'Magic: the Gathering' Announces New Sets Based on Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who (polygon.com) 40
Polygon reports that during a streaming event, the publisher of the Magic: the Gathering card game promised a new themed set of cards commemorating Doctor Who's 60th anniversary. But that's not their only new set:
The Lord of the Rings: Tales from Middle-earth is also releasing in Q3 of 2023, but it will be a fully draftable booster set and legal in modern format of competitive play....
Individual cards portray familiar heroes and villains including Frodo, Gandalf and the Balrog. In order to capture the scale of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy battles, the set will also feature new borderless scene cards. Each has a piece of art that can stand alone, but 18 of them will come together to produce a particularly epic scene from the trilogy — such as the Battle of the Pelennor Fields from The Return of the King. The art from Tyler Jacobson, who's provided illustrations for more than 100 Magic cards and for Dungeons & Dragons books including The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, is full of small details including the Dark Tower Barad-dûr in the background.
The article points out that the game publisher has previously published crossover decks for The Walking Dead and Fortnite.
This story is for long-time Slashdot reader tezbobobo, who argued earlier this week that Slashdot's been remiss in its coverage of Magic: the Gathering news: For years I've seen Dungeons & Dragons, Sony Playstation and Nethack show up occassionally on the front page of Slashdot. So where are the rest of the nerd games?
Magic: the Gathering has one of the most loyal and active fanbases, and the creators have been churning out new and interesting cards for decades. Even as it tops the trading card pile, it's made inroads into the digital sphere, with online version in Arena and Magic Online. It's available on PC, Mac, Ipad.
Individual cards portray familiar heroes and villains including Frodo, Gandalf and the Balrog. In order to capture the scale of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy battles, the set will also feature new borderless scene cards. Each has a piece of art that can stand alone, but 18 of them will come together to produce a particularly epic scene from the trilogy — such as the Battle of the Pelennor Fields from The Return of the King. The art from Tyler Jacobson, who's provided illustrations for more than 100 Magic cards and for Dungeons & Dragons books including The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, is full of small details including the Dark Tower Barad-dûr in the background.
The article points out that the game publisher has previously published crossover decks for The Walking Dead and Fortnite.
This story is for long-time Slashdot reader tezbobobo, who argued earlier this week that Slashdot's been remiss in its coverage of Magic: the Gathering news: For years I've seen Dungeons & Dragons, Sony Playstation and Nethack show up occassionally on the front page of Slashdot. So where are the rest of the nerd games?
Magic: the Gathering has one of the most loyal and active fanbases, and the creators have been churning out new and interesting cards for decades. Even as it tops the trading card pile, it's made inroads into the digital sphere, with online version in Arena and Magic Online. It's available on PC, Mac, Ipad.
After 29 years (Score:3)
They've finally exhausted every possibility.
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They've finally exhausted every possibility.
And in Hollywood there will always be prequels, sequels, spinoffs, and re-runs. So the future possibilities are still infinite.
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Hollywood likes predictable outcomes at the box office. Make a sequel or reboot to a moderately popular film, it will do slightly worse than the original. Makes it very easy to work out what the investment risk is. A slide into mediocrity is what happens to the arts when accountants are in charge.
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The next 6 sets are all MTG-specific... Dominaria, the Brothers Way, a return to Ixalan... all of this stuff is MTG-created worlds. Throwing in LOTR into the mix isn't really going to make many people mad; everything I've heard from other players is just that they should slow down, because no one has enough money or time to buy all the stuff available right now.
Re: After 29 years (Score:3)
Now I donâ(TM)t mind if others enjoy these. The problem is as you said thereâ(TM)s so much now, it reeks of desperation. As long as it doesnâ(TM)t kill the player base, the older players will be ok, but if it
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Honestly I view them as sort of collectible novelties. Like a Star Wars Monopoly game. I'm not going to even open it. But it will be fun to see anyone coming out on Friday night with a hobbit/shire deck.
Hasbro of the Coast (Score:2)
A friend of mine worked for the original Wizards of the Coast for many years, but got cut loose after the second or third Hasbro-driven reorganization. It's one of those situations where sales are way down, but there's still a small and very dedicated fanbase that has stuck with them through thick and thin - so Hasbro doesn't want to completely kill the line.
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To me it looks more like an attempt to primarily draw in fans from other franchises and make them into new players, instead of tying down pre-existing players even more.
