Tesseract #7: Ascendancy

Features Opinion

Spootyone

24 February 2019

827 views

Hello internet, and welcome back to Tesseract, the series that goes hyperdimensional on cube!

Last time, in Episode 6, I went into great detail about a large number of card swaps that were made to my cube with the introduction and testing of Ravnica Allegiance. For those of you who love card breakdowns, this is the article for you. For those of you who hate those kinds of articles, I think this time around I will have something more to your liking.

In this episode, I’m going to be trying something a little more outside of my wheelhouse. I want to speak directly to you about something that I think is critical to living a healthy life. Coincidentally, it’s also a fundamental pillar of being a good creator of something other people are going to partake in, namely Cube. And finally, it’s something I’ve spent the last 2 weeks really trying to focus on.

I want to speak to you all about being introspective in life, the importance of listening to others, and the importance of accepting - and embracing - change.

Ultimately, I will bring this all together and tell you how this pertains to me and my cube.

This is not going to be an article bashing the magic community. I am not looking to make a statement. Instead, I want to put a resource out there for those among us who wish to better themselves as individuals. This is a bit of an esoteric post from me, but I hope that all of you can find something in this article to relate to as creators, magic players, and humans.

Let’s get into it!

You may be wondering what brought all of this on. After all, normally I’m writing to you about a janky card I love or trying to persuade you to build a peasant list (and you should, by the way!). But it certainly would be a bit of a stark change to suddenly become a life coach, so allow me to explain what I’ve been up to.

In the last two weeks, I have been doing the rounds on the cube discord, on reddit, on google, and overall just speaking to other people about cube. My focus there has been researching for what will likely be the following article after this one. I bring this up because I realized it meant talking less and listening more. After all, if I’m trying to do research on something, I really shouldn’t be espousing my own opinions - I already know those!

I also had a few in-depth design conversations with Brad and Eric from the Solely Singleton podcast, a handful of people on their discord channel, and also Anthony Avitollo, who you may know as a sort of founding member of the cube format and cohost of the Third Power podcast. Most - if not all - of these conversations had me in the seat labeled “student” and the other people in the seat labeled “professor”. I actually love learning from artisans of their field, so it was a great experience for me. But it also comes with the agonizing tug of the Ego: Wanting to teach them. Wanting to be the person in that role. Wanting to be the smart one.

I’ll admit, I am not perfect. And I think one of my greatest flaws is that I have a desire, a need perhaps, to be right. I have a need to be the knowledgeable one. I have a need to be the genius and the person who really breaks down the walls of what is considered to be the normal and correct and open the eyes of people to what I perceive are the correct choices

But these are not the “correct” choices. These are “my” choices.

This led me to rewatch something that I think should be considered mandatory for anyone deciding to embark upon cube-building: Mark Rosewater’s “20 lessons in 20 years” conference. And while this isn’t the first time I’ve watched this fundamental learning piece, it was this time through that it really sank its teeth into me and had me looking upon myself and feeling the need to adjust. Let’s dive into that a bit now.

Why do we create?

It’s a simple question with a not so simple answer, but after some research and some personal thought put into it, I came up with a small list of reasons.

• To express oneself

• To prove you can

• To get recognition from others

• To gain self-gratification

• To entertain curiosity

It is my opinion that many of these reasons stem from one’s ego - specifically the top three, maybe four. I have great respect for skilled creators. I think they are some of the most interesting and enjoyable people to be around. The passion that exudes from these individuals is contagious and I love it. But I also like people who are humble in their creation. There are people who are great at what they do, know they are great at what they do, and due to that, their creation becomes more of a expression of “see, aren’t I amazing?” and less of a personal exercise in skill. This can become grating.

Of the creators I look towards and admire, many of them are very unique in what they can accomplish or what they create. In fact, I would go so far as to say that most of us crave to be unique. This is something prevalent in the magic community. What causes this phenomenon? I can’t be sure. Maybe such a game as ours just attracts that kind of person. Nonetheless, we should discuss what makes us crave this uniqueness.

