My G0blin D3ck own j00!!11!!!
Sorry.
AH! GOBLIN GRENADE YOU!!!
Hold on. Almost all out.
BOLT BOLT FIREBLAST DIE DIE DIE!!! RED FIRE GOBLIN DEATH! DIE!
Whew. That was good. I’m done.
Oh yeah. Advice. Play red.
Magic: The Gathering. Cardboard Crack!
I find theme decks amusing as hell. My fellow players find it highly amusing to see what I come up with next. As you can probly tell I’m in it for the fun factor. A few are as follows.
Artifact deck: Loaded to the hilt with Ezra’s lands (Tower, Power Plant, Mine) and other manna producing artifacts. One advantage to this is that no specific colour is need to power these babies and I’m landwalk free. Spells used to pump up the creatures are colour specific but that’s what the Rainbow Vale/Felwar Stone is for. Direct damage spells are very usefull here.
NFL Deck. Wimpy 5 colour but fun to put together. Creatures abound in this game and there are plenty in the NFL to choose from.(yes, I included a Raider) A little bit of liquid paper and Seeker becomes a quarterback sneak,Metamorphis becomes a mid-season trade,and Ring of Renewal becomes Ring of Superbowl.Even an Orcish Spy can get a good look at your play book!
W/B Personal amy deck includes lots of Knights and Soldiers as well as Body Gaurds.
Bad B Movie Deck includes Rats, Wraiths, Vampires, Ghouls, and of course the obligatory Night Mare.
The best tip I can come up with real quick is to be sure to include those life givers. Such as Soul Nets, Ivory Tower and Fountain of Youth as well as the colour specific ones (ie;Ivory Cup for your white deck) These are terrific for not only getting life but avoiding a bit of manna burn as well.
Oh, and Black border decks look so much cooler than white boarders. (Damn, where’s those Fallen Empire Leitburs?)
Most importantly, Have fun with it and don’t let the card hogs steal your joy.
And now, watch as I lose the constant struggle in my soul between “go ahead, just play for fun” and the tournament player that lurks within.
Here’s a classic case of card DISadvantage. It only takes your opponent a well placed lightning bolt to take out two of your cards. (it’s a 2/3, by the way) A two for one trade is good when you’re the one. Very bad when you’re the two.
Be careful when choosing creature enchantments for your deck, because when the creature dies, you generally lose the enchantment with it. Creature enchantments are only worthwhile, IMHO, when they do one of the following things:
Replace themselves immediately by saying “draw a card” (see Sisay’s ingenuity)
Allow you to return them to your hand as an instant (see crown of flames(?))
Stop the creature from dying (see regeneration, or squee’s embrace)
Are just massively good (see Armadillo Cloak)
So in short, for 1 black mana, I’d rather have vampire bats. It’s effectively a 2/1 flyer, not 2/3, and you have to keep some mana to pump it, but it’s just one card, not 2. Ornithopter looks great, what can be better than a free creature? but it doesn’t do anything on it’s own, so it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
This is why I included it only in the Hordes strategy. According to custom, you can only have 4 Vampire Bats (which I also use); Ornithopter/Unholy Strength is just another fairly cheap, effective flyer. If you’re hitting your opponent with an all-out blitz with lots of little creatures, playing a creature card (which can potentially take out one attacker per round) is likely to be more cost-effective than playing a Lightning Bolt (which takes out one attacker, period). If your opponent has enough mana to do both, the strategy is already doomed. As you noted, this is not a good tournament strategy–it’s a fun strategy. It’s fun to play creature after creature, and watch your opponent start counting total damage vs. life.
That’s why I don’t play in tournaments. I like my games to be fun. I understand the power of the inner cheese weasel, but I only let mine out when I’m playing Ars Magica. 
Telcontar, the lifegivers you mentioned are among my favorites. I also like deck/hand manipulation tricks–if you can get Ivory Tower, Library of Leng, Howling Mine, and Black Vise into play at the same time, it’s a beatiful thing.
Arrrgghh.
No matter how far away I get, they suck me back in!
