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This will be a shorter blog post, so I apologize for 1) the brevity, 2) my absence for so long, and 3) the lack of a decklist in this blog. I'm writing to talk about the different stages in my Magic life. I started this story in the 4th grade, a good nine years ago. I was a Pokemon player who picked up some Magic cards to be different. But, in hindsight, I can't really call myself a magic player at that point. Instead of reading the rulebook, we made up our own rules. Swampwalk meant something completely different to us. I probably had a good 40 cards at that point that I got from opening a few packs here and there. I'd say my second stage was a few years later when I started picking up "Topdeck" magazine for the free booster packs. I started out just reading the Pokemon sections and opening the packs, but that changed slowly so that towards the end of the magazine's existence I was hoping for Magic boosters and articles. My third stage was when I started using these boosters and articles to make my own decks. They were horrible, but they finally had structure in following these articles guidelines. I even took these to a local tournament-and got destroyed. So the forth stage began with online forums and hep from the tournament people. I was eventually able to not just netdeck (I finally put some money into the game), but to even contribute to these conversations. I've become a (semi) accomplished deckbuilder and play tournaments every once in awhile. But I had to slow this down when I went to college this last year. But that simply would not do. So just days ago I stepped into my fifth stage. I'd been wanting to work for the local comic store for a few years now, but have been passed up a few times. And have recently decided that I don't like working for someone else all that much. So I've made my first step towards my own store. I just purchased a case of eventide. It's hardly a store, but using the internet, I can start out slowly and hopefully grow from there. I know I'm not supposed to solicit here, so I'm wary to say more about what's next, but if people want to give me some tips or talk about my plans--I'd love to. Thanks for reading, Nico "the_deck_tech" Weiss
Tags: Magic Stages In Life Store Starting
I’d like for everyone here to take a quick second to mourn the death of my psyche. As many of you have probably noticed, the Regionals Blog Contest is over. It only makes mewonder if anyone else has appreciated the irony behind RBC as much as I have. Of course, it was mostly my fault it was so ironic. Let mere count a short story to you: I head to my favorite Magic: the Gathering website and notice that they are holding a writing contest. I think to myself, “Great! I’m a decent writer, and I can kinda play Magic. I’ll give it a try.” Then I notice that almost every blargicle (yes, I made up a word to explain blogs trying to be articles) was based on the new set and/or Regionals. So I again thought, “If I want to stand out I have to write bout something different than everyone else. I won’t write at all about PT Hollywood or Regionals.” You imagine my surprise when I realize that the contest was about writing for Regionals. And so ends my story of the ironic RBC. Well, actually it ended with an expletive and a chuckle, but this story is a lot more down home. The moral of the story: know the rules of any contest before you enter. And the other moral: Magic is a contest. Currently, there is one rule that is getting a little more attention than the others: 420.5n. Now, based on my last statement, I’m forced to assume most of you already know what I’m talking about, but you know what they say about when you assume. And I would never do that to you. So here’s the rule: From magicthegathering.com’s rule center: 420.5n If a permanent has both a +1/+1 counter and a-1/-1 counter on it, N +1/+1 and N -1/-1 counters are removed from it, where N is the smaller of the number of +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters on it. Sweet, so what’s this mean to us? If nobody’s ruined the ending for you, it means that a cardlike, say, Juniper Order Ranger, makes persist guys VERY persistent. And based on that insider information,a new deck was born. I’ll just show you guys the version that got famous via PT Hollywood youtube videos. Search 420.5n on youtube to find the video about it (and notice that the video series stole my handle). Here’s what I’ve reconstructed from that video (go ahead and let me know if I got it wrong, but I’m pretty sure I got it—although the lands may be slightly off): 4 Greater Gargadon 4 Wall of Roots 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Kitchen Finks 3 Murderous Redcap 3 Juniper Order Ranger 3 Cloudthresher 2 Seige-Gang Commander (26) 4 Into the North 3 Glittering Wish 2 Momentary Blink 2 Primal Command (11) 2 Reflecting Pool 2 Snow-Covered Forest 1 Snow-Covered Mountain 1 Snow-Covered Island 2 Grove of Burnwillows 2 Battlefield Forge 3 Treetop Village 1 Mouth of Ronom 1 Highland Weald 1 Arctic Flats 1 Boreal Shelf 1 Fungal Reaches 1 Horizon Canopy 1 Wooded Bastion 1 Llanowar Reborn 2 Fire-Lit Thicket (23) SB: 1 Kitchen Finks 1 Murderous Redcap 1 Juniper Order Ranger 1 Teferi’s Moat 1 Harmonic Sliver 1 Oversoul of Dusk 1 Wheel of Sun and Moon 3 Firespout 2 Squall Line 3 Vexing Shusher That was actually pretty hard—I had to do it without any sound, with bad resolution, and while listening to some modern philosophy. That’s a mental workout. As he explains in the video, the main combo is Juniper Orde rRanger, Persist, and Greater Gargadon. By activating greater gargadon as many times as you want, you can get that many comes into play abilities from your persisters. And a huge ranger, which with blink can sometimes be a surprise win. But as I didn’t have the money or the desire to spend $200 on a small aggro element, and as I am still a control player at heart, I went in search of a bit more inspiration. It was brought to my attention that a “Quick-n-Toast” (video also on youtube) was doing fairly well—at the time it was undefeated—so I went to check that out. My favorite part of that deck: the mana base. It allowed for me play my four or five colors without taking up half of the deck on mana-fixing and it cured me of the fear of going basic-less. Taking one last glance at the PT results, I accepted that ‘lark was to be back in my life, and decided to finally try using one of the most powerful tempo cards I’ve ever been given the chance to wield. So I made this happen: 4 Greater Gargadon 4 Wall of Roots 4 Kitchen Finks 3 Murderous Redcap 3 Mulldrifter 2 Juniper Order Ranger 1 Body Double 1 Seige-Gang Commander 2 Cloudthresher 2 Reveillark (26) 3 Glittering Wish 2 Momentary Blink 2 Firespout 2 Garruk Wildspeaker 1 Ajani Goldmane 2 Primal Command (12) 4 Reflecting Pool 2 Vivid Meadow 2 Vivid Creek 1 Vivid Grove 1 Vivid Crag 2 Treetop Village 2 Horizon Canopy 2 Battlefield Forge 2 Grove of the Burnwillows 1 Wooded Bastion 1 Mystic Gate 2 Fire-Lit Thicket (23) SB: 1 Murderous Redcap 1 Juniper Order Ranger 2 Vexing Shusher 1 Firespout 1 Teferi’s Moat 1 Wheel of Sun and Moon 1 Void 1 Curse of Chains 1 Harmonic Sliver 1 Cloudthresher 2 Mindshatter 2 Detritivore The main differences between our two versions and my reasoning: Tarmogoyf: He was probably thinking, “It’s one of the best creatures ever printed. I’m playing green, might as well make that happen.” I’m sure it wasn’t that simplistic, as he’s in the pro tour and I’m not, he probably had some killer reasons as to why he’s worth playing that I’ve just failed to grasp. But since bitterblossom is used by the entire world, and I don’t have some chump $200 change, I decided to cut the sillygoyfs. Reveillark: I am far from the first person to put ‘lark into this deck, but I do love it. It can save 2/3 of your combo from the graveyard or it can net you huge card advantage with the mulldrifters I also added. I stuck body double in to be able to combo that guy with the lark and gargadon. Plus, primal command can get the singleton of the body double and curves nicely into an evoked reveillark. Garruk: I think I may be the first to stick Garruk into this deck, but I admit I have a very high chance of being wrong. My reasoning is thus, “Garruk is awesome and he’s green, might as well make that happen.” Just playing, of course, as this deck is tight for slots, it was a tough decision that I’m proud to have made. Garruk helps me accelerate into my bigger spells and also gives me guys after a wrath effect. This, coupled with persist, makes my version pretty strong against many control decks. Ajani: I don’t just have a thing for plainswalkers, I swear! Ajani was one of the cards I wasn’t really sure on. Still not completely sold, but that’s alright. It makes the RDW matchup go from being great to being greater, but most importantly it gives my guys +1/+1 counters. All of them! That’s mass pumpage for even more persistent beats. Again, this