Alea iacta est. I have played my first few drafts on the digital plane and felt it's addictive power. There's no question that it's fun, it's convenient, it might even be cheaper if I can believe some random I "met" in the queue. It has helped me get some experience with GTC that I wouldn't have otherwise, but my impression is that it's not as helpful as it seems. After a few games I was letting the computer do more and more of the work, not just the triggers but also the math. Magic is totally different when you don't have to do any math at all. Of course, if you don't do some math you might lose, but when you're in a situation that isn't close to lethal why bother counting points of power? In the real game you can't move on until you add and subtract and get a number written down.
You're actually training your mind to do this whenever you play, you're making mistakes, the wrong number gets put down, arguments happen, judges get called, the brain and the lymph system are getting a good solid workout even if the math is quite basic. The only deck I ever played competitively (ok, pretty much the only deck I ever played competitively period) that required a bit of math was B/u zombies with Killing Wave post-board. I think I gave up on most of the complex situations because I'm a lazy player (unless it's a casual game with friends, then I become an asshole) and I liked the "draw-nuts-win" aspect of the deck. I got to the point where I was choosing to play second just so I could mulligan into an aggressive hand, probably not the right choice, but it worked for math-phobic me.
So playing online is only going to reinforce my habit of not making space in my brain for the simple arithmetic that wins close games. The alternative is to try and play online like I would in real life. I don't yet know how capable I am in that regard. It doesn't help that they clock your tank time as well, even though the only game that timed-out so far was in my favor. There again though, I don't know if I should have won or not because I was too busy clicking ok to do the combat math.
The other problem that I've noticed is that digital information just doesn't store as efficiently as information transmitted via paper. I can't say I learned too much from my GTC drafts, unless perhaps I can cough it up when I meet a similar situation. I do recall playing Forced Adaptation on my Armored Transport instead of Madcap Skills and dying to Killing Glare, but most of my other mistakes are lost in the shuffle. There's also the fact that I wasn't punished for my mistakes like I usually am, I won more than I should have. Winning is fun, but making mistakes and paying for them is what sticks in the brain. I've been trying to explain this to my Maui players when I call them on their take-backs. Sure it's just casual, but I don't want to have to remind people of their shit all the time. If you get to take back the same mistake a dozen times you'll make it a bakers dozen for sure.
One good example of the difference between online and analog (reality is analog right?) play was something I saw happen in the ten minutes I had to pop into the shop and see what the new standard looks like. One dude attacked with his flipped Mayor of Avabruck that he had just soulbonded to a Nearheath Pilgrim. Defending dude plays Advent of the Wurm while the attacker gives his Mayor double-strike with Boros Charm and then goes to put it into the graveyard, but defender doesn't let him: "I haven't declared blockers." Fair enough, attacking dude gains six life but still has a wurm to deal with and his Mayor becomes a pathetic human again. I don't think it's possible to make this mistake online, or you'd have to be very rushed or new to the interface. Doesn't that make the online game better? I suppose so, but you lose soemthing as well.
There is no perfect game. When you put a human against a human you are creating a situation that has more potential for evolution than any other. Alright, maybe there's an asteroid out there that would put humanity to the test just as much, but maybe not. To date, humanity's most insuperable challenge is other humans. That's why people love to play games against each other and love to win. We use every and any advantage we can get, we cheat or get as close to it as our comfort level goes. It annoys me to no end when sporting organizations try and perfect their games too much. Sometimes it is needed, like the basketball shot-clock, sometimes it's less clear though. One of the great human tragedies was caused by this do-gooder mentality in the 1930's. Someone invented a new type of bike (recumbent) that was faster, safer, and didn't cause impotence. But it was so fast that after breaking all the records they banned it and it wasn't seen again until computer modeling was applied to human-powered vehicles decades later. Who knows what that invention would have done to the world back then when bikes were more of a real thing than cars? It would certainly have save a lot of boners at least.
I like the messiness of the real world, or at least the messiness of a real representation of a fantasy world. Magic online may be the "real" game in terms of the intent of it's creators, we can see that trend in the embracing of double-faced cards, a tech that obviously is more suited for the digital game than the table-top one. Yet, when something truly cool is created it goes beyond the intentions of the creators. They deserve credit for sure, but in the end it's the grey matter up there churning content out and do we really own our own brain-cells? We are ourselves mysteries and so it's only natural that we come home to the old card tricks of our ancestors, to that moment of wonder: what's on the top of my deck? Is it set in stone, as it were, or can we influence the cards? No matter how rational you may be, there's gonna be a time when you're praying for a miracle!
