Trashdome - Cosmic Encounter VS Magic: Gathering

WELCOME TO TRASHDOME!

This is part of a series of bloody matches to the death. Show support for your favorite game so it will do better in the fight. You can support it by writing why you think its the better game and more importantly by betting on it. End your first post in this thread with the title of the game you're placing a bet on (i.e. voting for) so its clear to me when reading it later. You have until Friday when I tally the bets and declare the winner. The winning game may return for future matches, the loser will be dead. Counting expansions or not is entirely up to you just as playing with them or not is. I will reserve my bet for any tie-breakers.

Although you should be familiar with both games, there is no rule that says you have to have played both of them. The only rule in Trashdome is this;

Two games enter! One game leaves!

I decided to run two Trashdome's this week. It won't be a regular thing.

Cosmic Encounter.

CE distills much of the fun of an entire genre of games down into a rules light, one-hour experience jam packed with entertainment.

Magic on the other hand has become a sprawling, untrackable behemoth of a game, every bit as much a hobby in itself as something like Warhammer, and (in spite of endless GW price rises) rather more expensive. No game in which the size of your wallet can trump your play skill deserves to win a trashdome pairing.

And yes, I know M:tG was innovative but CE was, if anything, even more so. And yes I know you can have a lot of fun playing M:tG without it costing the earth or letting the size of a collection determine all the games but doing so reduces the entertainment value it offers and besides even if it's true, it's rather ignoring the Elephant in the Room.

I have always looked at Magic as a game that is more of a way of life. Magic players often don't have time for anything else, and as far as I'm concerned that's more commitment then I want to give any single game.

Cosmic has it's own weight in expansions (or at least did), but you can play it with more people, it will end up being cheaper, and was one of the key inspirations for Magic in the first place.

Cosmic Encounter

Holy shit. This could be epic.

COSMIC ENCOUNTER.

Reasons:
- Magic may have had more influence but Cosmic is its daddy. In the end I don't really care much about influence - I don't enjoy a game more because everyone copied it.
- I'm pretty much always itching to play a game of Cosmic - especially since the FFG edition came out, but Magic is mentally filed under "that was good fun but I'm glad it's over with" along with some ex-girlfriends.
- As a teen I loved spending hours creating and fine-tuning that killer Magic deck. I don't have the time or desire anymore.
- You can play Cosmic online without getting your ass kicked by a nerd using cheesy-ass strategies while taunting you: "lol i kikd ur azz d00d"
- Magic is better-suited for two players; Cosmic for multiple players. I tend to enjoy a group more these days.
- Cost: It took me nearly 20 years to spend a total of $100 on Cosmic. It took me nearly 20 minutes to spend a total of $100 on Magic.

I vote Cosmic Encounter.

I've played a lot more Magic than Cosmic Encounter, but games of Magic are generally too shallow and too short to hold my interest. Deck-building is a tedious chore, and keeping up with the meta-game is expensive, time-consuming, and ultimately worthless.

Cosmic Encounter delivers more of what I'm looking for in games. A multi-player experience with plenty of dude-killing and also some negotiation and diplomacy. While the potential combos fall short of the near-infinity of Magic, there is still plenty of room for innovative tactics in Cosmic Encounter.

Cosmic Encouter

Magic used to be a lot of fun while it was played at fun basis, now the cards lost their magic for me. It was the game that brought me to the hobby along with AD&D but it's over now. Cosmic is a great game, I don't know the old version but the FFG one is great.

Edit: after discovering Jyhad, Magic was forgotten forever. I just prefer multiplayer games.

I don't know anyone who is an old Magic player who STILL plays Magic. Whenever they talk about it, it's always in the "I'm glad I'm out of that cult" manner.

Don't get me wrong, it's a cool, exciting, fun game. It's just also the board-game equivalent of Scientology.

Oh, it is ON.

No vote now; I'm actually working for once. But I'll be back later with my 400-paragraph manifesto on which is the superior gaming experience.

When I said this could be epic, I didn't mean an epic beatdown. Jeez.

Cosmic Encounter!

Alan Moon plays Magic the Gathering!

In my gaming history M:tG was way more influential and fun than CE. Sure I may not play a lot anymore but I still have all of my old cards and decks for those time we dust 'em off for a few games. So many good times.

Vote: Magic

I'm not really suprised so many of you are going with cosmic, this site isn't really about CCGs but I'm going to have to vote magic the gathering by a long shot.

I am an old player who still plays magic that gathering. I'm an active member of team mean deck, a vintage magic team and really enjoy magic more that pretty much any other game.

The thing about magic is that it constantly evolves and always provides you with a competitive outlet, organized play is amazingly fun and rewarding. The complex interactions the game provides with access to thousands and thousands of different cards is unmatched.

A lot of you complain about euro games that are solvable, well magic is the antithesis of those games, it has so much variance and such a large design space that it is completely unsolvable.

The only "problem" with magic is the collection aspect. This is both a good and bad thing, it scratches that collection itch and is very fun but it can also be a very big money sink. Personally after an initial investment in Power cards I don't really spend much on the game anymore because I play the old formats, but that initial cost was very high.

But to re-iterate MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC cosmic is fun and cute but doesn't even come close in my book.

In interviews, Richard Garfield has said that both Cosmic Encounter and Wiz-War were major influences on his design of Magic.

sanildefanso wrote:

I don't know anyone who is an old Magic player who STILL plays Magic. Whenever they talk about it, it's always in the "I'm glad I'm out of that cult" manner.

Don't get me wrong, it's a cool, exciting, fun game. It's just also the board-game equivalent of Scientology.

Well I'm an older player who STILL plays magic, and I've been in and out of the game several times.

I never would say that it has been an addiction or a problem for me and pretty much all of the players I hang out with treat it as a hobby and that is all. I'm not saying that magic is totally benign but I think the stigma is generated by a minority of players that are just highly visible at things like conventions and game stores. You know the guy who apparently can't afford soap but carts around a suitcase of chase rares.


I actually have a friend who broke his METH addiction by playing magic so it is at least healthier than meth