It’s not every day that you turn 100.
If you would have told me a couple years ago that I would have written one hundred pieces for SCG, I would have probably called you crazy and continued about my business, which used to largely consist of making “witty” remarks on Facebook threads and playing Diablo 3.
I still do those things, but far less frequently.
This weekend I traveled to Orlando for a $5K tournament that was, for all intents and purposes, run in a moderately-sized box. A box, regardless of how big it is, is still a box. A little over a hundred players arrived to do battle. We were greeted by a room in the high 80s with tablecloths that were heavily wrinkled and inconvenient to play on, almost no table space, and a lobby that couldn’t even accommodate the majority of people. Players were sitting in the tiny hall and outside of the bathroom. Morale was low. So I did what any sensible human being would do…
I dropped.
The siren’s call of Fogo de Chao drew me to her shores, but my boat did not crash. Maybe I’m spoiled, but that kind of drudgery just doesn’t fly anymore. With thirty now being less than a year away, perhaps my patience is thinning. Maybe I’m just like mother. She’s never satisfied.
At any rate, I don’t want the negativity to ruin the fun I planned on having today.
When you spend so much time building, it’s nice to step back for a moment and look at all of the pieces that were put in to place in order to create this pretty neat thing that you’re very proud of.
So today I want to reach back to the past and pull a few of my favorite works to the present.
Pretend this is like the DVD commentary.
Tilting And You
Like many people in rehab can tell you: once an addict, always an addict. As a person who has been clean from use for over seven years, I still think about it all the time, and that pull is relentless. Such is the same with those who experience the intoxication of anger and self-loathing.
Tilting And You was born of my road to redemption: I had a serious anger problem when it came to Magic, because I blamed every loss on outlying factors and never on my own poor play or terrible deck choice. When I finally started to own my failures, I began to blossom as a player.
I often have people tell me two-plus years later that this article was the one that helped to turn things around for them. I’ve fostered friendships with players over the theory that we are stronger as a community than we are alone. Much like addiction counseling, having a “sponsor” or “safe place” to turn when you feel those urges reemerging is so very important. To this day, a player/friend will text or PM me for a reminder that losing is OK but feeling rage and a severe tilt afterwards is not. Self-destructive behavior can lead a person to grow to resent Magic, but it won’t stop there: that kind of thought process can eventually infiltrate other aspects of your life.
Feeling passion for Magic and letting your emotions flourish isn’t a bad thing by any means, but letting anger ruin the game for yourself and others is something we can all use a refresher on from time to time.
Life Lessons for New Players And Grinders
Over a couple weeks I wrote a compendium about “life lessons” for new players and those who were familiar with “the grind.”
Firstly I took to writing about grinders (players who traverse the MTG circuit; weekend warriors who will battle everywhere within driving distance) because I needed the affirmation. I was a grinder for years, rarely taking a Saturday off. Each week was spent planning road trips, booking hotels, and finding out where my next fix of Magic would come from and how long it would take to get there.
A passage I placed in there about real success versus fake success to this day is one of the things I’m most proud of putting to paper, and just creating it gave me a whole new insight into how I approached Magic. I might have been the one who wrote it, but I learned so much from the comment section. It became this incredibly important tool that, instead of being an extension of an article, took on a life of its own. It was probably the first time something had hit me like that.
In response to my Grinder article, I received a pretty overwhelming request for one directed at new players, so I obliged.
When I started playing Magic I learned just about everything I could in a very toxic environment wrought with very poor winners and losers, trade sharks, and competitive players. The shop I played in, however, was ran by the sweetest and most generous owners I’ve ever known who did their best to contain the chaos of a store that was vastly ahead of its time in terms of player turnout (our typical Saturday 16k events usually saw 40+ people). I wish someone would have given me the little insights: developing thicker skin, protecting myself, or being more accepting of criticism and advice.
At the time it felt like this was something a lot of Magic content overlooked, and to this day I don’t believe enough content is focused on teaching new players the ins and outs of what to expect on a realistic level. Take that as a rallying cry, perhaps.
Stop Your Damn Complaining
In light of recent events, I’m just going to say I’m absurdly proud of my editor, Cedric. Not only is he a man who gives his writer’s freedom, but he also knows how to own his mistakes and try to make amends for them by being as reasonable as humanly possible.
This was an article that not many websites would have published, but it turned out to be one of my most popular and one that created a fantastic dialogue in the comment section.
The purpose of this article was, as I talked about earlier, my never-ending quest to rid the community of exactly what I used to be years ago: a toxic element. Shining lights on negative subject matter is never an easy road to walk, and I did my best to tread the lesser portion of the controversy highway, but I think I still went a little too deep. That’s a good thing, though. We pushed the envelope and it yielded fairly positive results.
I think a bit of perspective is always needed, and remembering that we have the capacity to change a community with our actions should never be lost on us. Paying it forward with positivity isn’t something we should overlook anymore.
Teach Me How To Legacy
I still can’t believe you people made me play Shardless Sultai. I mean… I know I said it interested me the most, but Mother of God I also said I had no idea about anything Legacy-oriented.
Over a hundred people popped in to offer me some great advice on the format, and just reading through all of it made me feel a little safer as I went in to my first real Legacy tournament. This was a great undertaking in community, with everyone exercising some very well-articulated opinions and giving me as much of a leg up as they could.
I did as much as possible to familiarize myself with the format, and it was a pretty awesome deep dive into my psyche as a player. I had to be open and honest, because without that I would have been doing myself and you all disservice, also setting myself up to play a deck I wouldn’t have been comfortable with.
The experiment was a success and we chose my deck based on tons of factors.
