A Collectable Card Game David Lam Stanford SPLASH

A Collectable Card Game David Lam Stanford SPLASH! November 3, 2012

History of Magic: the Gathering • Founded by Richard Garfield, a math professor, back in 1993. • First expansion had 295 cards. • Nearly twenty years later, over 10, 000 cards!

General Rules of Magic • There are five colors of Magic. • – Black: Decay, Death, Amorality, Selfishness • Creature kill spells, powerful cards with drawbacks, discard – Green: Life, Nature, Harmony, Instinct • Large creatures, trample effects, evasion – Red: Fury, Chaos, Expression, Freedom • Aggressive creatures, random cards, direct damage – White: Protection, Order, Harmony, Perfection • Balance, combat superiority, protection – Blue: Deceit, Intellect, Opportunist, Understanding • Counterspells, drawing cards, control effects

General Rules of Magic: Continued • Game starts with: – 20 Life – 7 Cards in your hand (if you have more at the end of your turn, you have to discard down to 7) • If you don’t like your hand, you can mulligan (shuffle your old hand back into your deck and draw one less) • • You can play one land a turn. You draw a card when it’s your turn unless you’re going first and it’s your first turn. • You lose when you can’t draw a card from your deck or when you don’t have any life left.

Magic Cards!

Creature Cards: Aven Squire • Mana Cost: 1 W • Type: Creature • Subtype: Bird Soldier • Power: 1 • Toughness: 1 • Special Abilities: • Flying • Exalted • Flavor Text

Creature Cards: Bond Beetle • Mana Cost: G • Type: Creature • Subtype: Insect • Power: 0 • Toughness: 1 • Special Abilities: • When it enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. • What’s a +1/+1 counter? • Flavor Text

Creature Cards: Duty-Bound Dead • Mana Cost: B • Type: Creature • Subtype: Skeleton • Power: 0 • Toughness: 2 • Special Abilities: • Exalted • Regenerate

Rules about creatures • Can only play on your turn, during the main phase (more on this later). • Has something called summoning sickness: – Can’t tap it unless you’ve controlled it since the beginning of your turn. • Can’t use tap abilities • Can‘t attack • Otherwise, abilities can be used at any time if you can pay the cost!

Enchantments: Volcanic Strength • Mana Cost: 1 R • Type: Enchantment • Subtype: Aura • Enchant Creature • Effect

Rules about enchantments • Can only play on your turn, during the main phase (more on this later). • If it’s an aura, you have to “equip” it on a creature.

Sorceries: Captain’s Call • Mana Cost: 3 W • Type: Sorcery • Effect • What’s a token? • Kind of like a creature, but you don’t cast it. • You need a token/marker to signify that it’s there.

Rules about sorceries • Can only play on your turn, during the main phase (more on this later). • After the ability resolves, it goes into the graveyard.

Instants: Essence Scatter • Mana Cost: 1 U • Type: Instant • Effect • What does it mean to counter spells?

Rules about instants • Can play any time (even on the opponent’s turn!) • After the ability resolves, it goes into the graveyard.

Lands: Plains • Type: Basic Land • Subtype: Plains • Effect • Add one white mana to your mana pool.

Rules about lands • Can only play on your turn, during the main phase (more on this later). • Can only play one a turn. • Tap (turn sideways) to get mana from it.

Break Time! • I’ve been chatting for a long time, so let’s take a break! • Try to find one of each card: – Creature – Enchantment – Sorcery – Instant – Land

Casting spells!

Casting spells!

The Playzone Library/Dec k Hand Graveyard Battlefield

Gameplay • • Untap Draw Main Phase 1 Combat (!!!) – Declare Attackers – Declare Blockers – Damage Dealt • Main Phase 2 • End Phase

Combat To attack, tap the creature during combat

Combat Tapped creatures can’t block.

Combat: No Blockers RAW R! Player 1: 20 16 When a creature isn’t blocked, the player loses life equal to the amount of damage.

Combat: 1 Aven Squire Blocks

Combat: 3 Aven Squire Block

Play time! • Go make a deck! – 60 cards. I suggest grabbing 22 lands that match the color of the deck you’re making. – Get a good mix of cheap and expensive cards! – Have creatures! – Pick a “cool” color that you like and think fits you. – Have a max of 4 of each card, except basic lands. • Remember to be nice! Everyone is learning how to play. – Grab pens and paper to write down your life on the table.

Thoughts? Questions? • Answer questions you may still have. • See what you all want me to review. • What do you guys want to learn now? – The full version of a turn. – All the different types of cards. – The other parts of the gamezone. – Decision Trees – Statistics and Deck Construction

Gameplay: Take II • • • Untap Upkeep Draw Main Phase 1 Combat – – Precombat Declare Attackers Declare Blockers Damage Dealt • Main Phase 2 • End Phase – Discard

Even More Cards!

Types of Cards Permanents (stay on battlefield) • Lands • Creatures • Enchantments • Artifacts • Planeswalkers Non-permanents (go to graveyard) • Instants • Sorceries

The Playzone: Revisited Library/Dec k Hand Graveyard Removed from Game Battlefield

The Stack • Before spells you cast resolve, they go onto the stack. – Think about it as an dogpile: whoever gets on top last gets off first (or resolves first). – Really useful way to understand what’s happening with spells that counter or spells that are done in response to something.

The Stack: Example 1

The Stack: Example 2

Decision Trees • Probably figured out that you should have done something earlier or held onto a really good card. – How can we figure that out? – Let’s learn a few lessons.

Lesson 1: Element of Surprise

Lesson 2: Beware the Combat Trick!

Lesson 3: Sooner isn’t Always Better • If we play it in the first main phase, he’ll be forced to attack. • What if we played him the second main phase?

Lesson 4: Watch Your Resources • Resist urge to kill cards immediately. • What if they play something worse?

Easy Statistics • Why do we suggest than a 1/100 chance. making 60 card • Why do we suggest decks? 22 lands? – Make 60 card decks because you want your best cards in the deck. • While 100 card decks are cool, a 1/60 chance of finding that card you really need to win is much better – Long story short, on average: • • • Turn 1: 2. 57 lands. Turn 2: 2. 93 lands. Turn 3: 3. 30 lands Turn 4: 3. 67 lands Turn 5: 4. 03 lands

Easy Statistics: The Curve

So Why Should I Care? • Remember when I said that you want a good mix of expensive and cheap creatures? – You want your curve to be good so you can play spells every turn. – Every turn you CAN’T use your mana is a turn wasted. – Make sure once you have a lot of mana, you can play spells. • Be aware of curve when making decks!

In Closing • Art- Pictures of Awesome Cards • Storyline- Magic has a really good storyline and flavor text that puts it in a different world. • Gameplay- It’s fun! – You can be competitive – Or you can be creative • Friends- I hope you all made lots of friends. • Lots of education (math)- not just a game. • Creative process- tons of cards to do whatever you want.

Acknowledgements • Channel. Fireball- They donated the pens, notepads, and most importantly, the cards! – Please send a thank-you to sales@channelfireball. com. • SPLASH!- They make this happen every year. • Wizards of the Coast for making a great game. • Everyone around you for being awesome!