On Competitive Magic

There is, as you might imagine, quite a bit going on in this essay by Ari Lax about how competitive Magic is changing. (If you have an interest in competitive Magic, this other essay by Matt Sperling might also be of interest-I thought that was well done, too. An emphasis on empathy will go a long way for people no matter what). Your mileage may very about the takeaway on pro Magic but for me, this part stuck out.

Wanting to prove something gets you to beating people at the local shop to say you won, but that's it. Why does anyone play competitive Magic beyond that level?

It's about the art of self improvement.

That struck a chord.

Because I play decks until I've 'figured them out'. My current work on the Saheeli deck is a perfect example: I played that deck until I understood what it wanted to do, stripped out the cards that didn't forward that goal, put in ones that I thought did...and boom. Now that I've done that, I'm pretty much done with playing the Saheeli commander deck. I think this is one of the reasons I have so many decks (new problem excitement!) and leave them behind so quickly (the equation is solved until new cards appear). 

At some point is generally no more work to be done that isn't obvious (add in brutally strong cards!/give up on this idea for now) or helps me discover something about the game or myself that I didn't already know.

Part of that comes from having played Magic for over twenty years, reading a ton of strategy and 'making of' essays, part of it from trying to do self improvement work of my own.

I play Magic-or any game, lately the Transformers TCG and Betrayal: Legacy-for two reasons, when I drill down into the core.

First, I'm there to socialize. The socialization might be fairly light, as I'm still making friends with people who are playing Transformers, or be a bit more personal; most of the people I play Magic with I've been playing for years. Nevertheless, I am there to maintain or build connections with other people.

Second, I'm there to do better. I am not playing against other people so much as I am trying to improve my own game. The opponent provides context for me compete against, but my goal is to play better than I played before. Winning or losing isn't as relevant as whether or not I played the best game I can play, did I handle the stress properly, or my opponents respectfully.

And I take that measure against only one person: Me.