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Hearthstone Frozen Throne Solo Adventure Missions Players’ Guide – Lower Citadel

September 2nd, 2017 | Posted by Indri in card games | Hearthstone | world of warcraft - (Comments Off on Hearthstone Frozen Throne Solo Adventure Missions Players’ Guide – Lower Citadel)

lich king hearthstone mission guide

While this has been out for a few weeks now, I wanted to write a little bit about the new solo game mode

Let me just say I love the solo mode games, sometimes it’s nice to not have a human opponent. It feels a little less stressful to me. These fun and challenging new story mode games are packed with flavor. There are also some pretty funny comments from the Lich King. You will be awarded a pack of cards, and a gold card for playing through them. These are tough matches meant for more advanced players. You need the right deck to beat them. These are being released over time, as of now only week one has been available to play.

Here are the deck strategies I used to win week one of Hearthstones’ Lower Citadel.

The Lower Citadel wing is the first wing of Icecrown Citadel. There are three bosses to beat after the prologue, Lord Marrowgar, Saurfang, and last but not least – Lady Deathwhisper. You’ll have to build a custom deck to beat each of them, most likely.

The Prologue
Don’t try too hard here, you aren’t meant to win this one. Just play as well as you can and have fun with the story and characters.

Lord Marrowgar
I haven’t seen this strategy used by other guides, but here is how I beat him rather easily. I use a pretty standard taunt warrior deck with Fire Plume’s Heart. Using the taunt guys, quest weapon, and poison creatures, I ran him out of cards, then won through the fatigue damage pretty quickly.

Deathbringer Saurfang
I used the warrior taunt quest deck again for this one with only a couple modifications. I added 1x Gorehowl, and 2x Arcanite Reaper. My strategy was to wear him down to the point where he had no hand left, hiding behind the taunt creatures and using the quest weapon. Then once he has no threats left, crush him with the weapons.

Lady Deathwhisper
This one was more of a challenge. I used a priest deck with Circle of Healing, Binding Heal, Purify, Earthen Ring Farseer, and Greater Healing Potion… What I did here was heal the dragon, and attack 4 times. Deathwhisper will always use her hero power first, so the dragon won’t be killed.

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Hearthstone Knights of the Frozen Throne Pre-Purchase Benefits and Discounts!

July 30th, 2017 | Posted by Indri in Amazon Coins | card games | Hearthstone | pc-games | Ramblings - (Comments Off on Hearthstone Knights of the Frozen Throne Pre-Purchase Benefits and Discounts!)

The time is near for a new expansion to Hearthstone – Knights of the Frozen Throne, and right now is the best time to get the new cards before anyone else, and cheaper than anyone else too!

Knights of the Frozen Throne Hearthstone expansion

Hearthstone Knights of the Frozen Throne Pre-Purchase Benefits and Discounts

As I’ve said before in previous posts, pre-release is the absolute best time to buy your Hearthstone cards at a discount – and the deal is even better when you buy them with Amazon Coins! Every time there’s a Hearthstone pre-release, the developers offer a pre-order 50 packs of the new set at $1 each. This allows you to get a ton of new cards at cheap prices, and be ready to play with new cards when the set is officially released. Your packs will show in your account, but won’t become available to open in-game until Knights of the Frozen Throne officially launches (a mid August release date).
As an added bonus you’ll also get a sweet, exclusive card back for pre-ordering this new set.

Knights of the Frozen Throne Hearthstone expansion is bursting with flavor for those of us who enjoyed years of playing World of Warcraft. This was always one of my favorite expansions in World of Warcraft, and I am rather pleased to see them finally release an expansion focused on this part of WoW.

New cards I’m especially excited to play with are:
Corpsetaker
I believe will lend itself to new decks that focus on taking advantage of the card’s ability by having cards in the deck that give it all of the bonus abilities.

Bring It On! – with a cheap cost to gain 10 armor, and then reducing the cost of all minions on your hand by 2, this card seems to provide much more value than people may think. Even if there are no minions in your hand, 2 for 10 armor is OK value.

Also worth mentioning is the new Lifesteal mechanic – which is basically the same thing as Lifelink in Magic the Gathering. This is probably a more powerful mechanic than many people realize, and if you have played any Magic, you already know this is great for outracing opponents with creatures/minions.

So grab your Amazon Coins and get over to the pre-order page because once the set is released that deal is gone! (Amazon Coins are always a good deal when buying your card packs though! As I have explained much better here)

Hearthstone: Knights of the Frozen Throne Trailer Video

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Hearthstone Review from a Magic the Gathering Player

June 10th, 2017 | Posted by Indri in card games | Hearthstone | pc-games | Uncategorized | world of warcraft - (Comments Off on Hearthstone Review from a Magic the Gathering Player)

Hearthstone Review from a Magic the Gathering Player

Anyone who knows me knows I’ve been playing competitive Magic the Gathering since the game first came out. Up until a few years ago, that was fine. I had plenty of time and money to spend on the game, and I enjoyed it. Then I got married and had a kid. Reality set in, and now I have real priorities that push gaming way to the bottom of the list.

