Magi Nation has 10(12 if you count nar and d'resh) regions to choose from, more than any amount of "faction" choices I have seen in any card game(besides raw deal, but 99% of the cards in that game can be used by anyone, no matter wat deck your playing). New players sometimes look at them and feel quite overwhelmed. I know this article may not help the more experienced players, but, again, it's a guide to help the new players to this wonderfull game. Without further ado, presenting epoch's guide to the regions.


Naroom
Theme: Naroom is the "beef" region. It is comparable to green in magic the gathering, as it is a forest region filled with growth an life. Naroom was based on healing, as most of the cards restore lost energy, but can also make your creatures 20-energy juggernauts. Naroom spells add energy like crazy, as do the creatures, spells, and relics.
How to Play: Naroom plays quickly and without mercy. magi's like tiller and evu allow you to quickly replenish your hand and cards like grow and taproots make your creatures huge. Even 8-energy creatures like giant carillon can quickly use their stomp ability again due to naroom's quick growing power. Relics from naroom consistantly allow you to search for most of your spells and reuse them, while other relics allow multiple creature attacks and even add energy to creatures. Even the creatures add insane amounts of energy and cards like elder weebo give creatures their own energize rate!
Deckbuilding: The core of naroom decks are their creatures and their powerfull growing spells. spells like grow, taproots, crushing growth, and vortex of knowledge are no brainers in any naroom deck. Creatures like forest hyren, eebit, and flying hinko are insane, and even the arderial creature flutter yup finds a home in a naroom deck. As relics go, get your hands on yaki's gauntlets(that let you attack twice a turn) and energy band(which adds 2 energy to a creature). The choice naroom magi are tiller or evu for thier card drawing power, yaki for his ability to attack twice, and magi like trynn and poad that add energy to your creatures. Trynn flame saver adds a small twist allowing you to grow to do damage.
Cards to Get: Tiller, Forest Hyren,Evu, Wasperine.
Summary: If your style is energy rich creatures and combat fun, this region is for you.


Underneath
Theme: Underneath is the defensive region. They sit their with their burrowed creature wall and sling some very powerfull spells at the opponent. Korrits can fight with other creatures, yet lose no energy themselves. Most everything in this region prevents damage to your creatures and removes energy from opposing creatures. It is one of three control regions.
How to play: Underneath decks start out slow, but grow huge. Burrowed creatures give a virtual wall that none can pass while you amass your hand to gargantuan size. The numerous spells that underneath has will get rid of any creatures that get past your burrowed wall. Essentially you stall and control the game until you get what you need until you can win it. Whether it be vulbor for the underneath discard deck, an army of korrits for the corrit deck, or just some digging goggles for the burrow deck, underneath can stall until you get what you need.
Deckbuilding: The underneath needs 2 basic spells. Granted it can function without these, the spell can make life a lot easier. The first spell is gorgle's curse. This card leaves a creature at 1 energy and unable to attack. It wont kill them, but it's incredibly effective and works against cards that prevent directly discarding creatures from play. The second is, of course, thunderquake. This is one of the most powerful spells in the game and belongs in any deck. What does it do you ask? You pay any amount of energy and it removes that much energy, divided up any way you wish amoung any creatures, limit 10 energy removed. This card absolutely kills swarm decks like bograth that depends solely on a swarm. If you can get them, do so, and never let them go!!! As creatures go, ormagon is your best choice for removal. This 10 energy creature discards all non-underneath cards from play. Just beware of cards like abwin's quill. Cryatal jile adds energy to your magi and is welcome to any deck. If you play korrits, than of course cards like striped korrits, pack korrits, giant korrits, and korrit are the way to go. If your going burrow, i would suggest granas, pylofuf, and the grandaddy of all burrowing creatures, tunnel hyren which makes all your other creatures burrowed. At this moment i realized i didnt explain what burrow is. Burrow is an ability(and a spell) that says that creatures cannot attack, but only 2 energy can be removed from it for a turn. Dont worry, there are plenty of cards that allow burrowed creatures to attack. As relics go, try Gremm's hammer for creature removal. Digging goggles and tunneler's boots are perfect for the burrow deck. Staff of korrits for the korrit deck. Tremor stone kills all relics, and is quite handy. For magi, trygar is just all aroung good for any deck. Use d'jarvish and gogor for a burrow deck. Ulk is good for korrits, as is any underneath magi that adds energy, like strag.
Cards to Get: Thunderquake, Gorgle's Curse, Trygar, Cave In, Tunnel Hyren.
Summary: If you like incredible defense and a strategy that controls the other magis until you can win, underneath is for you.


