Hello folks, and welcome back to all things casual. Today I want to explore a few multiplayer dynamics, and
maybe share a deck from our “new” group. I hope that you’ll enjoy this tale of a multiplayer group
and how as it changed over time – the strategies that were successful also changed.
Why should you care? Well, other than being an interesting case study, I think multiplayer dynamics affect
multiplayer theory, and multiplayer strategy, and multiplayer winning decks. As an example, I built a deck specially to handle our metagame,
and then earlier this year I did it again with a
revamped deck. It obviously matters, and I hope you’ll see that as we move along.
The Ferrett once said that a multiplayer group with different skill levels of players would not last long. My
multiplayer group was created in the wake of an Anthony Alongi article, in which he titled my deck submission after
the city in which I live. Someone read that article, and checked out my bio here (where I had written that I was
still looking for a casual group). That someone sent me an e-mail, and the rest is history.
It’s interesting that an Internet article and a writer bio would create the nexus of a multiplayer group
that defied convention, but it did. That article was on a way to use Animal Magnetism in a deck, since Onslaught had
just been released. Our group has been around since Onslaught.
Have you read a lot of multiplayer theory? The Ferrett, Anthony, myself, Peter Jahn, and others contribute to
the body of multiplayer theory (I really liked John Liu, who wrote a few articles here on StarCityGames.com).
There’s a lot of stuff out there, it’s just spread out over time since we typically don’t have a
lot of multiplayer writers writing at any one moment.
Despite The Ferrett misgivings, our multiplayer group held together pretty well. We had several early
regulars who mostly knew each other from high school, and then a few tack-ons over top that core.
Then we began to lose attendance, as various people gained more serious jobs, and more serious girlfriends. A few
quit Magic, the occasional other gained new priorities in their social life (read: liked to party), and suddenly the
Magic numbers dwindled.
We tried a reboot of the group once earlier this year, with various players from the local card store invited,
and others supposedly bringing in friends to play. Still, nothing was doing in the group. Many didn’t show,
and the reboot was a failed experiment. A few of us would still get together, but I was often left to get my Magic
on at the local card store after HeroClix tournaments.
Then, for my birthday last month, another reboot was tried… and ever since then we’ve had very large
numbers. We’ve even split the gaming into two rooms. Who knows if it will continue or not, but it’s
interesting to see the group morph over time.
As the group changes, the multiplayer theory changes too. Anthony Alongi and The Ferrett have publicly disagreed
on the nature and role of politics in multiplayer games. I suspect that’s because the nature and roles of
politics was different in each group.
Some groups discourage such table-talk. “Don’t politick at the Magic table.” My response as a
host has always been to encourage people who don’t like it to attack or punish the one who does it. Otherwise,
shush.
I think you can begin to tell the sorts of things that happen at a writer’s multiplayer table by the sorts
of multiplayer things that writer discusses.
We have a very open door policy at our multiplayer table. Dozens and dozens of people have been welcomed into my
home and encouraged to continue to come and play Magic. We allow tons of people to join us, especially if we think
they’ll get along with everybody. Just last week we had a new player from the store join the group. Will he
come back in the future or not? Who knows, but it was great to have him there.
We’ve always had widely divergent skill levels, and that certainly hasn’t changed recently.
It’s one of the basic things about us that’s still as true today as it was then. However, there have
been some interesting changes at the table. Let’s take a look at the evolution of a multiplayer group, and how
those changes were reflected in the game.
The Beginning: All’s Fair in Love and Casual
At the beginning of the modern version of our group, we could get anywhere from four to eight players on a given
Friday night, typically around five or six. At this time a stratification began at the kitchen table (which actually
was a kitchen table).
Some players played Magic because they enjoyed the game. Other players played Magic because they enjoyed being
with other people, and really didn’t care about the game. That’s two radically different viewpoints.
At first, they didn’t matter. Almost everybody had played Magic so casually that, at the beginning of the
playgroup, their decks were… um… poor (and that’s generous in many counts); they used proxies, they
used outdated rules, and so forth. There was little difference between the players who enjoyed the game and the
players who used the game as a social tool.
