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Here's 2 possibilities - in hopes of thwarting any malevolent beings:
http://media.wizards.com/image...
http://www.donaldmeme.com/temp...

As long as you employ the appropriate loopholes

https://magic.wizards.com/en/c...

the DMG is always looking for creative ways to TPK.

Can't justify the unjustifiable.

Ok, then you admit your idea is moot, and we'll ignore it.

Glad you recognize that the past can't be changed. That said, you can learn from the past, and in the future, not waste our time with tedious argumentation.

Then take it up with the person who proposed it - Cameron.

Yeah, that loser quit. So I have to wait for the next one, who hopefully will have more sense and conduct the process much more sensibly.

Because no, he didn't consult me, I'd have set up a much more robust process in advance. Best I could do was send in correspondence, which naturally got ignored.

But the mechanism for leaving is a separate issue from whether or not they should leave, and on which a majority has spoken.

And yet all they got to do was speak, not decide. Sorry, but Parliament was not obligated to take any action.

This isn't hard either: because otherwise you're stacking the deck in plain sight to suit your preferences. You can't tell one side that they have to get 50%, and the other side they have to get 60% (or 70%, whatever) with a straight face without playing Calvinball.

I think your problem is you are upset with the prior process, for whatever reason. Well, I'm sorry you feel the previous outcomes were unfair, but I wasn't consulted on the prior events either, and I've already said my thoughts on those, that I'd have done things differently myself. But again, not consulted. So I bear no responsibility for them. Sorry, stop bothering me about it, thanks, I'll appreciate it.

But changing the rules? That doesn't convince me, no. Because you know what life is? A continuing evolving process, and even in games and sports, rules can change. So can decisions.

Politics not being a fixed set of games, obviously, it isn't as discrete a series of events. So it is even more subject to variation. It's even questionable if it has any unalterable fundamentals. Some testaments outright state otherwise.

So if the Remain faction gets what they want, a second referendum, you'd have no problem with the Leave people insisting they need 60% to stay, when only 50% was required to Leave?

Nope. 50% was not required to leave. 50% was for this non-binding referendum to have no effect. Any amount would have no effect. Parliament could have done whatever it wanted in the end. Even with a 0% outcome for leaving.

So your assertion is false, and I will not accept it under such terms.

But if you rephrase your statement though, to say, that you wish to have a referendum where government presents a clear and definitive document detailing the circumstances of leaving the European union, and requiring 66% (2/3 was the statement above) of eligible voters to have a position of keep, or we hold another referendum after another round of negotiations, I can consider that acceptable.

Your initial phrasing, no, it's in error. Can't be accepted. Pass.

If so, you'd still be wrong, but at least you'd be consistent.

Ah, there's where you're having trouble. . I was not consulted, and I doubt anybody read my thoughts, to be honest. I actually did say from the start my problems with this process. But it being non-binding, well, whatever, Parliament can still do what they want, and if necessary, later action be addressed.

So I set about addressing it, in the manner I see fit.

I'm willing to put up with Parliament negotiating on the basis of this one pol

I thought it said "Massive Mana Reserve Created in Atlantic"... which would of course be redundant since it's already filled with islands *ducks*

I think playing it straight in-universe in any of the settings is probably missing the mark, even though that's exactly what the movie will end up doing.

There are tons of excellent fantasy properties out there, including the aforementioned GoTs, that are already story-driven because, well, they're stories. The whole point of D&D is to make your own story and frontal cortex your way out of tight situations--the now-cliched generic fantasy stuff** is just the wall covering that keeps a set of mechanical game rules from becoming Office: The Businessing.

If moviemakers want to use the D&D name and history for more than just a ticket jackoff, they'll need to evoke the whole tabletop gaming ethos. Which means they should go for a 4th-wall-breaking fantasy/comedy style (see Acquisitions Inc.) that, e.g., Never Ending Stories some gamers into the fantasy world. Or in some other ways captures the fickle whims of the dice roll.

But undifferentiated fantasy, even in a script chock-full of fan service characters and places, is not a recipe for success.

**Of course, D&D (and its forebear LotR) is largely responsible for cliche-ifying this stuff in the first place.

Well it's a good start.

But...

There are no Angels in green. They are all white, black and maybe red.

Are you sure about that?

Wait until you start coming across the websites that only have "mobile optimized" versions, which, apparently means "set the default zoom level to 200% and put images and giant buttons everywhere."

The only one that I recall of the top of my head is Wizards of the Coast.

