This thread is for discussion of this week's Making Magic (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr294), which goes live Monday morning on magicthegathering.com.

Ooh, I can hardly wait, and not just because there's a chance we can force Mark Rosewater to acknowledge the existence of Dreamblade. ;)

Nice.:P

One day to go

What's Dreamblade?

Anyway I picked something random from A and Monty Python in B.

What's Dreamblade?

Probably the best collectible miniatures game you've never played. It's actually very different from other CMGs, playing a lot like a cross between Magic and chess. It's very fun, with an emphasis on strategy, board control, and risk management. Here's a link to the official site, which includes an online demo. (http://ww2.wizards.com/Dreamblade/Home.aspx?) (Wizards won't mind, as they're the guys that make it.)

What about the MTG players who don't play D&D and don't know anything about it? What a lame non-magic topic. I wanted Joss Whedon!

Boy, I think this would have been a really interesting trip if it was cast as Picard vs. Kirk. I do like that Mark tried to do something different, and it wasn't a bad column, but I suppose I still wouldn't have liked something a bit more off the wall than those two topics combined could have produced. Ah, the problems with trying to rule by consensus.

This seemed like half a good column (the first half) and half a "I almost ran out of time making this really long column" column (the second). I liked the first half, but the second didn't seem to have much DnD relevance.

On the whole, still an excellent article though.

Man, that was so obvious a tie-in, poor Mark - agreed. Still I thought he did a fabulous job in his yarn telling this week.

Eh. I happen to be a fan of staying in-character as well as Mark's DM, at least when the plot is actively moving (as opposed to during lulls), but having the DM mess with a character in-game for such perceived infractions is really petty and breaks the mood far worse than any out-of-game chatter. Just ask politely, and if it continues to be a problem, then threaten to ask Mark to leave the game. That would get far better compliance, I imagine, then these bolts from the blue which are worn as a veritable badge of pride.

The only thing that I could think about through the entire article was who the bolded person was. The article itself was pretty neat, but I want to know who the mystery person asking the questions is. Given the ending, I guess we'll be finding out in next week's column, unless I missed some obvious clue. Hopefully it will be our introduction to planeswalkers...

The mystery person was a psychologist. I don't think it matters what his name is.

I agree, the first half was good, the second half felt rushed and kinda lame.

The end did feel pretty rushed. I wonder if 'the psycologist' was just MaRo talking to himself with a fast-approaching deadline. Oh, and I didn't know he was jewish. That's pretty cool.

Is that a holiday your non-American audience will know?
Most countries have a labo(u)r day, it's just in May in most places. Oh, and Canada has it the same day as the States.

Rosewater went to Boston University, yet the college shut down because of a hurricane...?

The only hurricane that comes to mind is Hugo.

I wanted Joss Whedon!Me too!

The article did not have as cool a tie-together as his other Topical Blend articles, but it was still good. I actually liked just reading about MaRo's history of playing tabletop games. I really wanted to know what happened to the people he mentioned, like Dan, because I am like that. Is he still friends with them, etc.

Wow, tough draw Maro. In fact, D&D combined with nearly anything magic related is hard to make especially interesting as a topical blend. They just don't feel different enough for connecting them to have much of a novelty.
The end did feel pretty rushed. I wonder if 'the psycologist' was just MaRo talking to himself with a fast-approaching deadline.
That was my assumption all along. Honestly I expected the end of the article to be something like "Thanks Subconcious, you were a great help!!" "No problem!!"
Oh, and I didn't know he was jewish. That's pretty cool.
Yeah. Honestly "the ten coolest creatures" and "being jewish" would have been a much more interesting topical blend.



I do have to give top marks for the "Eye of the Beholder" story, though--that was absolutely hilarious.

Those of you that wanted Joss Whedon should realize that there are plenty of people who care even less about him than you do about D&D. I could care less what topic MaRo writes about so long as it's interesting. While it's fun to hear about some iconic Magic creatures and amusing stories about D&D, I don't feel like I learned much about Magic design from this particular column.

