New Ice Age set for M:TG!
 

This is actually old news, but today the previews on the official site begun, so that's why I'm bringing this up. Why should this interest you? I know most of you started playing M:TG way back (and stopped playing way back as well), and this set is (probably) especially for you: the sequel to Alliances, the last part of the Ice Age block. This means a story line that is familiar, and snow-covered lands! Boo-yah!

P.S. Did I mention I now have a Tombstone stairwell deck on Magic Online? No?

PP and I are going to join a Coldsnap release league tonight, so if anyone wants to join, this is a nice opportunity.

How many cards of mine do you still use?

I remember the original Ice Age fondly. That is about where I stopped playing though. A local shop had Chronichle packs on sale for real cheap so I helped a buddy of mine build an almost all chronicle blue and black deck.

It had some really neat and annoying combos, most notably a Hells caretaker? (Sacrafice a creature to bring a creature from your graveyard into play), a sacrafice a creature to put 1/1 tokens equal to its casting cost into play, and some ridiculusly huge and expensive blue creatures. Then there were the requisite booster cards to load the graveyard and boost the tokens.
I got to see both a leviathan and a polar Kraken in play at the same time.

Hell's caretaker is a great card. It got reprinted in the core set (9th edition) recently. I started with Ice age, so that's what makes this set nice. It looks a bit weak, compared to "recent technology".
Tubby, I traded most of your cards for other (newer) cards: 5 for 4 trading bots are neat. But I use the traded cards a lot, so in a sense I'm making good use of your collection!

excellent. As long as they were of some use. [:p]

Well, I've created a paypal account, so I'll be joining you guys somewhere next week. :)

Btw, how did/is the Coldsnap league going along for you guys, any luck winning some matches?

Well...

We were waiting for the manager of the Pyknites, now we're waiting for Propain. So, all in all, we haven't started yet. I also discovered that it's a 1 week league, that's a bit of a disappointment. I was hoping for a 4 week league.

So glad I read this! Totally forgot about that, wasted my tourny when Kam. saw the light thinking it was 4 weeks as well

Perhaps anyone here can answer this question... is it possible to add funds to the paypal account using internet banking? The paypal info page gives you all the account numbers and stuff where the money you want to deposit should be sent to, but it specifically seems to mention that you need to visit your bank to make such a deposit...

Anyone any experience with this? My nearest bank office is quite some distance so I'm hoping I can avoid that trip...

Yeah, you can. I have done it with American Banking systems. It takes ~7-10 days to do that though, or it did 4 years ago when I set mine up.

I just feed a credit card to Paypal and rack up points on the card and it costs me the same money. I highly recommend that method.

Kemal, all you have to do is to send money to the Bank of America in Amsterdam, and put the code Paypal provides into the description box. You can do this with internet banking, or good old fashioned transfer cards (doubt you still have those though).

Nice thing, it takes only a day or so.

Romeo, for people in the Netherlands it's unusual to have a credit card.

Thanks, it worked out indeed. From my coupons I've bought 4 Ravnica boosters and 2 tickets, since due to VAT I wasn't able to purchase a constructed deck via the coupon, since I have no ccard. :(

So now I have 60 cards plus enough lands, but nowhere near something that could be called a competitive deck. I'm looking at the available preconstr. decks the next couple of days, and then see what fits my style best. I'm of course willing to play before that, but unfortunately I'm a bit of a pushover for now I suppose..

On the bright side, I've opened a foil watery grave from one of my boosters, that seems to be a pretty good catch, no?

Indeed, dumbest thing ever.

You could trade that foil, that should be around 14 tickets. You can easily get yourself a competitive deck for that. Competitive in the casual room, that is...

Those precons suck.

Heh, I just beat a preconstructed deck with my 60 cards wimpy 4 colour deck... and a lot of luck I suppose. [lol]

Btw, I'm thinking of joining a Ravnica league, since that way I can get more cards and play a league at the same time, without having to resort to precon decks. The cards in Coldsnap are way yoo onesided in my view, since a lot concerns snow covered stuff... and I'd like my cards to combo in later sets too.

Some of the coldsnap cards are pretty good, and the snow theme is very strong. Playing in a ravnica league will give you a reasonable amount of cards, plus a lot of playing time. But just getting a deck is a lot cheaper.

Unless you get lucky and draw more foil duals.

I just don't like most of the preconstructed decks available, but I might purchase one anyway to get some key cards. Deck construction however is one of my favourite aspects of the game, and I think a league gives you a lot of that since you can only work with a very limited amount of cards. That I can use those cards later to create a wacky deck for casual is of course a good bonus.

Btw, is it just me, you and pp playing Magic here on CDZ so far? It would of course be a lot more fun to be able to join the same league, but maybe we could arrange some casual play competitions as well?

Or have you people already found/joined other clans somewhere on the net/on magic online?