Cald
Before I progress, I apologize to Deimos of the Cald if I missed anything crucial. I personally do not play the cald very much, so please tell me if i missed anything so i can edit it in.
Theme: BURN!!!!BURN!!!!BURN!!!!!!!!!!! This is what called does best. Called creatures and magi are based on removing energy and direct damage. Though they lack ways to get a lot of energy, the cald use it well to burn away an entire strategy in one fell swoop. Some call cald a control region, and maybe it is, but i see nothing defensive about burning things. Some cald decks can pull off this strategy without using any creatures.
How to play: The first couple of turns for the cald magi is usually spent gaining their power relics like abraxins crown(which allows any spell or power that could only be used against a creature or magi to remove energy could target either) and scroll of fire(which removes more energy with attacks). After they get the appropriate relics in play and after burning a couple of creatures in play, they try to go for the magi, like any deck, but with spells instead of creatures. If any of you have ever roleplayed, a cald magi is like the battle mage. If it has any protection at all(creatures), it will use them as shields as it hurls fireballs and mass kill spells from a distance. The perfect attitude for a cald player(or for my friends whole play cald) is burn everything. If everything is burned, you win. Some cald strategies go for the magi first and get rid of it's energy before it can play anything dangerous, than clean up what they did play. It's all part of personal preference.
Deckbuilding: Spells are the major point of a cald magi's arsenal. Spells like thermal blast, lava flow, brushfire, and thunderquake make cald magi especially dangerous. Relics even make it worse, as cards like scroll of fire just add to the hurt and rod of coals likes to finish the job. Include relics that include your energize rate, your spells will take a lot out of you. Valkan is very mean with scroll of fire, making your opponent take 2 extra each time you discard energy. Good ol' ashgar gives surprise to the deck, allowing you to play spells during your turn. If you are playing a cald deck with creatures, you may want to try trynn, flame saver to make your thermal blast add energy to your creatures. All cald decks should have one relic: Abraxin's crown. This card was is absolutely essential and you could do much more damage with it.
Cards to get:Scroll of fire. Abraxin's crown, magma hyren, Valkan.
Summary:If you like to torch everything in sight with spells, cald is the region for you.


Arderial
Theme: Arderial is known as the Jack of all Trades. It has a little bit of everything, but definetly retains it's own flavor. It is without a doubt one of the most powerful of all regions as my friend beth reminds me every time I play her. I personally have found a theme in arderial which generally sums up its sharing of regions quality. It gets strong creatures into play, adds energy, and than backs them up with some of the most powerful spells of the game. Like the region's "element", arderial is constantly changing and is always erratic like the air itself, and is just as hard to control.
How to play: Arderial can be aggressive and controlling, powerfull and weak. It is everything at the same time. There are many arderial card drawing cards, and your first magi should work on that. Get as big a hand as possible until the magi dies. Cycling through your deck is the best thing to do in this region. Your second magi should switch to immediate aggression, and arderial has plenty of cards that adds energy. Nothing like having a xyx minor/flutter yup swarm. Few people can win when faced with that. The best creature removal spell in the game: shockwave is part of arderial's arsenal of spells and each deck should include them. Arderial also has cards that force opponents to discard and even cards that steal spells from opponents deck. This region has everything.
Deckbuilding: Arderial has so many different themes that it may seem that your deck is incredibly unfocussed. But the arderial cards go so well together and it will soon show when you play them. A strong magi combination is starting out with aula to quickly cycle through your deck to get all the cards you need, following up with shimmer that(with a storm shield) adds 2 energy from all her creature and removes one from each of her opponents if she ends the turn without energy. Bubble xyx is perfect for drawing cards at this stage. Use them constantly! If by some slim chance shimmer dies, end with sorreah, the much debated most powerful magi in the game, who starts with 2 arderial spells and whos power stops all opposing magi's powers. Just fetch a cataclysm and a shockwave and clear the board, than start anew. again, bubble xyx is your friend in any arderial deck. Flutter yup is just crazy with cloud narth and pharan and shockwave gets rid of any threats. You deck should be designed to do and to deal with everything and anything.
Cards to get: Sorreah, cataclysm, vellup, elder vellup, alaban gloves.
Summary: If you like a little bit of everything, this is the region for you.


