I have never bought a set of Magic: The Gathering cards. Actually, I grew to loathe them. Really. Whenever I would drop in to my local comic shop they always seemed like the nuisance barrier between me getting my hold and then getting the hell out of there before I was questioned about codas, Snapcasters or if Acidic Slime is a mediocre card or not.
With that said, my present day self can see the appeal of this strategy card game. Magic: The Gathering has lasted over fifteen years without a dip in popularity. It doesn’t have a television show, consistent advertisements or a toy line driving it. That type of staying power says a lot in our ADD here today, gone today culture.
What it does have is a hard to the core fan base that will no doubt enjoy Wizards Of The Coasts’ latest offering, Innistrad.
During PAX Prime I managed to hobnob with WoTC’s Adam Colby to talk about Magic, no less and why I should be playing it.
Me: Ok, so what would you suggest as a good jump in point for someone like me who has never played?
Adam Colby: Duels Of The Planeswalker 2012. It’s a self-contained video game available on Xbox, Playstation and the PC via steam. It is the best way that we’ve ever found to get people into the game or to re-introduce people to the game. A lot people might say they used to play and then life gets in the way… as it always does. Friends move away after high school or college. You get a job; you get a family or whatever. The video game is a great way to interact so you can play it after your done with homework or the kids have gone to sleep or whatever because it’s right there on your PC or console. It’s self contained that means you don’t have to worry about keeping up with the latest sets and making sure that you have the playsets of the all strongest cards. Its got a wonderful tutorial which you can play for free, you can download the demo for free on all three platforms and the investment is $9.99 or ten bucks depending on your platform. The amount of value that you get out of it or the amount of playtime that you get for the cost is among the top of all downloadable games that you’ll find.
Is this out now?
AC: Yes, It came out in June and the expansion ‘Ascend Into Darkness’ came out on September 14th. It is on all three platforms. It features additional decks; additional game modes including…well, the original featured a game mode called ‘Archenemy’. Which allows you to play with friends or a couple of Ai’s against an ‘Archenemy’ who was armed with not only a standard Magic deck but a deck of these evil, horrible, vicious scheme cards that allowed him to do horribly devastating things to the players. The expansion for the first time allows you the player to wield that evil deadly scheme card deck and basically play as the ‘Archenemy’.
What makes this video game and expansion pack a must play?
AC: Well, the card game, features three new Planeswalkers to the game including Ajani Goldmane, who is one of the original five Planeswalkers. Liliana who is also one of the original Planeswalkers and a new Planeswalker that is exclusive to Duels, Ral Zarek. He’s a red blue planeswalker so he’s got a fiery temper but a lot of brains up there. Liliana makes her entrance as essentially the host of the content that is part of Innistrad. Which is the fall set that comes out for paper magic and there is six preview cards for Innistrad in the new expansion as well as Liliana’s deck that is filled with all of the kind of horror things that Innistrad will be filled with.
I’ve never played before so give me a little overview on Magic: The Gathering?
AC: Every year in the summertime we release a core set. That is Magic in its purest form. It’s got the dragons, the angels, the goblins, the demons and all the things you would expect to find in a magical world. It’s Magic flavored. Then in the fall, we visit a plane. Sometimes it’s a new plane sometimes it’s a revisited plane and that features a sort of a theme for the block. Last year we revisited, Scars Of Mirrodin and we saw the favorite plane of Mirrodin invaded by the old enemies, the Phyrexians. That war that resulted in Phyrexia essentially destroying Mirran and then rebuilding it as New Phyrexia.
So, what’s the line up for this fall season?
AC: It’s a brand new world that we’ve never been to before, Innistrad. It is a world of gothic horror. All of the things the you would imagine to find in that sort of Elizabethian Victorian horror setting of vampires and werewolves, zombies and creatures made of other creatures, ghosts, those kinds of things. Those are all the denizens of the world of Innistrad.
Only fantastical creatures then?
AC: Ah, there are also humans but humans play a role more similar to cattle. They are essentially livestock. Something has gone array in the world and the humans are being purged fast. Something is going on there that will be revealed as the sets come out.
When does Innistrad come out?
AC: On September 30th… and on the first Friday of February 2012, ‘Dark Ascension’ comes out and it continues the storyline and the card mechanics.
Tell me more about how the card mechanics differ from Magic sets of past?
AC: Ok. Now, while the setting of Innistrad is very cool and the art and story are wonderful the new mechanic we revealed is something that we’ve never done before. Double faced cards (He shows me the card). So, we have a card that may start off as the Mayor Of Avabruck, a small hamlet in Innistrad. As the evening progresses he becomes (He flips over the card) the Howlpack Alpha. He is in charge of the local Werewolf pack. We have a bat that flies around during the day (He shows me another card) and in the evening becomes (He flips the other card) a Stalking Vampire. And we have our mad scientist, local test subject (He pulls out another card) as he performs more and more experiments this thing becomes (He flips it) Ludevic’s abomination. As you can see these things change rather dramatically from one phase to another. This changes the dynamic of a Magic game pretty significantly. It’s going to be really exciting and a lot of fun to play.
The Innistrad launch parties begin today!
I had to Google half the names that Adam Colby dropped during the interview.
Like me if you know nothing about Magic…this is a great place to get some of the terminology down.
They should have made a ‘Cronenberg Scanners’ card as it fits with the horror theme.
And here is the official trailer:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6eUQ5DTqtU