I used to play Magic a ton before I got into poker (used to try to qualify for the PT, etc.) but stopped playing before the end of the Kamigawa cycle. I played MTGO up to Scourge or whatever.

I decided I might just use $100 and play some booster drafts or something of whatever the newest set is after looking over some of the cards, but I'm wondering if anybody plays MTGO and if anybody might be able to give me some advice so i don't just blow all my money in 3 hours.

And yes, I could just go to Star City or whatever the site is and read up on it, but the CoD4 threads are pretty cool, and I was hoping to get something going along those lines (unlikely, but whatevs).

If this belongs in PoG, please move it there, but I thought this was more of a VG type post.

I hadn't played Magic in about 6 years, but got the urge and started messing around with MTGO a few weeks ago and really don't have a lot of experience. But if you're trying to find ways to get the most out of your $100, I don't know if I'd recommend drafts. Unless you win the first two rounds, you don't get a lot of play or return on your money unless you drafted some good rares to trade. Leagues give you some more play, plus with the release events going on now, there are double prizes that will help. If you're determined to draft though, I'd say pay attention to tribes. There are a lot of new cards that fit well with each other if you can get your deck down to primarily one or two tribes rather than just a random collection of stuff across your colors.

You should buy all packs as they are worth more than tics. Costs about $14 a draft but you can sell the cards you draft for some money. I am pretty decent with a rating hovering around 1800, and drafts cost me on average ~$2 a piece after selling off my cards I draft and prize support. I rarely play anymore especially because of cod4, but magic is one of my favorite past times and never would have gotten into poker without it.

Another tip is selling pokerstars$ for tics can be +ev, but make sure you get money 1st. There are a ton of little scam artists on there.

Is it true you can exchange any Online card for a real life version at any time?

I never saw the point in this because you pay the same price for virtual cards as for real cards. If the latest racing game cost $500,000 why would I buy that instead of a real car? The whole appeal of MTG (to me) was the social aspect of collecting, trading, and playing.

Only a whole set at a time. the logistics of requesting a few cards at a time would be ridiculous as well as unbalacing the # of certain cards online.

This is a really bad analogy for many different reasons. For some people it's about competing or collecting which doesn't have to be social. Doing this online allows them to play, trade, buy, and sell 24hrs a day without having to leave their homes.

Is there any circumstance that Wizards will "reverse" someone's transfer of tickets to you? Basically can you get scammed in any way after someone transfers you tickets in exchange for PS$ if they transfer first in the way they can by transfering Paypal money first?

Is it possible to somehow make $ playing this game? Can you exchange the tickets or whatever for $? I played MTG when I was a kid and it was pretty fun. I believe the last expansion there was when I quit was Ice Age (ZOMG 9/9 monsters and that jester thing!). I enjoyed it but I'd never considered playing a game like that again since they're really just money sinks. But if you can play for $$ or whatever you guys are talking about...

Also, how much are some of the older more valuable cards worth? I still have stuff like an early (can't recall if it was alpha or beta) forcefield, lotus, etc.. Hope they haven't depreciated with the release of newer better cards.

[QUOTE=Dire;3213253]Is it possible to somehow make $ playing this game?[QUOTE]Maybe, but there's this thing called poker that will probably pay more.

I looked into this for an hour once. I think world champs are making < minimum wage. I think the only real money is in running trading bots. Not against T+C but I really don't know anything else about it.

Best way to get value and replayability for your money is to run leagues. Playing in the latest set league is a good way to avoid clan floods of the lesser player leagues. You basically run a sealed deck for 4 weeks, adding a booster each week. Top 64? get payouts. Not bad, but at least you get ALOT of replayability on your cards.

Check out the wizards boards for magic and find out about all the Player Run tourneys that are going on, always with prizes, always free! Pauper Magic sub community exists as well that run regular tourneys using decks made only of commons. A good way to play competitive magic without a large investment on cards (as they are all commons)

I wouldn't buy any packs just to open.

Best way to acquire stuff is to buy tickets from 3rd party vendors, unfortuantely, you need a reputable one to buy from.

Good luck!

idk about the other cards but I doubt the lotus has done anything but raise in value. It is considered the best card ever as well as most expensive with a very small print run on those 1st couple sets.

Making money in this is all about the trade bots. They can run thousands of trades a day. If they only average a hand full of change per trade... well they can make a lot of money.

Tenth edition draft is the easiest to get reaquainted. if you start with lorwyn/ morningtide you wont know what the hell to take as the rankings are highly relative. Read Limited Information on magicthegathering.com to get up to date quickly.