A lot of things happened last week in the Magic scene, but I think one thing we can all agree on is that the most important event, not just in Magic but in everything, was the unfortunate passing of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. Steve did much to support the environment and to teach people about animals all over the world. He was entertaining and educational and was loved by fans everywhere. His preservation efforts worked for animals on the individual, species, and ecosystem levels.
I, for one, always figured that his death would come at the gaping maw of the world’s largest something or the world’s most poisonous something else. Instead it was a fluke accident off the coast of Australia when Steve startled a normally peaceful, resting stingray and wound up with its stinger in his heart. As an example of how rare this is, there have been four other documented cases of this happening in Australia. They used to have theme parks where people could ride stingrays that were acclimated to humans.
So we all have to say goodbye to the Crocodile Hunter. Your time came too soon, but at least you were working with animals up until the end, as I imagine you would have wanted it.
As Magic players, we can learn a lot from Steve Irwin.
Okay, sort of.
These are going to be purposeful lessons only tentatively connected to the Crocodile Hunter. I just thought it would be more tactful to do this than to, say, make an animal-themed decklist filled with crocodiles or to create the Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter fantasy card. The man just died for Pete’s sake.
For the record:
Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter
3UG
Legendary Creature – Human
1UG, T: Gain control of target creature. (This effect doesn’t end at end of turn.)
3/3
Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter
2GR
Legendary Creature – Human
First Strike
G - Regenerate
T: Steve Irwin deals damage to target creature an opponent controls. That opponent may then have the targeted creature deal damage equal to its power to another target creature.
2/4
I couldn’t decide whether his second color would be blue because of his knowledge of the animal world or red because of his passion for it.
Hey, remember that time he and his wife were tagging wallabies or something, and he was hanging on to the outside of the Land Rover when his wife drove him into a tree, knocked him off the ute without noticing, and drove away? That was awesome. At least he didn’t die then.
Right, so anyway, what Magic players learn from Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter:
Fortitude in the Face of Danger – Steve Irwin was possibly the bravest man I’ve ever seen. He had no fear of being bitten, stung, tail-whipped, or eaten in any cave, bayou, jungle, or savannah by any mammal, reptile, or insect. Most people attributed this bravery to stupidity, but it was really just the opposite. He knew he had the tools and the mental faculties available to keep himself safe.
It’s the same thing for Magic players. Every tournament sees someone get paired up against the Mark Herberholtz, Katsuhiro Mori, Stephen Menendian, or just the local pro. These guys could easily kill you with one swipe of their jagged, feces encrusted (and infection causing) talons, but seriously you have the tools to overcome them. As long as you’re familiar with the rules and card interactions and what’s in your deck, you can do it.
Okay, well, sometimes you can’t. You might be imprisoned by ChangStax in the first two turns and never have a land that sees enough play to actually do anything useful. It’s just as likely, though, that your opponent will run out of gas or miss five land drops in a row or have to spend time countering all your threats without being able to draw any of his own, so don’t go into any games expecting to lose.
That goes for individual situations as well. Sure, your opponent might get a third-turn Akroma against you or hardcast Phage, but you’re not out of it until those creatures swing for the win. If you’ve got blockers, you might hold off Phage for a long time, and Akroma alone gives you three turns to dig for an answer. Don’t get frustrated, just tell yourself you’ll topdeck the Boomerang you need to send those legends packing.
And even if you do lose, the loss will better equip you to take them on next time. Just like Steve Irwin overcame countless snake-, shark-, croc- and spiderbites, you too will heal, your immune system will improve, and you’ll know what to watch for next time.
Constant Learning and Adaptation – Steve traveled all over the world learning about animals, so he would come into new situations constantly. Because he had an extensive background in his field, though, he was able to put his experience to work for him. His dad taught him all about wrestling crocodiles safely (Steve’s done it hundreds of times just on his TV shows), and you’ll notice it wasn’t a crocodile that killed him.
Likewise there are hundreds of pages a day of Magic: the Gathering information posted online, and if you live in an active area or have Magic Online you can easily get into a couple games a day. There’s no shortage of information and experience available to Magic players is what I’m saying. Even if you can’t play and don’t have the Internet, you can goldfish against yourself or do some double-fisted testing.
I usually kept up with Magicthegathering.com even when I wasn’t playing, and now that I am playing regularly, The Mana Drain’s message boards and Star City’s daily content regularly provide more information than I can fully process. Reading about Magic is good because the collective mind on the Internet develops technology much faster than one person or even a local collective. You may never have thought to use, say, Remand on your own Brain Freeze in High Tide Combo (Solidarity), but you can read all about it on the Internet and might be able to adapt it to your own uses in some other format or deck. (Perhaps with Scattershot or some other storm spell coming out in Time Spiral, hmm?)
Of course firsthand experience playing games is the best knowledge you can get, especially doing it with your own decks. Practicing and improving with one good deck is much better than picking up the “best” deck and goldfishing it a few times before going to a tournament. You’ll better know the cards in a deck you’ve played more often, so you’ll know their capabilities and the chances of seeing those capabilities come to fruition.
Just like Steve knew to put his sunnies on when trying to wrangle a spitting cobra, I know that my UB Fish deck can side out Dark Confidants against Pitch Long in favor of something that doesn’t kill me and instead tries to slow them down.
Uncompromising Ambassadorship – Even though the Australians may not always have appreciated Steve’s boisterous, somewhat stereotypical Outback nature, everything he did was for the benefit of his homeland. Before the Crocodile Hunter, Australia was known only from Crocodile Dundee movies. Steve showed it as having remarkable wildlife and diversity, and when he talked to people or walked around his zoo, it showed that Australians are a lot like us. Even when he was dealing with deadly animals, Steve always showed Australia as a fantastic and interesting place, and he did it with gusto.
Magic players should be ambassadors of their game. I’m not saying that we should be out there on the street, shouting about how awesome Erg Raiders are and threatening old ladies and young children to play Mono-Green Beats. I’m not even saying we should be constantly pestering our friends and families with requests to “throw some cards around.” We should remember, though, that this is a hobby that we devote a good amount of time to and we shouldn’t be ashamed of it.
Clearly, we’re dorks, but other people are dorks too, just about different things. I know role-playing dorks, NASCAR dorks, beer dorks, fashion dorks, boat dorks, whatever. Magic dorkiness shouldn’t have a stigma attached to it just because it sometimes involves elves and goblins.
This works for individual varieties of Magic too, but it’s easier. I want more people to play Vintage—I don’t think I’m very secretive about that. If more people play Vintage there are more opponents, more tournament opportunities with better prize support, and more people I have a direct link to. As such I try to get Magic players to play Vintage. I tell them that the coin flip isn’t the decider of the match, and that with a good amount of proxies, the format really is less expensive than Standard because you can tweak a deck and keep playing it. I try to let my enthusiasm rub off on other people.
I also like to return the favor. I like playing Magic, so if someone has a Standard or Extended deck they want to try out, I’m happy to play. I even play in tournaments if I have a deck or can borrow one. Playing periodically inspired me to build the Arcane-Splice deck, just so I’d always have something to play if the opportunity ever arose, which it has.
Steve Irwin should be an inspiration to everyone. His enthusiasm for all life everywhere made him a positive figure in education and conservation. The lessons he taught through his words and actions are ones we can all live by, even Magic players.
Crikey, Steve-o. You’ll be missed.
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