Times have changed me. What about you?
General forum
Posted on Aug. 21, 2014, 7:49 a.m. by Putrefy
Hello fellow tapped-outers,
I don't know exactly where to start. First off, I need to thank you all very much. When I've restarted playing Magic again in June '13 I was lost. I didn't know mana-burn was removed, I didn't know damage would no longer go on the stack, I didn't know what Gruul, Esper or Jund meant. All I knew was: I wanted to play Magic again.
I had bought the Sorin vs Tibalt duel-deck pack to play with my girlfriend. She liked it but not to the extend I did. And so she more or less quit and I got sucked into the Multiverse once again. My card-pool was limited as I had sold all my old cards (a moment of silence please for the dumbest decision of my life so far...), and so I looked around the interwebs and found tappedout.net. I was fascinated. I had never seen such a site before and I started rambling through recent Standard-decks.
I sat down and read article after article and studied the most recent sets. I literally sat down and went on magiccards.info and looked through all Standard-legal cards at that time. I learned of new mechanics like Morbid and Undying. I learned that Planeswalkers were a new card-type and how to utilize them.
My vigor was soon dulled a bit, after I was reading the price-tags on all those "FNM #1, IQ #1, 5-0 FNM" decks. But after digesting the fact that I might spend hundreds and hundreds of euros on paper cards, I started analyzing some deck-lists. I started with Hydras (you know the combo Corspejack Menace Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch Kalonian Hydra . It was ok, I bought the deck played a little with it and was like: 'meh all this deck does is turn creatures sideways and lose, if your opponent has anything, especially Supreme Verdict ." Oh boy, there were a lot of Supreme Verdict s during that time (and I hated every single one of it). Also my LGS had a very competitive playerfield and after 0-3ing 4 FNMs in a row I was really on the verge of quitting again. But I didn't. I wanted to wait what rotation might bring.
Theros Standard was super-great at first. Nobody really knew what would be the next strong deck, and I was always drawn to green and black, even when I was playing as a kid (Spiritmonger , Pernicious Deed , you know them all). And so I built a very competitive G/B Devotion deck and for the first time, I went 2-1 at FNM. I played 4 Garys main before anyone else did at my LGS, even before the PT. All the other good players that lost to me during that time called me a noob and idiot for playing that mediocre 5-drop - how wrong theyve been
I proceeded to win Game-Day Theros with my G/B-Devotion deck and the feeling was overwhelming. I now know Game-Day is no big deal, but to me it was the greatest thing in the world at that moment. I had beaten players that were going to GPs and PTQs and such events, some of them even played at the PT. And I knew I wanted more. I wanted to become one of the best.
Fast Forward to February 2014. I decided to stop playing Standard and started playing Modern. I saved some money every other month and finally had it finished: my Obliterator Rock deck. It has seen some transformations to jund, junk, tec-edge rock and I really still love it.
Ive been to several GP-Trials, 4 PTQs and 1 GP this year so far. My mindset has changed completely. Where I once was stunned by the beauty of huge-ass combos like the Hydra-combo or Elite Arcanist , Triton Tactics , Zhur-Taa Druid , I now analyze like a machine: You need 3 out of your 60 cards to assemble that combo, which is unlikely. And even if you assemble it, it is very weak to any removal and youre basically begging for a 3 for 1. Which means your opponent will be up 2 cards and if you dont have a way to equalize this card-disadvantage again you will lose.
What has happened? Where is the innocent casual-magic-loving-me? Why am I no longer the one who asks if Akroan Skyguard + Lightning Talons would be a good combo? Why have I become the analyzing machine-like magic-roboter?
Every new set they print gets taken apart. Not enough good cards, not enough cards that are competitive playable, wizards suck, etc.
