Doctor Who Magic: the Gathering
Oct. 23rd, 2023 11:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivverI'm sure most people who see this aren't interested in Magic: the Gathering, but I'll suggest opening the cut below anyway just to see the pictures. (Click thumbnails to see better images.)
Also, here's a link to all of the cards in the set, so you can go look at all of them. Click on any card to see a larger image. https://scryfall.com/sets/who
The Doctor Who MtG set has been out for over a week. We bought the Commander decks and some boosters, and it's taken me this long to really grok how the set is put together.
We haven't actually played the game yet, but it's standard MtG Commander rules, so yes, there's combat and stuff. There really wasn't a way to fit DW's pacifism into MtG, but that's fine. They did a good job of recasting DW elements in terms of MtG mechanics. For example, when you play Psychic Paper, you choose a card name and creature type, then equip a creature with the paper. Then, that creature now has that chosen card name and creature type and cannot be blocked. You may not know what the terms mean in-game, but it still should be apparent that that's perfect for an object that makes people think you're someone else and gets you into places.
There are something like 1200 cards in the set, and wow, that's a lot! There are lots of duplicates and special cards, and I only just last night figured out what it all means. So here you go...
There's about 190 DW-specific regular MtG cards, which I'm calling the Base Set in this article. These cards are completely new, and are specific DW characters and concepts. Most of them are regular MtG cards, so creatures, artifacts, and spells like instants and sorceries (those are MtG terms). From what I understand, if you buy all four Commander decks, you will get at least one of each of these cards.
As you can see, the set does cover classic as well as modern DW, though the emphasis is on modern. The classic emphasis is on One, Four, and Seven, though as I think about it, all of Five's companions (except for Kamelion, who really doesn't count) got their own card, which isn't true for any of the other classic Doctors).
They also include "saga" cards, which are specific to Commander sets: they are cards which last for a number of turns and have an effect for each turn. For DW, each saga card is an episode.
Saga card for my favorite episode? Of course I had to show it here.
Then there's the Planar cards. These are oversized cards (so they can't be used in a deck itself) that are also specific to Commander sets that create an effect overall, so like a setting or environment. There are 42 of them, and most are meant to be a place the Doctor has visited or something he's experienced. These cards are only available in the Commander decks, and if you buy all four, you'll get all of them.
Sorry, you have to turn your head on its side. I'm too lazy to rotate the image and reupload it.
Then there's the TARDIS Showcase cards. These are a select few of the Base Set in a TARDIS frame with alternate art - mostly comic-book style. These cards come from the booster packs.
The next major bunch are the Reprints. MtG is an established game and this DW set is meant to work with it, outside of just playing with DW cards. The cards in the Base Set are not enough to make the game work; it needs a lot of supporting cards. So, the Reprints are existing MtG cards with the standard title and instructions, but with art to bring it into the DW universe. I think some of them are in the Commander decks, but in general, you get them from the booster packs.
For example, here's the Wayfarer's Bauble. It's a vortex manipulator, though you'll notice (if you understand MtG rules) that it's appropriate in name only; what the card does doesn't match what a vortex manipulator does.
Okay, so with the Reprints, that comes to around 450 cards. "But you said 1200 cards," you cry. "Where's the other 750 cards?" Alternates. They're all alternates. And they only come from booster packs.
First, there's a bunch of Extended Art cards. These are a relatively small subset of the Base Set and the Reprints that have extended art - meaning that the side frames are gone and the art extends to the edge of the card. If you ask me, it isn't all that impressive, since the normal cards were designed to not have anything hidden by the frames. All you're getting is more space on the sides. That's 203 cards.
Then, there's the Surge Foils. This is a large subset of the Base Set, the Reprints, and the TARDIS Showcase that are just shinier-than-shiny foils. That's 560 cards.
So this means that there are 763 cards that are just fancy versions of regular cards.
Given what we've bought, we have a full set of the Base Set from the Commander decks and a chunk of the Reprints and the TARDIS Showcase cards. There's really no way we're going to get a full set of those, so we're trying to narrow down which ones we're going to go out and buy individually, and then sell our excess to Card Kingdom or something. There are definitely a couple that we want all of the versions of, such as my husband's favorite companion, Leela.
Which brings us to my favorite card in the set, Clockspinning. When I found this one, our conversation went something like this:
Me: Oh, I just found my favorite card.
Him: Let me see. (Takes the card.) Oh. Okay. It's pretty, but nothing special.
Me: Look closely at what he's wearing.
Him: (After a good fifteen seconds of staring) I don't see what you mean.
Me: That's not -
Him: Oh! That's not the Doctor, is it? That's -
Me: That's John Smith.
Him: He's turning back, isn't he?
Me: Yes.
Him: This is showing something we never get to see.
Me: Yes.
Him: This is your favorite card.
Me: Yes.
Also, here's a link to all of the cards in the set, so you can go look at all of them. Click on any card to see a larger image. https://scryfall.com/sets/who
The Doctor Who MtG set has been out for over a week. We bought the Commander decks and some boosters, and it's taken me this long to really grok how the set is put together.
We haven't actually played the game yet, but it's standard MtG Commander rules, so yes, there's combat and stuff. There really wasn't a way to fit DW's pacifism into MtG, but that's fine. They did a good job of recasting DW elements in terms of MtG mechanics. For example, when you play Psychic Paper, you choose a card name and creature type, then equip a creature with the paper. Then, that creature now has that chosen card name and creature type and cannot be blocked. You may not know what the terms mean in-game, but it still should be apparent that that's perfect for an object that makes people think you're someone else and gets you into places.
