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if you want to play recent sets and enjoy limited, mtgo is certainly an option - for constructed i wouldnt really recommend it. but limited is quite good there.
for me personally it was never that appealing since i like actually sitting across the table of the guy im playing against and playing with actual cards instead of paying similar amounts to just have their digital counterparts.
also, many old cards or funky formats are very much impossible to play/get on mtgo, and i do enjoy edh and highlander a lot.
if you just want a way to play magic on the internet, i suggest you check out www.magic-league.com , its essentially the iccup of magic 
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Magic was really great back in the days. But the fifth edition was the last one that was good, afterwards it became crap imo.
I was playing chess only because of Magic during that time because nearly everyone at tournaments was playing Magic aswell :p
I even had way more than 1k$ worth of cards, but they were stolen and then I stopped.
I don't know about the online edition, but there is a game for pc which is really really old, has all the old cards, is playable online and you can download it for free because it is abandonware, atleast home of the underdogs hosted it for quite some time.
Here's the link
You just need manalink to play online.
My brother always refused to play vs me though because I love builds involving stuff like Kismet, Library of Leng, Stasis and such. Much more fun to win that way!
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I was a tourney player. When I left CMU and no longer had access to a consistent competitive draft group I transitioned to Magic Online. If you're a draft junkie, it'll let you get your fix of drafting, but the convenience is a little dangerous. I was a lot better than the average joe online so I ended up not paying too much to keep drafting, but it was a reasonably large time sink. Then they announced that they were removing combat damage stacking and I quit the game for good.
Essentially, you get to play magic online... You'll miss futzing around with your cards and trying to read your opponent and the physical actions of tapping and untapping, but the core play is done very well and there are no awkward "JUDGE!" moments because the program simply knows how everything should work.
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United States47024 Posts
On September 23 2010 00:33 Mogwai wrote:
I was a tourney player. When I left CMU and no longer had access to a consistent competitive draft group I transitioned to Magic Online. If you're a draft junkie, it'll let you get your fix of drafting, but the convenience is a little dangerous. I was a lot better than the average joe online so I ended up not paying too much to keep drafting, but it was a reasonably large time sink. Then they announced that they were removing combat damage stacking and I quit the game for good.
Essentially, you get to play magic online... You'll miss futzing around with your cards and trying to read your opponent and the physical actions of tapping and untapping, but the core play is done very well and there are no awkward "JUDGE!" moments because the program simply knows how everything should work.
That's around when I quit as well, but I've been playing a bit recently, and I've found it's surprisingly not as relevant as it sounds. It's barely relevant at all in constructed (since when do people block these days in constructed?  ), and in limited, it largely ends up altering card evaluations as far as what can and can't 2-for-1.
EDIT: On topic, I agree with Mogwai that MTGO is best suited for drafting. Constructed magic is probably best practiced with someone you can play with in person, but MTGO helps get around the usual barrier for Limited, which is that unless you have a store or club nearby, getting the minimum number of people for a draft is sometimes difficult.
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Without the interaction with other people, MtG makes for a really boring video game. (My brother used to play it all the time though, so it must have some qualities that don't appeal to me.)
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I played a bit of Magic Online back when I could just sit and trade all day and actually make a (not that great) profit. Comparing the old tournament experience with the online version, imagine that your playing while calling out every single rules step as you go along, no matter how simple. There are certainly convenience features to help out, but depending on the seriousness of your play, it can be pretty annoying.
What I'm trying to point out is.... If you're in a casual tournament with friends, or something small at the local store, you can always get away with stuff like... "I'm declaring blockers like this... Wait wait liek this (nearly a split second later)." Every acknowledgment you click is final, and misclicks can really ruin your day if you're bad with things like that.
Also, depending on your opponent, it might be a hassle running recursion decks because you have a turn clock (much like chess), and there is no verbal declaration like "I'm going to repeat this cycle 10000000 times, do you agree?"