My view on Magic has turned by180 degrees in a year. I no longer get satisfaction from 3-0ing a FNM. I mean sure its nice but sometimes you play against really bad players (I dont know how to word this politely). And every time they make a misplay I cringe inside and I want to stand up and point it out to them and explain why they shouldnt have played their creature pre-combat, why they shouldve left mana open to represent a combat trick, why it was bad to main-phase doom-blade my creature, But then I think to myself: maybe I should leave them be. Let them have fun with magic the way they do. Not everyone is on my level. And maybe that is ok. Maybe its good for our community that we have pro-ish players and casuals alike?
What is your experience? Have you gone through the same transformation yourself? What is your opinion on the matter?
Regards
I used to play a mono white token deck that I was really proud of. I could beat all of my friends so I thought I would go to a Modern tournament with it. What happened was quite the eye opening experience. I got my ass handed to me each and every duel I played there. So after those soul-crushing defeats, I decided to improve my deck. Around this time someone had mentioned to me that my deck would be a lot better if I splashed black into it. At the time I barely even knew what the distinction between Standard and Modern was, let alone all of the archetypes within them. I gave it some thought and found some cards like Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek . And from that point on I started building my b/w token deck to where it is now, and I have a working knowledge of each archetype in Modern. I can safely say though, that none of that would have happened had I not found tappedout. Without the community here I probably would still be stuck in my old mono white token deck playing casually with just my friends. It makes me sad every now and then, because I've lost the ability to play casually so to speak, but it makes up for it every time I go to an FNM.
August 21, 2014 9:17 a.m.
When you get good at the game you start seeing things differently.
I still have room in my heart for cards like Prognostic Sphinx even though I know, deep down, that they're almost unplayable (almost). I changed in the same way. I went from appreciating the more fun aspects to appreciating winning and it actually negatively effected me. There are lots of cards I would LOVE to play with but I know I never will because from a Spike perspective they suck. Predator Ooze is one example. Welcome to the club though.
I think, basically, that your outlook changes as you develop as a player.
No offense but you're still pretty young to the game (since you joined in 13). You might change again? I've been playing since the start of 12 and got into modern at roughly the same time you started. My attitude changes regularly in terms of being mega competitive versus being easy going.
August 21, 2014 9:28 a.m.
I've been playing since '01 and I'm still waiting to live in a place where I can play competitively. The people I play casually with are starting to not like to play with me.
August 21, 2014 9:38 a.m.
ChiefBell - there were 12 copies of Prognostic Sphinx in the pro tour journey into nyx top 8. seems like it was very playable.
August 21, 2014 9:55 a.m.
I've tried EDH, once. I got to play a Vampire-tribal deck from one of my friends and we played for like 3 hours. I've never been so bored in my entire magic-career :/ I don't understand what people like about EDH, I just don't get it :D
@ xzzane
that's exactly what I mean. I can longer enjoy playing scrub-decks. The only casual thing I do is booster-battles...
No offense taken. I know I'm relatively new to the game (though I've played it excessively back in the day), but I don't think my attitude will change again. I invest 3-6 hours each day in Magic. Be it reading articels, tweaking decklists or acutally playing the game. I know from my previous encounters with casual games, that one can play competitively, that once the competitive spark is ignited, there is no going back. It was the same for me with Starcraft and DotA (the old DotA, the mod for WC3). I'm a bit sad, because I know that I will try hard and will become frustrated very quickly if things go wrong. But I still love playing Magic.
that's actually very sad :(. Have you tried MTGO?
August 21, 2014 10:08 a.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #8
I came into magic from a highly technical (I-No player Guilty Gear) and highly competitive (3rd Strike) gaming back ground which is why I probably jumped straight into modern. I understood the interactions and tactics between players a lot more than I understood the mechanics of magic. Soon as I started going to FNM some of the more veteran players around my shop were happy to help me out and school me because they saw I absorbed the knowledge almost instantly. Any time some one would pull off a combat trick or something I didn't know u could do I would make a note to remember it. I remember the first time I used Deathrite Shaman to exile something out of an opponents grave only to have the effect stopped dead in it's track by them exiling the same thing in response. :/ 1 time is all it took lol :)
August 21, 2014 10:23 a.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #9
I really started becoming "good" at MTG right around Dragon's Maze. I'm a lot better now than I was then, but I wasn't entirely a "filthy casual" either. That was right around the time where I started investing a lot more time in Tappedout. If it tells you anything, pre-T/O my favorite card was Heretic's Punishment . Now it's Tinker .
