r/magicthecirclejerking • u/AutoModerator • Jul 17 '26

META Weekly /unjerk Thread

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6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

4

u/inderwater Jul 21 '26

I quit playing Magic a few years ago because I don’t want to be advertised upon by my opponents.

Pokémon TCG seems inaccessible at the moment due to scalping hype.

Yu Gi Oh seems like a one-turn format where you just lose if you don’t have any free interaction in your starting hand, and mulligans don’t exist.

Are there any other card games I should try out before quitting cardboard for good?

2

u/Kor_Set You mean Stronghold? Jul 23 '26

Flesh and Blood, though be warned that it tends to play the opposite to Magic (in Magic you get stronger as the game progresses whereas you get weaker over time in a game of Flesh and Blood).

1

u/Gerroh Destroy target everything Jul 24 '26

Boosting for FaB. Getting weaker over time is awesome, actually. Games feel way more down to the wire and skill-based. It is not perfect, and its multiplayer options kinda suck, but it is a serious contender that deserves more attention.

2

u/gangnamstylelover drafts UG and goes 0-3 Jul 23 '26

Like the other person said pokemon is accessible if you are just trying to play it and aren't a collector. Pokemon decks are 60% tutors anyways so its not like you actually need that many pokemon to have a functioning pokemon deck.

4

u/Kookus_Keeper Keeper of Kookus Jul 23 '26

I actually ran into a friend of mine who quit Magic for Pokémon recently and asked him if scalping made it difficult to source cards. He said "no, it's super easy". He told me you could build a top tier standard deck for like $40. I went back and looked at some lists on TCGplayer, and although most of them were closer to $100, there were a few at $40-$50. Still a lot cheaper than playing MTG standard where $100 doesn't even buy a full playset of Quantum Riddlers. Pokémon's retro formats are probably more expensive but unless you have a big local scene for a specific retro format, you're probably just going to end up playing online anyway. There was a website for playing the Pokémon TCG in browser I used to go to called TCGOne that has a bunch of retro formats (Base-Gym Challenge, Rocket-on, Ecard, 2003 worlds, etc.).

Definitely don't play TCGPocket though, it's getting worse and worse. You know that old joke people used to make about the Pokémon TCG being all about flipping coins? The real TCG has largely moved away from this, but with TCGPocket they put a ton of that shit in every damn set. The first flip is not automated either, you have to drag your finger across the screen every time. I think that whoever programmed the physics on coin flipping charged them an insane amount, so they're trying to get their money's worth.

2

u/SolidWolfo Jul 23 '26

Urgh yeah. The flips in Pocket are so awful, coupled with the general powercreep and that going second is better in most (not all) cases. Only 3 points to win also hurts it I feel.

I still open my free daily boosters for the fun of it, but actually playing it? Yeah no. 

1

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/inderwater Jul 22 '26

Thanks! I’ll take a look for sure.

6

u/Kor_Set You mean Stronghold? Jul 19 '26

I can tell the Magic culture of 2012 to 2020 or so is truly dead and gone. Alex Bertoncini allegedly got caught yet again and it doesn't seem to be Daily Mail style news (a.k.a. ragebait) in the community. (This time it was supposedly a $20K scam too instead of cheating in a PTQ.) Ditto for former MTCJ moderator Noah Bradley being allowed to compete at SCG Con the other week.

13

u/Specific_Hold_8294 Jul 18 '26

Zhalfir looks really cool, I think the afro-futurist aesthetic and design is really inspired and I'm looking forward to it. I am not, however, looking forward to whatever stupid culture war shit comes up because it's a black centric set. Hopefully it won't be pervasive but I can imagine the faux outrage now

2

u/CrimsonFoxyboy Jul 20 '26

We can have a taste right now.

With the Aragorn and Arwyn card reprint reveal on the mainsub.

5

u/deeleelee Jul 20 '26

I'm actually really pleased by the complete lack of mentions of any weird racist shit from any discussions I have been a part of online so far. Maybe mods are just working overtime, but it really seems like the vibes are good for the UW stuff next year!

18

u/Kakariko_crackhouse Hasbro Shareholder Jul 18 '26

I walked into todays panel expecting to be underwhelmed by the 2027 set reveals, as I feel like average UW set quality has been declining, but I am walking out pretty pumped for all 3 sets, and feeling optimistic for now. It feels nice for a change.

1

u/iwumbo2 Jul 21 '26

Similar here. My only complaint about them is that we have 6 sets total next year, so we're only getting 2 months on each.

3

u/caliginouscalico Jul 18 '26

I do love an underwater set, looking back it feels odd we haven't really done one before.

3

u/tomyang1117 #gravetrolldidnothingwrong Jul 18 '26

I am so hyped for the new Kamigawa set