SCG premium member

[Lcpdenijs]

Hello,
I was just wondering whether it is worth the $5,- to become premium member of StarCityGames. I like reading about the game and SCG seem te have a lot of valuable articles.
Any thoughts on that?

[whiteshepherdman]

I just hear about the important legacy articles as it filters into discussions here on the source. Otherwise I don't think its worth the 5 dollars. I don't think they talk about anything that you or someone else can't figure out on their own from playing this game. It's just a game like playing chess except chess is much more complex. 5 dollars will get you a nice 5 dollar footlong from subway. On the other hand, if you really really really like looking at graphs and statistics that the writers crank out from their data mine for you, I'd say go on ahead. It's just 5 dollars really... pocket change, tip money

[Otter]

Reading magic theory on any format can sometimes help you to improve your overall game. I read the standard articles on scg/channelfireball, even though I think standard is a terrible format and I'm never going to play it. If you agree, then it's worth your money. If you'd rather get to the point and just read about legacy itself, you're not going to get much value.

[MMogg]

Hello,
I was just wondering whether it is worth the $5,- to become premium member of StarCityGames. I like reading about the game and SCG seem te have a lot of valuable articles.
Any thoughts on that?

All premium articles become free after 90 days, so you can go back and read some of them and determine for yourself if you think it's worth it. :smile:

[yawg07]

It's only $5, what've you got to lose?
Haha, really though, I'm subscribed and I like it.
The article writers are pretty good, and it is always good to get as much info as you can.

[Maveric78f]

It's just a game like playing chess except chess is much more complex.
How stupid this is...

Isn't it obvious that magic is much more complex than chess?

It's less theorised, theorisable and noble than chess just because it's too complex. I can provide you tons of reasons that make it more complex than chess:
- rule book is more than 100 pages against 1 page
- there are more than 10k objects against 6
- there are hidden states (secret zones)
- initial game state is random
- state transitions are random
- a chess game usually has between 20 and 40 moves (not sure about this), in a magic game you receive priority at least 10 times during every turn.
- mulligan strategy
- sideboarding strategy
- metagame strategy
- ...

[ramanujan]

How stupid this is...

Isn't it obvious that magic is much more complex than chess?
- ...

As far as complexity goes, a physicist stated that there are more chess games than atoms in the known universe. That being said, there are probably more magic games as well. My point being that both games are of a complexity significant enough for them to be above the comprehension of the most inteligent person.

In addition, the number of games of Magic in a tournament environment is actually quite small, in astronomical terms. This is primarilly due to the relatively small number of playable decktypes for a given tournament.

I do believe that the number of strategies available in chess far outnumbers the number in Magic. Just read a book on opennings alone to see the subtile nature of chess in comparison with magic.

All in all, both are excelent games, with chess having a major lead on cost. Even with a high end wooden board and a high end clock, the cost is nowhere near a good legacy magic deck. Magic has the appeal of customizability that chess could never match. Plus, one has to ask if they prefer games of incomplete information (Magic) or complete information (Chess).

[Lcpdenijs]

All premium articles become free after 90 days, so you can go back and read some of them and determine for yourself if you think it's worth it. :smile:

Ah cool, didnt know that.

I just care about the Legacy articles, Standard isnt my thing (anymore).

Thx for the good advice all.

[Lcpdenijs]

It's just a game like playing chess except chess is much more complex.

I dont agree with you here. Chess has much less variety then Legacy IMHO.
Chess is really boring to me after a while, while Legacy keeps my on my toes. Probably also because it plays a lot quicker then chess. :laugh:

[Maveric78f]

As far as complexity goes, a physicist stated that there are more chess games than atoms in the known universe. That being said, there are probably more magic games as well. My point being that both games are of a complexity significant enough for them to be above the comprehension of the most inteligent person.

In addition, the number of games of Magic in a tournament environment is actually quite small, in astronomical terms. This is primarilly due to the relatively small number of playable decktypes for a given tournament.

I do believe that the number of strategies available in chess far outnumbers the number in Magic. Just read a book on opennings alone to see the subtile nature of chess in comparison with magic.

All in all, both are excelent games, with chess having a major lead on cost. Even with a high end wooden board and a high end clock, the cost is nowhere near a good legacy magic deck. Magic has the appeal of customizability that chess could never match. Plus, one has to ask if they prefer games of incomplete information (Magic) or complete information (Chess).
Hey guys. Check out what game complexity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_complexity) is and stop discussing it with emotionnal terms (different strategies, boredom, customizability, "good/excellent", ...).

You've probably never done twice the same game with magic even if exactly the same spells have been played at the same time, because your options were different, because the context was different (another set came out between, your opponent thought longer at a given moment, your hand was different, your build was different, your SB was different, ...).

As a sidenote, the more complex is not the better.

[ramanujan]

Based on the link above, Magic is arbitrarily complex. With a given complexity goal, create the two decks to be sufficiently large as to satisfy the complexity goal (each deck would contain thousands, millions, ect of cards). The use of basic lands should be enough to satisfy the requirement. Even the ending game state is arbitrary as Magic players have the option of concession.