Ironically, the more time I spend on Tappedout learning about and improving my game, the more I alienate my playgroup. It ended up getting bad enough that for two straight hours I couldn't play a game. Nobody wanted to play me, though I also blame the influence of Project M.
August 21, 2014 10:28 a.m.
derKochXXL says... #10
I believe I'm in the transition states between the two states you describe. Maybe I'll never grow out of it but I'm always excited for new sets. On the other hand I've started playing modern and am actually attending a ptq on Sunday (anybody else in Dusseldorf?). I really love the analysing and believe I'm quite good at it, but I also love drafting and prereleases.
August 21, 2014 10:39 a.m.
trentfaris242 says... #11
It's literally the curse of playing ANY game competitively. For me, that game was Super Smash Bros: Melee. You know the one. The game that you and your friends used to stay up for hours playing and doing silly stuff with only Pokeballs turned on? Ya, that one.
Anyways, I took that game WAY too far. Learned every single "glitch" in the game that became an "advanced tech" at competitive play. I would literally come home from school and practice my tech. It was flawless.
I'd go to tournaments and breeze through the matches. If the opponent was pretty good and also competitive, I'd dominate them with Falco. If they had no idea what they were doing I'd make them seem silly with Young Link.
And then something happened. I started to lose. Obviously I knew that time would come, I wasn't perfect. But when it did it completely destroyed the game for me. I no longer played the game because it was fun. I played it because I had to be competitive, and losing made me realize that I had blackened my perspective of a really good game.
I think one game that most people can relate to now-a-days is League of Legends. Super fun until you try ranked. Then nothing matters except getting that border.
I think the solution is to have both competitive and casual play. I'm incredibly competitive, so even when I'm playing casually it's hard to relax. But if you don't take a step back from the competitive scene every now and then you will ruin the game for yourself. It doesn't matter how much you love it or how much time it takes. It will happen. So just pace yourself. Play competitive and chase that adrenaline rush when you go 5-0 at a FNM, but also make silly decks that would never work in tournaments.
August 21, 2014 10:39 a.m.
MindAblaze says... #12
I think there's definitely been an evolution for me in the game. I've been playing since 2008/09 under the mentorship of an avid Spike. My card choices were scrutinized from day one, as everyone around us quit as it "became an arms race." Duels are how Magic is meant to be played anyway I thought.
Eventually, we attended FNMs, Game Days and even a PTQ, winning quite often along the way. I had a young family and couldn't regularly dedicate the time to it that he committed, so as he won a PTQ and got DQd for having the same card in his decklist in two places (leading to an inaccurate count) I settled into my life.
We've since mostly parted ways, living a 16 hour drive apart I've played him twice in the past two years. I still appreciate the competitiveness, but I've realized that I now live in a different environment. I still build decks to win, but I will choose cards and strategies more tailored to the primarily multiplayer environment I exist in. Obviously I still have my duel decks for our competitive forays, but I realize as I'm cramming 8 fetches and 6 shocks into my Junk Landfall Token Deck...something is different.
August 21, 2014 11:05 a.m.
Lol.... I started playing when New Phyrexia began to be spoiled. Thats in 2011. I was only 13 back then.... (Guess how old I'm now!). I have left and joined MTG a lot of times. A really lot of times. Now after 3 years, I'm still not a competitive player. I would really love to become one, but for some wierd reason (I don't know why) I just can't build a deck, that is not mine. Well, a deck that is actually good.... But I'm becoming a little more serious. The thing right now is, that I don't know which deck to play. I just can't decide...