However, as time marched on, you could really tell the players that really liked Magic. They began to discover
new things in Magic, like combos and consistency. Their cardpool increased, as well as their ability to play the
game.
This was a time of interesting things. Obliterate began to show its head in several players’ decks, as
they understood the need for an uncounterable reset button. Obliterate was used so often that several other players
began to run countermeasures, such as Meddling Mage and Null Chamber and Ertai’s Meddling.
We also saw combo decks move to the forefront. Removal and countermagic became more important as a way of
stopping a combo deck from just ramping and killing you. Some players began to build Five Color decks with a lot of
cards in them, to handicap themselves against other players.
This period in the group was marked by vivacious exploration by various individuals who truly began to embrace
the game. A metagame for our table began, and was understood by other individuals, and that metagame forced players
who cared to modify their decks in anticipation.
Decks that were featured during this time included Obliterate decks, a White lifer deck, another White lifer
deck, an elf deck, a sliver deck, a soldier deck, and so forth.
The Stratification Continues
These processes did not take a month or two, but years. Remember that our group has been going for over
four years. This is a slow, evolutionary process. This stage began about six months after the first stage, around
Scourge’s release. (Scourge was the first prerelease parts of the group attended).
The players who cared about the game began to go to tournaments. This was, to my mind, the Golden Age of our
Group. A prerelease would get four to six of our group together to head out. The occasional interesting PTQ would
grab three of us. Several attended store tournaments, building a variety of solid Constructed decks.
As some in the group became better deckbuilders with tournament experience, others were still the same
“whatever, let’s just play for fun.” During this time, the stratification became obvious. One
person would play with a lot of skill and was the second best player in the group. His girlfriend, on the other
hand, just played to be there. Another couple had arguably a similar experience. A new player from the Spawn
message board was brought in. He was also more of a social gamer.
The group’s stratification came as several members were building their best decks. You began to see
tournament decks making their way into the multiplayer dynamic. U/G Madness and Slide-Rift and Mono-Black Control
and Mono-White Control and U/W Control were now in the format. Dawn Elementals and Wings Shards mixed with Akroma,
Obliterate, Astral Slide, and Roar of the Wurm to give our table some power.
At the same time, the same players near the bottom of the multiplayer group kept playing the same decks. Lifer
Congregate decks and slivers and soldiers mixed with the more competitive cards getting played. Even some of the
players closer to the bottom were incorporating new cards. Cards like Akroma and Exalted Angel found their way from
one person’s collection to their girlfriend’s deck with regularity.
Combo decks included Megrim decks, Obliterate / Phage decks, Mana Flare decks, Pandemonium / Centaur Glade, and
more. They mixed with Bad Moon or Crusade decks, burn decks, lifer decks, elf decks, and so forth.
The first article I linked to tells they story of the metagame and a deck I built to handle it.
This metagame was more difficult to handle, because power decks from normal tournaments would show up. It was a
lot of fun! The elements people liked from these tournaments would slowly, in later stages, morph into more casual
friendly decks.
The second half of this stage took place in Mirrodin block. The combo players went wild in this block, with
sometimes two or three new combo decks every week, it seemed. The combos were complex and intricate, often revolving
around the same cards, like Mycosynth Lattice and Forge[/author]“]Darksteel [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author].
The same players kept playing these intricate combos, and they were all easy to stop. Disenchant early and
often. We began to call these new decks Haddix Decks, after the last name of the two brothers who played them. It
became important to pop these artifacts and occasional enchantments in order to win against a Haddix Deck.
This stage lasted for a long time, almost a year. All good things must come to an end.
The Slow Steady Devolution
Several things happened to slow down our regulars. Some people broke up. One girlfriend, who played to be
social and enjoy our company, has never played with the group since, while another still occasionally plays with her
new boyfriend. Another couple became too much of a couple, if you catch my hidden meaning, and stopped coming for a
while.
What happened was that our Friday (or Saturday sometimes) nights slowly began to go from seven to eight on a good
night and five to six regularly, to three to four sometimes. It was a very slow and gradual process, over many
months.