And a special note for Mark: Labor Day celebrates workers, not work. I suspect that the non-American audience knows that already, since they celebrate Labour Day on May 1, also known as International Workers' Day.

Just to clarify something: in spite of some of the criticism that is here that comments on the second half feeling rushed (myself included), this is still definitely a 9 out of 10 for one of your articles; it's just not quite the 11 that your first two topical blends turned out to be.

Honestly, I feel that what makes these topical blend columns as great as they are is that they let us get a peek at the life of one of the guys who makes this game that we love (you); in my opinion, getting to know a little bit more about who you are and how your life experiences have taught you lessons that carry over to your work is what truly makes these articles compelling. Now I say this with the utmost respect for you as you are definitely my favorite author here on mtg.com, but we're coming up on 7 years of you writing here on mtg.com; while there is no one out there more suited for writing the "Making Magic" column than you, we've also gotten a chance to find out a lot about you and your personal experiences, maybe to the point that you've used up most of your best personal stories. Like I said, I still really enjoyed reading this article, but I'd kind of like to hear a Topical Blend from maybe Aaron or someone else from R&D doing a guest appearance.

Just a thought. If not, well I'll still definitely be waiting for Topical Blend 4 with abated breath :)

Honestly, I feel that what makes these topical blend columns as great as they are is that they let us get a peek at the life of one of the guys who makes this game that we love (you); in my opinion, getting to know a little bit more about who you are and how your life experiences have taught you lessons that carry over to your work is what truly makes these articles compelling. QFT.

I only play mtgo, never played d&d, but I loved this article, almost liked the the d&d stuff better and usually I skip rosewater's articles, well done!

Honestly I expected the end of the article to be something like "Thanks Subconcious, you were a great help!!" "No problem!!"
Of course he didn't though, because he was rushing. :P

And I do agree JustinR. Most of the time, I read MaRo's columns because they are interesting and have a sort of dry wit to them. But sometimes, I find myself feeling somewhat dissatisfied towards the end if it wasn't conceived well, and as a result I tend to skim over it not really reading it or just skip it entirely. :cool:

Great article! Loved the stories. Many of the stories reminded me of my early days in D&D.

Remember that in D&D you want to roll high. Twenty is the best score and one is the worst. I crack my knuckles and roll my die. Twenty! I start dancing.That's disgusting. :confused:

On a lighter note, it was a little annoying how you chose to interpret the votes. The most obvious question combining those two topics is, "Why doesn't Magic cross over with D&D at least a little?" They should bleed together a more. I definitely see other people requesting the same on these boards.

By the way, a beholder is a terrible monster for the reason you illustrate. It's looks silly and it has a bunch of randomly lethal lasers that shoot from its eyes. Hopefully such poor Design & Development won't survive into Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition.

Eh. I happen to be a fan of staying in-character as well as Mark's DM, at least when the plot is actively moving (as opposed to during lulls), but having the DM mess with a character in-game for such perceived infractions is really petty and breaks the mood far worse than any out-of-game chatter.

A GM (happened to be playing RuneQuest at the time, but the point applies) I knew once had a really cool way of handling this. He didn't like out-of-game chatter either, so his rule was simple: unless you explicitly said that what you were saying was out of character, he ruled that your character had said it. Most of the time this just made whoever your character was talking to think you were slightly mad, but on one occasion we were at a temple when a big guy walks in. He was wearing iron armour and carrying an iron sword, which meant he was something special--those metals were rare in RuneQuest.

Anyway, someone in the party, after hearing the GM's overblown description of this guy, decided to say, "You're effeminate, aren't you?" as a kind of out-of-character joke. Unfortunately he didn't specify it was out of character, so next second his character was being held up against the wall by the beefy fighter type with a sword an inch away from his nose...needless to say, it took practically all the money we had to mollify him!

I liked the article but... it felt like a bit of a letdown.

I guess that's the problem when you make home runs like the Topical Blend #2 (which I think is my #1 MaRo article ever) and then have to follow them out.

