Magic: The Gathering: Battlemage
Version 1.0
Posted: June 14, 2003
Author: Modine99
Legal:
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Table of Contents
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I. Introduction
II. Duel Mode
a)Duel Settings
b)Deck Building
III. Campaign Mode
a)Map Screen
b)Deck Building
c)Attacking
c)Gaining Spells and Money
IV. Battle Mode
a)Controls
b)Mana and Casting
c)Summoning
d)Attacking and Blocking
e)Instants, Sorceries, and Enchantments
f)Creature Abilities
Introduction:
Back in mid-90s I dumped a lot of money and time into playing Magic so when I
saw this at the video store I decided to check it out. It's a little
frustrating and repetitive but its still better than Yu-Gi-Oh in my opinion.
Still the problem was there is no tutorial or instruction book (since it was
a rental) and it took some working it out. I came here to find some help and
found nothing so hopefully this helps someone. Following is all the useful
commands that I figured out and some advice on the campaign mode, but keep in
mind most of it is guessing and assumption.
Now I am going to assume anyone reading this has played magic and understands
the whole concept of tapping mana to cast spells and summon creatures. So I
will be explaining HOW to tap it since this game is more active time battle
than actual card game. The reason for this is, honestly, unless you've
played M:TG before this game is kinda dull after a while.
If you want to contact me write to
[email protected] with the game title in
the subject bar.
Getting Started
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Main Menu: X Button = Choose Triange Button = Back to Previous Screen
Archive - Complete list of cards available in the game. Choosing a card
gives you a description of what the card does. Since this is an ATB game
some of the descriptions are a little different so pay attention.
Duel Mode - Quick mage battle with any of the six characters against either
the computer or another player. You can use either each character's pre-made
deck or build and save your own to your memory card. Saved decks can only be
used in Duel Mode.
Campaign Mode - Pick a character and go to war for the continent. I'll talk
a lot more about this later.
Characters: the six characters you can choose from for Duel and Campaign are
Jared Carthalion - (The Chosen One) - casts Red and Green magic
Tevesh Szat - (Twisted Monster) - casts Black and Blue magic
Sandruu - (Minotaur Shaman) - casts Red and Blue magic
Kristina of the Woods - (Kind Heroine) - casts Green and White magic
Leshrac - (Vengeful Lunatic) - casts Red and Black
Geyadrone Dihada - (Evil Sorceress) - casts Green and Black
Duel Mode
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Duel Screen:
Vs. - CPU or 2 player
Characters - Click on character picture to go to list
Battleground - Click on the left and right arrows to cycle through
Tome - This takes you into Deck Building Mode
Start - Click the Lighting Bolt arrow to start the duel
Deck Building Mode:
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When you enter the Tome the pre-built deck of the character you have chosen.
The list of all cards in the Deck are in the box on the left. You can click
the category button (Button with arrow pointing at number box) to see what of
each card type you have. Clicking the category button cycles through
starting with Creatures, Enchantments, Sorcery, Instants, Counters,
Artifacts, and Land.
To actually start building click the Quill button, which will open up two
more buttons. One button is a circle with a line through it that will clear
out the current deck. The blue eye cancels out any cards in the list not
currently in your deck. During building you have access to every card in the
game.
During Building the list on the left will show all cards for the current
category and color (click the color wheel on the right to change spell
colors). For example if you cycle to creatures and click green it will show
all green creatures. Clicking the category button will cycle to green
enchantments. Clicking the bronze wheel will open Artifacts which only has
creatures because the other Artifacts are already a category no matter what
color. Click the up and down arrows to see all cards on the list and the +
and - buttons to add or remove cards in your deck.
You can save or load decks to memory cards on this screen. The button is
down in the bottom left corner. You can load in Tome mode, and save in Build
mode.
Campaign Mode
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They don't label anything or really explain anything about the Campaign mode
so I'll explain the buttons and procedures.
The Campaign Screen
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Map - Shows all the territories on the continent of Corondor. Each Wizard
starts with one territory and is highlighted in that wizard's color. As
regions are conquered each new territory is highlighted.
Save/Load - The two buttons on the far left with up and down arrows load and
save respectively.
Attack - Click the lightning bolt button to initiate an attack on a
neighboring territory.
Tome - Click the quill button to enter you Tome where you can tinker with
your spells.
View Territory - Click the question mark button to view what Mana can be
gained from a target territory and a history along with a picture of the
region.
Planeswalker Info - Click the scroll button and a territory owned by a enemy
wizard to see their power, wealth(Not that it matters much), and history.
End Turn - Click the square button after an attack to move on and let the
others attack.
Exit - Click the gem to exit to Main Menu.
Deck Building
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After you click the quill and enter the Tome you will see a list of artifact
spells and land with a number on each side. The number on the left is how
many of each card you have and the number on the right is how many you have
in your deck at the time. Clicking any of the five color spheres takes you
to the spell list for that color. Use the up/down arrows and +/- symbols to
add or remove cards. Click the same color again to return to artifacts and
land.
Attacking
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After clicking the lightning bolt button click a region you own and a region
bordering it. After doing this a couple things may happen.
1) You will gain or lose the region with no explanation.
2) You meet a denizen of the territory (a magic card creature) and engage in
a conversation that will either gain or lose you money/spells and the region.
Some territories require you to speak to multiple creatures (meaning multiple
attacks) before the region becomes yours.
3) You will battle an enemy wizard who owns the territory. If you beat him
you get the region, losing means you go home with nothing.
