Setting up MTG Eastbourne (again) & Etiquette at the table

Haven't I been here before?

So it's 3pm and I'm prepping myself for the day (you see I don't get up early when I don't have to work or play MTG) and later on we have a meeting at my local gaming club to bring it more in line for better events and the like. 

Gareth Ward has negotiated a contract with a supplier to get us booster boxes at an amazing price allowing us to run events with decent prizes while keeping the cost down...

...Still all I can think about is the latest MTG team I've got into. The name is currently looking like team storm count and we're going to be evaluating Fate Reforged this Thursday, hoping of course Simon Skipper is cool to drive. 

We've got a great venue at Shrunken Terra in Burgess Hill, Sussex and the owner Jake Hutchinson is accomodating, providing us with hot drinks and food at a fair price. (£1.00 for a tea with a re-fill!) The venue it's self hosts webcams and is a good environment for us to play as the chairs are comfy, the lighting is good and we have product around us should we need to pick up things. 

Reading Patrick Chapin's book "Next Level Magic" has got me thinking about why I'm so excited about this team, you see for ages I've seen many types of Magic players, there is usually always one complete blag-fish, someone who makes things up all the time, someone who says "yeah I've done that" "yeah I know this" the know it all, done it all kinda character. Those people really really wind me up, with standoff's a few months down the line of me constantly challenging them if they'd really done that or if they're sure they've done this... Then you've got the Magic players who can sometimes be really really tough to socialize with. Don't get me wrong I expect many Magic players to play quiet and focus on the game rather than the metal band on the T-shirt I'm usually wearing, but when testing I like the players who are chatty and serious at the same time, able to have post-match discussions and banter between the rounds so that it's not some kind of intense environment where all we do is grind MTG for 4+ hours without a break in topic. You've also got the completely whacky players, quirky, a little like me but gone off the deep end. The kind of people who are telling you insistantly why their Prophet of Kruphix in Sidisi Whip is incredible and everytime they use it they make a massive point of it.... *sigh* yep, cool, you've put your own card in a deck... Brilliant! Now don't get me wrong, I love homebrews and I love discussions as to why you would try out Prophet in a Sidisi deck... But at the same time I like players who have a bit of humility with it. Not to be overwhelming on first contact as to why this card is amazing etc etc... The Possibility Storm players of last standard often would bang on about how it's the best thing ever despite me never meeting them before and not really bringing the conversation up.. "no wait, let me show you how it *should* have worked!!" ha, no thanks. What I like is critical players who are open minded enough to entertain the off-the wall but not so far in the deep end that they cannot see the metagame for what it is! There is a reason Possibility Storm sucked in competitive standard and a reason none of those players I saw are playing with Game Day Champion mats... 

Moving on, the team I've got seems to have formed quite nicely, the average age of the group is my age and we play seriously, we play top decks, we entertain alternative ideas (Chasm Skulker in U/B Control as a viable threat in the mirror) and we have a laugh while we are doing it. 

Many folk reading this may think "oh he's a bit elitist" with some of the stereotypical magic players I've just written about and I'm in no way pointing fingers and I can also tell you I was that nutter who ran Possibility Storm style decks for a while, hellbent on making it work! My most recent descent into madness was Maze's End and I dare say I'll be looking at other non-tiered decks at somepoint or another. I guess I'm getting at perceptions and how we look at Magic players based on the 50 or so minutes we've spent with them, it's a very quick glimpse and sometimes I can leave a table thinking "Geez, he was a bit...intense!" I suppose we're rocking into Etiquette here a bit and I'm just happy to be in a team which seems humble in victory, noble in defeat and not out to put other players backs up. 

People have the capacity to change how they are viewed, Michael Chamberlain our local L2 Judge has been at most events I've played at beyond FNM and he notices my tilt before most other people, part of my journey of coming across better is to be less affected by the second loss of a tournament and be less dejected by horrible mulligans in win&in situations. It is afterall a game and part of playing a game is to enjoy yourself and have fun. So I guess for me this tirade is going to end with a few words on what I want to get out of the next year of magic from a non-spike point of view...

- Lessen the impact of tilt on myself and lessen the signs I'm transmitting that I've tilted out during a tournament, both during a game and after a game, mentioning I mulliganed to 5 once of twice is fine, but spending a whole day and car-ride home lamenting it is a bit much. 

- Try to be more smiley after a loss, my opponent has achieved victory against a veteran MTG player, I'm not the easiest player to beat (certainly no where near a pro though!) and I should really congratulate them assertively not passively, which I often do especially if I feel I've been knocked out of contention. 

- Have more post match discussions with my opponent about how they felt the game went, what I did well, what they did well and using Back-Front theory talking about the buildup to the finishing move. 

I'm off now to grab food and get ready for my first commander game with Jon Welfare and some games of non-competitive magic.