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This is entirely wrong. MTG has exploded in popularity, and the CEO, Chris Cox, say want you want about him, has insisted that MTG explore other IPs, which is why the Baldur's Gate set and the expensive Secret Lair sets have done very well. MTG is a top contributor to Hasbro's bottom line, no doubt about it.
Re: Be Quiet You Racist Bigot Hitlers (Score:3)
Man I wonder how much they spent for the Lord of the Rings license- a very pricey license indeed- just for the singular purpose of making an insulting and non-canon black Aragorn. Imagine hating white people that much, that you aren't happy turning a bunch of your stuff into a bunch of non-white people (which they did a few years ago- in most cases you can still find the original art before they demanded the artists change features and darken skin), that you spend all that money just for that one purpose.
P
Magic is a waste of money (Score:3)
I'm all for Slashdot posting about nerd games a bit more but I have no interests in a game like Magic where one of the most important requisites for doing well is a willingness to spend absurd amounts of money on cards. Plus most of the game's formats allow for deck builds whose key concept is to render the opponent unable to do anything via a variety of mechanics so if the deck works and they win the end result is that the opposing player has to sit there for 10 minutes watching themselves die while being unable to do a single thing about it. Games are supposed to be fun for everyone involved.
Re:Magic is a waste of money (Score:5, Informative)
Utterly false. It is very easy to get into the game with a small amount of money. If you want to play *competitively* then yes you need to spend money. if you want to play casually, like most players, then you can easily build s deck from some booster packs, or better yet, grab a Commander pre-con at Target/Wal-MArt, almost all of which is good decks these days, and you will have a deck that will give you a lot of joy playing with your friends for quite a while... until you get bored with it and need to go buy a new one.
If you want an expensive nerd hobby, try being a model train enthusiast where a single O scale locomotive will set you back a grand.
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Even if the cost is not large what remains is that it is more a game of collectibles rather than a card game. It focuses on selling gizmos to players, the more the better, and not on providing a definitive game experience.
A game like Monopoly also comes from some Corp that tries to sells more stuff, but they yield identical results, they are just a matter of taste like chess sets. There is no Chess Corp. trying to sell you additional characters that make weird movements allowing you some advantage in the ga
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Utterly false.
Not at all. Every single circle of players I have ever played in has turned into an arms race of who can spend more. The money advantage is built into the game with its bullshit card scarcity.
Re: Magic is a waste of money (Score:2)
That is painfully inaccurate.
The most popular competition formats are all with recent cards that are all inexpensive and are not overpowered.
What you speak only happens in formats which allow ancient cards, some of which are even banned in most but the most permissives of formats.
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Yes and the formats you refer to are set up so that cards rapidly expire in terms of eligibility. In other words your expensive cards need to replaced every few formats unless you want to play them in the formats I described before which are rank with abusive play styles.
It's a money game. If you're not willing to drop at least a couple grand on it every single year don't expect to win a lot of games. Meanwhile that expectation is fucking horrible, I can buy dozens of amazing strategy board games every sing
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one of the most important requisites for doing well is a willingness to spend absurd amounts of money on cards.
I guess it depends upon what you mean by "doing well". I'm not much of a card game player, but when I dabbled in MTG I found the most important factor for having fun was finding other players who were interested in playing the same way that I was. I mostly enjoyed playing with cheap balanced decks, as I knew it was never going to be anything I was going to play a ton. But I also enjoyed playing for the lols against fancy decks where I got creamed, as long as I knew that going in.
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I'm not much of a card game player, but when I dabbled in MTG I found the most important factor for having fun was finding other players who were interested in playing the same way that I was.
This is true of most games - including stuff like Chess and Go - or even sports.
We always read about the people who devote their lives to these past-times, but there are plenty of people who are happy to just have a casual chess match (to pick one example) and who have never memorized a bunch of opening sequences.
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I'm not much of a card game player, but when I dabbled in MTG I found the most important factor for having fun was finding other players who were interested in playing the same way that I was.
The problem with that and what I experienced multiple times in coming back to Magic after leaving several times is that it is always in every player's interest in a given social group to spend more money than the other players. After multiple attempts at playing I never played in a circle of players that didnt turn into an arms race of who can spend more and that's always what has left me not playing anymore. Well that and when friends of friends show up running genuinely abusive decks that are not at all
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When I was playing I almost always was playing with somebody else's deck. I'd go over to a friend's house, or I'd play with my brother who really likes it and we'd just play his different decks. If there were several different players there, we'd pass decks around and play each others. I think I likely spent a total of about $100 on a few decks in the year or so I was playing and had plenty of fun.
