Thanks for reading this week … and a special thank-you to those readers who already have been on MTGO awhile. A lot of this week’s material may have seemed way too simplistic to you, but if you kept reading, I appreciate it.
Now, to questions. On Tuesday, atogman had some very sharp commentary in the forums:
Bad beats FTL? I was expecting a guide to starting on MODO when I clicked the article. If you’re not playing online yet, the lesson here is: you are going to give a lot of money to Wizards during your first weeks online, with precious little in return, fun- or packs-wise.
That’s a fair criticism. As I mentioned in the introduction to Wednesday’s article, “Yesterday’s pace of five drafts in one day, with only two prize packs to show for it, suggested that I would go bankrupt long before I would go infinite.” Since then I’ve pushed my rating up a bit and won quite a few packs, but I did have to give Wizards a good chunk of change to do so. In fact, I expect that all the money I spent on real-world cards last year will be replaced this year by the amount that I spend on virtual cards. This was one of the many factors that kept me off of Magic Online for a long time. As my friend Rick said to me a couple years back, “I have enough trouble keeping up a collection in the real world, I don’t need to buy the same cards online a second time.”
However, I would argue with the suggestion that I have received “precious little in return,” especially with respect to fun. I love playing Magic. I love it far more than other games that have granted me much greater financial return. I love talking about it, thinking about the strategy of it, trying to improve my play. I love the competition, and the more competitive the better – nothing would please me more than sitting down at a table where it’s me and seven “name” pros, and although losing in the first round is a likely and crappy possibility, I love accepting that part of it.
Last year at about this time I would have to wait for Friday, then take a 30-minute subway ride, followed by a 15-minute walk, to get a draft in at Dream Wizards. If I didn’t do that because it was January cold outside, then I didn’t play any Magic for two weeks. Many Washington-area players have emailed me saying that the trip is too far for them to even bother with; I live close to the subway and they don’t. Sometimes I got there late and didn’t even get to draft.
Now, any time I’m not working or sleeping I can get a draft in, or chat with my friends in the Magic community, or watch over the shoulder of Mike Flores while he tests some of his newest creations. I actually can sit down at a table where it’s seven “name” pros and me, although I haven’t been that fortunate yet.
That’s not enough of a “fun” return? If so, then I don’t know what to tell you, other than thanks for reading.
Fellow Star City writer Chris Romeo asks via email:
I’ve been reading your columns with Fervor, and, before I Abandon Hope, I thought I’d ask for your help on this issue. I have a lot of extra commons on MTGO that I’d love to give to new players who don’t have much money. Many people go to the Casual Trades room and beg for extra commons. How can I weed out the people who actually need them from the ones just trying to get free cards? Is there any way that I can see how long someone’s been playing, what they own, or anything like that?
Damnation, that’s a tough question, if only because you don’t often run into such a Good Samaritan online. I’m probably not the best person to answer; I haven’t been on Magic Online long enough to do much casual trading, as was probably obvious from yesterday’s edition. However, I’ll give it my best shot, because I’m not sure who would be the best person to ask – I love Frank Karsten’s and Noah Weil work on MagictheGathering.com, but I don’t think they can trade out of their god-accounts even if they wanted to.
One of the essential problems of the Internet is that you don’t know the true intentions of the person on the other end of the chat connection. You can’t be sure that the trader you’re talking to needs those commons, any more than you can know if a 23-year-old girl is actually a 12-year-old boy (Um… not that I would know or anything). The Magic Online interface doesn’t help you much in this area. You can only see those cards that your trade partner has made tradeable, so you can’t be sure he doesn’t have the commons you’re trying to give him.
You can find out a person’s rating by right-clicking them and selecting “Information.” Thus, if I wanted to do what Chris is asking about, I might just find guys with low ratings and offer them the commons. My reasoning would be that if you choose someone low-rated enough, they’ll need all the help they can get. However, it’s possible that they already have the commons you’re offering, which means you’re not really helping out someone in need.
Hell, it’s possible that the account is low-rated because it’s the one that Tim Aten uses when he’s drunk. You just never know. Sorry, Chris. If anyone can be of more help on this issue, don’t hesitate to comment in the forums.
Well, that seems to be all the questions, so I’ll leave you with the most important thing you can learn when you’re starting out on Magic Online: you will lose. And I’m not just talking about those losses where you are mana screwed or you get edged out of a close race. I’m talking about…
- The RGD draft where your opponent plays creatures on turns 1-4 and then enchants each one of them with Magemarks on turns 5-8
- The TTT draft where you misclick and don’t make your fourth land drop, so your opponent unsuspends a Riftwing Cloudskate to bounce a land and then Momentary Blinks it to bounce another one.
- The RGD draft where your opponent plays only one creature all game, a Living Inferno … and still wins thanks to Brightflame, Boros Fury-Shield, and Flame Fusillade.
- The TTT draft you lose due to your opponent playing two Evil Eye of Urborg, two Pentarch Wards, (one for each Eye, obv) and an Avoid Fate.
As you no doubt already know, I lost all of those games in the last month. I’m sure there were more losses that were equally bizarre, but haven’t stuck in my mind in quite the same way. However, I also had the privilege of looking at my rating during one mid-December winning streak and seeing “rhoaen” two rating points below me (sadly, that state of affairs did not even last one day… should have taken a screenshot, sigh).
The highs will excite you and the lows will make you want to blow up WotC corporate headquarters, but the bottom line is, you can play Magic whenever you want to! Enjoy it!
mmyoungster at aim dot com
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