Magic: the Gathering Cards as Game Components
Cameron Iwan
United States
Douglas
Nebraska
-
There always tends to be quite a few discussions and Geeklists about game components and "Using Game X's Components with Game Y".
Over the years, as an avid fan and player of Magic: the Gathering, I've discovered Magic cards can be used in more situations than you can imagine. Here is a (certainly incomplete) list of just a few of the games I have found Magic cards to be useful as proctors for needed components or replacements for inferior existing ones.
I know this is list is really targeted to people who know Magic and I doubt anyone will have any other games to add to this list, but feel free if you'd like. I realize that this is a TRULY geeky list, and will probably get a horrible rating because of its extreme focus on a game most BGGer's seem to loathe. . .
-
Cameron Iwan
United States
Douglas
Nebraska
-
For our truly geeky Magic players, we use Magic cards by the same artist for Modern Art. Instead of the colors representing artists, the actual card artists represent artists and the cards’ colors represent card type. Since the majority of my group love to play both Modern Art and Magic, we really take the time to set it up correctly:
Open Auction = Red (Chaos)
In the Fist = Blue (Secrets)
Once Around = White (Order)
One More Card = Black (Sacrifice)
Name Your Price = Green (Only Color Left 
These are the color of cards we use for each type of card, along with the logic why we chose that color so that our regular Magic players can figure out what type of card it is by thinking about what the color means in Magic.
We then pull out anywhere from 12 to 16 cards all by the same artist that match the right card types that we need for a game. There are actually a lot of options of artists, and it really changes the feel of the game without affecting a single play element.
-
-
Cameron Iwan
United States
Douglas
Nebraska
-
Love the game, hate the "tadpoles". It really seems like they could have done something better than simple glass beads, although I suppose they do look a bit like frog eggs and the game is made to be inexpensive.
Anyway, when we play Leapfrog we always just called those frogs that received tadpoles lazy. After that really caught on, I am always sure to bring along several Bloated Toads from Urza's Legacy, although there are a number of fun Toad/Frog based cards in Magic.
-
-
Cameron Iwan
United States
Douglas
Nebraska
-
Puerto Rico is a game whose look is crying out to be customized and jazzed up. (Did I just say "jazzed up"? Ah well. . .)
Over time we have found the following Magic cards to be descriptive and fun replacements for the fairly drab role character cards:
Governor= Gamekeeper (Urza's Destiny)
Settler= Butoka Gardener (Champions of Kamigawa)
Builder= Fabricate (Mirrodin)
Mayor= Icatian Town (Fallen Empires)
Craftsman= Earthcraft (Tempest)
Trader= Trade Routes (Mercadian Masques/Eighth Edition)
Captain= Captain's Maneuver (Apocalypse)
Prospector= Skirk Prospector (Onslaught)
. . . Yes, we actually took the time to ‘Brainstorm’ for all of these ideas to try to find the best matching card for each role. And yes, I actually have all of the cards mentioned on this Geeklist and have searched through my 200,000 card collection to find and use them.
-
-
Cameron Iwan
United States
Douglas
Nebraska
-
Whenever we play with King and Robber King, we like to keep a better marker for them because we are always losing track of the included tile-sized. . .um, tiles. I prefer to use the non-creature cards Royal Decree (from Alliances) for the King and the fitting Highway Robber (from Mercadian Masques) for the Robber King.
-
-
Cameron Iwan
United States
Douglas
Nebraska
-
We often play Settlers with a combined 2-3 base sets and four expansions or more. This creates an insanely large play surface where table space is very limited. In these big games we also play it more like a campaign with tons of added variants and crazy concoctions.
We use a lot of Magic cards to track most of these bonuses, including Spy Network (from Onslaught) for Longest Road and Superior Numbers (from Mirage) for Largest Army. With all of our other additions, a player can just keep a stack of whatever bonuses they have earned throughout the game in one easily viewable space.
-
-
Cameron Iwan
United States
Douglas
Nebraska
-
We rarely have enough people to play a huge game of Werewolf, and it seems every session of the game is played with different roles and versions because we’re still trying to determine our favorite version. Magic cards are perfect as they can be shuffled and obviously all have identical backs; while still portraying each player's role quite clearly to even non-Magic players. Here is a list of some of the cards we have used for each role along with the expansion set that they come from:
Moderator= Puppet Master (Legends/Chronicles)
Werewolf= Treacherous Werewolf (Judgement)
Villager= Folk of An-Havva (Homelands), or any one of the 13 other Townsfolk in the game
Seer= Blind Seer (Invasion)
Hunter= Bounty Hunter (Tempest)
Cupid= Angelic Curator (Urza's Legacy)
Witch= Cuombajj Witches (Arabian Nights/Chronicles)
Little Girl= Little Girl (Unhinged)
Captain= Captain Sisay (Invasion)
Thief= Aura Thief (Urza's Destiny)
Archangel= Archangel (Visions/Sixth)
Wolfsbane= Diplomatic Immunity (Mercadian Masques)
Silver Bullet= Quicksilver Dagger (Apocalypse)
-
-
7.
Board Game: Mana Burn
[Average Rating:5.04 Unranked]
Ava Jarvis
United States
Bainbridge Island
Washington
-
And, of course, there are games that actually use Magic cards, apart from MtG.
-
-
8.
Board Game: Landyland
[Average Rating:4.67 Unranked]
Ava Jarvis
United States
Bainbridge Island
Washington
-
A sort-of use for all those lands.
-
-
John Davis
United States
Omaha
Nebraska
-
I've used Magic: the Gathering cards for Coloretto before. The 7 colors were the 5 normal Magic colors plus artifacts and non basic land. For the +2's, I used Forests and for the wilds I used multi-colored cards.
-
-
10.
Board Game: Dixit
[Average Rating:7.52 Overall Rank:70]
Duncan Anderson
United States
Claremont
California
-
Super easy to throw this one together. Grab a stack of magic cards (no duplicates, and possibly no basic lands) and use the standard Dixit rules. The voting cards are usually also magic cards, ranked by the total casting cost (numbers in the top right hand corner). So a card that cost two red would be a vote for card number 2, etc. A lot more variety than the standard dixit deck, and accessible for non-Magic players!
-
-
|
|
Eugene
Oregon
Cheers!!
Sheffield
Yorkshire
Take that as a compliment.
9 VPs to you
Flitwick
Bedfordshire
Owens Crossroads
Alabama
Kingston
Ontario
Even easier:
Use the http://www.dvorakgame.co.uk/ engine for generating your own cards (select the Magic) card format when printing.
Or, as I have done for myself, use a spreadsheet program to print cards in the format.
I used to use old business cards, but my penmanship is so poor, I had to switch to computer generated ones just so our game group could help playtest.
Ottawa-ish
Ontario
Now, for -most- prototypes, this is well served by dollar-store two-for-a-dollar bridge-size playing card decks. But if there's some reason the MtG layout or colours are of inherent benefit, I would sooner sharpie up a bunch of excess Fallen Empire commons than try to make my own prototype cards 'from scratch'.