Magic 1523: Tarot Combat II Character Cards April 2, 2013
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The history discussed here is made up by me and there is no evidence that it is based on reality.
Tarot Combat II was the first combat-oriented card game featuring various monsters and effects. Even so, the deck of cards is actually based on a tarot deck — the cards are based on the 56 playing cards, and 22 trump cards. Character cards is the first expansion for a combat-oriented card game. It includes 22 more soldier cards, each featuring a monster or animal. Each character card has a unique set of statistics, and some of them have the flying ability. (more…)
Magic 1513: Tarot Combat II March 27, 2013
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The history discussed here is made up by me and there is no evidence that it is based on reality.
Tarot Combat is a tarot card game similar to Magic: the Gathering invented in 1503. The problem is that the game requires players to memorize what all the cards do. The 22-unique trump cards can be difficult to remember in particular. Tarot Combat II was invented in 1513, and it is training-wheels for Tarot Combat. It’s basically a tarot deck, but all the cards say what they do on them. This makes it much easier to play. (more…)
Magic 1503: Tarot Combat March 20, 2013
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The history discussed here is made up by me and there is no evidence that it is based on reality.
In 1493 a card game was invented called “Combat.” That game uses regular playing cards, which can be played as soldiers that attack or block, or as farms (lands). Players start with 20 life, and unblocked attacking soldiers deal damage to the defending player.
“Tarot Combat” is invented ten years later, which is almost the same thing, except it uses a tarot deck. Tarot cards are now famous for being used to tell fortunes, but they were originally used for card games. A tarot deck is pretty much the same thing as a regular card deck, except 22 trump cards are thrown in — cards with colorful images, such as the Magician, Death, and the Devil. (more…)
Magic 1493: Combat Using Playing Cards March 17, 2013
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The history discussed here is made up by me and there is no evidence that it is based on reality.
The first major combat-oriented card game was “Battle.” It used playing cards and it was invented in 1393.
The second major combat-oriented card game was “Combat.” It also used playing cards, but it was invented in 1493. (more…)
Magic 1393: Battle Using Playing Cards March 12, 2013
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I am inventing the history about how Magic: The Gathering evolved from various card games starting back in 1393, around the time that Europe got playing cards, which was pretty much exactly what the standard international deck of playing cards is now. This is my first entry into that history. Keep in mind that there are no historical records to prove that I’m right about the history of Magic. I am making it up out of nowhere. (more…)
The History of Magical Cards March 5, 2013
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The idea of having monsters and spells on cards is not entirely new. Magic: the Gathering didn’t give us the first cards featuring monster and spell cards. Games involving monsters and spells pretty much started with Dungeons and Dragons (1974), and cards were made for that game quite early on.
However, the first thing that comes to mind when many people hear of “Magic cards” are tarot cards. (more…)
How to Make Your Own Magic: The Gathering Set Part 5: Legendary Creatures November 6, 2012
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What’s the point of legendary creatures? They originally existed to unite two colors and potentially combine the powers of both colors. Now we want them for EDH (Commander) generals that you can build a deck around and to give us entirely new and interesting abilities. We also want legendary creatures to be more interesting, fun, and powerful than creatures are generally. They often have two or more colors, but not always. They often have a high mana cost, but not always. (more…)
Return To Ravnica Is Not Ravnica (My First Impressions/Review) September 21, 2012
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I think we would have liked Return to Ravnica to be as much like the original Ravnica as possible but with new cards. Return To Ravnica is a lot like the original Ravnica. There’s hybrid cards, mana fixing, and several two-mana themes called “guilds.” However, I do have a major complaint and I think this is a good reason to think Return To Ravnica is inferior to the original — the mana fixing is significantly worse. First, I liked to have great mana fixing. Second, this might not be a problem when we draft a two color deck, but it could be a problem by the time we draft all three sets of the Return To Ravnica series together. Why? Because that will require us to generally play at least three colors. (more…)
From Alpha to Legends: Top 10 Crazy Artifacts September 10, 2012
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I remember a time when I’d throw random artifact cards in my decks just because that was the kind of thing to do back then. Magic wasn’t about winning as much as it was about playing fun cards and twiddling your thumbs. This post is in homage to the nostalgic wonderful days of being a silly Magic player for those of us who experienced such a thing. There is something good about seeing Magic that way, but a lot of these artifacts are too powerful, too weak, or too complicated.
