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http://disinfo.com/2015/05/the-enduring-and-mystical-appeal-of-magic-the-gathering/

Since the trading card game debuted in 1993, Magic: The Gathering has gone from being a niche hobby to an international phenomenon. Today some of its 10 million–plus disciples are so besotted with MTG that they’ve nicknamed it “cardboard crack.”

In this episode of American Obsessions, we follow a professional Magic player who dropped out of college to join the pro circuit, and we talk to two brothers as they wax nostalgic about the spells, creatures, and mana of old

Personally the biggest appeal MTG has for me is its lore.

In case anybody needs a compliation, here's one:

I played MtG back from Beta to about Ice Age Expansion.

 Sir Arun wrote:
Personally the biggest appeal MTG has for me is its lore.

In case anybody needs a compliation, here's one:

]

Without Urza, Mishra, Gerard, Kharn, Dominaria, or any brief mention of the Weatherlight or the Phyrexians. I find that "lore" greatly lacking in the rich history of MTG.

I enjoyed the art the most, I'd been out of it for a long time, but am starting to look back into it again.

Was going to go with yugioh since the aim was to find a easy but enjoyable to get into game with my gf as the thinking aspect would help her with her condition. A bit of a look later and I'm pretty sure its swung from magic being the complex one to yugioh, and not like an in depth complexity but to simplify it. For magic to do what yugioh has done they would need to release and phase out colours pretty much each set.

I started in on MtG when it first came around, probably somewhere between 93 and 95. The attraction to me was the rather phenomenal artwork and the esoteric fluff excerpts (I actually didn't play a single game of magic until years later). I sold my collection a few years back, every now and again I take a look at my friends new cards, etc. and the artwork just doesn't have the same hold on me and I dont often see those fluff excerpts any longer.

I'm not sure whats up, maybe Wizards decided to focus more on the game and sideline the story or what, but I remember the older cards, you looked at them, and they like... told a story, y'know? Like a lot of those images were like a moment frozen in time, more like a photograph than just a piece of art. I can remember many of the images as though the card was in front of me, though I can rarely remember the names or anything else about them. But, you looked at those images, and you could see that there was an entire *WORLD* behind them, there were these fantastic and exotic places that you could go and explore, strange creatures and magic to encounter, people of all walks of life to meet. One image was a warrior leopard-woman being nursed back to health by a human medic alongside a babbling brook in the woods. Another image was a mad scientist vivisecting a rat. You looked at them and wondered "Who is this cat woman, and how was she injured? Why is this human medic treating her? Are they friends and allies? Or are they enemies from warring nations, and the medic is simply living up to her sacred duties? Where are they and wheres the rest of the battlefield? Did they escape into the woods and go AWOL?

You look at cards now and its simply "Large badass looking creature/character/object in standard pose #3".

Mr.Church13 wrote:

 Sir Arun wrote:
Personally the biggest appeal MTG has for me is its lore.

In case anybody needs a compliation, here's one:

]

Without Urza, Mishra, Gerard, Kharn, Dominaria, or any brief mention of the Weatherlight or the Phyrexians. I find that "lore" greatly lacking in the rich history of MTG.

Yeah it's a shame WotC started making those animated trailers only for the past 5 years or so.

chaos0xomega wrote:

You look at cards now and its simply "Large badass looking creature/character/object in standard pose #3".

This isn't true though.

They still do broader scenes, contrasting sizes, group shots, locations filled with people, alien landscapes, and all the other types of world-building they used to do.

The old cards had lots of scowling, badass, poses and generic monsters.

The flavor text is still all there, they still do in-universe novels, there's still an ongoing overarching narrative.

More likely all this stuff was just fresh for you 20 years ago. It's one thing when you're seeing glimpses of fantasy worlds as kid or teenager for the first time, and another looking at fantasy art 20 years later having been immersed in nerd media of all kinds during that period. Even if they moved away from the sort of "Iconic Fantasy" stuff they focus on for something totally originally, it'd be a challenge for it to make an impact. That still wouldn't mean they've stopped doing the kind of things you originally found so captivating. It just means you're old, the fantasy is worn out, and the spark of wonder left sometime around the first time you got dumped.

Me I was into Magic from the beginning and it was big at my local game store, I had em all Mox's, lotus you name it, i had at minimum 4 of each card, then Fallen empires came out, great set, over produced and I was buying up booster boxs for $5 a box. this is when they started bring out new sets quite fast and I said enough was enough I was not going to get addicted to this cardboard crack (yes we were calling it that back then). so gave all my cards to a nephew who turned around and traded them for some Pokemon cards if I knew how much lotuses and moxs would be going for now I would have kept those.

 Chongara wrote:


More likely all this stuff was just fresh for you 20 years ago. It's one thing when you're seeing glimpses of fantasy worlds as kid or teenager for the first time, and looking at fantasy art 20 years later having been immersed in nerd media of all kinds during that period. Even if they moved away from the sort of "Iconic Fantasy" stuff they focus on for something totally originally, it'd be a challenge for it to make an impact. That still wouldn't mean they've stopped doing the kind of things you originally found so captivating. It just means you're old, the fantasy is worn out, and the spark of wonder left sometime around the first time you got dumped.

This makes me sad to think about :C

chaos0xomega wrote:

 Chongara wrote:


More likely all this stuff was just fresh for you 20 years ago. It's one thing when you're seeing glimpses of fantasy worlds as kid or teenager for the first time, and looking at fantasy art 20 years later having been immersed in nerd media of all kinds during that period. Even if they moved away from the sort of "Iconic Fantasy" stuff they focus on for something totally originally, it'd be a challenge for it to make an impact. That still wouldn't mean they've stopped doing the kind of things you originally found so captivating. It just means you're old, the fantasy is worn out, and the spark of wonder left sometime around the first time you got dumped.

This makes me sad to think about :C

Anybody else suddenly hear "Dust in the Wind" playing?

Great little vid. Started mtg using a friends white deck back around 98.
Many fun nights doing 4 and 5 player round table grudge matches

FYI

http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/32424/the-art-magic-the-gathering-zendikar

VIZ Media's Perfect Square imprint will release The Art of Magic: The Gathering--Zendikar on January 5.


he 244-page, full-color hardcover is written by James Wyatt, who works for Wizards of the Coast as both a Dungeons & Dragons supplement and adventure designer, and as a WotC novelist. Cover art is provided by Adam Paquette. MSRP is $39.99.

In addition to being a collection of Magic: The Gathering art, the book details the world of Zendikar--its peoples, creatures, and landscapes.

We asked Perfect Square Editorial Director Beth Kawasaki about the title, which seemed like a distant cousin to the imprint’s largely juvenile-oriented titles. She sees a close connection. "Perfect Square is home to our kids titles, including Pokemon and The Legend of Zelda (see "Preview: 'The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past' TP"), both of which are strong video game tie-in properties," Kawasaki replied. "Our manga and comics audience has a definite cross-over with gaming fans and pop culture fans so it's a natural progression for us to produce books that are aimed at an adult audience. Building on the success of the coffee table books we released last year for Voltron (see "'Voltron' 30th Anniversary Book") and Hello Kitty, we’re very excited to be adding The Art of Magic: The Gathering--Zendikar to our catalog."

Kawasaki told ICv2 that work on the title has been ongoing. "We've been working side-by-side with Wizards of the Coast for several months to make the first ever Magic: The Gathering art book, and we can't wait for fans to experience the gorgeous artwork and detailed storyline."