D&D 5e brings back a lot of the crap I didn't like from 3.x, ignores positive changes made to the game in 4e (powers, tactical battle with miniatures, skill challenges) and introduces a couple of new things: higher prices for books, missing information on how to handle certain situations (for instance: poison), and advantage/disadvantage. All summed up, it's got me saying "meh". The fact that the core rulebooks cost $50 each instead of $20-$30 makes them out of the price range of what 12 year-olds can afford (the age when I started playing AD&D). It seems to me that WotC really fucked up this release, not having the PHB, DMG, and MM ready at the same time. Yes the new books are gorgeous, but have you ever had to use them for building a character or referencing information mid-game? I give it a C.

I respectfully disagree. I started with 1st edition AD&D but lost interest once 2e came around. I once had a look at 4e, and found it completely baffling. I recently got back into D&D with a group of other middle-aged folk, and we initially using the 1e rules. When the 5e playtests came out, we switched to that, because we found that the new rules evoked the feel of AD&D, but are well-designed and coherent. I have all of the 5e rulebooks now, and I personally feel that these rules are like 1e but with all of the stuff that I would have houseruled anyway.

Regarding cost, anyone can download the "Basic" Rules for free: http://dnd.wizards.com/article...

The main difference between the Basic Rules and the hardcopies is that Basic is limited to the four classic D&D classes: Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, Mage. Otherwise, the Basic Rules are completely functional, and you can play solely with these.

Rather than asking the armchair gamers on Slashdot (myself included), read what some successful game designers say.

Here's Mark Rosewater, head designer for Magic: The Gathering, on game design 101: http://archive.wizards.com/Mag...

I think you're confusing the "starter set" for the "basic rules". The basic rules are a free download:

http://dnd.wizards.com/article...

What makes it geeky? It's not particularly niche. It doesn't have a geek theme. It's doesn't require much in the way of making calculations while playing. It doesn't consume large amounts of time. It doesn't involve building and painting huge numbers of miniatures. In fact I struggle to think of anything geeky about it.

Compare with:

Android: Netrunner - very geeky theme.
Dungeons and Dragons - this was once the definition of geeky...
RoboRally - geek theme plus "programming" of sorts.
1817 - 6 hours of pretending to buy company stocks and of course there are trains (what geek isn't into trains), any 18XX in fact.
Warhammer 40,000 - science fiction and fantasy and painting hundreds of fiddly miniatures. Any miniatures war game really.
Magic: The Gathering - why paint miniatures when you can spend thousands of dollars on cards. The rules are easily mistaken for the US tax code: http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/tcg/resources/rules/MagicCompRules_21031101.pdf encouraging players to push literal reading of card text as far as they possible can.
Dominion, Agricola - all the multiplayer solitaire games that are just optimization problems at heart and can likely be converted into solving some equations.

Did you hire the same idiots that designed the new Wizards of the Coast Community Site?

It seems like you took some tips from them. What the actual fuck is with new age web designers who don't seem to realize that not everyone is using a tablet or iPhone?

I already think the current site itself is FAR too inefficient, can we get some god damn minimalism please? Density of information is what you should be aiming for; this new site is pretty terrible by that benchmark.

Current Landing Zone
Current Comments Page
Beta Landing Zone
Beta Comments Page

Please adjust.

Well, that and in order to use Wizards of the Coast's D&D character builder. http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Tools.aspx

You should learn to grapple

I tried that, but the rules were too complex!

The first 3 books (Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual) weren't originally digitally typeset, but WotC has already gone through the process of doing that for the "1e premium" releases and they're in InDesign, so there should be clean text available without OCR.

In case you aren't aware, the files for the original printing don't exist. In fact, there were never any files. The books were created long before the advent of the personal computer and its introduction into the publishing industry. When the original books were put together, they were put together "old school" style. Paste up, stats, Rubylith, and hand-building each and every page. Sigh . . . I remember those days fondly.

http://wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4dreye/20120704 has more info on the premium releases.

This presents an interesting challenge for the D&D design team. They're working on a new edition of D&D (it's in open playtest as they develop it).

Now, the new edition will have to compete for sales against D&D's own back catalog. If their upcoming product doesn't appeal to fans of First Edition AD&D, or Second Edition, Third,or Fourth, then people will just buy and play the old stuff. The next edition will have to compare to the classics or it will fail in the marketplace.

This is a victory for the consumer, who gains real choice.

You're missing the point.

If you already have a massive world to lean back on, the flavor of the world is already there.

That is what makes the forgotten realms and planescape games so great, the worlds are so amazingly complex that you get a whole normal fantasy world out of a single region or even country.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/wd_maps/FRposterLarge_150.jpg

Look at that map.
Notice the tiny area south of Baldur's Gate reaching the way to Tethyr?
That would be the entire Baldur's Gate Saga, barring a few other locations you where at.