Why do we have such a desire to be unique?

I think there are a few reasons. First of all, being unique and standing out is one of the quickest ways to achieve most of the things I’ve just listed above. If one’s ego drives their creation, it makes sense to act in such a way that hastens the recognition from others that grants that dopamine rush associated with it. And from my experience, people are much quicker to analyze something if it is unique because it easily attracts their attention.

We live in an age where information is all around us, and we have the world at our fingertips. In the world we live in today, you can be an incredibly skilled individual and never receive the same recognition as someone who is also good at what they do, but unique as well. Furthermore, expressing yourself usually hinges on showing that you are different from those around you. And so, for those of us (and I’m including myself in this group) who have strong desires for expression and recognition, being unique is really the only - or at least the best - way to achieve those things.

Now I want to take a step back and say that I don’t claim to think that all of this is a healthy mentality to have. After all, many people who simply desire for that aforementioned dopamine rush will quickly find themselves in a bad place. The internet is not a kind place. Those same people who want the happiness associated with “being good” or “being different” or “being right” can quickly realize that a single opinion of “you are terrible”, “you are no different” or “you are wrong” can not only counteract the happiness found from “you are good”, but drown out 100 voices saying the same positive thing. It’s called “negativity bias” and it’s something more people should grow familiar with.

I’m getting into the weeds a bit here, though, so let’s get back on track. Being unique is something many of us as magic players or creators in general have a strong desire towards. But there are positives and negatives to being unique, and this is where I want to bring all of this back together by bringing up Mark Rosewater’s conference again.

Why is being unique a good thing? I mentioned there are positives and negatives to seeking uniqueness, so we should go over them. Lesson #18 from Mark Rosewater (who I will be referring to as “Maro” from now on) is that “restrictions breed creativity.” Being unique in a creative environment can often mean restricting yourself in some way. If you’re an artist, maybe you paint without brushes and instead with tomato soup cans (Perhaps my Andy Warhol memories are corrupted). Restricting yourself in a creative field can force you to begin thinking outside the box.

As Maro explains in the conference, our brains are hard-wired to utilize the same solution to a problem if that option is available to us. In the context of cube, you are much more likely to play the same cards someone else does if you are building in the same format as them and know what they are playing. Because of this, many people - myself included - can find frustration in working inside the same “space” as other people. Many creators use restrictions to break from this mentality to great success, by finding new ways to solve old problems.

Continuing on in the context of cube and game design in general, Lesson #16 from Maro is to “be more afraid of boring your players than challenging them”. As he puts it, people are much more likely to enjoy or remember things which are different from the norm. For example, I would be much more interesting in checking out someone’s cube if it was the “Control Cube” than if it were the “My 450 Unpowered Cube”. This may not be true for everyone, but as a basic rule we tend to focus more on strange and sometimes complex things. And so when you are building a cube, it’s important to cater to this fact. And this can lead to needing to be pretty unique in your design.

Being unique can also have the added benefit of making it “easier” to achieve record success in untrodden territory. If you create the first-ever “Izzet Cube”, you can guarantee that you’ll have the best damn Izzet cube on the market. You’ll also have the worst Izzet cube on the market, but that’s for a later discussion. Finding a niche allows you to have less competition in that chosen niche, and oftentimes this can mean greater success in being recognized or being lauded. Again, this may not be the best way to go about things, but it is true nevertheless.

Finally, the truth is that without new ideas, nothing new would ever be created. It takes someone who is willing to break the boundaries and step outside of the comfort zone to change the course of history - especially in creative fields. Take a look at Seb McKinnon. Take a look at Raymond Swanland. Take a look at Nils Hamm. All of these artists are incredibly talented, but on top of that, I can immediately picture what kinds of art they would create. I can immediately recognize a piece of art as “theirs” when I see it. And why is that? It’s because of their unique styles.

