Looking to get back into Magic: The Gathering

[capsfan30]

I played back in the early/mid-90's, up until the early 2000's. The last cards I have (that I found, at least) were some of the Urza's sets, but not much. Most of what I have is from Mirage on back. I just bought a retail box of 10 boosters of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. What are some of these new mechanics that are in play, now? Cycling, indestructible, mutate, menace, companion, double strike, etc. I need something to get my mind off of other things, and while I love hockey cards, it doesn't seem to hold my attention very long these days. Thanks in advance!

 

[Megaman555]

what are you hoping to accomplish

I've got a bunch of older cards 93-97 and a few new ultimate masters, are you trying to trade or just wanting to know about the new rules and all?

 

[capsfan30]

Not really looking to trade or anything. More just want to get a crash course on what the game has become.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Megaman555]

I see, well I suggest u look up any rules on magic wiki.. it would do better at explaining these things than me.
As far as changes in recent editions, my observation is there has been a bunch of card features that attempt to help the power curve of cards so they arent as useless later in the game and to help reduce stalemates (such as lands that turn into creatures, or mutating/morphing to larger creatures, or kicker which allows you to pay extra mana if you have it mobilized to make a bigger creature)
The game has changed, but really the themes of color are mostly the same and there is more emphasis on getting cards out and drawing more often to increase tempo. Also you probably know, but to help with all those weird card rules, usually there's 3 releases each year after the base set (called blocks) which are supposed to be played together, so that you arent dealing with different weird scenarios, like phasing from mirage and menace or double strike from later sets, or monarch, or food tokens..etc etc.
The planeswalkers are also a neat feature too, you can youtube all thus . Hit me up though if you want any tips or need some cards.

 

[capsfan30]

I had no idea Magic Wiki was a thing :laugh: I guess that would've answered most of my questions from the get go! But thanks for the great information!

I'll shoot you a PM too

 

[Tom13XIII]

Check out the magic online app or check out MTG arena to get back into the game while socially distancing. As for the rules, reading wiki is one thing but it's almost like you need to be a lawyer to understand it all hahah.

For the things you mentioned, indestructible is a creature that can't be destroyed by anything that says destroy. So if a spell says destroy that creature or something would destroy it, it doesn't happen to that creature. If it's attacking as well it won't be destroyed by death touch or if a creature with higher attack power then it's defense blocks it. Indestructible doesn't prevent exiling the card or if the creatures defense stat becomes 0 or less ( like a -1 counter or changing the defense with a enchant)
Cycling is like an instant that allows you to discard the card and draw another card for the cycle cost. It's handy if you don't need that card for its main use.
Companion is a new mechanic. To summarize it as easy as possible, it's a card you start the game with along with the 7 other cards you draw and in order to have the card added to your hand you must pay 3 mana of any color as a sorcery ( during your turn on your main or 2nd main phase) the deck also must comply with that companions requirements (it will state in the card what the deck must comprise of)
Double strike is like first strike but you get a second attack in the phase. So if a creature is a 1/1 with double strike, the.first 1 damage during attack is first strike 1 damage. Then after the it attacks a second time for 1 damage. If the first damage was enough to kill the creature it was fighting then your creature wouldn't even take damage.
Menace is a mechanism that prevent your creature from being blocked except by 2 or more creatures. So if your opponent only had 1 creature on the battlefield, it can't block a creature with menace. If they had 2 creatures, they both must block it if your opponent wants to block it.

I hope that helps. I tried to be as clear and simple as I could. If you have a follow up feel free to PM me, I'll do my best to answer.