I definitely ran across players like you're talking about who were hyper competitive and just wanted to win
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I definitely ran across players like you're talking about who were hyper competitive and just wanted to win at all costs. That's fine, I see plenty of that in lots of gaming circles. But I just avoided those groups, as I didn't have much interest in that kind of competition.
Friends of friends inevitably show up to any long standing gaming group and because they come from outside the group their decks arent always built with the same ideas of what is acceptable and what is not in a friendly game.
I'd rather play a well balanced game with a more cohesive design behind it as this completely mitigates the above problem and means one doesnt have to depend on "gentlemen's agreements" or have to deal with differences of opinions in regards to what's fun and what's overly competitive b
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2. Get a bunch of friend together and put it in one big pot. That is what we did in high school.
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I'd rather play a well balanced game that doesnt require prior agreements and understandings on how to play and whatnot. Fortunately I can buy more strategy board games than I could ever play in a year for what it would cost me to play just Magic for a year with my friends who used to play (and who ironically quit years after I did because of cost as well). For me it's an easy choice but we all have our own tastes I guess.
Dr. Who card... (Score:2)
Dr. Who card, "sonic screwdriver" would be interesting. Or perhaps the "K-9" card.
JoshK.
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Yes, Key to Time. Or the Sash, Coronet, and Rod of Rassilon. Or the Ring of Rassilon, although that seems self-defeating.
JoshK.
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Key to Time: RWUBG, Legendary Artifact, While in play, can't lose.
Sash of Rassilon: 1W, Artifact - Equipment, Equip 3, Equipped creature is indestructible.
Crown of Rassilon: 2BU, Legendary Artifact, Play with the top card of your library revealed. You may play this card as if it was in your hard. 2BU: Sac, search your library for a card and put it into your hand.
Coronet of Rassilon: 1WW, Legendary Artifact, If there is fewer than 10 creatures on the field, you control the attack and block pha
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Harp of Rassilon: 1UU, Sorcery. Search library for Rassilon card, Put in hand.
Black Scrolls of Rassilon: Functional reprint of Diabolic Tutor [wizards.com]
Key of Rassilon: Functional reprint of Door to Nothingness [wizards.com]
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K9 I couldn't say. I never watch much of the old Who to really know what he is.
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Actually the sonic screwdriver can do other things like be used like a blowtorch, or an electric spark.
K9 was the robot dog that was a companion to the Doctor...it stayed with Romana in e-space.
JoshK.
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But you could maybe add: 1, T; Ping a target for 1 on it as well.
Sorry. I really only know New-Who. II have seen bits and pieces of the old stuff but not enough to know.
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The sonic screwdriver is very versatile. In one Dr. Who episode, the Doctor disabled androids using a pencil and the sonic screwdriver with some help from one of his companions.
Another card might be Tom Baker as Dr. Who's scarf. :)
JoshK.
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The Doctor's coat always seems to be stuffed with odds and ends. So the Doctor's coat could be the equivalent of "portable hole" in Dungeons & Dragons.
JoshK.
Investments (Score:1)
These cards aren't just games. Played the game in the 90's, got tired of it, thought I had thrown the cards into the landfill. Nope, found 'em while moving to Texas. Ebay. $750. Shocked, amazed, pleased. Talk about holding value. Never throw your cards away, even if someone says, "They're not worth anything, they've been played." Couldn't sell 'em in the 90's 'cuz people wanted "uncirculated" cards that lived their whole lives in a plastic card carrier, while mine were just in a box. Person w
Meh (Score:2)
I would go back. If Arena wasn't a giant pile of shit.
Doesn't matter, they ain't making BL legal in Type 2 any time soon.
Gallifreyan Color Pie (Score:2)
The Time Lords are very much a WUB society. Order, knowledge, power. That is like there whole thing. The Doctor themselves you could make an argument for being RG. A free spirit who loves life. Or UR. Someone who is always poking his head into trouble to see what it is. The Doctor has some R somewhere.
Dalek are RB for sure. Weeping Angels scream WB to me. The Sontaran are W. Cybermen are Artifact UB.
My problem, is what really in the Doctor Who universe is G?