That Hell Hound-part was among the funniest I´ve ever read! Thumbs up!

And hey, write about all the magic-topics that was "voteable", the´re all hell (hound) of intresting.

Curse you, Timmies, course you! We could have had a topic that actually had some meat to it. Now we have to wait a month before us people who follow the
column for advice on game design get something again. :bigeyes:

Still, it was an interesting article, if a little light on the design side. Oddly enough, I have a copy of the magazine with the Atog article (Duelist #7) from when I was a kid. It was my first introduction to Mark Rosewater, and it started a genuine liking for the guy that continues to this day. :)

By the way, a beholder is a terrible monster for the reason you illustrate. It's looks silly and it has a bunch of randomly lethal lasers that shoot from its eyes. Hopefully such poor Design & Development won't survive into Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition.

You... did see the giant beholder mini at Gen Con, right? :behold:

Curse you, Timmies, course you! We could have had a topic that actually had some meat to it. Now we have to wait a month before us people who follow the
column for advice on game design get something again. :bigeyes:

Um, I'm a diehard spike, and while I'll concede there may not have been a lot of game design to this column, it was still an overall great read from a pure entertainment perspective. We get stuff on game design almost weekly (and I'm not sure how you figure we won't get game design stuff during the Lorwyn previews, cuz MaRo always talks about the design of the set when he previews cards); isn't it only fair that the people that usually skip his column get thrown a bone this time?

Wow so MaRo is a Jew...then it's true what they've been saying in the media all the time - They really rule the world! ;)

Great article, although the second half felt really rushed - I think it would be just better as just the Top 5 creatures.

Overall a 8.5/10 - really nice, but a bit less than the previous Topical Blends, since I believe the articles should end with a puch, and this one just gradually faded away.

That's disgusting. :confused:
By the way, a beholder is a terrible monster for the reason you illustrate. It's looks silly and it has a bunch of randomly lethal lasers that shoot from its eyes. Hopefully such poor Design & Development won't survive into Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition.

They actually talked about a few of the problems with beholders in an article on the DnD site. I think the concept behind the beholder is interesting, but there were a few problems with its implementations. Try using the variant that they talk about here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20061028a

MaRo is a Jew? This is news to you!? Sheesh, man, I thought the "Rose" in his name was a dead giveaway. Plus, he comes to us from show business. Saavy?

Nice one Mark, and thanks. I vote Morphling as "coolest creature" ever. Best one too. OK, maybe Arcbound Ravager, but I only like to discuss non broken cards. ;)

Woah, there wasn't even a single dragon in his Top 10. Really surprising given that he combined the topic with Dungeons & Dragons[B]. :D
Anyway, excellent article, very entertaining. I never played D&D or something similar, but I can so understand his rection on the "you sleep with her" thing. Btw, how do you play something like "crawling around, desperately trying to find the wand" in the game?

To all the topic-complainers: I don't even know who Joss Whedon is, so that topic would be totally lame for me.

And a special note for Mark: Labor Day celebrates workers, not work. I suspect that the non-American audience knows that already, since they celebrate Labour Day on May 1, also known as International Workers' Day.
It's more like "Day of Work" in Germany.


MaRo is a Jew? This is news to you!? Sheesh, man, I thought the "Rose" in his name was a dead giveaway.
I believe he once said his name is of German origin. But I'm not surprised that he's Jewisch anyway. You're right with you next sentence.
Plus, he comes to us from show business. Saavy?
;)

Nice article, rushed ending.

But, Shivan Dragon should have been a lock for the top 10. Not having a dragon on this list borders on criminal. There is no way Hypnotic Specter should be there before Shivan Dragon.

*Yawn*

Someone tell me when next week's article is up.

P.S. D&D had near zero potential for an interesting Topical Blend. Damn you fools who voted for it!

