Syphilis and CCGs: Magic: The Gathering's Shadowmoor Expansion

Joe revisits his misspent youth while sampling Magic: The Gathering's latest expansion, Shadowmoor.

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Oh my. seeing the mere mention of the Pokemon CCG Brought back a flood of memories id rather had kept surpressed in the depths of my murky memories :-)

Sounds like you relived the good times.

Heh, I used to play MTG in the same period that you did and I know all those old card names you wrote about. I stopped when fifth edition came out. It looked a bit too glosssy to me and I didn't have the money to keep up. Though magic hasn't turned out bad, but I still don't feel like spending money and effort to start again. I play eye of judgement now, and it's nice to grab your pack of cards and play online. It has some things about it that are different from MTG that I like and are an improvement, and I still miss some other things, in some ways its not as complex. However, new themes are coming out which create more complexity, and I like that.

Brings back the phrase "3 damage...to the dome!" Oh how I loved my direct damage goblin deck.

Girlysprite:
Heh, I used to play MTG in the same period that you did and I know all those old card names you wrote about. I stopped when fifth edition came out. It looked a bit too glosssy to me and I didn't have the money to keep up. Though magic hasn't turned out bad, but I still don't feel like spending money and effort to start again. I play eye of judgement now, and it's nice to grab your pack of cards and play online. It has some things about it that are different from MTG that I like and are an improvement, and I still miss some other things, in some ways its not as complex. However, new themes are coming out which create more complexity, and I like that.

I quit at 5th ed, too. When they broke pumping and made a lot of the cards in my burn deck restricted, I lost interest lickety splitz.

I too played a lot with my friendship group. But lost interest after looking at how much it cost to keep up with the power decks everyone wanted to build. Having to buy all the best cards to play the decks the pro's were using, and then the arguments that can ensure due to over competitiveness ended my time with it. Good game though, with lots of detail and endless re-play, if you have the time and mind for it.
Great article too Joe, brings back memories.

Ah...good times. Good article. I sported a glorious direct damage / Senghir vampire deck. It was all zaps and foreplay until that big black bastard hit the table with his tongue sticking out.

I actually vividly remember the day I quit. It was all business as usual with the kid I was playing until he slammed down these new creatures that had 'Shadow-walk'.

"What the Hell do you mean I can't block it?"

"Only other creatures with shadow-walk can block it. You're down 2 HP."

"Well. #%&@ this."

I still play Magic with a group of friends; but I have to admit, the arms race has grown tiresome (just as it did back in college... the first time I quit). Whenever a new set comes out there's new combos and new great cards... and the people who haunt forums and have lots of disposable income can create decks that literally break the game, destroying everyone else on the table while we can only sit, watch, and pretend not to mind.

When the game was simpler, balance was easier. Seems that WOTC is so busy coming up with new ideas to keep gamers' interest, that they've just thrown balance out the window. The spotty effectiveness of the pre-made decks is a perfect example: if the game were balanced, every deck would have more-or-less the same power right out of the box.

OK... I'm done ranting now.

Magic was never the same after "The Dark"

I quit sometime after Homelands came out (from Wikipedia that was 13 years ago, now I feel old). Red/Blue direct damage/control was my favourite deck, it was very satisfying building up for a huge fireball with an Iceberg while stealing, countering or Jokalhaups-ing everything else.