Geek and Sundry Bring Magic to Life in New Show Spellslingers!
September 24, 2013 by dracs
Geek and Sundry have launched a new show this week all about my favourite card game, Magic the Gathering. Whether you are new to the game or an old hand be sure to check out Spellslingers.
Spellslingers is a TableTop-style show entirely focused on Magic the Gathering. Each episode sees host Sean Plott (aka Day[9]) taking on one of his friends in the classic card game.
As they progress through the duel the various rules and tactics are discussed and explained, while visuals and cut-aways make it easy to understand what's going on, whether or not you are previously familiar with the game.
At the beginning of each episode the players have their decks randomly selected for them by spinning a wheel, making the games fair and stopping the show from getting repetitive as we see new combos and tactics constantly being brought to bare.
In this first episode Sean is given an Orzhov black / white Extort deck to go up against the might of the Simic's blue / green, controlled by E-Sports commentator Rob Simpson.
Who will emerge triumphant? Watch Spellslingers and find out.
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I may be in the minority here (in fact I fully expect to be, having already been flamed for this type of comment on Youtube even though I was quite polite) but I find this kind of show pointless if no one is going to inform us (even succintly) of the background of the game : we are confronted to names and creatures alien to the layman, some cards that seem to reflect events rather than spells, and these guys are manipulating concepts largely ignored by non-MTG-players… I mean, I know all this, I played it… but most people (even… Read more »
I don’t know Romain i enjoyed the show, i think the bigger drive was two friends sitting down for a game, now i kind of get what you mean by wanting more fluff behind the game. If i could see the game as a clash between two mighty mages meeting on the battle fields of the MTG world yea it would add to it, but we each play our game’s and get different things out of them. so for some it will be that hardcore meta of number crunching, for me its sitting down and having a laugh with the… Read more »
To each his own, I guess… I’m a roleplayer at heart, and want to find narrative in everything I play, and I’m rarely interested in what amounts to simply optimal resolution of card effects taking deck statistics and “luck” into account. I could have mentioned old chestnuts… The overall price of maintaining a competitive MTG collection (bloody license to print money, that game is…) or the ruthlessness of a lot of games you play outside of your circle of close friends (RPGs and boardgames never are that way)… but even though these things are terrible issues with the fundamentals of… Read more »
@elromanozo So do you fancy working with me on BoW’s coverage of MTG? Might be refreshing to get a more narrative view rather than the typical ‘win at all costs’ view.
Not for all the tea in China… unless you want someone despising the core fundamentals of the game he covers.
lol fair enough! 😉
Well Romain I did bring back some tea from China if that would help.
Oh and if anyone is interested in the background than I should point out that Wizards of the Coast have a lot of comic issues detailing the various planeswalkers which you can view for free on their website. They’re actually worth a read and the artwork is generally of a pretty high standard.
Yes, one of the greates things about that game is they have enlisted the greatest fantasy artists in the world… starting with Wayne Reynolds and Aleksi Briclot ! Almost all the fluff WOtC produces for MTG is great, and some of it is amazing (like Ravnica, and what has become of Dominaria over the years).
Actually that’s a very valid point. I was enjoying but was wondering what was missing, and by jove I think its the background/narrative too.
In saying that as an EP1 it was very very well done, and It’s not easy (read impossible) to fit everything in a single episode.
Perhaps there will be more of the narrative in the future.
I recently just got into playing MTG after my son had been getting on me to start playing. I recently bought a deck and by god I didn’t realise how many different decks you can get. I must admit I found the video very good at teaching an old dog like me new tricks. I thought that their appraoch to showing you the game was first class, I’ve seen some of the others made on youtube and they are total pants. What I take from it is 2 mates enjoying a game at the same time showing a noob like… Read more »
I can understand where your coming from with this idea of a narrative for all your cards but the part i dont get romain is your point of view that magic is accountancy and statistics. Frok my point of view, all card games, wargames and RPGs are all the same principles of accoutancy and statistics. Take role playing for example. Many ways of playing one and sitting around a table to develop a narrative is one large part, however in its basic form, RPGs are simply statisitcs and dice rollin to achieve a determined “target number”. And this is what… Read more »
About RPGs, I strongly disagree… you’re confusing role-playing games and the combat system of SOME role-playing games. Namely D&D and D&D-like. I suggest you play narrative games, or Nobilis, or Dresden Files, or WoD, or Call of Cthulhu… any game where action/conflict resolution is not the main purpose. I’ve had sessions of almost every RPG under the sun, and the most satisfying were those where fate did not depend on a dice roll, but on a personal choice of a player. The question you’ve got to ask yourself in an RPG is “how my character would react” and “how can… Read more »
Personally I prefer those narrative RPG’s. I love WoD and Dresden Files as I actually find myself more immersed in those style of games, rather than when you are moving miniatures around and rolling dice for various attacks. Don’t get me wrong, I love those too, I just happen to prefer the more narrative focus.