I enjoy the topical blends, though I think after Marks first success he now tries a little too hard and uses odd writing devices which are really not necessary and somewhat spoil the fun inherent in intersecting random ideas. For example, the psychologist was completely unnecessary and distracted from the main subject of the article in this case. The intersecting subject matter was monsters in D&D and Magic the Gathering, and while I supposed a psychologist could have been a useful device for exploring the psyche's need for monsters, that idea was not used in the current story.

It was fun and very nostalgia-inspiring to read about someone's old D&D days. I was a dungeon master for a number of years (about 25 years ago) and I sometimes see that as my last period where I could extend the "age of wonder" of childhood temporarily into adulthood, and for at least that reason I cherish those memories.

I also think Ma Ro did a pretty good job of picking monsters that have become archetypes for monsters in Magic. All of his choices were monsters that go way back but were interesting enough to have spawned whole series of related monsters.

At the most basic level, monsters are fascinating because of their power and variability, making them great opponents in games like both Magic and D&D. Their use as plot devices go all the way back to the beginnings of storytelling as we know it, with the appearance of monsters in stories like the Odyssey. And Magic and D&D are both about storytelling.

When are we going to see Beholders in Magic, by the way? Are they blocked by some sort of copyright issue?

In any case, a great subject, which I think Mark has only partially explored with the current topical blend.

...Hell Cat.....I like it...

The best way for a GM to punish players is by taking away XP. Players hate losing levels. It's worse than being killed.

About the Maro green man. I saw similar faces in the chapel room of York Minster in England. They are supposed to be a symbol of life and fertility.

MARO!!!!!!

What kind of second-half of an article was that?! Those last 5 creatures were totally rushed (you just chose iconic creatures and that's it? :/). Do you think you can redo the last 5 creatures in a new article? The first half of the article was really excellent, probably your best ever. But it's a shame that the second half has to ruin what could've been your best.

I always liked atog, although his mirrodin art was godawful.
Also, the story of the princess brings back some memories.
Caution: Somewhat mature content.
Some friends and I were doing a one shot campaign, and the DM was a furry/scaly (if you don't know what that is, DO NOT look it up.) so I figured I'd roll with it and play a female bard wearing bondage gear. We go on a mission to rescue some baby dragon, and I cut the ropes tying it up, assuming it can help us. Instead the thing starts freaking out, so I roll to try to calm it down. I roll a 19. Then the DM makes a roll, and just collapses laughing. Knowing him, I was horrified. I'm going to stop here.
Also, beholder-related (at least to me) I was playingf 3 player doom once, and somehow, a whole bunch of cacodemons gathere around the respawn point, and by this point we had no ammo. Thus, my friend and I kept punching them as much as we could, dying, respawning and so forth. The ground was littered with our own corpses.

...but I also felt that I should play the game the way I wanted and just suffer the consequences. So it was me against God. And if you think fighting the law is an uphill battle, let me tell you weak little human wizard versus an omnipotent being—not a fair fight.

Yet, people continue to fight it. Fight the good fight, MaRo! lol.

I agree that the point of D&D is to have fun, and I'm glad you and your DM came to a "compromise". Though I try to get really into character -- I once played a Deadlands character who spoke poor English. I swear I hated writing papers that semester.

The part about the princess... cute. I don't think I've ever played a character with so much stability. Well, not really, anyway. Though I do like the "Talent for pleasuring women" thing. I had an odd anti-social guy who was trained in that art by a nice elf girl; I thought it was fun, and even spent skill points on it. I don't think I ever really used it, ever, but I had the skill anyway. When I played, I was "that guy who makes things happen", which was fun. I think the world would be boring without me.


lol.

I have no idea what else to say about this column. I couldn't stop reading it, but I have no idea why. Maybe it connected with me, somehow.

P.S. I totally agree about beholders being cool in D&D. I also think a little part of me would die if I saw one in Magic.

I liked the first few stories and the cards but I found the latter half of the article to be very disappointing. I don't think D&D was a good choice for the second topic at all.