So what can a lifetime card flipping addict like me do to scratch that itch? Plain and simple, I had to quit playing Magic competitively. I may be able to catch a draft every once in a blue moon, or play some other form of the game on my Playstation etc…but the days of staying up into wee hours of night playing Magic Online tournaments are gone.

Enter Hearthstone – My Magic The Gathering Replacement

As a long time geek gamer, you might have also guessed that I’ve played World of Warcraft. You guessed right. That had to stop too, due to the same issues of not having time to play games for hours.

I was already looking for other card games that could be played faster and easier. So when I heard that there was a card game based on WoW, that was one of the first few I tried. I’ll be honest, I didn’t get hooked immediately… but after a few weeks, when I started getting good at it, I started to like it more.

Hearthstone Pros and Cons

PROS:

PRO 1 – Fast Games
What I like most about Hearthstone is the games are fast. I’m a dad and a husband, and I work two jobs… I just don’t have the time to sit and play 3 to 5+ hour Magic tournaments anymore. PTQ’s are just not happening anymore. However I can play a few games of Hearthstone, on my phone, before bed or on my lunch break. This is not possible with Magic. The tournaments are draft style, but not really drafts. So you can play against different opponents anytime, you aren’t restricted to a draft pod like you are with MTG. This is nice because I can play an Arena match or two, then live my life and come back later that night, or two days later and continue the same Arena tournament.

PRO 2 – Can be played on cell phone

I’m already carrying my smartphone with me everywhere I go. So to have a decent game on there is pretty nice. I couldn’t imagine trying to play Magic on my phone, but Blizzard did a pretty good job of making their game playable on my Samsung Galaxy. It’s nice to know that if I want to I can play basically anytime, as long as there is WiFi.

PRO 3 – Rewards Galore

While they don’t just give you every card to play with from the start, which they could have done… it does give you
a reason to keep playing the game and some excitement I guess from opening packs. They give out free packs often, and there are various rewards for progress on each class. This is something Magic doesn’t really do, but is a nice incentive to keep playing.

PRO 4 – Much Cheaper than Magic

It is cheaper than Magic. You can spend money on packs if you want to, or you can play for free buying packs of cards with gold you win from the tournaments etc. You have to be more resourceful with your decks when playing for free, but you can still play. If you want to play more competitively, you can either “dust” your unwanted cards to build a deck you want, or spend a fraction of the cost of a competitive magic deck to buy a bunch of booster packs. It’s also kind of refreshing for me, not to have to look at every card and consider it’s monetary value.

PRO 5 – No Chat

One thing about Magic Online that would annoy me is the chat box. Or I should say, the opponents trash talk area. I don’t know if it was just me, but I would always face the most douchey and rude opponents. So I’d ignore the chat box. That being said, even in Hearthstone players can emote in jerky ways, so thankfully there is an option to “squelch” them so you at least don’t have to be annoyed with their commentary.

CONS:

CON 1 – Dominant Decks
At times it seems like there are one or two decks that completely dominate the game, are basically unbeatable, and everyone you go up against in the player vs player ranked matches seems to be playing those decks. If you aren’t playing those one to 3 “net decks” you probably will lose. This is always an issue with card games, since players have the internet it’s hard to stop them from building and sharing the most broken decks. Blizzard is somewhat quick to respond with card nerfs, but still allow some to stay in.

CON 2 – Low Rotation Cycles
Cards that are released stick around for 2 full years before they go into “Wild” mode. Say you really hate a particular card, like oh say Reno Jackson for example. You are stuck playing against it for 2 full years. People were waiting and waiting for stupid Reno to rotate out, it was so horrible.

CON 3 – Not Much of a Competitive Outlet

Sure they have Arena Mode, and there is some kind of major tournament that takes place in a faraway land once or twice a year… but unlike magic there are not PTQ’s, there are no local gaming shops hosting Hearthstone tournaments that I’m aware of. This is sad for some people who really get into the competitive aspect of the game, it’s just not there for Hearthstone. Which I find a bit odd – Blizzard is a pretty big company and could easily host a pro tour type of thing if they wanted to.

Con 4 – No Trading

While I admit I was never much of a fan of trading, I do realize that trading is an important part of Magic that a lot of people do enjoy. That’s the main reason I’m listing this as a con here. You cannot trade with other players in Hearthstone, but they do allow you to “dust” your cards to the game. Then you can use that dust to “create” the cards you want. The thing is, dusting a card is always a losing trade. You dust something for a fraction of what it costs to create a card of the same rarity. So unlike Magic where you are trying to trade for equal or better value, you will never get that kind of deal with Hearthstone.

TO SUM IT UP

Well that’s it for now, I may add to this list as the game goes on, but I stand by my pros and cons at this point. I feel like Hearthstone is a fine Magic replacement for gamers that find themselves limited on time and money. If you haven’t tried it yet, why not go to your app store and give it a shot? It’s free to play and unless you really want to build the best decks to compete in ranked mode, you don’t need to spend any money. You can play it on about any decent smartphone or tablet, and the games or tournaments don’t require you to sit down playing for hours at a time.

All in all I’m glad I found Hearthstone I think I would have ended up very depressed and missing my Magic the Gathering gaming if I had just quit and not found another game.