Perhaps one day Wizards of the Coast will start making more crazy artifacts like these except make sure they are balanced properly. Perhaps one day competitive Magic will be a little less about playing overpowerered cards so that fun cards can make a difference to the game without being imbalanced. The fact that Trading Post has made it to into standard events might be a good sign. (more…)
How to Make Your Own Magic: The Gathering Set Part 4: The Power Level of Instants & Sorceries June 24, 2012
Posted by James in : all, random, design , add a commentWhen making your own Magic cards or set it could be a good idea to consider how powerful instant and sorcery cards should be. I will describe the range of power levels we should expect each instant or sorcery spell to have, which is based on (a) the mana cost, (b) additional abilities, and (c) drawbacks. We can measure the power level of each card in terms of “points”—each instant and sorcery spell can be expected to have the same number of “points” as a creature would for the same mana cost. (more…)
How to Make Your Own Magic: The Gathering Set Part 3: The Power Level of Creatures June 15, 2012
Posted by James in : all, random, design , add a commentIt’s important to know a little about how powerful cards should be when making your own Magic set. There is a range and not all cards are equally good. Many cards are “strictly worse” than others. Even so, it would obviously be a waste of space to make a 0/1 creature with no abilities for five mana and it would be silly to have a 5/5 creature with no drawbacks for one mana. This article will explain what range of power level creatures can have. (more…)
How to Make Your Own Magic: The Gathering Set Part 2: Staples June 6, 2012
Posted by James in : all, random, design , add a commentYou can go here to see How to Make Your Own Magic: The Gathering Set Part 1
There’s a secret reason that making your own Magic set isn’t necessarily as hard as you think — The majority of every Magic set is a variety of normal creatures and spells, and that’s the easiest part of making your own Magic set. The cards (or variation of cards) that appear in just about every set or block are called “staples.” There are two main kinds of staples: (1) Reprints, such as Naturalize and Cancel. (2) Variations of reprints, such as Doom Blade, Treachery, and Defang. It’s not entirely clear how often a card or knock-off must be printed to be considered to be a “staple.” Some cards are “absolute staples” that have been printed in every block for several years and others aren’t. (more…)
The Three Best Combos That No Longer Work March 30, 2012
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Combos have always been important, but some of the best combos no longer work. I will discuss the three best combos that no longer work. These combos haven’t worked for over 12 years. If you jut started playing Magic a few years ago, then you missed out on a lot of good times. (more…)
From Alpha to Legends: Top 10 Creative Cards March 24, 2012
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Back when I first started playing Magic, it was less about winning and more about throwing “fun” and “wacky” cards in your deck. And for less competitive players, EDH (Commander) or cube could both still be good places for that. A lot of the most fun cards are “design failures” insofar as they are quite bad, but they are also “design achievements” insofar as great ideas were thought of. (more…)
What Dark Ascension Should Have Been Like January 30, 2012
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I will introduce three new mechanics (and corresponding cards) that should have been in Dark Ascension: (more…)
How to Make Your Own Magic: The Gathering Set January 13, 2012
Posted by James in : all, random, design , add a commentI have discussed how to make your own Magic cards, and now I will discuss how to create your own Magic set. It can be a daunting task to create an entire Magic set (including 150 or more cards), but what I have to say might make it a lot easier. In particular, I suggest that you can make a Magic set one step at a time. Some steps are larger than others. There are five major steps required during the game design process: (more…)
My Top 5 Articles of 2011 January 2, 2012
Posted by James in : all, random , add a commentRecoculous.com isn’t as active as it once was, but I still had some interesting things to talk about. My personal top 5 for 2011 are the following: (more…)
Scars of Mirrodin Critique January 24, 2011
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Ravnica, Time Spiral, Lorwyn, and Eventide are my four favorite sets — I think they were well designed and well balanced (for draft and sealed events in particular). Scars of Mirrodin doesn’t quite live up to them, but it’s a well made set. I like it better than Shards of Alara and perhaps even Zendikar. I like the synergy found in Scars of Mirrodin, but I dislike (a) that there are only two major themes and (b) I don’t like how bombs affect the game. (more…)
The Other Power 9 December 19, 2010
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The power 9 is still the nine most expensive Magic cards, but they aren’t necessarily the most powerful. There are affordable cards worth $15 or less and just as good as other cards in the power 9. I will discuss the 9 most powerful cards that I believe meet this criteria best. If you want powerful cards for your cube or just to see what it’s like to play with powerful cards, these are the cards you need. (more…)
A Missed Opportunity for Poison? (Scars of Mirrodin) September 29, 2010
Posted by James in : all, random, design , 8commentsMark Rosewater explained why poison became the “infect ability” in his article, Something Wicked This Way Comes Part 3. R&D decided to make poison as different from a separate life total as possible: (more…)