Magic circa 1995

[President Skroob]

Basically, the difficulties go up like this:

Apprentice: 5 copies allowed normally, 6 with the Worldmagic
Magician: 4 copies allowed normally, 5 with the Worldmagic
I'm not sure about the third difficulty level, but my guess is 4 copies and 5 with the Worldmagic
Sorcerer: 3 copies allowed normally, 4 with the Worldmagic

This actually changes deckmaking a good amount. It's incredible the kind of Workshop madness deck you can build with a 40 card minimum and 6 copies of Workshop. It's single-minded, but it brings the beats like almost nothing else.

This is actually incorrect.  In every difficulty, you can have infinite copies of a single card with the Tome of Enlightenment, as long as your deck contains a minimum of 60 cards.  When you can do this, there's really no value in cutting your deck to 40 cards.

That is very odd... I am quite sure I was faulted for attempting to add too many copies to my deck in my run-through. I'll try it and see when I get home from work... If this is true, my apologies for the misinformation.

EDIT: It's true. That's pretty crazy. I guess I erred in believing the text on Tome of Enlightenment instead of just going for broke. 

[Elric]

Mr. Nightmare- do you have any idea how to get the expansion cards added to the decks of the creatures in Shandalar?  The version from The Underdogs has all of the expansion cards, but none of the creatures in Shandalar have them in their decks.  I'm pretty sure the new cards were added to their decks if you add the expansion packs normally. 

[Mr. Nightmare]

I have no idea what you're talking about.  Sorry!

[Elric]

I have no idea what you're talking about.  Sorry!

Oh, I mean that cards like Moorish Cavalry, dual lands, Juzam Djinn, Moat, that are added in the expansion packs don't show up in the decks of the creatures in Shandalar.  I was trying to change this so that these cards did show up there.  I seem to remember that if you had the CDs (instead of the version from The Underdogs) the expansion cards (Moorish Cavalry, Juzam, duals) showed up in their decks, but this isn't the case with the version from the Underdogs.   

[Harlequin]

I'm totally addicted to this game.  Its a great break from WoW (esp now that there is nothing to do but waste time in the arena until BC)...

Last night I started doing the dungeons, and I totally abused the "Life loss carries over" atribute.  So as I'm crusing the earth trying to find shapeshifters and (Mantark the) MIND-TAKER!  I was just taking the cards and selling them.  I was crusing around with 18k monies wondering what the heck I'm going to do with it.  Then eventually I stumbled across a map thingy where I could buy cards for MONEY!  Thinking ahead to the dungeons just bought all the cards I needed for a mono-white deck.  Now I'm in sorcerer mode so I thought my max was only 4 with the book (because I try and keep all my decks down to 42 cards).  This deck ended up having close to 70 cards.

So I figgure... Serra Angel + Spirit link thats a good way to abuse the life carries over thing.  so I build mono-white stompy.

first cards in:
3 Black Lotus
4 Scrublands
4 Contract from below 
... as an aside, I think every deck I make from here on out is going to start with 4 black duels and 4 Contract.  That card is so insanely broken it almost doesn't matter what else you play.
Then I hashed out the creature base:
4 Lions, Knights, Pegusus
2 Blacksmith, Northern Pally, Plainswalker 3/1 guy
Then added the beef:
4 Spirit Link
4 Cursade
2 ... card I don't want to type at work that starts with "G" and ends in 'had.
Then threw in some control:
4 swords to plow
2 disenchant
Then threw together a mishmash of lands.  4 Manlands, 2-3 Deserts, and filled up the rest with plains.

TOTALLY Anihilated the white dungeon (small white guys, always has crusade).   I ended with more than 80 life.

Then I made then I slimed down the list and added: 3 Karma, 2 black ward, 1 Seeker (that I had randomly), and head over to Cyclops Tomb or what ever (black creatures with bad moon and no instants). 
I'm not sure why, but that random Seeker TOTALLY went the distance.  It seemed like every other game I had Serra Angel with double Spirit link and seeker against tons of willow wisps.  Again I went all the way ending with almost 100 life.  Karma was also amazing... I regret not adding Angry Mobs.

[Evenpence]

Can someone please give me an easy way to download this?

I went to the link before, and couldn't find out how to do it.

NOTE:  I AM NOT COMPUTER LITERATE.  I CAN BARELY READ AND WRITE ENGLISH AS IS.

I want to play this game and have fun like everyone else. 

Please help me accomplish this goal. 

[President Skroob]

Those random overworld bazaars where you can buy cards for gold are awesome. Almost everything is super cheap, and even the expensive stuff is cheap comparative to how much money you inevitably end up with in the game.

Evanpence:

Go to the link and scroll down to the table at the bottom. In the "Where to get it" box you'll see this:

"with BitTorrent (what's this?). Please note that our one-download-at-a-time rule applies here as well. If you don't use BitTorrent, click here to download [76MB]. Click here to download a specific file inside the archive"

Click on the "here" that I bolded and that will take you to the download page. At that point, just type in the letters you see in the background of the small picture in the first entry blank and hit the "Go" button.