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Get 50 Packs of Hearthstone’s Journey to Un’Goro Expansion CHEAP with Amazon Coins!

March 2nd, 2017 | Posted by Indri in Amazon Coins | card games | Hearthstone | Ramblings - (Comments Off on Get 50 Packs of Hearthstone’s Journey to Un’Goro Expansion CHEAP with Amazon Coins!)

Get 50 Packs of Hearthstone’s Journey to Un’Goro Expansion CHEAP with Amazon Coins!

Every time there’s a Hearthstone pre-release, the kind developers offer a sweet promotion where you can pre-order 50 packs of the new set at $1 each. This allows you to get a ton of new cards at cheap prices, and be ready to compete when the set is officially released. You even get to open the packs before they are released! Great if you haven’t seen any of the cards yet, you’ll have fun opening and exploring Un’Goro.

Un’Goro was always one of my favorite zones in World of Warcraft. It’s one of the few parts of the game that actually got my heart racing… with huge dinosaurs running around and hearing their footsteps, it was nerve wracking but fun! I haven’t seen all of the cards yet, but I’m expecting some large reptiles to make an appearance in a big way!


Journey to Un'Goro Promotional Deal

Buying Hearthstone packs of the new set for only a dollar a pack is already an awesome deal, every player should be taking advantage of that… but it gets better! You can save another 1%-25% on top of that when you spend Amazon Coins on this deal! Another sweet part of the deal is, for a limited time, you’ll get 500 Amazon Coins back when you get this promotion!

There isn’t a catch other than you will need to install your game through the Amazon App or marketplace. If you have Hearthstone installed through Google Play store or elsewhere, you are going to have to uninstall that version, then reinstall the Amazon version. That’s how you unlock the ability to spend Amazon Coins from inside the game, and start saving money immediately!

Here is the deal breakdown step by step:

Step One – Install Amazon’s Version of Hearthstone
If you haven’t already, go and install the Amazon version of Hearthstone unlocking the ability to spend Amazon Coins which will save you 1%-25% on your packs – depending how many you buy at a time. The more you spend, the more of a discount you get on the coins, which you spend on packs at $1 per 100 coins.

Step Two – Buy Amazon Coins for you Amazon Account
It’s important to note that the discount you get depends fully on how much you spend at the time of purchasing Amazon Coins. The lowest amount you can buy at the time of writing is 500 coins (equal to $5 of in game value) for a mere 1% discount, up to 50,000 coins (equal to $500 of in game value) for a 25% discount! The coins don’t expire, and you can use them for anything you would spend money on in Hearthstone. You can also install other games that accept Amazon Coins as payment, or send extra coins to your friends as a gift.




As I’ve said before in my save money on Hearthstone post, I feel most comfortable buying 5000 coins at a time for the 17% discount. That’s the sweet spot for me that usually allows me to buy anything I need from Hearthstone. In this case, that will be exactly what you need to spend on this deal – Which means you are saving 17% on top of the 50 packs for 50 bucks prerelease promotional deal. Less than a dollar per pack, plus an exclusive card back! This is too good to miss!

Step Three – Visit the Hearthstone In-App Store
If you have the fully updated Amazon version of Hearthstone installed, you can navigate to the store within the app and choose “Cards”. In there you should see the glowing deal available for purchase, and now be able to spend your shiny new Amazon Coins on the deal. If you don’t have enough coinage, you will also be able to buy them through the game.

Hurry and jump on this cheap Hearthstone packs deal before they release the set, then these packs will be full price! Which is currently $40 for 50 packs.

Here are some Journey to Un’Goro videos to wet your appetite, in case you don’t know about it or aren’t sure if it’s going to be fun (spoiler alert – it will be fun! ).

Journey to Un’Goro Announcement Video – (these guys are fun!)

Journey to Un’Goro Cinematic Trailer Video

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How to Save Money On Hearthstone Gold – And Tons of Other Games!

February 2nd, 2017 | Posted by Indri in card games | Hearthstone | Uncategorized - (Comments Off on How to Save Money On Hearthstone Gold – And Tons of Other Games!)

How to Save Money On Hearthstone Gold – And Tons of Other In Game Purchases!

What if I told you, that you pay too much for your mobile or PC games? That all this time you could have been spending less money to get more of the in-game items you need to play your games best? I was surprised to find this out, and so were many of my Hearthstone playing friends – all of us were paying full price for game purchases until we discovered Amazon Coins. It just blows my mind that so many people still aren’t taking advantage of this! However it seems like neither the game companies nor Amazon are doing much to promote this virtual currency…which is why I’m writing this to let my visitors “in on the secret”.

My Quest for Mobile Game Savings

I probably would never have found out about Amazon Coins if it weren’t for my wife. I was never compelled or driven to look for discounts or coupons for our games, until she racked up a HUGE amount of 3rd party charges playing League of Angels – Fire Raiders. She’s a stay at home mom, and her main thing to do during the day besides watch our son is to play games on her cell phone. She was spending around $100 per month on in game purchases, but there was one month she REALLY went crazy and spent over $200 on this game! Needless to say I was not thrilled at that, nor was I happy about her game draining our monthly entertainment budget. That’s when I went looking for any possible way to save money on these games, and I came across this lovely virtual currency called Amazon Coins.

