Magic the Gathering in 2011: the 30+, Married w/ Children Review
After reading Aaron Forsythe’s wrap-up article for 2011, I was inspired to collect my various thoughts on the year into a summary from a specific perspective: old family people. Well, old-ish. Yu-gi-oh old, at least.
What makes up our little demographic?
- We tend to play more Eternal than younger age groups.
- A lot of us started back in the “old” days with things like Interrupts, mana burn and (shudder) Homelands tri-lands.
- We cannot be full-time grinders. We have serious jobs, parenting responsibilities and a budget that we share with our spouse’s wardrobe.
- We spend money on the singles, packs and other products and we like to compete whenever we get the chance. We have actual income, so we’re reliable customers.
- Even if we don’t make a career out of it, we will put as much effort as we can reasonably put into any opportunity to win cash, cards or get on the Pro Tour, sporadic though it may be. But we have to pick our battles.
If this is you, or you know and like someone that fits this description, I request you humbly give me the opportunity to tell you about 2011.
Organized Play
All in all, at the end of the roller coaster that was OP in 2011, us 30+, married w/ children Magic players ended up pretty much where we were before:
If you ever want to live the dream, however briefly, you pretty much have to win a PTQ. Nothing else is relevant or likely to matter.
So, yeah, I feel like this was fun controversy and it probably taught Wizards a lot, but it didn’t actually end up mattering much to me/us.
But, then…
PWP-Based Byes at PTQs
Aaron Forsythe floated this idea on Twitter today as a way of increasing the reward value of Planeswalker Points. A backlash ensued and he dialed it down a bit, saying it wouldn’t necessarily happen, or be many byes, etc. But this is a clear reminder that tournament organizer of all scales clearly do not understand the massive impact that byes have on tournaments.
Do you remember the SCG Player’s Club before byes were eliminated? Basically every single top 8 was the same set of grinders scooping to each other. How could they be so consistent? Maybe it’s because they had to win 3 matches and draw 2, whereas everyone else had to win 6 or 7 and draw 1.
I’d like someone to also post the numbers on how many w/ and w/o byes make day 2 of a Grand Prix. I would imagine that the difference is staggering. Granted, people who accumulate byes are naturally likely to be stronger or more well-prepared players, but that likely wouldn’t account for all the tilts. The way you top 8 a competitive event is by not losing or drawing more than once or twice. Automatic wins have an exponential positive impact on the likelihood of that occurring.
So, I think this is a bad idea. It will encourage point farming for the PTQ grinders, first off. And the other thing it will do is make the dream even less accessible to our demographic, the 30+, married w/ children. Why is that? Because PTQs are basically our only remaining, legitimate route to the Pro Tour. And competing against people with byes means we have to be almost twice as good/lucky/prepared than they do to have a shot at winning. If you don’t play Standard, in particular, which many of us can’t keep up with, forget about the Pro Tour regardless of how much you’ve mastered Eternal or even Limited.
If this comes up again, protest. Or, at least get Wizards to admit that the dream is not important to them for our demographic. I would be fine with that. I’d sell all my Modern stuff, most of my Legacy stuff and stop drafting. I’d invest in Vintage and EDH and keep on playing.
Remember the lesson we learned from the original Organized Play changes? Remove the dream, however impractical, and you kill the competitive drive for tons of invested people. And that is what really sells us old, boring people packs.
Innistrad
Smash hit. Setting aside my eternal player nostalgia/biases for old sets, Innistrad is so far the best set I have ever played for Limited. I think it’s pretty close to equally successful for constructed, although it will live and die based on the rest of the block. Commander impact: check. Modern impact: check. Legacy impact: check. Vintage impact: check. Formats broken as a result? None, pretty much. Evolved, sure, but not broken. Flavor? Checkity, check check.
Here’s to Dark Ascension keeping it rolling. Fingers crossed, mirrors and ladders hidden safely, black cats painted white. Bring it on.
I realize this had nothing to do with being 30+, married and having children. Cut me some slack.
Modern
It’s a little early to judge the format a real success, but I’m going to stick my neck out and say that it survives and thrives. Here are some key points about Modern that I think are relevant. These will not be very surprising, but I’ll bold the ones I think you, as a 30+ married person w/ children should pay extra attention to:
- The format is non-rotating. It shouldn’t be as expensive and time-intensive as standard to keep up with. Reprints are possible.
- Card availability is higher, so it should be less expensive than Legacy at least in the short run. Although, for multi-color decks, the fetch + shock land requirements are actually still brutal. I would consider, if you don’t care, waiting until after the PTQ season to get in there. Prices should level off and we may have more information about reprints. As I write this, Figure of Destiny on MTGO is the MTGO equivalent of $20. You heard me.
- The format will likely have more official tournament support than Modern. If you like competing, that’s relevant.
- On the down side, the format largely starts after R&D wised up about power levels, so new sets are more likely to change the format significantly. This will require more activity to stay current/competitive than Legacy would.
- Stuff is still being banned. Many people aren’t bothered by this, but if you’re the kind who flies into homicidal rage when your cards are banned, you might wait a bit. Or, alternately, stay off of Facebook and Twitter to avoid lifetime bans.
That said, I’m excited about it and my only reservation/hope is whether Modern moves people away from Legacy (frown) or towards Eternal (yay!). It probably could go either way, honestly.
That said, here’s to 2012. I’ll close with a selfish little demographic-influenced wish list for the year:
- Dark Ascension doesn’t let me down.
- Ratings-based PTQ byes never happen.
- Some kind of Magic Player Rewards system is reinstated, ideally based on Planeswalker Points in a way that makes them desirable and meaningful outside of byes.
- Modern kicks ass, people discover they like Eternal and Legacy continues to grow as a result.
- Modern kicks ass and becomes supported as an FNM format.
- The next block contains a Chandler, Eron the Relentless or Uncle Istvan-based Planeswalker for some reason.
- Brainstorm stays legal in Legacy.
- Evan Erwin uploads more awesome pictures of Adrian Peterson, whoever she is and however tenuous her connection to the game may be.
Cheers!
