SHANDALAR

[Anonymous No.5056090]

ITT: we discuss the best MtG videogame ever released --
1997's "Magic: The Gathering" by Micropose.

The true draw was the game world "Shandalar". A sandbox-style psuedo-RPG where the PC was dropped in the middle of the map with no instructions and a shitty deck.

The game only included sets up to The Dark, but not every card from any given set was included. For example, you won't see any gold multi-colored cards from Legends.

[Anonymous No.5056091]

With some savvy grinding you could easily get 4-sets of the Power Nine. Naturally this will break the game.

[Anonymous No.5056096]

Duels of the Planeswalkers isn't worthy to shuffle Shandalar's deck.

[Anonymous No.5056223]

>>5056091
I used a very similar deck(Ivory Tower, Wheel of Fortune in addition to those cards) to beat the final boss. Wiped all his health, had over 100 health myself by the time it was done.

Friendly reminder there are updated cardsets available for Shandalar. Most recent one I've messed with is 2010, but that was a long time ago. Could be newer stuff since then.

[Anonymous No.5056426]

>>5056090
I still have the strategy guide of this game lying somewere. It made me very interested in playing this game but it's kind of hard to look for it nowadays without resorting to torrents or patches. I was never that much into Magic but it's nice to see it's still being played to this day.

[Anonymous No.5056431]

>>5056090
This game just shows how important banned lists are in TCGs with up to 4 copies of Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, Timetwister, Contract from Below, Wheel of Fortune, Black Tutor and mana generation through Moxes and Lotus you can easily generate infinite extra turns.

[Anonymous No.5056841]

>>5056223
the Last boss completely reverses the deck building strategy: on the highest difficulty he has 400 life so you must include some long term survival/control. For this deck I would remove the Psionic Blasts and add an Ivory Tower.
Link to card-set mods?

>>5056426
it's abandonware, I found my copy some time ago on a fan website. should be easily searchable. I found some good leads just now using "shandalar download"

>>5056431
Best part of the game.
Contracts from Below cause too much deck attrition thru the ante mechanic. 4x Timetwisters will allow you to go truly infinite.

[Anonymous No.5056849]

>>5056090
I fucking love it desu. As simple as the campaign is, it's just fucking nice. I kinda wish stuff like Forge had dungeons and stuff too, even if even simpler in presentation.

Related to this I once heard that this game is a simulator of the power fantasy of playing with expensive banned Magic cards. And it's oddly fitting.

[Anonymous No.5057039]

>>5056090
Looks interesting.
As someone who got interested in MtG but dropped it because no IRL friends played, I'll give it a shot.

[Anonymous No.5057060]

i tried downloading all the shit for this game

...i think i messed up somewhere
but i did get all of shandalar, that is for sure
windows 95 games are fucking golden

[Anonymous No.5057121]

>>5056841
Here you go, even on the archive.
https://archive.org/details/MagicTheGathering2010Edition

Yeah, first time I fought the boss with a black/white deck I had beaten everyone else with. The second go around was with that broken as fuck red/blue infinite turns and life deck.

[Anonymous No.5058186]

>>5056849
Agreed it's an absolute classic. The deckbuilding is the best part.

>>5057121
Thanks anon.

[Anonymous No.5058191]

>>5056090
also, jacked Hitler is a possible avatar.

[Anonymous No.5059060]

>>5058186
After some deeper digging, there WERE some newer cardsets you could use, but the guy who made them deleted everything and left the internet forever or something. So 2010 is the newest cardsets you can still get. Still adds a shit ton of newer cards and artwork, so it's well worth it. Even makes it work under versions of windows newer than XP SP1.

[Anonymous No.5059219]

>>5059060
I read the drama surrounding that not too long ago. They had all the sets up to Amonket I think.

[Anonymous No.5059237]

>>5059219
>one mouthbreather decides to attack the guy making the mods
>threatens to call WotC on him
>all because he's unhappy about the AI and doesn't understand how it works, but some other guy needs to FIX IT RIGHT NOW OR I'M GONNA GET EVERYTHING SHUT DOWN
Seriously, fuck Lujo, aka Luka Kordić.
Seriously, fuck that Croatian.

[Anonymous No.5059495]

>>5059219
All the sets up to Amonket?!?!
I would have settled for everything up to Urza block.
That sounds like a ton of pro-bono work, just for the love of the game. What a terrible waste.