Gaining Money and Spells
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If you gain the region you will get mana cards (land) in your tome that
correspond with the territory. Sometimes you also gain new spells that you
can add into your tome.
When you are speaking to creatures that live in the territory just keep
loading and trying different conversation paths to get the best results. I
had one conversation where I was nice and got a lousy 1/1 flyer. I tried
again where I threatened him and got a 6/4 creature and a nice enchantment.
So just keep trying and you should get a nice spell library.
At the beginning of every round you get tax money from the territories you
own, but you will rarely use it. During conversations you can bribe or by
spells from some creatures. You can also threaten some into giving you money
while others will steal it from you.
Battle Mode
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Okay, this is the most important part of the game because you need to win
duels to gain and protect land in Campaign Mode. Unfortunately this is also
the most confusing part of the whole game with no tutorial. So I'll do my
best to get you started without too much cursing involved. Remember that
this is an active time battle not a turn based game so don't expect to pull
of those master combos of days gone by, things are a little different.
Controls
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Triangle - View info on chosen creature
Circle - Cancel a selected spell or discard flashing card
X - Cast selected spell
Square - Select creature or target spell
R1 - Show entire hand
L2 + left or right - cycle through hand in on-deck window
L2 + up or down - zoom in or out
R2 + left or right - cycle through your summoned creatures
R2 + up or down - cycle between you and opponent wizard
Pressing R1 shows your entire hand, which contains up to 7 cards. If are
about to get another card the seventh will start flashing and then disappear.
Pressing left or right cycles through the cards.
Mana and Casting
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You need to establish your mana pool before you can do anything but it works
a little differently here. When the game starts open your hand and look for
land and then press X. You will now see a colored dot in one of the columns
at the top. After you activate a land card you can't activate another one
until after a set amount of time. Also casting a spell empties out part of
the colored columns based on the mana used. This mana will recharge after a
set amount of time.
When casting spells the required mana is automatically deducted and you
choose the remaining colorless mana. For example you have 3 red mana and 3
green mana in your mana pool and want to summon a Wall of Fire which requires
RR(1). The two red mana are automatically removed from the mana pool and you
have to choose where the last colorless mana comes from. Move the arrow to
the mana column you want to draw from and press down and one mana will move
into the transfer board. Once all the required colorless has been moved onto
the board press X to finish casting the spell. Pressing the circle button
cancels out the spell as long as you need colorless mana or a target. Summon
spells that only require one color of mana are automatically cast.
You can't cast a new spell until first spell is completed (ie. Monster is on
map or spell hits target).
Summoning
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To summon a creature open your hand or cycle through the on-deck window until
you find the creature you want to summon (and have mana for) and press X.
After mana is appropriated and the spell cast the creature will appear near
your wizard. The creature won't be able to move for about 5 seconds to can't
block or attack right away. You can only have 6 creatures on the map at one
time.
Attacking and Blocking
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Once a creature has been summoned you can decide to use it as an attacker or
blocker. To attack, move your cursor over the creature and press square to
select it then move the cursor over the enemy wizard and press square again.
Your creature will then move out across the map and, if not blocked, attack
the enemy wizard and teleport back to your position. Once it returns it will
be tapped and unable to act for a set amount of time. When that time is up
it will automatically attack again. If it is blocked it will fight with the
blocker and become tapped where it was. When it untaps they will resume
combat until one is dead. If your creature wins he will reset and just sit
there until you order it to attack again so use the cycle creatures command
to see if you have any inactive creatures.
Blocking is a little confusing. The easiest way to block is to place
creatures in front of you so that incoming attackers will run into an
untapped creature and start combat instead of hitting you. This doesn't
always work though. Sometimes my flying creatures wouldn't block an enemy
ground creature unless directed to proactively block. To proactively block
you select a creature and target on an enemy creature before it reaches you.
Zooming out makes this easier.
Instants, Sorceries, and Enchantments
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When you cast any of these spells you have to find a target for it. To
target, cast the spell and then move your cursor over the target and press
the square button. So if you were casting Lighting Bolt you cast it and then
move over an enemy creature or wizard and press square and it will track and
strike the target. Remember spells aren't instantaneous. If you cast an
instant like Giant Growth (+3/+3 on a creature for X amount of time) it has
to reach the target creature before that creature attacks your opponent or it
may wear off before it reaches your opponent again.
Creature Abilities
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Some creatures have special abilities, or get them from enchantments, and how
they work isn't always obvious so I'll try and explain some of them.
Special/Tapping abilities - To activate a special ability select the monster
with the square button and then press the Triangle button. This will give
you the creatures name, special abilities, and effects or abilities of
enchantments. Next to the top ability you will see two red >> marks. To
switch abilities press up or down until the arrows are on the ability you
want and press X. So if you have a Llanowar Elf which taps to produce a one
green mana you select the elf, press Triangle, see the arrows on that ability
and press X to get an extra green mana. Wait til the elf untaps and enjoy
the fun all over again.
- Some abilities are targeted abilities. Prodigal Sorcerer taps and deals
one damage to any target so after you press X to activate the ability you
then have to put the cursor over the intended target and press Square.
Pumpable Abilities - For things like Shivan Dragon's firebreating ability
that gives it +1/+0 for every Red mana you select the ability and hit X and
it only deducts one mana. So to pump it up more you have to push Triangle
and X as many times as you want to use it.
Regeneration - Select the creature and use the regeneration ability. When
the creature dies it will reappear next to you as if you had just summoned
it. You may want to do this when the creature is near to death because I
don't know if the ability resets when the mana used to cast it resets.
