Magic and Me

Magic and Me

I’ve been playing Magic for about fifteen years now. It’s been there at times when I’ve needed it, through good and bad, it’s helped me meet great people and I’ve had some of the best times of my life at events hanging out with friends, having a laugh and playing a fantastic game.

Now, I don’t want this just to be an article about how excellent Magic: The Gathering Is, because in my opinion it is the best trading card game (TCG) ever. I’m writing this to try and show you how it has affected and altered my life. Why don’t we start at the start…

I’m eight years old, rummaging through a box of various bits and pieces, when I come across a Magic: The Gathering Portal starter pack. The box art depicting a moss-covered brickwork archway with a swirly, multi-coloured vortex or Portal if you will, containing cards built into pre-made decks that you learn to play Magic with. Luckily my older brother new how to play so, I took the box and start playing Magic with him. One of the first cards I remember seeing was a Raging Goblin; a 1/1 creature with haste for a single red mana, nothing special but that was the gateway card, for me anyway, that started a beautiful friendship. My brother and I started taking other cards from his collection and changing the decks; adding different types of creatures, finding new spells to try out and learning what cards worked with each other. That’s when I fell in love with both the style and feel of the game.

I remember being frustrated to start with, I’m not going to lie, I found it hard. However, I also found it rewarding when it worked. When I put those pieces together successfully, I got this feeling of accomplishment and pride. That feeling got me hooked and kept me wanting more, confirming the start of my journey through the different planes and sets of Magic: The Gathering. Along with drafting and constant deck building, one day I hoped to make it big at a Pro tour or Grand Prix, I lived Magic.

At the age of twelve, I remember playing in a local Pro tour qualifier and even though I didn’t do well, it was such an enjoyable experience. Round after round, meeting new and interesting people, engaging in a battle of skill until one person, usually not me, emerged victorious. The beauty of these events, and Magic in general, are the players. A mix of people from all walks of life, young and old all, from every nationality, all brought together for one reason. This was enlightening to me, from my local game store to a one hundred and fifty person qualifying event. I could always find a place to interact with other people that have come together to have fun, no matter who they are and nothing else mattered. Finding common ground with my opponents after a match and making a new friend to stay in contact with, swap deck ideas and travel to and meet with at other events across the world. Magic provided me with another way to expand my friendship circle while learning and experiencing so many things.

Getting older, I didn’t feel like I was improving at Magic as much as I would have liked to. It had been a hobby so far but losing isn’t a good feeling no matter how much you learn from it. So, rather than just playing fun, janky decks, I started testing with more serious decks. Playing with players that were on a higher level than me seemed futile at first, but the best way to better yourself is to play opponents that are better than you. With enough knuckling down, really paying attention and learning how to be more patient, I slowly started to progress. I became more invested in attending and playing more events. Maybe I felt worse than before when I lost, but as long as I was confident and happy with the play I had made, that’s all I could ask of myself.

I few years later I attended a Grand Prix in Brighton. Thanks to a mix of a quote made by me at my local store which was taken way out of context and having a friend in the circles of pro level players, I found myself playing a five-colour control match against Shuhei Nakamura. At the age of fifteen, I thought this was too good to be true. Granted it was a friendly match and not on the tournament scene but this is one of the best players in the world. I’ll tell you now, I was shitting myself. I know I was going to lose, although at one point I thought I was getting close to winning but looking back, I think he was just toying with me. Shuhei’s English is great but with the game of Magic being played between us, we understood each other with no problems, it acting a universal language for the both of us.

Inevitably, I lost spectacularly but that didn’t faze me. I had just sat down and gone card for card with one of the best Japanese pros of all time. It was an incredible experience for me and one that has stayed with me all this time, I learned a lot from my game with Shuhei, along with marveling at his ability. His composure and forethought was unbelievable, being able to predict my plays with almost pinpoint accuracy and react accordingly, coupled with his respect for the game and his opponent really made me want to achieve more. Since then, I have tried to emulate Shuhei’s way of thinking both in Magic and in life, trying to become more patient and taking all the information available to me into consideration.

With all the time I had spent with Magic: The Gathering, reading the cards and backstory, I had learned definitions of new words or even words I had come across before and not understood. Either thanks to the art of the card giving me an image to extrapolate from or the context of the effect for example, I’m fairly sure each new set has provided me with at least one new addition to my vocabulary. It wasn’t just language, it affected my maths as well. I know repetition is the mother of learning, but you learn something faster if you attach something you enjoy to it acting as motivation. With life totals, combat damage, mana count, even deck building, Magic and maths was a good combination for me. Through the years with Magic I have been many places, met many people and learned many things. Admittedly, I haven’t been playing as much in recent years due to work, responsibilities and general life, but I have always kept up with new cards and goings on with wizard and events. 

However, I think that has been an advantage in relation to improvement and achieving more within the game. I feel my time away from playing Magic has given me a chance to take a step back and try to better understand the way the game works; evaluating cards and grasping the meta game for example. This has helped me improved my drafting or what decks to play at an event of course, but by using this I have learned to refine my way of thinking on a broader scale. Being able to better asses a situation; understanding what I need, when I need it and how to use it. Recognise patterns; in a person’s play style or what they’re drafting for example, and getting better at reading whatever the current circumstances are; in both playing Magic and knowing what decks are prevalent at what times as well as in everyday life, Magic has been invaluable to me.