I have found out, that being too casual is not good. You will just quit magic at some point.
August 21, 2014 11:16 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #15
Putrefy it sounds just like you had a bad experience with EDH. Most of the games I play are only 1-2 hours and are fast paced. Recently I was playing a 4 player game with my Roon Clones and it got to T5, someone resolved a Thundermaw Hellkite so I copied it with Phantasmal Image and a kicked Rite of Replication where I knocked someone out that turn.
Sometimes it can be slow and plodding but most of the time it's not.
August 21, 2014 11:20 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #16
I almost exclusively played casual multiplayer games for a very long time. Though I ended up getting pretty good at card evaluation and knew the difference between casual good and constructed good (I could take a rogue deck to the odd FNM here and there and at least break even in my record), it was about 10 years before I finally "got it". I think the turning point was a SCG Open weekend where I played on both the Standard and Legacy days, doing absolutely terribly in each. The realization was like flipping a switch, because after it was all over I could immediately see that the decks I built were just awful compared to everything else out there, and that I was very foolish to expect them to do anything but lose. Nowadays I'm still a not-so-great rogue deckbuilder for constructed formats, but at least I'm well aware of the fact, and I'm also much more willing to listen to and understand the conventional wisdom on why such and such deck is good, how good another deck needs to be in order to beat it, and where they all have opportunities for customization if I want to build my own weird versions of them.
I had a pretty uncomfortable experience a few weeks ago related to the main topic. I was hanging around the LGS one weekend afternoon waiting for an event to start up (I think it was a Launch or something), and this guy comes in to look around, thumb through the quarter/dollar boxes, and see if anyone wants to play a few games before he heads out. I get to talking with him and find out that he mostly plays casual games with his friends and hasn't bought a whole lot of cards since M10. The deck he's brought along with him is his main casual deck, and I happen to have one on me as well (my Double-Sized Dredge deck), so we shuffle up. It only takes a few turns before I get a really terrible "oh no, what do I do?" feeling as he continues using weak cards to make sub-par plays in a totally (I hate to say things like this) nooby mono-Red deck that he obviously thinks is awesome. I don't know how to play like that anymore, and I just didn't know what to do. I didn't want to discourage him or offend him, but I couldn't just throw the games either, you know? I could tell he was frustrated after losing the 3 games that he played, but it seemed like he was just attributing it to back luck rather than the wildly unbalanced matchup. After he left the shop, I still felt kind of weird for a while.
August 21, 2014 11:26 a.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #17
Putrefy I have had an almost identical experience to yours.
I have owned Magic cards since I was ten, about six years ago. I attended a summer camp where they had a Magic class, which I mistook for a class that would teach me to pull rabbits out of hats and the like. In my first game ever, I rigged my deck to be able to assemble the combo of Pariah on Cho-Manno, Revolutionary and had the greatest time of my life. Further years at that same camp saw me take part in informal tournaments with a red-green pile of cards that I loved to death. Making it to the finals of a tournament after beating friends was really enjoyable to me.
I purchased some more intro packs from various sets, finding things I thought were cool on the Internet and asking my parents for them. I played every now and then whenever I felt the urge with my brother and our neighbor, and occasionally when I would go to friends' houses who also played. We threw together decks with four Shock s, Goblin Piker s, and the best card between all of us was probably Bull Cerodon or Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer .
I kind of gave up Magic until around May of last year, when I purchased a New Phyrexia intro deck that featured three copies each of Blighted Agent and Glistener Elf . I decided to try and make this deck better, and so I came upon my competitive Infect deck, which I have been tuning for a year and you can see on my profile if you so choose.
Nowadays, I love checking out new decks in the competitive sphere, playing formats like Modern and Legacy on Cockatrice, and reading a great deal of content on Magic websites. I have never attended a Magic tournament, but thankfully there exists a Magic club at my school where I can play with people who own four Underground Sea s (which still blows my mind) and take Magic seriously. I proxy when playing against them, but it's no less fun for me.