I have to say I hold the same fondness for the Atog. I made so many strategies with him. Hornet Cannon, Snake Generator. But the most memorial thing about the Atog for me is the song I wrote for him. At that time, my friend had about a few dozen of him, and the hobby store we used to go to had a wall of atog cards on it. People would donate Atogs to him to put up on the wall, and some people drew or painted on their card. Like one was turned upside down and it said on the name "Class Clown". So I made a parody of the some "No Scrubs" from TLC, I called it "No Atogs". I walked into the store and when I walked past the Atog wall I broke out into "No, I don't want Atogs, Atog is the creature that gets no cards from me" and everyone busted out laughing. I even sent in a fuller version of the song into Wizards of the Coast. I did not get any response to it, however I bought this huge book that had pictures of each card ever printed up to scourge (I think) and for the spotlight on revised I think, they were talking about Atog and they mentioned that he had songs written about him. I'm not sure if they were referring to my song, but I still think it's cool (even if you prove me wrong =P)

Disappointing.

I would have been interested in hearing some game-design thoughts about D&D and Magic. There were some funny stories in here, but no actual insight into D&D design, and it's influence on gaming positive or negative.

Is it just me or is the number of comments rather small for a MaRo article, especially a topical blend?

I would have been interested in hearing some game-design thoughts about D&D and Magic

yeah, some analogies would be fun, for example like errating and banning polymorph by the D&D designers is simillar to banning of Magic cards etc.

I think the hell hound story is exactly the reason we need more Squirrels in Magic.

I think the hell hound story is exactly the reason we need more Squirrels in Magic.
Morph spiders should have been squirrels. ;)

First, let me say that MaRo really deserves a cookie for his different approach on the interwoven topics.

Then let me also emphasize that these Topical Blend articles are a great opportunity for his fellow readers to get to know more about MaRo and his life, youth, etc.

And lastly, I have to say I am really disappointed of the chosen topics. I feel that a D&D connected topic doesn't deserve its place in a TB article. As mentioned numerous times before Magic and D&D are not that different. An intricate article about some D&D related stuff could be covered easily in a regular article. Unfortunately, I have to wait another year (?) to get a good read from this series again needless to say only if the quality of the chosen topics doesn't keep decreasing as this is the case in TB atm.

So... not one of the creatures on that list is less than ten years old, by my calculation. I understand that the earliest creatures get the best shot at "iconic" status, but I was disappointed that he didn't give a nod to any more recent classics (Akroma?? Morphling??)

Also, I feel like several of these creatures have lost their "cool" value due to having so many variants printed. Atog, Lhurgoyf, and Maro come especially to mind. Atogs, in particular, jumped the shark the instant Atogatog was printed.

I think the concept behind the beholder is interesting, but there were a few problems with its implementations.I read the article by Dungeons & Dragons R&D about beholders but it doesn't make them less silly.

When are we going to see Beholders in Magic, by the way? Are they blocked by some sort of copyright issue?Wizards of the Coast owns the rights to beholders so they can do anything they want. They, somewhat foolishly, don't want to mix elements of D&D and Magic.

I totally agree about beholders being cool in D&D. I also think a little part of me would die if I saw one in Magic.Beholders actually make more sense for Magic than D&D because Magic-style fantasy lands are much more wild, odd, technological, and sci-fi than D&D. Of course, perhaps I'm wrong...D&D has always been kind of goofy monster-ripping, dungeon-bashing, gold-nabbing fun though, hasn't it? OK, apart from 2e. I mean gelatinous cubes? Puddings? We're surely not meant to take beholders seriously. The pulps it's mostly based on have that same fun quality - a lot of violence...Two-fisted, bare-chested heroes [defeating] dinosaurs in a world that never was.

Wizards of the Coast owns the rights to beholders so they can do anything they want. They, somewhat foolishly, don't want to mix elements of D&D and Magic.I think that is a good thing. Helps gives the two games distinctive flavors.

Evil Eye of Urborg is Beholderish.

Well, it's an eye at least.

I'm always a little sad at what I perceive to be a lack of design insight too. But then I realized these are a designer's cool cards, not necessarily a player's cool list.