That region is not even one of the more mapped out ones in the world.

Every region could house such a game and have automatic flavor.

And here's the kicker, that map is pretty much just the equivalent of Europe+western Asia (think Russia) and Africa.
They also have the far east and some limited material about the equivalnet of America.

There is no point in building an actual world for a game, hence, using one that already exists gives you a MUCH richer flavor.

There's no NRPGA because it's not illegal to pretend to be a troll or hobbit. ... and because they'd have to compete with the already existing RPGA...

If you're into D&D, you can do a search for a local Encounters group at http://wizards.com/dnd/. If you're in a bigger city, meetup.com might also have listings of some groups.

They did make a silver bullet card for poison decks, but it's also pretty useful when played in conjunction with creatures with Persist, like this one. Instant win condition.

They did make a silver bullet card for poison decks, but it's also pretty useful when played in conjunction with creatures with Persist, like this one. Instant win condition.

Screwed up the first link, should have been:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=980

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=780
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74312

Yo dawg...

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=780
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74312

Yo dawg...

Carnival of Souls is surely prior art!

Have them listen to the Penny Arcade podcasts of them playing D&D 4th before it came out. With Mike being a pen and paper RPG noob and no one of them ever having played 4th edition (since it wasnt out yet), there is a lot of explaining things going on. Also, its funny as all hell. It got my ex wanting to play. And I have another friend that now wants to play thanks to the podcasts.
Obviously, starting at the beginning is the best way for it to make sense. Also, the second session has Will Wheaton in it.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/podcasts.aspx

They did another session at PAX that has video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqXqK3ZlqWI&feature=related

If you subscribe to the podcast, theres also a video series with the makers of Robot Chicken playing.

I find it interesting to watch Chris Perkins DM for the Penny Arcade guys in the Dungeons & Dragons games they've played. He seems to make an effort to use a variety of accents (and voices) to keep his characters interesting. He even went with Southern-California-Surfer for one character in the 2010 live game at PAX.

PAX 2010 Live D&D Game, Part 1

PAX 2011 Live D&D Game, Part 1

PA / PVP D&D Podcasts

I see a memorial first edition of a couple core books but hardly all of them. Elsewhere I see 4th edition. Where is the 3.5 ed books that the copyright owner recalled from bookstores before releasing 4th ed.

Not sure if you're just nit-picking here or not. All the 3.5 edition rules are freely available, and I thought that version 4 was supposed to take care of all the complaints from people about 3.5??

And if that's not good enough, the printed books can be found, so I'm not sure what the point is in complaining about not being able to get scanned images of those books from a bittorrent site - that would seem even less useful than the stiff Wizards provides for free.

Actually Bittorrent sites are a great place to find scans of all kinds of out of print gaming books.

The old Battletech stuff,

You can actually download PDFs of the out-of-print Battletech stuff right from their web site.

Rolemaster,

Well the publisher sells modified versions of the original Rolemaster books, and if you want the true originals there are places to buy them.

previous editions of D&D,

No, now you're just being ridiculous (or trying to justify infringement just because you don't like the publishers). There are no editions of D&D that cannot be had from the copyright owner directly.

Seriously, if you're going to make a case for the issues with copyright, you've got to come up with legitimate issues. The stuff you've come up with are not.

I saw the same thing in Magic: The Gathering. Someone would pay hundreds of dollars for a rare first-print power card, and would rationalize it as an investment. Ha! Then -- to the surprise of only a few morons -- WotC reprinted most of these cards and made the originals next to worthless.

Wizards of the Coast has a long standing list of reserved cards which will not be reprinted. http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=magic/products/reprintpolicy. While the company and certain pockets of players have sometimes hated this list, Wizards has honored it. Many cards on that list have actually gone up significantly in value the last few years.

Did they properly consult the AD&D chart for character age? I show INT and especially WIS increasing over time.

That's why WotC is releasing 5th ed., to fix that glaring mistake.

Did they properly consult the AD&D chart for character age? I show INT and especially WIS increasing over time.

Robo Rally. Try the demo.

Since art is in the eye of the beholder

Which eye?

I'd say Chaotic Neutral with Evil tendencies. The heart of Anonymous is chaos: no visible structure, no weak points, just lots of individuals that occasionally cooperate. They are a source of punishment much more than reward, but the targets that they punish are usually violators of some sort of ethical boundary (I'd say Neutral with occasional Good depending on target, but every DM has their own definition of alignment anyhow). The "for the lulz" motivation for many members is very selfish, and selfishness is squarely on the path towards Evil (personal gratification without regard to the expense/effects on others).