Orothe
Theme:Ah orothe, my mother region. This is the region i first started with and i still play it today. Orothe is the "sneaky" region. Many orothe cards gain an opponents trust than stab them in the back. They are the master of relics and have the most destruction spells and abilities in the game. They can steal cards from the opponent and have enough abilities that utterly wreck creature strategies to make opponents have fits. O'qua allows you to get any orothe creature you want from your deck and put it into play. Your creatures have abilities like whenever an opponent plays a creature, discard 2 energy from it and when this creature is discarded in combat remove 3 energy from the creature that discarded it. Orothe is the second of the three control regions.
How to play:Orothe is rather tricky to play. unlike the other regions, you will want to start out aggressively and slowly gain control of the game. Orothe creatures and spells rival cald in mass energy removal and even their creatures have the ability to take control of other creatures. A fun trick for a new player is to use will of orothe(which comes in the starter) and have 3 bwills in play. Make the opponent attack the 3 bwills with their 3 best monsters to kill them all. Or use orothean gloves with deep hyren to make it discard itself to remove 3 energy from each non-orothe creature and magi. All that matters with your orothe deck is that you get rid of creatures as soon as possible to lockdown on the other magi, than use your creatures bazillion control abilities to lockdown on the game.
Deckbuilding: Orothe is all about cheap combos. Orothean goggles can really help with orothean horn to get a free creatures into play and the goggles with maelstrom flask. This region was home to the legendary akido deck which used a bunch of relics with river abaquist and numerous karak relics to gain card control and ultimately steal everything your opponent has. Iximin acts effectively as if it always has +3 energy on it and bwill kills anything that attacks it. M'rika is perfect for the role of oppening magi. Her interchange ability allows you to dump all energy on her than put her on the bottom of your magi pile, undefeated, and bringing in your next magi, keeping all your creatures and relics in play. This can be a tremendous advantage. You could also make an o'qua summoning deck that uses o'qua to get out all your control creatures and quickly dominate the board. Bubble xyx gives you a 3card draw and should be in any orothe deck. Basically, just pack your deck with removal and control and you will be fine.
Cards to get: M'rika, river abaquist, reef hyren, hubdra's cube.
Summary: If you like to be in control of relics, this is the region for you.


Core
Theme: Core is the most potentially powerful region of the game. Core has incredibly powerful and solid creatures and magi that can decimate the unprepared with their horrid taint. But this power comes with a price. Core magi are not allowed to play non-core cards and vice-versa. Also, many cards are made to hurt core. Nevertheless, even though core has some restrictions, it is still on of the most powerfull regions in existance.
How to Play: Core is about corruption, cunning, manipulation and power, and you should play accordingly. Your creatures take care of the power aspect. Many of the core creatures has very powerful abilities that can constantly be abused and reused. The spells take care of the corruption. Spells like turn and corrupt take control of other creatures, while the spell entomb turns any one non-core card into core, both barring non-core magi from playing it and allowing you to play it. The relics are the cunning part. The relics can get spells from your deck, allow you to destroy all that is non-core, even give you granted abilities. And, finally, core has the most manipulatory magi in the game. Zet alone can take control of creatures and morag can control relics. Harror burns magi for playing spells and the feared dardk twins are almost unbeatable.
Deckbuilding: Core decks will want to focus on the CCMP principals from above. the creatures have to be, above else, powerful to take care of opposing cards. The spells have to be filled with corruption for them to stand against the entire moonlands. The magi have to be manipulative with promises of power to stay alive. The relics have to be used with cunning or be used not at all. Core is a very intricate region and should be played accordingly. The region has enough offensiive and defensive to be balanced out. Do not rule out the possibility of core shadow magi: normal moonlands magi who have been corrupted by the core. Warrada may not have as good an ability as some other core magi, but she has very good starting cards. The dark twins is a very powerful "double"magi and if you make this deck, always be on offensive, that's what they are.
Cards to Get: Entomb, Secrets of the Book, the dark twins, grim goblet, corrupt.


