Subject: Playing for fun...
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 15:41:48 -0500
From: "Tapper Mark J." <MJTAPPER@norstan.com>
To: "'fkusumot@ix.netcom.com.'" <fkusumot@ix.netcom.com>

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Well I have more or less "Taken a break" from Magic, which is something
I do from time to time. Namely I do it when I AM NOT
HAVING FUN ANYMORE. Which is important. But first a little background
about Who I Am:

I started Playing Magic a little after Fallen Empires came out, and like
many people, I just wanted to check it out. I remember getting a Balance
in my first pack, and I thought it sucked. I also got a couple of Plows,
and wondered why this card was any good, after all it gave your opponent
life. Ahh the early days. I learned to play from my roomate, who had
been playing for quite some time, and he was the one that showed me
where I could even FIND the cards. As it went, I made my deck, and
crushed him in the first game I played. Next day I went and bought a
box.

Fast Forward:
As time went on, I entered Tournaments, and have won several tournaments
(Local Shop, and some bigger ones in my area) and if I did not win, I
always placed high. I was considered one of the best players in my area,
and pretty soon about 90% of my free time was either spent playing
magic, developing decks, or playing in tournaments. I feel I am not any
diffeent than most of the succesful and skilled players in that I was
very competitive, and HATED losing. This is what drove me. I thought
Magic was something I could be very good at, and well, everyone wants to
be good at something. That coupled with the fact that I was addicted to
the game are what I think made me a succesful  tournament level player.

Problems occurred becuase of how competitive a person I was when playing
this game. It is strange, how this game made me feel and act
differently. I was one of those who prided himself on doing well and
winning in tournaments with decks and cards that other players did not
use, or were considered non-tournament viable. This was sort of my niche
in magic. I remember Playing Brian Wiesmann for hours one time with my
Urza's Bauble deck, and winning tounanments with cards like  Ankh of
Mishra, Reflect Damage, and Onulet in my starting Deck. But, as it goes,
I started having less and less fun playing the game. taking defeat was
not something I did with grace really, and on more than one occasion I
really acted like an asshole. This is usually a clue that the fun was
gone, and I would subsequently "take a break" (This usually equated to
waiting for new cards to come out and freshen the game for me.) For me
it was hard to spend 90% of your time doing something and losing the
simple joy of playing. Every game, even pick up games in the shop were a
"must win" for me.

I am now in the "playing for fun" category, and have more or less quit
the tourney scene. I play some of the tourney players in the area with
my "fun" decks (we used to call "fun" decks "euphamism" decks, because
fun was just a euphamism for "sucks") But I do not really buy in to that
anymore, and well if Ted's Counterspell deck, or Jamie's 5cb  deck beats
my "Fatmaster 2000" or my "Deck of Bogardan" then so be it. I am having
fun and, in the end, that is why I started to play and still do play. Oh
I still have some of my winning decks intact, and they are still in my
box, but I find that I never pull them out. After all any dumbass can
play a sligh or a counterspell-heavy deck, but it takes a real player to
beat you down with an Onulet. ;-)

-Mark Tapper