Telcontar said it all. Cardboard crack.
Back in the day…we used to play for an ante (I actually think that this was in the original rules). After shuffling, each player would flip the top card over and put it into an ante pile. Winner got both cards. As so much of the deck is land, our group instituted the rule that it had to be a non-land card. I won my first Shivan Dragon this way. There is nothing like knowing that your best card (and crucial to your best combination) is sitting in the ante pile, up for grabs to the winner. This style of play was the impetus for my “Terrible Weenie” deck consisting of all 1/1 creatures and common/uncommon cards. It was only mildly successful but I never had to worry about the ante.
Have fun. It is a great game.
For those of you who have been playing awhile, a little anecdote. My friend Dave and I were the first of my group to begin playing. Dave had heard that the game was pretty cool so we went down to “The Game Preserve” in Fresno, CA to get some cards. We each bought a starter deck and a couple of boosters. There was another box of boosters there called Arabian Nights. We had no idea what these were and decided to just get the regular revised cards until we knew how to play! Needless to say (so I’ll say it), we never saw Arabian Nights boosters again.
One of the more fun decks I ever built was a thallid deck (remember those from that expansion way back when?). I loaded it up with four of almost every thallid type, and four, um, I can’t remember what they’re called, but it’s a white creature that gives all green creatures +1 +1 (got the manna with birds of paradise and an artifact that you put one mana into, tap, and sacrifice for one mana of any color). That and an infinite hour glass.
Didn’t win often (certainly not against serious players, or anyone whose deck was designed to win quickly), but man was it fun to have counters accruing on almost every card I had in play. Plus I got to make neat sound effects every time I spawned another thallid.
The one deck that I’ve still got together is a green black deck that manages all right, although it’s not all that consistant. It’s full of a lot of low/mid level creatures, and there’s a lot of deck recycling (cards like fallow worm, rogue elephant, and some others). It’s basically designed so that I can cast a lot of decent creatures very quickly, and not worry too much about losing them. I’ve got a few lhurgoyfs (sp?) which then use the dead creatures to their advantage, and a black spell which sacrifices creatures in my grave yard to do x damage to my opponent. Nothing like using my nivineral’s disk to knock off some high powered creatures my oponent is using, losing all my creatures, then burning him for 30 damage! Yeah!
Hey, I haven’t played magic in a long time, but I’m suddenly getting this urge…
Well, yes and no. I’m just pointing out that there’s more to a cost than mana. Using 2 cards instead of 1 is a hidden cost that might not be obvious.
Agreed, but my point still stands if the opponent plays a Wall of Swords, or a Faerie Squadron instead of the bolt. His one card can take out 2 of yours. (or at least dissuade you from attacking with it, which is nearly as bad). My point is just that if you’ve got two cards in your hand, you’re usually better off if they were two creatures, and not a creature and a creature enchantment. Especially in a “horde” deck.
If you’ve already got 4 bats, I’d at least put in roterothopters instead of ornithopters, and one of the various imps instead of unholy strength. (bog, dusk, etc…)
True, true… thus my reluctance to mention it. But the OP asked for strategy, so I’m giving it. I’m trying not to get too deep, but I think card advantage is one of my #1 concerns when I choose cards for decks. Just be glad I haven’t started talking about mana curves or tempo. 
Well, let me just say that tournaments can be quite fun. If you find the right place. If the people aren’t jerks, the tournament format can be a blast. I don’t usually play constructed because I usually get stomped by the latest and greatest deck someone found on the net. But draft and sealed can be great fun. And if you do run into the occaisional win at all costs jerk, it’s that much more fun to beat them fair and square.
Don’t get me wrong, I mostly play fun decks too. (I’ve still got a thallid deck, and a vampire theme deck, and a deck with infinite squirrels, and a deck with an infinity/infinity creature). But even when making fun decks, I try to make them win every now and then.
By the way, KKBattousai, your strategy will obviously depend greatly on the cards you have. But also on the cards AudreyK has. It’s not very sportsmanlike, IMHO, to tailor your deck specifically to beat hers, but the environment of cards that your working in can make you more or less worried about certain strategies. (Like, if you’re playing Invasion-era cards, you probably won’t have to worry much about artifacts, since they mostly suck.)