There are something like 1200 cards in the set, and wow, that's a lot! There are lots of duplicates and special cards, and I only just last night figured out what it all means. So here you go...
There's about 190 DW-specific regular MtG cards, which I'm calling the Base Set in this article. These cards are completely new, and are specific DW characters and concepts. Most of them are regular MtG cards, so creatures, artifacts, and spells like instants and sorceries (those are MtG terms). From what I understand, if you buy all four Commander decks, you will get at least one of each of these cards.
As you can see, the set does cover classic as well as modern DW, though the emphasis is on modern. The classic emphasis is on One, Four, and Seven, though as I think about it, all of Five's companions (except for Kamelion, who really doesn't count) got their own card, which isn't true for any of the other classic Doctors).
They also include "saga" cards, which are specific to Commander sets: they are cards which last for a number of turns and have an effect for each turn. For DW, each saga card is an episode.
Saga card for my favorite episode? Of course I had to show it here.
Then there's the Planar cards. These are oversized cards (so they can't be used in a deck itself) that are also specific to Commander sets that create an effect overall, so like a setting or environment. There are 42 of them, and most are meant to be a place the Doctor has visited or something he's experienced. These cards are only available in the Commander decks, and if you buy all four, you'll get all of them.
Sorry, you have to turn your head on its side. I'm too lazy to rotate the image and reupload it.
Then there's the TARDIS Showcase cards. These are a select few of the Base Set in a TARDIS frame with alternate art - mostly comic-book style. These cards come from the booster packs.
The next major bunch are the Reprints. MtG is an established game and this DW set is meant to work with it, outside of just playing with DW cards. The cards in the Base Set are not enough to make the game work; it needs a lot of supporting cards. So, the Reprints are existing MtG cards with the standard title and instructions, but with art to bring it into the DW universe. I think some of them are in the Commander decks, but in general, you get them from the booster packs.
For example, here's the Wayfarer's Bauble. It's a vortex manipulator, though you'll notice (if you understand MtG rules) that it's appropriate in name only; what the card does doesn't match what a vortex manipulator does.
Okay, so with the Reprints, that comes to around 450 cards. "But you said 1200 cards," you cry. "Where's the other 750 cards?" Alternates. They're all alternates. And they only come from booster packs.
First, there's a bunch of Extended Art cards. These are a relatively small subset of the Base Set and the Reprints that have extended art - meaning that the side frames are gone and the art extends to the edge of the card. If you ask me, it isn't all that impressive, since the normal cards were designed to not have anything hidden by the frames. All you're getting is more space on the sides. That's 203 cards.
Then, there's the Surge Foils. This is a large subset of the Base Set, the Reprints, and the TARDIS Showcase that are just shinier-than-shiny foils. That's 560 cards.
So this means that there are 763 cards that are just fancy versions of regular cards.
Given what we've bought, we have a full set of the Base Set from the Commander decks and a chunk of the Reprints and the TARDIS Showcase cards. There's really no way we're going to get a full set of those, so we're trying to narrow down which ones we're going to go out and buy individually, and then sell our excess to Card Kingdom or something. There are definitely a couple that we want all of the versions of, such as my husband's favorite companion, Leela.
Which brings us to my favorite card in the set, Clockspinning. When I found this one, our conversation went something like this:
Me: Oh, I just found my favorite card.
Him: Let me see. (Takes the card.) Oh. Okay. It's pretty, but nothing special.
Me: Look closely at what he's wearing.
Him: (After a good fifteen seconds of staring) I don't see what you mean.
Me: That's not -
Him: Oh! That's not the Doctor, is it? That's -
Me: That's John Smith.
Him: He's turning back, isn't he?
Me: Yes.
Him: This is showing something we never get to see.
Me: Yes.
Him: This is your favorite card.
Me: Yes.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-24 02:35 pm (UTC)But these look really cool!! Love Turlough being classified as a Rogue. Is it kind of like D and D?
no subject
Date: 2023-10-24 03:11 pm (UTC)D&D is a role-playing game, so you create a character that has a specific set of stats, skills, and personality traits, and then you play that character, basically taking them through a story. You get to decide how they react to situations based on how you designed the character and their backstory. (For example, in the D&D game I'm in, one of our party members disappeared. My character really wants to find them while another party member doesn't care and wants to return to town - both for backstory reasons.
Then, when you get into combat, you use your stats and skills to fight. A mage could swing a sword, but he'd be really bad at it and probably miss and get clobbered, because his stats and skills are intelligence- and magic-based, not strength- and sword-based.
MtG is a card game. You build a deck out of the cards you own, usually restricted to one or two colors (because the deck will work better that way), and then you play against other people. Basically, both players have 20 hit points, and you win by getting the other player's hit points to 0. Each card has a mana cost, which you primarily get by drawing mana from Lands (a card type), and when you can get enough mana, you can play the card. Cards can be spells (like attack spells, or enchantments that stick around and affect something, or other things) or summoning creatures to fight for you or summoning artifacts to help you.
The DW set is a variant called a Commander set, which is designed to have a leader card, the Commander (the Doctor, most of the time), but in this set, you can have two Commanders (the Doctor and a companion - look at Turlough - he says something like "you can have two Commanders if one is the Doctor"). But otherwise, those cards are just creatures, and "Rogue" is a creature type. It allows for other cards to specify that group of creatures, such as "discard all Rogues in play".
Pokemon is very similar to MtG. If I remember correctly (it's been like 25 years - we played it when it came out, but lost interest pretty quickly), each Pokemon had an energy cost, which you primarily get from playing Energy cards. You pay the energy to put the Pokemon out, and it fights for you. And then there are other cards like Trainers and items that you use to help your Pokemon fight.