The ONLY Catch – You Must Install the “Amazonified” Version of Your Game

There isn’t really a catch other than you will need to install your game through the Amazon App or marketplace. If you already have it installed, you will need to uninstall that game and reinstall the Amazon version. The ONLY difference between the version you have now and the one you will install is going to be that Amazon Coins are enabled as a payment option. I was pleased to find out that Amazon Coins were supported for both League of Angels – Fire Raiders as well as my favorite mobile game, Hearthstone.

Click to visit Amazon’s Download of Hearthstone with Amazon Coins Purchase Enabled

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HearthstoneHearthstone

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How Much Can I Really Save With These Coins?
The savings you get depends on how much you spend at the time of purchasing the coins. It runs on a scale, the less you spend the less you save. The lowest purchase you can make (at the time of writing) is 500 coins (equal to $5 of in game value) for a mere 1% discount, up to 50,000 coins (equal to $500 of in game value) for a 25% discount!
So far I feel most comfortable with buying 5000 coins at a time for a 17% discount. That’s more than enough for what I need in my gaming at the moment. You can also gift coins to your friends, family, anyone… if I end up with more coins than I need, I usually send the excess to my wife who will use and appreciate them more.

Look for Extra Savings Around Holidays and Sales Events!
They also have promotions through either Amazon or sometimes the game companies, where you can score even more great deals. For example on Black Friday I was able to get an amazing deal run by Amazon 50% off coins! So always check for promos around holidays, big sale days etc. Another thing that happened, which was great, was a big glitch in my wife’s favorite game. For a short time as a way to make it up to the players, the game company offered them a HUGE bonus on in game purchases. Between the bonus and spending with her discounted Amazon Coins, my wife made out with a ridiculous amount of stuff for her game. She hasn’t had to buy anything for a couple months now – she keeps saying she has too many gems! I don’t play her game so I don’t know what she means, but that can’t be a bad thing!

See the List of All Amazon Coins Supported Games – Check if Your Game is Supported!

Direct Link to Amazon Coins

Click to visit Amazon’s Download of League of Angels – Fire Raiders with Amazon Coins Purchase Enabled

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League of Angels - Fire RaidersLeague of Angels – Fire Raiders

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Top Ten Ways to Lose at Magic the Gathering Sealed Deck Tournaments

September 14th, 2016 | Posted by Indri in card games | magic the gathering | mtg | pc-games | Ramblings | Uncategorized - (Comments Off on Top Ten Ways to Lose at Magic the Gathering Sealed Deck Tournaments)

How to Lose a Sealed Deck Magic the Gathering Tournament

You know what they say, learn from your mistakes. In the many years that I’ve played Magic the Gathering, I’ve made tons of mistakes. Probably every single mistake you could make. So I’d like to take a minute to jot these down so all of you out there hopefully won’t make the same ones I did.

Here are my top 10 biggest mtg sealed deck mistakes for you to learn from:

Relying On One Card

Bombs are nice to have, and if played right bombs can single handedly win a game…but they can’t be the ONLY way your deck wins. What if your opponent kill it as soon as it’s played? Or counterspells it? What if you just never draw it? If I had a nickel for every time I had a bomb card in my deck but never drew it once during an entire tournament… It’s just better to build yourself for an all around good deck filled with your most playable cards.

Magic The Gathering Eldritch Moon Booster BoxMagic The Gathering Eldritch Moon Booster BoxHasbro MTG Magic Eldritch Moon Fat PackHasbro MTG Magic Eldritch Moon Fat Pack

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Forcing Your Favorite Colors

I get it, you love two colors and think those are the best in this tournament. You really want to play them. But sometimes you can’t do that. Those may be the best colors but it you have only low quality, mediocre cards…or just not enough creatures. You can’t automatically play those colors. Magic just isn’t that simple where a certain color or colors always wins. Take time to look hard at your pool, maybe this tournament you will have to play your least favorite colors – but you will give yourself the best chance to win with those.

Not Playing Enough Creatures.

Most good players agree that you should be playing a minimum of 14 creatures in about any limited format. Unless you’re playing a non-creature deck – in which case you will lose 99% of the time in limited. Don’t play non creature “combo” decks in limited, just don’t. Give yourself the best chance to win, you probably have some money on the line, and now is not the time to play weird or casual style decks.

Neglecting or Over-Valuing “Bombs”

Wow, a mythic! I have to play this! No, no you don’t… Just because a card is mythic, or rare, doesn’t mean it’s automatically a good limited card or that it will fit well in your deck. On the flip side maybe you say this: “Wow I opened a (insert awesome green planeswalker)”…but I have all these great red cards and I don’t think green is any good. So I’m not playing that… (and then you lose the tournament). Read up on the set. Learn what cards are actually good and playable for the set in limited format, and gravitate towards the better cards. You may be surprised to learn certain uncommon cards are much stronger than certain mythics or rares.




Forcing a “Strategy” Without the Support

What I see a lot of with these newer sets are the various “themes” or “archetypes”. These could be strong in limited, and are tempting to play, but more often than not you just don’t get enough cards to go “all in” on any of these archetypes – or the one you like best. I believe these archetypes were mainly designed for constructed play, and you are lucky if you can swing them effectively in your sealed pools. Sometimes you just need a mix of “good stuff” to have a deck that wins limited tournaments.

