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Loading ...No, the comic isn’t going to be anime related from now on.
I kind of skewed the focus of the comic a time ago to card and board games in general instead of Magic the Gathering only but don’t expect this comic to change its direction every other month. The subject is fine, now I just need a bit more time to dedicate to this site.
This reflected a change in my hobbies. I didn’t ditch Magic. I still love it! But without a balanced group to play Magic I’ve played more board games.
Magic players are so enthralled with the prospect of competition that they won’t play the game for itself. I have some friends to whom I taught the game about a year ago. I was hoping that they’d like it, that we had some games going and perhaps a draft or two.
Of course once they started ebaying for cards in massive quantities it created an unfair advantage for them which in turn practically terminated the group we were playing in. I’m not one of those who cries when all the cool kids get better cards, it’s possible to construct decks made out of commons/uncommons that beat the crap out of the “holy” decks, but it takes a lot of time to research and unfortunately time is precious to me nowadays, I can hardly find time to fulfill my obligations, which leaves very little time for fun, which I don’t want to be 95% researching a deck.
So that left us with drafts, I mean drafts are an equal standing for everybody, everybody spends the same gets about the same cards and has fun right? Wrong. Many people won’t draft because they think the format is skewed, and check this in favor of the best player. So a format being won by who has more cash is ok, a format where the most skilled person wins is not. I won’t even try to rationalize that logic, really… That coupled with the time factor hasn’t really helped in favor of having some drafts played (I always had to organize drafts by myself, it seems unreal but it was hard to get any players at all to draft).
So that brings us to where I am now along with this comic. Boardgames may be a little more expensive at first glance, but they’ll be ready to play, let everyone be in equal standing, just open the game and start playing. Perfect for those with limited time/resources.
Though, I’ve been itching for a draft for a long time now, too bad no one around me likes to draft…
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I knew it was April Fool’s!
It’s sad to hear about your Magic woes. Happened to my group too - two guys got so into the tournament scene everything else stopped. We do draft now and again - everyone likes draft in my group but no one is really willing to pay to do so. The only guy who regularly goes to tournaments drafts the boosters he wins and that’s it. :/
Nice of him to do even that, though.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:36 am
Wow. That was the one April Fools’ gag I fell for. Amazing.
I like to play casually, but with good cards–i.e. ones that don’t work in competitive play, but are just fine casually (e.g.Autochton Wurm). But yeah, it’s too bad about your group. At least you had one
Also, how ’bout that Shadowmoor? Some of those cards are amazing.
April 4th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Hey Tiago,
I’ve been there before with the local playgroup. I really don’t understand the logic behind “the game is skewed in the favor of the best player”, and I never will. If your local group is like that, I would like to point out some other options:
You can connect with other people in places like mtgsalvation (which I know you go to) and set up a draft to meet on ccgdecks.com or by using netdraft.
You can use the draft queues in mtgo (loses a lot of the human aspect though, and costs money)
The third drafting option would be to take advantage of local fnm’s. They tend to do drafts.
You can bring along the friends who like to draft there… the problem is that you may run into jerks there too.
Finally, you can try a sealed league with trade possibilities? that way you get the cool card possibilities? Maybe you can make a hybrid; you could order cards all together. Whenever you do so, everyone gets the same amount of money to work with, and everyone contributes their own money, and everyone is required to work with the same budget. A little complicated, but it may end up merging the best of both worlds.
April 28th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
“I mean drafts are an equal standing for everybody, everybody spends the same gets about the same cards and has fun right? Wrong. Many people won’t draft because they think the format is skewed, and check this: in favor of the best player. So a format being won by who has more cash is ok, a format where the most skilled person wins is not.”
—–
Wow, that has got to be the most accurate and absurd statement I’ve ever heard…
It’s just like most online games, if skilled players win, people get fed up and leave rather than get good at it, but if whoever plays for the longest time wins, you get a hundred thousand addicts playing it for 40+ hours at a time.
I always try to get my group to draft, primarily because I need an excuse to get my decks weak enough that the rest of them are competitive, and they all fink out for the same reason as yours.
It’s weird how they’d rather lose by a landslide to me because I’ve been playing four times longer than most of them, than to have an almost fair game (but lose more than win) because I’m decent at drafting.
Oh well, I finally managed to get a four-man Lorwyn draft together last week, and everyone enjoyed it. The newest player in our group came out with the strongest deck, a surprisingly robust treefolk deck featuring two copies of that “all treefolk are indestructable” guy, and multiple Changeling Berserkers and Titans, plus a splash of white for Kinsbaille Balloonist. Flying Indestructable 7/7s hurt in a draft.
If you had the free time, I’d recommend teaching more people to play in your area, I’ve built up two different playgroups that way when I moved into an area. It has the drawback of not having anyone skilled enough to give you a challenge, but if you’re in it for the social aspect and are a Jhonny like me, it’s fine anyway. Unfortunately, I’m going to be moving out of the second one any month now. Grr, more work just to play a game.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Wow, I feel for you, I haven’t had the misfortune of that happening to me yet, but who knows what the future holds? One thing I would recomend, it can be a bit slow and requires you to trust your opponent, but you can play games just through an instant messenger (webcams help a lot) if you find anyone acroos the internet to play with. It is clearly harder to keep track of the field at any one time, but I find an open doccument which you can freely move pictures around in helps. Anyway, just a suggestion.