’t know they were called the ‘power nine’- my reccomendation would be the black lotus and any of the moxes (depending on what color he usually plays)
In Aberdeen, they have FNM on a Wednesday.
He might be shy about admitting it to everyone else, though, especially since someone’s been impersonating him of late.
Immeasurably. The game has been slowed down to a reasonable power level, and it’s much more tactical these days.
**
I first heard them called “the Power Nine” in 1994 - it’s not a new name. ISTR that prior to Time Vault receiving errata, it was the Power Ten.
I, too, am an ex-MTG guy. I’ve since moved on to another CCG, selling off my entire MTG collection.
I’ll echo everyone’s sentiments here by saying that you’ll really need to find out if your nephew is interested in being a collector foremost, or a player foremost. WOTC (the folks who make MTG) have tournament formats that use different rules for determining what cards are legal for use in tourney play. The Power 9, as they’re called, are only legal in Type 1 (barring any changes in the last 2 years). Type 2 utilizes a rotating block of cards from the lastest base and expansion sets, which are far easier to get a hold of. When last I checked, the major Pro tourneys were using Type 2 for their format, since it is easier for starting players to get into this block from a card purchase standpoint.
And if you find yourself with a little extra cash after the purchase, you could always buy your nephew a starter deck of Legend of the Five Rings, which is my current CCG of choice. We could always use a new player, and the cards aren’t nearly as expensive in the singles market. Of course, he can’t win as much money in L5R, but there’s tradeoffs for everything, I suppose.
oops- i wasn’t very clear with this. i just meant they were always on our (the people i played with) wish list. i’m sure the ‘power nine’ was their official term, but i never played in tournaments.
Point, I should have remembered.**
WTF? Ok, off to google groups I guess. Finally pushed someone over the edge and into cyber-stalking did you? Oh well, I’m honestly not sure which of the two I feel sorrier for, you because some jerk is misrepresenting you or him because you’ve made a bit of a name for yourself that any impersonator would have to be a bit bonkers to willingly take up.
Glad to have you aboard here at any rate, hope you’re still enjoying the game not merely enduring it as far too many of my old-school counterparts are doing these days. Onslaught is pretty cool but I’m still sulking because they totally gutted my absolute favorite card in the game under the pretext of making it “playable” in tournament. As far as I’m concerned this was the time it became absolutely clear the game isn’t supposed to be played between friends anymore but with a judge at each elbow and I’m just not happy about that.
Still, some neat stuff in Onslaught and some stuff that will find its way into my decks I’m sure.
Flypsyde I like L5R too, at least the older stuff. I got a little disenchanted with it around the time of the Hidden Emperor, but the older stuff through the first story arc was just brilliant. Stupid International Olympic Committee. I’ll admit not having followed it after the friend who mainly got me into it moved and I wasn’t able to find other people to play with.
Enjoy,
Steven
You must have checked a long time ago; Type II (AKA Standard) is only used in the World Championships and its qualifiers and in FNM and Arena events. The Pro Tour annually has two Block Constructed events, one Extended event and two Limited events.
Magic event types:
CONSTRUCTED FORMATS
All Constructed formats have a minimum deck size of 60 cards.
Vintage (AKA Type 1) - All base sets and expansions are permitted.
Vintage Restricted (AKA Type 1.5) - As Type 1, except the contents of the Type 1 Restricted list are also banned.
Extended (AKA Type 1.X) - All base sets from 6th Edition on and all expansion sets from Tempest on are permitted. Every three years, three full blocks and all base sets printed before the most recent legal block are retired from play; the next such rotation will take place in November 2005, and will retire the Tempest (AKA Rath Cycle), Urza’s and Masques Blocks along with 6th and 7th Edition.
Standard (AKA Type 2) - Only the most recent base set (currently 7th Edition), the two most recent large expansions and expansions in their blocks are permitted. Every year, the oldest block is retired from play; base sets are retired upon the release of a new base set. The next such block rotation will occur on November 1st 2003, and will retire Odyssey Block; also, 8th Edition will be released this summer, retiring 7th Edition.
Block Constructed formats - Only expansions in the named block (Ice Age, Mirage, Tempest (AKA Rath Cycle), Urza’s, Masques, Invasion, Odyssey, Onslaught) may be played. There are no rotations in this format - once a set becomes legal, it is never retired; however, only the most recent such format tends to see play.
LIMITED FORMATS
All Limited formats have a minimum deck size of 40 cards. Draft formats should be played with exactly eight players, especially Rochester Draft.
Sealed Deck - Each player receives one tournament pack of 75 cards and two to three booster packs of 15 cards. Players construct their deck from these cards alone, though they are permitted to exchange a certain amount of their basic land cards for other basic lands on a one-for-one basis.
Booster Draft - Each player receives three booster packs. Players sit in a circle and open one pack, select a card and pass the remaining cards to the next player. They repeat this procedure until there are no cards left and they have picked 15 cards. Then the same is done for the other two packs. Cards are passed alternately left, right and left in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd packs. Players then construct their decks from the cards they picked, adding an unlimited amount of basic land cards of their choice.
Rochester Draft - as Booster Draft, except only one player opens a pack at a time. The opening player picks a card, then each player in turn picks a card until the 8th and final player picks. The 8th player then picks again (known as “wheeling”), then picks proceed in the opposite direction until the last card is picked by the player who picked second in the pack. That player then opens a pack, and the process repeats until each player has opened one pack. Then the same is done for the other packs, with the last player to open a pack in the last round of packs opening the first pack in the next and with the initial direction of picks alternating left, right, left in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd round of packs.
Which edition are these priced that way for?
I have 5/9 of them (Ruby, Pearl, Emerald, Lotus, and Time Walk) from, IIRC, 3rd. (I’ve got a few Alpha and Beta cards, but I don’t think any of these are among them.) At least I used to. Haven’t looked at my retired cards (Rarish, oldish cards) recently.