A couple of days ago I really realized how far I've come. I visited one of my old friends from years ago, and I helped him fix his decks. He stubbornly argued that it's OK to play 63 cards if there are cards you really want, and many of his cards were one- and two-ofs that I had to wade through to get to something semi-playable. I had fun, but also realized that such things I thought were amazing years ago like Conquering Manticore and Enormous Baloth are now under my level of thought. It's eye-opening, it really is.
August 21, 2014 11:42 a.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #18
I think it's important to maintain a connection to a more casual, beginner level while you play the competitive decks you want to play. My old Magic friends don't understand the intricacies of the stack, triggers and such, and trying to explain a deck like Scapeshift , Affinity or Melira Pod to them would be impossible. Still, I try my best to let them enjoy their fun with the cards they want to play, and let them know I think what they're doing is pretty damn cool.
August 21, 2014 11:44 a.m.
I've managed to stay in between the lines by playing less magic in general. I was getting tired of playing the same deck day in and day out to win, and playing against the same deck day in and day out, but that is how it goes. By dialing it back and branching into other formats, it gave me more room to toy with ideas, and then improve upon it. While I'm a control player at hear, I can effectively play just about any archtype under the sun due to trying something different to keep it interesting. It'll go differently for everyone, just learn not to sell your stuff because you're quitting.
August 21, 2014 11:56 a.m.
trentfaris242 says... #20
@thispersonisagenius "I attended a summer camp where they had a Magic class, which I mistook for a class that would teach me to pull rabbits out of hats and the like."
10/10 Would spit my drink out on my keyboard again.
I might be getting a little off topic by saying this, but we've been talking about competitive vs. casual in this thread so here goes. It's important to remember to act appropriately based on the environment that you're in.
I used to live in a place that only played Modern and Standard during the week and just drafted for FNM. The prizes weren't spectacular. It was just a casual draft tournament. Of the 30 people that often showed up, maybe 2 of them were hyper competitive try-hards. It's really easy to ruin the mood of an environment by being "that guy" who's life will be ruined if he loses this FNM draft while the rest of us are just trying to have fun.
The opposite also holds true. If you're at a big Magic tournament were people go to compete and win prizes, don't be "that guy" who clearly is only there because their competitive friend dragged them along. Again, it ruins the mood of the environment.
Change your attitude based on the environment you're playing in.
August 21, 2014 12:01 p.m.
Nigeltastic says... #21
I've been playing since gatecrash, and in that time I've watched hundreds of hours of magic, read tons of articles and played a lot. This has led me to be better and more competitive, but differently than some it seems. I do not associate winning with being good at magic, not even a little bit. I genuinely believe you can go 0-5 and have played perfect magic. The key is to play as crisply and technically correct as possible, and if you are always triggering and ordering and playing correctly, the wins will come with time. My quest is not to win, but to play as perfectly as possible and avoid results based thinking.
August 21, 2014 12:17 p.m.
Steven_Fuckin_Hyde says... #22
Reading this I think I have a bit different view on the whole competitive vs. casual aspect if Magic. Standard has always been my main format. I go so hard at tournaments sometimes that its almost unhealthy, and I'd do anything to take first. But I tend to go against the norm with my competitive decks. Usually I'll take a winning archetype (at least in my meta) and use jankier cards. For example, in my Green Devotion splash Blue, I run Rubblebelt Raiders. And everytime I drop it, people that play at my LGS give me a weird look and scorn me a bit... Until I kick their ass (I've won multiple FNMs...). But when it comes to casual, I play EDH. And honestly, EDH is the most fun format I've ever played although I really suck at it. This is where I find the casual-like player in me because I noticed that I hold on to combos that would never work in an EDH deck and I still run them just cause I think they're cool. I don't know. That's just my bit.
