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Tournaments or casual?
This thread is for discussing the virtues of casual gaming versus competitive play.
I started playing casual Magic back in 1996 with a group of my friends. I quickly outpaced my friend's skill-progression and wound up losing interest in 1997 when I realized no one would play with me anymore. While in Bellingham, WA in 2003, my friends introduced me to Yu-Gi-Oh. It was a horrible game, but I played it because they did. This was my first introduction to tournament play, as a local card shop held a weekly tournament.
After I came back to Florida I got back into Magic and also learned that Magic had quite the pro circuit. So once I was up to speed I built a deck and took it out to a local card shop tourney.
I got beat. Badly.
Since them I've learned more about the game, and more about what makes me love it. What I eventually figured out is that I prefer casual competitive play. I'l explain a little.
In casual magic, nothing matters more than fun. You build crazy, ridiculous decks just to see what happens when some big goofy card hits the table. Casual play is big enough that Wizards Of The Coast has released two sets of spoof cards to date, targeted solely at the casual, kitchen-table Magic crowd.
Tournament Magic is a whole different world. These people slit throats for profit, not fun. Sure, they like their jobs, but the game is definitely a job of sorts for them. The payouts - and the stress - are real.
I classify casual-competitive in the middle of the field. I play to win, but I want everyone to have fun while it happens. I try to build good decks, but I value interest and entertainment higher. Powerful cards get paired up with complete wastes of cardboard, all in the pursuit of the almighty laugh.
Since I stopped playing competitive Magic and started pursuing skilled casual opponents I've found a renewed enjoyment of the game. In the end, its all about finding the right environment to enjoy your geeky card games.
I'm curious to hear other viewpoints on this. Reply, and tell everyone where you stand.
I started playing casual Magic back in 1996 with a group of my friends. I quickly outpaced my friend's skill-progression and wound up losing interest in 1997 when I realized no one would play with me anymore. While in Bellingham, WA in 2003, my friends introduced me to Yu-Gi-Oh. It was a horrible game, but I played it because they did. This was my first introduction to tournament play, as a local card shop held a weekly tournament.
After I came back to Florida I got back into Magic and also learned that Magic had quite the pro circuit. So once I was up to speed I built a deck and took it out to a local card shop tourney.
I got beat. Badly.
Since them I've learned more about the game, and more about what makes me love it. What I eventually figured out is that I prefer casual competitive play. I'l explain a little.
In casual magic, nothing matters more than fun. You build crazy, ridiculous decks just to see what happens when some big goofy card hits the table. Casual play is big enough that Wizards Of The Coast has released two sets of spoof cards to date, targeted solely at the casual, kitchen-table Magic crowd.
Tournament Magic is a whole different world. These people slit throats for profit, not fun. Sure, they like their jobs, but the game is definitely a job of sorts for them. The payouts - and the stress - are real.
I classify casual-competitive in the middle of the field. I play to win, but I want everyone to have fun while it happens. I try to build good decks, but I value interest and entertainment higher. Powerful cards get paired up with complete wastes of cardboard, all in the pursuit of the almighty laugh.
Since I stopped playing competitive Magic and started pursuing skilled casual opponents I've found a renewed enjoyment of the game. In the end, its all about finding the right environment to enjoy your geeky card games.
I'm curious to hear other viewpoints on this. Reply, and tell everyone where you stand.
Tags: card, games, magic, tournaments
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Charon on -
I am very much so a casual competitive player. I use a combination of sadistic game lengthening and what I call the "shiny monkey" strategy. What is the Shiny Monkey? I'll explain.
The Shiny Monkey is an extremely powerful card that is perceived as an immediate threat. While all of my opponents concentrate on removing that card from the board, I set up a series of cards that are thought to be useless, but actually accomplish a dastardly combo with Rube Goldberg precision. My first infinite combo involved all of my opponents concentrating on an indestructible Junk Troller, while I used about 10 other cards to cast an "infinite" Fireball.
It was my love of the casual competitive scene that prompted me to make a card game for that demographic. Thus Geek Fight! was born. It is also priced at 1/2 the cost of Magic per card, and even lower than that when compared to Yu-Gi-Oh. The game play can be simple or complex, depending on which format you choose to play. Some people even play the 7 card format in between rounds at WoW tournaments.
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