FNM Experience from New Player Perspective
General forum
Posted on Aug. 21, 2013, 11:46 a.m. by gavoryn
Allow me to relay my experience as a new player, being introduced to FNM.
Brief history: I played magic starting at the age of 14 in 1994. I stopped playing sometime in 1997. I remember the announcement of Weatherlight, but I never purchased any. I havent thought about or touched it since then. At that age, I was more interested in completing sets, learning the story/lore, etc. I proudly completed the entire Revised set, Fallen Empires twice, and came close to finishing some of the later sets.
Last Friday (16-Aug-2013), I got a wild impulse to check out a local game shop after seeing a random advertisement on the web. I had never in my life played Magic in any kind of structured/organized capacity. It was always with close friends and the occasional acquaintance at school. What really attracted me was reading the WotC site about the Draft format of play. I figured that it would be an easier re-introduction to the game as I would not have to face someones extensive and carefully selected collection. I would only be pitted against their likely superior knowledge and strategy.
I LOVE improvising on the spot and making due with the limited resources at hand. I love the chance and randomness that can also be somewhat compensated for by a solid strategy and/or solid grasp of statistics and probability. I am very interested in trying some pre-constructed decks in Standard FNM. I may eventually like to try Modern, but Im trying to break back into the game without breaking my bank, and it seems like my former collection is of no use (soon to be for trade/sale) in these new formats. Yes, I know there are formats that allow them, but my personal preference is Standard and possibly Modern.
I was nervous about playing at the shop though. I knew going into it that there were several competitive players and a few them with high DCI rankings. However, when I got there, I found that the majority of the players were very understanding and helpful. There was one guy who kept making noises when I would actually take the time to read cards before drafting. I suppose thats what happens when you dont know what a vagina feels like. Otherwise, even the most competitive players were very friendly and eager to offer advice and help. It was also very instructive to see how they put together their decks and how they played.
Most of the hard-core players understood that being good was no reason to be a dick. They understood that new players dont need to be coddled, but they also dont need to be treated like shit.
I really appreciate the friendliness of the people at the local game shop, and it really encourages me to do everything I can on my own to become a better and more knowledgeable player, so that if I'm annoying in the future, it's because of my personality and not because I'm still an uninformed newb (my current status).
There's no real way to avoid that sadly. I passed a Garruk last draft, the look I got was as if I was retarded.
August 21, 2013 12:05 p.m.
That is a valid concern. I can't argue that it doesn't happen. However, for me, it wasn't about getting new cards as much as it was about getting valuable experience.
I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to work, but I only lost once the whole night (best of 3, win-lose-lose). In fact, those two games were the only two that I lost all night. At the end, I had apparently done well enough to either earn store-credit or a few packs of my choice from the current block and/or 2014 core. I ended up pulling Scavenging Ooze and Scourge of Valkas (Scourge was Foil), so my luck made up for it I guess.
August 21, 2013 12:07 p.m.
Smith_and_Tonic says... #5
The players in an area can really make or break the experience. From my experience you will find some archetypal players in a large store. There are the FNM grinders (the spikes) who are there to win, get points, and get prizes. They are typically less friendly and only want to get down to business.
You will also run into the more experienced players who have the cards to win but are more relaxed about games and willing to help others out. They like to see more people to get into magic and don't mind sharing how to play or help you out with rulings.
The assholes get their own category. They range in experience level but are not fun to play against (very fun to beat though). Stay away from them because they will only sour your experience.
The new players: typically shy, many times unsure of what to do. They need a little guidance to get them into whatever format they're trying out and will make considerable play errors. Be nice to them, everyone was once a newbie.
Magic is first and foremost a game so it should be treated as one in my opinion. Games are meant to be fun and competitive! You can always find a balance to these and shouldn't let the competition make you lose sight of the fun. If you want to keep going to FNM's I would convince a few friends to go or meet some people there so you can hang out with them and play more magic outside of FNM.
August 21, 2013 12:22 p.m.
In my experience rochestering the rares makes for a fun competitive environment. People pull what they want, build good decks without worrying about passing up a 'money card', cause the first couple of people who win the tournament will get them anyways., I will not play in a keep what you pull draft, (only sealed will I play keep what you pull). just to avoid the person who pulls all the rares and then drops. This makes or breaks the experience for me as a person trying to get better at all aspects of the game and also a returning player.
August 21, 2013 12:38 p.m.
That makes sense. I suppose if I were more concerned with that, I would be able to appreciate it.
The fact is though, I had no idea that winners were getting anything. I figured I would get to keep whatever I chose, but I made choices designed to win (with my limited understanding of card synergy in the new sets). I was shocked to find out that there were prizes afterward.
In fact, the second game I lost was due to a time limit. We ran out of time for the round and played 5 turns. There was no clear winner, but I knew if we were allowed to finish the game, he would have won, so I conceded the win. Later, everyone gave me shit because apparently he was the highest ranked player among them.
I just don't care about it that much. I care about being good (which is a long way off), but I don't have much invested in DCI points/ranking because my life schedule wouldn't allow for many events.
August 21, 2013 1:11 p.m.
I have no idea if my draft strategy was sound, but it seemed to serve me well. Every deck that I beat was built around a very powerful card or card combination.
I refer to them as gimmicks. In a well thought-out and constructed deck, it would probably be very potent. In a draft, I decided that probability was the biggest enemy to these strategies, so I just tried to build a balanced deck that didn't rely on any specific card or even mechanic really. I just tried to get a selection of cards that had a good distribution of mana costs for their power, and went with consistency. That meant passing up rares in favor of getting some 4x cards that I deemed to be useful. It could be blind luck that worked, but every single deck I beat didn't get their mechanic in play until it was too late (you might be able to call my deck an aggro deck...I guess).
Of course, passing on rares was probably a lot easier since I went in with absolutely ZERO clue as to the value of anything.
August 21, 2013 1:19 p.m.
core sets usually have less flavor, storyline, and cohesive card combinations than expert expansions, so your strategy of drafting the most efficient, balanced cards will serve you well at least for the next month until Theros is released. if you're going to spend time really trying to get back into the game you can look at Theros cards as they're spoiled and you'll pretty much be on even footing with everyone else once we start drafting that in september.
while this site may not have a ton of high ranking players, there are definitely plenty of newer players with similar experiences and tons of ideas for cards and decks bouncing around. i'd equate it to a magic think tank, it might not produce optimal results but it will definitely get the creative juices flowing. you can also draft for free here to get more looks at the current set for free.
sites like channelfireball.com and starcitygames.com have articles written by pro players, if you're wondering what the experts are thinking about the current state of the game. i'd also suggest looking up your old collection prices on one of these (if you haven't already). even if your cards are too old for standard and modern, there are still plenty of legacy, vintage, edh, cube and casual players that can drive up the price of a lot of the older cards. These sites or your lgs will also accept trade-ins so you can buy more standard stuff or get more cash for drafts.
welcome back!
August 21, 2013 2:51 p.m.
I statistics geek in me LOVES the card odds feature that this site has. Once I found this site, I retired my Excel spreadsheets.
Thanks for the suggestions on those other sites! I will definitely check them out.
whiskeybentTXN says... #2
I worry about buying into drafts and then seeing some guy lose in the first round because all he did was grab every rare he could instead of actually making a deck. Not too keen on what amounts to buying 3 booster packs and someone else taking the rares, because they want to sell them.
August 21, 2013 11:58 a.m.