Introductions

I’m cheating a bit and I’m actually going to have three ‘first posts’. This is the second. Expect the third mid-week. Last post I set the ground rules, today I talk about what this will be, and who we are.

First, an introduction of the major Magic: the Gathering players that will appear in my postings.

X: That’s me. I am a fairly intent Magic player. I didn’t start playing until college. To date myself, my first block was Invasion. My first deck ever was red/black and chock full of Invasion and Planeshift creature destruction. It was fun, but as unbalanced as a beginner’s deck is wont to be. Since that time I’ve gotten better and played in a lot of different formats. In college it was primarily Grand Melee multiplayer with between 3 and 7 players, most of whom I continue to play with now in other formats, and will appear below.
X is for Xpovos, my handle, and a sort of bridge to the title of this blog. It’s pronounced “Chronos”, as it’s a transcription, not a transliteration of the Greek. To be strictly accurate, it would be Χρονος. As a result the title of this blog is more accurately “Cro’s Magic”, which is itself a pun, based on the fact that there’s a fairly popular and well known deck of Tarot cards called “Crow’s Magick”; which I also happen to own and use from time to time. The artwork appeals to me.

V: V is the guy who really taught me the ropes of Magic. He’s probably the best player in our circle. He’s also the other one, besides me, who keeps up on current events in the world of Magic: the Gathering. V and I tend to attend events together, in particular pre-release tournaments.

A: A is the one who introduced me to all my friends at college. An odd story in itself, but not related to Magic: the Gathering. A likes to build themed decks that are cohesively impressive, but not necessarily good—like an “Ant” deck—a classic Johnny. That doesn’t mean he’s a pushover, though. In our drafts he frequently does better than most anyone else. A pattern recognition gift makes it so that he sees tangents in cards and in drafts that others don’t.

P: P is the everyman: a very good player, but never the best. He also rarely seeks Magic out, but is almost up for a game when other people are playing. In that sense he’s done a very good job of staying out of the lure of the cardboard crack.

D: D is the Legacy player. He is control and Spike. Though in drafts he’ll frequently go red/green because of the nice combinations they provide in fatties and removal, always potent in Limited. His other big gift is being able to put a plan of action into effect once deciding on it.

K: K just recently started playing with us and re-kindled the joy of Magic, since he hadn’t played in years. As a result a lot of the new conventions and terms are difficult for him to puzzle through, but he’s getting better very fast, and was right from the beginning making the right decisions in most cases.

L: L is my brother-in-law, and a brand new convert to the game. He knew a few bits of the game, but has come under my wing for education for the more complex rules.

TZ and VR: These guys I play with online via a site that I help run. There are others there as well.

Now that you know the major players, here’s a little more about what you can expect from this.

Every post will be a little insight into the recent goings-on in Magic for us. The topics will range from in-depth draft coverage of a recent draft between friends, to rants on mechanics, to event synopses. These will primarily be about Limited events, because I have neither time, nor patience, nor money to play Standard.

The primary purpose of this is to provide a consistent perspective from an actual player’s point-of-view. Not a pro. Not a WotC employee. Not even a paid columnist. As a result I can tell it like it really is. If I see a card, I can talk about it freely. I don’t have to try to pump it up, or downplay it. I can say almost anything I want without fear of anything but losing readership, which, seeing as there’s currently none of you, isn’t a factor either.

The secondary purpose of this is to provide another outlet for my hobbies. I enjoy writing and I enjoy playing cards. Here they fit together nicely. And I get to spend more time on Magic than I would otherwise. I can read all the posts that are made, two a day, five days a week over at Wizards, and sometimes it’s not enough. Sometimes I want more information. Well, I’m not a great new information source, but I can rehash the old information and repost it into a format that no one else has seen yet. And the new information I do have fits back into category one. The ground-level player’s perspective of the game, as it happens.

Again, I encourage feedback. If you want more of a specific style of story: tell me. If you think I’m full of it: tell me. If you think I’m dead wrong, for goodness sakes: please tell me! Sometimes this site may help you become a better player, but I’m guessing far more often it’s going to help me become a better player.