allows for recovery and amazing 3-1 trades against creature-based aggro decks. Vivid over Snow: Snow lands are better fixers on their own, but I prefer the combo of reflecting pool with the vivids over the snows with search. In testing, I wanted to hit at least six mana, so thinning the deck of lands could become frustrating. Also, the more colors I try to play, the worse the snowlands get for me, my version is running at least 4 colors. All of that is fine and dandy, but what does this deck mean to me? Mostly it means fun, this is a competitive deck, but not the most competitive. You’d probably be better off taking a different deck to any big tournament for wins, but I’d rather play a fun and competitive deck whenever I can, because 8 round tournaments can be very long otherwise. Unfortunately, my ability to test is still a little lacking,but as the school year ends soon these can get more precise in a few weeks. Currently, all I can honestly give is techniques and speculation. Faeries wasn’t as dominant as some people had expected at PT Hollywood, but I think that one forth of the field is still good representation. This deck is very much still alive. My version of 420.5n is probably a little worse off against faeries than the one we started with. Bummer. He said it was a hard game, but around 50/50, I’m saying it’s a hard game that is in their favor. Faeries has an easy time dealing with my plainswalkers, and has an easier time countering big spells like body double and reveillark than tarmogoyf. Also, I chose to dedicate my sideboard spots for big mana and lark over faeries… so that’s not good either. Reveillark (might as well continue with the hard matchups). Lark plays like a bad mirror match. They have less cards dedicated to the combo portion, so they have more space for those counterspells and return my land spells. You maybe able to catch them off guard with the combo, but the going aggro route is unlikely to work out. Luckily, primal command has a built-in anti-lark portion to it. Also, things are meant to get better after boarding with mind shatter and detritivore. Keeping them off of six mana is important, and forcing one of the other big spells can turn the game. I’m going to have to test after sideboarding to let you know if it’s enough to help, but I’d say it goes from being a bad matchup to adecent one (around 50/50). So why would anyone play this deck? RDW I know manyplayers love red—especially at my store. It also helps that this deck is good against faeries. It still hasn’t won big tournaments, and now that lark is back and ramp is big it’ll stop getting playing as much, BUT it’s still something I expect to play every time I go to my store. All that being said, this matchup is a great one for me. The only card that could possibly mess me up is magus, but that guy is weak against firespout and redcap, so I don’t forsee him being too much of a problem unless I get horrible draws and they get good ones. Elves come in many flavors. The toughest one has black, because discard can hurt. The easiest one is mono green, because teferi’s moat is wishable. Elfball is something I haven’t everplayed against, so I’m not as sure what it entails, but I think I can guess it. This deck is made against creature-based aggro, and this is the perfect example of why. Redcaps, firespouts, wall of roots, and persist are all great things against elves. Even the worst elf matchup is pretty favorable. Mana Ramp is a somewhat popular deck these days. The RG version is harder to play against than the GW version as it has burn to kill your guys and at the same time it can end the game prematurely. You’ll both spend the early turns accelerating into mana and then both decide to try and win quickly. As they are an anti-aggrotype deck, I’d suggest trying to combo out in a turn or two instead of going aggro and winning incrementally. As most of their solutions would be killing your guys, you should probably avoid playing them until they can do something for you. Depending on the threats they have, you have a few answers including teferi’s moat, curse of chains, void, cloudthresher, and maybe firespout. You may also be able to take the control route. After sideboarding you gain some more control elements, and can make them discard their answers before you go off or land deprive them to slow down their ramp, and all that. Doran is another tough matchup. They run those difficult discard solutions, and also play creatures that are hard to deal with, and