Let's be honest. It's hardly difficult for anyone who can type, has a computer and has access to the internet to find online sources for good constructed decks. Not only is this forum such a source (however a more constructive one), but one can find good, tested and often championship decklists on websites such as Sideboard, Brainburst and E-League. I have no problem with this. Tested decks work, it's as simple as that, but shouldn't originality count for something as well?

Considering I'm now at the great institution of Brandeis University, I haven't been able to play Magic as much as I would like. My last month of serious play was August, and during that month this topic came to mind. I built myself a Nether Go deck with a decklist as follows:

x3 Nether Spirit
x4 Counterspell
x4 Undermine
x2 Force Spike
x3 Fact or Fiction
x4 Accumulated Knowledge
x2 Recoil
x2 Void
x2 Terminate
x3 Urza's Rage
x3 Fire/Ice
x2 Tsabo's Web
x25 Land
x1 Obliterate

This deck, at that time, was anything but mainstream. I had played UB Nether Go for a while and had mixed success, so I tried this build throughout the month at the tourneys. I ended up winning every tourney that month with this rogue deck (I know it was built by pros, but in all honesty I built it myself before the hype). I was estatic. Not only did I have fun playing my own, original deck, but I was able to win as well. However, with this came a pinch of unnecessary agony.

All of the self-proclaimed "good" players at Hammer's (the store in which I play), or at least ninety percent, play decks found online. Granted, they are very good players, but they are constantly in the mindframe that online decks are the best. Each time I won in August one of these players would always come to me and ask to see my deck. I always complied, considering I had nothing to fear. They rifled through my deck with odd facial expressions, wondering visibly how I won with that "pile." Needless to say, this annoyed me. I made a deck myself that nobody else tried to play, and because it was alien to my peers they deemed it bad. This I never will and never have understood. How can something that wins be bad?

Although I may never comprehend it, I have gained perspective from it. Options are everything. I have come to the unfortunate realization that if you win, you win. It doesn't matter that much what you play, considering in the end the results will not show what you played, but how well you did. I may be acting very narrow mindedly, but I would rather build my own decks and fail a few times before finding something interesting than use soemthing I know will win but that I had no part in designing.

Don't get me wrong, I whole heartedly understand that playing net decks can be fun. I just believe that it rips apart half of the fun of the game: testing new ideas and building new decks. I just wonder sometimes what some of these players would do had the Pro Tour never been invented and Magic had not become such a dynamic and mainstreamed concept.

My brother, who used to play very seriously like me and who also believes in this topic's idealism, played in a tourney with me over Thanksgiving break. Granted, he was going only to play for fun and not to win, but he built himself the deck that everybody had made fun of the second Odyssey came out: Atogs. He built it in about 15 minutes out of all the Atogs he and I had, and the deck ended up hilariously and eerily to have a degree of potential. He ended up 2-3, but some comments I heard regarding him disgusted me. There were the typical few who admired his originality, but the most of them made fun of his deck relentlessly, and although he never stopped smiling (showing he could have fun regardless, a wonderful quality), I became quite perturbed. I realized something through his actions though, and it's a wonderful lesson that perhaps, as long-winded and fragmented as it may be, could be thought of as my epiphany regarding this topic:
It's how much fun you get out of the GAME, not the amount of grief you get for originality.

Yes, it's a nice article. I'm slightly groggy from my medication, so you'll have to excuse me this time

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Am I the one you think I am, or just the one you didn't expect?

I dislike the fact that a majority of Magic players play to win and not to have fun. Granted, winning is fun...but losing isn't the end of the world, either.

Please remember this: Its a game.

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Mos Fro

Have an Aphla/Beta Clockwork Beast? Trade it to me!

Dude, you can't be too mad for people ripping on your friend for building an atog deck. More so if that player was experianced in deck building. It is a fun concept but to bring it to a saunctoined tourny is just out of the question, even though he may spent some time trying to tune it.

Bottom line, if you want to win, you go with what works. And certain netdecks work. if you want to have fun and don't mind burning four-sixteen dollars on a constructed tourny and going with an atog deck, then all the power to you.

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Magic1264@hotmail.com

Famous Quote:

You are also missing my important point regarding my brother's playing an Atog deck. He made it abundantly clear that he was playing in the tournament for FUN, and that's it. He wasn't there to win. He was there to guage the reactions of people and laugh at them. Most people went along with this theory and laughed WITH him, while the others about whom I alreadt ranted laughed AT him. He was playing for fun. Not to win. You should admire that, not support the mocking of it.

Lastly, in regards to your last comment, Magic is a GAME. Much of that has been lost to most people, and you seem to be one of them. Games are for fun. Most people will never be able to play the game for money, so why not play it for the true fun of it and not care obsessively about winning.

For reference, the deck as played by Dan Bock at PT: Tokyo.

quote:

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Originally posted by Glowing goo:
Dan Bock deck? I don't get it...

~G

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On another, AWESOME note, my brother went back and played another tourney with a retooled funny as heck 5-color deck and made top 8 out of 40 with it. Not only did he have an absolute blast playing a rogue and completely unexpected deck, but he was able to gain a few DCI points for it as well! THAT'S what I'm talkin 'bout!