StarCityGames Interview Series Going Strong

For the three people who read this site without also reading SCG, be aware that my profiles of different Magic figures can be found over there even as we speak.

Each week I interview someone from within the Magic community in a candid, open format profile.  Unlike traditional Magic interviews, these are composed, narrative articles instead of Q&As.  So far I've showcased Chris Kluwe, the Minnesota Vikings' punter who is also an avid gamer; Tom Martell, considered by many to be the best Legacy player in the world right now; and Christine Sprankle, a cosplayer whose take on Elspeth Tirel was the talk of the last World Championships.

Coming up next is Craig Jones, the fan favorite from across the pond who shared his honest opinion on where Magic is, and where he thinks it may have gotten sidetracked.

These profiles are meant to be informative, entertaining pieces that highlight players, organizers, content producers, and community figures in a way that they haven't been focused on before.

If you would like to recommend someone as a future interview, send me an e-mail at wherethemeatcomesfrom@gmail.com.  Keep in mind, I cannot guarantee that any particular subject is going to be willing to be interviewed.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

_ben

Tip of the Day #7: Nuts and Bolts

I'm a tinkerer, by nature, especially when it comes to building my own constructed lists or refining decks I dredge up from the corners of the internet.  In general, many competitive Magic players are constantly adding and removing cards from builds they find through coverage of professional tournaments.

The thing is, though, this is rarely the best course of action.  I never fully appreciated how well-tuned most winning decklists are until I finally gave up messing with what was working.

The truth is that a deck that takes down a Pro Tour is a honed machine, comprised of dozens of parts, assembled in such a way that it can repeat the task it was designed to do as many times as necessary.  If you imagine a deck like an engine, you'll understand that unscrewing one nut could lead to one hell of a Michael Bay style explosion.

When you are tempted to add just one Grave Titan because it should theoretically be good in the metagame you are expecting, you need to remember that you are taking something else out that had a purpose in the first place.

It can be even more problematic if you were not part of the team that originally built the list, and you swap in Rune Snags for Mana Leaks because of "the late game."  Sure, you might get away with it, and sometimes, your change may even end up being for the better, but more often than not, you just messed up the deck's basic plan.

The tip of the day is to be careful when you are re-wiring the security system of Bill Gates' house, you don't know which wires control the pirate-ninja robot butlers.

Tip of the Day #6: Play More Lands

I've had a bit of a break-through lately when it comes to DII drafts.  For whatever reason, I had gotten into the bad habit of playing fewer and fewer lands as I tried to lower my decks' curve enough that I was making enough plays to keep up with the ridiculously fast Limited environment.

On a lark, I played an aggressive U/W Skies deck and jammed the eighteenth land instead of the Moment of Heroism I really wanted to play.  I went 6-0 in games and swept the draft.  I noticed that I was making every land drop when it counted, and playing a stream of threats that I could never have managed with only three or four lands in play.

So, for this tip, I turn to Gavin Verhey:

Tip of the Day #5: "Why Delver is a Banana Deck"

For those of you living under a muggle rock these days, there is a bit of a debate growing about deck classification.  If you are trying to improve your game, knowing your plan is ridiculously important, for those of you who question why deck classification even matters.

Over the whole argument, one thing that stands out to me is that everyone seems to be ignoring one of Adrian Sullivan's most important points.  In their haste to mark their own stamp on Magic theory, several writers are forgetting the point of theory in the first place.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find Adrian's tweet to quote directly, but he said, approximately, "What you are doing when you choose to classify Delver as Aggro is not theory, it's empiricism."  In the writer's mind, Delver is Aggro, because what he calls Aggro, is actually something else entirely.  That's empirical thought, and the danger is that empiricism cannot be taught.  Theory succeeds only because it is codified terms with defined parameters that can be passed on.

When you have a public platform such as a webpage or article series, it is crucial that you do not fall into the trap of attempting to communicate your empirical thoughts.  While your strategy may be sound, it will fail for someone who does not properly integrate your "theory" with existing theory.  And they have practically no way of knowing whether or not they need to do so.

Magic continues to evolve, and there is a need to update the fundamental theories we use to operate our strategies.  But that update needs to come in terms of logical interpretations that expand or extend the current model, not reconfigure it completely.  

That is the tip of the day.

Lady in the Street: The "Chasing Amy" Problem and Modern Relationships

The blood-spattered camp satire Red State is a gore-stained polemic that takes aim at just about everyone, but Kevin Smith's most enduring commentary is actually found a good fifteen years earlier, in his oddly poignant paean to geek love everywhere, Chasing Amy.