can take care of your creatures when they do come into play. I haven’t played this matchup, but from my experience with other similar matchups, the only way I’ve seen to win wellis to surprise win with a lark or something like that. I’ve pulled many wins out of my butt with this deck, so this isn’t that weird, but I agree that relying on topdecksis not a good game plan. Unfavorable, before and after board. Merfolk I think we play this one half way between elves and faeries… which makes it slightly favorable? You have more chump blockers, and with small guys, these may be trades. Firespout still rocks. With their counterspell run I feel as though the combo is a little shot in this matchup for the benefit of tempo creatures. Redcap is good here. And if lark can get successfully get evoked, the tempo from that may just help you pull out the win. Quick n’ Toast is something I admittedly don’t know too much about. I know what the list looks like, and how it plays against many popular decks, but what they’d do against me is something I think would be fun to watch on both sides of the table. They have a few counterspells, but I feel I can force spells through to combo out and use my few removal spells to stop them from smashing my face in. I don’t think the aggro routewill work too well, but that’s tempo cards are always a good idea. There are tons of other decks out there now, but these are the ones I expect to see most. If I dumbed it up, let me know. The idea with this deck is that it wins quickly against any deck if they falter, it has a decent game against some of the major deck types, and has a good game against the other popular trends. I’m going to play this in my local tournament as it feels like a good deck for an open metagame which, despite Hollywood, we are somewhat left with today. Also, this deck is fun. So just like in the youtube video, I’d rather play this than faeries for that reason alone. -Nicholas “the_deck_tech” Weiss
Tags: Rules Project J 4205n
I like to play control. Generally I choose one of thenon-counterspell sort, but I’m not too picky if counters are the way it has togo. I also hate mirror match (especiallyin those counter wars). Basically,I’m all about killing creatures and winning in a few monumental turns. I’ve played type 2 control in manyways, let’s take a quick look at my history as I can remember it: Onslaught Block: Both BG Oversold Cemetary aggro-control andUW Control Mirrodin Block: UW control and Tooth and Nail (controlversus Affinity) Kamigawa: 5 Color Control, UG aggro-control Ravnica: WUg control (This one was expensive…friggin’ duals) Coldsnap: Mono-Red Control, BW(g) control (Martyr of Sands) Time Spiral: BW control, BWg control, BWu Control And recently, away at school, witha budget, and a Mac (no MTGO), I’ve been at somewhat of a loss. But with summer coming up, I’ll be ableto change this. With a new setjust coming out, this seems like a sign from God (or whatever gives signs toatheists) that it’s time to find my control deck again. You’ll notice that many of thesedecks weren’t the most popular decks of their formats. This has a lot to do with my disdainfor mirror-matches, and the joy I have in making my own decklists. And in this tradition, I’m looking again. Duringthis search, I just realized my favorite little interaction from the new set;Godhead of Awe and Desert. I wantthis to happen. And, I’m notafraid to search it out because Godhead is usually a 4/4 flyer for 5 and Desertis usually a Faeries thwart—so they’re both “good” on their own. So I set out to choose how I wanted tomake this work. Godhead is blue orwhite or both, so I just thought of how I’d combo colors with these and if anyof these combos worked well with what I thought a control deck needed to havein this day and age. First I tried the (kinda) obvious UW Godhead: 4 Kitchen Finks 3 Godhead of Awe 2 Aeon Chrnoicler 2 Ajani Goldmane 2 Sacred Mesa 2 Crovax the Ascendant (15) 4 Ancestral Vision 4 Wrath of God 4 Oblivion Ring 2 Condemn 4 Coldsteel Heart 3 Cryptic Command (21) 4 Adarkar Wastes 3 Faerie Conclave 3 Desert 4 Mystic Gate 4 Boreal Shelf 4 Snow-Covered Plains 2 Snow-Covered Island (24) SB: I can see the possibility of a transformational sideboardwith this deck. It’s currentlyvery “Big Mana”-esque and this is mostly because, like I said, I dislikecounter wars. Also, I wanted toplay godhead and too many main phase spells work well with it to rely onplaying on their turns. However, Itraditional sideboard is also very