We here at FlopJocks have a dream; or rather, we had a dream. A dream to make a web comic based one of our favorite past times, Magic: the Gathering. While this may be one of our favorite past times, some of you out there may have no clue as to what some of the jokes within the comic mean, because you've honestly never played Magic, or are just starting out, and don't see the humor in the game yet.
Never fear, because we at FlopJocks had yet another dream! This time, we saw a world in which Magic player and non-Magic player alike came together to bask in the sheer radiance of our humble little comic. If you have no clue what I just said, I'll put it in simpler terms for you: we want FlopJocks to be a success among, and to be read by, everyone out there, not just the Magic community.
We realized this task could be easily accomplished by doing a running commentary to accompany all the comics that may have some Magic related humor/item in them that you just might not get. This not only explains our comic to the non-Magic players out there, but also explains our sick and twisted senses of humor to the Magic players out there who just might not get why we think something Magic-related is funny. We can also use this to explain any inside jokes that may happen to slip into the comic that may not make sense to you guys. By doing this, we hope to make FlopJocks understandable to anyone who tries to read it.
So anyway, I decided that the best way to start explaining the things within FlopJocks is to give you all a brief synopsis as to what exactly Magic is, since it is the basis of out comic. I don't know how to go about this in an organized manner, so I'm just going to start writing, and hope it all makes sense.
Magic is what is currently considered a Collectible Card Game, or CCG for short. A CCG is a game in which you buy cards in packs, much like you could buy baseball cards, except unlike baseball cards, these cards are used as the components to play a game. Now, you really can't just buy some packs of cards and play with them, which is why there's that element of collectibility added into the game. A large part of the strategy in Magic is building decks. Certain cards work very well in combination, so finding and exploiting these matches is fundamental to winning at tournaments, not to mention among your friends. Because this aspect of the game is so deep and rewarding, Magic is considered the king of all CCGs. It has sparked the creation and popularity of many, many other CCGs since its inception in 1993.
Magic is traditionally played with two people, although playing multiplayer is very possible, and has become more and more popular as the years have progressed. For the sake of this article, we are going to assume that only two people are playing (If you have any questions about multiplayer Magic, drop me a line). So each person playing has a deck of, usually, sixty cards. Again, this is just a standard number as decks can really be of any size, although there are minimum deck size constraints in certain tournament formats. For the sake of this article, we'll just assume that both players are playing sixty card decks.
The general premise is that each player is a powerful wizard, and each person's deck is that wizard's arsenal of weapons and tricks with which to destroy the other wizards. Each player starts with twenty life points. If at any time a player's life drops to zero or below, that player loses. A player also loses if he has no cards left to draw, this is known as "decking". These are the two main ways to lose a game of Magic, although there are some specific cards that just cause a player to win, should he or she meet certain criteria listed on the card.
There are four main card types that you may find within a person's deck. They are Lands, Creatures, Artifacts, and Spells. Lands are the locations from which the wizards draw their power. Lands are free to play, and the only restriction is that you can only play one per turn. Most lands produce something called Mana, which can be considered similar to money. To
play the spells and creatures in your deck, you must expend a certain number of these magic points. Each land can usually only produce a finite amount of this mana every turn (usually one point of mana), but at the beginning of each turn they are reset, and can produce more mana. (Too bad real money doesn't work this way!) There are some lands that do not produce mana, but instead perform some other special ability, but I won't get into that now because these are only the basics. One more note on mana, however: there are basically six types of mana that can be produced. The first five are black, blue, red, green, and white, each of which corresponds to spells of the same color. A white spell, for instance, will require at least one white mana to cast. Many spells require more than just the basic color of mana, which sometimes means several colors together; but most often, spells will require one basic color and then a certain number of the last mana type, "colorless". Colorless mana is a little different in that it is considered "generic" mana. A spell that requires two colorless mana can be cast using two mana of any color, regardless of the color of the spell. However, certain lands produce only colorless mana, which can only be used to meet colorless mana costs, and not any specific colored mana requirements.
[Editor's Note: well, first of all note that Ted, being the webmaster, is the editor of all text that comes from the other three guys. Secondly, I tried to rewrite this section on colorless mana to make it less confusing than Mingy's original version, but I think it only ended up worse. It's a whole lot easier to understand when you actually sit down to play a game.]
Creatures are thenext type of card that you will come into contact with in Magic. They represent the forces that you use to do battle with your opponent. They have a specific power rating, which is how much damage they can inflict, a toughness, which is how much damage they
can withstand each turn, and sometimes they have their own special abilities that are listed on the card. Creatures can be used to attack your opponent, or to block the attacks of your opponents creatures. Simple math determines if one creature deals enough damage to kill the other, at which point dead creatures are removed from play. Damage to creatures only lasts for one turn, after which the creatures regenerate to attack freshly next turn. Creatures will also have a specific color or combination of colors based on what types of mana are required to summon them. A creature requiring no specific color of mana to play is an artifact creature.
Next are artifacts. Artifacts are magical items that the wizards use to alter the battle. They can do anything from altering the game to giving you extra mana. Artifacts are always colorless, that is, they only require colorless mana to play. Sometimes they have a continuous ability that
begins to affect the game when the artifact comes into play, and sometimes they must be activated in order to be used, usually by investing a certain amount of mana into them. As mentioned before, some artifacts also count as creatures and can be used to attack and block.
Spells are the last kind of card to be explained. Spells are cards that you spend mana for to produce some one-shot effect. After that the spell has been used up, and is removed from play. Spells can do anything from damaging your opponent directly, to gaining you life points, to making your creatures more powerful. Enchantments are a specific type of spell that is not gone after one use - they stick around until some other effect gets rid of them. As long as an enchantment is in play it will affect either a specific card in play, all the cards in play, or even the players themselves.
Well, that's all I can think about right now as far as the basics go. There's only a certain amount that I can explain in this short article without getting too technical and really confusing you. This is basically meant to whet your appetite as to what Magic is, and give you some of the basics of playing. If you are interested in learning more, you should check out the Wizards of the Coast website, and read the rulebook. It's long and tedious, but it will do a much better job than I can do in a short time. I also suggest picking up a starter deck, which are premade decks designed to teach you how to play, finding a friend to play with, and sitting down and playing as you read the rules. The best way to learn is through example, and it will be much easier to understand if you see what is going on. If you're still confused, don't worry! Magic is a complicated game that takes many, many, many hours of practice to perfect and fully comprehend. Just take it slow, and if you have any questions, contact me and I'll try to give you a hand. Keep checking up on FlopJocks as well, because I will be doing more specific explanations of things that show up in the comic.
May the Force be with you!