[Anonymous No.5060954]

>>5059237
this is why we can't have nice things, unironically

[Anonymous No.5062932]

Just became aware of this just the other day. May give it a spin.
I wonder if there is a way to make the game /tg/. Either for solo play or have a group of players do a story line while building decks. Anyone have a link to a game rule/logic wiki or guide?
If not I'll just run it and learn from playing.

[Anonymous No.5063118]

>>5062932
what do you mean? the game itself roughly plays out exactly how you would think magic would work at the time outside of actual glitches with card interactions.

The three game modes are basically just playing a game with a deck you select or make against other decks you select or make, a booster pack tournament that you determine the settings for or is an adventure game where you start with a really shit deck and build it up from there. However I am unsure of what kind of modding would be necessary to give that part of the game more of a story than fighting dudes and getting cards.

[Anonymous No.5063175]

>>5056090
id compare this game to the most accurate depiction of schoolyard magic in a fantasy setting i can think of. its also incredibly easy to break if you manage to build a vintage tier combo deck as you can simply steamroll the game like a vintage player at a pauper tournament

[Anonymous No.5063183]

You can tap your opponent's mana on their upkeep and force them to mana burn themselves before draw phase. This also limits them to spells casting 1 mana, if they play a land.
Happy cheating.

[Anonymous No.5064479]

>>5063183
Why would someone do that?
Just go on the internet and lie?

[Anonymous No.5064554]

>>5064479
that was an actual bug before the game was patched but the version you will play now comes with the expacs and patches so that isn't possible

[Anonymous No.5064773]

>>5056090

When I played this, the enemy wizards would attack a town and capture it before I could walk there to save it. I got tired of playing with under 10 life and stopped.

[Anonymous No.5065201]

>>5064773
>he didn't do any missions for more life

>How to play Shandalar for complete noobs
>explore every random encounter that appears on the map, decline every battle, you'll pick up a lot of free cards and gems
>go from town to town doing delivery missions(don't take missions across the map), building life
>build a better deck fast
>it's game over if a wizard gets 3 towns, or 5 if you have purchased a certain magic ability from the right town
>so don't worry about town 1 or 2, worry about 3
>once your deck is strong enough to start beating lower and mid creatures, fight fight fight for more cards
>don't be afraid to bribe the high-level creatures, better to lose gold than one of your good cards
>stock up on gems and gold as much as possible, keep visiting the random encounter locations that appear on the map
>sooner or later you'll get a merchant that will let you buy almost any card for gold/gems
>once you finally stand a chance against high level decks, start clearing captured towns and going for the power 9 cards(at the very least, the mox's for your color(s) and black lotus)
>to properly get rare cards or clear enemy castles, save before you enter
>use those random item dice in those places to give yourself a bonus before battles
>extra health is cool, but starting a fight with a creature already in the field is even better
>now just work your way across the world clearing shit
>if you actually want to beat the final boss, build a broken deck that nothing can beat
>Red/Blue with multiple Time Walks, Timetwisters, Disintegrates, Wheel of Fortunes, Ivory Tower, Library of Leng, Ancestral Recalls, and practically nothing else tends to work well
>go stomp a 500 Health 5-color deck enemy with a sub 60 card red/blue deck

[Anonymous No.5065250]

>>5065201
good advice.
here's another hint for newbies:
you may notice common enemies might give you a boon if you defeat them. the best one is "duplicate card", where you can choose a single card out of your current collection and get an extra copy.
this is obviously best after you start claiming power cards from the dungeons.
certain enemies have a higher chance of granting you a "duplicate card" after defeat.
here's the top three in my experience:
1. Elementalist (U/R)
2. Mind Stealer (U/B)
3. Lord of Fate (W/B)

So find the dungeon with Black Lotus, claim it, then go to a mountainous region and grind Elementalists until you have 4x lotus.

[Anonymous No.5065278]

>>5063118
I am more interested in how you combat opponents in the story campaign. Do they have set/themes decks, randomly generated? Are their decks smaller than a standard 40/60.
Also does your deck help out in non combat situations, like interacting with the environment.

[Anonymous No.5065331]

>>5065278
They all have pre-made decks, mostly 60 card. Every enemy has a specific deck. You can look at these decks using the deck editor program. Your deck doesn't do shit outside of combat, what the fuck?

[Anonymous No.5065336]

>>5065278
The enemies are all very thematic. Sizes will vary.
For example, the Sea Dragon is a mono-U deck with cards like Sea Serpent, Segovian Leviathan, etc.
The Hydra is mono-R with a surpsingly syngergistic deck that eventually gets out Mana Flares and Power Surges for direct damage and pump creatures.
Beastmaster is G/R ramp + creatures.
High Priest has angels and has late game combos that center around Armageddon, Armageddon Clock, Dingus Egg & CoP: Artifacts.

