Time Stretching

We all know what it is like to balance life and Magic.  We know the sacrifices we make to spend hours upon hours of testing, deck building, failing, tweaking, more testing and then finally playing on Friday nights.  During last week’s Magic Show, on Starcitygames.com, Patrick Chapin discussed that these days most of the true innovators of Magic are gone and that most people are net decking.  In this week’s Act of Reason, I’m going to discuss my theory on this phenomenon and why Patrick is wrong about his reason why people are net decking.

I work from 8 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, every week.  This, to me, is a pretty typical work week for most people my age and most of the more hardcore players of Magic.  When I get home I cook dinner, clean up a bit, do some laundry and try to wind down.  By the time all of this is done it is now close to 7:30 pm.  This is when I have to decide whether I want to try to innovate, tweak, test or do none of the above and actually have a life.  Most nights I choose to have a life.  On weeks like this, after the release of a new set, I choose Magic.  Team Chaotic, this week, has been toying with a couple of decks and each night has involved building, testing, failing, rebuilding and tweaking decks.  I think the bottom line here is that this process is incredibly time consuming.

Our store’s meta has not changed drastically over the past month or so.  Because our meta has not evolved much, we’ve been able to run the same decks practically week in and week out and take the Top 4.  My U/W Control has landed in the Top 4 for four consecutive weeks regardless of which of my teammates have piloted it.  This week things will be different.  With the availability of M11 people will surely want to bring new things to the table—Team Chaotic included!  I want to first breakdown what is involved in actually trying to create the next big thing.

First is the idea for a deck.  This is the easy part.  You find a card you want to try and abuse and then figure out your win condition around it.  You think of combos and other ins and outs of the deck.  You think of possible match-ups in the current meta. You think of what you’re going to face. You think of disruption. You think of anything involved in a game of Magic.  Building a good deck, to me, comes pretty fast.  With many similar manabases floating around the net, you can borrow them and change them around a bit to suit your deck’s needs.  Creating a deck, like this, can take anywhere from an hour to 3 hours, depending on how long you search for combos.  I use Magic Workstation so that I can digitally create my decks and test them before I bother physically building them.

So let’s say that I started this Monday night at 7:30 pm.  Upon finishing it is now probably anywhere between 8:30 and 9:30 pm.  At this point I’m starting to get tired from staring at a computer screen for 12 hours (I’m an IT guy).  So this usually would close out my Monday night.  It is now Tuesday night at 7:30 again, and now I’m finding time with my teammates to test out this deck and see if it can run the gamut of the regular decks in the meta.  Does it beat Jund?  Can it Withstand an onslaught from Burn?  Am I getting mana-screwed?  What is my typical hand? What is a hand I should keep? What is a hand I should mulligan?  All of this testing can easily run 3 hours.  After the 3 hours there is ALWAYS something to change in the deck.  At this point it is now Tuesday night at about 10 pm.  I make note of my changes and head to bed for the night so I can function at my job the next day.  Ok, it is now Wednesday night and we have two good nights of testing left until FNM.  It’s now 7:30 pm on Wednesday night and guess what…none of my teammates have time to test tonight; I decide to have a life.  Thursday night rolls around and we have this night to decide whether or not this deck will make the cut for the week.  After another 3 hour testing session we decide that this deck just isn’t going to cut it!  Now it’s Friday and I don’t have a deck to play!  Wait!  Isn’t there this wonderful source of all of the top decks from the latest and greatest tournaments?  Oh yeah, it’s called the Internet!  There are tons of net decks to browse from and test before the tournament on Friday night.  Before FNM, you run the net deck of your choice and tweak it for the meta of your store, then you’re good to go!  Who needs innovation??

Look, the bottom line here is that 90% of us aren’t Magic Pros; we have jobs to work during the day that does not leave much time for Magic planning, deck building or anything of that nature. My story above is completely hypothetical, but I’m sure it is a reality for most people.  Our time is very limited during the week to try and come up with the next big thing.  I may be generalizing that most of these pros don’t have full time jobs, but many of them have made bank enough to the point where they live, breathe and WORK Magic: The Gathering.  They have teams of pros around them and much more time than your average up and comer.  You want to know why all of the great decks are coming from PTQ regulars, Star City Open regulars and former champions?  They’re Professional Magic Players!  They have made a living out of winning and designing great decks.  Until I quit my job and decide to make Magic my lone profession, there is a very slim chance that you’re going to see “Bob Lanza’s (Insert Deck Name Here) Deck.  I don’t have the time; my team doesn’t have the time.  I can dedicate a good 20 hours a week to Magic and it still wouldn’t be enough.  So until then, I will continue to try and innovate each week – I have a fun deck to try out this Friday. But who knows, after further testing tonight and tomorrow it could fall flat and I’ll have to go back to the drawing board.  I totally understand that Patrick Chapin makes one great deck out of ten he builds but he builds, tests and modifies those ten decks over the period of time that I have to do one deck in a week.  So next time you find yourself struggling to find time for Magic, if you feel lost like you just aren’t capable of innovating the next big thing, perhaps, just perhaps, it’s not your ability, it’s just your ability to find the time.