I hope this has given you an interesting look into my life with Magic and shown you some of the things that I have taken away. I also hope this has helped give you an idea of what this sort of game can provide for you, Magic has helped me but for you it could be any game that challenges you and makes you want to accomplish more. Overall I want to demonstration the effects of perseverance and where it can take you along the way. 

If reading this has given you the urge to start your gaming journey, I bid you good luck on your travels otherwise, keep checking back to Game Changers for more MTG news, tales and more.

Drafting with Kaladesh

Drafting with Kaladesh

Kaladesh has been available for a while now, and today I’m going to talk about drafting with it. I’ve racked up a few drafts and gotten to know Kaladesh in a limited environment, and what I’ve learned is that it’s a very efficient set.

 First, let’s take a look at the keywords and mechanics new to Kaladesh; Create, while not technically a keyword or mechanic, is a new, and shorter way of saying “Put a token onto the battlefield”. While most players use Create as the term for making a token already, it’s nice to see it on cards now and it makes more room for possible text on future cards.

  

Vehicles are a new artifact sub type. These are atifacts that have a power and toughness, and sometimes abilities, and can be turned into creatures via another new ability, Crew. More on that in a little bit. While a Vehicle is in any zone it is classed as an artifact, meaning anything your opponent has that targets a creature, possibly to destroy it, has to wait until you choose to turn it into a creature. Like other creatures, Vehicles also suffer with summoning sickness (can’t attack the turn they entered the battlefield) so Crewing one on the same turn I useless.

Onto Crew, and you can Crew a Vehicle by tapping any number of creatures with power equaling the Crew number. For example if a Vehicle says “Crew 3” and you have a creature with three power, you can tap that creature to turn your Vehicle into a creature until the end of turn. This ability isn’t just at sorcery speed either, so you can activate a Vehicle in your opponent’s turn to block. As a last, kind of confusing piece of information, Vehicles can Crew other Vehicles. So, just in case you’re heavy on Vehicles and only have enough power to Crew one of them, provided that Vehicle has enough power, you could use it to Crew a larger one.

Kaladesh is rich with a substance called Aether, a form of pure energy. It can be harnessed and put to various uses. Energy counters can be gained from cards as part of the effect and used in combination with most of the cards in Kaladesh by paying an amount of Energy. A nice, clean example of this is a 1/3 creature for 1U that gives you three Energy when it enters the battlefield and, as part of its ability, you tap and pay one Energy to Scry 1. This does provide another thing to keep track of, but this is a very fun mechanic. There are a lot of little exciting interactions with Energy and it’s all over the place so you won’t find yourself short.

 I’ve left Fabricate until last because I believe that, while Energy may be the more prominent mechanic with its new symbol and such, Fabricate is the better of the abilities. Fabricate, along side a number, appears on creatures and give you an option to put that many +1/+1 counters on that creature or create (see what I did there) that many 1/1 Servo creature tokens. This is where that efficiency I was talking about earlier comes into play. With this option, you can quickly turn the tide of a game; sometimes your opponent has a couple of large creatures and you need more numbers to attack round them, sometimes you need a threat to start attacking your opponent with. As your decisions can change rapidly throughout any game, the versatility of Fabricate makes it perfect for almost any deck. Couple that with the fact that most of the creatures with Fabricate are very efficiently costed, a 2/1 for 2WW with Fabricate 2 for example, makes it a very powerful ability.

In my drafts, I have tried a couple of different strategies and I would say all have their merits. You can draft all the Energy cards, basing a strategy around first picking or hoping to get passed a Dynavolt Tower or Multiform Wanderer. Most of the cards in this set will give you Energy counters in some way but the main problem with this strategy is finding something to use them with. At least I thought. In my fist drafts I went down the Energy line, it worked well for my Pre-release card pool. In this format however, it was slightly different, I was looking for a big Energy sink as a game winner, when in reality I should have been using my Energy across the board. Using Energy as more of a background ability, more sparingly from less cards in your deck, in my experience had a greater affect. However, in a red/green aggressive style deck, using Energy in combination with such cards as Voltaic Brawler, Longtusk Cub or Bristling Hydra, like I got at one point, can be devastating. In that case I guess you had a nice draft and enjoy your prizes, and I did, but in a more representative draft utilizing your Energy in conjunction with cards like Eddytrail Hawk or Servant of the Conduit in a more conservative way can be very valuable. Before I leave Energy, I want to talk about one card, Harnessed Lightning.  An instant for 1R, this card targets a creature and then gives you three Energy. You can then pay any amount of Energy to deal that much damage to that creature. Note that you don’t have to use any Energy if you don’t want to and you don’t just have to use the Energy that Harnessed Lightning gives you, you can use any Energy from any cards. This card is a removal all-star in this set, in the right deck it can take out any creature and can be used as free Energy. If you see this in the pack, take it. It’s splashable and very good.

