Upcoming Releases Theros: Beyond Death. January 24, 2020Unsanctioned. February 29, 2020Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.
April 24, 2020Upcoming EventsMythic Championships MC 5 (Arena).October 18, 2019MC 6 (Paper). November 8, 2019MC 7 (Arena). December 6, 2019Weekly Dedicated Thread Schedule. Monday - Buy / Sell / Trade.
Tuesday - Anything Goes Q & A. Wednesday - Show Off / Brag About Anything. Thursday - Deckbuilding Help. Friday - Event Threads (MF, MC, SCG, etc)No Buying/Selling/Trading posts.No 'Just Cards' posts.Spoilers are allowed, use flair.Highlight category to see contents: SubjectContentRelated Subreddits.Third-Party News/Strategy Sites.Individual Card Info.Rules InfoFor rules questions check the or read the. Want to be a judge?.Play with Redditors. I made a label sheet for organizing my cards via plastic dividers: it's two 8.5' x 11' printable pages full of 2' x 1/2' labels for each set name, release date, and symbol. Everything is finished and sorted so I thought maybe someone else could get use out of it.
(EPS and PDF files)I printed them on some, cut along the guide lines with an Exacto, and threw them on some. The sets range from Alpha to Journey Into Nyx. Excluded are Duel Decks, From the Vault, Premium Deck Series, Deck Builder's Toolkit, and possibly some of the other, more obscure sets.Many of the icons were downloaded from, and more still are thanks to 's post.I don't have a ton of cards, but they're all scattered about in different sets. Can you tell which set I have been drafting a lot lately?;)For the sake of discussion: how do you sort your cards?
Mine are in a multi-row box, now with these suckers dividing them up. Each set is ordered chronologically, and the cards are ordered by collector's number. I try to have a long box for every set. If I have a huge number of the set, then I have two long boxes for the set. If it is two boxes, then one is for uncommons and one for commons, otherwise it is uncommons in the front and commons in the back.Cards are only sorted by color. I find that more organization than that takes a ton of time to accomplish but achieves very little in terms of time saved when I need to get cards out to use.I label the boxes on all sides but the bottom. This allows me to stack them in a closet or on a shelf with only the short side facing out and still read what set they contain.
I don't really sort them in the stack in any way in particular, but sometimes put a little order in the stacks. Mainly, the names on the ends of the boxes are enough for me to find what I need.If I don't have enough cards from a set to fill a box, I usually put a whole block in one box. If I still don't have enough to fill the box, I use old starter boxes to fill the empty space. I am sad that those are no longer made.Rare cards go in a variety of binders. I have one binder that is only for tournament playable standard cards. When they rotate out of standard, I move the cards to the binder that covers older sets.
That used to be extended, now I guess it is modern. Cards only good for type one go in a third binder. I typically only keep a play set of each card, unless it is a card I think I will use a lot, like some rare lands, or something that I want to collect for some reason.Other rares go either in a trade binder or in a long box for trading. I try to trade towards cards that will make it into one of my three keeper binders. I will trade for value as well though.
Wow - I was just surprised by this book popping up on my Goodreads screen. I was doing a review of by, I saw that he wrote Arena as well. I haven't thought about this book in years.When I was in high school in the mid 90's, I was kind of obsessed with Magic: The Gathering. I had thousands of cards, played all the time, and bought several books in the series - which had just started coming out. While it has been years since I played and read this book, I remember both the g Wow - I was just surprised by this book popping up on my Goodreads screen.
I was doing a review of by, I saw that he wrote Arena as well. I haven't thought about this book in years.When I was in high school in the mid 90's, I was kind of obsessed with Magic: The Gathering. I had thousands of cards, played all the time, and bought several books in the series - which had just started coming out. While it has been years since I played and read this book, I remember both the game and this book fondly.Very cool to be surprised by the same author writing a totally different kind of book years later.
As a 12 year-old, when 'Magic' was the center of my world, I was in love with this book. Re-reading it now, 20 years later, I cannot summon (get it?) the same enthusiasm. The characters are paper-thin and the plot is pretty pulpy, inspired - as several reviews have pointed out - by the timeless tale of Yojimbo. It might make a decent dumb movie.There is one thing it has going for it, though, which sets it apart from most game tie-in novels. Rather than simply explore the fictional world the gam As a 12 year-old, when 'Magic' was the center of my world, I was in love with this book. Re-reading it now, 20 years later, I cannot summon (get it?) the same enthusiasm. The characters are paper-thin and the plot is pretty pulpy, inspired - as several reviews have pointed out - by the timeless tale of Yojimbo.
