People should be more passionate about the colors they play!
The Kitchen Table forum
Posted on July 26, 2022, 2:59 p.m. by gearhead596
Just a little discussion for fun. Talking with a friend at the game store yesterday. He asked why I only play red or red splash x. I told him I beleive I am a red mage and if magic was real I would certainly cast goblins and lightning bolts. I love the mythos of the game and try and play by that. On the other hand he said he plays a different deck almost every week. But what I noticed is he has no passion for them. Everytime I cast a bolt it excites me, and I've been casting them since 1998. I can't imagine playing blue x or black x and not have my bolts. I beleive sticking to a color makes the game more passionate and rewarding. Maybe I'm just a nerd. Thoughts?
Probably not so much color for me, but more style of play. So much so that when someone else plays a card I usually play they are like "What are you doing with a Fuzzy card?"
July 26, 2022 7:38 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #4
I think that any "people should" statement about MtG misses what makes the game so popular and in my opinion great. There are many different aspects of the game and different people like different aspects. For the most part it is more a continuum of how much you like each of the aspects instead of solely liking a single aspect. This is where the psychographic profiles come in as made famous in MaRo's TIMMY, JOHNNY, AND SPIKE article and further refined in TIMMY, JOHNNY, AND SPIKE REVISITED. The second of which I wish many more players would read.
One of my two major psychographics is "Diversity Gamer Timmy" as such one of the major reasons I play MtG is to have a different experience while playing the same game. This isn't to say that I enjoy variance like "Adrenaline Gamer Timmy" does. Since my second major psychographic is "Nuts & Bolts Spike" I like to be able to perfect play patterns within each deck I play. The sheer variety of things you can do and experiences you can have is what keeps me wanting to play. If someone else wants to express themselves via their decks, that is cool too. Personally, despite being primarily a combo player, I am 0% Johnny and don't use the game to express myself. I use it to have experiences and as a mental exercise in optimal choices. (Which apparently is "proving" something. I disagree a bit with MaRo a bit about Spikes wanting to "prove" stuff, but the two Spike groups I see myself fitting into perfectly describe some of the reasons I like Magic.)
For those interested (and why would you be this far into my rambling about psychographics if you weren't) I see myself as a Spike/Timmy with the two mentioned subgroups about equal and my major motivations. With a healthy splash of "Tuner Spike" and just a dash of "Power Gamer Timmy". These minor motivations being out of whack is what pushes me more toward Spike to make the ordering Spike/Timmy instead of the other way around.
July 26, 2022 7:57 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #5
Since I rambled on about every other part of what I like about magic, lets add the aesthetic profile too. To the surprise of no one who has looked at the Rules Q&A section of this website, I am a giant Melvin.
July 26, 2022 8:04 p.m.
rotimislaw says... #6
Same here, gearhead596, except I'm mage. As I think of it, even during Limited events, I lean towards color combinations containing black probably more than I should!
Saves mind power, money and offers a better feel of what you actually play!
This of course doesn't mean that there aren't people driven by different factors, like strategy alignment, tournament challenge or social aspects of the game, something that Gleeock and Gidgetimer mentions. As long as everybody has something out of the game, we'll be good :)
July 27, 2022 8:39 a.m.
Though I do agree that it's very fun to play the decks and cards you love, personally that doesn't boil down to color for me too much. We're at a point where green can be a draw-go deck if it wants and blue can be aggro creatures, so while the colors still feel unique, there's more wiggle room in what colors can and can't do : )
I think I'm more passionate about a strategy. Mostly I play 60 card multiplayer, and I love creature strategies, but thinking about how to make that work in the group is very fun to me. I enjoy the act of assembling a board, casting creatures, and reacting to how the table reacts to them, which is what really makes me like it. Summoning sickness inherently creates those turns where I have a big threat, but I then have to be ready to sit through 3-4 other player's turns before I can go off. It's that idea of, you have to be prepared to win, and I like that deck, and I will almost always play that deck, just for the mental back and forth it creates in the game. Slinging spells and storming out of nowhere to the win just doesn't compare : )
Gleeock says... #2
I agree, though I like to apply that to color+strategy. So, groupslug elements are usually in most my decks with a good amount of splash. I dislike WUBRG because I feel like it is either dilution of identity or just WUBRG "better than you" - also alot of WUBRG cards feel like a corporate chase cashgrab (which makes alot of sense if you start looking at the economics behind each big new WUBRG card released). Feels like a waste of time for me at this point if I don't play decks with alot of identity with my favorite pet-cards of my couple of colors. Also, parring down my identity & desired cards help me save money on this now ridiculously expensive game. It is helpful to not feel obligated to buy chase cards, splash lands, or feed the $$-monster-machine for WUBRG.
July 26, 2022 6:59 p.m.