Subject: from a begginer to addict/ dojo decks Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 02:20:35 -0700 From: "cable" To: I started playing Magic when Tempest came out. It started as a way for me to kill time while a Vampire Maquerade game was played every Wednesday at the club that I run. As I didn't play The Masquerade, myself and the bartender often got bored. He had mentioned to me a game called Magic, said I might like it being an old D&D'r . I said bring in some decks and teach me how to play. I got the mechanics fairly quickly, I knew nothing about strategy, played a few games before closing time and that was that. It's fun, I said, but doesn't really compare to roleplaying. I could never get as serious about it as I had with D&D back in high school. So we played the next Wednesday. Then the Wednesday after that. Hey, it was an entertaing way to pass the time. The Wednesday after that we invited somebody else to come play with us who we found out also played. It was around that time where I started realizing that I was starting to look forward to Wednesdays. What had started as a way to kill time had slowly started to become something more. Something like, a hobby perhaps. My friend started letting me take home the decks he had made so that I could practice. I soon began taking the decks apart and putting them back together to see how different combinations would work. When I went in the next Wednesday and started playing with a deck that I had built myself, I was actually excited. Sure, I got my ass kicked, but it was still fun. When I gave the cards back to my freind at the end of the night, he told me to keep them, they were just commons. Commons? He hadn't explained this part of the came to me yet. I learned about packs and booster packs, rares and uncommmons, basically, how to go out and spend money and on what. I purchased my first deck of cards that weekend. I told my girlfriend that that was gonna be it, I just need to upragrade a little. I bought my next pack of cards a day or two later. Just a few more cards. She said, yeah, whatever. A week later after getting my but kicked again, even with my new cards, I went out and bought A TON of cards. $75 bucks on A GAME and I still thought it was just a hobby. A few more bucks, just a hobby. Just a couple more cards and I'll be satisfied. Then I found out about tournaments. I went to my first tournament at a place called Reality Recess. It was only five bucks, and I thought that I had all the cards I need. The guy who taught me said to be carefull, competitions REALLY tough up there. I said, I'm just going up there for fun. I proceeded to make it to the finals with a black and white shadow deck. Nothing else, pretty much just shadows. I scrubbed out in the finals, but I was still quite happy with myself. Not bad for a first timer, I thought, I can take these guys next week. Next week I got my ass kicked, bad. And the week after that. And the week after that. Time to buy some new cards. Ass kick. More new cards. More sore bottom. More cards. Couldn't sit down for a week. New store. Did a little better. And a little better. And even better. Back to Reality- ass kick. I began to have a dream. A dream that I would go up to one of the card shops and cleen up the place, take everything down that came my way, and do it with MY OWN DECK. I just need the right cards. Several hundred dollars later my little hobby had become a financial burden. When Stronghold came out and I bought my first box, my hands were literally shaking when I tore open the foil looking for that Mox Diamond. I got two, and traded them for cards that I wanted. Everybody else wanted a Mox Diamond, but I wanted MY OWN DECK. I wanted to be different. I wanted to win, and I wanted to do it MY WAY. I had stumbled across the Dojo one night. I thought it was the bees knees when I found it, still do, but I thought the printed decks served a different purpose than many others that visited the sight apparently did. I didn't look at them as decks to copy, I looked at them as the title suggested- "DECKS TO BEAT". I studied them and looked for common factors, stratagies, and flaws. This WAS the stuff that everybody else was playing, right here in front of me. I started seeing the holes. I had decided for various reasons to stick with Compendium Collectables (the other shop that I had tried) as my playing ground. It had a social atmosphere that I liked but still remained very competative. The people that I tried week after week to beat down and destroy, had suddenly become freinds. I continually tried different combinations of cards winning some and losing some, but loving it (not so much when I lost). What had started as a way for me to kill time had turned into a way to meet new people, have fun, get pissed, have more fun, use my intellect, spend a lot of money and time, and have more fun. It was great. It IS great. I won my first sanctioned tournament a couple weeks ago. I won it with MY OWN DECK.It was everthing that I thought it would be. Very gratifying. I'm not even close to pro-tour material yet, but I'm still dreaming. Look out Reality, I'm coming after YOU guys next :) The point of all this? Well, I guess it's that Dojo Decks aren't so bad after all. I borrowed a couple ideas from a deck or two, but never a whole deck theme. I think that the Dojo is a great source of information, and if used properly, can help make the game even more fun. If you think that the game is getting stale because you keep seeing the same decks, MAKE YOUR OWN. Sure, you're gonna get your ass kicked, but you're gonna learn more than the person who used somebody elses deck, I guarantee it. It will make you a better player, a better thinker, and you'll be even more satisfied when you kick somebodys ass who thought they had a sure thing with somebody else's idea. You don't like Dojo decks? Don't give in and copy them. it will only make your problem worse. You might win, but it won't be as fun, and that's the real reason EVERYONE started playing to begin with, no matter what they've become. There is a Dojo mentality. FIGHT IT!! Ted (Cable) Karter