It's hard to put enough sarcasm into the following words: what key cards?

I think the total value of a precon is less than the tickets you could buy for the same money. But it's hard to judge, I don't know what you want. Could you come up with a decklist? And put in the "get Kemal a deck thread" ;)

It's the two of us, plus the manager of the pyknites. You won't see him post here any time soon, I guess...

I don't know, you might get some of us American Guys back in the game, but it kind of depends on how my work/pay scale vs house payments/remodeling schedule goes.

What it costs is really depending on what you want from it. If you just want to play and have fun, it doesn't have to cost much. Recently I discovered standard tribal: that's standard (type 2, the latest sets, for the n00bs ;) )with the requirement that 1/3 of your deck consists of creatures of the same type. Those formats with restraints are nice, because it keeps you away from the most expensive decks. And playing with a handicap makes it ok if you loose. And there are also tournaments with tribal standard.
Such a deck won't cost you more than something like $20. The amount of time you spend on it, well, that's up to you. A single game doesn't take much time, a league will take at least 3 hours a week. A league will cost you about $20 as well (too much if you ask me).

The bad thing is that once you start, you always want more and better cards.

I dont think league's are that bad value for money.

entering a league: tourny pack + 2 boosters + 2 tickets = $ 20,-
adding a boosters every consecutive week (3*) = $ 10,-

So that's $30/4 = $7.50 a week (or for Shabba $2.50 an hour ;)) When I go out I usually spend more money in 3 hours, so when you look at it from an entertainment/hour value PoV I think it's not particularly expensive. You can also sell your cards after the tourny but unless you're lucky they're worthless anyway so you that won't really reduce your cost.

There's booster's to be won as well if you end up top halve of the tourney. A booster sells for about 3.5 tickets (1$/ticket) so you need to win 8 boosters to come out even which equals top 9. Don't count on that either and play for fun, not togo infinite :D

I'm actually enjoying myself in the casual room already, even with my newbee deck. While I agree that you will always want to get better cards/combos/decks at some stage, improving your card base with a league seems like a really good method, and to me far better than getting a preconstructed deck which forces you in a certain direction.

During the league, you are playing in an even playfield for 4 weeks, and to add bonus you can even win prices, while in reality that only costs $2 from the event tickets, the cards are purchased and kept and can be used for your casual deck too once the league finishes, and are the same price they would have been had you bought them outside the league format.

Seems like a great way to play the game to me, and since a league lasts 4 weeks, overspending on it is a difficult thing. I'd say I'd prolly play once every 6 or so weeks in a league.

Then again, I might not be such a diehard player, as I'm not craving for the best decks per se, but for the nicest combos. Or, to put it in WotC terms, I'm Johnny, not Spike. ;)

I can play in the casual room for free. But I must admit I'm biased: I'm really a constructed player.

P.S. Read this article on tribal, and that guy's newer articles. Honestly, I can't push tribal enough. Zombies FTW!

Zombies as Forward Towards the Wing? ;)

Indeed :D

I didn't say leagues where the most inexpensive way of playing, I just said I thought the value for money isn't bad at all in my PoV.

If you look at it financially drafting might even be a better proposition. If you win your 1st match you've earned at least 2 booster packs for a 3 booster + 2 tickets = $12 dollar investment. If you win another match you'll have at least 4 packs, returning your investment basically. For me the 2 hour commitment is just too difficult atm, so I dont think I'll be going down that road a lot.

If you can draft, you should draft. That way you can go "infinite". A lot of good (not even the really good, mind you) never pay anything for MTGO. If you always end in the upper half of a draft queue, you win more than you spend. Pykniteking is drafting a lot... and I think he's getting close.

Like I said, it's just a different mindset. I dislike limited, constructed is my thing. I get the best value for my money in the casual room: getting 10 tickets (7 euros) of sub par cards is good enough for weeks. But I do think drafting is something for Kemal: drafting is all about remembering draft picks (i.e. the play value of cards), a brilliant suit for an obsessive micromanager.

Ended up joining the league (not doing that well, currently 50/50 record with 10 games to play), and selling the watery grave for 13, getting myself a nice deck doing okay in casual with that. But my tickets had been exhausted by now.

Unfortunately, I did not get lucky and didn;t draw any foil dual lands anymore. :(

However, the hallowed fountain I just pulled from my last dissention booster should see my ticket supply rise once again. :D /brag mode

Not sure I'll sell though, I think the artwork from Rob Alexander is absolutely spot on, I'm thinking about keeping and playing it for that alone...

Btw, I've played a couple of games vs PP already, but haven't seen you around yet Shabba, strictly playing drafts these days?

No, I've been on holiday. You'll see me soon, I guess. I've got a good idea for a skeleton or zombie tribal deck, with grave pact (one of my favorites). Did you add me to your buddy list? If so, send me a message, then I'll add you to mine.