Leisurely Geeks

I recently ran into the series Walking the Panes on Daily MTG. Walking the Planes are a Wizards of the Coast hosted web videos about Magic the Gathering.  There are currently six episodes to check out. They are entertaining and informative about Magic the Gathering. Check it out and let me know what you think.

It seems that Wizards of the Coast is following in the video game industries footsteps more and more. First we had Magic the Gathering becoming more approachable and playable especially for new players. Then we have received different iterations the past couple years of the Duels of the Planeswakers video game.  I stumbled upon an article on the mothersite about achievements being added to Magic the Gathering’s Planeswalker point system. For the unfamiliar the Planeswalker point system took place of the DCI rating system about a year ago. here is an article about the change. The achievement system is currently in Beta right now. It looks promising, giving pro’s and casual players something to look forward to. Hopefully this picks up steam and becomes a great part of Magic the Gathering.

Related articles

• Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 review

So this is my first of many posts here on Leisurely Geeks. I will start off with a quick introduction. My name is Phil Young. I currently work at a game store called The Game Preserve (www.gamepreserve.com) where I am “The Magic Guy” and also their Social Media Specialist.
I have a newer passion to gaming that was sparked by a fellow Leisurely Geek, Joe P. I had always liked video games, but it wasn’t until he introduced me to World of Warcraft, that I decided I actually was a “gamer” of sorts. It followed by a rough and very smashface tutorial to Magic the Gathering during the summer of 2008. After that, I decided that I need to become great at this game. I found out all these great things about Magic the Gathering: it was played every Friday, there were even bigger tournaments not even 4 hours from where I live, and most of all, it was addicting as hell. I went on a whirlwind attempt at “going pro” which ended with me becoming very tired and very frustrated with the state of the game and what it did to people. I took a break and decided to search for new and exciting card games. The first I stumbled across was Fluxx, and then Chrononauts, but all that was great, it was not satisfying the “High Fantasy” (something that I had loved about Magic the Gathering). I then found Ascension (http://www.ascensiongame.com/). My god this game was great. The art was stylized, the game play gave way to experienced TCG players as well as thecasual gamer. It was the rejuvenation and wake up call that I needed. Out with competitive play and in with enjoying my time with friends. This is just a little about me and my relatively short existence in the gaming world.

I would like to share something that has started only about a week ago. The makers of the game I give credit to for saving my gaming soul, Ascension, and Richard Garfield (Creator of Magic the Gathering) have come together to bring us a DIGITAL Trading Card Game! They are calling it, SOLFORGE! I would love if you all check out the Kickstarter.com for it and give feedback and share feeling on this Brave New Adventure these men and fellow gamer’s are going through.

http://www.solforgegame.com/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1965800643/solforge-digital-trading-card-game

Here is a video courtesy of IGN:

The games we play are numerous here at Leisurely Geeks. For some of us, Magic The Gathering is one of the anchors of our gaming hobby. I remember a time when I was going to the local comic shop to get cards rather than comics. I have since fallen away from the hobby a bit due to expenses. However, hand me a deck and I will gladly play.

It was refreshing to read a great article by Travis Woo on Channel Fireball (Twoo’s Brews – Win at Magic Win at Life) that explains some of the life lessons he has taken from playing MTG (Nice Find Joe!). Yes, I know, many points made are universal and apply to many hobbies and games we play. But, explaining them within the confines of a highly competitive game shows a maturity many gamers notoriously lack.

Thanks Travis! Us Geeks will continue to recommend Channel Fireball as a great source for all things MTG. Now if only this article can convince my wife that I need a few boxes of cards to get my collection back up.

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/twoos-brews-win-at-magic-win-at-life/

Huzzah……………..A new Magic the Gathering Online Client is coming out. No longer when you boot up MOTO will you feel like it’s 1998. On July 16th their will be an open beta to try out the new client. From the screenshots it looks pretty slick. Here is an article from the mothership http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/203 explaining all the tidbits.

