3 Strategy Games to Hone your Imagination

Magic the Gathering 

Out of the three games on our list, magic the gathering happens to silll be the most complicated. Also, one of the most rewarding. This game is for you if you’ve outplayed every other card and strategy game, or if all of them bore you. 

The deal with Magic is that you have to find your own reasons to love it. One of my reasons is original, beautiful art on every card. Every card that's been made for 17 years and that continues to be made for future cards. It's always beautiful, detailed and magical. 

Another is that I can build decks centered around my favorite creatures. From merfolk to dinosaurs, pirates and fiery flamed characters named Chandra, I can pull any of them out at a moment's notice to fight off my boyfriends unyielding Jace deck. 

Many cards have many different uses and can often be quite confusing. At first, as a writer I was livid at the vocabulary used to explain what each card did. Devin later explained to me that it was language created to reduce all strategic loopholes. Because that’s what it is, a strategy game. Some strategies of the cards are cycling (discarding one card to draw another) milling (making your opponent discard their deck) life gain (ticking your life up all the time). THose are only three. The possibilities and ways to play are endless, so if you like the sound of building outrageously strategic magically themed card decks to battle your friends and family with sounds awesome, magic is the game for you. A few more weeks of youtube tutorials, conversations at game shops and trial/ error will set you right. Likely, stunning you with what you might come to learn. 

Legend of Zelda

Feeling the travel bug, can’t travel? What if I told you there was a world worth exploring that could be inches from your fingertips. Filled with endless surprises, hidden treasure, fantastic experiences and heroic accomplishments. That exists, and it’s called Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

 A virtual world with the most stunningly detailed graphics I’ve ever seen, it literally has an aspect for everyone: hundreds of dynamic puzzles, big bosses to fight, shrines to find, food to cook, outfits to collect, camps to conquer, treasure to hunt for, land to unlock, and constant magic to bring you goosebumps. Not to mention a heroic princess to save, who is literally a reincarnation of the Kingdom’s Goddess. You play Link- the love of and protector of Princess Zelda who prepares in the land to soon storm the castle. 

The Legend of Zelda franchise has been around for 34 years. It started as a top down game on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986, but introduced the style they would use for every game to come. Legend of Zelda became so popular they continued to make 19 games, with Breath of the Wild being the most recent adaptation. In my opinion, the best adaption. 

It would be unfair of me to try and spoil how much beauty unveils itself in Breath of the Wild. From the very beginning you are swept away with outrageous artistic detail in the Kingdom of Hyrule. The best part is that it doesn;t all reveal itself to you at once, you get to chase towers that unlock parts of the map for you to explore. You could spend months exploring the map and still not happen upon every small magical surprise. 

Let me tell you, as a kid I turned my nose up to video games because I couldn’t relate to them. It seemed like a bit of a dead end for me to be focusing my time into. I’ll still agree there are some games out there which should be less valued, but Breath of the Wild is not one of those. The amount of focus and strategy that you gain from conquering its challenges is worth the time spent. Knowing the story itself is worth it, like walking through an interactive fairytale. As you continue battling it out to grow stronger and using what the game provides, you’ll really get swept away with the possibilities. 

Dungeons and Dragons

Now trust me, this one I am not an expert on. My boyfriend on the other hand could go on about it for hours and still not have fully explained it to you.What I said before about Zelda being an interactive fairytale, this is the same on an entirely new level. You band with a group of your favorite friends and create a unique, magical character. You can choose from a huge variety of species and classes. For example, my current DND character is an Angel-Druid; otherwise known as Aasimar Druid. Here is a detailed list of the character building aspects you can choose from. 

You can use the different sided dice meant for the game to roll and decide, but most dungeon masters let you just build one. 

I know what you’re thinking

Dungeon master? This is the person who you know or have happened to find who knows the game a bit more than you do. To play any DND game you must have one. This person basically plays the role of the video game console. He guides you through the world, playing the characters you meet, describing the places you visit, and throwing the challenges you must face as a team. It goes on a turn basis where you and your team members each take turns making actions that coincide with the world the DM has prepared for you. My first real game was a one on one with Devin. Because of how comfortable I let myself feel and creative I thought, my adventure consisted of breaking animals out of a terrible pet shop with an army of squirrels and a giant wolf by my side. 

The best part about that adventure is that my character was supposed to be traveling through the nearest forest to get to her new school. While I still did that later on, the freedom of the game allowed me to branch off and create my own experiences, doing what I was inspired to. Which Is fun for the DM too because he gets better by having to think quickly outside of the world he’s already prepared for the game. It sounds like he has a ton of power but you both have equal amounts, as your ability to do something is determined by the roll of your dice. Some people really get into the game by running their own original games and worlds. Thankfully Wizards of the Coast has provided many books to guide you and your party through premade fantastic adventure’s which still hold endless opportunities.