The lotuses, Ruby and Emerald are pretty beat up, though…I got good use from them…
Also have a Shivan Dragon from 3rd, but it’s beat to hell… The Green/Black/Red uberdeck was hell on my powercards.
Really? Not in the Magic newsgroups that I’ve seen, unless they have you down cold. Sorry to hear it. Doubly glad I referred to you only by initials, then. Welcome to the SDMB, by the way. Ascerbic wit is appreciated here.
–
Justin
Nah, just a garden variety asshole. I have a fair idea of who it is, but no way of proving it - he’s using an anonymiser. I really think those people should operate by confirmation-bot; that way, anyone who tries impersonation through them will find their first attempt being sent to the person they’re impersonating complete with headers. <bares teeth in what you hope is a grin>
Stupid FRPG, more like. Not only was the old symbol significantly dissimilar from the Olympic logo, but it’s also the symbol of one of the old Japanese shoguns that dates back to the 16th century; further, they derived the names of their company and of the Five Rings from Miyamoto Musashi’s treatise on sword fighting and philosophy Go Rin No Sho (Five Rings: A Book), which was completed in April 1645. The IOC could not have made any law suit stand, and their claim was so weak that FRPG possibly wouldn’t even have needed lawyers.
<sigh>
Oh well, it’s a moot point now and not worth hijacking a thread.
No, other groups. They’re trying to get me down cold, but they can’t properly match my word choice or style. And of course, they’re shown up by their making claims that I would never make. FFS, if they were imitating me perfectly in the way of flaming spoiler-posters, I’d let them get on with it and save me the effort… <grin>
Your posting style is distinctive, to say the least. When I read your first post in this thread, I forgot momentarily that I wasn’t currently in Google Groups. Then I thought “Why is D telling them to post in rgt-cmm when that’s already where we ARE? Oh, right.”
What brought you to this board? Was it someone on afu?
–
Justin
Where’d you get that idea? I’ve never even read AFU.
No, I got told about it by Neil Gaiman (in his blog).
Huh. Could have sworn I’d seen you mention reading afu before. My mistake. So Gaiman knows about this place. Interesting.
I know I saw it mentioned in the What if LOTR had been written by someone else? thread that quite a few people had heard about that thread (and this site) through Gaiman’s blog.
Yeah, but it’s a real moneysucker. Basically, calculating the probability of getting the cards you want and taking into account the prices of specific ones, the people who spend the most money are the ones who’ll do the best in tournaments. You might argue that ingenuity is important too, and it is, but only to a small extent.
Hey! I’m was not saying that the people who play MtG are losers. It’s just what I said–it’s not a game I consider to be particularly challenging for the mind and thrives on people constantly spending large amounts of money. That’s it. I’m sorry if you took it to be an offense, but it wasn’t; playing MtG does not make you a loser. Are we cool?
I don’t know how much money your nephew has spent, but there are a bunch of useful cards that he would appreciate if he doesn’t have them already, such as:
Birds of Paradise
Wrath of God
Armageddon
Spiritmonger
Morphling
And so forth… Since 4 of a given card is the max allowed in a deck, getting 4 of a good, useful rare that your nephew does not already have may be really appreciated.
The cards listed above should be in the $10-30 range. Note that getting a foil (shiny) version of a good rare will probably double or even triple the price, but these have more collector value, I suppose.
Point the First: Magic is as challenging for the mind as you want to make it. Chess isn’t especially challenging at the basic level either, but there’s many levels of play to play on. You have only experienced the lowest.
Point the Second: My average weekly expenditure on the game is less than the cost of one night on the town (and it’s better for my liver). In fact, amortising the cost of the one booster box and Fat Pack of each expansion that I buy over the four months between releases, my maximum weekly expenditure costs little more than a night out drinking. Most people who play spend less than I do, too. It really isn’t all that large an amount when you consider.
As a fairly recent convert to MtG (in the past year or so), I’m still in awe at the amount of money that can be spent in trying to get a really good deck prepared, even if it’s not for a tournament and more for your playing circle. I’d say that, overall, to build my relatively small collection of MtG cards, I’ve spent around $200 in the past year. Friends of mine have spent close to a thousand (we all started playing at the same time). With the cards I have, I’ve created about two really good decks and about five mediocre yet fun to play ones. And, despite my unwillingness to blow oddles of money on it, I throughly enjoy myself everytime I play (except, of course, when I get my ass handed to me, but that goes for any competitive activity).
That being said, I"m going to have to disagree with your statements concerning the lack of mental challenges the game presents and your disdain for spending sometimes large amounts of money on cards.
First of all, it is incredibly mentally challenging. The best description I’ve heard about it is it is a nerdy combination of chess and euchre. You have to counter the actions of the cards in play but also anticipate the cards someone holds in their hands. Card combos is another aspect of the game that involves some mental work; three seemingly unrelated cards played at the right time can drastically turn the tide of a game.
Also, in regards to the amount of money people dole out for MtG: it is no different than someone paying loads of money for golf or photography. Because MtG involves preplanning, I feel it is more than simply a game; it is a hobby. A hobby which is hardly different than taking numerous photographs with a camera and then paying to have them developed. My father is a photo enthusiast and I know first hand how exceedingly expensive that hobby can be. You get better photos from better (i.e. more expensive) films and cameras, just as you get better decks from better (i.e. more expensive) MtG cards. To be a better MtG player, you need better cards and decks, but to simply have fun, which is the aim of a hobby, I think all you need is a free evening, a lot of cards purchased relatively cheap off ebay, friends, and a case of Mt. Dew.
That’s just my personal opinion, however; your mileage may vary.
–greenphan