Archetype preferences when playing magic?
General forum
Posted on June 16, 2016, 7:33 p.m. by TheAnnihilator
Hey everyone! I'm sure everyone likes their own strategies in magic -- I know I certainly do -- but I wanted to ask this... Should preferences be regarded as a hinderance to playing magic? For example, I myself enjoy control to the extreme -- especially nearly-creatureless control; so much so that I tend not to approach other stategies. Not that I necessarily can't play other archetypes, but given the choice between most any blue deck and a general aggro deck, I will almost always choose the blue one.
The one exception is in draft/sealed, in which I will typically play the best of whatever comes to me, control or not.
Especially as a Modern player, "forcing" blue isn't really the best strategy. Forcing 100% reactive blue is even worse. xD Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
In sealed, I tend to pick for edh and heavily trade after.
In constructed, I go for nostalgia and giggles. Often there is an alterior motive:
Can you catch all the triggers? What % can you remember this time?
Can you make them hesitate because maybe stasis?
Can you influence the multiplayer dynamics in a specific way? (Take the game less seriously, stop the-guy-who-always-wins this time, get them to start a rivalry, etc.)?
Can you pull off [insert <3cmc instant] on a stick?
Can you necro (channel/fireball, scepter, stasis) by tweaking it?
I am open to all kinds of archetypes but spike isn't in me. I get bored (and anxious in super competitive settings).
June 16, 2016 8:33 p.m.
Postmortal_Pop says... #4
I've done almost every archetype that I've seen but honestly I prefer non aggressive wins, I like taking my time and showing off my cards. I tend to play control decks because of this and I have a hard time playing anything that's aggro heavy because I'm better at reacting to my opponent's plays.
June 16, 2016 10:13 p.m. Edited.
Servo_Token says... #5
Generally I play bigger mana tap out strategies as I love being in control but I can't stand being reactive. Fortunately i've found a deck in both formats that I play that allows me to accomplish this.
In pretty much every competitive constructed format, there's an established deck that suits your playstyle and preferences, so I wouldn't say that it's necessarily a bad thing to stick to your given archetypes. You may not be playing the best deck all of the time, but you will be playing your best magic because you are playing a deck you are comfortable with.
June 16, 2016 10:43 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #6
We are usually strongest around our preferences. If by hindrance you mean "don't become an expert at all things magic," than sure. If your aim is to be competitive at all times, playing to your strengths is often more likely to provide success than playing "the best deck" that doesnt suit you.
June 16, 2016 10:44 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #7
I am a johnny to the core, so if there is a wacky combo deck that has competitive merit to it, you can bet I'll be playing it. Even when I am playing EDH/Commander, I'll play aggro and control, but with a obvious combo element to it. So in that sense, I play every archetype but i enjoy combo the most.
June 17, 2016 12:19 p.m. Edited.
I have noticed a shift in my playstyle over the years .. I used to be heavy control... Then moved to aggro... Now I am at home playing midrange... I have yet to find combo or tempo fun to play.... Maybe I haven't found that right deck for me yet for those archetypes..
Tl;dr: my playstyle varies... No specific archetype for me to pick from...
June 19, 2016 2:04 p.m.
Midrange with mostly control elements - I currently have Esper Midrange, UW Blink, UB Faeries, etc.
Basically, playing solid creatures and backing them up with counterspells.
June 20, 2016 4:04 a.m.
strictlyWorse says... #10
i love control like any other control player, but it is bad to adhere to just one archetype.
i am definitely not serious when it comes to play (call me a casual, and we're gonna have problems), so most of my decks are just engineered to troll. having said that, i used to make only U/W or U/R decks... and i totally hated on Green... to the point where my collection reflects this in probably owning only 500 or so Green... C/U/R/M combined. lately, i have found that dumping the hate on certain color archetypes, and utilizing these strategies with my own, has opened up a whole new world of trolling a table.
in EDH it's easy to bend archetypes or completely ignore them... if you don't care about winning. but, in formats like standard, it is much more difficult to do such a thing.
having to use archetypes all depends on how you want to play.
PistonGolem says... #2
I kinda agree. I was testing some EDH decks earlier. One was Daretti artifact synergy, and the other was the Ob Nixils intro. I found the Ob easier to handle and play since you just play big spells and demon tokens. I have a preference to token decks. When I tried Daretti artifacts, I found myself not having as easy of a hold on the concepts of the artifact synergy. So yea, I understand this kind of thing...
June 16, 2016 8:15 p.m.