|
You are: Home -> Articles -> Feature Article |
|
29-11-2000
 Where did Peter go? (and did anyone notice?) - A.K.A: A story of disgust in a modern world.
By Peter Berry
I haven't been playing much at the highest levels. Lately, it's been easier to sleep than get up early and go to tournaments, just to have blue walk all over you. My quality of play has been slipping, my deckbuilding skills are shot to hell, and I'm just now getting over the major disappointment of seeing blue decks winning so much.
The last series of tournaments I played in was the masques block qualifiers, and I played Roshambo. Why? It was too much fun, in such a stolidly slow environment. 6/6 land? Can do! 7/7 Blastoderms? It shall be done. Armageddon you, and kill all of your little critters, then attack with all my land? Sure! Of course, Michael Doeke won that qualifier, and with nothing other than a Rising Waters deck. This was not unexpected.
Before that, the DCI decided that extended had some problem, with one deck being far too strong in the field. Trix. So the DCI, in their infinite wisdom, decide to make some banning announcements, and I waited to see if I would be disappointed. And, I was. I won't go into the reasons for my Disappointment, but suffice it to say, I think they banned the wrong card. Now there can be no hatred. No Mono-black free-spell necro. These were two of my favourite decks. Then I got to see Blue based decks dominate in the Grand Prix trial season. For me, It really was a trial, watching the dreaded blue decks dominating. (the optimist inside me says "Tradewind-Survival has green cards in it, that must be why it won.")
In the course of the past few weeks I've reached a kind of magic epiphany, a real turning point. Now I have two choices. I can bow out, and leave the game to the real talent, and go back to my other hobbies of drinking, and spending too many consecutive hours in front of a computer, or now, at this locus of probabilities, I can pull it all back. I can put in the hard yards, learn the new deck types, playtest and trade like a fiend. You may not see me playing soon, but I'll be nearby, and I'll probably be after something in your trades.
The major reason for this new optimism can be traced to one man. Simon Henry. Simon's untiring enthusiasm for the game has started to get me thinking about new deck ideas, and has me wanting to play every game I possibly can, with as many decks as I can get my greasy mitts on. It's got me all sparked up, and firing on all cylinders. Simon, thank you, and Good Work Fella for the finish at GP Sydney.
To Everyone who competed at GP Sydney, congratulations/commiserations on your placing, and thank you for showing up. World class magic events don't happen often enough in our neck of the woods, and the more people who show up, the more reason there is for more of them.
May all your draw steps be gas.
Peter Berry |