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Dragon's Maze Pre-Release Report
So it's been a while since the pre-release, but for all those who hadn't gotten their fill of ruminations yet I am posting my thoughts/decklisst. There's some about the unique difficulties of playing magic on Maui.
The format seemed fast, but then again the most popular guild by at my new shop (I've been playing in Syracuse mostly, but I'm trying to get some Hawaii games in while I'm here) was Boros. I imagine the guild will continue to be popular since in draft the packs should be opened in reverse chronological order, making RWb pretty seductive. I chose Golgari with mixed results. It was like going down a fast road that was littered with road-blocks. I had no trouble clogging-up the board, but winning against an aggressive start was still tough.
Lack of removal in the first pool lost me games to cards like Steeple Roc. I also discovered how broken Weapon Surge is; it's a combat trick that you can't play around easily. Losing against "bad" cards (and a 14-yr old) is never fun, but the fact that it can happen makes limited cool. I'm not sure if losing to 2x Act of Treason and Phytoburst means that those are better cards than I played.
In the morning event I went Golgari/Selesnya with a fine pool. I wanted to play 5-color greed (hence picking two green guilds) except the bombs weren't there, just the fixing. In retrospect it may have been correct to splash red for Weapon Surge, but I didn't realize the value. It would have been the perfect thing for my clunky dudes and deathtouch dudes.
Extort did a lot of work for me and was annoying to play against, but I'm getting ahead of myself. My first match I had to play against my only friend there, who I had convinced to come to his first tourney. He only went so that he could feel justified in making fun of us geeks and I think he wasn't quite ready. He plays really slow and I had to bug him about it which led to anger on his part and winning 2-1 on mine. His girlfriend got involved midway through (I should have called interference) and we had ourselves a nice train-wreck. It may have been their last big fight actually, I think they are just about done. Well, that's magic for ya, he should have ponied up the bills for her entrance fee and then she wouldn't have been nagging him. I had to explain to her that it's not uncommon for a player to get pissed like he did, oh the innocence of the uninitiated!
One lesson I learned from that match is that it can be better to be nice sometimes and help your opponent with triggers and such (even if the new rules say you don't have to). If they are new and playing slow it can speed things up a bit. You can always call them out on their last mistake and win with less hard feelings. Then again, the first rule is no mercy...
Either way, I should have just blown him out, of course, then spent the remaining time explaining why the cards he was playing weren't doing anything. Being tilted because of the slow-play did not help the fact that my deck was poorly built. I blame that mostly on not having a chance to check the spoilers (living in the jungle is not conducive to internet access) and not being able to draft GTC except informally with noob friends. My playgroup here has resembled league play and wasn't as helpful for practice as I hoped. Even bad constructed decks are constructed decks. Running out of weed that morning was the final blow to my chances of having a good tourney.
In my Golgari/Selesnya pool I missed playing quite a few good cards that look much better in hindsight. Scion of Vitu-Ghazi would have been sweet enough, but I though it cost 6 for some reason. I also had no idea what Fuse was and missed out on building a ramp deck to abuse Down/Dirty. Maindecking Chorus of Might, Perilous Shadow, and Bronzebeak Moa would have been correct. I seriously under-valued the red cards in my pool and Steeple Roc.
My second pool was Dimir/Golgari though I only splashed blue. Mirko Vost is just too cool and I would have played mill if I could have, especially with all the life-gaining. There is not much worse than losing to bad life-gain spells, except maybe losing to good life-gain spells: yea I mean you Unflinching Courage! Once again I wish I had stuck to the greed plan with more ramp artifacts and gates to take advantage of the gatekeepers. Playing against minimal removal makes a 2/4 better, with an ETB effect to get value out of bounce disruption. I probably wouldn't have gotten 2-0ed by Cyclonic Rift. Just about every creature I played wanted a giant ass or at least reach/deathtouch. I could have boarded Kraul Warrior more and added better blockers. The problem was that I fell into the trap of over-valuing low cc creatures to scavenge onto rather than just starting out with an ok body that then becomes great eventually. Armored Wolf-Rider was my best friend along with Varolz and Daggerdrome Imp. Slum Reaper has insane scavenge value with the troll mazerunner in play.
