Greetings Sheep,
Are you enjoying grazing the boundless fields of Magic the
Gathering articles in your little paddock? Who will you follow today?
I'm sick of all my flockmates complaining about whatever
format they've been told is bad. I don't grind standard on modo everyday so I'm
not as in touch as some people but I've been playing long enough to know that
this game is fantastic and the team who make it do an excellent job.
This article I will be proposing that perhaps there is a
degenerative behavioral pattern occuring amongst players. Let me run you
through my sequence of reasoning:
It all stems from the fact that copying someone else's deck
is about a hundred times easier than designing your own. What this leads to is players only playing decks
from the first big tournament of the format. Under the current system, the Pro
Tour is only a couple weeks after set release. This means that the best players
in the world are designing the decks that everyone will use. Therefore those
decks will be good, creating less incentive for players to innovate later in
the format.
Next step:
What happens when everyone plays the same two,
three or four decks? Well they don't stop playing Magic, because Magic's
awesome. They also don't switch decks, because the one they've already
invested time and money into is good. So what do people
do? They complain. And now thanks to the wonders of the internet and social
media those complaints are heard load and clear by all their digital sheep
friends.
Eventually the complaints reach WOTC employees. The more
complaining, the more sheep that join the complaint flock. Eventually WOTC are
pressured into changing something. Whether it be bannings or tournament format
changes. Don't get me wrong, feedback and change are extremely important but I
feel that there's way too much negative hyperbolic feedback leading to changes
that are bad for the game in general. Namely, the game's reputation.
Before you bleet on facebook about how bad you think a
format is, ask yourself, Have I tried building my own brews which attack the
popular decks? Am I part of the problem or am I part of the solution?
Is the format really that bad or are the games still
interesting and challenging? I think you'll find that even the most narrow
two/three deck formats have beautiful nuances that you can enjoy for a couple
months until the next set comes out.
I urge players to realise that they may just be complaining
about a format because it feels good to be united in sentiment with their
peers. You may not actually have a problem with the format, it's just cool to
hate.
In some play circles,
players who don't play 'tiered decks' are belittled and considered gimmick
players, rather than people who contribute to the community. I'd like to see
innovators get a little more
recognition. That is another way we can reduce complaints about format
diversity.
I dunno. Maybe I'm part of the problem for even writing this
article. Perhaps I'm the one stirring the pot when there's nothing wrong at
all. Where does the doubt end? In the end we really just need to have a good time and enjoy playing some cards
during out free time.
Thanks for reading. Enjoy your games,
Mulch.