In April, one of our regulars had his father pass away. This required him to move into his father’s house
for months, and took him slowly out of the group for a while. Unfortunately, he was the center of our social circle.
As his attendance dwindled, so did the attendance of others.
Our group never died. There were still one or two who would show up, and several locals who converted to
HeroClix for a few months while no Magic people showed up.
Decks during this time were the same as before. The game began to stagnate.
Revive Us, Oh Lord!
Over the past eighteen months or so, our group has slowly regained is groupness. Previously the group had
revolved around that group of students from high school and a few others attached to the group through Magic.
Over time, the group began to morph into the locals and the high school group began to diminish. A few players
brought some new people to the group from their universities. The group’s dynamics changed, although several
core members remained. We still had the Haddixes, and the center of the social circle returned, and I was still
playing. The core four from our previous circle were among the best players from the original group. Atop that were
laid more locals, and more new blood.
This became a time of revival for the group, as now several players were more advanced than they had been, but
the new players were still relatively green. As such, the newer players often embraced larger decks, especially Five
Colors decks to greater or lesser degrees. Cycling 250, Foil 250, Snow 250, Spirits 250, Essential Highlander, and
more were getting played around the table.
Sure, you can still expect a Haddix to play a Haddix Deck (Dark Depths / Aether Snap, or Might of Oaks /
Berserk). And you can still expect a lot of newer decks from some of the new blood, like elf decks and whatnot.
There was an aborted attempt to reboot the gaming group that failed. We invited everybody we thought would work
in our group of various skill levels, but no dice. Even still, we ended up with a bunch of players recently, and
things are looking up.
We don’t go to tournaments much anymore except the occasional prerelease. The environment is more relaxed
at the Magic table. It’s still a lot of fun to play Magic with people old and new. We hope some of the new
players remain and we want to keep up the game!
The metagame is actually the least predictable it’s ever been. With the new players and their new deck
infusing us with energy and the old players building new and surprising decks, there is a lot of fun to be had around
the table. It’s a great time to be a part of our multiplayer group.
In fact, if you are from the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area and you have been fiending to get back into multiplayer, or
you want to try it out, no matter your skill level great or poor, let me know! The next time we play is tomorrow
evening, and we’d love to have you. We have two gaming rooms in my apartment and plenty of space, so
there’s no worry. Just let me know here in the forums if you are interested and leave me some contact info.
This is the same group that gave me the Multiplayer Dilemma, the Best Player Syndrome, and even last’s
week’s exploration of the Standstill Dilemma. My own multiplayer theory comes out from my own experiences, and
therefore knowing these experiences helps to illustrate my theories as well as my understanding of the game.
Now, would you like to see one of our more recent decks? I thought you might.
This deck was created by Don Haddix. It is an Abe-Modified version of his deck. Let’s take a look:
Creatures (18)
Lands (24)
Spells (18)
This deck tries to win by making a big powerful trampling creature of death and destruction, and then follows up
by Flinging said creature at someone else’s head. Morph up a Firecat, attack for seven, er… 14…
er… 28 and then Fling.
Yeah, okay, that takes a lot of mana, so you’ve got eight mana creatures to get you there more quickly.
Note that a Spark Elemental with a Might and Berserk deals 20, so it’s all you really need.
If you get disrupted early, no worries. You can still cast Ball Lighting / Berserk for twelve or something.
Even if all of the parts don’t fit at once, many of them are interchangeable. You can always attack with an
Elf or Birds with a Might / Berserk backup.
In a more elfed metagame, you might want Priest of Titania over the Llanowar Elves. Some Wall of Blossoms might
be nice for defense in the early game and don’t cost you card. If you put them in, pull the expensive Ball
Lightning and Grab the Reins or the cheap early game defense of Lightning Bolt can be replaced if you’d rather
keep the above cards. With those walls added, look for Gaea’s Cradle to get more mana quickly.
Another deck from the recent metagame is my modified version of the coin-flipper deck from my daily.
Well, with that it is time to say adieu once again. I hoped that you had fun today. Next time, we will probably
discuss a single deck, but which one? Ah, that’s the mystery.
Until later,