Magic Lesson 2

We focused on the cards themselves for lesson 2 after a round on Magic on the Xbox. I find the cards themselves to be the most interesting part of the game. There are numerous types of cards and the art work is beautiful. We spent an evening looking through Cameron’s boxes of cards. He has kept them all since he started playing in high school. The art work has changed from the earlier expansions to the most recent editions.

Here’s what I learned about the cards in this lesson:

There are 5 colors that make up the color wheel, or as it’s often called, the color pie: White, Blue Black, Red, and Green. Each color has it’s own theme, strengths, and weaknesses.

 

White – White can be identified by a white sun on the cards. It’s characteristic creature type is human and/or soldier. White’s iconic creature type is angel. The iconic creature type is the flagship representative type of the color. The characteristic creature type is more general. The lands that you use to cast spells are plains. White is the color of community, law, peace, and harmony. The strengths of white cards include healing, life gain and protection. It’s weaknesses include inability to draw cards as quickly as other colors and inability to focus on singular enemies when attacking.

 

 

Blue – Blue can be identified by a water droplet on the cards. Blue stands for seeking perfection through knowledge. It’s characteristic creature type is probably drake or merfolk, and it’s iconic creature type is sphinx. It’s lands are islands. Cam doesn’t care for the blue cards. It’s weaknesses include being reactionary by extension slow. He also says it’s strengths include drawing cards, countering spells, and flying creatures.

 

 

Black – Black can be identified by a skull. Black is the color of selfishness, ambition, and amorality. It’s lands are swamps. It’s iconic creature type is a demon, and it’s characteristic creature type is a zombie. Black isn’t above doing anything, but you will always have to pay the price. For example, in addition to tapping land, you may have to sacrifice a creature or pay with a certain amount of life. It’s good with bringing creatures back from the graveyard (discard pile).

 

 

Red – Red can be identified by a flame on the cards. It is the color of passion and chaotic. It’s lands are mountains. It’s iconic creature type is a dragon. It’s characteristic creature type is a goblin. Red is fast and known for haste. It is known for doing direct damage to players. Red’s goal is to kill you before you can do anything to stop it. It’s weaknesses include not being able to destroy enchantments because it only deals in what is tangible. It can also run out of steam really fast if you’re not careful.

 

Green – Green is Cam’s favorite, and not because green happens to his favorite color. (And the color of our future game room.) Green can be identified by a tree on it’s cards. It is the color of nature, growth, and co-existence. It’s iconic creature type is a hydra. It’s characteristic creature is an elf. Green’s strengths include being good at getting lands out more often and at destroying enchantments and artifacts because they are artificial constructs on nature. It is also good at making really big creatures. It’s weaknesses include being very non-confrontational and can’t deal with creatures beyond hoping you block with them.

Overall, lesson 2 was pretty informative. I probably feel that way because we didn’t actually play a game. I got to learn more about the cards and the different expansions that continue to change the balance of the colors and how the game is played. We’ll probably go over the cards more in my next lesson.

 

Card images courtesy of magiccards.info

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