Middle Children of Magic

Oh, I've got an Interrupt for that...

I’ve got a confession to make: I don’t play in every Magic tournament.

I don’t go to every FNM. I don’t go to every PTQ. I don’t drive 2 hours to get to the latest Legacy tournament on Sunday morning. Midnight drafts on MTGO don’t work for me ’cause I got to be at work the next morning. Currently, I don’t have a playgroup where we meet every week to test our decks hoping to break a format in twain.

Most of you would then classify me as a “Casual” player. That’s perfectly fine and understandable; I know you would call me that. Here’s what my twitter followers said after I asked what’s a casual player (and links for what they write):

BottsThoughts: @mtgcolorpie They don’t pay high $ for “tourney pedigree” cards. They don’t bother w/ sideboard(s/ing). And they slack on technicalities.

MagicWithMJB @mtgcolorpie Some people define Casual players as people who don’t play to win. Instead they are people who win in unusual ways. (dalkoncledwin on 99EDHProblems.com)

Mechtroid @mtgcolorpie I’d say me. I don’t try to win, I try to play a game that both players enjoy. THEN I try to win.

CharmanderLynch: @mtgcolorpie Someone who doesn’t care about pricing or winning all the time, more Johnny/Timmy than Spike, doesn’t use sleeves either.

GonSmithe: @mtgcolorpie Someone who plays creatures that are horrifically bad, or decks that they know will not win, but they enjoy. Slivers, etc.

iNils: @mtgcolorpie very tough to define, someone who doesn’t sink a ton of $$ in the game and rather plays cube/EDH/STAR w/ friends than FNM imo (mtgdecksource.blogspot.com)

joelniddrie: @mtgcolorpie someone who loves the game plays a lot but, does not play in organized tournaments regularly, and does not chase single cards.

mtgmetagame @mtgcolorpie Someone purpose of playing is solely for fun and they have as much fun losing as they do winning. IMO (mtgmetagame.com)

the_stybs: @mtgcolorpie Casual: It’s the how everything around game was played rather than the goal of the way the game was played. Grins not wins. (Serious Fun‘s Adam Styborski)

wrongwaygoback: @mtgcolorpie my buddies: would rather play a weird rogue, cheap deck over a kitchen table than power in a competition. (wrongwaygoback.com)

Clearly I must be a casual player then. I love to play rogue decks, and I play EDH (as well as write about it) and I play with my Japanese playsets and can’t wait the next day’s Magic articles on dailymtg, and SCG, and Mananation, and ChannelFireball… Wait, what?

I do know that Jund is ruling the standard environment at the moment. I know that several people were disqualified from Worlds for cheating and heard their sides of the story. I keep an eye on the rumors about what’s happening with Worldwake. When a set comes out, I buy at least a box (always more). I make time to go to an event like States or a Pre-release and keep those as sacred dates.

Sounds like a paradox, right? Believe it or not, I believe I make up a good portion of the Magic playing population.

But am I a casual player? Are you one? Continue reading “Middle Children of Magic”

Monthly Mailbag – Yo Dawg, I Herd You Like Domains

Original text was TL;DR

Welcome to December’s Mailbag. Even though I’m “taking a break” to create more articles for this blog, I’m still going write (as evidenced by 99edhproblem). I wanted to do a mailbag and give you guys an update about what’s going on. Somehow, I think this card sums it up perfectly. Before we get into some questions, here’s some news that some of you will be excited about:

Domain (no, not the Mechanic)

First and foremost, I actually bought the domain names for both MtGColorPie and 99EDHProblems. Now, you can go directly to these sites (making it easier to remember) or use the links you’ve previously been using. This is important for one reason: you know I’ll continue writing. I wouldn’t have wasted my hard earned cash buying something I’ll never use (puts towel over HD-DVD player).

99EDH is not meant to be a blog of mine, but a blog of everyone who plays EDH. So, while 99% of the time I’ll write the posts here, I want you guys to write for the EDH blog. It launched one month ago and had over 6,000 views in 30 days I’m not saying that’s a low or high number ’cause honestly, I don’t know (I don’t want to be vain, but that’s what the first month’s numbers were). All I’m saying is that people want their EDH, and you can be a part of that. Interested? Click here.

Also, I like the layout of the blog over there a bit better then this one. This is a little tired looking and I think it may be time for a change. Expect something different by the end of the year (not to freak you guys out, but this is the last month of the decade).

Lotus Cobra is Evil

Some of you might have noticed that the comic didn’t show up Sunday. Yeah, my bad. Travel day for me and I thought about it on the plane. It will return next Sunday.

Now, on to the questions: Continue reading “Monthly Mailbag – Yo Dawg, I Herd You Like Domains”

I’m Thankful for All of You Readers

What I'm having for Thanksgiving

This week in the United States, there is a Federal Holiday called “Thanksgiving.” And on this holiday, you gather with your family and “give thanks” to all the blessing you have in your life. Due to this holiday, there will be much more eating of turkey and being with family. It also means some time off and being awesome.

I’ve been really busy with life lately and I haven’t been keeping up regularly with the posts. In case you haven’t noticed here on this blog, I don’t have any ads, and I don’t have premium content (Thanks Star City!), so everything I put into this blog is my own free time and my own effort. So, while I love to read and write and design Magic, paying the bills and spending time with my wife comes first (those without a wife, I guess you don’t understand). Most of the blog posts that go up tend to be written within a day or two of being published. If I’ve been busy at work, or sick, I don’t have anything in reserve. This is not really professional nor smart if I want to keep putting out content for you to enjoy (and looking at my numbers, quite a few of you do read my work rather then google a word and get here by accident).

So, what does this mean? Does this mean I’m leaving? No, not at all. It’s because of feedback from you and your support (moral, not financial) that I continue to write this blog. My blog niche is not something that is highly sought after; reading about the newest Type 2 tech is in more demand then reading why Legends have gotten better in the past few years. The EDH Blog (I Got 99 Problems But a General Ain’t One), is getting tons of EDH traffic, and in due time I suspect it to get more traffic then this one. But here I do my jokes and talk about Magic design, something that my friends and other Magic players know I’m passionate about. Continue reading “I’m Thankful for All of You Readers”

Lotus Cobra is Evil – Twilight Campaign

Sorry for the delay for today’s delay in the comic. I thought I had written the correct date, but I didn’t. Time to watch Sesame Street again. If you don’t hum a song after reading the comic, I don’t want to be your friend anymore. (For more of sixten’s comics, visit sixten.com)