One of the few appropriate examples of Chaotic Neutral. Most attempts (even the 2nd edition Player's Guide, IIRC) end up depicting the alignment as Chaotic Stupid. Maybe it's an indication that Law/Chaos applies to a community rather than an individual. In any case, it's certainly better that Wizards of the Coast's latest alignment interpretation, where the bad guys are either Evil or Really Evil.

Original poster here. I am looking to implement a customized card game (think Magic or Yu-Gi-Oh). This is my step-son's first foray into development, and my first UI requiring any custom controls. (I have done a fair bit of ASP.NET, PHP, and Windows Forms, but most of that is not applicable given what I am planning here). The idea is to be able to create the card images from a combination of stored bitmaps, text, and some general backgrounds. As such, much of the GUI will be vectored, but some must be raster (ie the bitmaps). Note that given the general structure, framerate is not a high consideration.

Note that I have not ruled out a HTML 5 UI and if I went with Java AWT, I may wrap it as an applet. I would certainly like to stay away from Flash (& am leaning against Java for similar reasons), but have not ruled that out either.

How about a game a bit more complicated than Monopoly? Start with games by Avalon Hill.

Video games are designed to be fun

For whom? What do people consider fun? Do all people consider the same kinds of things fun?

I think the answer is no. In the case of Magic: The Gathering (the card game), Mark Rosewater (lead designer) thinks the answer is no---his three psychographic profiles Timmy, Johnny and Spike want different things. See http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr11 and http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr220a

I think these apply reasonably well to Starcraft (and RTSes in general). Let me describe them briefly, in terms of Starcraft 1:

Timmy wants to make a splash; he wants to build big units and cause a splash; he likes tanks, nukes and carriers.

Johnny likes quirky and underused combos; he plays the oddball strategy to see if it might just work---"I have to try statis-fielding my own units to trap the opponent on one side of the ramp", or "Can I reliably win using only melee attacks?"
(Johnny also likes to make quirky RPG builds, in the style of MongoJerry's pacifist Diablo II necromancer, see http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/thread-10277.html)

Spike plays to win, and will play whatever is effective. Do you 9-pool or overpool on a 128x128 map? Does the answer change on 128x192 maps? How do you react when the opponent goes for +1 attack _before_ +1 defense vs. after? How good are our relative zergling micro---do I win mirror battles?

These aren't hard-line categorizations; they're attributes you can have more or less of. (I'm a multiclass Johnny/Spike, FWIW.)

They will sacrifice [anything] if it will the game more fun. If that means the AI can be beaten, so be it.

For Spike, if you nerf the AI, you make the game less fun. If godlike micro lets Spike defeat human opponents, he wants an AI to help him hone his godlike micro skills (yes, they _will_ be godlike).

He will want an AI with human-like micro skills, so that he can simulate the real deal closely; he'll also want a different AI that will let him train specific skills---say, a macrobot AI vs. him self-imposing a macrobot playing style; or a custom scenario where you have to multi-task between microing a unit being chased and building your base to defend against the "5 minutes no rush" rush.

Thats what Spike wants. That's what's fun to him. Especially if he's Korean :-)

I don't think you get to tell him he's wrong (it's a chocolate vs. vanilla thing). I think you, if you're the right person in the right job, gets to decide that you want to make a game that appeals more to Timmy and Johnny. I don't think you get to decide that there are more Timmys and Johnnys in the world; that's an empirical question. You do get to comission a survey, though, and base your product development decisions on that survey.

(Based on recent developments in popular games, as I see them mostly from the outside, Timmy is the hot new market segment.)

Video games are designed to be fun

For whom? What do people consider fun? Do all people consider the same kinds of things fun?

I think the answer is no. In the case of Magic: The Gathering (the card game), Mark Rosewater (lead designer) thinks the answer is no---his three psychographic profiles Timmy, Johnny and Spike want different things. See http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr11 and http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr220a

I think these apply reasonably well to Starcraft (and RTSes in general). Let me describe them briefly, in terms of Starcraft 1:

Timmy wants to make a splash; he wants to build big units and cause a splash; he likes tanks, nukes and carriers.

Johnny likes quirky and underused combos; he plays the oddball strategy to see if it might just work---"I have to try statis-fielding my own units to trap the opponent on one side of the ramp", or "Can I reliably win using only melee attacks?"
(Johnny also likes to make quirky RPG builds, in the style of MongoJerry's pacifist Diablo II necromancer, see http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/thread-10277.html)

Spike plays to win, and will play whatever is effective. Do you 9-pool or overpool on a 128x128 map? Does the answer change on 128x192 maps? How do you react when the opponent goes for +1 attack _before_ +1 defense vs. after? How good are our relative zergling micro---do I win mirror battles?

