Subject: re: is magic dead [issue]
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 22:53:32 +0800 (PST)
From: Fields and Particles Group <theory@nip.upd.edu.ph>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

jamie (and the rest),

        i find it interesting that your mail has elicited the number of
responses that it had; it goes to show how well-founded your observations
are, or are not (depending on their responses).  i have not been reading
much ofthe dojo for the past month, so i wasn't able to read jamie's
oroginal article. nevertheless i have read much from the responses and
have practically deduced the contents and flavor of that article.

        basically it's about the state of magic today; it's about scrubs
winning tournaments via signature decks; it's about broken cards nd their
proliferation in the tournament scene; it's about people giving up magic
because of all of the above, and then some.

        personally i have only my experiences in our country to speak of.
i come from the philippines (and yes, people here are still smarting from
claire danes' lovely comment), and for the information of dojo enthusiasts
and players, magic is thriving here nowadays. what do i exactly mean by
thriving, and why do i use the word? let me relate.

        i started hearing about mtg during late 1994 or very early 1995.
then a neghbor and a friend started playing at around the ice age era, and
i was fascinated by the cards. he taught me how to play, but i was still
clueless; it took me two months to grasp the game. then mirage arrived and
i bought two starters. needless to say, i was hooked. but i knew  was a
beginner and i couln't find enough people to play against. i started with
the thought of buying the cards for the art, but what was reallyin my mind
even then was winning a tournament someday.

        that was three years ago. during that interval i have seen
tournaments evolve from local (comic clubs only) to national in scope;
from weekly to twice weekly (with parallel venues, at that), and with the
population growing. you have pointed out the drastic drop of people
attending the pre-releases. well, last september, the saga pre-release was
the highest ever (400+) for our country, and the one before that (exodus)
was the highest attended saga arrived. i do not profess to know everything
going on in magic, but for our country, at least, the following is
growing, and mtg is thriving.

        as for local tournaments, we hold a regular monthly in our
hometown, andlast week we had 12 people battle it out for a pack of saga.
yes, a single booster.  we usually have 15 to 20 regulars, and we always
manage to enjoy the time, teamless people that we are, with only a few of
us (5 only by the last count) with dci numbers, and fewer still
knowledgeable of the dojo. and yet we know about sligh, and black
suicide, and hum-prayer, and 5cu, and rec-night, and oath, and all of
them.

        i guess most of the players here still go to the tourneys for the
cards; i did so during the saga prerelease. the cutthroat competition is
still not that widely felt. people can still play for fun, and still do;
but one thing i can say about cutthroat players-- i have played against
them and did not enjoy it. i know about mistakes i should not commit, and
being careful of my plays, but it really shows how serious tournament
players destroy the enthusiasm of fun players, and the beginners.

        the rock-paper-scissors is not a prevalent situation here,
either. sure, the most represented decks are still the signature decks of
sligh and suicide, but rogue decks are still being built here. a friend of
mine just recently finished building a poison deck that no black suicide
had beaten yet (yes, poison, and yes, the suiciders couldn't beat him),
and i have just built a mono-white life that easily beats sligh and
suicide (but stalled by blue). the fact is i guess the less dependence we
still have on the dojo allows for this flexibility in deck-building
styles. we are not constrained to use the signature decks, and we are not
constrained to win. and no, i'd rather win with a deck of my own design
than copy one for the tournaments.

        basically, and in conclusion, i do not see magic dying out in the
next two or three years. i think it still has much growth potential, more
so in countries where it is still a new game. the attitude of most people
on the dojo seems to stem from overreaction; i like eric taylor's
comments, they parallel my own feelings about the game.

        if there is anything sick about the game, i think it is the
tourney players themselves, and how veterans expect too much an advantage
over scrubs. this is a game of chance, not of skill; anything that is not
of a set pattern (like chess) succumbs to the machinations of chance, and
mtg is not an exemption.  but that is exactly where the challenge and the
fun stems from, the excitement of never knowing what happens next game.
and if some cards do spoil this "balance", people will not hesitate to use
them. tuorney people push this further by being too cutthroat oftentimes.

        and so what if magic DOES die out anyway? well, look at it this
way: wotc is filthy rich, the artists have made some of their best works,
and we have in our possession many cards that we can still play with, or
burn; and then some other new game will catch our attention. but so far,
so good in our part of the universe. and we will survive.

        see y'all at gp:manila!

scrub (NOT!)

don tabin
<dondagreyt@hotmail.com>


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