This was my contribution to the now infamous Why are not everyone playing Magic? thread. It got locked soon after, but I think I was on to something here. Most games don’t involve a pre-confrontation aspect, this one does. The key is to find a way of playing where you will enjoy both the pre-game and the cardplay without going broke.
And i have also been destroyed by a less skilled player in a magic tournament because he had a deck with better cards…
Apparos Achaparos
I’ve been destroyed by less skilled players in other games because they had a better dice roll :-) It is, of course, an acceptable preference to say, “I don’t mind if a game has major non-skill influences, but I do mind if they are financial rather than random.” This preference can still be exercised within the game of MTG by playing more restrictive formats, though, so it is still a matter of personal choice rather than game mandate.
astroglide
You mean i preferred to have my b*tt handed to me because i liked the constructed format? That is a terrible misconception!
Apparos Achaparos
What do you mean more restricted formats? Draft? i hate draft! Why should i be forced to play a version that i don’t like just to eliminate the implications of not affording to buy more expensive cards?
Still draft introduces even more luck in the game since you own 1 or very rarely 2 copies of each card in your deck and you have no idea how the boosters in the booster will behave (i mean you don’t have a clue what they contain).
Maybe I’m a bit slow if everyone else already “got it” but I just realized that we need to stop thinking of Magic the Gathering as a game, but as a Game System.
Off the top of my head there are Booster Drafts, Constructed Casual, Constructed Tournament, Preconstructed Purchased Decks, Type I, II, Vintage, Cube Drafts, and (my favorite) “shoebox” casual deck building. That’s just the two player versions with “normal” decks. The cardplay mechanics are all completely the same, but the “meta-game” (pool of allowable cards) are drastically different for each format. I propose that what we have been incorrect in calling different “pools of allowable cards” just different “meta-games of the same game”. Since most of us would agree that building decks is a big part (maybe the main aspect) of the enjoyment from MtG, then maybe we should consider each different format with a distinct sets of allowable cards as different games that share the same card-play mechanics.
This is the mirror opposite of traditional playing cards. A French suited deck of 4 suits with 13 ranks that blossoms into card games of totally different mechanics (Trick Taking, Bluffing, Fishing, Climbing, Rummy, etc.). In MtG, all the players expect the same mechanical card-play, but the deck construction differs drastically. The confusion of this thread is due to a disconnect between the pre-cardplay restrictions that each of us prefers. The passionate disagreement arises because we all feeling pressured to endorse all of the different possible deckbuilding games that come with this MtG system, when most of us only prefer a couple ways to constrain our deck building.
I certainly don’t give MtG an unqualified endorsement. I have no problems with paying an entry cost to get into MtG, just like purchasing any other board game. I also agree there are many fine deck building games within the MtG system. However I dislike our competitive consumerist culture, so I cannot endorse any version MtG game that taps into the players’ psyche to create an arms race that encourages people to spend significant amounts of real money.
Even though blowing lots of cash on cards may be perfectly normal for those that love the ultra-competitive game within the MtG System, such a fanboy should expect pushback on Boardgamegeek.com if they propose that “spending lots of money to acquire high powered game equipment” is a perfectly fine game mechanic. That’s just not reading the room.
However, there are different games that use Magic cards, some of which don’t require burning cash to keep up. These games with a restricted pool of available cards are incredibly fun (“lets make decks from my shoebox of cards!”). I’ve had more fun playing this type of MtG game than Dominion (I found the shoebox’s unstructured deck building “mechanic” a more creative activity than Dominion’s deckbuilding system).
However, I fear that as long as all the different Magic formats (games) continue to be combined and interchangeably in a polemical discussion, the participants will invariably spend the effort talking past each other.
PS. I don’t have a problem with people burning piles of cash on MtG, but it’s not for me. I don’t have a moral problem with gambling or even with the casino industry, but I know my addictive self well enough that I can’t go there. One of my best game nights was a Poker night at a friend’s house, and it was the night I realized I could never play Poker again.
P.S. I guess I was late to the party (though his definition of system is slighlty different) It’s not a game! It’s a System! Honest, I didn’t read his essay before writing mine!