Not Splashing a Third Color When You Should

If you have good removal or bombs in your pool, and not enough in your main colors, you should consider splashing those cards in (hint: you can never have enough removal). Now I’m not talking about mediocre removal, I mean GOOD removal… the kind you would pick highly in a draft for example. Having access to effective removal is well worth adding a few off colored cards and lands to your deck. Just don’t overdo it – try not to “splash” more than 3 or 4 off color cards, tops.

Making Poor Mulligan Choices

Obviously you know when you have one land or no lands you should mulligan… But let’s say you draw 3 islands in your opening hand while playing a blue green deck. Let’s say you have a handful of islands, and green creatures. When you don’t have the right color mana in hand to cast the majority of the cards in your hand, you’ll probably lose from never drawing the lands to play anything. This has happened to me more than a few times, and it’s very frustrating…but 100% your own fault for keeping a bad hand. Don’t let it happen to you. Do the right thing and mulligan!

Splashing Double Mana Cards

If you are going to play that 3rd color, make sure you have the mana base for doing so. Most of the time you won’t be able to play double mana off color cards and shouldn’t add those to your deck. If you aren’t sure how to splash, stay safe and stick with two colors. There is nothing wrong with only playing two colors, provided you have enough decent playable cards in there.

“Splashing” Every Color Without the Mana Base

Look you aren’t going to be able to swing 4 or 5 colors in limited most of the time. Not unless you have some good multicolored lands or creatures that produce any color mana. Even still, it’s going to be hard to always have the right colored mana around to play your cards. You’re going to end up with a few unplayable cards in hand most games. That’s how you lose games.

Taking Advice from Inexperienced Players

I’m not the greatest player in the world, I’m not a “pro”. I have however been playing Magic since 1994 – longer than most people, and I win most of the tournaments I get a chance to play. I’m at least an above average player, which is why I have this blog for newer Magic players or those looking to improve. Here’s the thing. Magic is a highly speculative and competitive game. Everyone thinks they know how to win at it, what cards are best, and they want to share their secrets with you. You can’t believe everything you read from random guys on a Magic forum, You can’t go by everything your buddy says at the local game store. Or even what the store owner says, or whoever the store judge is. Ultimately YOU have to “get it”…and you’re in for a wild ride as it could take months or even years to learn the ins and outs of this ever evolving game.

Magic The Gathering Eldritch Moon Booster BoxMagic The Gathering Eldritch Moon Booster BoxHasbro MTG Magic Eldritch Moon Fat PackHasbro MTG Magic Eldritch Moon Fat Pack

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Final Words

If you’re reading this post, it probably means you want to get better at Magic and win more limited games. Reading blogs like this one, and watching gameplay videos will definitely get your mind flowing with ideas which help towards improving your MTG game.

Good luck in your next sealed deck MTG tournament, and make sure to watch out for these deckbuilding mistakes!

Any questions or comments? Feel free to drop a message and let me know what you think!

Win More Magic – How to Break Out of Your Magic Online (MTGO) Losing Streak

August 31st, 2016 | Posted by Indri in card games | magic the gathering | mtg | pc-games - (Comments Off on Win More Magic – How to Break Out of Your Magic Online (MTGO) Losing Streak)

If you’re taking lots of tournament losses or want to learn how to break your a Magic Online losing streak, this article is for you. Taking these steps towards improving your game can benefit any Magic player – not only those getting back into competitive Magic tournament play after years of not playing.

Admit You Have a Problem

So, it’s happening…you decided to play a brand new limited format, or to jump back into Magic Online after years of not playing. You bought into a bunch of product and played a lot of tournaments…but…you’re losing…bad. You’re getting chumped by a bunch of n00b scrubs with their sucky cards, and your rating is tanked. You’re so pissed that you’re thinking about quitting Magic forever, but you KNOW you aren’t a bad player and you don’t REALLY want to quit… so what can you do? How can you break out of this losing streak and get into a winning streak?

Take a Good Hard Look

You have to understand that Magic is not quite like riding a bicycle…if you take years off of playing, you WILL get rusty. New sets are released often and introduce new mechanics you may not know your way around. Rules can change, the game client can change, etc. Even if you used to 3-0 a bunch of tournaments way back when, you likely won’t do that now in a new unfamiliar format.

Magic Online attracts a lot of skilled players from around the world, and a lot of them might not have ever taken a break like you did. You may have used to be a shark, but you’re a guppy again swimming with the sharks! Let me say that I speak from experience. I’ve been an on and off MTG player (paper and MTGO) since Revised was released. Most recently I was able to 3-0 very consistently back in the time of M14, as well as win several local paper limited tournaments (drafts, prereleases).

Now I’m back at it after a 2 year break. I jumped into Shadows Over Innistrad/Eldritch Moon limited and well, I had my ass handed to me. It’s a humbling yet frustrating experience, but I’m making good progress and increasing my wins using the following steps. Anyone looking to improve at Magic can and probably should take the following steps.

