Fueling the Spark #1

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ducttapedeckbox

26 June 2016

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Hello there! It has been quite some time since I last published written content on TappedOut. I was recently inspired after realizing that I have been a member of this community for nearly four years! Over this time I have grown immensely as a player, trader, and collector and I can attribute much of that growth to this community. Realizing this got me thinking- what about others? Maybe TappedOut helped them find their way into the world Magic, or perhaps they are using the trading network to finish off some sweet brews. What is their Magic Origin story?

To explore this curiosity, I have created a series of questions to pose to TappedOut regulars. Some are generic questions about their background, and others are dedicated to their own interests and what makes their Magic gears tick. My goal is to sit down with a TappedOut regular every week or two and see what they have to say. Who knows, maybe some will be playing for similar reasons as I am. Maybe they will have completely different motivations. Let's find out!

In this pilot, I had the honor of chatting with one of the most recognizable names across the site - a moderator, a Modern Master himself, the Overeducated Bourgeois, user:ChiefBell! Ok, that might have been a tad dramatic, but nonetheless I am excited to see what Chief has to say. Let's jump in!

1. We'll start with some basics. When you did get into Magic? What (or who) appealed to you/motivated you to start using cardboard crack?

   I was introduced to Magic when I first went to university (2011), which was roughly around the middle of the Innistrad block, most likely during Dark Ascension, but I can't remember precisely. My friend was a well known, semi-professional player who was in contact with lots of other very important players and vendors in the UK. I was exposed to the game through him. Having said this, I didn't start really looking at the cards until Avacyn Restored, and then didn't really have a deck idea until M13 which is when I really got into the game and began to collect the cards. Interestingly my first card was a Vizzerdrix which I was given during primary school, probably around the year 2000 or so, in exchange for a pokemon card. The artwork was really cool, but I had no idea about the game itself until university.

2. Did you start off playing casually, or did you jump right into formatted constructed play? What strategies or archetypes appealed to you back then?

   I started off playing casual Standard. I had a very brief idea of how Standard rotated, and I was told how deckbuilding worked and I went from there. My first deck was something to do with Invisible Stalker and Titanic Growth, I believe it also used Tandem Lookout. It actually wasn't a terrible deck really (if I do say so myself! haha). I was immediately drawn to the depth of the synergies available, due to the large card pool, and how creative you could be in deck building. I think I genuinely believed that Invisible Stalker with Soulbond and pump spells was overpowered. And in some ways, to be fair, the strategy I was pursuing at the time was somewhat similar to how infect decks like to play now, but obviously I had no idea about any of that when I had just started.
   
   I fairly quickly moved onto value based decks when I realised how broken Thragtusk was and picked up a playset of Liliana of the Veil. My initial Simic deck was fine but I became more accustomed to the power of killspells and control in general and I think that frustrated me, as I was playing a very "delicate" deck that relied a lot on a few key creatures. So I went from that synergy focused pile of cards to a more midrange mindset - looking for things that were valuable on their own, not requiring other cards to be in play. I picked up Liliana of the Veil at the time for probably $100 for a playset, and I remember that when Innistrad rotated out I sold them for about the same money. When I moved to Modern (which wasn't for another year or so) I kicked myself.

3. According to your TappedOut profile, you started using this site over 3 years ago. What drew you in? Has your use of TappedOut changed your approach to Magic?

   Yeah so I think I've been playing for 4 to 5 years and have used TappedOut for 3 to 4 years. That seems correct. I was initially drawn in just for the purposes of deckbuilding and card management. I needed a way to quickly look at the cards I had in my decklist and plan out future purchases. TappedOut allowed me to do this. I also lurked on the forums for a while in order to learn about the game and hopefully become a better player. I don't think my use of TappedOut has changed the way I approach magic particularly, but it has allowed me to respect a wider range of playstyles than I might have done if I was playing on my own. Obviously I have my priorities and preferences in the way I play and the decks I build, but TappedOut allowed me to appreciate the way others play the game and the decks they enjoy. I think that's really important when you approach a game that's so widely played - being tolerant and open to the idea that the things you prioritise aren't necessarily the things that other people prioritise.

4. Users are active on TappedOut for a variety of reasons. Other than me, what keeps you coming back?

   Haha, uhhh Epoch and Femme? In all seriousness, I genuinely enjoy the wide range of opinions on offer. There's always someone out there who's able to prove you wrong and show you something that you might not have considered. That's really important. Modern is a really wide, and in my opinion, very interesting format. Looking at all the different options and being prepared to be wrong is very important. I look at other people's decks for ideas. I surf the forums to look at current discussions about cards and strategies as well.
   