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On September 23 2010 00:35 TheYango wrote:Show nested quote +On September 23 2010 00:33 Mogwai wrote:
I was a tourney player. When I left CMU and no longer had access to a consistent competitive draft group I transitioned to Magic Online. If you're a draft junkie, it'll let you get your fix of drafting, but the convenience is a little dangerous. I was a lot better than the average joe online so I ended up not paying too much to keep drafting, but it was a reasonably large time sink. Then they announced that they were removing combat damage stacking and I quit the game for good.
Essentially, you get to play magic online... You'll miss futzing around with your cards and trying to read your opponent and the physical actions of tapping and untapping, but the core play is done very well and there are no awkward "JUDGE!" moments because the program simply knows how everything should work. That's around when I quit as well, but I've been playing a bit recently, and I've found it's surprisingly not as relevant as it sounds. It's barely relevant at all in constructed (since when do people block these days in constructed? ), and in limited, it largely ends up altering card evaluations as far as what can and can't 2-for-1.
I really really hate how it changes the dynamics of bounce and pump in limited. I mean, it basically just took removal (already too strong in limited) and made it stronger. And then my housemates were dicking around with an 11th edition draft and they told me they brought lightning bolt back... Wow, great, bring back an already borderline OP card that's of a type that just got buffed in draft.
uhg whatever, I understand that it's not the end of the world, but I was already getting fed up with the game and the direction Wizards was taking with it. Those stupid giant guys who make you sacrifice X permanents when they attack and are indestructible, more retarded planeswalkers, meh, it's just not something I'm interested in. There's a difference between spicing stuff up and keeping the game interesting and changing it so much that it loses its identity. I feel like magic was moving towards the latter.
EDIT: and to be clear, the only balance I ever cared about was limited. constructed was really a terrible tournament scene IMO.
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On September 23 2010 00:39 myopia wrote:
Without the interaction with other people, MtG makes for a really boring video game. (My brother used to play it all the time though, so it must have some qualities that don't appeal to me.)
Playing online is interacting.
EDIT: Magic Workstation is free to use and there are some people playing there. Perhaps not the greatest of opponents, but playable most of the time. Many online magic communities use Magic Workstation in the tourneys and stuff, so you can get some good competition there.
I like MWS very much for constructed since you can mass games and everyone seems to play the flavor of the month. You can get some good ideas what to watch out for if you're testing a deck. Like when Eldrazi came everyone seemed to play Show and Tell/Reanimator Legacy decks on MWS.
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Haxorz was actually streaming MTGO and doing some tournaments....
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United States47024 Posts
On September 23 2010 00:48 Mogwai wrote:
I really really hate how it changes the dynamics of bounce and pump in limited. I mean, it basically just took removal (already too strong in limited) and made it stronger. And then my housemates were dicking around with an 11th edition draft and they told me they brought lightning bolt back... Wow, great, bring back an already borderline OP card that's of a type that just got buffed in draft.
Fair enough. Though, to be frank, who ever took core set drafts seriously?
On September 23 2010 00:48 Mogwai wrote:
uhg whatever, I understand that it's not the end of the world, but I was already getting fed up with the game and the direction Wizards was taking with it. Those stupid giant guys who make you sacrifice X permanents when they attack and are indestructible, more retarded planeswalkers, meh, it's just not something I'm interested in. There's a difference between spicing stuff up and keeping the game interesting and changing it so much that it loses its identity. I feel like magic was moving towards the latter.
EDIT: and to be clear, the only balance I ever cared about was limited. constructed was really a terrible tournament scene IMO.
I guess I do agree with all this as well, though, as silly as "those stupid giant guys who make you sacrifice X permanents when they attack" look, I'm told by people more experienced than I am that Rise of the Eldrazi draft is the best limited format in years.
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I play online every so often. It’s really great, as I’ve had a thing for drafting since I was very young. Fairly competitive, too. Standard, however is a drag. You end up spending a couple hundred dollars on fake cards only to be facerolled by the same deck over and over.