Magic The Gathering Eldritch Moon Booster BoxMagic The Gathering Eldritch Moon Booster BoxHasbro MTG Magic Eldritch Moon Fat PackHasbro MTG Magic Eldritch Moon Fat Pack

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Tip One Towards Winning More Magic Games – Review Your Past Games

Though it may feel this way, it’s just not possible that all your opponents are “getting lucky” against you. Somethings up, and you need to get to the bottom of what that might be. One great thing about Magic Online over paper MTG is that it allows you to replay your past games. So you are going to want to look at those games and take some notes. Look closely for any glaring play mistakes, or patterns you can see between the games.

Just make a text file and type up some notes as you watch. Be humble…own up to your bad plays. Learn from them so you can avoid the same mistakes from here on out. You can look at the games you won, but really it’s the ones you lost that you want to learn from, because in some (not all) cases you might have won if you played just a little differently.




Match Replays – Tips for Watching MTGO Replays

These are the things you want to make notes about so you can learn.
Keep in mind you are troubleshooting your gameplay here.

* How did you lose this game? Was it one specific card? What was their deck archetype?

* Did you have anything in the sideboard that might have helped?

* Was this a very close game? Did you fail to attack or block properly? If they had 1 life when they won, can you spot where you could have done that 1 damage?

* Did you fall into a common or uncommon trick more than once that may have cost you the game? From now on try to play around that card.

* If you got “mana screwed” did you play too many colors? Did you add enough lands to the deck? Did you add too many high cost cards? Or can you honestly blame “the shuffler”?

* Who won the tournament? What did their deck look like when you played them? Compare that to your deck. If there’s a pattern, maybe you should try leaning more towards the archetypes that win more often.

* If it looks like you keep playing the same type of deck in a format and keep losing, maybe it’s just not a great deck to play, isn’t powerful enough compared to other popular decks. Don’t force yourself to play a bad archetype.

Tip Two Towards Winning More Magic Games – Study Buddy!

* Read MTG strategy articles, watch pro tour videos, look for pros tips, opinions, and advice. Learn what cards and decks are good in that format, and play that.

* Join some MTG related forums and read some posts. Ask for help, deck critiques, play tips and other advice on the forums. People love to talk (and brag) sometimes they are even right!

Tip Three Towards Winning More Magic Games – Practice Makes Perfect!

Practice Drafting
Use draftsim or other practice draft sites, especially ones that suggest picks with card ratings. These are great for training! Compare what you picked in your MTGO drafts to the cards being highly suggested by draftsim. This has really helped me learn to make better draft picks in the new formats.

Play More FREE (or Cheap) Magic!
If you are losing a lot try to play it as inexpensively as you can for a while, until you feel you have improved. Try some phantom tournaments on MTGO, play a video game version like Magic Duels, practice playing paper with friends, or other ways to play that won’t cost you lots of tix when you lose. Once you get a feel for the format you want to play, then you can jump back into the shark tank of MTGO competitive tournament play.

Magic The Gathering Eldritch Moon Booster BoxMagic The Gathering Eldritch Moon Booster BoxHasbro MTG Magic Eldritch Moon Fat PackHasbro MTG Magic Eldritch Moon Fat PackMTG Magic Shadows Over Innistrad Booster Box New Factory Sealed - 36 packsMTG Magic Shadows Over Innistrad Booster Box New Factory Sealed – 36 packsMTG Magic Shadows Over Innistrad Fat PackMTG Magic Shadows Over Innistrad Fat Pack

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Magic The Gathering Planeswalkers List

March 30th, 2014 | Posted by Indri in card games | magic the gathering | mtg | Uncategorized - (Comments Off on Magic The Gathering Planeswalkers List)
Magic The Gathering Planeswalkers List

(Update 8/12/16 – this list looks like it’s no longer updated, there aren’t any of the newer standard planeswalkers in there for example…but it’s still a nice visual list to flip through for new players).

Here are the things I found most interesting about this list and why you might want to bookmark it. You can click any of the cards to read the full Oracle rules text. Clicking will also bring you to Amazon, where you can compare MTG card prices from a variety of online card stores. I’ve found many times they have cheaper prices than your local MTG card shop or even Ebay. If you’re new to the game or unfamiliar with some of the planeswalker cards, you can read some honest reviews about them written by actual players who are always discussing them on Amazon reviews. As someone who left the game for a couple of years and only recently jumped back in, I find this list useful to look at for comparing the different versions of my favorite planeswalkers. So go ahead and check out the list, happy card flipping! 🙂

Article preview:
“It’s no secret these rare or mythic planeswalkers are some of the best Magic the Gathering (MTG) cards. When introduced they changed the game forever, adding new rules and game choices players never had before. Planeswalkers are now printed in all new sets, usually fetching high card prices. Check out this Magic The Gathering Planeswalkers List…which will best fit in your deck?”

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    How To Make Money With Magic Cards

    February 15th, 2014 | Posted by Indri in card games | magic the gathering | mtg | squidoo - (Comments Off on How To Make Money With Magic Cards)

    How To Make Money With Magic Cards

    (Last update 8/12/16)

    How To Make Money With Magic Cards

    Everyone dreams of making money from a hobby. It’s usually possible if you find the right ideas. So let’s talk about how to make money with Magic cards! Having millions of players worldwide, Magic the Gathering is the biggest collectible card game in existence, and the magic cards market is going strong! If you look at some recent eBay auctions you will clearly see that people make money selling mtg cards nonstop every day.