What happened next was a hilarious comedy of errors and screw-ups on my part in Las Vegas where I lost every Legacy match I played and then got ninth on breakers the next day at the Standard Open.
At least I got to drink a Salted Caramel Apple Martini at Chef Ramsey’s.
I guess there’s that.
Quick Hits: What Grinds My Gears
Cranky Old Man Mark wrote this article in response to everything that had been pissing me off when it came to Magic lately, and the therapy resonated amongst the readers way more than I expected.
The first few portions of it sadly have not changed: Magic Online still crashes and burns consistently, and the last time I used it a player told me that I should kill myself because I topdecked a Stoke the Flames. Those points still stand, and I’m sad to see they haven’t changed much.
The biggest portion of that article that hit home with a lot of people was when I talked about the martyrdom that innovators face on a daily basis, and even the people who are trying outside-the-box strategies.
Magic players, not as a whole but a considerable amount of them, want to seem as intelligent as possible. Anything that threatens the bubble they inhabit in regards to their opinions or “facts” is almost always met with hostility and animosity, as if trying new things is somehow a direct attack on the status quo.
My retaliation to that negativity was to let people and players know that it’s OK to experiment! It’s OK to try new things! It’s OK to give yourself a chance to explore the format with a little bit broader of an approach because that’s how we learn about it. When I played Outpost Siege in my R/W Aggro deck that granted me a PTQ victory, one of my opponents picked it up , read it, and stated “Chandra seems better.” Cool! Good thing I won the match because I named Dragons!
Our unwillingness to accept that different can be a good thing is a detriment to becoming a better player. Every idea that was intimated during my Pro Tour testing with some of the best players in the world was met with “let’s try that” and not “that’s stupid and you’re stupid for thinking it.”
Let me shatter that narrative for those of you who perpetuate that kind of negativity: your Magic heroes and idols will try anything, and that’s why they’re so good. Saying “that’s bad” too often? No. Instead you should be saying “I’m afraid to try that.”
Crafting Decklists with Theros
Because I called off work so I could respond to the hundreds of comments that were left on it.
I still have horrific Flashback.
Losing like a Winner
Probably one of my favorite articles I’ve ever written.
Humility is a lost art, but understanding how to cope with loss when so much is on the line, whether it be personally or professionally, can be extremely difficult.
I wrote this because I wanted to always remember that in failure, we can derive our greatest lessons. It’s OK to feel disappointment after losing, but it’s not OK to make your opponent feel bad for winning because you’re mentally incapable of expressing yourself in a non-vicious manor. Attacking them for doing well only spins a wheel that kicks up mud at everyone.
One thing I’ve taken away from implementing these lessons is that I feel better after an event regardless of how I do. I’m more conscious of my behaviors after a match and how they are conveyed to my opponent, because if they lost I want them to still feel like they had a good time, and if they win I want to shake their hand and tell them to keep on winning.
I Won A PTQ And Some Other Stuff
My first foray into the Pro Tour is the most meaningful thing I’ve ever derived from playing Magic, and this was how it all happened.
I think the story at the beginning is still one of the funniest things that has ever happened to me, and why I will always smile when I hear “I Touch Myself” by The Devinyls.
When approaching this tournament I learned that venturing out of my comfort zone could yield tremendous results, and I wanted to pass all of that on to each person who was afraid to do what took me years to realize.
The feeling was indescribable.
To this day I still can’t believe it happened.
This isn’t a huge tournament report with all the trimmings you may be used to: this was a teenage me achieving the dream he always wanted and wanting to share that with you.
A Modern Proposal
I will never stop loving the comment section of this article.
My biggest and most “controversial” piece- A Modern Proposal was a satire done in the spirit of A Modest Proposal by Swift.
Yes. It was satire. No. I wasn’t serious.
The response couldn’t have gone better for me, because it was exactly what I wanted. Half of the audience understood the joke and we all had a good laugh, and the other half thought I was serious and they called for my firing and head on a platter.
I don’t think there’s much else to say about it, but it was a really fun experiment.
And now for my favorite thing I’ve ever done…
So You Hate Siege Rhino
But seriously… screw that card.
Recollections Of A New Player
I was terrified to write this, but doing it made me happier than anything I’ve ever done.
If you haven’t checked it out, from my now library of 100 this is the one I recommend the most. I believe it’s as pertinent now as it was when I penned it over a year and a half ago.
The story is of an alien blending in to our planet who has taken a liking to Magic, and uses the opportunity to travel with a group of locals to an SCG Open so he can learn more about the game and study our culture better.
He learns about anger and unpleasant people to play against.
He learns about friendship and the comraderie that takes place at each event.
He learns about the struggle that women face when they step in to a tournament hall, and as an entity who isn’t familiar with our customs he struggles to comprehend why his new female friend isn’t treated as an equal.
He wins and loses, and almost Top Eights and gets to go to a Brazilian steakhouse.
At the beginning of the story he doesn’t understand anything about what is going on and how humans react to their surrounds at Magic tournaments, but by the end he thinks he has a firmer grasp on things and the game we love so much transcends galactic barriers to teach him.
I reread it when I need to remember why I write in the first place. I hope that, if you haven’t seen it yet, maybe you’ll take that trip, too.
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Old-school finish, right? Hit em’ with the ellipses before closing.
Today marks a milestone for me, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a bit of an ego trip. I never want to stop entertaining you guys and girls, and the way so many of you have embraced that gives me the drive to do another 100.
I may not be around forever, but it was nice to look back on the huge impact you all have had on me, the stories I’ve tried to tell, and SCG for hosting me.
Next week we’ll get back to business as usual, but for now, I’m going to enjoy being a part of the 100 club. Pop that champagne for me.