Noughmad.org

I’m quite a fan of MTG and I used to play it regularly both in real life and on Magic Workstation. However, my time for RL Magic vanished when I got a girlfriend, and I nearly stop playing MWS after I switched to Linux. Also, I got tired of its bugs and crashes.

So I began my quest to find a nice, playable program to play MTG (for free, of course) on Linux. MWS on Wine is much worse that it is on Windows, and the other clients either aren’t as good or aren’t supported. I even made a plan to build one, as my next programming project, even though I suppose it’s much more complex that a simple brick simulation.

Recently, however, I’ve come across the Generic Collectible Card Game. It’s not new, but it’s (unfortunately) not well known either. It doesn’t support game rules, so it’s basically just like MWS. The interface is nice, and it enables you to import decks from a variety of formats. It also has support for sealed games.

GCCG also has a very nice feature, trading cards. Every new player begins with 50$. You can use it to buy products (boosters) or to play sealed games. You can also buy and sell them to other players. You earn money by playing games, and although you get more money when you win, you also receive some when you lose. So it’s not like real money. Also, constructed games (T2, extended, …) can be played with cards you do not own. They’ll just be marked as proxies, but you can play with them. Trading and owning cards is just a nice, optional, time consuming feature.

They also have a FAQ section. I believe there’s one thing that not covered there: if you hover your mouse over a card and hold Shift, it will display that card so you can read the whole card. Or you can press Ctrl-H to just read the text.

So, if you’re interested in playing a game of good ol’ Magic: The Gathering with me, install the thing

Stumble it!