    With certain methods and the right entrepreneurial spirit you can make a nice extra income selling Magic cards online. You’ll get back what you put in, just like anything else, but like I said it all starts with the right idea – and that’s what I hope to spark for you here!

    Make Money With Magic Cards – Method One: Open and Sell Booster Packs

    Opening Booster Boxes for Profit

    Magic The Gathering Eldritch Moon Booster BoxMagic The Gathering Eldritch Moon Booster Box

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    Eldritch Moon features some good “money” cards such as Liliana, the Last Hope, Gisela, the Broken Blade, and Tamiyo, Field Researcher.

    Magic: the Gathering - Liliana, the Last Hope (093/205) - Eldritch MoonMagic: the Gathering – Liliana, the Last Hope (093/205) – Eldritch MoonMagic: the Gathering - Tamiyo, Field Researcher (190/205) - Eldritch MoonMagic: the Gathering – Tamiyo, Field Researcher (190/205) – Eldritch MoonMagic: the Gathering - Gisela, the Broken Blade // Brisela, Voice of Nightmares (28/205) - Eldritch MoonMagic: the Gathering – Gisela, the Broken Blade // Brisela, Voice of Nightmares (28/205) – Eldritch Moon

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    While this method is the easiest of all, it costs money to buy boxes, and it’s a bit of a gamble as you aren’t 100% guaranteed to open tons of value. However if you pick the right MTG set – one that contains a large amount of cards worth money, you could sell them off as singles for a profit. I’ve opened booster packs that cost $3.99 each and ended up with a $20 rare card on more than one occasion. Not too shabby!

    My advice is to buy booster boxes of the most recent set containing “money” cards in order to get the most out of this method. To maximize your profit margin you should try to get those booster boxes as cheaply as possible. I find the best deals are usually through eBay or Amazon. You can’t open a million dollar card, but it’s possible to profit doing this as I have done this several times myself.

    Magic The Gathering Eldritch Moon Booster BoxMagic The Gathering Eldritch Moon Booster BoxMagic 2015Magic 2015MTG Magic Shadows Over Innistrad Booster Box New Factory Sealed - 36 packsMTG Magic Shadows Over Innistrad Booster Box New Factory Sealed – 36 packs

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    Make Money With Magic Cards – Method Two: Buy Collections And Sell Singles

    buy-sell-magic-cards-collecton

    Purchase bulk MTG cards to resell

    Every day there are people selling “lots” of cards on eBay, Craigslist and elsewhere. If you happen to catch someone at the right time you could end up with an amazing deal, and great cards worth more than you paid. Sometimes parents or people who just don’t know what the cards are worth will end up selling them for way under value. If you can spot deals like this, you can really make out! It’s similar to price arbitrage… buy low and sell high to profit. To sell the cards you may have to hold a bunch of MTG eBay auctions or find other ways, but it’s another tried and true method to consider. Another bonus to that is you could end up as an eBay “power seller” rather quickly from buying and selling MTG cards on eBay – which has its perks if you are big on using eBay.


    A word of caution
    Beware Craigslist sellers who are selling very rare or expensive cards. I personally have been burned by someone who sold me counterfeit Tarmogoyf and also Jace, the Mind Sculptor cards. They seemed legit at the time, they were high quality fakes – but fakes nonetheless! Craigslist is chock full of scammers, and I found out it’s hard to take action against them after the sale. I went to both Wizards and the police reporting this seller, who I later discovered was a convicted felon…and nobody would help me get my money back. My advice is to at all costs avoid buying expensive singles from Craigslist!

    Make Money With Magic Cards – Method Three: Know Your MTG Card Prices

    Don’t sell yourself short!

    mtg card prices values

    While this technically isn’t a way to “make money” I consider saving money to be just as important. Or saving the value of your cards. Some people are blindly trading their valuable collectibles without really knowing the true values of their cards. They might end up selling them too cheap, or trading away a $20 rare card for say, a couple of $5 rares. Strive to not be one of those people! If you don’t know what your cards are worth, don’t sell or trade them until you find out. The easiest way to lose money on Magic the Gathering is simply not knowing your card prices! Search through the completed eBay auction listings for the most accurate and up to date going prices.




    Make Money With Magic Cards – Method Four: Become A Great Trader

    Make better MTG trades with these tips!

    mtg-good-trading-tips

    Bring your trade binder with you everywhere you play. Try to trade with people in between games if possible. You can make out really well if you become a pro at trading and know the card prices. Especially trading at bigger tournaments with more people trading.

    I’m not encouraging you to rip off your friends, but let’s say you have cards they want and they have a card for trade that can sell on eBay. An example would be to trade someone four cards worth $5 or so each for one card that you know will sell for $20 or more. Some cards may be listed as worth $5, but not in as high of demand as the one worth $20. So even if the trade is “fair” you basically made out because that $20 card is going to be a fast and easy sale on eBay while the cards you traded for it may have been harder to sell. Don’t be afraid to offer slightly advantageous trades, you may be surprised. I hope this is clear as it’s an important part of trading for profit. That said, I have managed to sell every card I’ve ever wanted to sell on eBay fairly easily and hassle free.