In the end I left early in my second go-around so that I wouldn't have to hitch-hike home in the dark. It's not a bad trip to the other side of Haleakala if you can catch the bus to Paia first, though naturally I missed it by 2 seconds and ended up hitching in the dark anyways. I ran off the bus in Haiku to the bar/grill where my friend and housemate works (yep, the same one I played in my first match) to try and catch a ride down the last 7-mile stretch of coast. My luck stayed bad though and I had to walk the 1/2 mile down to the Hana highway and get my thumb up. The haiku Community Center is the last outpost of civilization and street lights which do help a lot if you don't have a light of your own (I didn't).
Normally I'm a very zen hitcher, I try not to get emotionally attached to the endless rejection and 1st-world wastefulness even as the minutes drag-on. You can become a little bitter if you aren't careful to think good thoughts, after all, these same single-occupant drivers sit in traffic for an hour or more every day on the only road you can take to get to work. Still, they either don't make the connection, or they are afraid, or just apathetic and moving fast. Those kinds of thoughts make it hard to get rides ofr some reason so I usually try and find a comfy spot, pull out a book and settle in for the long-haul. I know I'll get ride eventually.
This night was a little different. I was unfortunately hitching in the same spot as my beating took place not two weeks ago and the same crew (I'm assuming, it's a small island) was having the same kind of little party they do every weekend. Those little kids roaming the dark fields were probably the same snot-nosed brats whose rock-throwing got me in trouble in the first place! Granted I had shaved my Manson-beard and dread-locks and ditched the old backpack (you can't be too careful out in the middle of nowhere, out in the middle of nowhere) still I was feeling paranoid.
The guy that had really laid-into me the last time I was hitching in Haiku seemed to feel like he hadn't gotten enough good kicks in to my head before the elders stopped him. It was probably true, even though I was mildly concussed, with a black eye and busted-up lip. My habit of reading a book had paid off when I was groveling in the darkness by the side of the road, absorbing some nasty kicks with a huge trade-paperback cope of John Cowper Powys's "A Glastonbury Romance." Borborygmos must have gained Bloodrush 0: discard this card, target creature gets +0/+.01 because I was using him as a bookmark. As I stomped off, infinitely relieved that I wasn't going to the hospital or the morgue that night, I spewed commons and lands all over some unsuspecting persons yard. By morning, everything was still there, but my legendary cyclops got pretty messed up. I'm going to play him anyways when I get back to Syracuse out of gratitude. It's a dangerous place for white guys, chasing those little rock-throwing brats and yelling at them was the kind of stupid mistake that could get you killed out here. The "locals" are sweet people and I've never felt unsafe before, but you have to know your place (kind of like being non-white in other parts of the country I guess).
Anyhow, the night of the pre-release put my magical training to the test and I managed to bluff my cool and tell myself that there's no way anyone could possible recognize me. Finally a ride came who wasn't going close to my house, but I took it anyways to escape before one of the little kids recognized me (kids are sharper than adults on that note i believe, me and my twin would always try and switch classes back in school and the teachers never knew but the other kids would blow us in). I ended up getting a painting gig lined-up for the fall when I come back to paradise, which is why I still love hitching! Then I just had to try and catch a ride in the darkness and I would be able to smoke a bowl and rest...
Well, the gods had other plans for me. For some reason the folks who own the corner lot of Ulumalu (the last last place to hitch towards Hana) choose to keep an inordinate amount of pit-bulls in their yard. For some other reason these dogs chose to bark non-stop for over an hour, including one the was not inside the fence! It was a cowardly beast thankfully, as I had no blade or rock handy and wasn't about to find one by the glare of 60-m/h headlights. The cur would slink off after I'd stared it down and then charge back when the barking was at a frenzy, apparently trying to spook me into running.
At last a car stopped, way up the road, tapping the horn impatiently. I ran for it, but the asshole dog was right on my ass! All I could do was walk slowly backwards away from it as my ride left without me. "What the fuck do you want from me dog?!" I screamed at the idiot mutt, the first of many expletives on the long walk home. But hey, I kept telling myself, this time at least I'm not beat-up, hiding in ditches at every passing car, with a sprained foot, and no water, on the new moon. No, the moonlight was in it's apex shining down over the wheezing valleys and the sea as if to mock any thought of self-pity. If it's not paradise, it's as close as I'll ever get.
