The Flavors of "Official" Magic
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"What's Friday Night Magic?"
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"What's Friday Night Magic?"
As a preliminary discussion, I'd like to state that "casual" magic, or "kitchen table" magic isn't a format, its the lack of an official, organized rules - it's a way of saying "We're playing magic the game with a completely random selection of cards from Magic's 20 year history." Causal players will 'ban' certain cards from their group because they are too expensive, powerful, or otherwise 'unfun'. Which is fine, when everyone knows those rules & annoying for everyone when a few people don't. I mention the difference because there is a minor culture divide between some casual players and players who follow the professional magic commentary to help improve their game.
The other difference between "casual" and "official" magic is that official magic has tournaments ranging from Friday Night Magic ("FNM") to the Pro Tour with varying levels of rewards and other perks. The rating system has been switched from the Elo System player rating used in Chess to Planeswalker Points. Prizes for DCI sanctioned events can range from 5 Boosters for an FNM to $40,000 for 1st place in a pro-tour. If you use the Wizard's Event Locator to find an FNM, they'll give you a DCI card when you pay your entry fee, and from then on out, you can track your Planeswalker Points and Level versus the rest of the world on the web.
If you start reading about magic on the web, you'll find most of it written to help those going to "Pro-Tour Qualifier" tournaments. Which is where the "serious" players are and why 80% of the decks you find in those articles start at a few hundred dollars and can cost much, much more if you were to buy single card to build the deck yourself. TCG Player, Channel Fireball, and Star City Games are good places to start if you'd like to read commentary about tournament Magic.
The official formats with a link to the Wizard's of the Coast web site are as follows:
- Vintage (Formerly called "Type 1")
- Legacy (Formerly called "Type 1.5")
- Modern
- Block Constructed
- Standard (Formerly called "Type 2")
Extended (Also a "Type 2" format)- Limited - Sealed & Booster Draft
Modern is also an "non-rotating" format, but the legal card pool starts at the 8th Edition Core Set and moves forward vice starting with the very first set of magic; Modern also doesn't include expansion products like the "Starter 1999" or "Portal Three Kingdoms" sets that Wizards allows in Legacy and Vintage. Modern also completely replaced Extended as the longer, multi-year format.
As a historical note, Extended allowed 7 years worth of sets until the announcement of Modern, where it was shortened to four years worth of sets. Modern and Extended ran concurrently for approximately two years prior to Extended ceasing to be a format.
"Type 2", now only Standard, only uses cards that are legal in the last 2 years; making the entry barrier a little less daunting because you can just open packs if you need filler. Block Constructed is a format rarely seen outside of the Pro Tour, and the term "Block" is explained below.
The Limited formats,Sealed and Draft, allow you to play magic without a deck. Both of these involve you using booster packs to build a 40 card deck that doesn't have the limitation of only 4 of any one card & the store should provide your basic land cards.
Sealed events give you 6 packs to build a deck with in 30 minutes. Drafting involves each player starting with 3 booster packs. You begin by opening a pack, taking one card, then passing the pack to the next player, and picking your next card from a pack that has been passed to you.
While both are a way to play magic without investing in a deck, these formats are also a much more skill intensive way to play because it tests your knowledge of the cards in the set, your deck building skills under harsh time constraints, and knowledge of what strategies/archetypes work in the format. The benefit of the limited formats is that it requires the least amount of investment to begin playing and removes card prices and availability as a factor between players.
Currently, Wizards of the Coast releases a total of four sets a year on a quarterly basis; one Core Set and "Block" per year. A core set is considered magic-lite and generally only use basic mechanics that have a long history in magic, such as "flying" or "trample." A Block is usually a group of three sets that are linked by similar mechanics and have underlying story arc that is partially "told" with the flavor text on the cards. New Core Sets are released in July-August and new Blocks start in October. The October time frame is important because that's when sets leave the "Standard/Type II" formats and become legal only in the non-rotating formats.
Also, for returning players, if a card is reprinted in a new set, older versions of that card are equally as legal in all of the eligible formats. This link goes to the WotC forum for official rules changes, it should allow returning players to cover the sometimes substantial rules changes that have taken place over the years.
There are a few causal formats such as Commander, Pauper, and Cube-Drafting, which have enough of a following to have websites dedicated to promoting official rules, but without the prize money.
The online version of Magic are the following: Magic the Gathering Online (MTGO or Modo) a.k.a. official electronic magic, Magic Workstation, Lackey, Cockatrice and OCTGN (Online Card and Tabletop Gaming Network). I'm honestly not very knowledgeable in any online tool, though I do putz around on MTGO - which is silly as it's the more expensive way to go about it.
One inexpensive way to play Magic on the computer & get used to the newer rules in general, with the notable exception of Planeswalkers, is to invest in the Steam/Console game "Duels of the Planeswalkers". The game used pre-constructed decks that you can only add unlocked cards to, making it more akin to a fighting game once you've learned the decks - but it's fun enough.