Shivan Dragon - noticeably absent from the list. But that makes sense. Dragons are kind of a gimme when making a fantasy game. And nothing about Shivan necessarily led to any other dragons created. The best you could say about it from a design standpoint is how it used red mana power pump to simulate firebreathing. But the card "Firebreathing" did that quite directly.

By comparison, look at Hypnotic Specter. If you were going to design a fantasy game, would you have specters in it? You might, you might not. It certainly doesn't scream "must be present and must force discard." Yet that's how we think of Specters in Magic now. It's the idea that hit so well that it sparked more. That's cool.

It works for the others. Ball Lighting - directly inspired design. Serra Angel - directly inspired design. Morphling, not so much - more accurate to say it's the result of inspiration - a line descending from Clone and Doppelganger. Those are cool cards.

So I liked it. We as players don't necessarily match up with the list, but I can certainly see how cards that inspire other ideas would be the definition of "cool" to a designer.

Wow Maro, I haven't laughed like that in a while. Gemini the legless, where's an 18th level cleric when you need one?

Lots of "iconic" creatures in the list, they all predate like 4th edition. Which I find really unfortunate b/c I the evolutions in many cases have some great design elements. Like Spiritmonger: very cool creature, seemingly completely broken 6/6 regenerator for 5! But still not dominant, due to cards like Terminate.

I would have taken Triskelavus, the whole flying/shooting tokens things is both really cool and a very good design success as it successfully merges two creatures.

But hey good "skirting" of the Beholder question. We've all wanted to know when we'd see Beholders in Magic. Ever since Wizards took over TSR, there's definitely been a group looking for the word :)

Leave it to the nerds to pick D&D. :nonono:

Where's the love for Lost? Seinfeld? Stand-up Comedy? Even 80's movies?

Dungeons and Dragons (RPGs) 848 9.6%
Picard vs. Kirk 658 7.4%
Monty Python 577 6.5%

Pitiful. :raincloud

The hell hound story is awesome -- extremely well-written.

Going with old-school favorites for the top ten coolest creatures is too safe a choice. It's not like Maro is scared of controversy -- I think he just loved the hell-hound and beholder stories so much that he got caught in them and didn't really focus on making his list of top ten coolest creatures interesting. The Atog passage is good, but I don't think for a second that MaRo really believes that Magic hasn't topped itself since Mirage.

It's a similar pitfall to what MaRo discussed concerning Time Spiral block -- there is a tendency to overestimate the cool factor associated with nostalgia.

If MaRo had more time, maybe we'd see stuff like, "We all love Ball Lightning, and it's certainly cool, but Isamaru, Hound of Khonda is a higher level of the same cool. Ball Lightning getting outcooled by Isamaru is like Fonzie being outcooled by Vin Diesel."

Then we'd all come to the forums and say, "What?! That's ludicrous! Ball Lightning is tons better than anything from Crapigawa! And Vin Diesel is the worst human being ever! He sucks! That Mark Rosewater is batshit insane!"

And then it's mission accomplished.

As it is, yeah, Hypnotic Specter has been popular and admired for a long time, but there's no sizzle to that steak when it comes to making a top ten list.

Hehe, I really enjoyed the article. I don't think it was excellently done as the first one, but I vastly preferred it to the second. The second Topical Blend is obviously one of those polarising columns that you either love or hate - personally I thought it was just a bit too clever for its own good, and so light on actual information despite the clever execution.

Conversely, this was just an interesting and very readable story, if nothing else - and it was nicely written in a cool format. Good read. :)

If MaRo had more time, maybe we'd see stuff like, "We all love Ball Lightning, and it's certainly cool, but Isamaru, Hound of Khonda is a higher level of the same cool. Ball Lightning getting outcooled by Isamaru is like Fonzie being outcooled by Vin Diesel."

You know, I'm actually surprised at the cool factor white vanillas seem to have accumulated. Isamaru, Watchwolf, Blade of the Sixth Pride, somehow they all manage to be cool, potent, and innovative without a single line of rules text. In some ways I'm quite impressed. In others, this scares and confuses me. :eek: :confused:

What's next, Squire being played competitively?