These aren't hard-line categorizations; they're attributes you can have more or less of. (I'm a multiclass Johnny/Spike, FWIW.)

They will sacrifice [anything] if it will the game more fun. If that means the AI can be beaten, so be it.

For Spike, if you nerf the AI, you make the game less fun. If godlike micro lets Spike defeat human opponents, he wants an AI to help him hone his godlike micro skills (yes, they _will_ be godlike).

He will want an AI with human-like micro skills, so that he can simulate the real deal closely; he'll also want a different AI that will let him train specific skills---say, a macrobot AI vs. him self-imposing a macrobot playing style; or a custom scenario where you have to multi-task between microing a unit being chased and building your base to defend against the "5 minutes no rush" rush.

Thats what Spike wants. That's what's fun to him. Especially if he's Korean :-)

I don't think you get to tell him he's wrong (it's a chocolate vs. vanilla thing). I think you, if you're the right person in the right job, gets to decide that you want to make a game that appeals more to Timmy and Johnny. I don't think you get to decide that there are more Timmys and Johnnys in the world; that's an empirical question. You do get to comission a survey, though, and base your product development decisions on that survey.

(Based on recent developments in popular games, as I see them mostly from the outside, Timmy is the hot new market segment.)

And Nevinyrral's Disk, as well.

And Steve Jobs casts Tempest of Light by tapping three IPod Classics.

Need more goblin spies. http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Goblin%20Spy

Yeah, Magic has changed A LOT. Especially with Magic 2010 when they completely overhauled everything and, among other things, got rid of mana burn because it apparently made the game too complex. When playing against opponents with enough money and/or booster luck it's absolutely possible to see this abomination out on turn eight or so. (Yes, that thing is ridiculous. I won't touch the entire block because of cards like that.)

Here are some tis on how to semi-cheaply build workable decks without having to buy half a display worth of cards. If you don't intend on getting back into the game feel free to disregard them.

One powerful thing you do have are removal spells. Early white had a lot of these and they still kick ass. Nobody can do squat about an uncountered Wrath of God and any white deck with a full playset of Swords to Plowshares in it will not be popular with your opponents. If you play white a lot one fairly simple deck you can build with a lot of old cards is a traditional wall deck with a few removal spells and Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield tossed in. Keep your opponents at bay until any damage they deal to you is returned to them. For added complexity add Guilty Conscience to create an infinite damage loop and use any removal spell on Stuffy Doll to break it (as unbroken infinite loops force the game into a draw). Beware blue opponents who might counter that remover.
Also nice is Armored Ascension. It makes any creature awesome and can turn Stuffy Doll into a fearsome attacker nobody wants to block with anything sensible. Also (newer than your collection but still quite old), creatures with the shadow keyword. Since nobody plays with shadow anymore most Soltari become really cheap unblockable creatures. If you have a few of these you can forgo any other attackers in favor of more walls.

If blue is your forte just invest in a playset of Forced Fruition and mix it with all variants of Counterspell and Boomerang you can get your hands on, especially those two (both haven't been around in undiluted form for a while). Slow down your opponent until FF is out and then keep them from destroying it. Watch as they mill themselves to death. Bonus points for going blue-black and playing Megrim or Liliana's Caress. (Note: The latter is more useful, being cheaper and working through life-loss instead of damage but it's also about twenty times as expensive on the open market. Money-wise, Megrim is extremely cheap for what it can do.) Oh yeah, just remembered: Black Vise and Underworld Dreams go really well with Forced Fruition and might already be in your possession.
If you feel cheap, bind a Counterspell into an Isochron Scepter so you're not even limited by your hand. I think that card lacks style, though.

Note that both of these decks do especially well in Two-Headed Giant (aka two-on-two with shared life) and extremely poorly in free-for all. In Two-Headed Giant your mate can attack (white) or block (blue) for you until your deck has come out. In free-for-all t

Yeah, Magic has changed A LOT. Especially with Magic 2010 when they completely overhauled everything and, among other things, got rid of mana burn because it apparently made the game too complex. When playing against opponents with enough money and/or booster luck it's absolutely possible to see this abomination out on turn eight or so. (Yes, that thing is ridiculous. I won't touch the entire block because of cards like that.)

Here are some tis on how to semi-cheaply build workable decks without having to buy half a display worth of cards. If you don't intend on getting back into the game feel free to disregard them.

