Cards, coffee, and cocky spectators
Posted by gatch | Labels: Magic: the Gathering | Posted On Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 12:00 PM
After a four hour tournament a bunch of us decided to test our decks a bit more at the local coffee shop. Playing with brand new decks is so exciting that none of us felt tired at all and everyone wanted to run their homebrews through the gauntlet of meta decks that was Jund, Boros and Vampires. After placing our orders we dragged a couple of tables together and went on to playtest. It's always interesting to play somewhere other than the hobby shop. The reactions from bystanders and spectators never get old. "Ano yan sugal?" (is that gambling?) and "parang mga bata naglalaro pa.." (they're like kids, still playing games.) are the most frequent comments you would overhear, and some people would go so far as to condemn the game saying it's the devil's work. Ignorance is bliss, and a lot of these bystanders looked pretty happy to me as they made these comments. Not many people understand the game and why we play it. For those who think its child's play, well, its not. Sure a 9 year old can learn the basic rules and play and have fun with the game, but can the kid be competitive? Competitive magic is an entirely different animal. It requires a level of IQ, comprehension and reasoning, similar to chess, except that in chess the smart player that makes no play errors will always win. Magic still incorporates luck, and thus your decision making is not fool proof. You cannot read through your opponent's next moves completely because you only see a portion of his cards at any given time. In chess, you play with the same pieces every game whereas in Magic, its up to the player what 75 cards he will run out of the thousands of unique cards to choose from. Just building an efficient deck is an intellectual feat in itself. I have nothing against chess, its a great game and I play chess every once in a while... but nothing trumps taking your home brew and beating the bejesus out of a well established Magic deck. One thing chess does lack is flavor...I mean a king, a queen and their medieval army just don't stack up against planeswalkers, wizards, dragons, artifacts and fungi of all shapes and sizes. So you, yes I'm talking to you, you innocent bystander dissing my game..the next time you want to act all cool in front of your friends, don't pretend you know what I'm doing while i tap my lands for mana, otherwise I might be tempted to use that mana and Banefire your ass. You can't counter it punk, and the damage cant be prevented.
aaaah i lost my comment!
hasn't anybody told you that you look like a bunch of geeks? wait 'til you get your team hoodies!
hehe i say live and let live. we should pity people with such narrow horizons. i dare anybody to diss my metal bands, i'll be burning their churches tomorrow!
uyy first comment?
Congratulations! you are the first person ever to post a comment on any of my nefarious rants! You just won a year's supply of Spam! Just leave your email and the Spam will be delivered to you on a daily basis.
heheh seriously though, thanks!