Maybe MaRo has a really strong feeling about the top 5 coolest creatures, and for the rest went for iconic with less of a strong feeling about them? Although the writing on a deadline and word limit excuse sounds plausible too. ;)

To answer the #3 most popular Magic-related topic as voted on: why does Magic lose players? I can share why I stopped playing.

It was a combination of two things. One, I got sick of the Magic-playing community. I've had cards stolen from me at events so many times, I just got fed up. What a bunch of freaking low-life pathetic scum. How sad is it that I have to practically have my cards in a sealed metal suitcase and handcuffed to my arm if I want to go to a prerelease and not worry about losing product? The last straw was when my Magic Online account was hacked by some ******* who stole almost all of my valuable cards, and I had a HUGE collection.

Secondly, and far more importantly, Wizards customer service SUCKS. I've had so many bad experiences with them. "The customer is always right" is a completely foreign concept to them. There have been several instances in the past when I could have been made very happy when something went wrong on MODO, and yet they were always invariably unwilling to make even the slightest accommodation or exception to their rules. I feel like after having dumped something to the tune of $10,000 in this stupid game, I'm entitled to SOME level of respect and it would be nice to feel like they value my continued support of their product. but no. I had to put up with dozens of compromised tournaments I was winning because of server instability without compensation, arbitrary punishment from power-tripping adepts, and again, the straw that broke the horse's back: my account was hacked and they didn't do squat about it. I understand the user agreement says it's all my responsibility, but with the money and time I've put in, you'd think they could reissue the digital product that I lost at zero cost to them. They investigated it and were able to track down the illegal trades made from my account... but did nothing, absolutely nothing to rectify the situation satisfactorily. After TEN THOUSAND dollars, you can't make ONE exception to your dumb rules? THAT is the very definition of taking customers for granted. Well... anyway... end of story... I stopped playing. I got my cousin who has been playing as long as I have (since 1994) to join me in a boycott of wizards and Hasbro. Got a bunch of other friends to join in, too. It's too bad. I was the highest ranked 2HG player in my state when this happened. but, now I don't play anymore at all. online or paper. quit cold turkey. I don't like being told over and over again that I count for nothing.

Uh, nice vent. I quit in Exodus because I graduated high school, and eventually found a collectible game I liked better. :confused:

It was a combination of two things. One, I got sick of the Magic-playing community. I've had cards stolen from me at events so many times, I just got fed up. What a bunch of freaking low-life pathetic scum. How sad is it that I have to practically have my cards in a sealed metal suitcase and handcuffed to my arm if I want to go to a prerelease and not worry about losing product? The last straw was when my Magic Online account was hacked by some ******* who stole almost all of my valuable cards, and I had a HUGE collection.

Secondly, and far more importantly, Wizards customer service SUCKS. I've had so many bad experiences with them. "The customer is always right" is a completely foreign concept to them. There have been several instances in the past when I could have been made very happy when something went wrong on MODO, and yet they were always invariably unwilling to make even the slightest accommodation or exception to their rules. I feel like after having dumped something to the tune of $10,000 in this stupid game, I'm entitled to SOME level of respect and it would be nice to feel like they value my continued support of their product. but no. I had to put up with dozens of compromised tournaments I was winning because of server instability without compensation, arbitrary punishment from power-tripping adepts, and again, the straw that broke the horse's back: my account was hacked and they didn't do squat about it. I understand the user agreement says it's all my responsibility, but with the money and time I've put in, you'd think they could reissue the digital product that I lost at zero cost to them. They investigated it and were able to track down the illegal trades made from my account... but did nothing, absolutely nothing to rectify the situation satisfactorily. After TEN THOUSAND dollars, you can't make ONE exception to your dumb rules? THAT is the very definition of taking customers for granted. Well... anyway... end of story... I stopped playing. I got my cousin who has been playing as long as I have (since 1994) to join me in a boycott of wizards and Hasbro. Got a bunch of other friends to join in, too. It's too bad. I was the highest ranked 2HG player in my state when this happened. but, now I don't play anymore at all. online or paper. quit cold turkey. I don't like being told over and over again that I count for nothing.
Yesterday 11:32 PM