It might make a decent dumb movie.There is one thing it has going for it, though, which sets it apart from most game tie-in novels. Rather than simply explore the fictional world the game is set in with any old story, 'Arena' actually tries to recreate the experience of playing 'Magic' games as a big part of its setting. The exhilaration of reading about characters actually fighting each other in much the same way the game was played in the early days - when it wasn't yet as specialized as today - is still incredibly strong. I would love to hear the story of how Forstchen conceived of these magical fights one day. They are clearly based on actually studying the card mechanics of the basic set.Then again, Forstchen went on to write political thrillers, work with Newt Gingrich and these days is spewing hate against Muslims on Twitter. With that in mind, it's hard not to see the weird nihilistic bent of the novel, with a strange disdain for humanity and 'the mob'.
When the protagonist's plan is to incite everyone to slaughter each other in droves in order to revert things to 'the old ways', it makes you wonder, what his creator's idea of world politics must look like. Readable.The melodramatic emotional fireworks are very annoying, but fortunately the author partitioned most of them off into small one- to two-page segments. Hammen somehow manages to be both out-of-character and cliched at the same time (what was with him unconsciously transferring to calling Garth 'Master'?), the background characters (and women, too) are cardboard, Garth (hero/main character) is hypocritical but mercifully bland in this respect, the villains are annoying It's. Readable.The melodramatic emotional fireworks are very annoying, but fortunately the author partitioned most of them off into small one- to two-page segments. Hammen somehow manages to be both out-of-character and cliched at the same time (what was with him unconsciously transferring to calling Garth 'Master'?), the background characters (and women, too) are cardboard, Garth (hero/main character) is hypocritical but mercifully bland in this respect, the villains are annoying stereotypes ('Varnel' has a weakness for women and carnal pursuits; 'Ravelth' is unrealistically obsessed with wealth; Kirlen fears death more than anything; Tulan apparently has compulsive overeating disorder and is very rotund). Don't worry about Kirlen so much; women are pretty much nonexistent in this novel in any meaningful way.It's traditional high fantasy; Fortschen usually chooses to remain outside of the realm of flashbacks or the showing of inner emotional development, which is probably a blessing, since the few times he slips with this are quite jarring. The way he avoids backstory or emotional reactions is similarly relieving, because he can't manage to be consistent with it, and it's annoying to have to think of the author as The Emotionally Retarded Man.
This was apparently one of the first Magic: the Gathering series books, though, so it's not as bad as it seems. Again, it is readable.The major point that I kept getting perturbed about was Fortschen's lack of understanding, or talent, for logistics. Within the city this novel is set, there are no cars, and carriages are used rarely, with the first mention placed firmly in the middle of the book. Presumably, they have old-style (small) streets and walkways. And yet, at some point during a battle scene, there is a mention of (paraphrased) 'thousands tried to flee while thousands tried to push forward to watch the fun' and I don't think he actually understands that this would be literally impossible in the physical specifications he implies and puts forth.Another point that irritated me to the point of tics was his description of Benalian society.
Although I understand that Hammen is supposed to be a socially-inept, chauvinistic failure of a man (and Turquoise member, the reveal of which was neither revealing nor surprising, but rather insulting), I wanted to leap into the pages and start beating the shit out of him for how he spoke to Norreen. Aside from that, however, the Benalian societal dynamics were a farce described by an unimaginative capitalist man who doesn't know the definition of 'privilege'. The reasons are thus: 1) cyclical power castes generally prevent power-madness, rather than encouraging them as Fortschen suggests; 2) cultures that allow/encourage women to become warriors are not rape-happy, ever; 3) cultures that allow/encourage both sexes to become warriors don't have the kind of sexual inequality that Fortschen asserts with the line, 'Women of the lowest caste cannot refuse the demands to mate with one of the highest caste.' This would only make sense if a) the power system were not cyclical (faced with the possibility/certainty of being on the receiving end, people are far more liberal and sympathetic than they would otherwise be) and/or b) it were not limited to sex or sexual orientation. That is to say, if women could do the same to men, women to women, men to men, etc.However, the most subtle annoyance was also the only one that could be considered in any way constant: Fortschen's use of 'the mob'. This 'the mob' is everyone in the city that is not one of the named characters or fighters, and it serves as a thinly-veiled excuse for never - ever - characterizing or individuating a single blessed one of them. 'The mob' is a forest of cardboard, with a laugh-track attached to supply danger, moral disgust (from the reader), plot diversions or whatever else is needed to board up the holes.Also, as the bit with Garth dogged by 'the mob' when trying to get away from the Grand Master's army so he doesn't get fucking killed shows, 'the mob' is merely a group of 500,000 hyperactive Downies with no care aids - or shotguns, because I sincerely wanted to jump in and force Garth to start frying the assholes - in sight.So, in other words, William Fortschen doesn't know as much as he thinks he does.But.