possible, depending on what you’re expectingfrom the meta. I’ll refrain fromposting sideboards for these guys from now on because this is mostly just amental experiment at this point, and I’d rather not suggest a SB for a meta Idon’t know and for a deck I haven’t tested yet. This version has many of the thingsI love about control decks; big, powerful spells, lots of card draw, lots ofremoval, and some good life-gain for stall. Most of you will complain for the lack of counterspells in ablue control deck, but as I said, I did this because I don’t like counterspells(I’m just not good at them). Ichose command because it’s the most powerful counterspell in the format, itcantrips, controls, and/or clears out blockers in the way of a chronicler or crovax. A downside to this deck is that it isslow, and may well just die out to the fast format we have now. I’ll have to test to see if my deserts,finks, and onion rings can hold off until I get my setup. I can see this having trouble againstfaeries like ‘lark does, and that’s the opposite of what I wanted. So, next I tried GW: 4 Wall of Roots 4 Kitchen Finks 3 Cloudthresher 2 Oversoul at Dusk 2 Godhead of Awe 1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero 1 Akroma, Angel of Vengeance (17) 4 Oblivion Ring 3 Condemn 3 Harmonize 3 Garruk, Wildspeaker 2 Primal Command 4 Into the North (19) 4 Arctic Flats 4 Brushlands 3 Horizon Canopy 3 Desert 3 Treetop Village 1 Scrying Sheets 1 Mouth of Ronom 3 Snow-Covered Plains 2 Snow-Covered Forest (24) Withall of the “comes into play tapped” and that reminder text “doesn’t tap forcolored mana” that some people choose to disregard on some special lands, Ichose Into the North over Search for Tomorrow and chose to avoid the new filterland because of this (and nonbasic hate) as well. Most of the rest of this should make sense (the wraths wouldgo in the sideboard) except for the godhead—she seems to just be in therebecause I wanted to use her (which is exactly the case). Basically, she’d probably be better offas more oversouls or tarmogoyfs or something. So, while this is one of my favorite ideas for her, it seemstoo forced to be optimal. Also,she doesn’t have any protection…even the 3 counters of the first deck feltsafer than this just throwing her out there. So, in considering this“protection” dilemma, I came to the conclusion that perhaps counterspells haveto be the way. But, to me, whiteis too mainphase oriented right now for this, so I tried red: UR Godhead: 3 Godhead of Awe 3 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfirs 2 Sower of Temptation 2 Aeon Chronicler (10) 3 Ancestral Vision 4 Pyroclasm 4 Rune Snag 3 Delay 3 Sulfurous Blast 3 Cryptic Command 2 Think Twice 2 Cancel 1 Pact of the Titan 1 Pact of Negation (26) 3 Faerie Conclave 4 Shivan Reef 2 Tolaria West 1 Urza’s Factory 1 Desert 1 Vesuva 1 Mouth of Ronom 1 Calciform Pools 6 Snow-Covered Island 4 Snow-Covered Mountain (24) WithBlast and ‘Clasm, the desert aspect of Godhead-Desert is kinda already coveredby the spells. But, this is a goodthing because there are fewer mana fixes for opposing colors. I decided to play tolaria west to getthe desert in those few cases where I really feel like I need it, and I’veadded a few other options to tutor for as well. This version has counters, card draw, and destruction, butit has no life-gain (bad when RDW takes a turn for the popular) and I’dpersonally like to avoid counterspell decks if I could. Of course, I could just get over itwith the counterspells and play dragon’s claw and/or bottle gnomes for the RDWmatches. As with the others, we’llsee. Irealize there are many other possible options, and I encourage you all to trythem out as well as these ones, but I’ll close with the final list I’m thinkingabout right now. This is myfavorite color combo of the last few years; BW control. WB Godhead 4 Kitchen Finks 4 Dusk Urchins 2 Shriekmaw 2 Godhead of Awe 1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero 1 Sacred Mesa (14) 4 Coldsteel Heart 4 Oblivion Ring 3 Wrath of God 2 Scarscale Ritual 2 Ajani Goldmane 2 Liliana Vess 2 Profane Command 1 Grim Harvest 1 Mind Shatter 1 Loxodon Warhammer (22) 2 Urborg, Yawgmoth’s Tomb 4 Caves of Koilos 1 Urza’s Factory 2 Desert 5 Snow-Covered Swamp 8 Sno-Covered Plains 2 Horizon Canopy (24) This one looks good to me, but I do have a few qualms withit. It again seems to have theproblem of trying to fit godhead into a deck that doesn’t need it (and may noteven need it’s color, as I said before, MBC is very good