Arvanitis 1 Emily Arvanitis Mr.

Borrero ENGL 1101 October 30, 2012

Annotated Bibliography
Source 1 1. MLA Citation: "Basics of the Game : New to Magic : Trading Card Game : Magic: The Gathering." Basics of the Game : New to Magic : Trading Card Game : Magic: The Gathering. Wizards of the Coast, 6 Sept. 2004. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. <http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/NewtoMagic.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/newt omag/gamebasics>. 2. Annotation: This is the official website of Magic: The Gathering and is very helpful and easy to navigate. It displays a number of forums for beginners to experts and gives you a step by step explanation of how to play and what each card means and can be used for. The particular page that I used was the page that told you how to play and explained what each card color meant and the different spells you could use them for. It told how to start the game and how to create a powerful deck. Not only did this source tell you how to play, but the other pages I browsed told how to make a stronger deck, gave dates for tournaments, and had numerous forums and blogs to improve the Magic game.

Arvanitis 2 3. Key Quotes: Some people play Magic just for fun, coming up with great theme decks or funny combinations of cards to play against their friends. For other players, Magic is a highly competitive game of skill, with hundreds of thousands of dollars up for grabs in professional tournaments. To others still, Magic is all about collecting and trading cards that feature breathtaking original art from some of todays premier fantasy artists (Paragraph 4). 4. Evaluation: This was a very good source because it was created and is continuously updated by the company that puts out Magic cards. It had a plethora of information about cards, the game itself, and how to become a better player. Since it was published by a number of people it was an unbiased source and was one of the better ones to use. The strong points of the website were the simple guide of how to play and the amount of content on the site. A downfall, however, was that the blogs and forums posted on the site may or may have not been the most credible sources because they came from everyday people. Source 2 1. MLA Citation: Buehler, Randy. Official Magic, the Gathering Classic Strategy Guide: Strategies & Playing Tips. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1999. Print. 2. Annotation: This book is all about the strategies and the best ways to play Magic. It starts out telling how to create a good deck and what colors are the best to use in certain

Arvanitis 3 situations. The book also gives common misconceptions about game tactics and ways that opponents will try to win with but are actually considered cheating. Sections of the book also tell you the exact rules of the game and legal moves that will come in handy when youre down the wire trying to win. In the back of the book it gives you a glossary of Magic jargon with clearly stated definitions for each word that is unique to the Magic world. After the glossary it also gives you a list of all the names of the cards up to the fifth edition of cards that were put out. This book is very useful throughout the whole game of Magic from the planning, all the way to successfully winning. 3. Key Quotes: Playing a super large deck can be entertaining, but it can also be an exercise in frustration. Smaller decks are much more predictable and consistent (Buehler 9). Magic players, like many hobbyists, have almost developed a language of their own for use in discussing cards and the game. These conversations can be confusing and hard to follow for those who are new to the game (Buehler 120). 4. Evaluation: This book is very helpful when looking for new strategies and myths that need debunking. Even though the author is just one guy, it went through many publishers to make sure everything was factual and true. The strategies in this book are those that some people would miss if they hadnt read it and the quality of the information is very good. The strengths of the book are that it is very detailed about making moves and tells exactly what color to play at what point. A weakness of the book though is that if youre a beginner to Magic world you

Arvanitis 4 would have to keep flipping back and fourth between what youre reading and the glossary because the words get a little difficult to follow along with if you dont know what they mean. Source 3 1. MLA Citation: C, Andrew. Personal Interview. 13 Nov. 2012 2. Annotation: This interview was very helpful when I was looking for more information about Magic. The guy I interviewed was very knowledgeable about his game and was actually very nice about letting me into his gaming culture. At first things were a little awkward because I dont think anyone had ever seemed interested in talking in depth with him about Magic, but as soon as he realized I was there for a cause he started to talk. He knew a lot about the history of the game and explained how he personally chose cards to go in specific decks and how you could tell what the other players next move would be. 3. Key Quotes: The rule book is the most important book you can have when playing Magic because then its easy to call anyones bluff (Andrew C). 4. Evaluation: Even though my source is a person, I would deem him very credible. He was full of information about anything I wanted to know about Magic and was willing to explain things twice, or three times. He was very enthusiastic and confident with all of his responses to my questions and definitely knew exactly what he was

Arvanitis 5 talking about. His only weakness seemed to be the fact that he was a little awkward about me talking to him at first, but thats understandable and doesnt really matter. Source 4 1. MLA Citation: H, Alex. Personal Interview. 16 Nov. 2012 2. Annotation: Going into this interview I was very confident and tried to act like I knew what I was talking about from the previous one, but Alex immediately called my bluff. He knew a lot of different things about Magic than Andrew did, but was a little more stand off-ish. He knew a lot more about specific cards and statistics and how many of each color you should have a in a deck. During this interview answers seemed to be a little shorter but he walked me through the game of Magic from the basics to all the new stuff hes been learning, even after 7 years of playing. It was explained that you mostly gain new tactics and get better by playing in tournaments and learning your deck on your own. 3. Key Quotes: The best Magic books to read are the Legends Cycle II collection. This collection is the best because it tell the story of the best, I think, deck and cards to have and it gives in depth descriptions of what the powers each card has (Alex H). 4. Evaluation: The quality of this interview was very good and it was very convenient while I was writing my paper. It had a lot of good information about not only the game

Arvanitis 6 itself, but also why some people use certain cards so often and how to make a good deck. A strength of the interview was that Alex was genuinely passionate about the game so he gave me wholehearted answers. A downfall though was that he seemed more interested in the cards he was organizing than some of the questions so some of them didnt have the answer I was looking for. Source 5 1. MLA Citation: Long, Nick. "Understanding Magic: The Gathering - Part One: History." Yahoo! Contributor Network. N.p., 2 May 2007. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. <http://voices.yahoo.com/understanding-magic-gathering-part-onehistory-316660.html?cat=19>. 2. Annotation: This article takes you through Magic from the beginning and how it developed all the way until today and how it is still becoming updated. As well as comparing it to other table top games, it also compares it to the popular game called Dungeons and Dragons. It goes through the faults that Magic faced in the beginning and the ways that the creators fixed it and made new cards. This article explains all the cards and what each card does for a specific deck and what the best cards to have are. If you dont understand Magic quite yet, this is a good source to use because it compares the game to a game most people know about; football. This source helped me understand the most frequent plays made and why people make certain plays. 3. Key Quotes:

Arvanitis 7 The second most often used argument against Magic would be the use of occult characters and symbols on the cards. In the early days, there were limited amount of cards and some of them included demons as creatures one could summon. In response of the criticism, Wizards of the Coast voluntarily removed all the artwork and banned new demon cards from being created for a number of years (Paragraph 23). 4. Evaluation: This was absolutely a good source to use because it started with Magic from the beginning and told how cards were developed and faults and failures. It also explained the origin of the game and how it is still being updated and altered today. The strengths of this source were that it was detailed about the history and origin, but this was also a weakness because it went too in depth about a few other card games that were irrelevant and kind of confusing.