The Weave
Theme: The Weave is so defensive that it is offensive. The theme of this region is pacifism, and though it sounds like a lame-o-sissy idea, it works. Weave creatures have the potential to grow bigger than naroom creatures, but can't attack. The problem is solved with cards that force the opponent to attack you. Nothing beats forcing opponent to attack your 15 energy creatures and that just finishing off the remains next turn. Weave also has some powerful offensive cards, but is mainly control of creatures. The Weave is the third of three control regions.
How to play: Surprisingly, most weave decks start off very offensive to get rid of other magi as quickly as possible. But than they gradually switch back to their pacifist nature. Almost all weave creatures has the effect Weave, which gives a quick transfer in energy when that creature is attacked. All sorts of weave cards exploit this, adding more energy when the ability is used and even arranging all the energy on your creatures. You want to play weave by building up huge creatures and forcing the opponent to attack them, that is the passive-aggressive strategy of the weave.
Deckbuilding: There is a promo magi that you can get through animit redemption called gia. Every weave deck should use this magi. good atarting cards and the ability to discard a relic to get any relic from your deck and put it in your hand. She starts quite aggressive and stays that way, using powerful relics until she dies. Magi like quallon and kesia exploit the energy manipulation of the weave and are always good choices. Bo'ahsa is the perfect example of why the weave strategy works. Her ability is once a turn, if one of your creatures are attacked, switch it with another one of your creatures. She is a good final defensive magi.
Sawgrass is a spell that kills any creature for attacking last turn. See how weave punishes opponents for attacking? Crushing growth is a spell that makes all opponents creatures attack and jumbor is a creature that makes all opponents creatures attack. In the end, weave is everything but pacifist.
Cards to Get:Gia, Kesia, Grass Hyren, Lascinth, Gia's Tome
Summary: If you like to make sure that all creatures on the board, yours and your opponents, are yours to command, The Weave is the region for you.


Kybar's Teeth
Theme: Kybar's Teeth uses big creatures. Not just big creatures but BIG CREATURES. Most kybars teeth creatures come into play with upwards of 10 energy and keep the energy on them. Invulnerability is this region's ability, keeping the massive creatures massive. Well, it is the mountain region, why shouldn't the creatures be as big as a mountain.
How to play: Energy is not on your side as a kybar's teeth magi. All your creatures are very expensive, but are usually worth it. They simply will not die. Just watch out for removal spells and your creatures(played sparingly) should be fine. The spells that kybars teeth has are all based on adding energy to your creatures and magi if they are bigger than all the rest. Other of their spells make other creatures even smaller for your huge armies of rocks to fall on.
Deckbuilidng: THere are some smaller energy creatures in existance that belong to kybar's teeth, and these should be used in case you have an undefended magi with little energy. But the heart and sould of the teeth is it's giant creatures. Cards like giant baldar should be commonplace. Kybar's teeth is so easy to play and build that i cannot say to much more about deckbuilding.
Cards to get: Giant Garganor, Ritual Spear
If you like creatures that are huge, this region is for you.


