Going with the flow
January 28th 2011 05:55
I don’t wanna be just a face in the crowd.
-- Jon Bon Jovi, “It’s My Life”
This is not now and never will be a blog about tournament Magic, but I’d still like to draw your attention to Wizards of the Coast’s recent Daily Deck List entitled “Sixty-Six Special.” The interesting point is not that a deck constructed in a very divergent manner did well – a similar example from recent tournament play was the “Alaskan Highlander” deck from Lorwyn Standard – but that even Wizards of the Coast is acting incredulous in the article’s text. You would hope that the makers of the game would encourage people to play the game however they want to, but common competitive deckbuilding practices are very much part of the design team’s plans, and, as we’ve seen before, addressed in much of the company’s public discussion.
You’re pretty likely to hear about “Sixty-Six Special” again, but you’re not likely to hear about it with a more favorable tone than Wizards’ incredulity. If history is anything to go by, this is the one netdeck that won’t be picked up anytime soon – the Alaskan Highlander deck was dismissed and derided as a product of a non-competitive tournament and “Sarah Palin’s homeland.” Of course, when the competitive scene talks about something needing to be “proved by results,” what they actually mean is “proved by Pat Chapin’s results as reported in his most recent article.” It’s yet another entry showing how the internet counter-intuitively facilitates a herd mentality, and should be of concern to you: what will happen to Magic design and flavor when the team decides that nobody is actually using their decks to express themselves?
-- Jon Bon Jovi, “It’s My Life”
This is not now and never will be a blog about tournament Magic, but I’d still like to draw your attention to Wizards of the Coast’s recent Daily Deck List entitled “Sixty-Six Special.” The interesting point is not that a deck constructed in a very divergent manner did well – a similar example from recent tournament play was the “Alaskan Highlander” deck from Lorwyn Standard – but that even Wizards of the Coast is acting incredulous in the article’s text. You would hope that the makers of the game would encourage people to play the game however they want to, but common competitive deckbuilding practices are very much part of the design team’s plans, and, as we’ve seen before, addressed in much of the company’s public discussion.
You’re pretty likely to hear about “Sixty-Six Special” again, but you’re not likely to hear about it with a more favorable tone than Wizards’ incredulity. If history is anything to go by, this is the one netdeck that won’t be picked up anytime soon – the Alaskan Highlander deck was dismissed and derided as a product of a non-competitive tournament and “Sarah Palin’s homeland.” Of course, when the competitive scene talks about something needing to be “proved by results,” what they actually mean is “proved by Pat Chapin’s results as reported in his most recent article.” It’s yet another entry showing how the internet counter-intuitively facilitates a herd mentality, and should be of concern to you: what will happen to Magic design and flavor when the team decides that nobody is actually using their decks to express themselves?
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