UG Madness
UG Madness is a Magic: The Gathering webcomic that started in May of 2004. It stars two roommates and avid Magic players, Tyler and Dominic. The comic usually uses the Two Gamers on a Couch format, but has branched out many times into other formats; the author has shown a taste for experimentation with comic styles. Much of the comic's humor comes from poking fun at the Magic community, especially the Unpleasable Fanbase, although there is plenty of character humor as well. The title of the webcomic is actually pronounced "Blue Green Madness", as U and G are oftentimes used by Magic players to refer to the game colors of blue and green respectively. The term "UG Madness" refers to a popular deck archetype from the game's Odyssey block.
UG Madness (the webcomic, not the deck) has actually been recognized by Magic: The Gathering R&D director and writer Mark Rosewater (who also happens to be a recurring character in the comic).
Ended on 12/29/2008.
The webcomic was found here, but the site is now defunct and the links are, sadly, broken.
- Awesome but Impractical: This strip demonstrates the mindset many players have about cards with high mana costs.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The author of the comic has vowed never to break the fourth wall...except for this strip poking fun at his own vow.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Magic R&D director Mark Rosewater, a.k.a. "Maro". He holds frequent conversations with talking consumer products and a giant red hairball named Thomas. He's also an imp.
- Did Not Do the Research: about Yu-Gi-Oh. It's all well and good to crack jokes about it, but in one strip it's painfully obvious that they just pulled up an alphabetical list of cards and put the names down without looking at them.
- In fairness, the author admitted that's what he did, and that the purpose was to make fun of the silliness of cards like "Four-Starred Ladybug of Doom" and "Beaver Warrior."
- Gamer Chick: Erin
- GIS Syndrome: The comic occasionally did this in its early days, usually in the form of pictures on the wall.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Dominic's shoulder devil tempts him to make bad deckbuilding choices. His shoulder angel is a Cloudcuckoolander with Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny.
- Happy Place: Maro's happy place is inhabited by the aforementioned talking consumer products and Thomas, as well as the spirits of three dead samurai. They play Monopoly in their free time.
- Hulk Speak: Thomas
- Interactive Narrator: Parodied in this strip.
- Jerkass: Dominic, Permission Sam
- Metagame: Frequently commented on, given that this is a Magic: The Gathering webcomic.
- The Napoleon: Permission Sam
- Prison Rape: Parodied in this strip using Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.
- Satan: A recurring minor character. Works with Maro.
- The Smurfette Principle: Erin. Hey, this is a webcomic about Magic: The Gathering, after all.
- Sudden Anatomy: Characters will suddenly have fingers if they need to point at something.
- Take That: A few against Yu-Gi-Oh!.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks: All the time, In-Universe, especially with the character Fanboy.
- Two Gamers on a Couch
- Unpleasable Fanbase: Fanboy, In-Universe, the embodiment of this trope.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Dominic and Steve, as seen here.