Magic the Gathering card game

[MikeB.]

Just curious if anyone had any input on the collectible card game Magic the Gathering. I have sold it in my store since about 1994 and never seen any evidence to suggest that I shouldn't. Since this is my first thread - please be gentle.

[Shiann]

Howdy-

I think the game is pretty cool myself. I think between me and my brothers we have several hundred (maybe thousand) cards. I don't play it much anymore, but my brothers still find time to sneak it in with eachother or a couple of their friends.

I tend to think that a thing is morally neutral. It is what we do with it, or want to accomplish with it, that makes it good or evil.

Magic the Gathering is a card game. Period. The evils come in when it takes time away from family, from being a productive citizen, etc.

[Dan-Man916]

Hi,


I've played this card game before, and i play it with my nephews occaionally too, though it's been almost a year since i last played.

it's a fun card game, and personally, I see absolutely nothing wrong with it, and I don't see anything contrary to the teaching of the Church in it.

The object is to get your opponent from twenty to zero points, not to conjure demons or try to uncover revelations.

[rayne89]

My husband and I play it. He used to in the Navy and missed it so I learned to play. Some of the creatures are creepy but I don't think the game it self is contrary to faith.

[Blackbog]

I think some things are obviously not morally neutral, or at least would rarely if ever be used in a manner acceptable to God, so your question is (was) definitely appropriate.

Pornography is the first example that comes to mind of some thing that arguably is not morally neutral. Maybe paper or ink, a magazine, is morally neutral, but pornography is a perversion of those tools.

As for Magic, I don't think anyone should worry too much about it. It's just a card game with a fantasy setting. There are portrayals of good as well as evil, and the art is mostly tasteful.

The main thing to be concerned about would be the amount of money a Magic habit can demand of you. You could spend 25 bucks on the game every few months and enjoy it. The average full-time "Friday Night Magic" player probably spends somewhere around 50 bucks a month on cards. If you're really addicted, it can run you well in excess of 100 bucks a month, collecting the cards, entering drafts and tournaments, buying singles for pro-level constructed decks, accessories, etc., but at least there's the possibility of payoff if you go that route.

Of course, one is entitled to one's hobbies, so long as they don't detract from one's other obligations.

[Sonic]

Originally Posted by MikeB.

Just curious if anyone had any input on the collectible card game Magic the Gathering. I have sold it in my store since about 1994 and never seen any evidence to suggest that I shouldn't. Since this is my first thread - please be gentle.

You may find these two links informative:

http://www.saint-mike.org/library/occult/pokemon.html

http://www.saint-mike.org/qa/SW/ViewAnswer.asp?QID=227

Personally, I suggest playing this game instead:

http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/redemption.php

[Meggie]

Actually, the Redemption trading cards are pretty dangerous themselves. They present certain characters as "weak" bad guys but they are names for the devil or devil creatures. I know a parent who baught a deck for her son trying to turn him off of the "evils" of "pokemon" and "yo-gi-oh" (having forbidden "magic" cards long ago) and they did, as he was fascinated with the Moleck (I may have mis-spelled that) card and other demonic bad guys. And he wasn't a little kid, either, he was about 15. In Redemption one player plays the evil force....wheras in Magic, to my knowledge, each of the players are neutral. I think this is far more dangerous than simply playing with a dragon that has a mithological name or a spell that is Latin for "cloud of darkness".

[Blackbog]

Originally Posted by Sonic

You may find these two links informative:

http://www.saint-mike.org/library/occult/pokemon.html

http://www.saint-mike.org/qa/SW/ViewAnswer.asp?QID=227

Personally, I suggest playing this game instead:

http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/redemption.php

No offense, but I find the following excerpt from the first link to be absolutely hilarious as well as completely out of touch with reality:

Mrs. DiNozzi refused to let her son participate in the "Magic club." But a classmate gave him one of the magic cards, which he showed his mother. It was called "Soul exchange" and pictured spirits rising from graves. Like all the other cards in this ghastly game, it offered a morbid instruction: "Sacrifice a white creature."

"What does 'summon' mean?" he asked his mother after school one day.

"Summon? Why do you ask?"

He told her that during recess on the playground the children would "summon" the forces on the cards they collect by raising sticks into the air and saying, 'Spirits enter me.' They call it 'being possessed.'"

[Sonic]

Originally Posted by ESimmons

No offense, but I find the following excerpt from the first link to be absolutely hilarious as well as completely out of touch with reality:

Why should I be offended? You're questioning the article's content and not me.

[Sonic]

Originally Posted by Meggie

Actually, the Redemption trading cards are pretty dangerous themselves. They present certain characters as "weak" bad guys but they are names for the devil or devil creatures. I know a parent who baught a deck for her son trying to turn him off of the "evils" of "pokemon" and "yo-gi-oh" (having forbidden "magic" cards long ago) and they did, as he was fascinated with the Moleck (I may have mis-spelled that) card and other demonic bad guys. And he wasn't a little kid, either, he was about 15. In Redemption one player plays the evil force....wheras in Magic, to my knowledge, each of the players are neutral. I think this is far more dangerous than simply playing with a dragon that has a mithological name or a spell that is Latin for "cloud of darkness".

That's interesting. It was my understanding that the game was constructed so the bad characters could not be used to win the game: only the good characters were able to win. I thought both players had to use the good characters in order to win the game. I don't remember reading that one person played the evil guys and the other played the good guys.

I'll let everyone examine the wikipedia article for themselves:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redemption_%28card_game%29

Also, the rules are available in PDF format on the Cactus games website.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against card or role-playing games. I just like to find and post interesting articles on the subject. Since the OP wanted info, I thought I'd share what I found.