[Evenpence]

At that point, just type in the letters you see in the background of the small picture in the first entry blank and hit the "Go" button.

This is the part that I couldn't figure out.  I'll try again.  Thanks.

[Evenpence]

Okay, so I get this screen:

o download a file inside this zip, type its full name of the file exactly as seen (case-sensitive) below, then press ENTER. The slashes and quotation marks must be used to get a long file name inside subdirectories. For example, to get a file called \Subdir\More\This Is a File.exe, you must type "Subdir/More/This Is a File.exe" without quotation marks. Note the forward slash (/) as well.


This service is intended for downloading a single file from inside a bigger zip. If your zip file has bad CRC, and you can rescue all but a few files, you can try getting them with this. It's recommended that you use this only for big games that have .ARJ, .RAR, or smaller .ZIP files inside.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

What exactly do you mean when you say backround of the first entry?  I don't understand what it's asking me to do.

[President Skroob]

I think you clicked the second "here."

The first one will take you to download the entire archive. The second one is designed for downloading specific files inside the archive (why you would really ever need this I have no idea). From your description of where you got, I think that you ended up at the download page for specific files.

"with BitTorrent (what's this?). Please note that our one-download-at-a-time rule applies here as well. If you don't use BitTorrent, click here to download [76MB]. Click here to download a specific file inside the archive"

You want the one in bold, not the one in italics.

When you get to the download page, there's a lot of text explaining their download policy, a picture, and two entry blanks with "Go" buttons to the right of them. The picture has The Underdogs mascot dog on it and I think 5 letters in it. Type in the letters from the picture exactly as you see them in the first entry blank (the second one is for people behind specific firewalls and shouldn't be necessary) and then click the "Go" button. That should work.

Basically, The Underdogs uses this method to keep people from making long chains of downloads using download managers that would sap the bandwidth from the site which, as I understand it, is already stretched pretty tight.

[Evenpence]

Yep.  I clicked the second one.  Didn't even see the first until now.  It's working now.  You're the best.

<3 President Skroob.

[nataz]

this game is amazing

i havn't done any dungons yet, still just tinkering around. Right now i have a black red deck with 4 contract, 4 terror, 4 bolt, 4 black knight, 4 hippie, and other stuff. Contract is basicaly the best card ever in this game.

Questions:

How do you mulligan?
Should I be worried that X person is taking over X town?
What does it mean when X person has X mana sources (or something like that, perhaps to do with the world domination spell?)

[President Skroob]

This game has the old style mulligan rules. That means if you have no land or all land, you have the option to mulligan. You can only mulligan once. If your opponent mulligans, you have the option to mulligan. You STILL can only mulligan once. That means if you have no land, you can mulligan to another 7 card hand  that could possibly have no land again.

This really makes you appreciate how much better the new mulliganing system is. If you start out a hand with 6 black cards and a Desert, you have no option to mull. Neat, eh?



As for the second part... well, that has to do with the story of the game. Basically, there are five elemental wizards trying to take over the plane of Shandalar. They are each trying to cast the "Spell of Dominion," which will unleash this super-powerful god being known as Arkazon from his prison, and with the help of this god being there will be world domination. In order to cast the spell, each wizard tries to use "mana taps" on cities. Basically, they will send a minion to a city, and if you don't go to that city and defeat that minion within a certain amount of time the city will be encased in an elemental shield and that particular wizard is one step closer to winning the game. I believe that it's normally 4 taps required to cast Dominion, which increases to 5 if you get the Worldmagic "Ring of the Guardian." You can look on your map to see what's going on with the cities. If a city is under attack, the name is in red. If it's been taken, its name changes to the color of the element that has taken control of it. All is not lost if a city has fallen, though. You can go to the city and attempt to liberate it, but you will have to ante three cards instead of one, and also the enemy will start out with a creature in play, though it's usually something minor.

The end goal of the game is to defeat the five wizards, then face Arkazon himself to banish him from the planes of existence for an ungodly long time.

[nataz]

What happens if I don't do anything? Will I just lose if they get 5 cities?

[President Skroob]

Yep.

[Elric]

Should I be worried that X person is taking over X town?
What does it mean when X person has X mana sources (or something like that, perhaps to do with the world domination spell?)

There's a Worldmagic spell (can't remember the name) that lets you risk losing a white amulet to teleport to a town that's under attack.  If you choose White as your starting color, you'll have this ability from the beginning of the game- otherwise you have to find the town with the Worldmagic card and pay the 500 or so gold to release it.  It makes life a lot easier. 

[TheAlpha]

Shandalar crashes as soon as I want to edit my deck... do you guys have any idea how to overcome this?

[Harlequin]

I know it sounds crazy ... but try disabling any software that is tied to your mouce (and any other USB controlers/joysticks/speedpads/numpads).  I have done some research trying to fix a problem with the deck editor, and I have found that for some crazy reason any USB controlers do not play well with the deck editor. 

