When did Scrye become Inquest?
Written: Jan 11 '04 (Updated Jan 11 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Most recognized price guide for the cardfloppers of the world, loads of games are covered.
Cons: Unless you've got, like, a million dollars, you won't care about most of the magazine
The Bottom Line: As a price guide, it's great. As a gaming magazine, I suppose it's alright. But, frankly, it's got far too many pages that I could care less about.
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| rader6795's Full Review: SCRYE Magazine Subscription |
For the geeky gamers and collectors of Magic: The Gathering, there's really only two magazines that cater to their card value evaluating needs. Their choices are Wizard branch-off, Inquest Gamer, or Scrye.
I come from a small, sheltered, cornfed village in The Middle of Nowhere, Ohio. It's the kind of town where, regardless of who you are, everyone knows what you've done and can recite your history to you. A lot of times, they know more about you than you know, including who likes you and childish matters like that.
Should you tour our village, you'll see we've less culture than bacteria. However, at the local pharmacy/general store, we've a fairly diverse magazine section. Sure, you're not going to find XXL and the addition of Maxim was considered racy, but there's a decent selection considering how few people actually buy them.
So when an outsider teen saw Wizard's Inquest, he took note. Wizard was one of the first magazines that I read, as a youngster, religiously. This cover appealed to me, due to the mysterious, cloaked people who just happened to float. The painting, in retrospect, was not all that impressive. However, it was different than everything else I was reading at the time, not just because it didn't have anything to do with video games.
Inside, it spoke heavily on all things fantasy, especially Magic: The Gathering. Prices were inside and there were previews for the upcoming 4th edition of Magic. Also, it spoke of other sets such as Arabian Nights, The Dark and the upcoming Ice Age.
I picked it up and started to purchase it regularly... along with said Magic: the Gathering games. Every time I went to pick up booster packs, I'd have an InQuest in hand.
When I played in my first tournament, however, I was introduced to Scrye for the first time.
Scrye was, to me, the Beckett of the gaming community. The price guide had three values, high, median and low, that was far better than an average price. People would value the cards they treasured the most, like Birds of Paradise at higher values while cards like Deathlace would see the low value if they weren't first thrown into a child's spokes for that cool sound that accompanies it.
Also, the magazine covered Magic: The Gathering far more than the rest of the "me too" games that were popping up all over the place. It wasn't as dedicated as The Duelist, but it wasn't produced by Wizards of the Coast, either.
The magazine's main pull, to most cardfloppers, was the huge number of different decks. Whatever the latest tournament winners were, they were their and written on by the deck's creator. Also, you could submit your decks and ask for Scrye's help in making it a better deck. As a gamer, I know sometimes it's easy to overlook the massive number of cards in the game, and also fairly easy to get a deck that works fairly well and not want to change things, only to watch as it becomes less and less successful. This would let an unbiased objector critique your deck and evaluate what could be changed.
Also, whenever a new card set comes out, whether it's Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh! or DC Heroclix, there's a comprehensive overview. The more popular games, like the ones I mentioned, also get the most powerful collectible.
Magic: The Gathering, being the most popular collectible game and the primary topic covered in the magazine, also gets top cards picked into two categories. One choice is for drafting cards while the other is for constructed decks.
The price guide for Magic: The Gathering covers every card, regardless of rarity, and also lists the most popular foil rares that people are looking to buy. InQuest Gamer lists only rares and will list uncommon and commons only if they're highly desired. Otherwise, they're listed as "unlisted" and given a flat rate. There's no reason a common in Arabian Nights that was reprinted in every edition since should be worth as much as one that hasn't.
One of my favorite columns is Unleash the Power. One card per month is selected and thrown into decks. Then, they try to show how the card can be used to its fullest effect. More often than not, the decks aren't that great, but they do give players ideas of how to use a card they may have passed up.
The magazine's maintained the same basic setup, while the design has seen a slight overhaul. Still, it's nothing flashy, art isn't thrown all over the place like in Inquest Gamer, nor do they try to crack jokes and use funny captions.
And that's what makes the magazine worthwhile for the gamers. It's not trying to be hip. The gamers playing these games know they're not hip. Scrye is the gaming magazine for gamers who take their games seriously. These are the people who don't fantacize about being the co-star in Paris Hilton's sex tape. These are the guys who would rather compare Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine to Data and Lore and fantacize they're Jeri Ryan's spandex. Or Data's. Or Lore's.
Ew.
Over time, the magazine's become devoted to a wide range of games, something that had turned me off of Inquest Gamer. While it doesn't do the worst, review video games with little noteworthy to say, it does cover every possible collectible game. Luckily, though, it doesn't try to dabble into Dungeons & Dragons. Leave that to Dragon Magazine, bub, I could care less what a Dungeon Master would do.
So, as a person who really enjoys gaming and knows that he can always buy a Maxim for some lowbrow humor, I can't help but like Scrye. The only thing that Inquest Gamer has over Scrye is the top 100 desired cards, but I'd give that up any day for the most accurate price guide for my extensive Magic: The Gathering collection.
Make mine, Scrye, and then kiss my grits, Alice.
Recommended:
Yes
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rader6795
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Member: Terry Rader
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