Transition

So, I was talking to CB last night, which isn't unusual in and of itself; we talk everyday. Even if it's just, "sup?" We got to talking about this project, and what the point of it all was, and in talking, we sort of reminisced about getting into Magic and making the shift from more competitive Magic to EDH.

It was not a seamless transition.

Our meta at FNM was an odd one, and it was mostly our fault. You had a good mix of guys with netdecks that were there to win, more casual guys that just wanted to hang out while waiting for the bar across the street to open, and guys that were mostly there to trade. A pretty common mix, I came to realize, as I traveled more and played in more places.

And then there was our playgroup.

The "RMC guys," as we were known, were hell on the meta. See, we had our own way of building decks, and had only each other to test against. So CB built things like a Pili-Pala deck that went infinite. I tended to build decks that used less-loved mechanics, like Exalted or Allies. DK actually won with Mortal Combat. [i]That[/i] deck ruined people. No one trying to rack up points to play at the professional level wants to lose to a ~200 card pile that ran Mortal Combat. People got upset and dropped after losing to the deck.

So we were a group of 3-7 people, depending on who had time to go on a given Friday, of rogue decks. That could win.

This led to a local phenomenon that the other regulars called "RMC Sideboards." They actually included specific hate cards to try to beat us.

This led to a couple problems when we all started to move away from Standard.

The first problem was that we all enjoyed some degree of success in a more competitive setting, as in, some nights our guys were 3 of the top 4. The second problem was that we're all intelligent people, used to innovating and coming up with ways to win out of nowhere.

The last problem was that we confused "winning" with "having fun."

Our early EDH decks highlighted these. I ran enough board wipes that it dragged games out. CB's Uril deck was built to win by turn 6 or lose. GC ran all of the discard and counter-magic he could find. His first two deck were Kuon and Erayo. DK ran nothing but removal.

It was a classic arms race. Our games were generally good-natured, but something had to give. Everyone was trying to win by turn 6, at the latest. Cool interactions happened, but they were a byproduct of our desire to beat each other. Wins were stolen, feelings were hurt, and all of this just fueled the arms race.

Somewhat ironically, Archenemy saved us.

CB remembers it was DK who took the first steps toward de-escalation. He's probably right. Archenemy came out, and DK built a 5-Colour deck to take us all on. Built to a high enough standard, a 5-Colour deck with Schemes is probably as close as one can come to unbeatable in Magic.

But his deck wasn't unbeatable. It was very good, and could do amazing things. But three of us could take him (well, about half the time, anyway). We began to run cards that had huge, splashy effects as our "last ditch" efforts to beat the Archenemy before we got steamrolled. Imperial Mask made appearances. The Archenemy did insane things (like tutor up Grozoth with Conflux, and use Grozoth to grab Plague Wind), the 3-4 of us relied on teamwork. I remember having Rhys the Redeemed equipped with Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang, and CB was regenerating it every turn because Rhys was the best blocker we had, and happened to have more than 5 power.

DK's 5-Colour Reaper King deck (that later became Cromat, when I found one) was full of cards he included for thematic reasons, or because they were fun. He actually ran Grozoth to tutor up the Bringer cycle. It was awesome when it worked.

And so we began to do things the same way.

I cut Putrefax from my Rafiq deck. CB retired Uril, and built an Experiment Kraj combo deck. Erayo was banned, eventually. Because fuck that shit. This isn't to say that powerful cards don't have a place in the format. CB's Experiment Kraj deck pretty much required me to run Linvala as a silver bullet to not die, for example. But aggressively trying to win all the time put way too much strain on our playgroup. Like a team against the Archenemy, our play-to-win mentality was our obstacle to over come.

Our decks are still powerful. Absurdly so, in some cases. But they do a better job of showcasing who were are, and doing cool things for their own sake.

This way, everyone wins.