It has been a good long time since someone took this space as an opportunity to rant about Magic the Gathering completely outside of individual cards.  This may be beating a horse long since dead, but one idea sticks in the craw of my mind every so often.  Unless vented that built up frustration never seems to leave.  That idea is that playing MTG casually has, at some basic level, a separation of ambitions: fun on one end of the spectrum, with desire to win sitting firmly on the opposite.  This is fallacy.  The enjoyment of gaming comes from competition among our fellow gamers.  The notion that we could possibly lose, and must figure a way to triumph regardless creates enjoyment.

[caption id="attachment_2453" align="alignright" width="279" caption="giving the opponent free passes is rarely appreciated"][/caption]

Bringing a weak deck to a friend's house, the MTGO casual room, or your local Friday Night Magic event can create a no-win situation.  First you will likely lose all your duels (winning only if another test deck is present) and that is rarely fun.  Second, and perhaps more importantly, your opponents are denied any satisfaction with these inevitable wins.  As detailed in a recent article from MTG.com we enjoy games largely out of a sense of mystery.  When that mystery is replaced by dull fore-knowledge the enjoyment dwindles and eventually vanishes all together.  If you are able to win, the feeling of accomplishment will be diminished because the only decks that you can beat are bad and are piloted by unskilled wizards.  Well, where is the fun in that?

A quick point of explanation here before we delve into the core issue.  Competition by it's very definition has some amount of objectivity to it.  What does it mean to play a competitive deck?  As detailed here few of us would consider playing against heavy land destruction, or heavy discard to be enjoyable exercises, no matter the victor.  Common sense will tell you there are certain decks archetypes that your peers probably hate.  What I would tell you is that there are many ways to skin the MTG cat, and finding a second approach after being shunned for cheap tactics is easy.  However, I trust you to know your peers better than I, and if land destruction and discard are okay with them then they are okay with me.  The key here is intuition and the realization that trying to win does not equal doing anything to win.

[caption id="attachment_2454" align="alignleft" width="272" caption="equality = enjoyment"][/caption]

The utopia for any group of Duelists exists when each can bring something challenging yet interesting to every game.  When the outcome is not determined before the dice is thrown for first turn.  This is not easy to find as players have different styles and skill levels in any group.  There are instances when exception in competition can and should be made.  For example, when dueling a wizard of vastly lesser skill we may need to lower our own standards to keep the game enjoyable.  This goes against my colleague believes to be the essence of teaching, but I think pulling punches under the right circumstances can be better in the long run.  If you play a dominant control deck against the two rookie creations their pilot will never know if one is decent and the other redeemable or if both need to be burned immediately.  However once the gears begin to turn and lesser decks are beaten then the time for mercy is over.

Now go play to win. Have fun, but play to win. You're fellow duelists will thank you for it.