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On September 23 2010 00:48 Mogwai wrote:
uhg whatever, I understand that it's not the end of the world, but I was already getting fed up with the game and the direction Wizards was taking with it. Those stupid giant guys who make you sacrifice X permanents when they attack and are indestructible, more retarded planeswalkers, meh, it's just not something I'm interested in. There's a difference between spicing stuff up and keeping the game interesting and changing it so much that it loses its identity. I feel like magic was moving towards the latter.
EDIT: and to be clear, the only balance I ever cared about was limited. constructed was really a terrible tournament scene IMO.
The limited balance is still fine in ROE and m11. Good players learn to adapt to a very different play style. Mediocre players make excuses...
I don't understand at all why you feel that constructed is a terrible tournament scene. Constructed is a much more difficult format than limited. I do agree that planeswalkers are a bit meh though.
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On September 23 2010 00:59 Zanzabar Haberdasher wrote:
I play online every so often. It’s really great, as I’ve had a thing for drafting since I was very young. Fairly competitive, too. Standard, however is a drag. You end up spending a couple hundred dollars on fake cards only to be facerolled by the same deck over and over.
To be fair, you can redeem online cards for real ones if you're doing an entire set at once.
And RoEx3 is an absolutely incredible draft format.
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On September 23 2010 01:05 Couvre wrote:
I do agree that planeswalkers are a bit meh though.
Proliferate won't help 
Looking forward to some Planeswalker removal. I'd be surprised if they just keep ignoring them.
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United States47024 Posts
On September 23 2010 01:13 kuresuti wrote:Proliferate won't help
IMO none of the Proliferate cards are strong enough to be really relevant to PWs. A single loyalty counter isn't worth the cost for most of the Proliferate cards. It'll buy you a turn tops against beatdown, and getting you closer to the ult is rarely worth anything because the ult is so unlikely.
On the other hand, it'll keep Pyromancer combo playable in Extended, which I support because Pyromancer is one of the few combos that isn't completely noninteractive.
On September 23 2010 01:13 kuresuti wrote:
Looking forward to some Planeswalker removal. I'd be surprised if they just keep ignoring them.
Ratchet Bomb
On September 23 2010 01:19 Crushgroove wrote:
Main problem with mtgo is no vintage play. For some of us older kids, that's the only format we play.
If you allow vintage on MTGO, don't you get into shady territory whether virtual copies of those cards violates the reprint policy?
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Main problem with mtgo is no vintage play. For some of us older kids, that's the only format we play.
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On September 23 2010 01:19 TheYango wrote:IMO none of the Proliferate cards are strong enough to be really relevant to PWs. A single loyalty counter isn't worth the cost for most of the Proliferate cards. It'll buy you a turn tops against beatdown, and getting you closer to the ult is rarely worth anything because the ult is so unlikely. On the other hand, it'll keep Pyromancer combo playable in Extended, which I support because Pyromancer is one of the few combos that isn't completely noninteractive. Show nested quote +On September 23 2010 01:13 kuresuti wrote:
Looking forward to some Planeswalker removal. I'd be surprised if they just keep ignoring them.
Ratchet BombShow nested quote +On September 23 2010 01:19 Crushgroove wrote:
Main problem with mtgo is no vintage play. For some of us older kids, that's the only format we play. If you allow vintage on MTGO, don't you get into shady territory whether virtual copies of those cards violates the reprint policy?
Proliferate still doesn't help. It can either stay the same or make PWs more powerful, that's all.
Ratchet bomb works, but it's kinda slow, and it doesn't have "Planeswalker removal" stamped on it's forehead.
EDIT: I play almost exclusively the eternal formats, so my views on cards might be a bit skewed :/
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OCTGN is an amazing alternative to MTGO, can download card packs construct all the decks you want or do a sealed deck tourney and choose as many boosters as you want. Takes a bit to set up but been using it with the roomies and so local friends and it's a lot of fun. There's also an irc channel and everyone is pretty helpful. Usually there is a few people who want to play at all hours. Should check it out.
http://www.octgn.net/
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EPT