So, we could probably give you more (than you wanted) advice if we knew which sets your 500 cards came from. What kind of symbols are in the middle right of the cards?
OK, I’ll admit it, I’m just curious…
I had a dragon/elf deck that would do decently most of the time. It took a long time to get in gear, but when I started dropping dragons, my opponent was in trouble. A theme deck, to be sure, but a lot of fun.
Burn decks are a lot of fun. These are the type of decks that chew through your opponents life with cheap instants and sacrificial creatures with high power, low toughness, and trample.
I still have a pretty nasty mono-black recycler deck. Lots of low cost creatures, some removal cards, a few boosters like howl from beyond, some general purpose card recyclers like yawgmoths will, and more reanimation and graverobbing cards than you can shake a stick at.
Thank you for the guidance so far, guys. Right now I’m sorting my deck, and once I’m done I’ll see where my strengths are and stuff.
BTW, ~250 cards is a lot. 
I assume you mean the one between the picture and description? In a quick run through my cards I’ve seen a seven, a mask, two gears, a flag, a snowflake, a halberd, a V, a crown, a vial, and a crescent moon. Do any of those mean anything good?
Looks like you got a pretty wide spread of expansions.
I don’t have much to add, being just a duffer myself, but I’ll offer one suggestion. Don’t just duel one-on-one exclusively. While it is the purest form of the game, I always loved getting 4 or 5 people around the table for a few games. Makes it more of a social event.
So, you two want to get together for a game sometime? Travel’s always an issue, but we could find a coffee shop in neutral territory that wouldn’t mind us slinging cards for a few hours. I bet there are other Seattle-area Magic-playing dopers that would join in. [I am not attempting to hustle you in any way. I really am a mere hobbiest, and haven’t played or improved my collection for a few years. But I’d love to play some friendly matches.]
:eek: Just spotted this thread. I better get outta here, I could double my current post count in this thread alone. :eek:
doh! I can’t do it.
AudreyK the answer(s) to your current question. Here’s some general info on how M:tG sets are released. There is a “basic” set which contains cards that are considered “staples”. For the most part these cards do not have very complex mechanics or represent part of themes. They are meant to be fairly generic. Expansion sets are where advanced mechanics and themes come in. Each year there are four releases, typically one “large”(350 card) expansion which has new cards as well as some “staples” in it. This forms the base for a “block”. Typically a “block” is three expansion sets which form some kind of unit corresponding to part of the storyline told through the cards. You’ll find similar artworks, characters, mechanics, etc, on cards that were all part of the same “block”. If you’re interested in the storyline they typically publish a novel to go along with each expansion. This novel details the adventures of the primary characters the expansion is about.
The rest of the block is two "small’(144 card) expansions. Then there is approximately one release of the “basic” set each year. Sometimes the basic set doesn’t get updated, but sometimes it does. Each of the symbols you describe identifies which set it is from. This is confusing because they did not always do it with the basic set, but unless you get your hands on some older cards(more than four years old) it shouldn’t be too confusing.
A seven = Seventh Edition. The basic set, full spoiler(all card text) can be found here.
A Mask = Mercadian Masquest, a “large” expansion set which formed the basis for the “Masques” block. Full card texts can be found here.
Two Gears = Urza’s Saga. The large expansion set which formed the basis for the “Urza’s” block. Card texts can be found here.
A Flag = Alliances. A fairly small expansion which came out before they started doing the “block” style of card set production. Card texts can be found here.
A Snowflake = Ice Age. The first of the “large”, then called “stand-alone” expansions. This was the set which helped usher in the “block” era. Card texts can be found here.
A Halberd = Nemesis. One of the “small” expansions which was part of the “Masques” block. Card texts can be found here.
A V = Visions. One of the “small” expansions which was part of the “Mirage” block. Card texts can be found here.
A Crown = Fallen Empires. A small set from the days before “blocks”. Generally considered one of the weaker sets, but I feel it has gotten a poor reputation not because it had weak cards, but because the cards which came out before it were supidly powerful. Card texts can be found here.