August 21, 2014 12:23 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #23
@trentfaris242 You'd be surprised how many people that happens to. They don't word the class descriptions well enough, and they embellish the "planeswalker" part a little too much. :)
August 21, 2014 12:27 p.m.
HorrorAvengers says... #24
A year ago I played standard, I was using homebrew after homebrew, I don't think I ever stuck with a deck for more that 2 weeks. A couple months ago, I started playing mono blue devotion, and that was the longest I'd ever had the same standard deck. I won several FNMs with it, made my money back using it. But at about that time I realized a format I prefer; EDH. While my mono blue cost me about 80, 90$ to make (not counting trades), and won me about 100ish$, my Prime Speaker Zegana deck I've spent closer to 200$ back, and have made up that money, and made enough to buy 2 other decks; A Ruric Thar and a Sharum deck. The point of this? In a year I changed from somebody lookign for a deck that fint me well, because while I played yugioh, I had the same deck from when I started playing to when I quit, and was looking for the same kind of deck in magic. Now, pretty sure I've found it. It's starting to come full circle, as I'm now experimenting with grixis counter-burn (splashing black for downfalls so I don't die to mistcutter, and looking into Spirit Bonds homebrews.
August 21, 2014 2:37 p.m.
For me, I've always been that guy playing Boros. And, at least in my home-town, Boros is basically the crown jewel color combo for the new players who are entranced by how cool cards are and, (typically) are very very new to the game working on a $5 budget. For me, I never really lost that enjoyment of 'fun' cards despite my changed perspective on their viability. I still build every deck I make around one or two key cards that I really enjoy the flavor, story, art, and overall design of.
As I've gotten further as a Magic player I've been moderately alright at judging a card's power level compared to most of my peers (about six of us started at the beginning of Zendikar). Where others were enamored with various decks with various kinks I spent my time watching and studying the cards as I was unable to afford nearly any for quite some time. Since then I've grown as a Magic player and I'm much better at correctly gauging a card's power level than I used to be. Despite that I still put forth a very high level of effort to incorporate cards I enjoy into lists of my own or other's creation. (Usually my own.)
As a player I've always wanted to win with the deck and/or archetype I enjoy the most. As I've gone along I've generated a much higher win-rate than I used to, although this is partially due to the fact that I'm able to outright afford cards to complete my decks rather than relying on what I can scrounge at the time or just not finishing decks at all.
Examples of cards I like are: Legion's Initiative , Assemble the Legion , Precursor Golem , Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer , Glory of Warfare , Rafiq of the Many , Mirran Crusader , Lightning Helix , Balefire Liege , Stoic Rebuttal , Etched Champion , Hovermyr , Figure of Destiny , Darksteel Juggernaut and others of varying levels of playability. (Obviously this is a pretty short list compared to what I could theoretically drag up.)
TLDR: I still have the same sort of mindset as when I started but I'm better at judging cards and knowing the ins and outs of when to do things.
August 21, 2014 7:25 p.m.
I agree on the "change your attitude" point. However I think it's much harder for a casual player to suddenly play seriously than the other way round. I try really hard, if I attend FNM to be casual. It's for fun and stuff, I try to talk to my opponent about this and that, how was your week, how's it going etc. But as I already mentioned our playerfield is pretty competitive so you always have scrubs & pros at FNM at our LGS.
And that's what bothers me a bit, you can't lean back and have a fun 3 hours of casual play because of some tryhards (who call a judge when you miss a trigger and ask if you can gain the life from Soldier of the Pantheon even though it's already their turn).
I try to stay connected to the more casual players but since my environment (all of my friends are highly competitive tryhards who have achieved PTQ Top8s and WMCQ Wins and whatnot in the last months) is competitive, I don't know how to help casual players. I realize this more and more when I go through some threads and posts around here: "Help me tune my U/W heroic deck." And then it starts with: "it has to be a budget deck". And I'm like: "nope, cannot help here."
