Casual Magic, Part 3: The Internet Invasion

When I was growing up, the Internet wasn't such a huge thing, or at least not as dominating of life and the mainstream as it has become. AOL was at its prime during middle school, so chatting over that was big, but school still didn't allow you to use Internet sources for papers or research. I actually wasn't allowed to do that until late in high school and in college. These days kids are much more net literate and savvy as they are indoctrinated into the idea and the culture of it much earlier in life.

So what does this have to do with Magic? Well, like most things, Magic has been greatly affected by the rise of the Internet. The ability to have information about all of the latest deck lists, competitive results, and news just a click away has changed a lot of things. And I won't even go into Magic Online.

A couple of years ago I was having a conversation with my friends Dre and Kanvaly. Dre and I originally started playing Magic in the early days around the release of sets like Fallen Empires or Ice Age. Dre eventually quit (more or less), and I played off-and-on a lot until recently when I've become much more serious about the whole thing. Kanvaly didn't really start playing until I restarted for the last time in college, when I endeavored to get my friends to play as well.

Dre and I were reminiscing about how things used to be, how every deck we made was organic and developed from our own concepts, or concepts we had seen other players use. None of it was at all influenced by looking up deck lists on the Internet (or “net-decking” as Magic players term it). At the time we spoke of net-decking with a certain amount of disdain as well, like it was almost cheating in terms of deck construction.

Kanvaly didn't understand why we looked down on it so much. He saw the whole thing in terms of a meta-game, which is actually probably an easier way to look at this. In our days of yore, the meta-game was who you knew. So your deck didn't have to be any better than those of the people you played against on a regular basis (like your classmates in the case of Dre and I). Nowadays, with deck lists easily available on the Internet, the meta-game is essentially the entire world.

So how does this tie into casual Magic? Well, I would say that net-decking is not an appropriate way to attempt to build a casual deck for anybody (not just competitive players).

I net-deck all the time when it comes to competitive Magic. I would actually not feel comfortable playing a deck in a tournament that did not already have at least one Top 8 placement in a major event. I'm not an innovator. I know this about myself. And when it comes to competition, all I am trying to be is the best pilot in the room, not the most creative one.

But casual Magic is all about innovation. It's about looking at the cards you have (or could easily acquire I suppose) and seeing what sort of crazy deck you can make from them. Like I said in my previous post, the goal for a casual deck should be to do something fun, funky, and fresh, not to deliver a beatdown concocted by another player.

Net-decking takes away innovation, and while it's great to be able to share ideas with the community at large and to debate the theories of Magic and deck construction, you tend to speed up the learning curve. Taking ideas from players takes away the fun exploratory element of Magic, the part where you learn for yourself how good or bad a card is. It also leads to deck optimization, which, like I said last time, defeats the point of casual (in my opinion).

So, my message to you, if you want to make a fun casual deck, stay away from the Internet. Just make something with the cards you have, and see where you can take it. Don't go looking for how someone else did it, or how they made it better. Figure it out for yourself, and just have fun messing around with it.


Upcoming: Casual Magic, Part 4: The Final Installment...Duhn duhn duuuuhhhhnnnnn!


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