Magic: The Gathering Online (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Since its introduction in 1993, Magic: The Gathering has been a staple of geekdom. Collectible cards that aren’t sports-related AND there’s a game involving spells and monsters involved? The only way this could get better is if The Internet was involved! Us nerds sure love us some Internets! Then, in 2002, Wizards of the Coast released Magic: The Gathering Online. Members of a certain subset of parents’-basement-dwelling nerds were never seen again…

Anyway, I digress. I’m here today to review Magic Online. I’ll be rating various categories on a scale of 1(lowest) to 10(highest), with specific explanations for each rating.

User Friendliness: 6

I’m going to be frank here. Installation was borderline nightmarish. Took me an hour to download, which isn’t too bad considering my internet connection at the time was a bit spotty. However, the actual installation took about another hour and a half. After clicking to install, it seemed like nothing was happening. 15 minutes or so later, a screen finally popped up and installation continued. Slowly. Could it have been my system? Possible, I am running it on an older laptop. But, the system requirements are quite low, one of the saving graces in the User Friendliness department. Half a gig of RAM, and a P4 processor is supposed to be good enough, and even MY laptop isn’t THAT old. Also in the User Friendliness category, I’d like to discuss the User Interface. The UI is pretty awful. Finding game rooms other than the New Player room and Just for Fun room might take you a while on your first time through. The UI gets a little better when you actually are in a game. Playing with the more basic cards is rather intuitive, and the game notifies you every time you have priority for instants or abilities. More complex cards take some getting used to. I personally wasted Fireballs in at least 5 games before I figured out how to do it right, and I’ve had other players concede games when they realized they clicked something wrong for a card with multiple abilities.

Variety of Formats: 10

Nearly every format of Magic is included, including a few that are exclusive to Magic Online (mostly for mechanics reasons). Two Headed Giant, Three Headed Giant, all the DCI formats, even Elder Dragon Highlander, or Commander. They also include an interesting Vanguard format called Momir Basic, in which you use the Momir Vig avatar and a deck comprised of 60 basic lands. The Momir avatar allows you to pay X colorless mana and discard a card, and put a token that is a copy of a random creature card with converted mana cost X into play. Kind of a neat, random format.

Value: either 3 or 10, depending on what you want out of the game

Next stop, the glamorous, lucrative world of The Huffington Post!

What’s that you say?  What do you mean, The Huffington Post doesn’t pay bloggers????

Well I guess I’ll just stick around here then.  Might as well introduce myself.

Hi.  My name is Trey and I’m a Geek.  My Geek hobbies include video games, Magic: The Gathering and other various card games, tabletop RPGs (mostly with other authors on this blog), board games, books (especially fantasy), and ummm…probably a few other things I am forgetting at the moment.  My less-nerdy hobbies include fishing, fly-tying, and football (which I even manage to make nerdy by playing Fantasy Football).

I suppose that’s it for now.  Be on the lookout for exciting new articles by me! (and the rest of the gang.)

On June 1st 2012 Wizards of the Coast will be releasing new Planechase decks. If any of you have not tried Planechase it is a lot of casual magic fun. Here is a link to their product info, along with card images on the Wizards of the Coast site. There will be some amazing new cards and some old ones thrown into the mix. Also there will be 4 pre-made decks with themes to them.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/productarticle.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/planechase2012edition/productinfo

DECK CHOICE   

The deck I chose to play was a red/green werewolf tribal deck.  I’ve been playing around with it the past couple months. The deck is pretty much a tribal agro deck utilizing the werewolf tribe introduced in Innistrad, and some burn to clear the way. The deck can consistently win by turn 4-5. Using the werewolf transform mechanic puts opponents in awkward position, having to play spells so the werewolves do not flip into something meaner.

As Joe previously introduced me, I am Sarah, the fire mage. I enjoy numerous hobbies, including but not limited to:video games (RPG’s, MMO’s, FPS’s), Magic the Gathering, and I also dabble in tabletop RPG’s. I enjoy going to conventions, and hopefully I can start attending them more regularly. This is my first blog, and am very excited about it and I hope to bring a female perspective on the geeky things in life. More specific games I am currently playing are, Final Fantasy 13-2, World of Warcraft, Kingdoms of Amalur, and Tales of the Abyss. Also, I am very excited about Diablo 3.