It's readable. As mentioned elsewhere, this story is something like Yojimbo or the more recent Last Man Standing. I found this in my parents attic the other day, and I read the reviews here so I decided to read it. I had never read it, even though I bought it when it came out (copyrighted 1994). The last page was cut where the coupon for the two free cards was, but I think I got the last line of the book.This book was written not necessarily before Magic had a story line associated with it, but bef As mentioned elsewhere, this story is something like Yojimbo or the more recent Last Man Standing.
I found this in my parents attic the other day, and I read the reviews here so I decided to read it. I had never read it, even though I bought it when it came out (copyrighted 1994). The last page was cut where the coupon for the two free cards was, but I think I got the last line of the book.This book was written not necessarily before Magic had a story line associated with it, but before they put so much of the story onto the flavor text of the cards and wrote the books to accompany each set as it is released.
The way mana and spells and planeswalkers seemed a little inconsistent after having read a considerable amount of the more recent novels, and sometimes the description of the spells and mana felt a little cheesy, but all in all a very good read I thought.My father read this book some time ago, and having never played Magic or understanding anything about it he said he enjoyed it and planned on reading it again. So I guess people who like fantasy but are not familiar with Magic might enjoy this. I think one of these stars is for nostalgia, but I do still find the book reliably entertaining after over a decade and quite accessible even for someone who doesn't know anything about Magic: The Gathering (that said, some quirks of the magic system will make more sense if you're familiar with the card game).This isn't the most original story, but it doesn't pretend to break new ground - it just romps with fierce joy over the old stuff. So you have a mysterious one-eyed stranger sh I think one of these stars is for nostalgia, but I do still find the book reliably entertaining after over a decade and quite accessible even for someone who doesn't know anything about Magic: The Gathering (that said, some quirks of the magic system will make more sense if you're familiar with the card game).This isn't the most original story, but it doesn't pretend to break new ground - it just romps with fierce joy over the old stuff. So you have a mysterious one-eyed stranger show up in town just before the Festival, when fighters (although they mostly rely on magic) from four houses battle each other until one is declared the best, in view of bloodthirsty crowds.
Garth One-eye gains enough notoriety in illegal street duels to join a house and therefore the Festival. And although he doesn't hesitate to lie, bribe, or kill, he does possess a peculiar sense of honor - and, it's increasingly clear, a mission: to win the Festival, and prove himself worthy as an apprentice to the god who strides between worlds. He'll make plenty of enemies along the way (almost as though checking them off a list), and gains a few amusing allies.The voice nearly veers on modern at times, but I think that's what's responsible for a great deal of the humor.he made sure that his cowl still concealed his face so that he looked almost like a holy dervish of the Muronian order. The Muronians made their livelihood by passing out tracts promising that the entire universe was doomed and generally annoying the rest of the world so that some people wished it would end just to get rid of them.Several city warriors slowed as they approached Garth, as if they recognized him. He reached into his pocket as if to pull out a tract and they quickly hurried on.' I like this disguise,' Garth said.And the writing isn't sophisticated by any means, but it's quite serviceable.
If you're looking for an unapologetic fantasy with battle and intrigue but not too much grit, this might do you well. In my experience, early books from the Magic: The Gathering Collectible Card Game series of novels fell into one of two categories: those that were so entrenched in the game aspects of the CCG that their worlds suffered, and those that used the idiom of the CCG to build up a complete world from the flimsy structure presented by the cards themselves.This book falls into the latter category. The author created a relatively complete world, replete with customs and a mythos to support it. Even th In my experience, early books from the Magic: The Gathering Collectible Card Game series of novels fell into one of two categories: those that were so entrenched in the game aspects of the CCG that their worlds suffered, and those that used the idiom of the CCG to build up a complete world from the flimsy structure presented by the cards themselves.This book falls into the latter category.
