Subject: In defense of printing deck lists.
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 01:48:08 PDT
From: "Charles Mousseau" <mooselini@hotmail.com>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

I would like to contribute to an issue I feel strongly about - the
rampant "posting" of deck lists through the Dojo.

First, I would like to speak *objectively* about what deck posting does,
not just "it ruins / supports the game."  I can't directly prove that,
at least not yet.

* Deck posting has a 'perfective' (my own term) influence on Magic.  It
is irrefutable that the mass sharing of information about a game causes
the theory of the game to advance, as you build up a library of
information.  A perfect example to parallel this is the huge outburst of
'opening theory' in chess - the first 20 moves have been almost charted
to exhaustion, simply because people started "sharing" their knowledge
hundreds of years ago.

Now, the question can be reduced from "Is deck posting good for the
game?" to "Is a strong perfective influence good for the game?"
Before you can immediately say "Yes", remember that such an influence
would make Women's Tennis more like Men's Tennis, and yet the popular
majority holds that Women's Tennis is more exciting and more
entertaining.  It would make the Canadian Football League more like the
National Football League, trading lunchtime-football unpredictability
for the 'run/punt/run' NFL game.  In fact, any hockey fan can verify
that the dreaded "Neutral Zone Trap" is simply more evolved, more
'theoretically correct' hockey than was present in the 80's [yet of
course, far less entertaining].

However, I think that this influence is *not* ruining the game.  In
order to do that, it would need to "upset the balance" - it would need
to let bad players be favorites against good players.  Yes, we talk
endlessly about how it helps the scrubs.  However, do we talk about how
it helps the good players?

What if you have a deck to try out?  You can test it against 10 of the
monthly staples in a flash, thanks to the Dojo and Apprentice.  Want to
get a good feel for the metagame in general?  Look at the Dojo list.  If
you know that the scrubs are going to blindly play Dojo decks, build
your deck or sidebar to accomodate the fact that players will be
swinging swords greater than they can handle, so to speak.  Sure, a Dojo
Scrub can play Sligh, but he will not have any knowledge of the subtlety
involved (yes, even Sligh has things to consider).  Scrub will not slow
down against White and land face first against a Warmth or a
life-gaining deck.

In summary, I would just like to add that the Dojo, in all its facets
but certainly in its deck posting, brings Magic to a higher level, with
more refined theory.  If it winds up ruining the game then it didn't
deserve to be this popular.  Chess is insanely popular *because* of how
far you can "theorize" about the game yet still have a lot to learn.  If
Magic dries up because of the Dojo, it ultimately means that Magic was a
simple, shallow game that, like Checkers, simply fell prey to natural
selection (the Darwinian theory, not the Exodus Green rare :)

Charles Mousseau

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