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Some Fundamental Truths
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by: Adam Whitlatch For me, I suppose I've felt this article a long time comming, and a good way to begin it is with a definition. tour·na·ment n. I suppose the first one applies a lot better to the game we all know and love, Magic: the Gathering. (Well, some of you out there may hate the game, but why are you reading this then? Or are you reading this? Yea, you have to be. Do you have to be? Yeah, it would only make sense. Does it make sense?....er, sorry, got off on a Shumard tangent.) Anyway, the point I'm making is that a tournament is defined as a series of contests in which one person will prevail. Therefore, the point of a tournament is to win. Yes, it sounds horrible when I say that fun doesn't matter, or when I say that winning is the only thing, but, pertaining to tournament environments, winning is the only thing. When you put your money down at the beginning, you are saying, "Hey, I bet I could do well enough against all of you to take advantage and win more than I put in." Whether it be prizes for the veteran, or knowledge for the beginner, if you're not entering into a tournament to win something, why are you playing? Players like me have often been under attack for being cutthroat when it comes to the game. Actually, the more direct attack is begin "unoriginal." However, yet again, I'll have to point out that the point of Magic, and any game, is to win Nonetheless, I won't argue the point that everyone is supposed to have fun with Magic, because deep down, that's what we all play for. I merely want to dispute the attacks players like me suffer. I am told that I take the game too seriously, and that I shouldn't copy decklists. The thing is, I admire original deckbuilders....let me rephrase that. I admire real original deckbuilders. Usually, the people throwing these attacks out are the ones who build decks that are original...and lose. I admire the pro's who spend hundreds of hours perfecting the optimal build. And, America being what it is, I admire them enough to take the shortest way out and use their work. I have no disillusion that I would ever be able to come up with a deck that would be better than something the pro playtesting teams do. In fact, many players who claim themselves to be original are in fact guilty of copying. Without using names, since when did Reanimator with Book Burning instead of Entomb and Stitch Together instead of Exhume cease being Reanimator, and when was B/W Control ever an original deck. Throwing random, shitty cards like, say, Last Caress into them does not make it original. In fact, it makes the deck guilty of something else, sucking! Even when trying to be unique, combos like Palinflare or Unnatural Selection/Spirit Mirror have already been done elsewhere. Fact is, if it's any good, some random pro will come up with it seconds after looking at the spoiler. The moral? No one can be original. When one is original, the deck will come up much less optimal than another build. A blue/white control deck was simply worse than Oath of Druids in old extended. Fish was simply worse than Super-Gro. By being original, one tries to deny that some decks are just better than others, and almost always, the best ideas are already thought through. By ignoring these truths and entering into a tournament, one blatantly turns away from a basic fact - creativity, while fun, doesn't win. Even pros who "go rogue" rarely win...and when one does, on that rare occasion, they get the deck named after them and it's no longer original. i.e. Walamies. So, until I start seeing Fennig-Go or The Hoots and his Millions breaking onto the pro scene, I'll stick to copy, paste, print, sleeve. |
Last changed: 08/01/2004 by AMWDirect any questions you may have to awhitlat@knox.edu
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