In many cases, making something new opens the doors for others to branch off of that and make something even newer! And you repeat and repeat and you end up somewhere fascinating and new and amazing. And ultimately it would never have been possible without that one person taking a stand and saying “you know what? I want to be different.”

However, trying to be unique can also be bad, so let’s talk about that now.

If I say “I want to play piano”, I can find a plethora of tutors, online videos, books and more that will help me get a head start and avoid the traps and pitfalls that other individuals had to learn firsthand. There is a common phrase from long ago that usually expresses itself nowadays as “standing on the shoulders of giants.” The idea is that you can discover more by building on previous discoveries.

When you take that leap into bold new territory, however, you can quickly find yourself with no hurdles from others to jump from. This can be frustrating. It can easily lead to making mistakes, and it can lead to a bad design or just a bad experience for yourself in general. Making the choice to break off from the norm can be a disheartening and grueling process.

Furthermore, there is a problem that can arise when someone gets lost in being unique, and fails to focus on the quality of their work. The ego can begin to take over and cause that person to act in the way that best suits the interest of being different and to continue being different, since that may have been their cause for success in the first place. I think this is something that begins to be more critical when focusing on game design.

Lesson #12 from Maro is “don’t design to prove you can do something.” And lesson #5 is “don’t confuse interesting for fun.” These two lessons are the ones that have hit me the hardest and they are what I want to primarily focus on for the end of the piece when I discuss my cube. The idea here is that being different can be good, but making something interesting and different as a challenge does not always equate to making a successful game.

If I decide one day to make that aforementioned Izzet cube, I’m sure I could do it. However, I am likely to end up creating something that many people would not find enjoyable to draft. And this is because I have sacrificed the integrity of the cube by limiting the cards I could play with to such a degree that the game doesn’t function well enough.

Doing something for the sake of being unique can result in something interesting, but one should not assume that it also means people will like to partake in it. And I think it is when you begin to go too far out of the box that this becomes a problem with game design. And...finally...this is where I want to begin to talk to you all about my cube.

In case you haven’t inferred as much by now, I will be moving forward with a different set of legality rules for my Peasant cube. The reason for this has to do with everything that I have mentioned above, and I’m going to explain how shortly, but first I felt it necessary to explain again what the old legality rules for my cube were.

The Old Rules

For all nonland cards:

• Must have been printed at common or uncommon in paper at some point.

• Must have been printed - in any rarity - since the release of Innistrad.

For lands:

• Legal at any rarity and from any printing.

• Lands chosen were to focus on being good dual lands for healthier deckbuilding, but not for maximal power.

I recognize that these legality rules are complex, confusing, seemingly nonsense, and otherwise generally...bad. But I want to take a moment and defend them.

When I first build my cube, I mainly wanted a nostalgia trip for myself. I wanted a way for me to play with cards I loved when I first started playing magic, which just so happened to be the standard environment where Innistrad was the oldest legal set. This meant focusing on cards I personally had played with or had access to. I also wanted an emphasis on cards that had been designed for standard, and actually had a rule originally where only cards that had once been standard legal were allowed. But all in all, my cube was a personal experience: it was for me.

I chose Peasant as a middle ground between pauper and unpowered. Pauper was what I originally had planned on making the cube, but I felt like it was too restrictive. Unpowered looked like more fun, but I don’t like proxies and I knew I couldn’t afford all of the rares and mythics I’d need should the cube contain them. And furthermore, I knew that not many people built peasant cubes, and so that was a way for me to feel unique in my design. Lastly, all of the restrictions on myself as a designer felt like a challenge, and I love challenges.

However, I could never have anticipated the ways that cube would encompass my life like they did. I had no intention of writing articles again. I had no intention of sharing my creation with anyone apart from the closest of friends. And I certainly didn’t anticipate having to explain myself to people time and again for the sake of clarity. So let’s talk about the new rules.