I mean I can understand why there are players who don't want to spend thousands of dollars for paper cards (or simply can't because they study or go to school or have other, more urgent responsibilities), but I cannot connect with them. Because if you want to play competitively, you play the absolute best cards no matter the pricetag. (And yes I do know, that there are decks - even in Modern - that can be competitive without costing thousands of dollars. But they're not Tier 1 & 2 and most of the time, they're just tuned-down lists from what's really successful - like burn without fetches or infect without hierarchs and fetches.).
I'd really like to help other, less experienced players but most of the times it's impossible because of certain barriers and that bothers me.
August 22, 2014 6:06 a.m.
MindAblaze says... #27
I hear you on that point Putrefy.
I think the key for me has been remembering to focus on their goals. I rarely find myself saying "I'd build your deck like this", rather saying things like "how do you want it to play?" "how has Card X played for you?" etc etc. Put the power back in their hands, because magic is, as you've recognized, not something that exists in a vacuum for anyone.
For example, I know when helping someone with a 3 color EDH deck that 9 fetches, ABUR duals and shocks (possibly checks/buddies too) is your optimal mana shell. I also know that my Naya deck is the cheapest possible version of that with no Polluted Delta
. Nevermind if you happen to require an Underground Sea
. I'm not even going to suggest it without throwing the "what's your budget" question out first. I tend to teach newer players in a more general way about theory, stuff like "reusable effects are better than one time effects, mass effects are better than targetted effects etc" seems to resonate. Again, it's always going to be colored by what I believe, and I think that's ok.
You can't blame the more experienced, spikier players for having a different perspective either. I remember giving somebody a hard time for suggesting a player replace his Dusk Urchins with Dark Confidant . I remember thinking...really this 80 dollar staple is better than a dollar rare? Come on.
August 22, 2014 10:41 a.m.
You should always be able to moderate suggestions based on budget and other restrictions. You can only really be a fantastic player if you're not only comfortable with the top tier, high budget stuff but ALSO the lower budget options too. The best player has knowledge of all cards and where they fit into the bigger picture, rather than narrow tunnel vision.
August 22, 2014 1:55 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #29
Yeah, it's not a direct one for one replacement either. By using a budget alternative to Dark Confidant, you have to realize it effects the way the rest of the deck functions and adapt accordingly.
August 22, 2014 1:58 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #30
Honestly bro. I feel the pain in that. The way I've looked at is this. I've been playing for nearly 9 years. I'm better than your average player but much worse than a talented player. Now I've put a challenge to myself. I swore off playing Green or Blue forever...I have 1 EDH deck that uses blue and I never had it assembled in paper but i'm challenging myself to build the perfect RWB deck literally. Maybe that's something similar you can do? Set mini goals for yourself?
August 28, 2014 8:37 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #31
I wouldn't impose such a strict restriction on yourself. Frank Karsten tried playing highlander decks in Pro Tours, and he decided not to, so I think (being a worse player) you should leave your options open. You cannot build the perfect RWB deck because there are fundamentally different archetypes you could be playing.
August 28, 2014 8:40 p.m.
As a different kind of change, mtg has helped me overcome my shyness.
I used to not really want to talk to others. It always made me really nervous. But starting in college, when I met a bunch of people who also played mtg, helped me break out of my shell, and they've become really good friends who are now a big part of my life.
Because of mtg I've also started going to a LGS for events and such, something I never would have done before. It definitely has been a positive change for me.
Ohthenoises says... #2
I had MBD together for a while and I had it together in nearly it's final form on the release of theros, it was fine cause I was winning with it and winning often, but then something happened: I lost my desire to just get cheap wins, I wanted to have fun. So I built zhur taa combo just for fun fully realizing that it was an inconsistent combo. Sometimes I just have to take a step back from competitive magic for a while.
Now I'm back in the brewing corner with a collaboration deck. Me and a friend are building Junk walkers in tandem to see what the best results are.
For my casual fix I usually play EDH.
August 21, 2014 8:45 a.m.