MTGNexus

I know a lot of us are opponentless right now, struggling with online clients or just giving up entirely! I've been looking through my collection just recently and struggling to understand what I like about them when players are removed from the mix;

The art? - there are some incredible illustrators at work on these cards but the theme they expertly capture is not necessarily my thing; in terms of all the possible styles among traditional games, I find myself pulled towards modern, science-fictiony or cyberpunk settings, with only wartime stuff being less interesting to me than high fantasy. maybe I like a satirical element to the art; most of MTG's art is incredibly earnest.

The settings and characters? - high fantasy, again. I'm a fan of stuff like Ravnica, Mercadia, Amonkhet, etc. where there's enough intimated, complex interaction among the sapient folk that a believably human or human-like setting arises, but most M:TG settings aren't like that and veer towards weird superfauna landscapes or takes on extant cultures which seem to rob them of day-to-day culture and focus on the myths? A lot of the legendary characters and cards are just single-named archetype people who disappoint you in the flavour text by talking like a superhero. I get that the point of fantasy settings is to be epic but it leaves me with nothing to consider; I don't care about the feats of these characters because they mirror the exaggerated setting and let nothing more subtle be presented.

The humans vs animals vs unity theme out of Ikoria is an attempted bit of intrigue, I suppose? but the setting of the plane is a little goofy and it struck me more as a gambit for twitter polls.

The design of the cards? - I'm fairly happy with the current borders and fonts 'n stuff, although I long for more adoption of the Future Sight frame; to me the curved dynamic contour of the FUT card is just more interest than the regimented boxiness of everything else. Not much is better than Future Sight, even if the Bridge is a ridiculous card. (So's the green pact!)

The game meaning/abilities of the cards? - I find myself too familiar with the cards I've owned for years and threatened by the naked power of the new ones. There's a few cards printed in every set that really strike me as something interesting and new which I cherish even if the rapid releases and honed demographic-targetting formulas make a lot of card text a repetitious blur. I'm just too used to the game by now (have played and collected since about 1996) and feel like there's enough cards.

Do you get any joy out of your collection beyond its play value? I sit here wishing it had been a science fiction card game which had really hit it big x3

goldfishing like mad for 2 months, because of this quarantine! :$
Quarantine will be ended by june 1, so will have real people to play paper with again.

To make it short, I like the stories, my favorites being Ixalan and Amonkhet.

I really like the lore of the game and how they integrate that it into the game itself. Some of the worlds are really well designed, I especially like the older worlds

MTG is one of the few Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games where the lore continues to be expanded upon without losing it's sense of identity where as it's competitors were only able to succeed on borrowed time due to how limited the source material was with the exception of Pokémon TCG where it's identity is still intact. Sadly I can't say the same for Yu-Gi-Oh! since it took itself less seriously over time by breaking the fourth wall on purpose instead of as a once in a while parody like with MTG's Unsets so I'm not exactly sure what Konami's original motives were in that department.

World of Warcraft TCG knew how to break the fourth wall almost better than MTG yet got shafted for Hearthstone when Blizzard Entertainment had their falling out with Upper Deck by competing in the Online Card Game Market which today is almost a certainty to be a much bigger juggernaut thanks to COVID-19. Apparently according to Bushiroad the character cards in Cardfight!! Vanguard are gender neutral which doesn't make any sense to me though I assume they already backed out of that idea a few years ago.

I do appreciate that the MTG storyline rolls on and on in a generally consistent manner but I just can't get into heroes that much. Just not the sort of person who stans a particular character or author and follows their journey, especially in a game setting that's rarely about anything introspective. Sorry, giggle

I've found myself making lots of decks lately, not really intending to play them at all, just enjoying the process of putting things in order. That's a benefit of the cards I didn't mention before!

oh man paper magic

the sorting. . .when you buy a pack and sift back to the rare, take it home and watch your collection absorb it like the pack never existed.

honestly top notch scenario is sitting around a bunch of binders full of sets and a couple awesome folks and just let the good times roll. . .I can't imagine the conversation ever getting dull, sharp at times. . .but what you gonna do, there are blue mages. (im just kidding that is just a joke)

I look forward to retirement (probably not going to happen) where I have the time to sit down and go through all the paper. from just flipping sheets to being reminded of strategies past.

paper magic forever, as long as I can afford it

adding one more. Another thing I like about mtg cards is we can build tribal themed decks. For example, me and friend right now are excited building a dog deck, to make it have a duel against the cat deck we already have.

I enjoy clever flavor text. I have a deck that is dedicated to good flavor text. When someone asks me what my favorite cards are, inevitably some make it on my list purely for their flavor text.

The lore and flavor is what keeps me staying even as I play less magic itself.

ah, and forgot to say in previous post. Also really liked Ikoria's theme of humans bonding with behemoths. :>

They taste good with ketchup.

Edit: True answer, they're aesthetically pleasing.