Bruce

I’ve been trying to figure out what I need to do to make myself a better Magic player.

As it is, I think I’m pretty adequate.

I mean, I’m a competent player—I know to attack and then cast spells, for example, and I vary the mana I keep open to leave my opponent more options when thinking about what answers I might have. I even come up with some interesting ideas about new decks and ways to improve old decks. I just need to figure out how to get to that next level. You know, the tournament winning one.

John Friggin’ Rizzo talks about overcoming one’s “inner Bruce,” and I think that might be my problem.

According to Rizzo, Bruce is that part of your psyche that makes you lose. It’s your ego’s handicap, the thing that stunts your abilities before, during and after a tournament (or indeed anything you might want to possibly consider trying to maybe succeed at).

For example, my inner Bruce is what’s making me play UB Fish instead of UW Fish, which is pretty much the proven better build. In fact, my inner Bruce is making me play UB Fish instead of UbaStax or Control Slaver, which are the proven better archetypes. Right? Well, that and the fact that Meddling Mages are at least $48 a playset (usually more) and I don’t own any power.

I mean, I’d really like to be able to say that Withered Wretch is the next great Vintage tech because recurring, attacking graveyard hate wrecks Goblin Welder and Yawgmoth’s Will and that combining Wretch and Dark Confidant in one aggressive, controlling deck is a terrific idea, especially when you can still run Force of Will (better known as the card that holds the format together) and Umezawa’s Jitte (less well-known as the Japanese Army Knife) and Dimir Infiltrator, the new creature that fetches everything I need just one turn later than Demonic Tutor and Aether Vial, the card that lets me put all my creatures on the board for free so I still have mana left over to Wretch, equip, or Transmute as necessary.

I mean, I’d like to be able to say all that because I think that sounds like a solid gameplan with lots of synergy, but I think I still need to get to the point where I can actually win with that deck, and I think that might require actual practice with an actual deck first so that I know more about the theory behind it. In other words, I should walk before I can run and in this case walking means playing well and running means designing decks.

Maybe.

I’d also like to say that if people like me (so, like, average people) aren’t trying to do some of the grandiose things, Magic won’t have that surprising deck that comes out of nowhere like a storm.

I mean, my friend Justin and I talked about this deck a couple of weeks ago:

10x Swamp
2x Polluted Delta
2x Bloodstained Mire
1x Strip Mine
3x Wasteland
1x Cabal Ritual
4x Dark Ritual
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Emerald
1x Black Lotus

1x Necropotence
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Demonic Consultation
4x Dark Confidant

4x Braids, Cabal Minion
3x Crucible of Worlds
3x Hypnotic Specter
4x Withered Wretch
2x Tangle Wire
4x Duress
2x Null Rod
2x Darkblast

We called it BlackStax, or Monoblack Fish because that’s pretty much what it is. The critical Stax lock still exists in Braids and Crucible, only this time it can attack for two each turn. Dark Confidant is the best new creature and Duress is probably the most underplayed control card available. You have a whole bunch of slick acceleration from artifacts and rituals, and the last 10 or 17 spots are all very, very customizable depending on your metagame.

It goldfishes really well and has some impressive first turns. You avoid a lot of artifact hate, and your creatures don’t necessarily roll over and die to creature-kill in Vintage, which is mostly geared to taking out certain goblins.

I think it’s pretty cool.

But that could be just my inner Bruce telling me to put it together and take it to my next tournament. In fact, he’s probably the one who told me to build it in the first place, that bastard.

But what if Bruce is wrong this time? This deck combines some of the best cards from three types of deck—aggressively costed creatures, prison components, and combo-like acceleration. What is it missing? Counterspells, but Stax doesn’t have those either. Stax makes up for it with Mishra’s Workshop (which we’ve replaced with Dark Ritual) and Goblin Welder (which we’ve replaced with Dark Confidant).

Will it succeed, though? I have no idea. I’d like to be able to try it, especially against some actual players using actual decks (not just me using Apprentice), and maybe that’s what I really need is a better, more regular group to playtest against.

Actually, I think playing helps a lot to make a better Magic player. Weird, I know. Playing more, especially with a deck that you’d like to get better with, allows you to see the situations you’ll end up in. And you’ll know better how to react to those situations the more you try and succeed or fail against them.

For example, I’ll know not to sideboard Diabolic Edicts against a player playing True Believer forever, now that I tried that in a tournament one time. I mean, I knew he had them, but I didn’t even think that, if I can’t target a player, that I can’t, well, target them with Diabolic Edict. It was sad and I lost a lot. Actually, I just lost game two, which was enough for me.

Yeah, well, I’m going to dinner now, so whether this blog feels done or not, it’s done.

Good luck with playtesting. Try to ignore your inner Bruce. And I want everybody to come back next week with at least one new deck idea.

Bye!