The New Rules

For all nonland cards:

• All nonland cards will follow traditional Peasant cube legality, in which a card must have been printed at common or uncommon at some point in time.

• This will include Magic Online-only sets.

For lands:

• Legal at any rarity and from any printing.

• Lands chosen are to continue to focus on being good dual lands for healthier deckbuilding, and not for power reasons.

So why am I changing my legality rules? Well, it has to do with everything I’ve been speaking about up to now.

Lesson #12 was to not design to prove you can do something. I wanted to prove I could make a cube with only cards from Innistrad forward, but this proved to be more of an experiment and less of a good product for others to want to play. Lesson #5 was to not confuse interesting with fun. I had felt like the more different and strange my “format” was, the more fun it would be for others to partake in. That’s just no true, and I have had my eyes opened to that by speaking to other members of the community and by listening to those that are masters of the field.

My cube has grown from a simple, personal nostalgia trip. This cube is now an outward expression of myself for others to see. Many more people look at and draft this cube compared to what I had originally intended, and this creates a rift between my original designs and the function my design needs to have now. My old rules were over-complicated. I couldn’t explain them quickly and easily. I couldn’t “pitch” my cube to new people. And having to explain all of my reasoning quickly became annoying.

What’s more is that well-intentioned people couldn’t even assist me very easily. I would get so many questions of “why don’t you play this?” only to have to explain the arbitrary hoops one has to jump through to know whether or not the card was actually legal or not. Hell, the rules were so complex that I, myself, missed cards from time to time. And the people who wanted to aid me? They likely found doing so a frustrating process because of the restrictions.

Simultaneously, we have discussed how standing out in a crowd can be a good thing for design, and that being unique is important to me as an individual. Lesson #17 from Maro is that “you don’t have to change much to change everything.” This is another one that I really had to internalize. I was trying so hard to be unique that I overdid it. The reality is that I run a peasant list, and that is already pretty unique. And on top of that, I also play with rare dual lands, which I have come to find out is plenty enough difference from the norm for me to feel like I still have a niche to fill.

Ultimately, I feel like the changes I will be making to my cube will be healthy changes that will benefit myself, the people who look at my cube, and the people who play with my cube. And the important takeaway I want to end on is that none of these realizations would have been possible without the ability to suppress that ego a little, the ability to listen to the critiques and opinions of other people, and the ability to embrace change.

I could have decided to keep up walls and double down on “my way”, but it would have put a burden on the success of my cube and likely of this series. Instead, I am trying to listen more to what other people say and accept the fact that as it stands right now, I am still a student. There may come a day when I get to embrace the role of teacher, but that time is not now and not yet. I’m not new to magic the gathering. And honestly I’m not new to cube either. But an important distinction here is knowing that I am also not yet a master and that that will require talking less and listening more.

If there’s one thing I want encourage all of us as cube designers and magic players to do, it is to make an effort to be less ego-driven. Not everything is going to be about you. Not everything you do will be perfect. And you certainly won’t always be right. But recognizing this and accepting it can be the stepping stone into a new world of happy and healthy design, gameplay, and love of our favorite game.

I did something for this article that I don’t normally do: I sent it to multiple close friends for thoughts and revisions. This one really meant a lot to me, so I wanted to hear voices beyond my own. How very meta!

Coincidentally, one person said something that really stuck with me: “The secret to creative stuff is to never stop learning, you know?” Do you see the irony in that? I spent hours writing, trying explain how I felt, and in one pass he was able to summarize the entire piece in a single sentence.

Beautiful.

And with that, I will leave you all for another two weeks. If you enjoyed what you’ve read, make sure to let me know either in the comments below, or you can find me on Twitter at @Spootyone. I also encourage all of you to take an hour to listen to the conference I referred to many times throughout this article. I will have it posted below. I’ll speak to you again in 2 weeks.

20 Lessons in 20 Years

The Spooty Contemporary Peasant Cube