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January 1, 2004 Where are we headed?
Well, I feel a tad bit
odd here. We invited a lot of new people to write
for us this week here on Pojo. Everyone else gets
to do introductions this week. I've been with the
site for a while, so lots of people know who I am
now. If you don't...well, now would be a good time
to go through and read a lot of my old stuff.
Let me say that I'm glad
that you guys have stuck it out this far if you are
a loyal reader. We have put together a very
respectable staff and you guys should get some new,
interesting, and informative content every day. For
those of you that are new readers, well, let me say
welcome. I hope this isn't your last visit hear.
Our content is going to
try and focus on a lot of different things. We are
trying to offer you guys some stuff on the casual
level. We want to offer you guys some stuff on the
serious level. We want to give you some content
that covers a large number of ideas from a lot of
different angles.
In the end, we hope that
everything is good for you.
That's enough self
promotion.
Now that our public
service announcements are out of the way, I want to
dive right in and get to it. For now, until we
figure out what subjects you guys want to hear from
me, I'm going to cover a lot of different things.
I'm going to bounce around from subject to subject.
It's a bit of a style that I jumped into a while
back that people seem to like.
I major topic with me is
shopping local. I own a game store, so it may sound
a little biased. However, our Tuesday writer, Ray
Powers, also owns a store. It's a big deal to shop
local. Let me give you an example. A few months
ago, I decided I wanted a Roy Williams jersey (he's
the pro bowl safety for the Dallas Cowboys-more on
them later). I could have easily jumped online and
bought a jersey, but honestly, why? I would save
like $5-10 depending on where I got it from, but
after shipping, the prices are similar anyway. Plus
I wouldn't get to try it on to see the fit. I
wouldn't get to see if it was the exact quality of
the jersey that I wanted. So I scoured town. After
several weeks of looking, I finally found a place
that sold them. And that's exactly why I bought it
locally. It's already hard to find the jersey I
wanted, because no one else could support the sales
of them enough to merit having them. Well, at least
not a large enough variety. By me shopping with
them, I was doing my part to support the product and
the store. AS a matter of fact, I'm going to pick
up a different Roy Williams jersey in the near
future at the same place.
OK, so how does that
relate to us here in the Magic world. It's
simple...how many decent stores in your area sell
Magic. Notice, I didn't say how many store sold
Magic. There are several. I also found a lot of
places that sold jerseys. But non that had the
variety I wanted that catered to the true Dallas
Cowboys fan. The same goes here. If you have a
place near you that holds tournaments, sells
singles, gives you a place to play, sells supplies,
and gives you a place to meet people...please
support them. They can use your dollars. In the
past four years, I've watched a lot of stores close
up shop. Many of them will even tell you that they
couldn't price match the internet or that people
would buy on the internet and want to play in their
stores.
That makes me sad. Not
only for the store owners, but for their customers
and players. You know how rude that is?! I find
that mildly offensive. I know that my customers get
a few things on the internet. I also know that what
I'm about to say might shock you. But if I had a
customers rarely making purchases in my store, but
he kept showing up with new product, I'm pretty sur
that I would ask them to start shopping at my store
or to not come back. I wouldn't do it out of
rudeness, but how can you shop at a competitor and
then expect the store to be open for your use. If
the store that provides you special services and
items is where you want to play, but not want to
buy, you might want to check yourself.
Well, while we are on
the topic, what's up with people alienating new
players lately. Don't do that. That's a big no
no. The little guys are the ones that help a store
survive. The little guys are the reason that games
survive. Don't lie to yourself. Tournament players
help keep a game interesting, but the real sales
come from the non-tournament players. If you think
otherwise, ask any store owner that does decent
sales. Why not help bolster your local tournament
scene. Make all the new players happy that you
can. That's just more people you have that you can
trade with int he future. Those are more people to
fill your tournaments and help you get larger
prizes. Those are more people to help spread the
excitement of the game.
OK, I said that I'd
mention the Dallas Cowboys. I don't think this is a
Super Bowl year or anything. However, with the Rams
faltering here at the end of the season, the light
is still faintly shining at the end of the tunnel.
Let's be honest though, this is largely due to Bill
Parcells being a coaching genius and a football
god.
On a side note...GO
LAKERS!
In other news, I have a
great suggestion for a new game to try. It's a
non-collectible card game. It's a near perfect
cross between card games and board games and can be
played with up to eight people I think. It's call
Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot.
Don't ask, just go buy it and thank me later.
I'm also going to make a
prediction that NFL Street is going to be one of the
best multiplayer games of the coming year. Look for
it in January.
Don't forget that Junior
Super Series events should be happening in your area
sometime soon. It's an awesome chance to win some
good scholarship money.
I've noticed lately that
a lot of people seem to be frustrated with deck
building. This isn't an easy thing obviously. I
would recommend that you check out Jason Matthews
over in the Deck Garage every week. That's a good
place to get some basis for deck ideas. Also, look
at what are in the good decks you see winning. More
importantly though, understand why they do what they
do. Understand the strategies that help them win.
The true keys to good decks are the deck builders
knowing what the metagame is and the deck builders
knowing what is needed to beat the metagame. That's
not an easy task. All you can do is research a lot
and hang out at your local store.
My card of the week this
week is Royal Assassin. People made such a fuss
about this card when they found out it was going to
be reprinted. However, it's not showing up
anywhere. This card is great and kills LOTS of
stuff. It's especially great in multiplayer games.
If you think about playing anything black that will
have creatures in it, give this guy a look.
Reusable removal doesn't suck by any means.
Also, my advise tip of
the week. If you want to get better, play, play, and
play some more. I don't mean eat, drink, and sleep
Magic. What I am saying is stay active. Build
decks for fun. Read about the latest formats. Help
someone else learn the game. Stay active. I've
watched people get frustrated with the game, because
they couldn't keep up the learning/technology curve
of the game. Their frustration came from them
falling behind and not keeping up with the latest
ideas, rules, and cards. Big problem...simple
solution.
And I'll close with
this. Don't take the random guy for granted. If
you have a random guy at your store that keeps
making the Top 8 and Top 4 of your local tournaments
take another look. If he keeps consistently doing
that well, how random is he? Really. Think about
it. You can say what you want about them, but maybe
you can learn something from them. Consider them
something of a drunken master. They can be pretty
harmless looking, but they are obviously doing
something right. It's hard to listen to people put
down someone that has done well in the tournament
scene for the past three weeks. Honestly, even if
this 'random' player is playing the same deck every
week, there are some things to look at. They have
either figured out the metagame well and have a
great deck choice or they simply or playing the deck
to its fullest.
I'm not sure which, but
there has got to be something interesting to observe
in there somewhere.
I almost forgot. I need
to wish you all a Happy New Year. May the rest of
this year bring you lots of Magic happiness and
success.
Until next time.
DeQuan
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