[edit]: Both giveaways are now over. I'm not going to bother to bump this, but in case one or two of these were still nagging at someone, here are the answers:
Dark Ritual
Hypnotic Specter
Counterspell
Mana Drain
Lightning Bolt
Shivan Dragon
Channel
Fastbond
Swords to Plowshares
Wrath of God (bonus alternate answer: Balance)

Congrats to Chuckie on winning the first giveaway, and then waltzing to an uncontested win on the expansion pack. :)


When it comes to Duel of the Planeswalkers 2013, people seem to fall into one of two camps. The first group things it's a flawed, buggy mess. The second group also thinks it's a flawed, buggy mess, but they're ok with that because it's also a great way to easily revisit a game they used to love without having to invest a ton of money in real cards. I definitely fall into the latter group, and now that I've got an extra copy to give away, I'd like to share it with someone who would similarly enjoy it. With that in mind, I've put together a quiz aimed at old Magic players:

http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/AdhOoEP7

A couple of notes:

-The giveaway has a contributor value of $42 and ends Thursday at 10 PM EDT.

-If you're having a hard time Googling the answers, that is intentional. I don't know how effective it'll be, but I deliberately manipulated the wording of a few questions to make it hard to find the answers without some prior knowledge of the game. Sorry if you feel left out, but I'm sure my next giveaway will be more inclusive.

-The answers are all single card names. There are a number of questions that I know could have multiple possible answers, and I'm sure more have been printed since I last followed the game closely. None of the answers are designed to trick you - when in doubt, you're looking for the most obvious, iconic choice from the early days of Magic. I'm not expecting anyone to remember what Sorrow's Path or Aisling Leprechaun do, anyone who played at the time or who has paid much attention to the older sets should have a pretty easy time identifying these I think.

-No hints yet. If it proves too difficult I'll add some later, but I don't think it will.

-This quiz is intended to be completed on your own, without sharing answers or getting help from others. If I believe the winner got to the giveaway by any means other than solving the quiz themselves I will ask for a reroll, so please don't waste my time or yours.

[edit]: Since the game just went on sale, I grabbed a copy of the expansion to give away as well. You'll find the giveaway linked in the one for the base game, and it's set to end 24 hours later than the first one so the winner has a shot at picking up the DLC.

Good luck! :)

11 years ago*

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Solved! But I can't enter due to contributor value. Great puzzle.

11 years ago
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That was fast. :) Sorry you weren't able to enter, but thanks for participating!

11 years ago
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I like MTG. I like puzzles. How could I resist? :)

11 years ago
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Haven't played MtG since Onslaught was released (11 years ago or so?). I hated the direction the game was going in personally. (That and having no one to play with anymore.) Took a while to get the answers since my memory was a little fuzzy but I did it!

11 years ago
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very nice puzzle, brought back many memories. I agree the direction now a days just seems wrong, if your not playing one of the big pro decks than pretty much forget about FNM, but there are a few different game types on mtgo that are alot of fun.

11 years ago
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Already have it. May be Foils? ^_^

11 years ago
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Haha, sorry, but hell no. I'd sooner burn money for a little warmth than spend it on DLC that adds a few cosmetic sparkles to digital cards. ;) I never even really liked the foils IRL!

11 years ago
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Ohh, I'll get right on to this... when I get back home on Tuesday. Played a bunch back in middle (started with Weatherlight I think)/high school and some in college, but havent really touched anything since Alara cycle

11 years ago
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Last time I played Magic the Gathering was during 5th edition, but I solved it! Thanks for the puzzle, it was fun.

11 years ago
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yay i made it!! :D

i own pretty much every card from the quiz, except question 9 one... that alone took me 1 hour of research :P

11 years ago
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Really fun puzzle! Took me awhile to get the green enchantment and red flyer, but once I realized what you were talking about they were easy to ind. Lots of classic cards and I have them all. :3

11 years ago
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Question 6 is stumping me. :/ It's not liking what I think the answer should be.

11 years ago
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I thought that was one of the easier ones, but you're not the first to have trouble with it so I guess I was wrong. There were at least a few other cards with very similar mechanics printed, but you're looking for the large one that was first printed very early on (and then reprinted in a whole bunch of other sets).

11 years ago
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I just figured it. You wanted the big one and I kept putting the little one.
Solved puzzle. Had to Google #8.

EDIT: Also, wow is gatherer.wizards.com cool.

11 years ago
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Bump, solved :)

11 years ago
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I played Magic 20 years ago... It took some times to remember cards name but it wasn't too hard except Q8... still thinking about it

11 years ago
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Been a long time since I played the actual card game.I stopped playing about 15 or more years ago (can't actually remember when I stopped).

Taking me a bit to remember some of the combos and cards. I knew #5 and 6 instantly, 2 of my favorite cards. I really miss my Red White and Blue deck, I get out 2 mana of each color and almost nothing could stop me. It worked so well when mana burn was in the game and mana flares were not restricted (imagine having 4 or more mana flares in play, and I say more cause sometimes the other player would get one out too before I could get all 4 of mine out (yes I'm evil).

Making me want to play again... :)

11 years ago
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bump for solved!
My favorite deck I ever made was a black deck built around four Ihsan's Shades and constantly returning him into play. My friends hated it when my first move was to draw a card, play nothing, and put him in the graveyard. :D

11 years ago
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You might get a kick out of taking a look at some of the manaless Ichorid decks that were popular in Vintage a few years back. They basically abused Bazaar of Baghdad and the new* "dredge" ability with a bunch of creatures that could pop out of the graveyard to do what you're describing on steroids. I really enjoyed playing against them, it was a nice change of pace when pretty much everyone else was playing black/blue combo decks.

*Ok, so it's probably really old at this point. But it still seems new to me. :p

Edit: actually, maybe not quite. I think I had Ihsan's Shade confused with Nether Shadow. Still a fun deck, though.

11 years ago
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Ah, yeah, I remember hearing about the Nether Shadow decks, but I only ever owned one, so I didn't get to try it outside of the old Microprose game.
My Ihsan strategy was mostly for quick mana (via Burnt Offering) to deal direct damage (I had a tiny bit of red in the deck just for that) and then pull him right back out of the graveyard for defense. Versus white, he was invincible, against green he could usually hold his own, and since he was a "Legend" creature, casting another of him was a great way to instantly drop both into the graveyard if a blue deck decided to take control of him.

11 years ago
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Pfft, figures they'd put it on sale right after I got a copy. :P Good news for you guys, though: bonus expansion giveaway!

11 years ago
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Question: can someone who mostly played that old Magic computer game know every answer?

To tell truth, I can't recall card that would fit for question 8 (not big green player), so I wonder should I even bother trying to recall those cards (aka finding that disc :P) or not.

11 years ago
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Thank you google.

Can't say I recalled that card from that game.

11 years ago
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I really don't know, I only vaguely remember playing a few minutes of that game once at a friend's house. Glad you found the answer, though. :)

11 years ago
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Solved :D
Haven't played MTG in years, nostalgia'd hard. :D

11 years ago
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Bump! About 8 hours left on the base game, and the expansion ends tomorrow and currently has 0 entries!

11 years ago
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One final bump. Base game done, but the expansion's still up for a bit more than 6 hours and the odds are pretty good at the moment. ;)

11 years ago
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Closed 11 years ago by Lunk.