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Kevin Klemme
March 09, 2020
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Kevin Klemme
January 27, 2020
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Kevin Klemme
August 12, 2019
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oliverkinne
December 19, 2023
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oliverkinne
December 14, 2023
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Mycelia Board Game Review

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oliverkinne
December 12, 2023
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oliverkinne
December 07, 2023
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River Wild Board Game Review

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oliverkinne
December 05, 2023
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November 30, 2023
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Jackwraith
November 29, 2023
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November 28, 2023
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Spitfireixa
October 24, 2023
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October 17, 2023
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October 10, 2023
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Outback Crossing Review

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What HOT TAKES are you taking?

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21 Sep 2022 15:54 #335695 by Gary Sax
I don't care for almost any of the rest of his ouvre, but that song is a banger.

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21 Sep 2022 17:17 #335697 by Virabhadra
His old blog, Last Plane to Jakarta, is a treasure. I've been a fan since college, mostly the stuff before his full-band setup, and I've met him at a few shows. He's a stand-up dude and his facility with language is astonishing. Definitely one of my heroes.

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25 Sep 2022 08:05 #335721 by Jexik
Most of the bad rep that M:tG gets is either people-related or (combined with that) caused by focusing on winning. If you fix those two problems it’s a more fun game. And… this is true for a lot of games.
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26 Sep 2022 00:03 #335725 by RobertB

Jexik wrote: Most of the bad rep that M:tG gets is either people-related or (combined with that) caused by focusing on winning. If you fix those two problems it’s a more fun game. And… this is true for a lot of games.


Don't forget expensive.
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26 Sep 2022 08:22 #335728 by Legomancer

RobertB wrote:

Jexik wrote: Most of the bad rep that M:tG gets is either people-related or (combined with that) caused by focusing on winning. If you fix those two problems it’s a more fun game. And… this is true for a lot of games.


Don't forget expensive.


It's not, though.

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26 Sep 2022 09:07 #335730 by stormseeker75
Only if you want it to be! Magic is at it's best when played with suboptimal cards that make you think and reason out how to deal with situations.

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26 Sep 2022 09:20 #335731 by RobertB
Never liked sealed deck all that much, and that's what playing Magic with 500 random cards is like. Sealed, but worse.

(Ooh! Hot take!)
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26 Sep 2022 09:50 #335732 by stormseeker75
I play a lot of Magic and have since I was 15, on and off.

Magic is a terrible game due to the mana situation. It's awful to have non-games where one side does nothing. It's not fun to be on either end of that.
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26 Sep 2022 10:10 #335733 by Sagrilarus

RobertB wrote:

Jexik wrote: Most of the bad rep that M:tG gets is either people-related or (combined with that) caused by focusing on winning. If you fix those two problems it’s a more fun game. And… this is true for a lot of games.


Don't forget expensive.


When its competitors were $34.99 this was true.

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26 Sep 2022 10:44 #335734 by Jackwraith
Ha. Yeah. No. Magic, like any collectible thing, is absurdly expensive if you want to keep up with competitive play. If you've found a way to enjoy it playing with the same cards, and there often is enough variability once you reach a certain number of cards, then great. But getting there is expensive and trying to keep up with the scene is ridiculous. I say this as a former tournament player and it was expensive 20 years ago and hasn't gotten any better. It's a brilliant game, but it's one of those "lifestyle" games like GW miniatures.
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26 Sep 2022 10:57 #335735 by Legomancer
Expensive Magic is a you problem. There are umpteen ways to play Magic regularly for very little cost.

Do you buy a board game thinking, "this is only worth it if I can play it against people in my community who are at the highest level of competition"? No, you play against your friends. You do not need to go to tournaments or keep up with the meta. It's a game you play with your friends and you are in control of how that's done.

I spent a ton on Magic back in the day, by choice. I've played since then for very little money and had a blast. You may not like playing pauper, sealed, draft, or whatever, but again, that's a YOU problem. Making the decision that only tournament-level constructed decks will interest you is a choice you are free to make but it's not a "problem" with the game.

Sorry, I'm in a spicy mood this morning and too may things have already set me off. This is a perennial bugbear for me.
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26 Sep 2022 11:17 #335736 by dysjunct

stormseeker75 wrote: I play a lot of Magic and have since I was 15, on and off.

Magic is a terrible game due to the mana situation. It's awful to have non-games where one side does nothing. It's not fun to be on either end of that.


I think this is way more of an issue than price. Price can be mitigated by the many methods mentioned in the thread.

You can’t really address mana screw without changing the fundamentals of the game though. Mulligans are a band-aid at best. And how many competitor CCGs have come out that try to be “MtG, but without mana screw”? Many of them have their own issues as games, so they’re not always better than MtG on net, but I’m not aware of many other games that have spawned a whole sub-industry trying to fix a problem.
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26 Sep 2022 11:32 #335738 by Virabhadra
We did Sealed drafts a few times in grad school and man did I hate the Alara block forcing you to run three colors.

I guess I got lucky, I read this article pretty early on and I think knowing how to the eyeball the mana ratio is half the reason I won so many drafts:

Mmmmmmmmmana…Five Rules For Avoiding Mana-Screw

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26 Sep 2022 13:20 #335745 by stormseeker75
You can eyeball your mana all day and then not draw enough or draw too many and lose. It's a crapshoot on any given draw.

To illustrate, just lookup what happened to Luis Scott Vargas at a Grand Prix a while ago. There's NOTHING you can do about that.
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26 Sep 2022 15:02 #335749 by DarthJoJo

Legomancer wrote: Expensive Magic is a you problem. There are umpteen ways to play Magic regularly for very little cost.

Sure. And casinos aren’t a problem if you just bring in $10 and expect to lose it all after 30 minutes at the slots.

Yes, there are cheaper, alternate formats. You could even just play a friend’s cube and never pay a penny, but that’s not how the game is sold or marketed. Foils? Chase rares? It’s all just unregulated gambling.

I’ll never forget my evening shift at the toy store. Middle-school aged kid comes in buys a pack, shows me his pulls. Hangs around, buys another, shows me his pulls. Counts his change. It’s enough to manage one last pack. Shows me his pulls and finally leaves after being tapped out with no sales work on my end. It was his decision to buy, but Wizards sure pushed him hard in that direction. Way bigger problem than any mana screw.
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