I did precisely this in order to teach friends and family how to play Magic.
I recommend making them into a distinct theme so that players can get a feel for the setting and storyline, hopefully creating something akin to a role-playing or storytelling experience. It's also good for them to see the "cycles" between the various decks (such as Dimir Guildgate, Rakdos Guildgate, etc.).
I made five decks, one for each Shard in Shards of Alara. All were designed and playtested to be balanced against each other. I made them into 45-card singleton decks so that players wouldn't see the same card twice in one game. The theme is that the maelstrom is causing the shards to bleed over into each other, causing warfare between the shards as each fights to preserve its integrity from the others.
I also created a super-secret sixth deck, the Maelstrom deck, for use when six people are playing. The idea is that the creatures in this deck actually welcome the conflux and are trying to eliminate all resistance to it. Several five-color cards are herein.
Anyway, in my opinion you're best served by either doing what I did or by following one of these other themes:
A Khans of Tarkir theme, with one deck for each Khan-Clan (Abzan, Jeskai, Sultai, Mardu, and Temur)
A Dragons of Tarkir theme, with one deck for each Dragon-Clan (Dromoka, Ojutai, Silumgar, Kholagan, and Atarka)
An Innistrad theme, with one deck for each race (Human, Spirit, Zombie, Vampire, and Werewolf)
A Lorwyn theme, with one deck for each tribe (Kithkin, Faerie, Merfolk, Giant, Boggart, Elf, Treefolk, and Flame-kin)
A Shadowmoor theme, with one deck for each tribe (same as above)
A Ravnica and/or Return to Ravnica theme, with one deck for each guild (Azorius, Boros, Dimir, Golgari, Gruul, Izzet, Orzhov, Rakdos, Selesnya, and Simic)
It looks like I can use card tags within my haves/wants list to have the most recent versions of cards show up, but is there a way to switch the pop-up cards in my haves/wants list from bringing up the oldest versions by default to bringing up the newest versions by default instead?
Here's my trade thread so you can mouseover the links therein:
Ahh, so it was only in one edition, and only on foil cards (which didn't have reminder text in the way). Thanks folks! Off to check those links on magiclibraries.net. . .
(Forgive me if this has already been mentioned; I did a search and couldn't find a thread, or even a post, about it.)
Has Wizards of the Coast begun making flavor text for every card without flavor text actually printed on it? Here's what I mean: Take a look at the Gatherer entry for Pariah, at: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=135248 . You'll notice that it has flavor text assigned to it and listed to the right, specifically:
"Why would I consider penance for my actions when I have so many subjects willing to do it for me?"
—Lord Konda
This flavor text doesn't appear on the actual card itself.
So, is this a new trend? If so, what other cards have stealth or hidden flavor text assigned to them, viewable only in their Gatherer entries?
I didn't see a thread for desktop wallpapers, so hopefully I'm okay starting this thread.
I created the attached wallpaper out of images found on a google image search. Its resolution is 1024 width x 768 height. I have it arranged so that all images will appear above the status bar on a Windows XP operating system. The guilds are in the position found on the card Tablet of the Guilds.
I recommend making them into a distinct theme so that players can get a feel for the setting and storyline, hopefully creating something akin to a role-playing or storytelling experience. It's also good for them to see the "cycles" between the various decks (such as Dimir Guildgate, Rakdos Guildgate, etc.).
I made five decks, one for each Shard in Shards of Alara. All were designed and playtested to be balanced against each other. I made them into 45-card singleton decks so that players wouldn't see the same card twice in one game. The theme is that the maelstrom is causing the shards to bleed over into each other, causing warfare between the shards as each fights to preserve its integrity from the others.
I also created a super-secret sixth deck, the Maelstrom deck, for use when six people are playing. The idea is that the creatures in this deck actually welcome the conflux and are trying to eliminate all resistance to it. Several five-color cards are herein.
Anyway, in my opinion you're best served by either doing what I did or by following one of these other themes:
If anyone spots any broken links, please let me know so I can make the proper correction.
Here's my trade thread so you can mouseover the links therein:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/trading-post/details/198-i-will-trade-for-any-of-your-standard-legal-rares
Thank you so much,
"Dr. Shades"
Do you mean, "the first changeling?
Has Wizards of the Coast begun making flavor text for every card without flavor text actually printed on it? Here's what I mean: Take a look at the Gatherer entry for Pariah, at: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=135248 . You'll notice that it has flavor text assigned to it and listed to the right, specifically:
This flavor text doesn't appear on the actual card itself.
So, is this a new trend? If so, what other cards have stealth or hidden flavor text assigned to them, viewable only in their Gatherer entries?
I created the attached wallpaper out of images found on a google image search. Its resolution is 1024 width x 768 height. I have it arranged so that all images will appear above the status bar on a Windows XP operating system. The guilds are in the position found on the card Tablet of the Guilds.
Enjoy!