Higher level creatures are Djinni and Dragons that have three-color decks. On higher difficulties they will have moxen and the like.

The only time the cards in your deck are used by the environment are treasure troves that offer extra life in the next duel if you give a randomly-chosen card away. Not very helpful.

[Anonymous No.5065459]

>>5065278
In the campaign there is a game world you wander around it, it's rather basic with only cities, enemies and event buildings to interact with. You have gold, gems and food to manage on the overworld and are able to acquire world spells that are separate from your deck to interact with the world like teleporting to a town under attack or moving faster and such.

[Anonymous No.5065516]

>>5065201
>>he didn't do any missions for more life
I did, but they were capturing towns faster than I could gain life.

[Anonymous No.5065525]

>>5064554
>all_fun_removed.dll

[Anonymous No.5065536]

>>5065516
Unless you're taking just delivery missions across the map or battles against enemies you can't beat, you'll get at least 16 health before any enemy gets 2 towns captured. You can't just grab every mission in sight, you gotta pick and choose. If you find yourself running short on time, go get that world spell that makes it so they need 5 towns to win.

Shandalar is one of those games that's harder at the start than anywhere else.

[Anonymous No.5065567]

>>5065536
Does the speed that the enemy wizards capture towns increase as you play? Because I was pretty far in, and they captured a town once every 10 seconds or so.

[Anonymous No.5065624]

>>5065567
the more life links you gain(not how much life you currently have) the faster they go, it isn't until 30ish life that they start going into turbo mode and you need the sword of the guardian

[Anonymous No.5065735]

>>5065331
>>5065336
>>5065459
Solid, thanks anons
Basically just a map that enables you to play games and collect cards.

[Anonymous No.5065783]

>>5065735
Yes. While operating under a constant threat of wizards capturing towns(they only need 3-5 to win depending on if you buy a certain world magic or not), and a constant stream of enemies, many of which will overpower you easily until you've built a much better deck, and where a single lost battle can cost you the best card in your deck.

Savescumming is actually an acceptable strategy in this game once you get cards you can't buy from a merchant.

[Anonymous No.5066254]

>>5065567
I only know that once you defeat 4 of the wizards the last one will continually attack towns.

>>5065624
I didn't know any of that, thanks anon.

[Anonymous No.5066451]

>>5065783
>Savescumming is actually an acceptable strategy
Nice, they should mod on a Rougelike mode for jokes.

[Anonymous No.5066502]

>>5066451
No need. Instead of jumping into shandalar, just make your deck in the deck builder. Then choose the tournament option, pick your deck, select as many CPUs as you can, best of 1. Only way to win is to never lose a single match. The CPU can use your deck as well.

[Anonymous No.5066562]

Here's a quick economy guide:

Towns & Villages -- never sell cards here. their rates are always too low. conversely, always buy your food here.

Cities -- never buy food here. sell your valuable cards here if the rate if favorable. to ascertain a given city's sell-rate, check to see how much gold they would pay for a single basic land.
15 = never sell here
20 = only sell in emergency
25 = if you need cash
30 = sell all valuable cards

When I say "valuable cards" I don't mean cards with meta-value. The game will pay obscene amounts of money for certain, regardless of their actual use in game. here's a brief list, with a rough estimate of what a city with rate=30 will pay:

White: Angelic Voices (1000), Moat (1000)
Blue: Psionic Blast (1700) [best value card in game]
Black: Sewers of Estark (1200), Carrion Ants (800)
Red: Wall of Opposition (1200), Shivan Dragon (1000)
Green: Killer Bees (800), Sylvan Library (600)

[Anonymous No.5066564]

>>5066562
More on Psionic Blast:
anytime you get a quest offer for "blue cards" or "fast effects" you can choose a Psionic Blast as your reward. For some reason the game gives it a massive price tag.

[Anonymous No.5067224]

>>5066451
I'm a shameless savescummer in this game.

[Anonymous No.5067564]

Thanks for reminding me this game exists, guess noone wants to mention it came with cheesy live action tutorials with cheesy actors:

https://youtu.be/OCRM9s2v3bo

>you will never be a cheesy acting but badass wizard with a pimp suit, a pimp cloak and your own wizard waifu.

>mfw

[Anonymous No.5067903]

>>5067564
I remember those now.
Must have been fun to film them.
>ywn have an Mtg playing mid-ninties qt3.14 waifu to tag along to the video game tutorial shoot