As much as I like to draft an aggressive deck, sometimes it doesn’t happen and you have to change you plan of action. Fabricate is a perfect for slower decks, clogging up the board until you get to your end game, and can quickly turn aggressive when you find an opening to start bashing away. Most of the time I opted for a mix of the two, using cards like Inspired Charge and Engineered Might, alongside Fabricate creatures and other creature token makers, to make a lot of power across a lot of creatures. This strategy proved quite difficult to play against with most of my opponents having to find many of ways to get rid of many creatures, while being very aware of a possible combat trick in the form of +2/+1 to all your creatures at instant speed for four mana. Even if you don’t find a mass pump spell for your creatures, or you find yourself playing a more controlling deck that can make a few Servos every now and again, you can find that four or five 1/1’s can get the job done just as well. One card to touch on is Visionary Augmenter, the four mana 2/1 I talked about earlier. This creature is very efficient in both cost and ability; three creatures for four mana on turn four is pushed but with the ability of just being a four mana 4/3 is very solid. Another sure pick.

The last strategy I’m going to talk about today is a red/white draft. Red and white creatures in Kaladesh can be very aggressive and very efficient. Usually above the curve as well, meaning for example a 3/2 for three mana, not only with the ability to give another creature type a power/toughness bonus, but create that creature type for four mana as a secondary ability. Other good uses for these creatures can be to Crew Vehicles. Vehicles can be used in any type of deck, but they seem most powerful in a good red/white draft with a few creatures that trigger when they become tapped. With cards like Gearshift Ace, Speedway Fanatic or Spireside Infiltrator, you can pick up a couple of Vehicles to Crew, gaining an advantage such as bonuses to Crewed Vehicles and more synergy with your small red and white creatures. If no good Vehicles show up or you find yourself fighting for the Vehicles deck, fret not, there are plenty of creatures just itching to attack such as Brazen Scourge or Lathnu Hellion. Add in a couple of cheap Fabricate guys and you’ve got a very powerful, low costed deck. Well take a look at some of the Vehicles in a second but one red/white card worth talking about is Veteran Motorist. RW for a 3/1 creature is a very aggressive turn two play. This guy also Scrys 2 when he enters the battlefield, as weird and out of place that may seem but design isn’t my job, so now you have an aggressive two drop that can fix your next two draws. The last ability on Veteran Motorist is, when it is used to Crew a Vehicle, that Vehicle gets +1/+1 until the end of turn. So, all in all, we have a two drop ready to attack with added card manipulation and extra benefit for Vehicles. Granted at an awkward cost, but at two mana it means you’re going to be feeling good when your opening hand contains a plains and a mountain.

So, now with the new sub type, let’s get better acquainted with some of these Vehicles:

Cultivator’s Caravan is three colourless Mana artifact that taps to add a Mana of any colour to your Mana pool, Crew it for three power and it becomes a 5/5 creature. It can put you essentially one turn ahead with the extra Mana or if left unblocked, is happy to take a quarter of your opponent’s life total making it a easy pick if you see it.

Fleetwheel Cruiser is a four colourless mana, 5/3 Vehicle with trample and haste, that can be Crewed for two power. The nice thing about Fleetwheel Cruiser is that it becomes a creature when it comes into play. Meaning you don’t have to Crew it and you can attack with it straight away. But even only taking two power to Crew it means it won’t take away too much of your attack force while giving you a creature that could trample over for the last points of damage.

Smuggler’s Copter is probably the best of the Vehicles, being a two colourless mana, 3/3 Vehicle that only takes one power to Crew. Sounds pretty good right? Wait, there’s more. Whenever Smuggler’s Copter attacks or blocks, you may draw a card and if you do, you must discard a card. A 3/3 with a loot ability is absurd, yes you need to tap a one power creature to attack with it but it’s definitely worth it. Two things to note, the first being that you draw first and then discard. It has become more common in recent Magic sets to discard before the draw, so in situations like this you get the extra information from the draw and then can choose which to get rid of. Second thing to note is the fact that Smuggler’s Copter triggers when it blocks as well as attacks, so sure you don’t hit for three damage, but you still get to fix your hand slightly while maybe taking out one of your opponents creatures.

Skysovereign, Consul Flagship. The poster Vehicle of Kaladesh and I can assure you it’s a big hitter. A 6/5 Vehicle for five colourless mana with Crew 3. That’s pretty good on its own in my opinion. It also has flying and whenever it enters the battlefield or attacks, it deals three damage to target creature or Planes-walker your opponent controls. Told you it was a big hitter, having an immediate effect usually resulting in destroying a creature, or maybe a Planes-walker if you get lucky. You’re able to do that each turn as long as you can Crew it and as long as it goes unchallenged it can very quickly and very easily take out all of your opponent’s creatures.

As I continue with my drafts and sealed events, I’ll continue to explore, using different cards and trying different things. If you like idea of drafting with Kaladesh, head down to your local game store to find out what day they hold them. Otherwise, keep checking back to Game Changers for more drafting stories and tips.