Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Ruthlessness

I was bored on the plane Sunday night, my iPod was dead, and I didn't really feel like reading the book I had brought, so I scribbled at the top of a piece of paper "Fearless Magical Inventory 2010".

One of the things I wrote was that I'm not ruthless enough anymore, if I ever was. I don't find it pleasurable when players pout and complain about losing matches, so it almost gives me an excuse to not win. I feel like I should look forward to such situations, if my goal is to win.

It became very apparent last night in the finals of a draft at First Pick. My opponent was at three with a Sea Gate Loremaster active with another Ally. I ship the turn, and he draws a card, and then realizes his mistake and asks to activate Sea Gate Loremaster. I didn't really care, so I let him. He draws utter gas off of it and I get blown out from there.

Obviously I was upset, and I justified it to myself by thinking that I don't really care about getting more Magic packs, and that the stakes weren't that high. I was about to blow up when he wouldn't shut up about how nice I was, when in fact you probably shouldn't even ask for takebacks in the first place, but I just kept my mouth shut. I got over throwing temper tantrums when I was about 13.

Anyway, that incident is an absolute wake up call for me as a Magic player. I like the game, but I like it more when I am winning. I stay with the game because I still think I can win more often than I currently am, and being a nice guy to worse players won't help me win more.

I'll try to flesh out Fearless Magical Inventory 2010 more. It's definitely harder to come up with things, but I know for a fact that I'm hitting a wall.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Letting people take things back when anything is on the line hurts both of you anyways. While it lets them play at a higher level at the time, it makes for awkward situations like that one and doesn't teach them to remember such triggers in the future. Being a 'dick' about it now will raise your opponent's game by having them think about their plays, and as a result your game will grow because of the higher level of competition around you.