    Make Money With Magic Cards – Method Five: Become A Good Player

    As you learn more about MTG strategies, you win more!

    win more mtg tournaments

    You don’t necessarily have to be a “pro”, if you get to that level then sure you will make some money by winning magic tournaments. However to make small profits you only need to become better than or as good as the kids at your local store(s). If you can beat them on a regular basis at Friday night magic tournaments and so forth you should end up profiting from winnings. Open your prize packs and sell off or trade the good cards. Learn what your DCI rating is and strive to make that number go up. If you do end up going to Pro Tour Qualifiers and winning the bigger tournaments, there is real money there. I know personally two guys who won several thousand dollars apiece in one tournament, and that wasn’t even for getting first place!

    Make Money With Magic Cards – Method Six: Don’t Be A Hoarder

    If you don’t NEED a card…why not sell it?

    go-infinite-mtgo

    Many magic players eventually end up with boxes upon boxes of cards just collecting dust in their closet. The MTG secondary market is thriving, and values on those cards are constantly going up and down. Some cards that are worth a lot now may go down to almost worthless when they leave Standard. What I’ve been doing is selling my cards that are valuable NOW, because it may change with the next set. If you’re looking to make money playing magic cards, you could sell off all the cards you don’t absolutely need for your decks. Sell those of and use the money to go infinite with MTG or MTGO!

    Make Money With Magic Cards – Method Seven: Paint And Sell Cards

    Are you creative? Sell altered cards!

    altered-mtg-card-art

    Are you artistically inclined? Well if you can learn how to do it right there is a growing market for well crafted altered magic cards. Some of these cards can sell for many times the actual card value. You see, you are creating more value by adding a unique twist on a card the players already know and love. Creating great looking one-of-a-kind cards for players is one way to make money from magic cards and your artistic skills.

    For more about altered art mtg cards check out my article here: Magic: The Gathering Altered Art Cards

    (“Tropical Island” altered card art (c) Marta Molina)

    Make Money With Magic Cards – Method Eight: Create An MTG Blog Or Website

    Have passion for the game? Write about MTG!

    mtg-blogger

    People love to talk about Magic cards! If you’re one of those people, why not share some of your deck ideas, gameplay strategies, set opinions or have other related discussions? Make it a daily thing to give advice on MTG decks, card choices and more to your followers. Fill your site with a few ads, advertise your MTGO bot, or your eBay auctions. There are endless possibilities with this!

    Make Money With Magic Cards – Method Nine: Operate A Magic Online Bot

    Start your own Magic Online shop!

    mtgo-bot-store

    If you play Magic Online there is special software you can write or purchase that enables you to run a mtgo shop. It’s quite challenging software to write yourself. So I highly suggest buying bot software or hiring a programmer to create a bot. For a while I used some software called “MTGO Library”. Which is probably the best way to get your feet wet botting on MTGO. I ran only one bot which didn’t make many sales. I think to be successful you would need several bots. Price updates and having the most up to date, accurate prices are extremely important when running a bot.

    With a bot up and running you are able to buy and sell virtual cards 24/7 using your home computer. It’s basically a shop that works for you automatically while you are off doing other things. Some bot owners claim to make a good pile of “tix” (MTGO virtual currency) which of course can then be sold for real world money. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it’s another way people make money from magic cards.

    Make Money With Magic Cards – Method Ten: Open A Gaming Store

    Become a Magic the Gathering Retailer

    magic-the-gathering-retailer

    If you have a large collection or can buy a large lot of cards, you might consider becoming a Magic the Gathering retailer and creating an eBay store to start selling cards at maximum profit. Or, if you’re really ambitious, open a brick and mortar gaming store – similar to the shops you probably play Friday night magic tournaments at. Magic, Dungeons and Dragons, and games like those are not going anywhere anytime soon! There will always be kids looking for stores like that to play their favorite games with their friends. Location is the most important part of this… there are definitely under served areas where you could set up a gaming store specializing in games like these. You could end up running the only store like that for miles around. A major benefit of opening a physical store is that you can then qualify as a retailer. So you can purchase the Magic products at wholesale prices. You could also hold your own regular Magic tournaments and attract paying, competitive players who will give you steady business.

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    Featured Article : Altered Magic The Gathering Card Art

    July 24th, 2013 | Posted by Indri in card games | magic the gathering | mtg | squidoo - (Comments Off on Featured Article : Altered Magic The Gathering Card Art)

    Looking for fresh new altered MTG card art for Magic the Gathering? Ever wondered about issues such as altered card tournament legality, additional card weight issues, or the best places to buy altered cards cheap?

    Check out GoblinLackey’s featured article on the Hubpages website! Altered Magic The Gathering Card Art . The article goes into these details and more about altered cards. Some may also like his tips on how to get started altering Magic cards yourself for profit – which he claims is one of his major streams of income these days.

    Be sure to also check out and follow our Pinterest where we regularly post new altered art mtg cards from all around the web!

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