The author created a relatively complete world, replete with customs and a mythos to support it. Even though the book itself is little more than fluff with an adventure-film plot that can, at times, seem rushed, it is still very entertaining.
I would have liked to have seen the protagonist's actions against his enemies play out in a somewhat more subtle and devious manner, but I can guess that a page-count limit or publishing deadline would prevent something like that from happening. As a result, Garth One-eye's darting from place to place seems rushed and unplanned, but still manages to sustain the action relatively well.Overall, I recommend this book for people who are familiar with the M:TG CCG series, since it seems to build a world while using the cards as tools, rather than being locked into building the world around the cards. Either way, this book is a decent read, but don't really expect anything new.
Based on the popular card game of the same name, this was the first book written using the MtG world as a backdrop.The main character is a mysterious, one-eyed magic user by the name of Garth One-Eye. He has to come to an annual festival where magic users of many different houses compete for honor, glory, and the right to walk alongside a powerful Walker who promises that all will be revealed to the winner of the tournament.While some people who have never played the card Based on the popular card game of the same name, this was the first book written using the MtG world as a backdrop.The main character is a mysterious, one-eyed magic user by the name of Garth One-Eye.
He has to come to an annual festival where magic users of many different houses compete for honor, glory, and the right to walk alongside a powerful Walker who promises that all will be revealed to the winner of the tournament.While some people who have never played the card game before might scoff at the quality of books written in this style; the core plot, characters, and themes of this book are very well told. I later realized that it may borrow some themes from ancient roman times, but this did not take away from the story in any way.This is probably my favorite book. Everyone I've lend it to has loved it as well. It's cheap as heck too.;).
I know this book is far from awesome, however, I still enjoy reading it. I get such a kick out of when a spell is cast, and I know what card they are referring to. I really think that the MtG novels got the short end of the stick, when thinking about how people view them. They are entertaining. And for me, the wife of a (former) avid Magic player, they offered me a way to be involved in the game, as I did not play that often, insight into the characters and places that were being battled over on I know this book is far from awesome, however, I still enjoy reading it.
I get such a kick out of when a spell is cast, and I know what card they are referring to. I really think that the MtG novels got the short end of the stick, when thinking about how people view them. They are entertaining. And for me, the wife of a (former) avid Magic player, they offered me a way to be involved in the game, as I did not play that often, insight into the characters and places that were being battled over on the table top. This felt like two books, or rather a short story someone said, 'Hey, stretch that into a paperback.' The second half was great, as far as these go (I've read way worse Star Trek and Star Wars EU novels at any rate). It was really entertaining.
I did feel like the protagonist was a bit invincible and wasn't really risking much, but what do you expect from a binary good vs. Evil plot.The action in the arena was entertaining, though a lot of that may have derived from refere This felt like two books, or rather a short story someone said, 'Hey, stretch that into a paperback.' The second half was great, as far as these go (I've read way worse Star Trek and Star Wars EU novels at any rate). It was really entertaining. I did feel like the protagonist was a bit invincible and wasn't really risking much, but what do you expect from a binary good vs. Evil plot.The action in the arena was entertaining, though a lot of that may have derived from reference after reference to actual cards in the game (Wall of Wood, Psionic Blast, Circle of Protection, Craw Wurm, Lord of the Pit, Llanowar Elves, and so on.).
The author was almost slavishly literal in his depiction of these as spells, and it was quaint.It's very clear this was THE first novel in this multiverse. There was very cursory establishment of things that, reading this in 2017, I know were changed years later. It was really weird reading of spells as things contained in amulets that were passed around so easily (and evidently required no practice to master?). But that did amuse me since this was printed before Ante was abolished in the game.The first half of the book was just.boring. At first I was struggling to figure out who the hell everyone was and why I should care. It suffers from a problem in a lot of fantasy I've read by so-so authors does: throwing way too many fantastical weird names at you in quick succession in lieu of actual deep development of the world. It makes it hard to get invested when I just don't see why I should care to push through to learn more.It was predictable.
Our protagonist was an unknown badass who I didn't worry at any point would fail in his not-so-mysterious hidden agenda. He joined a house, stirred up some shit, then joined its rival.at which point I predicted (correctly) that we would see this two more times as he somehow joined all four houses prior to the Festival.Unfortunately none of that led to any greater understanding of this world that I didn't already have, and felt like just going through the motions.I'm just really critical of things like this because I can see a much better book here, but what we got was mediocre.
