Magic the Gathering M15 Game Day Recap

Hunt Bigger Game… as they say

As a longtime casual player of Magic: the Gathering – I’m talking roughly 16 years here – I decided to take the leap toward competitive play for the first time last season. Basically, as a former coworker put it to me, “what do you have to lose?” Well, it turns out a lot when you’re playing against guys who easily soak a couple hundred bucks worth of cards into a deck for Standard play (that’s last season’s core and expansion, plus the current season’s core and expansion only, I’m not even talking about Modern or Legacy – which is even MORE expensive unless you already own the cards) to top out while following the metagame. These are the things you learn first when you make the change from casual play to competitive. And you have to adapt or die. Literally, because the goal of the game is to reduce your opponent’s life total to zero. ZING!

So why do it, right? Because “kitchen play” only gets you so far in understanding the game. But when you step into your LGS (that’s Local Game Store) for the first time to register and play Friday Night Magic (or FNM) with hopes and dreams of bringing your A-game and best deck, to beat these new people and win that prize promo card (and maybe a little store credit or cash prize as well), while have great conversations about the game you love, you find out quick you know exactly squat when it comes to seasoned competitive players. Terminology and slang you may not have heard before, ever. And these guys’ expensive cards doing things you either a) weren’t aware of, or b) weren’t prepared for. It’s an eye opening, maybe even disappointing experience. And you love every minute of it because you’re learning again, and realizing that kitchen table strategy needs some retooling if you want to go places. You see posters all over saying “Pro Tour,” “Grand Prix,” and “Game Day.” Well let’s take it one step at a time, champ. Let’s start with the recent Game Day for M15.

So, now, what are these competitive events? Simply put it’s where the money is. You show up, you pay to play in a Swiss-style tournament that will end in a Top 8 bracket whose overall winner takes the prize. Game Day is held roughly four weeks after a Core or expansion block release date, and you play your best deck against other players in an arbitrary number of rounds earning points to stack the participants in a hierarchy, with the top 8 highest point earners making the bracket. Get it? Simple. The higher level of the store you play at, the better the prize support is; my LGS was offering a booster box of M15 cards and store credit payout from the entry fees to 1^st place and a Fat Pack to 2^nd, with 1^st place also getting the exclusive playmat labeled “Champion” for today’s Game Day. Everyone who showed up got a full art Reclamation Sage card, and each of the Top 8 also got a foil full art Chief Engineer. If you’re following me so far and haven’t even played an FNM yet, I’d be willing to bet you want to now and are likely making arrangements to make sure you are next week!

Sweet, Glorious Freebies!

Now, since I’ve only been playing competitively for a year (barely, actually, once I look at when I registered my DCI number) I won’t begin to claim I know everything there is to know. Many friends and family members call me just to ask me rules questions all the time. But in fact I’ll tell you that the experience I’ve had this last season has me practically learning the game all over again. And that’s a perfectly fine place for me to be. Overall, the M15 Game Day was a fun experience, as was each one I have been to so far, even if I didn’t win. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy playing and seeing the new strategies. I highly recommend these events after getting at least a few FNM’s under your belt – really they are the simplest transition from casual to competitive, I really don’t suggest just jumping into the next PTQ or GPT (that’s Pro Tour Qualifier and Grand Prix Trial) because we want to keep people playing the game. And losing at that level with no experience crushes one’s soul to the point of walking away permanently, I’ve seen it happen.

Here’s a good place to stop, I think! Come back on Tuesday where I’ll take a look at the new design of M15’s card frame elements compared to the previous Modern border, and let me know in the comments what you think and what you’d like to hear more on Magic: the Gathering in the future!

In the mean time, shuffle well and have fun!

=Opaque=