   The other factor that draws me in is that I have a lot of responsibility on the site. I manage many of the articles that get published, I check the forums to make sure threads are in the right place, and I also monitor the community for signs of unrest and unpleasantry. I really do like the community here a lot and it's just a pleasure getting involved in all the discussions that go on. I love the website and I do want to see it succeed so I invest a lot of time and effort into it. I suppose I suffer from the sunk costs fallacy - I've been around so long and put so much time and effort in that I don't feel like I can ever leave!

5. Has becoming a Moderator affected your TappedOut usage? Do you find yourself deck-building and testing less to carry out your official responsibilities?

   Becoming a moderator has affected my TappedOut usage in a positive way. I spend more time reading through threads that I would have ignored previously and due to this I've learned a lot of very interesting things that I might have missed otherwise. To be perfectly honest I moderate as I use the site in a normal capacity so I sort of do two things at once. What this means practically is that I might miss things that Epoch doesn't because I don't specifically look for threads that are in the wrong place. On the other hand, it does mean that I'm really visible as a sort of "normal user" that posts often.

6. Now let’s talk lore: is there a plane, or perhaps a color / guild / shard / wedge that appeals to you more than others? Do you associate with that lore in any way?

   My favourite plane is Innistrad for both balance and flavour reasons. The gothic horror setting is really well explored and it feels very atmospheric with a really deep explanation of the world and the people that occupy it. I think that when flavour is done well and linked with cards that are exciting and highly playable then you really end up with a block that's just so compelling and exhilarating. Innistrad did this for me, and to a lesser extent Ravnica and Khans did as well.
   
   Given that I'm a midrange guy I have to say that green and black are clearly the best colours. I'm attracted towards decks that balance hitting people in the face with ruining their best laid plans, and those two aforementioned colours cater to that perfectly. So my guild would be Golgari, and I suppose as for a three colour combination it would have to be Abzan. White is a really flexible colour in Modern that's well known for both controlling cards and aggressive creatures, therefore I can easily get on board with it.
   
   I don't really associate with colour lore and mechanics on a personal level, and I must confess it does irritate me when I hear things like "I associate with blue because I'm intelligent" or statements of that nature. Colour lore really is not set in stone and all the colours demonstrate all traits at different times in the story arc. Furthermore, no person is utterly dominated by any single trait at all times in their life. On top of this, I think that the most important thing to take from guilds and colours are ideologies, rather than specific traits. Abzan, for example, might favour endurance and I might also favour that too. That's ok though, because there are a wide range of behaviours and thought patterns that could be in line with that ideology. It's the difference between saying "I am X and must do these things" and "I believe in X but there are a wide range of ways to show that belief". The former way of thinking seems like a very shut-door approach that constrains the conversation, whereas the latter is a much more open way of exploring a subject. That's obviously just my view though.

7. Sometimes you can find that a person’s play style or preferred archetype(s) follow their ideals or personality. Do you think that this is the case for you? If so, why?

   So as I was saying before I think it occurs a lot more with generic ideals rather than specific personality traits because personality is in flux (it changes a lot as we age, for example) and all colours can represent all personalities in some way. In a wider sense though Magic is certainly a game about problem solving, at its most basic level. I need to reduce my opponent to 0 life before s/he does the same to me, whilst s/he carries out some action to stop this occurring. That's the overarching problem, and how people arrive at the solution probably does say something about their inherent approach to things.
   
   I suppose that I would say that I respect and pursue flexibility and complex analysis whenever I can. I'm not always a person that reacts well to change but it is something I strive towards. It is possible that my attraction to midrange comes from this attraction to malleability, as in a midrange deck I am given the tools to react to any given situation in a vast number of different ways. With this flexibility comes added layers of decisional complexity which I also respect. Given my academic nature I enjoy complex problem solving so whilst linear aggro really does not interest me, and neither does purely reactive control, midrange seems to hit the sweet spot. Midrange decks reward you for thinking multiple turns ahead and becoming pin-point accurate in your assessment of what the opponent is playing and their likely by-turn plays.
   
   Any deck where you are forced into a purely proactive or reactive stance is overly restrictive for my play style, and I must say I have never found any purely reactive or proactive deck at all difficult to play, bar those with huge levels of synergy such as Affinity. Even traditionally "difficult" decks such as Jeskai control are relatively straightforward to pilot, in my years of experience, if you understand the format enough. On the other hand something like Jund or Abzan can be terribly difficult to use because there's an added level of complexity in the decision making simply due to the fact that you always have the option of shifting between whether you play the control game or the aggro game. In traditional control your options are limited to playing control spells on turn 2, and in traditional aggro your options are limited to playing aggressive spells on turn 2, but with a midrange deck you have access to both. Most other decks don't have this, and that flexibility and complexity is what really draws me to midrange.

8. You are often participating in Modern discussions, and have even spearheaded the creation of the Modern Format Primer. What aspect(s) of Modern appeal to you? Do you think that the Modern meta is currently healthy?