now). Also, with fewer color fixers, white isthe default main color, but with urborg it tempts me to do evil things. It’s hard no to just play al the goodMBC cards and forget the white—which might not be all that bad, really, but itwould make this not fit into the blog theme. Also, without a good “infest” or “massacre,” godhead andswamps don’t go as well together as I had hoped. All-in-all,Godhead seems to be a powerful card, but she may just not have the place Ihoped she would in any decks nowadays. I’m not ready to give up, and I hope you readers aren’t either. As far as I can tell, white lovesgodhead; Ajani makes your 1/1s win fights, Crovax does the same and kills theirguys, and Sacred Mesa is even better when their guys are just as big as yourpegasi. I’ll do some testing andkeep people posted, but I welcome your help if one of these (or some other)Godhead decks speaks to you. Ilove fun and competitive magic, so I’d be happy to bring that back to type 2. Many thanks for reading, -Nicholas “the_deck_tech” Weiss
Tags: Godhead Of Awe Control
So, I was watching the brainburst newsreel and found myself not getting picked for the team. All of the other Magic bloggers got their stuff on the front page. Bummer. It probably has to do with the fact that nobody read my blog, and that I only very loosely wrote about the game. I apologize for the lack of enthusiasm for writing the same exact article-blog that everyone else is writing about the new set and how it affects the same five standard decks.
Maybe it was on there and I just didn’t notice. However, I’m ready to disregard this possibility as it completely undermines the very core of my writing here. So maybe it was because the name was a little inappropriate—I’ll go with that. But going back to not getting picked for the team. I honestly haven’t been playing too much magic recently; I’m away at college and am a little bored with the format. BUT! I am here writing, so here are my thoughts. There are a lot of cards in standard right now that are good enough to play, but because of the big guns have not been picked for the team. I’m talking about what I consider to be the sleeper deck of this season, Mono Black Control. 4 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade 3 Bitterblossom 3 Dusk Urchins 3 Shriekmaw (13) 4 Damnation 3 Thoughtseize 3 Scarscale Ritual 3 Sudden Death 3 Tendrils of Corruption 2 Liliana Vess 2 Profane Command 2 Coldsteel Heart 1 Loxodon Warhammer 1 Mind Shatter (24) 2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 3 Scrying Sheets 2 Mouth of Ronom 17 Snow-Covered Swamp (24) The sideboard would contain the other bitterblossom, some more spot removal, and maybe even dragon claw (I expect RDW to be over represented at the next few tournaments). So, back to the whole “not getting picked” theme of this paper, many of these cards aren’t seen in too many competitive lists nowadays,but probably should be. Korlash: This guy was all around the mtg top tables for agood while and then he disappeared. There are many reasons for this, but I feel as though one of thestrongest was taking away the dual lands. However, putting him into a mono (or mostly mono) black control deck is a good way to give him that power back. Dusk Urchins: Ok… so this guy isn’t so much underplayed (since he just came out), but I do kinda think he’s under-hyped. I don’t see him in too many “top 5” or “top 10” lists. This is primarily because as of yet there isn’t a deck to put him in, but I like him in here, so he goes up a few notches in the hypelists for me. Thoughtseize: I’m not sure how this card isn’t into more decklists. This is like duress for our standard. It needs to be played more. It slows down all the combo people like to talk about right now, it’s obviously good for hurting control, and it can kill aggro’s tempo (I love hitting bitterblossom against Faeries). Scarscale Ritual: Goes very well with Urchins and Bitterblossoms. Not originally my idea, but I like this better than relying only on snow and a few cantrips. Snow engine slows down as the game gets longer whereas this gets to be a better draw after you have some guys to give counters to. Solid card draw that doesn’t make me splash is a good thing with korlash. Sudden Death/ Mouth of Ronom: Having 4 toughness is the cool new thing in standard. Because of this and the fact that decks like faeries like to counterspell, both of these cards are “good” again. Sure, I’m not hitting as many teferis, so it’s not nearly as devastating, but it’s still a solid play. It never gives me the aggro boost that nameless inversion can, but I still prefer these guys for that extra one toughness. So there we have it; my opinions on a deck and cards that,like me, did not get picked for the team. If you picked them for your team, cool, this means that you proved mewrong twice since you had to have read my blog to know I said that. Only time will tell how wrong I am. -Nicholas “the_deck_tech” Weiss
