Analyze this
October 4th 2009 03:35
To every thing there is a season, and for every new Magic expansion, there is the card assessment article series, at an average of 1.5 per website. Depending on your perspective, these are either an opportunity to find out what the game’s sharpest minds think about the new product, or the time when the internet’s biggest know-it-alls decide what you should be playing with.
I find it interesting that for Conley Woods and other writers, the standard for a five-star card is Tarmogoyf. This card is universally considered one of the strongest creatures ever printed – now. Its adoption was far from immediate: immediately after its release, average players and professionals alike wrote it off for various reasons, changing their minds only after extensive playtesting and/or losing games to it in an embarrassing fashion (generally after they’d already traded or sold their own copies).
This isn’t the only example. Since then, plenty of cards have been panned by the electronic peanut gallery, only to become favorites in casual play or even more competitive games. Sometimes, the forums never acknowledge that the change has occurred, continuing to describe them as “seeing no play” even when reliable statistics show the exact opposite.
There is practically no expansion or format that doesn’t contain good cards that are initially – or consistently – underrated and underplayed, especially in high-level competition. This is partly an offshoot of the netdecking phenomenon (if Pat “Convicted Felon” Chapin likes it, it must be good!) and partly simple inertia (if it was good at FNM last week, I don’t need to try something different!). Your results will be much better – both in terms of statistics and in terms of fun – if you just play what you want to, not what the “pros” tell you to.
No prizes for guessing which one I think it is.
I find it interesting that for Conley Woods and other writers, the standard for a five-star card is Tarmogoyf. This card is universally considered one of the strongest creatures ever printed – now. Its adoption was far from immediate: immediately after its release, average players and professionals alike wrote it off for various reasons, changing their minds only after extensive playtesting and/or losing games to it in an embarrassing fashion (generally after they’d already traded or sold their own copies).
This isn’t the only example. Since then, plenty of cards have been panned by the electronic peanut gallery, only to become favorites in casual play or even more competitive games. Sometimes, the forums never acknowledge that the change has occurred, continuing to describe them as “seeing no play” even when reliable statistics show the exact opposite.
There’s no problem with Cancel; there’s a problem with you.
There is practically no expansion or format that doesn’t contain good cards that are initially – or consistently – underrated and underplayed, especially in high-level competition. This is partly an offshoot of the netdecking phenomenon (if Pat “Convicted Felon” Chapin likes it, it must be good!) and partly simple inertia (if it was good at FNM last week, I don’t need to try something different!). Your results will be much better – both in terms of statistics and in terms of fun – if you just play what you want to, not what the “pros” tell you to.
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