Good Game: Magic the Gathering

The first ever collectible card game is near and dear to my heart. Magic the Gathering contains (ahem) OVER NINE THOUSAND cards, some of which are very powerful and some of which are named ‘Mudhole’. Despite the dizzying number of possible combinations, balance is achieved in several ways: although all cards are available to both players and it might be possible to stack your deck with the most powerful sixty cards in existence (sixty being the minimum size for a deck), those cards wouldn’t necessarily help you win the game.

A deck needs to be focused on one of three main strategies: ‘aggro’, in which victory is achieved by laying down a number of cheap creatures or damage sources, or accelerating into one big threat, ‘control’, in which the opponent’s threats are neutralised with counter-spells or by killing opposing creatures until the opponent’s strategy is exhausted before laying down a single creature to win at their leisure. A ‘combo’ deck uses a combination of cards that exploits one resource (cards in hand, the special abilities of creatures, enchantments or ‘mana’,) in such a way that you achieve victory in a single shocking turn. These three deck types are balanced in a classic rock-scissors-paper system.

An aggro deck is too fast for a comparatively fragile combo deck but will be neutralised by control, while a combo deck’s threat will be able to ‘go off’ before the control deck can achieve a lock down on its opponent. Magic’s other drawcard comes in the form of its immense potential for emergent play – discovering a new card that allows a completely new strategy, or that interacts well with another card, or creates a more efficient ‘combo’ deck is rewarding in two ways: the first time it is used, when the combo goes off and people are surprised and the second time, if the combo proves to be especially competitive and sees use in tournaments.

Magic also makes things personal. In a casual multiplayer game, players will often play with their favourite cards, in their favourite deck. Such a deck is often called a 'pet' deck and receives all the love you would usually save for something with big brown eyes and an adorable button nose. When you cast a spell that hurts that deck, its owner will respond as though you really were a wizard who had teleported into their home and set fire to their dog. In a tournament, if the player doesn't love their deck, the affection is of a different kind - building a tournament deck costs real life money. If you're willing to play in a tournament, you're betting a lot of time and money that your deck is going to win. Not winning is a painful, painful experience.