Best trading card games books according to redditors

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1560251409/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1501032893&sr=8-5&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=Magic%3A+The+Gathering+--+Official+Encyclopedia&dpPl=1&dpID=51R09GTGFDL&ref=plSrch

That's the version I own. They might be slightly different even though they appear to be the same book, so I figured I'd be sure to find my exact copy.

Edit: it appears the version you listed was a reissue from 1999, so it probably does have some differences.

Our DM has a Gamemastery Critical Hit Deck that he uses when we roll a nat 20.

However, we also have to use the deck if we roll a nat 1. This has led to some very interesting accidental stabbings, item losses, and character deaths. I'll never forget the time that I critically failed that Heroic Throw...

Edit: Found some footage of my fellow explorers during one of these instances.

He has the Critical Hit and Critical Fumble decks. When someone rolls a nat 20 or a nat 1, he gives them the option of using the standard D&D ruling, or choosing from the deck. The cards have different results based on what kind of attack you were using. So, for example, our Ranger rolled a nat 1 with her bow, and chose the deck. The result was that the bow splintered in her hands and reduced her Dex by 1 temporarily. She later (with a new bow) rolled a nat 20, and chose the deck, resulting in her arrow piercing her target's eye and blinding it.

The good news is he always picks the deck for whatever we're fighting whenever they crit, so we've enjoyed such glorious moments as a goblin attempting a coup de gras and instead accidentally committing seppuku, or a troll smacking himself in the face with his club, or the master assassin who attempted to backstab and instead tripped over his own feet. The bad news is that the crit success deck really likes to mess with us. I've had my shield split in half and the arm broken and counted myself lucky because at least my limb was still attached.

I forgot to mention rule number 8, though: the mulligan. Once per session we were allowed to re-roll one failure, whether or not it was a crit fail. He had to add an additional rule that mulligans could not be shared, they're one per person. So if the consequence of the roll was K.O. or death (or dismemberment if the deck was chosen), we could re-roll to try to change the outcome, but only for ourselves. He had to make up that last half of the rule because our Monk was having really terrible rolls one night and I kept trying to help, and no amount of "Bobbi you always roll terrible anyway save your mulligan for when you need it" could dissuade me.

• A box with 5x5 cards containing all my notes
  
• Dice. Soooo many dice
  
• Minis, if needed
  
• A pen
  
• The book I currently need to use, either the MM, DMG or a campaing book
  
• A tablet with a reference app
  
• A paper block to write down
  
• A stack of small tents with numbers on them, to display initiative
  
• A bunch of character cards, such as this

According to this blog post, they were printed in this book. I have the book at home and will attempt to verify tonight.

I think I know the book you're talking about, and I did the same thing every summer! All of it seemed so amazing and unique - it's not quite the same looking at gatherer or scryfall today.

Is it this book, basically?
https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Official-Encyclopedia-Complete/dp/1560252146
I can get the rest of the reference information easily enough if it is.

I went through something similar. I highly suggest the book, Mental Mana.

It's basically sports psychology applied to our game, and has a lot of mental tips and tricks to help find your center in the game. It actually helped my oldest boy with MtG and Sports, too.

These scans are from the old Brian Brokaw book about the Pokemon TCG. Enjoy, everybody!

Edit: oops I forgot the Wigglytuff deck

Are you talking about the ones that come in Fat Packs? I ask because these used to be a thing.

I had this one for a couple years until this bad boy came out

The numbers were confirmed in the official mtg encyclopedia. Someone on this forum has a copy and checked it last time we were talking about these numbers :)
https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Official-Encyclopedia-Complete/dp/1560251409

Here you go!

https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Mana-Mastering-Magic-Gathering/dp/1981488774/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542577213&sr=8-1&keywords=Mental+Mana+Will+Jonathan

I've actually been in games that (much to my martial dude's surprise) used those kinds of fumble rules. In conjunction with a Paizo product no less.

As for evasion... Why, I think it's ripe for parody!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mental-Mana-Mastering-Magic-Gathering/dp/1981488774

If you can find them some like this might help with inspiration. You don't have to show these to the player just draw a card and use what you see to guide your description.

There are crit cards out there

Gamemastery Critical Hit Deck New Printing https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601251955/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_YjCDCbXKT65F2

They used to put out books like this back in the day. Box sets for the more popular ones. 5e doesn't really have any official ones except for the aforementioned Sword Coast one. There are third party ones for Middle Earth and Midgard etc.

Honestly I would just trawl through the various wikis for the different settings like Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, Planescape, Eberron, Dark Sun and the like. Or hit up Ebay for the older setting books.

Hmm, I haven't thought about it in a long time, but I think that I have this one around somewhere:

Magic the Gathering: Official Encyclopedia

"Every existing Magic card" as of 1996. I wonder if I can still find that around the house somewhere.

I have been using these guys for the past 2 years!! Its technically for Pathfinder but its way easy to transfer over to D&D. My players love it and we RARELY get repeats because each card has 4 different options depending on the situation!

Nat 20- https://www.amazon.com/Gamemastery-Critical-Hit-Deck-Printing/dp/1601251955/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521651442&sr=8-1&keywords=critical+hit+deck&dpID=51GI4kuCerL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

Nat 1- http://paizo.com/products/btpy8x9g?GameMastery-Critical-Fumble-Deck

Look into his book. While I did not like this article, his book takes a lot of what was into this article and expands greatly on it. The link is here:

https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Mana-Mastering-Magic-Gathering/dp/1981488774/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1526364140&sr=8-1

I may do a formal review of it next week, since I have enough free credit on amazon to get it and no one really has given this book the time I think it deserves.