I totally agree about the mechanics of Magic. It is not even remotely close to being the best example of the genre (CCGs). Magic was the first of its kind, and it deserves an enormous amount of credit for the innovation that went into its creation, but the mechanical underpinnings of the game (and worse yet, the business model) are far too visible in the gameplay. Garfield himself went on to design much better collectible card games whose statistical underpinnings were better obfuscated, games that could be played enjoyably (and successfully) with a greater emphasis on theme rather than metagame… Read more »
I found it surprisingly enjoyable, but I did not really miss the story part of it anyways. Still that is a valid criticism.
As enjoyable such videos might be to watch, the rip off…ö, ah collectible nature of such games will still prevent me from playing. Now such a Video for some of the LCGs from FFG would be something, Warhammer Invasion for example.
I played the original D&D as a teenager (and yes I to am that old) why before AD&D and to be honest that is what got me into gaming with miniatures or not. Here I am now middle aged and all I will say is opinions are like backsides everyone has one…lol. For me I choose if I like or dislike something but I wouldn’t force my opinion on anyone else unless that said person had asked me to do so. What people have to remember that this is only a game and its not real..lol.. Like I said before… Read more »
I am looking forward to giving this a watch, having just started MTG i am enjoying the discovery of it all. I have enjoyed watching some of the tournaments but a lot of it goes right over my head. I have played other competitive TCG stuff before and enjoyed it. I am chuffed to have something that will help me on my learning journey as things like this can help these sort of things become more approachable (just as BoW probably was for a lot of newer 40k players) I look forward to seeing what BoW do on that and… Read more »
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9J1x35QPZg&feature=em-uploademail
Actually, I enjoyed this video much more than the actual game… lol
Personaly, i dont like mages, dragons, knights, hobbits or busty chicks wielding giant swords. I dont like fantasy stuff 90% of the time and i dont give a bladder about fluff and narative campaign. When i play a game, im not looking for a war simulator, that tell a cute story of the good guyz fighting the bad guyz. I want some sort of strategie/tactics challenge that make my brain heat up and catch fire. I havent played paper MTG in ages, but the Duel of the plane walkers on steam has been a real blast for me the last… Read more »
“a friend let me win” ? “a cute story of the good guyz fighting the bad guyz” ? Oh dear… I think you’re confusing “narrative” and “winnie the pooh”. 😉 As I said, to each his own… but the narrative/fluff is obviously a very important part of MTG as a game (otherwise it wouldn’t be there, there would be no images on the cards and it’d just be numbers). I think it’s something many people enjoy ; it’s a mistake to leave it out entirely from a show which is supposed to introduce people to said game. I wasn’t expecting… Read more »
I really enjoyed it as well. Geek and Sundry are starting to curate some great content. I don’t play MTG at all, but I really appreciated and understood what was going on while being entertained. Thanks for the post. I hope to see more.
I really enjoyed this but I’m also really new to Magic (started a month or so ago) so I’m pretty green.
Happily watch more, though 🙂
I am a little confused with the direction they are taking. Tabletop seemed aimed at showcasing mechanics and gameplay in a way someone who had never seen it could become interested and want to play along. I know Magic is pretty popular and a lot of people wouldn’t land on this if they had no similar interests but this is halfway between a batrep and intro video. A little to fast to refer a new friend to, still entertaining for a casual vet. Well done though and looking forward to seeing where they go with it. And yes, I have… Read more »
Quite the opposite. I understood more or less what was going on in the game, and I never played MTG in my life. It certainly doesn’t make the “mistake” of dumbing down the game to the point that you’re sorta insulting people who haven’t played it by going into “baby-talk-mode”. Props for that.
On the other hand, I felt the humour and banter felt very staged, scripted and artificial. It didn’t feel like “real” banter, at least not to me.
In their defense, I don’t think it was scripted… just very… er… American, if that makes sense. Judging by the “bloopers” video, it’s not scripted, even if they look like they’re trying a bit hard (or they’re slightly drunk, I don’t know) and everything is, to them, “awesome” and “incredible”, and they all go “oooh this is great” or “aaaah, that is crap”…
I know people from the United States (and elsewhere) that tend to be a bit exuberant like that. It can be uncomfortable when someone is trying to be THAT chummy.
Possibly. I doubt that actually had a fully typed out script (who’d do that for a YouTube video?)
But I don’t think it was only them being Americans. It felt “forced”, perhaps that is the better word. It was American banter as they’d think the audience would expect American banter to be. It didn’t feel (to me, though I may simply getting it wrong) like their natural self.
Either way, that is certainly something that will very likely improve as episodes go on and they got more comfortable with the format.
Ugh… yes, you’re quite possibly right.
Still, I was very nervous for the first episodes of my tutorials, and some of them required a little “force” to get excited about them (of course, what do you expect ? Nothing major, but sometimes, you’re just not in that mood… in which case I tell myself I could be working down a mineshaft instead and soldier on anyway). I won’t throw the first stone here for that sort of “mistake”, especially since Day9 is a professional… but yeah.