Card selection, Mana filling

pforhan

A few lightly-related questions from someone who hasn't played MtG in years, but has played lots of PQ / MPQ. I probably have a hundred others, but I'll stick with this for now.

First off: card selection. What controls whether a plainswalker can use a card? I recall somewhere it says it must share a color (mana color, right?) with the character. So... where are those colors found on the PW or the card? I notice the creature skulls are sometimes a different color, is that it?

Second (and possibly related), once you're in a game, is all mana equal for the intent of filling up a card to play? Yes, I know characters may have different bonuses to some colors, but when adding to a card it's all the same?

2a: Why does it seem like cards that aren't on top sometimes fill? Or is this only the overflow and it's happening too quickly for me to catch?

2b: Unlike MPQ, I'm only getting mana for what I match, right? If I clear a row I seem to be only getting that core color.

Thanks,

Pat.

Unknown

pforhan wrote:

First off: card selection. What controls whether a plainswalker can use a card? I recall somewhere it says it must share a color (mana color, right?) with the character. So... where are those colors found on the PW or the card? I notice the creature skulls are sometimes a different color, is that it?

Is the line between the image and the text.

pforhan wrote:

Second (and possibly related), once you're in a game, is all mana equal for the intent of filling up a card to play? Yes, I know characters may have different bonuses to some colors, but when adding to a card it's all the same?

Yes, one mana is one mana despite de colour.

pforhan wrote:

2a: Why does it seem like cards that aren't on top sometimes fill? Or is this only the overflow and it's happening too quickly for me to catch?

Overflow, or perhaps some cards ability like Mizzium Meddler.

pforhan wrote:

2b: Unlike MPQ, I'm only getting mana for what I match, right? If I clear a row I seem to be only getting that core color.

Mana is for what do you match. If you clear a row by combining 4 gems, you get 4 mana (plus planeswalker bonus) plus other matching you do, but nothing for the gems you "kill" when you clear a row.

Unknown

The creature skulls are simply the rarity.

The color is the little stripe of color that runs between the picture and the card description. PW's currently only have one color, while most cards also only have one color or are colorless (the planeshift icon).

All mana (aside from planeswalker mana) is equivalent for charging up cards. However, your planeswalker has bonuses and maluses to different colors, so you still want to prioritize matching your planeswalker's "main" color and their "allied" colors.

Yes, unlike MPQ, you only get what you actually match. 4-matches only return mana for the 4 match, not for the row clear.

loroku

Two good replies so far. I'll add that the colored line that tells you the "color" of each card is extremely small, hard to notice, and unintuitive. You eventually get used to it, but yeah, it sucks. Similarly, the "colorless" color is white-ish blue-ish. So it is also confusing. For a long time I thought I was just getting tons of blue cards. Also sometimes the line is TWO colors - red and white, or green and purple (which means black). This means it can be used by either of those colors.

If you're used to MPQ I put together this silly guide but yeah one of the tricks is that your 4 and 5 matches don't net extra mana. Because of this, sometimes it's not a good idea to go for some 4 matches if two 3 matches will net you more (although board shake is nice).

pforhan

Yeah, I finally got a two-color card so that made me realize that the line was the thing.

pforhan

johnaUru wrote:

pforhan wrote:

2a: Why does it seem like cards that aren't on top sometimes fill? Or is this only the overflow and it's happening too quickly for me to catch?

Overflow, or perhaps some cards ability like Mizzium Meddler.

I think what confused me is that the cards fill at the same time (and stars fly up into a bunch of places, etc) so they look like they're simultaneous, but in reality all the cards above just got filled up.

Unknown

pforhan wrote:

johnaUru wrote:

pforhan wrote:

2a: Why does it seem like cards that aren't on top sometimes fill? Or is this only the overflow and it's happening too quickly for me to catch?

Overflow, or perhaps some cards ability like Mizzium Meddler.

I think what confused me is that the cards fill at the same time (and stars fly up into a bunch of places, etc) so they look like they're simultaneous, but in reality all the cards above just got filled up.

Yes, it might be that.