Which is why I'll never build up a collection on MTGO nor will I ever bring my valuables to an event like prerelease. Having my cards stolen from me is the main reason why I quit Pokemon in the first place. I agree with you that wizards should have returned your online collection, I don't think it would've been very difficult. The fact that wizards never lifted a finger to help you saddens me immensely.

Damn. I seem to have been lucky, I've only had like 3 cards stolen, and those were all by people who were just ****. Also at the coldsnap prerelease, I left my wallet at a vendor's table, and they returned it to me, untouched.

You know, I'm actually surprised at the cool factor white vanillas seem to have accumulated. Isamaru, Watchwolf, Blade of the Sixth Pride, somehow they all manage to be cool, potent, and innovative without a single line of rules text. In some ways I'm quite impressed. In others, this scares and confuses me. :eek: :confused:

As a wise man once said,

"Restrictions breed creativity."

There's just something about an evil, dark knight that really speaks to players.


You sure as heck got that right, Mark. :)

Rosewater went to Boston University, yet the college shut down because of a hurricane...?

The only hurricane that comes to mind is Hugo.

Gloria, more likely. Completely crushed the East Coast in the 80s.

Wouldn't the Beholder's anit-magic eye have prevented the wand from working?

Wouldn't the Beholder's anit-magic eye have prevented the wand from working?

They tend to close said eye when it could interfere with their eye beams.

I was almost in complete agreement with him until we got to Triskelion....WTF is he thinking?

Triskelion is a fun, casual creature. The fact that you can do seven damage the turn after it comes into play makes it a lot more powerful than it seems at first glance. LC has a Shandalar deck with Triskelions + Copy Artifact + Boomerang, which makes for a lot of quick direct damage .. in blue. (Boomeranging the Copy Artifact copy of Trike doesn't work in the game, which is a quirky bug.)

The article really died after the beholder story, which makes seven "cool" creatures into so much paste.

He could've at least broached the "Serra Angel: Cool. Serra Cathedral: Uncool" comparison, and how WotC can misspend nostalgia even as its building it up.

And there's certain to be a funny story about gelatinous cubes somewhere....

All I have to say is that this was an extremely well written article, definately one of MaRo's best pieces of the year IMO. Great work!

Dan starts laughing. He says, "It's a dog. You got taken down by Cujo. You made it sound like this thing was something scary."
So I say, "It was scary. See his mouth? That's fire."
He's like, "Lassie kicked your ass."
Anyway, Dan thought this was the funniest thing he ever heard. Whenever we were out somewhere and we'd see an animal, he'd go, "Look out. It's a squirrel... FROM HELL."
Then one day Dan is running an adventure and I'm playing the party and in the middle of some dark dungeon hallway we run across a hamster. I say, "Come on, Dan."
He's like, "It could be from hell."
Ha! funny as hell!

To answer the #3 most popular Magic-related topic as voted on: why does Magic lose players? I can share why I stopped playing.

It was a combination of two things. One, I got sick of the Magic-playing community. I've had cards stolen from me at events so many times, I just got fed up. What a bunch of freaking low-life pathetic scum. How sad is it that I have to practically have my cards in a sealed metal suitcase and handcuffed to my arm if I want to go to a prerelease and not worry about losing product?...

What the hell? Where did you GO to the Prerelease? I've been to at least seven and never had anyone so much as EYE my stuff. I even left my deck at the table as I went to the bathroom by mistake, then had it handed to me by a judge, saying that someone had seen it lying there and turned it in. Later on in the event, I returned the favor.

That voice in his head seems eerily similar to a personification of his madness in a webcomic called UGmadness. huh. You can google it if you want, but there is bad language