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It was dark. It was evil. I was afraid - so very, very afraid

It was roughly six weeks ago now that my life, as I knew it, ended. I was going along in my usual semi-social, working, married life; perhaps not a bundle of mirth, but fairly relaxed and generally good-natured. I was happy enough with life. I had friends. I had a wife and a family who loved me. And then it happened. On the 21st of June, the earth cracked open and molten lava bubbled forth. Fire and Brimstone poured from the sky and a great giant fist-in-the-gut removed whatever life there was left in me. I was left in a state of torment, as it were - careening through my days carelessly with complete disregard to those around me. Rendering me sleepless, it took my life and smashed it like so many waves crashing on unyielding stone. Red of eye and blurred of brain, it left me a quivering mold of what I once was.

You see on June 21st I downloaded Magic Online. Sigh.

A world of the eternal-draft was opened. A world of tix and clans and leagues and 32 commons for a ticket and OOT for 10 and who needs anything other than the Caligula-esque charm of Modo. In my first 4 weeks, I played about 40 drafts. Ok, 50. I never played Beta - so diving right into it meant I didn't know a lot of things about the interface (who goes through the training room crap?). This meant I lost. A lot. Modo is very unforgiving and its sooo easy to "click through" stuff you didn't mean to click through or click on the wrong card or run out of time, or any other of a million small things (like muscle bursting your opponents guy by mistake. Heh.) I quickly developed a very nice 1560 rating or so. I was now one of those random players that everyone looks for when entering a draft room and hopes they are seated next to when the draft starts. Joy.

Anyway, I clawed my way back to a still-unrespectable 1630 or so. I have moved the PC into the lounge room to at least be "in proximity" to my less-than-pleased-yet-extremely-forgiving wife.

Pricing. When WOTC first put forward proposed pricing, I thought it was ludicrous. Who is going to pay $3.29US for an online booster? The answer, really, is no one. You see I am not playing $3.29 for a booster, I am paying $3.29 x 3 + $1 x 2 to DRAFT. The boosters are just a means to an end. The truth is that if it actually cost $11.87US each time to draft, very few people would actually do it much. I initially spent about $60US on an assortment of Od/To packs and tix. With this lot I drafted 50 times - even considering I was pretty crap at the beginning. You draft, trade the cards you get for tix, trade the tix for packs, and draft again. Later, rinse, repeat. Ocassionally you win a draft (8 packs) or get 2nd (4 packs). If you do this more than occasionally, you probably come out ahead. Adam Kemp entered a league. (A league is a sealed deck scenario, where you play 5 matches per week for 4 weeks. You start with a starter and 2 boosters and each week you can add one booster). Adam won that league. Adam got 85 boosters for winning. Adam can draft FOREVER without paying another cent. So, all in all, the pricing for Modo is fairly reasonable.

Impact. This has been covered a fair bit by most articles. Great for people who don't have access to rl (real life) magic communities, great for practicing draft skills, great for introverted isolationists that are too lazy to get off their ass and actually go to a tournament or games shop. Great for the heaps of Magic addicts out there - "just one more draft... I'm not tired... at... all..."

Bad for game shops? Probably initially. Incidentally, Chris and Keiren have opened their new store in Burwood - 195a Burwood road, just a block or so from the station. It is a most excellent place with heaps of room, lots of food around and promises some late night magic and other games on most nights of the week. We had the inaugural Thursday night draft(s) there last week and much fun was had by all. But I digress. Will Modo impact on the local gaming store. Lets use me for an example.

I usually attend every Thursday night draft. Actually, I RELIGIOUSLY attend every Thursday night draft. I have actually rescheduled a business trip to Brisbane because it would mean I would have had to miss Thursday night draft. So it goes. I also get to at least one tournament every weekend, sometimes two. Three out of the last four weeks, I haven't gone to a weekend tournament. I made it to Ben's OBC tournament this Sunday (sucked it up with a 3-3 G/W deck), but that's it. Perhaps it is the "newness" of Modo and it will wear off, but that's probably wishful thinking. People will often choose to play online as it is just so convenient (why do I want to drive or PT it to the tourney when I can play right NOW).

There is another side of the coin though. A lot of people I have met online are new to Magic. You can usually tell as they are the ones that are genuinely after trading that Cabal Inquisitor from you. Good times. These people will invariably progress quickly to the Magic organized play scene, which has to be good for the games shops. Forecast wise, I'd predict a six month slowdown in rl play followed by an increase - I guess we'll see.

So that has been my Modo experience. I am in 3 leagues now. Its good fun. No more of that pesky waiting 5 minutes for a draft to start - instant gratification.

And I am resolved now to do more rl things - like impose these articles on you. I have missed some opportunities to comment on some great happenings - like winning 6 one-on-one drafts against Tim He at Canberra City Backpackers til 3AM, getting a controversial top 2 at Canberra Teams PTQ, and various other anecdotes.

One good anecdote from yesterday's tournament that I would be remiss if I didn't share. I was playing G/W mirror with Paul Ross. I was at around 15, as was he. He had a tribe, a rootwalla, a centaur and an arrogant wurm on the table. He has Glory and a Reclamation in his grave and 5 lands. I have 4 cards, a centaur and a rootwalla on the table. He uses glory for green, swings with the 3 guys minus the tribe, and pumps his rootwalla - so he's tapped out. I cast vengeful dreams for 3, discarding roar, roar, and reclamation. His board is wiped. End of his turn I reclamation away his reclamation and his Glory. Left him with 1 card and a tribe in play, me with 2 roars in my grave! How good! He was pretty devastated, and lucky enough to have it happen against a guy who writes articles. Cheers, Paul.

But back to Modo - it isn't all bad. I actually got 7 hours of real sleep last night. By real sleep I mean continuous sleep in my actual bed - not the few minutes in between draft rounds or the few hours having fallen asleep while playing, waking to "ssteven has conceded due to inactivity". I'm fine. Twitch. Seriously. Twitch.

Help!

Scott Hunstad or ssteven between 9pm and 3am

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