Building Restrictions and Restricting Yourself
It’s been quite some time since I had posted anything at all. So I hope all is well with everyone.
I went to my old LGS last week and something happened that I figured I would touch upon and maybe shed some light and maybe share my feelings and opinions on the matter. Now, before you go too far down the column, I want you to remember, I am a meme deck player. The deck generally has to have some sort of gimmick for me to play it.
While I was standing and observing matches (I had decided I did not want to participate since I was told there would be no entry fee into this Standard Showdown event; I was informed otherwise.), I saw the matches of BUG Energy/Naya Dinosaurs, Dega Control/?, BW Vampires/Miracle-Gro (my deck that was lent out), UW Cycle/Ramunap Red and RUG Energy/UB Pirates. After watching a couple of these matches and offering advice after each match was over (a lot of these guys are from my playgroup at my current LGS) and offering mentorship and suggestions, I heard somebody get extremely upset because he lost to “that stupid energy deck”, meaning the Temur Energy, and stormed off.
I stood there, thinking I knew what had happened, looked at Temur and said, “You got him?” He nods confirming, “What was he on?” “UB Pirates.” “Was it only cards from Ixalan? Nothing else?” Again, he nods confirming. “Does he really expect to win with such a restriction? You’re going to lose to a top-tier deck in anything if you refuse to use everything at your disposal.”
I was talking to the gentleman playing WB Vampires and one of my teammates outside while they were smoking and was told “Yeah, I think Kaladesh is garbage in this format and screwed it up. I hate everything about the block and refuse to play anything from Kaladesh or Amonkhet blocks.” This is the incorrect opinion to have while you are trying to make yourself better at the game.
When you refuse to play the best cards for your deck choice, you are setting yourself up for failure. You should be giving yourself the best possible chance at winning every match;* and playing cards from only one set out of the five currently in standard is not the key to victory. So if you get angry because you lost to the top-tier deck in the format under these conditions, I have no sympathy for you because, well, you did this to yourself.
The deck I have been running is easily a tier-3 deck, but I have been piloting it like a champ for the last couple months (I just took my first sanctioned loss with it today, so it actually felt good to get that monkey off my back). Miracle-Gro has been absolutely astounding since I found the 5-0 league list on Twitter (thanks, whoever you are). This deck is somewhere around $50 and all of it is nearly in the four Spirebluff Canal and if you know how to play tempo decks, it’s most interesting deck in the format you could probably play.
I am going to leave something to ponder: If your goal is not to improve yourself or your teammates at your LGS, then what is it that you offer?