Journey Vega
Added 10-7-09
During every cycle of Magic: The Gathering sets, a small shop in Midland finds itself crowded full of Magic players both young and old, experienced and inexperienced, or, in my case; somewhere in the middle. Just a few years ago, after building the best version of my ever-changing dragon deck, I found the professionalism of the game just outside of my grasp. I started playing in a casual group almost ten years ago and had no idea of playing Magic on a professional level.
The reason I bring this up is because, during every cycle of sets, I find myself facing a "Goliath" of sorts, in the way of deck-building or improving my deck for professional play. Now I know there are certain commitments, and funding issues, that are way beyond the likes of this small town kid. But, I can't help but to think that one day I can get my foot in the door and bust it wide open.
Aside from all the financial commitments, to me: every player faces a "Goliath" before "going Pro." My roots in magic were casual play, and in casual play, there are no limits. So I began constructing based on the no limits reasoning. I learned many things while doing this, i.e. never base your deck only on colors you like, themed decks are fun, themed decks don't always win tournaments, never let the style of your play determine all of your builds.
- The great thing about the game is its wide variety of color magic and themes. Often, players new to the game will find they like a certain color and stick with it for the rest of their days of playing magic. The problem is that when those cards cycle out and the new set doesn't give them their favorite color and strengths, so they avoid playing for a while. This was the case when Lorwyn/ Shadowmoor cycled out for the Alara block. Many players didn't participate in casual or tournament play until M10 cycled in.
- Along with the variety are colors, creature types, spells, and lands that create different themes. On some occasions, the R&D teams at Wizards have created sets or parts of a set that play on those themes. All of this creates a positive game play experience for everyone involved.
- Themes also happen to be a weakness. I used to love creating themed decks, like my dragon deck. But after my turn 4 Dragonstorm was trumped by one Meddling Mage or one Force of Will, I had to find other ways to put my dragons into play.
- The Second World War wasn't won by man power alone; it took a couple of atomic bombs and a lot of strategy. Thusly, every once and a while you have to give up that favorite mono blue mill deck that earned you the title of "The Guy with the Sanity Grinding Deck" and switch over to something else.
These points are very true inside and outside of casual play. And they are also the "Goliath's" that I've had to face over the years. For tournament players, however, you have to determine the format you wish to play, mine happens to be standard. This is the format that many people play and love to talk about because it is the one that gets the most exposure, don't get me wrong, other formats like Vintage and Legacy are becoming very popular.
Alright, let me get to the point. As a planeswalker, that's you the player, looking to continue their adventure and find themselves in any sort of duel or chance encounter, you need to be prepared. Standard format helps you stay prepared because every player has the same limits as you do. So you just have to spend some time looking for powerful and sometimes obvious card combos within legality. But when you're at the beginning of a new cycle there are no powerful combos or obvious combos that have been used in the tournament scene. Here are some solutions I've previously used in facing this "Goliath" before.
- Draft the crap out of the new set to familiarize yourself with the set. A lot of Friday nights I find myself impressed with how many different possible combos come of the draft. Even on a bad draft it is possible to place top 4. But winning drafting tournaments is another story.
- Don't limit yourself to one group of test players. I found out that the group of players that I hung out with wasn't that into Magic. In fact, during many sets the group avoided playing Magic, period.
- "go with the flow." It’s very obvious that the player base in this area is small, and quite frankly, has tunnel vision. The metagame at Astral Castle is 90% creature heavy aggro, that isn't a bad thing necessarily, but for any new players hoping to make a pro tour top 8 appearance it leaves them with one option, play aggro or get out.
- Never construct "hate" decks. In the mid-tournament season, when the metagame seems to steady out, many people get on the internet and look at the top decks, then construct decks to go specifically against the top decks. The one or few decks you happen to beat are the only decks you can beat in the entire tournament filled with other decks that are winning the tournament.
- Avoid "net decks" whenever possible. This is a very touchy subject among the players in this area. I'm going to say that it does work for some of us who want to win games and don't have enough time to lock ourselves up in a room of 200+ cards brewing and brooding until we find the "perfect deck." But for others of us, we strive to create our own individual goodness.
- When in doubt, play to your strengths. This may seem contradictory to my previous statement about style playing, but when you're this early in the set, you have to just be yourself and build your best to see what you are made of.
Another issue is the community. I say kudos to the west Texas magic site, but it just won't be enough for anyone who is willing to play more than whenever everyone gets together. The reason I'm writing this article is in the hopes that people will start building up the Magic community and start sharing their opinions with one another instead of just hoping the next set will have their favorite themes.
Show me what you got Planeswalkers,
The JV
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