The format seemed fast, but then again the most popular guild by at my new shop (I've been playing in Syracuse mostly, but I'm trying to get some Hawaii games in while I'm here) was Boros. I imagine the guild will continue to be popular since in draft the packs should be opened in reverse chronological order, making RWb pretty seductive. I chose Golgari with mixed results. It was like going down a fast road that was littered with road-blocks. I had no trouble clogging-up the board, but winning against an aggressive start was still tough.
Lack of removal in the first pool lost me games to cards like Steeple Roc. I also discovered how broken Weapon Surge is; it's a combat trick that you can't play around easily. Losing against "bad" cards (and a 14-yr old) is never fun, but the fact that it can happen makes limited cool. I'm not sure if losing to 2x Act of Treason and Phytoburst means that those are better cards than I played.
In the morning event I went Golgari/Selesnya with a fine pool. I wanted to play 5-color greed (hence picking two green guilds) except the bombs weren't there, just the fixing. In retrospect it may have been correct to splash red for Weapon Surge, but I didn't realize the value. It would have been the perfect thing for my clunky dudes and deathtouch dudes.
Extort did a lot of work for me and was annoying to play against, but I'm getting ahead of myself. My first match I had to play against my only friend there, who I had convinced to come to his first tourney. He only went so that he could feel justified in making fun of us geeks and I think he wasn't quite ready. He plays really slow and I had to bug him about it which led to anger on his part and winning 2-1 on mine. His girlfriend got involved midway through (I should have called interference) and we had ourselves a nice train-wreck. It may have been their last big fight actually, I think they are just about done. Well, that's magic for ya, he should have ponied up the bills for her entrance fee and then she wouldn't have been nagging him. I had to explain to her that it's not uncommon for a player to get pissed like he did, oh the innocence of the uninitiated!
One lesson I learned from that match is that it can be better to be nice sometimes and help your opponent with triggers and such (even if the new rules say you don't have to). If they are new and playing slow it can speed things up a bit. You can always call them out on their last mistake and win with less hard feelings. Then again, the first rule is no mercy...
Either way, I should have just blown him out, of course, then spent the remaining time explaining why the cards he was playing weren't doing anything. Being tilted because of the slow-play did not help the fact that my deck was poorly built. I blame that mostly on not having a chance to check the spoilers (living in the jungle is not conducive to internet access) and not being able to draft GTC except informally with noob friends. My playgroup here has resembled league play and wasn't as helpful for practice as I hoped. Even bad constructed decks are constructed decks. Running out of weed that morning was the final blow to my chances of having a good tourney.
In my Golgari/Selesnya pool I missed playing quite a few good cards that look much better in hindsight. Scion of Vitu-Ghazi would have been sweet enough, but I though it cost 6 for some reason. I also had no idea what Fuse was and missed out on building a ramp deck to abuse Down/Dirty. Maindecking Chorus of Might, Perilous Shadow, and Bronzebeak Moa would have been correct. I seriously under-valued the red cards in my pool and Steeple Roc.
My second pool was Dimir/Golgari though I only splashed blue. Mirko Vost is just too cool and I would have played mill if I could have, especially with all the life-gaining. There is not much worse than losing to bad life-gain spells, except maybe losing to good life-gain spells: yea I mean you Unflinching Courage! Once again I wish I had stuck to the greed plan with more ramp artifacts and gates to take advantage of the gatekeepers. Playing against minimal removal makes a 2/4 better, with an ETB effect to get value out of bounce disruption. I probably wouldn't have gotten 2-0ed by Cyclonic Rift. Just about every creature I played wanted a giant ass or at least reach/deathtouch. I could have boarded Kraul Warrior more and added better blockers. The problem was that I fell into the trap of over-valuing low cc creatures to scavenge onto rather than just starting out with an ok body that then becomes great eventually. Armored Wolf-Rider was my best friend along with Varolz and Daggerdrome Imp. Slum Reaper has insane scavenge value with the troll mazerunner in play.