One powerful thing you do have are removal spells. Early white had a lot of these and they still kick ass. Nobody can do squat about an uncountered Wrath of God and any white deck with a full playset of Swords to Plowshares in it will not be popular with your opponents. If you play white a lot one fairly simple deck you can build with a lot of old cards is a traditional wall deck with a few removal spells and Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield tossed in. Keep your opponents at bay until any damage they deal to you is returned to them. For added complexity add Guilty Conscience to create an infinite damage loop and use any removal spell on Stuffy Doll to break it (as unbroken infinite loops force the game into a draw). Beware blue opponents who might counter that remover.
Also nice is Armored Ascension. It makes any creature awesome and can turn Stuffy Doll into a fearsome attacker nobody wants to block with anything sensible. Also (newer than your collection but still quite old), creatures with the shadow keyword. Since nobody plays with shadow anymore most Soltari become really cheap unblockable creatures. If you have a few of these you can forgo any other attackers in favor of more walls.

If blue is your forte just invest in a playset of Forced Fruition and mix it with all variants of Counterspell and Boomerang you can get your hands on, especially those two (both haven't been around in undiluted form for a while). Slow down your opponent until FF is out and then keep them from destroying it. Watch as they mill themselves to death. Bonus points for going blue-black and playing Megrim or Liliana's Caress. (Note: The latter is more useful, being cheaper and working through life-loss instead of damage but it's also about twenty times as expensive on the open market. Money-wise, Megrim is extremely cheap for what it can do.) Oh yeah, just remembered: Black Vise and Underworld Dreams go really well with Forced Fruition and might already be in your possession.
If you feel cheap, bind a Counterspell into an Isochron Scepter so you're not even limited by your hand. I think that card lacks style, though.

Note that both of these decks do especially well in Two-Headed Giant (aka two-on-two with shared life) and extremely poorly in free-for all. In Two-Headed Giant your mate can attack (white) or block (blue) for you until your deck has come out. In free-for-all t

Yeah, Magic has changed A LOT. Especially with Magic 2010 when they completely overhauled everything and, among other things, got rid of mana burn because it apparently made the game too complex. When playing against opponents with enough money and/or booster luck it's absolutely possible to see this abomination out on turn eight or so. (Yes, that thing is ridiculous. I won't touch the entire block because of cards like that.)

Here are some tis on how to semi-cheaply build workable decks without having to buy half a display worth of cards. If you don't intend on getting back into the game feel free to disregard them.

One powerful thing you do have are removal spells. Early white had a lot of these and they still kick ass. Nobody can do squat about an uncountered Wrath of God and any white deck with a full playset of Swords to Plowshares in it will not be popular with your opponents. If you play white a lot one fairly simple deck you can build with a lot of old cards is a traditional wall deck with a few removal spells and Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield tossed in. Keep your opponents at bay until any damage they deal to you is returned to them. For added complexity add Guilty Conscience to create an infinite damage loop and use any removal spell on Stuffy Doll to break it (as unbroken infinite loops force the game into a draw). Beware blue opponents who might counter that remover.
Also nice is Armored Ascension. It makes any creature awesome and can turn Stuffy Doll into a fearsome attacker nobody wants to block with anything sensible. Also (newer than your collection but still quite old), creatures with the shadow keyword. Since nobody plays with shadow anymore most Soltari become really cheap unblockable creatures. If you have a few of these you can forgo any other attackers in favor of more walls.

If blue is your forte just invest in a playset of Forced Fruition and mix it with all variants of Counterspell and Boomerang you can get your hands on, especially those two (both haven't been around in undiluted form for a while). Slow down your opponent until FF is out and then keep them from destroying it. Watch as they mill themselves to death. Bonus points for going blue-black and playing Megrim or Liliana's Caress. (Note: The latter is more useful, being cheaper and working through life-loss instead of damage but it's also about twenty times as expensive on the open market. Money-wise, Megrim is extremely cheap for what it can do.) Oh yeah, just remembered: Black Vise and Underworld Dreams go really well with Forced Fruition and might already be in your possession.
If you feel cheap, bind a Counterspell into an Isochron Scepter so you're not even limited by your hand. I think that card lacks style, though.

Note that both of these decks do especially well in Two-Headed Giant (aka two-on-two with shared life) and extremely poorly in free-for all. In Two-Headed Giant your mate can attack (white) or block (blue) for you until your deck has come out. In free-for-all t

Yeah, Magic has changed A LOT. Especially with Magic 2010 when they completely overhauled everything and, among other things, got rid of mana burn because it apparently made the game too complex. When playing against opponents with enough money and/or booster luck it's absolutely possible to see this abomination out on turn eight or so. (Yes, that thing is ridiculous. I won't touch the entire block because of cards like that.)

Here are some tis on how to semi-cheaply build workable decks without having to buy half a display worth of cards. If you don't intend on getting back into the game feel free to disregard them.