Bograth
Theme: Bograth is the swarm region. Most bograth creatures cost 3 or less energy and get special abilities based on how many creatures you have in play. hard hitting spells do effects also based on how many creatures you have in play. Also, the bograth is also closely allied with the core, so many bograth cards can be played by core magi and vice versa, so a core/bograth deck is not out of reach. it is scary how many creatures this region can get into play after a couple of turns.
How to play: you want to play the bograth creatures every turn, dont hold back. cards like moob can add lots and lots of energy to your magi while you amass your swarm. bograth creatures have incredible abilities when en masse, as do the bograth spells. even the relics have the power to get more creatures into play. This region is all about overwhelming. If any of you have played the Lord of the Rings cards game, this region is best compared to Moria.
Deckbuilding: Bograth deck will want mainly creatures. They are your relics and spells. Sure many bograth relics and spells do help a lot, but your creatures are where your base is. Treepsh lets you draw cards and moob puts obscene amounts of energy on your magi. green stuff gets bigger every turn. spells like mydra swarm are dependant on how many creatures you have in play, but do tremendous effects. relics can get more creatures from your discard pile and your deck, as can character abilities and their incredible interactions with the card. They really designed this region well. A bograth deck can be a bit tricky to make, but it plays very smoothly.
Cards to Get: Deadwood Staff, Moob, Olabra, Darkness
If you like to swarm with inconcievable amounts of creatures, this region is for you.


Paradwyn
Theme: You will NEVER know what a paradwyn player is doing, what he is going to play, or who will win the game. Paradwyn uses the highly refined art of guerilla tactics. They use horrible mind games to make opponents expect exactly what is not going to happen. anything can happen, any time, that can change the game.
How to Play: Paradwyn is played in a very different way that most regions are played. Lots of paradwyn cards allow you to use powers and spells during the opponents turn. After you have given a couple of sneaky moves like that, no opponent will ever assume again what you have up your sleave. You have to do the exact opposite of what will be expected. This will confuse the opponent enough to make crucial moves and take control of the game. No one will be able to recover.
Deckbuilding: The current archtype of paradwyn decks start out with arawan, who can search for creatures with the ability dreamwarp. Dreamwarp says that you can increase or decrease it's starting energy by one until end of turn when playing it. You can make it bigger and cost more, or make it smaller and cost less. He builds up a hand full of those creatures, and plays very defensive. When the second magi is reached, then entire game changes. The second magi is called Ookami. His ability is whenever something adds energy to a creatures, add one more. Most of the dreamwarp creatures that you searched for with arawan have abilities like "vitalize: Add on energy to any creature". All these creatures are played(about 8 of them) and they use their abilities on each other, with energy adding relics to create an army of 8 8-enegy creatures in one turn. The swing of play is to much for most to recover from. That is how paradwyn should act, full of surprise, but ultimately deadly. On the card Boria, the quote is "when you dont hear anything in paradwyn, worry". The game goes exactly the same.
Cards to get: Ookami, Fog Hyren, staff of Vines, Lirie's Cape.
Summary: If you like to play with ultimate surprise and use guerilla tactics, this deck is for you.


Universal
Universal is not technically a region, but universal cards are a staple in most decks. I will now take a look at the better ones.
Relic Stalker: Kills any one relic in play. A staple for most decks, as most relics can be a real pain.
Rayje's Belt: This card is ultimately overpowered and should be in any deck. It's ability is it makes a power or effect stop working for a turn. The only problem, is most people arent willing to part with them, and your best bet is trying to pull one from a booster.
Beam of Light: One of the best spells in existance, this common kills 2 relics, 2 spells, or 2 creatures with 2 or less energy. A great removal spell.
Inhibitor Bands: THis stops all the universal power relics like rayje's belt. Until you get a belt or a warrior's boots of your own, i would suggest using this common to keep you in the game.
Warrior's Boots:This card allows a creature to attack first turn, which is always a tremendous advantage.


Look for these upcomming regions in the next set of magi nation:


Sands of D'Resh (Desert)
Sands magi use the power of illusion and deception to ultimately confuse and manipulate the enemy's mind so the power of the sand can take over him. If you like deception and intrigue, this region will be for you.

Nar (Ice)
Nar magi live in an icy island covered with snow, where survival is just hard. They use their cold magic to peirce through defenses and freeze all in their path.

It's been fun writing this and I hope all the new players who read this get something out of it and it helps them decide on a region.


-Epoch

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