We saw the 2012 Magic: TCG Fat Pack, which comes with two deck boxes, 80 Land cards, and nine 15-card boosters, being 215 cards total for $40! That's a lot of cards for $40 (at $3-$4 each the nine boosters alone are almost worth that) and I was seriously contemplating getting it. Then we saw the 2011 Deck Builder's Tool Kit.
It didn't have any deck boxes (meh), but it did have 100 land cards, another 125 random Spell cards, and four 15-card boosters, for a total of 285 cards. Woah! Even MORE cards! But unlike the Fat Pack it did not have a price sticker.
"It's got to be at least $40," I said to my son, "maybe even $50. Let's see how much it is."
So we picked it up and walked further into the store until we found a price scanner, and when it rang up at $20 we could not believe our eyes. It has a third more cards than the 2012 Fat Pack, but for half the price. Crazy! So of course we bought it. (Yes, it's the 2011 series. So what?)
We didn't get any OMG! Awesome! Foil cards from the Booster packs, but using the strategy recommended by the booklet (and some of our other spare cards) we did throw together five 60-card decks, being 24 Land cards plus 36 Spells, Creatures, etc. to go with them.
And then we Dueled.
I went with a poison-filled Black/Red Deck, while my son chose a Blue/Green Deck with several Elementals and Wyrms. The Wyrms are High cost Creatures but they're hard hitting game changers and when they get into play an unopposed Wyrm can kill you in two-to-three Turns.
So far we've played 7 games with these two Decks and he has been kicking my arse, and when I say he's been kicking my arse I really mean it. Out of those 7 games I've won just 2, and one of those was really just due to the luck of the draw (as in bad luck on his part) where he had a bunch of Green Spells/Creatures in his hand and nothing but Blue Lands. So he couldn't summon much of anything, and whatever he did summon I quickly shut down. I finished that particular game completely unscathed, still at full health.
In the other game I won it seemed like everything finally came together for me. I got the right cards out at the right time, I was able to weaken his stronger Cards, and I didn't steamroll him like he's been doing to me, but it was still a decisive win.
I also thought I might have him in the most recent game we played as I'd used a spell to Destroy his 4/4 Creature (the strongest he had on the table, at the time) and after a pitched battle we had one Creature each in play and mine was the stronger. Yay!
Then he summoned a Wyrm.
On his next Turn he cast Sleep and Tapped my solitary Creature so I couldn't Block even if I wanted to, and on his final Turn used an Instant to return it to my hand. I have to give him credit where it's due, he does know how to use his cards effectively and strategically.
I still think I need to tweak my deck a little though, so I can be more competitive against him. You could say we've Dueled two times, playing four games the first time, and three the second, and I won just 1 game in each of those two sessions.
My Deck's strength appears to be my Black Cards which can Poison (-1/-1, or worse) and debilitate his Creatures, even his 7/7 Wyrms. When it works, it works well. The problem is I don't seem able to get my cards into play fast enough, and when I do I'm overwhelmed.
Could it be a "Rock beats Scissors beats Paper" kind of thing? That my Black/Red Deck is just not strong against his Green/Blue Deck. Does that exist in Magic TCG? I assume it does, else everyone would just try to have THE Uber Pwng Deck that nothing can beat.
I don't have powerful Creatures like his Wyrms, which usually require 6-7 Lands to Summon. Most of my Creatures require 3-4 Lands and some need just 2, or even just 1.
It's not that I don't have Lands in play because we both have the recommended 24 Lands in our Decks.
Actually, maybe I don't have enough Lands.
With a majority of low cost Creatures in my deck maybe I should increase my Land count to 30 cards, with the strategy being to be able to play one Land every Turn (and never stop playing them), meaning after the first, uneventful 5-to-6 Turns have passed I'll be able to Summon more than just one Creature per Turn. That's assuming I have Creatures in my Hand and it's not filled with Lands. That's definitely something to think about.
Don't get me wrong, I don't want to crush the boy. He's only 11 and he has a lot of fun playing Magic with his old man. Likewise I'm enjoying the time we spend together, too. (Who knows how long that will last?) It's not even that I mind losing to him; one of my favorite time wasters on my phone is Solitaire, so I can accept losing game after game after game. I don't mind losing to him, but I'd at least like to go down fighting.
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In my experience, there is a sort of soft RPS triangle in MTG. Combo/Control, Big Beaters, and Quick Aggro. Quick Aggro beats Combo (it's too fast to control, with too many threats), Combo/Control beats Big Beaters (BB's fewer threats can be locked down and the combo can win with evasion or a tricksy alternate win), and Big Beaters beats Quick Aggro (it can gum up the aggro and smash face with an alpha strike or just superior creatures). That may not be others' experience, and it's not a hard triangle by any means, but that's been the general trend that I see.