One powerful thing you do have are removal spells. Early white had a lot of these and they still kick ass. Nobody can do squat about an uncountered Wrath of God and any white deck with a full playset of Swords to Plowshares in it will not be popular with your opponents. If you play white a lot one fairly simple deck you can build with a lot of old cards is a traditional wall deck with a few removal spells and Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield tossed in. Keep your opponents at bay until any damage they deal to you is returned to them. For added complexity add Guilty Conscience to create an infinite damage loop and use any removal spell on Stuffy Doll to break it (as unbroken infinite loops force the game into a draw). Beware blue opponents who might counter that remover.
Also nice is Armored Ascension. It makes any creature awesome and can turn Stuffy Doll into a fearsome attacker nobody wants to block with anything sensible. Also (newer than your collection but still quite old), creatures with the shadow keyword. Since nobody plays with shadow anymore most Soltari become really cheap unblockable creatures. If you have a few of these you can forgo any other attackers in favor of more walls.

If blue is your forte just invest in a playset of Forced Fruition and mix it with all variants of Counterspell and Boomerang you can get your hands on, especially those two (both haven't been around in undiluted form for a while). Slow down your opponent until FF is out and then keep them from destroying it. Watch as they mill themselves to death. Bonus points for going blue-black and playing Megrim or Liliana's Caress. (Note: The latter is more useful, being cheaper and working through life-loss instead of damage but it's also about twenty times as expensive on the open market. Money-wise, Megrim is extremely cheap for what it can do.) Oh yeah, just remembered: Black Vise and Underworld Dreams go really well with Forced Fruition and might already be in your possession.
If you feel cheap, bind a Counterspell into an Isochron Scepter so you're not even limited by your hand. I think that card lacks style, though.

Note that both of these decks do especially well in Two-Headed Giant (aka two-on-two with shared life) and extremely poorly in free-for all. In Two-Headed Giant your mate can attack (white) or block (blue) for you until your deck has come out. In free-for-all t

Yeah, Magic has changed A LOT. Especially with Magic 2010 when they completely overhauled everything and, among other things, got rid of mana burn because it apparently made the game too complex. When playing against opponents with enough money and/or booster luck it's absolutely possible to see this abomination out on turn eight or so. (Yes, that thing is ridiculous. I won't touch the entire block because of cards like that.)

Here are some tis on how to semi-cheaply build workable decks without having to buy half a display worth of cards. If you don't intend on getting back into the game feel free to disregard them.

One powerful thing you do have are removal spells. Early white had a lot of these and they still kick ass. Nobody can do squat about an uncountered Wrath of God and any white deck with a full playset of Swords to Plowshares in it will not be popular with your opponents. If you play white a lot one fairly simple deck you can build with a lot of old cards is a traditional wall deck with a few removal spells and Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield tossed in. Keep your opponents at bay until any damage they deal to you is returned to them. For added complexity add Guilty Conscience to create an infinite damage loop and use any removal spell on Stuffy Doll to break it (as unbroken infinite loops force the game into a draw). Beware blue opponents who might counter that remover.
Also nice is Armored Ascension. It makes any creature awesome and can turn Stuffy Doll into a fearsome attacker nobody wants to block with anything sensible. Also (newer than your collection but still quite old), creatures with the shadow keyword. Since nobody plays with shadow anymore most Soltari become really cheap unblockable creatures. If you have a few of these you can forgo any other attackers in favor of more walls.

If blue is your forte just invest in a playset of Forced Fruition and mix it with all variants of Counterspell and Boomerang you can get your hands on, especially those two (both haven't been around in undiluted form for a while). Slow down your opponent until FF is out and then keep them from destroying it. Watch as they mill themselves to death. Bonus points for going blue-black and playing Megrim or Liliana's Caress. (Note: The latter is more useful, being cheaper and working through life-loss instead of damage but it's also about twenty times as expensive on the open market. Money-wise, Megrim is extremely cheap for what it can do.) Oh yeah, just remembered: Black Vise and Underworld Dreams go really well with Forced Fruition and might already be in your possession.
If you feel cheap, bind a Counterspell into an Isochron Scepter so you're not even limited by your hand. I think that card lacks style, though.

Note that both of these decks do especially well in Two-Headed Giant (aka two-on-two with shared life) and extremely poorly in free-for all. In Two-Headed Giant your mate can attack (white) or block (blue) for you until your deck has come out. In free-for-all t

Yeah, Magic has changed A LOT. Especially with Magic 2010 when they completely overhauled everything and, among other things, got rid of mana burn because it apparently made the game too complex. When playing against opponents with enough money and/or booster luck it's absolutely possible to see this abomination out on turn eight or so. (Yes, that thing is ridiculous. I won't touch the entire block because of cards like that.)