Paperback tie-in novels are always assumed to be garbage, but I've read enough of them to discover a few well-written gems and to know this doesn't have to be true. You can write about the worst, most ridiculous premise possible and still turn it into a well-written story if you try.Overall, though, this was entertaining, if you can just push through the first 150 pages or so. This was the first Magic The Gathering tie-in novel written, back in the early days of the game, long before it had a well developed world, mythology or logic to it and was little more than a card game with a fantasy theme.This is both a blessing and a curse for the novel, a curse because it has since become non-canonical and the world it represents isn't really matching the world of Dominaria where later stories would be set. Still, you can find some commonalities with names and places from th This was the first Magic The Gathering tie-in novel written, back in the early days of the game, long before it had a well developed world, mythology or logic to it and was little more than a card game with a fantasy theme.This is both a blessing and a curse for the novel, a curse because it has since become non-canonical and the world it represents isn't really matching the world of Dominaria where later stories would be set. Still, you can find some commonalities with names and places from the first few game expansions. On the other hand this is also the saving grace of the book, it's completely free of the constraints of a pre-constructed world, the writer clearly looked at cards for inspiration and knew enough of the game mechanics to adapt them into a pretty original magical system in the universe of the novel, but there's a freedom here which would have been lost later.The plot isn't that original.
It's the classic revenge story of the man who returns to a city after being wronged as a child to destroy those who hurt him and his family. It's a classic plot but the cool things in the novel are in the way the author creates a world and a magical system around the game, sorcerers carry spells inside pouches and fight each other in deadly competitions in order to win spells through bets or by stealing the pouches off the dead bodies. The spells are recognizable from Magic: Lightning Bolts, Pit Lords, Llanowar Elves, Counterspells and so on. The secondary cast of characters is pretty great as is the way in which the novel only slowly shows you who's who and why they are doing what they do. Not a classic for the ages but a lot of fun. Forstchen (born 1950) is an American author who began publishing in 1983 with the novel Ice Prophet. He is a Professor of History and Faculty Fellow at Montreat College, in Montreat, North Carolina.
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He received his doctorate from Purdue University with specializations in Military History, the American Civil War and the History of Technology.Forstchen is the author of more th William R. Forstchen (born 1950) is an American author who began publishing in 1983 with the novel Ice Prophet. He is a Professor of History and Faculty Fellow at Montreat College, in Montreat, North Carolina. He received his doctorate from Purdue University with specializations in Military History, the American Civil War and the History of Technology.Forstchen is the author of more than forty books, including the award winning We Look Like Men of War, a young adult novel about an African-American regiment that fought at the Battle of the Crater, which is based upon his doctoral dissertation, The 28th USCTs: Indiana’s African-Americans go to War, 1863-1865 and the 'Lost Regiment' series which has been optioned by both Tom Cruise and M. Night Shyamalan.Forstchen’s writing efforts have, in recent years, shifted towards historical fiction and non fiction. In 2002 he started the “Gettysburg” trilogy with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; the trilogy consists of Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, Grant Comes East, and Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant - The Final Victory.
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More recently, they have have published two works on the events leading up to Pearl Harbor and immediately after that attack Pearl Harbor, and Days of Infamy.In March 2009, Forstchen’s latest work, One Second After, (Forge/St. Martin’s books) was released. Based upon several years of intensive research and interviews, it examines what might happen in a “typical” American town in the wake of an attack on the United States with “electro-magnetic pulse” (EMP) weapons. Similar in plotting to books such as On the Beach and Alas Babylon, One Second After, is set in a small college town in western North Carolina and is a cautionary tale of the collapse of social order in the wake of an EMP strike. The book has been optioned by Warner Bros. And currently is in development as a feature film. The book was cited on the floor of Congress and before the House Armed Services Committee by Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R.-MD), chair of the House Committee tasked to evaluate EMP weapons, as a realistical portrayal of the potential damage rendered by an EMP attack on the continental United States.Forstchen resides near Asheville, North Carolina with his daughter Meghan.
His other interests include archaeology, and he has participated in several expeditions to Mongolia and Russia. He is a pilot and co owns an original 1943 Aeronca L-3B recon plane used in World War II.