It seems Hasbro (which owns Wizards of the Coast) got a taste for the big screen after Transformers and with a G.I. Joe movie on the way, Hasbro has signed a deal with Universal Studios for several of its properties including Monopoly, Ouija, Candy Land, Battleship, Stretch Armstrong and Magic the Gathering.

Even though the main excitement is about Monopoly, which could have Ridley Scott thrown into the mix, what really gets my attention is a Magic movie. I always imagined what it would be like, let’s just hope that if they do go forward with that idea that it doesn’t turn out to be a Dungeons & Dragons kind of thing.

The first movie of these properties will only be out on 2010 or 2011 so the waiting is here. Keep your fingers crossed for your favorite games to appear on the big screen-

- More on Hollywood Reporter

No, the comic isn’t going to be anime related from now on.

I kind of skewed the focus of the comic a time ago to card and board games in general instead of Magic the Gathering only but don’t expect this comic to change its direction every other month. The subject is fine, now I just need a bit more time to dedicate to this site.

This reflected a change in my hobbies. I didn’t ditch Magic. I still love it! But without a balanced group to play Magic I’ve played more board games.

Magic players are so enthralled with the prospect of competition that they won’t play the game for itself. I have some friends to whom I taught the game about a year ago. I was hoping that they’d like it, that we had some games going and perhaps a draft or two.

Of course once they started ebaying for cards in massive quantities it created an unfair advantage for them which in turn practically terminated the group we were playing in. I’m not one of those who cries when all the cool kids get better cards, it’s possible to construct decks made out of commons/uncommons that beat the crap out of the “holy” decks, but it takes a lot of time to research and unfortunately time is precious to me nowadays, I can hardly find time to fulfill my obligations, which leaves very little time for fun, which I don’t want to be 95% researching a deck.

So that left us with drafts, I mean drafts are an equal standing for everybody, everybody spends the same gets about the same cards and has fun right? Wrong. Many people won’t draft because they think the format is skewed, and check this in favor of the best player. So a format being won by who has more cash is ok, a format where the most skilled person wins is not. I won’t even try to rationalize that logic, really…  That coupled with the time factor hasn’t really helped in favor of having some drafts played (I always had to organize drafts by myself, it seems unreal but it was hard to get any players at all to draft).

So that brings us to where I am now along with this comic. Boardgames may be a little more expensive at first glance, but they’ll be ready to play, let everyone be in equal standing, just open the game and start playing. Perfect for those with limited time/resources.

Though, I’ve been itching for a draft for a long time now, too bad no one around me likes to draft…

Magic is having great changes in the way it’s present to gamers and to me these are obvious changes.

- Less cards printed per year.

Yup, it wasn’t just you that thought magic had more cards than you could get your hands on, everybody was getting this problem. Also maybe this will finally cut some of the crap rares :p

- Intro packs will now be like theme decks.

Wizards realized that almost nobody starts paying magic with the core set, so now the introduction products are theme decks, which can demonstrate a block’s mechanics and give a helping hand to new players.

- Boosters will lose a common and have a land card added.

Just like in the core sets now there’s a land in every booster. They say it’s for the sake of new players having access to land. It seems like it’s just experienced players who will hve excess land, because if I was a new player I’d buy a deck if I really couldn’t catch basic land from garbage bins everywhere (clean garbage bins mind you :p)

- Mythic rares

This was an obvious addition with the shrinking of sets, to ensure rare chases. It’s been happening in all other CCGs so I guess it’s no big news. Mythic rares will be twice as hard to get as rares

And here’s a preview of a mythic rare:

Check out Rosewater’s full article.