Here are some tis on how to semi-cheaply build workable decks without having to buy half a display worth of cards. If you don't intend on getting back into the game feel free to disregard them.

One powerful thing you do have are removal spells. Early white had a lot of these and they still kick ass. Nobody can do squat about an uncountered Wrath of God and any white deck with a full playset of Swords to Plowshares in it will not be popular with your opponents. If you play white a lot one fairly simple deck you can build with a lot of old cards is a traditional wall deck with a few removal spells and Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield tossed in. Keep your opponents at bay until any damage they deal to you is returned to them. For added complexity add Guilty Conscience to create an infinite damage loop and use any removal spell on Stuffy Doll to break it (as unbroken infinite loops force the game into a draw). Beware blue opponents who might counter that remover.
Also nice is Armored Ascension. It makes any creature awesome and can turn Stuffy Doll into a fearsome attacker nobody wants to block with anything sensible. Also (newer than your collection but still quite old), creatures with the shadow keyword. Since nobody plays with shadow anymore most Soltari become really cheap unblockable creatures. If you have a few of these you can forgo any other attackers in favor of more walls.

If blue is your forte just invest in a playset of Forced Fruition and mix it with all variants of Counterspell and Boomerang you can get your hands on, especially those two (both haven't been around in undiluted form for a while). Slow down your opponent until FF is out and then keep them from destroying it. Watch as they mill themselves to death. Bonus points for going blue-black and playing Megrim or Liliana's Caress. (Note: The latter is more useful, being cheaper and working through life-loss instead of damage but it's also about twenty times as expensive on the open market. Money-wise, Megrim is extremely cheap for what it can do.) Oh yeah, just remembered: Black Vise and Underworld Dreams go really well with Forced Fruition and might already be in your possession.
If you feel cheap, bind a Counterspell into an Isochron Scepter so you're not even limited by your hand. I think that card lacks style, though.

Note that both of these decks do especially well in Two-Headed Giant (aka two-on-two with shared life) and extremely poorly in free-for all. In Two-Headed Giant your mate can attack (white) or block (blue) for you until your deck has come out. In free-for-all t

Yeah, Magic has changed A LOT. Especially with Magic 2010 when they completely overhauled everything and, among other things, got rid of mana burn because it apparently made the game too complex. When playing against opponents with enough money and/or booster luck it's absolutely possible to see this abomination out on turn eight or so. (Yes, that thing is ridiculous. I won't touch the entire block because of cards like that.)

Here are some tis on how to semi-cheaply build workable decks without having to buy half a display worth of cards. If you don't intend on getting back into the game feel free to disregard them.

One powerful thing you do have are removal spells. Early white had a lot of these and they still kick ass. Nobody can do squat about an uncountered Wrath of God and any white deck with a full playset of Swords to Plowshares in it will not be popular with your opponents. If you play white a lot one fairly simple deck you can build with a lot of old cards is a traditional wall deck with a few removal spells and Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield tossed in. Keep your opponents at bay until any damage they deal to you is returned to them. For added complexity add Guilty Conscience to create an infinite damage loop and use any removal spell on Stuffy Doll to break it (as unbroken infinite loops force the game into a draw). Beware blue opponents who might counter that remover.
Also nice is Armored Ascension. It makes any creature awesome and can turn Stuffy Doll into a fearsome attacker nobody wants to block with anything sensible. Also (newer than your collection but still quite old), creatures with the shadow keyword. Since nobody plays with shadow anymore most Soltari become really cheap unblockable creatures. If you have a few of these you can forgo any other attackers in favor of more walls.

If blue is your forte just invest in a playset of Forced Fruition and mix it with all variants of Counterspell and Boomerang you can get your hands on, especially those two (both haven't been around in undiluted form for a while). Slow down your opponent until FF is out and then keep them from destroying it. Watch as they mill themselves to death. Bonus points for going blue-black and playing Megrim or Liliana's Caress. (Note: The latter is more useful, being cheaper and working through life-loss instead of damage but it's also about twenty times as expensive on the open market. Money-wise, Megrim is extremely cheap for what it can do.) Oh yeah, just remembered: Black Vise and Underworld Dreams go really well with Forced Fruition and might already be in your possession.
If you feel cheap, bind a Counterspell into an Isochron Scepter so you're not even limited by your hand. I think that card lacks style, though.

Note that both of these decks do especially well in Two-Headed Giant (aka two-on-two with shared life) and extremely poorly in free-for all. In Two-Headed Giant your mate can attack (white) or block (blue) for you until your deck has come out. In free-for-all t