A Vial, I’m not positive here, because the only symbol I recall that fits such a description is really more like a flask. It’s got a triangular bottom with a straight neck. If this is the symbol you mean, then it’s Urza’s Destiny, one of the small expansion sets that made up the “Urza’s” cycle. A picture of the expansion symbol can be found here. Card texts can be found here.
A Cresent Moon = The Dark. Another old set which predates the “block” method. Kind of a midpoint between the absurd overpowered sets of the earliest days and the reputedly “weaker” sets like Fallen Empires. Card texts can be found here.
There aren’t really good rules to tell if a card is “good” or not just based on what set it came from. There were “good” cards and “bad” cards in every set, even the earliest sets. M:tG is more about how you manage your resources and get them to work together than it is about playing the one amazing card that grants you instant victory. There used to be cards that came close to that definition, but they’re extremely rare and it’s considered poor form to use them these days. Even those cards didn’t provide foolproof wins. Most players don’t have them, so don’t worry about it.
M:tG is a good game, it’ll take an hour to learn and a lifetime to master. Oh, and ~250 cards is nothing. My current playdeck is over 1000 cards. You might be interested in a varient of M:tG which uses an alternate deckbuilding ruleset. Check out 5-Color Magic This allows you to play with a lot of fun cards and makes for a more casual/fun game. If you want to learn to play competitively, then I can recommend some sites for that as well.
Enjoy,
Steven
Doh! “Mercadian Masquest” should be “Mercadian Masques” No ‘t’. Sorry about that.
Oh, and if you feel up to typing it all out, let us know the contents of your deck and we’ll give you ideas on what cards might fit well with it, or help you with themes and such. We’ll try to stick with cards that are either easy to get or that you would probably have.
Enjoy,
Steven
Yes, Audrey, please do print out your deck. 
Saltire, I think I can safely speak for both of us when I say we’re down for a group MTG game. I humbly request, however, that we wait about a month, both so Audrey and I have some idea of what we’re doing, and because we have a friend who may/should be moving up from Hawaii who also got in on the ground floor when it comes to MTG.
And for those of you keeping score at home…
I’m going to be playing with a black and blue deck with more enhancements and instants than creatures (by quite a margin). I’m fully expecting to get creamed. :eek:
Heh, then maybe YOU should post YOUR deck. You can post in seperate threads and both of you have to be honorable and not look at each other’s thread. Knowing what’s in the other guys deck isn’t all that helpful unless you’re REALLY REALLY good at the game, and even then, with the types of decks you’ll probably be playing, it’s every bit as likely to confuse you as help you. [sub][thinking voice]I KNOW she’s got a big nasty thing in her deck and if she plays it she’ll clobber me, so does she have it in her hand? Should I save the kill card in my hand for when she plays her big nasty or should I kill one of her little ones that are irritating me now. Fish, or cut bait, fish, or cut ARRRGGGGHHHH[/thinking voice][/sub]
Enjoy,
Steven
Allrightythen, in a month or so. Of course, that means I’ll have to keep myself at least a half mile away from all game stores, lest I start buying cards in preparation. I absolutely cannot afford to be drawn back into that.
I’m pretty sure I can work out a deck or two with what I have. Time to dig them out and start on the ‘deck tech.’
I haven’t played in a long long time - I quit around the time the first multi-colored cards were coming out.
My decks were always weird. I had one which had about 15 ornithopters in it…they are a free 0/1 flying artifact creature. Not terribly useful, unless you have plenty of buffing spells.
Such a deck can be effective. I have one such deck (black & blue, completely creatureless, entirely instant / enchantment based), known locally as “the Spite Deck”. The idea is that whatever someone plays, I can play a negative enchantment on it, or do something otherwise unpleasant to it. It doesn’t always win, but it is fun to play.
Do they still make Magic? Is there any market for the older cards? I have a bunch of Revised Edition and Fourth Edition stuff, plus some expansions somewhere at home. Haven’t used them in years.