   Modern is very healthy in my opinion. We have a metagame in modern right now where the top 8 to 10 decks barely make up one third of the decks you will see at both major and minor events. The other two thirds are all lesser known creations. That's fantastic because it really signals that the format is just so wide open to interpretation and innovation right now. This complicated mingling of tier 1 and tier 2 really validates the homebrewer by essentially encouraging people to make decisions that might go against the opinions of tier 1 strategies, but because the format is so wide it's probably going to work against at least something.
   
   For me, Modern is the best format because it doesn't require repeat investment, unlike standard, and also has a metagame that's slightly more varied than Legacy. Where Legacy may have in the region of 10-15 top decks at any one time, Modern may have 15-20. At least 10% more in the raw number of viable archetypes, and more often than not a lot more than that too. If you don't believe me go check MTGTop8 haha. The other factor to consider is that Modern decks can actually be reasonably cheap if you consider that they could last you a lifetime. I promise you that you can play any archetype (control midrange, or aggro) in modern for $200. Now you might not be able to bring the most successful example of that archetype to the table but you will definitely end up with a respectable offering. Look at fantastic examples like Skred, Emeria Control, Tooth and Nail, Troll Worship, Soul Sisters, Taking Turns, Tokens, 8 Whack. Honestly I can think of a whole list of great decks off the top of my head you could build with well under a weeks worth of wages. Modern is very wide, very stable, and can also be very cheap. There's no reason NOT to play it!
   
   I'd also like to add that the reason I wrote things like the format primer along with all of the other great guys and gals on the site is because we all love modern so much, and we're all so passionate about the game, that we're just so keen to bring in and guide new players. Honestly, I don't care if you're playing a $100 version of Goblins against my $2000 Abzan deck, Modern produces memorable matches and a good time all around. And besides, I've been beaten by those pesky goblins many a time, so I would certainly urge anyone to just give the format a go. I know some of the higher budget decks can be daunting but it's really not a pay-to-win format whatsoever.

9. This question relates to a recent forum topic: there are some recurring issues in the Magic community. What do you see as the biggest detriment to Magic? Do you have an idealized solution?

   Elitism and close-minded thinking, for sure. I have my opinions and I'm a vocal guy but I realise that I have no right to tell you how to play the game. I might favour netdecks and you might favour homebrews - that's ok! I might favour high budget offerings and you favour decks you scraped together for $50 - that's fine! I might be interested in tier 1, and you only follow tier 2 - that's cool! We're all here because we love this game for some specific reason. The reason why I love the game is not better than the reason you love the game. All playstyles should be welcomed. I had to have a word with a user today who was flaming some others for building a "casual" deck and it was just so disappointing for me. Honestly, I really despair sometimes at the inability certain individuals have to respect the way other people play.
   
   One other nasty aspect of this kind of elitism we see are factors surrounding economic privilege. We need to consider the fact that not everyone can afford a tier 1 deck, so when you laugh at that guy who plays mono-green aggro in Modern, have you considered that maybe you are laughing at him because he is poor? Perhaps the dude with the homebrew is playing the homebrew because he can't afford Thoughtseize? And even if that's not the case it's still not acceptable to be odious in the community. It's just generally really unpleasant to flame people for what they enjoy, even if it's not something you enjoy yourself.

10. As we come to an end, let us take a little trip down memory lane to your favorite TappedOut events. I think we have all been there- perhaps loading up TappedOut only to see the homepage a mess with some bug, or maybe seeing a decklist that you thought was hilarious. Whether it be a bug, a decklist, or something else, share with us your favorite memory on TappedOut (or memories if you cannot choose!).

    There have been so many fantastic events that have happened on the site. Accidental images from Femme on Just Chatting. Certain users' inability to code. Drunk ramblings on forums at ungodly hours. Endless logical fallacies during heated debates. All good fun and definitely memorable. But I think perhaps my number one memory has to be the first time we started putting the format primer together. There were 8 or 9 of us on a google document all typing to each other and working together to produce this whole document for no other reason than to help others get into the format. Such a work of selfless, collective, passion and kindness was amazing to be a part of, and I think that's really what makes this community great. The times that I have the most fun and the users that I get on best with are just individuals who want to give something back to others and facilitate the good times all around.
    
    Peace

There you have it folks: a glimpse into the mind of user:ChiefBell! What did you think? Do you agree with Chief? What about the article as a whole- did you enjoy the format and questions? Let us know below! Please recall Chief’s comments on closed-minded thinking and keep the discussion civil by respecting the opinions of others.

Before I go, I would like to give a special thanks to Chiefbell for participating in this first article, and to TheDevicer for helping me develop the questions. I hope to be back in two weeks with another user, so stay tuned!