Tags: MBC Korlash Underplayed Mono Black Control
Ever since I started playing this great game (somewhere around fourth grade, almost ten years ago) I've been the Magic: the Gathering call guy in my group of friends. As one might expect, this position holds a lot of power. In fact, in those formative years, I must admit that I abused that power. It was a combination of laziness and creativity; I pretended to have read the official rulebook, but instead made up my own rules. This resulted in something far from what Magic was supposed to look like. Swampwalk meant something very different when we were kids. But times have changed. I've learned from my ways and even read the rulebook. But, even though the game has changed (kinda), the power hasn't. It's a good feeling to have everyone rely on you, but it's a better feeling to deserve it. Those of you who are also the call guy (or girl) probably know what I'm talking about. As the call guy, I've been called upon many times. While drafting, a friend asked me for a price quotation so that he could properly rare draft (d'oh!). While away at college, a friend called me about tapping before attackers. At my own university I've coached players about proper use of a second main phase. And many players online, at my store, and at my schools have come to me for help revising decklists. How did I get here? It certainly wasn't by winning all the time. Sure, I win a lot at school, but most online players can't know how well I play, and the people at the shop know all too well how many "almosts" I've had. It also wasn't through any Machiavellian terms of misinformation like it was in my days of youth. Youth-er, perhaps, I'm not one to start calling myself old yet. I got this position through patience and practice. When a kid spends a whole summer in the card shop, he knows full well how much they charge for all the cards he can't afford. And when he can't afford cards, he also knows when they're charging too much for them. I'm not suggesting that everyone go spend all their time in card shops (that would perpetuate many stereotypes that I don't want getting perpetuated) , what I am suggesting is that you pay attention when you are there. Knowing prices, aside from being a cool trick, is a good way to get an edge in trades or to spot a deal at a convention. I have a friend who bought four Arcbound Ravagers for $3 each when they came out (it counteracts Broodstar!). Then he sold them for $18 each a week later because he didn't want to play affinity. That's $60 just for paying attention. We all have our cool stories from paying attention; make a habit of it and you'll become a call guy/girl. To be the call guy, you need people to call you. You need to get known. This part is tricky, because nobody likes that supernerd who knows everything and won't stop letting people know it. Not just in Magic, but in life, kids, the way to make a name is to do what you do and do it well. Don't boast about being the best, just be the best and give someone a chance to notice. Here's how I got noticed on one online website I frequent; I waited until someone asked about something I knew a lot about and then I gave him one hell of an answer. After I was done giving him a suggested decklist, matchup analysis, and piloting tips for his deck I didn't post again until somebody called on me specifically. I continued to give solid advice whenever it was asked of me, but I never bragged or put anyone down. Then came the most important part, I asked for their help. Knowing a lot is a good way to get people to want to make you a call guy, asking a well-informed question is a good way to convince them you want them to talk to you. I'm not sure how long or short these are supposed to be (735 words might be pushing it). Especially without any real playing tips. So, to those of you still with me, thanks for listening, I promise next time it'll be more exciting. Thanks call guys and girls, -Nico "the_deck_tech" Weiss
Tags: Call Guy Or Girl
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