It sounds like maybe your black/red wants to be control, but you don't have enough ways to stop creatures? Red isn't as good as black against big creatures. Evasion would be good too to punch through those poison critters.
...just some thoughts. I'm certainly not a pro with the game.
Oh, and I love the Deckbuilder's Toolkit. It's great value, the best in retail, I think. Only better value I've found is buying second hand.
What you're saying sounds, I think, like what I was thinking of trying. That is increasing the number of Lands in my Deck so after 6-7 Turns I have hopefully have 6-7 Lands out, at which point I will hopefully be Summoning 2 Creatures per Turn, assuming my Hand isn't filled with Lands :D
I once played with a 3-Land Deck (against an experienced but considerate opponent) and that was a BIG mistake. I had a Hand filled with Creatures which I couldn't Summon because I didn't have sufficient Lands in sufficient colors in Play.
The Luck of the Draw is a big aspect of Magic, and is what makes it so much fun (IMO), but you can certainly tweak your Deck to reduce the luck factor and improve your chances of winning, or at least enable you to fight back.
Actually, if these articles are to be believed, aggro decks (which black-red would be good at, with red's speed and black's removal/disruption) play *less* land and more critters and removal. Just a thought.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/academy/30
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/academy/22
I had a look at my Deck and thought I found the problem, then realized I'd miscounted my cards and I didn't really have a 50-card Deck. Looking at what the cards in the Red/Black Deck there are (IIRC) three 4-5 Land Spells, and everything else are 2-3 Lands, with a few 1-Lands. There's really no reason I shouldn't be getting cards into play so I almost have to chalk it up to poor Luck of the Draw on my behalf.
I did take throw together a pure White Deck but I'm afraid it might be as overpowered vs my son's Deck as his is against me. Almost half the Creatures are Fliers, and there are at least 4 Flying Enchantments.
I'll play several more games with the Red/Black Deck and if it still proves a losing Deck against the boy then I'll pull out the White Deck and see how it goes. I also have a White/Green Deck which is not quite as nasty as the All-White so I can certainly tone it back down a bit if necessary.
Then again, our 3-day long session of Grillin'oply finally came to a close tonight, and after being in a position of strength for most of the game the boy weakened my wife when he landed on one of his maxed out properties, only to see bankrupted on her next turn when she landed on my own maxed out property. Suddenly it was a reversal of fortunes and while he was not very happy, I'm proud to say he didn't give in until the end, and he handled his inevitable defeat like a trooper and with as much good grace as you would expect from an 11-year old.
Again I don't want to steamroll him, I don't even mind losing; I would just like our Magic Duels to be a little more evenly matched. We'll see how the White Decks stand up to him :)
With Black/Red I'd expect you to be trying to overwhelm with small critters, something that Green also does very well. I know that Black and Red also have nasty damage spells that can weaken and destroy, Black generally has access to stuff that cannot be blocked either (I love Black/Blue decks myself). You could also try White/Red, this would allow you a strong offense with all the flying, protection from damage that is a feature of white and the pure offense that comes with a red deck. I haven't played Magic in a long time (as it can be more costly than playing with GW figures) but it's still a fun game that gets your brain working when you are deck building.
One thing to be aware of when thinking of adding more land to cast more spells per turn, is that you quickly become card poor. The quantity of cards in your hand is an important and overlooked resource. Few things feel worse than sitting there with 0 cards in hand, just relying solely on the luck of whatever you draw next.
BH, that echoes what Tesh said earlier, and is what ZombiePirate was also implying.
But what is perhaps most telling is that it describes how one of our games ended with me with Lands out but no cards in my Hand, no Creatures in play, sitting there drawing cards (another Land. Hooray) as my son rolled over me.
Maybe I should cut the Lands to 20, or even 16 (we have several Terraforming Cards that will let me search my Deck for Lands), and add several more Creatures and/or Spells. I don't think I have many Black Creatures left, but I think there are quite a few Red ones. There are also several Clear (as in no specific Color) Aura Creatures that I could add which might complement the theme of my Black/Red deck.
Hah, so THAT'S your excuse for losing to an 11yr old, huh? 'Course I believe you - the cards were stacked.. (snicker)
But they were! All five times! And those two times I did win I just got lucky! Hmm. You know, that really doesn't help my case any. I'm gonna shut up now.
Thanks for the chuckles, Shrinky ;)
Was wandering around B&N with my girlfriend last weekend. While she was off looking at jewelry crafting books I spied the 2012 core decks. She has two 13 year old boys, next weekend they shall be indoctrinated!
Granted, I haven't played in years and had a co-working play me at lunch yesterday to remind me how to play. I also downloaded the game on Steam, but now that Batman: Arkham City is out, I don't know if I'll get to play it anymore.
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