[Parcher]

You also have to modify your settings to allow the game to play correctly. It is not set up to run on more modern computers, so make certain in Settings that it is running a GUI compatable with Shandalar.

[M.Solymossy]

IT is REALLY annoying trying to find power, regrowth, balance, contract, demonic tutor, mana drain, mishra's workshop, mana crypt (is it in this game?) mind twist, and so forth.  Where do I even locate the good stuff?  I've only gotten a sapphire and a pearl so far.

[OfficeShredder]

You do the dungeons, and you get one copy of each.  How to get more was answered earlier in the thread

[Lou]

I can play the game fine, but none of the animations are working. Does anyone know the solution to this problem?

[nataz]

there are animations??

another quick quesiton. I have a pretty sick deck, but I'm too lazy to go around and beat all the critters in the castle. Am I supposed to wander around till I find the "boss" guy, or an I going to have to wade though all the randoms first?

Btw, contract and B/R aggro is stupid good for a non-combo deck. For all those people suggesting White control based decks, how can you ignore contract. It's stupid good, and in the same color as dark rit. Seriously, stupid good no matter how you build your deck. 

[LordHomerCat]

Generally, you enter the dungeons in the middle of the bottom right quadrant, and the big boss guy is in the middle of the upper left (or generally just the closest spot to the upper left wall).  Many times you can just wander the dungeon avoiding fights and only end u[ attacking like one guy before the boss.

[M.Solymossy]

I wish I could just play this damned game without worrying about the 'spell of dominion'.  Im at a part where I am literally about 30 seconds away from the spell being resolved (I saved  ) and I still have to defeat the black and the red mage.  Also, this game is definitely set to be against you, as EVERY TIME I've been hit with Hypnotic Spectre, it takes my trump card that's gunna win me the game (Wrath of God, Ivory Tower in a 7 card hand, swords to plowshares, ect). 

I also can't figure out how the F*** you untap the stupid mana vault.    Also, Getting the power is annoying as all hell because they automatically get bad moon, and I've been starting at 10 life with a carryover.   It's always bad news for me....  I currently am playing a ernham/serra Geddon deck with 2 ivory tower and 3 black vice.

[President Skroob]

To untap mana vault or do any other optional effects during your upkeep, right click on your upkeep phase icon in the phase list (it's left of your playing field and to the right of your deck, life, and mana pool) and select "Mark this phase to always stop." That will stop the game and prompt you on your upkeep, allowing you to process effects, such as untapping Mana Vault or untapping a Paralyzed creature. It's a good thing to have on all the time.

[TheAlpha]

Shandalar crashes as soon as I want to edit my deck... do you guys have any idea how to overcome this?

I solved it by lowering my resolution to 800*600

Anyway, is Nether Void in this game, I couldn't find it so far... is it in a dungeon?

The game has some weird bugs though, I got a maindeck Elvish Archer which I don't even own (but I did cast it with a Lotus  :lol:). Also, my opponent killed his own creatures several times and I got two Loti eventhough I only own one.

[President Skroob]

Sometimes friggin' weird cards will just show up in your deck for no apparent reason. As was mentioned earlier, I think it has something to do with a card you win from an opponent being just added to your deck, but I don't know why this happens.

Certain cards just don't exist in the game for some reason. Notable ones that I can think of include Mana Drain, Nether Void, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, and In the Eyes of Chaos. I think they either thought that these cards would be really powerful in the format (Tabernacle), thought it would be irritating to program a mechanic into the game for a single card (Mana Drain), or thought it would be difficult to program an AI that could deal with certain effects (Nether Void and In the Eyes of Chaos). Those are just my guesses, though.

EDIT: Opponents do make stupid AI mistakes on occasion, such as Giant Growthing your creature rather than their own or Lightning Bolting their own creature instead of yours. If you lay down a Black Vise, they will run headlong into these issues, because it seems that the AI is designed to preserve its own life at all costs, which will include casting its cards on any legal target. This means it will cast creature enchantments on your creatures, destroy its own creatures, and cast X spells for zero just to cast them. AI development has come a long way since 1995.

[Mr. Nightmare]

There are a few reasons you would get random cards added to your deck.

First, you may have lost a game, and with it, your ante card.  This could put your deck under 40 (or 60) cards, and if you haven't gone to a village to edit your deck yet, it adds random cards to your deck from your collection (often something you've recently won) to fill those slots.

Second, in a dungeon, sometimes cards of a certain color or type aren't allowed (if you haven't goten all three clues for a dungeon, you may not be aware of this) and the computer fills the slots with random cards.

Third, a glitch.  Who knows, the game is over 10 years old.  Go play Oregon Trail if you can't deal.

[OfficeShredder]

Fourth, occasionally it will give you a new deck to try out, but because the game is crappy, the message saying "Try this deck out!" is lost and you have no idea when you built a mono-red aggro deck