CPA Voting Issues: Legalize Portal?

TomB

Administrator
Staff member
I'll be posting this as a question in the Voting Booth soon, so I thought we'd go ahead and discuss it here first. The question is: Should Portal cards be tourney legal?

Let's talk about it! :D
 
Z

Zadok001

Guest
No danke! That would kinda suck!

First of all, Portal is played by people fairly new to the game - legalizing the cards would encourage them to play in tourneys. Now, that's all well and good, but Portal also leaves out a LOT of relevant rules. Imagine someone who plays Portal walking into a Friday Night Magic tourney and getting paired against someone playing Fires. "Saproling Burst? Can he do that?" "In response?" "Combat damage on the stack?" "Huh?" And Fires is a simple deck. Imagine getting paired against 21 in an Extended tourney! YIKES!

Now, think about the card issues. There is a 1/2 for W in Portal with no special abilities. And a 2/1 for G that can't block (or something like that). The rest of the cards aren't too impressive, but those two would be _very_ strong.

Outside of that, however, the other cards in Portal are remarkably weak (a few exceptions, like Cruel Tutor, do exist, but you get the idea), and wouldn't have an impact on tourney play at all. That would be kinda ugly.

My point is clear. Portal would cause more problems than it's worth. I just don't see the upside...
 
A

Apollo

Guest
Hey, Zadok, I have seen many newbies with Portal cards walk into tournies as it is now. Every few weeks, we have some kid walking in trying to play his Portal cards in the tournaments. If it's legalized, he may be confused, but at least he won't be completely pissed that all of his cards are useless.

And really, most people won't go into the tournaments with their Portal cars anyway. Most of the kids above have decks that are half regular cards and half Portal. Most of them have a rudimentary understanding of timing and stuff, they just don't know that they can't use their Portal cards.

Most people learn from their friends; it's not that often that they learn by themselves. And those friends will tell a person that they aren't ready for a tournament.

And finally, most people get slaughtered when they first start in tournaments anyway; kids with Portal will just get slaughtered while playing with Portal cards.

In my opinion, it's wrong to try to get people to buy these cards to start the game, and then tell them that they can't use them and they have to buy more. It's like getting someone to buy a chess set, and then tell them that they can't actually play unless they buy another one (okay, that wasn't the greatest example, but it was the first one that popped into my head).

An alternative would be to make Portal more like regular Magic, just with less complicated stuff. Instants are a pretty easy idea. Clone and Saproling Burst are not.
 
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Zadok001

Guest
Hmm... Good point, I suppose playing Portal doesn't completely rule out knowledge of the rules. My point stands, but weakened slightly.

Personally, I think Portal should never have been released in its original form - It was _too_ simplified, leaving the transition to a basic set still exceedingly complex and confusing; Artifacts, Enchantments, and Instants, one half of the card types in the game, went entirely without mention in Portal. That's pretty bad. Starter, I believe, is a much more solid foundation for play, and really, _is_ legallized Portal.
 
K

K9Archmage

Guest
I'm not sure if somebody already mention this, but all portal creatures are "summon creatures". That would suck against engineered plague.

Hoipa
 
A

Apollo

Guest
Zadok, I completely agree about Portal. It is too simplified. But since it's what we've got, I think people should be allowed to use it.

K9, that's true, but you wouldn't see a whole lot of Portal being played anyway, so people still wouldn't use Plague main deck.
 
R

Riva Iron-Grip

Guest
i think that portal should be legalized, cuz how many starter sets are there that can be played? they should remake them. my little bro bought lots of portal, only cuz they were easier. i dont understand the stack crap, but i get it's underlyings. but most beginners dont know how to time something right anyways. it's all a matter of who you want playing in a tourney. do you want someone who is a beginner and good, or someone who is a vet and sux?
 
B

Baskil

Guest
Don't sell Portal. IF you do make a starter set, make sure that the cards you put in them are reprints from the main set. What made Portal a failure was that it was nothing like the main game. Sure it had creatures and sorceries, but it was really dull. Add to that the players who spent (for aguments sake) $50 on portal basically lost their money when they decide to move on to the main game.

I'd say don't make it legal, it would only create more problems than solutions. (If it were legal, I would be dying to get 4 Zodiac Dragons... Of course, paying $20+ bucks for them is not an option.)

[Edited by Baskil on 12-11-00 at 10:30 AM]
 
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sageridder

Guest
What I think should be done is to have a trade-in system.Someone buys a bunch of portal,and likes the game they send those cards back to wizards and for x amount of cards they get a booster of the newest set.Or the base set,usable cards anyway.The way it's set up it's like two different but simular games.Just my two denars.
 
A

Apollo

Guest
That would be nice, Sageridder, but Wizco. would be giving out twice as many cards for the same price. I don't think they'd go for that.
 
M

Multani

Guest
I think Starter and Portal are completely pointless and a waste of money.
If I taught a newbie, which I have, I told him to get a Starter of 5th edition.
He got some decent rares too. Besides, the base sets don't have the complicated stuff such as phasing, echo, shadow...etc. In my opinion, the base sets are perfect "newbie sets". They're easy, and usable.
 
D

Duel

Guest
ELIMINATE PORTAL

I've lost 3 players when they found out their portal decks were more or less completely illegal in magic.

Instead, use classic sets (7th edition, et al) and those will introduce the player without being too complicated (No pet mechanics)and they'll be legal
 
H

Hetemti

Guest
I wouldn't wipe my worst enemy's a$$ with those piles of dog crap. Even the lands bring the stench of evil what with those large mana symbols...requiring a new rule, no less, that the "T: Add C to your mana pool." ability is inherent to basic land, since it's no longer printed on the card. :mad:

6th/7th ed is/will be too basic for tourney play, and you want to introduce this baby crap? I should thwap you with a wet ribbon for daring to propose such a nightmare.
 
A

Apollo

Guest
Actually, all lands have that stupid mana symbol now, not just Portal lands.
 
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Hetemti

Guest
Duh...hence..."It BRINGS it's stench"...it's contaminated the real cards.
 
S

Sleepy

Guest
I think Portal should be allowed in tourneys.it's not like the cards are overpowered or anything
 
D

Duel

Guest
That so?

Overwhelming forces
6BB
Sorcery
Destroy all creatures controlled by target opponent. You draw a card for each creature destroyed this way.

Grim tutor
1BB
Sorcery
Search thruogh your library for a card and put that card into your hand. You lose 3 life.

Marshaling the troops
1G
Sorcery
Tap any number of untapped creatures. You gain 4 life for each creature tapped this way.

I dunno.
That, of course, is missing the reprints. They use portal, BTW, as a testing ground for basic set reprints.

Wanna bet that reclaim will be in 7th? It will.... :)
 
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sole specter

Guest
portal is total **** all of the good cards were reprinted so y dose it matter if it is put in to typ 2 or typ 1 the stuff that would be played is in a base set

[Please watch the profanity - TomB]
 
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