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13-05-2001
 Through the eyes of a Bunny
Let me get something out there straight away, I am not a good magic player.
I construct decks that are consistently too weak to deal with the current
environment. With this said, I just thought I would pen something perhaps
just to lend voice to the plight of bunnies everywhere.
I started playing much the same way a lot of people begin playing, by using
a number of my friends decks. I was initially drawn to red simply because
of the fact that when you are getting whipped game after game, the only
thing that brings you a small amount of pleasure is being able to lightning
bolt someone.
As I got more into it, and with a spattering of cards and some borrowed land
I went about building my first deck, 'crap red'. My foot soldiers where
Hill Giants, my fatty was a Rock Hydra, my secret tech was a Mountain Yeti
and my ultra-nasty combo was a first turn Ornithopter with Firebreathing.
Oh yeah - the beating was fierce. The deck actually didn't do too badly, as
it went undefeated for its first 6 games. In the first game I felt quite
jubilant that my deck actually killed someone! My friend whose land I was
using and decks I had played with before had to throw together an anti-red
deck just to bring me down a few pegs. It was at this point that I began
hating blue, and for the most part it is a hatred that is yet to subside.
The first booster I bought was from Prophecy, my rare was 'Searing Wind'. I
cried upon opening it. '10 damage! Nasty..' I was heard to utter, much to
the jovial smiles of the card store clerks who actually understood the
concept of mana curve.
My next deck was green. I built the deck simply because I liked the sound
of the word 'stompy', it sounded like fun. This deck was very successful,
constantly dealing out 6th turn kills with Giant Growth'd Scryb Sprites and
a plethora of other cheap green stuff. This deck went undefeated for a long
time until one of my friend's pre-constructed's got lucky and trampled me with
a bunch of echo creatures. I retired the deck soon after proclaiming it a
rousing success with only one loss registered against it. [this isn't
including the multiplayer game where I dealt 36 points of damage divided
equally among my opponents before they finished me off in collusion]
A couple of months and a few decks later I went to my first tournament, the
invasion pre-release, pulling a 2-3-1 record for the day. I was quite
surprised with the result because, upon entering the room in the morning, my
main goal was not to be the first person to loose. Some young kid, jumped
up from another table in the middle of my match and walked past dejected - I
was satisfied that I had achieved my goal. At that point I looked across
the table towards a 9/9 trampler and an opponent on 30-odd life. When
presented with this sight, strangely enough - I smiled. So I was going to
lose, I realised that. I realised that before the armadillo cloaked/strength
of unity'd beast hit the table. He was a better player, he had been playing
for years and I was some scrub with a whip silk and a nomadic elf on the
table. But still I smiled.
Since then I have attended about 10 or so tournaments canvassing all the
disciplines of Standard/Extended Sealed/Constructed - I even made Top 8 once -
before Miki Salonen and a couple of Ancient Hydra's shot me down. So with
this obvious wealth of experience (please note the sarcasm) I have come up
with 5 basic hints for all new players to magic. It may help to hear these
here as opposed to learning them through trial and error as I did. So in a
quite unrealistic and unqualified attempt to give something back to the
magic community here are my tips:
1. First and foremost, when you first decide to start buying magic
cards my advice is to buy the basic set. Sure the expansion sets are
strangely powerful with all their new mechanics, but without the foundation
of the basic set you won't get the best out of your chosen colour. For
example, a friend of mine who started playing around the same time I did
threw his counter deck at me. He had the usual collection of counters but
when I asked him why he was playing Prohibit over the generic Counterspell
in a monoblue deck his answer was that he didn't have any despite having
spent hundred upon hundreds of dollars on cards. Blue needs counterspells,
white needs disenchants and green needs Llanowar Elves. Prohibit,
Dismantling Blow and Quirion Elves are not the same.
2. At your first tournament follow your opponent's lead and don't get
too worried about your playing style e.g. verbally walking through the
phases. Just play the game and have some fun. When I started out, most of
the people I played were patient and helpful, offering advice before and
after the games. However, this could be more a reflection on the Canberra
scene rather then Magic in general. I would hope it is universal though.
And don't worry about getting channel-fireballed or falling victim to other
such quick kills. It doesn't happen like that.
3. Your decks are not limited by your own personal card pool. It's
always best to have friends who play so that you can borrow cards when need
be. Your deck is going to need to change with the environment which can end
up as an arduous and expensive task. No need to shell out for those
Flametongue Kavu's when you know people with some sitting in an undecked
pile of cards. Playtesting with proxies is also a good idea before hitting
the card shops.
4. Decks should be built around a central way to win. It's best not to
build a burn/beatdown/combo/control deck with 75 win conditions. If you do,
your opening hand is more likely to resemble the contents of a booster. The
person who introduced me to magic told me that Magic is all about combo's
and it's very true. This doesn't mean you have to have a
Pandemonium/Saproling Burst type combo to win, it's more about synergy. In
other words - cards that work well together. A simple example is Chimeric
Idol and Wrath of God.
5. Don't get caught up with building decks around the rare bomb cards
that will shift the game if they hit the table and stick around. I think
they call it Reya Syndrome. Just remember your $10 Draco will take you at
the very least 4 - 5 turns and a lot of mana to drop on the table and
despite its 9/9 flying trampling goodness its nothing a 5c 1W to cast
Disenchant won't fix very quickly.
I think its best if I leave this here, with one final word of warning.
Magic is addictive! Is there any doubt when they nickname the packs used to
get your fix 'boosters'? But I can tell you the further you get into it the
more you will want to know, and the more you will find yourself thinking
about cards, combo's and decks. However, with this said just keep in mind
that trading your first born for an Urza's Rage is not a good thing, four
Rages on the other hand is another matter entirely with IBC season around
the corner.
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