In the end I left early in my second go-around so that I wouldn't have to hitch-hike home in the dark. It's not a bad trip to the other side of Haleakala if you can catch the bus to Paia first, though naturally I missed it by 2 seconds and ended up hitching in the dark anyways. I ran off the bus in Haiku to the bar/grill where my friend and housemate works (yep, the same one I played in my first match) to try and catch a ride down the last 7-mile stretch of coast. My luck stayed bad though and I had to walk the 1/2 mile down to the Hana highway and get my thumb up. The haiku Community Center is the last outpost of civilization and street lights which do help a lot if you don't have a light of your own (I didn't).
Normally I'm a very zen hitcher, I try not to get emotionally attached to the endless rejection and 1st-world wastefulness even as the minutes drag-on. You can become a little bitter if you aren't careful to think good thoughts, after all, these same single-occupant drivers sit in traffic for an hour or more every day on the only road you can take to get to work. Still, they either don't make the connection, or they are afraid, or just apathetic and moving fast. Those kinds of thoughts make it hard to get rides ofr some reason so I usually try and find a comfy spot, pull out a book and settle in for the long-haul. I know I'll get ride eventually.
This night was a little different. I was unfortunately hitching in the same spot as my beating took place not two weeks ago and the same crew (I'm assuming, it's a small island) was having the same kind of little party they do every weekend. Those little kids roaming the dark fields were probably the same snot-nosed brats whose rock-throwing got me in trouble in the first place! Granted I had shaved my Manson-beard and dread-locks and ditched the old backpack (you can't be too careful out in the middle of nowhere, out in the middle of nowhere) still I was feeling paranoid.
The guy that had really laid-into me the last time I was hitching in Haiku seemed to feel like he hadn't gotten enough good kicks in to my head before the elders stopped him. It was probably true, even though I was mildly concussed, with a black eye and busted-up lip. My habit of reading a book had paid off when I was groveling in the darkness by the side of the road, absorbing some nasty kicks with a huge trade-paperback cope of John Cowper Powys's "A Glastonbury Romance." Borborygmos must have gained Bloodrush 0: discard this card, target creature gets +0/+.01 because I was using him as a bookmark. As I stomped off, infinitely relieved that I wasn't going to the hospital or the morgue that night, I spewed commons and lands all over some unsuspecting persons yard. By morning, everything was still there, but my legendary cyclops got pretty messed up. I'm going to play him anyways when I get back to Syracuse out of gratitude. It's a dangerous place for white guys, chasing those little rock-throwing brats and yelling at them was the kind of stupid mistake that could get you killed out here. The "locals" are sweet people and I've never felt unsafe before, but you have to know your place (kind of like being non-white in other parts of the country I guess).
Anyhow, the night of the pre-release put my magical training to the test and I managed to bluff my cool and tell myself that there's no way anyone could possible recognize me. Finally a ride came who wasn't going close to my house, but I took it anyways to escape before one of the little kids recognized me (kids are sharper than adults on that note i believe, me and my twin would always try and switch classes back in school and the teachers never knew but the other kids would blow us in). I ended up getting a painting gig lined-up for the fall when I come back to paradise, which is why I still love hitching! Then I just had to try and catch a ride in the darkness and I would be able to smoke a bowl and rest...
Well, the gods had other plans for me. For some reason the folks who own the corner lot of Ulumalu (the last last place to hitch towards Hana) choose to keep an inordinate amount of pit-bulls in their yard. For some other reason these dogs chose to bark non-stop for over an hour, including one the was not inside the fence! It was a cowardly beast thankfully, as I had no blade or rock handy and wasn't about to find one by the glare of 60-m/h headlights. The cur would slink off after I'd stared it down and then charge back when the barking was at a frenzy, apparently trying to spook me into running.
At last a car stopped, way up the road, tapping the horn impatiently. I ran for it, but the asshole dog was right on my ass! All I could do was walk slowly backwards away from it as my ride left without me. "What the fuck do you want from me dog?!" I screamed at the idiot mutt, the first of many expletives on the long walk home. But hey, I kept telling myself, this time at least I'm not beat-up, hiding in ditches at every passing car, with a sprained foot, and no water, on the new moon. No, the moonlight was in it's apex shining down over the wheezing valleys and the sea as if to mock any thought of self-pity. If it's not paradise, it's as close as I'll ever get.
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