A Casual Push?!... for our rights!!!

[train]

I really think the Casual Players Alliance has a basis for some push around the Magic Scene...

A lot of things are going on with Magic nowadays - and most of them are tournaments - but there's so much more to the game, and we all know that. This place was basically started on the Waylay disaster with 6th rules... I personally feel this was an attack on White Weenie winning Worlds and WoTC just couldn't have that!!!...

Here's my proposal(pun intended): Let's show WoTC we do care about the casual Magic environment, and that we have great ideas to make their play in tournaments and casual play more exciting - or drama intense since they televise these things now!...

Here are some Basic ideas of mine - I'd like to hear your thoughts on them:

Let's push for Unglued 2...
-we know they have the cards - where's the set... They know it would sell like mad with special lands, and tokens and everything else... and it would add some fun to those Anything goes formats that people play with now. collector's edition cards, international edition, and promos aren't the only special things out there! Unglued sells like mad and not for cheap, Unglued 2 would do the same...

What about introducing new casual formats to tournaments to make them more interesting to the mono-color player in all of us This would include rules implementation for those types of play...
- Example - a Star tournament - where each player has a mono-color deck of each color, and has to play it vs. every other color, and then move on to the next color and ditto... This would make for a 20 - round tourney that could then break into the top 8, or even play less games, but randomly choose which color the players have to play for a certain number of rounds, and then re-assign after playing those rounds...

We could even look at casual players like ourselves for testing concepts - such as breaking cards... It takes a lot of time to break something for tourney - but with the carefree minds of casual players ideas not thought of may be brought to light... instantaneously... Our mind is not stronger than the minds of those in a tourney - nor is it weaker, it just functions and imagines differently...

I'd personally like to see a push for the development of a multiplayer development team... Make teams - a true team format... not individual standings added together. 3-Headed giant would be awesome to see at Worlds or a fun invitational... Define multiplayer rules that suit tournament play, and have real multiplayer games going on...
-There is nothing wrong with a team all playing a multiplayer game, and not being allowed to play the same decks... Synergy between concepts and ideas would become more evident to the game...

And an overall push for more casual play... awards for sportsmanship... deck creativity... etc... They have the award for Pro-player of the year... but what about those rogue decks that show up and do so well because they encompass things not seen in the environment previously...

Why award the player winning money already - when there are those not earning any money - but keeping the game what it is - limitless...

Spidey brought up a great point - "I honestly don't think casual play can co-exist with current tournament formats. Why? You have to look at the basic idea of a tournament: to win or be number one. How do you achieve this goal? To have the nearest possible best deck (at least for your matchups). How do you have that? To have the most efficient cards possible for the type of deck you're playing and keep and advantage over your opponent, whether it be cards, tempo, time, or any combination. In other words, a tourney deck is going to be lean and mean."

That is such a great point - that it opens the door to let in the multiplayer team games occur in which each team member has to have a different deck - and the format could be 3-headed dragon or general, or anything they want it to be - but it stops the repetitivenesss from burying the rest of Magic's creativity... I honestly doubt both teams would have the exact same 3 decks...

5-color would be a great requirement to see run in tourneys - though I personally don't prefer blue...

Here's the major point -

WoTC said - they are going to try and stick to printing sets that can all be used in tournament if wanted by the players... but this leaves out the much bigger casual scene - the decks played when a tourney is not going on...

That shouldn't be if over half the Magic buyers out there are not tournament players...

If Unglued is used - I think they can implement a more casual format that requires some templating - much like a banned and restricted list does now... and they could push it to big money/prizes - if they so wished to do so...

Experimenting casually is how rochester got invented -some local shop's idea caught on...

It can happen... question is, can someone/an entity push WoTC in the right direction to support this...

Truth be told...

I think we could provide this Push...

train.

After successful with this idea - We'll work on getting Blue out of Magic!...

 

[Spiderman]

I think those are interesting points and wonder what the rest of the group thinks. Unfortunately, I would guess there's only a handful of people here who still actively play, much less care about "casual Play" aside from verbal support.

I think one avenue is to approach Anthony Alongi since he writes for WOTC and has a working relationship with them. And who knows, if SeFRo is correct with his paranoia, Alongi knows more about set releases than what he lets on , presumably that might include the casual side.

Why award the player winning money already - when there are those not earning any money

I don't see anything wrong with this; that player is playing to win against a large field.

I like the MP thoughts, but Magic was originally designed as a two-player game. Obviously lately there have been cards designed specifically for MP, but you can't get away from the fundamental restraint, especially concerning older sets.

Anyway, let's hear what others have to say...

 

[Nightstalkers]

I say bring back T1 just to make more sets like Chronicles and the like. It makes money for WotC, while giving the players back their beloved T1 gaming atmosphere.


I don't know about you, but I'd like to see Mr. Pestilence with his moxes, balances, and really long winded decks. These young tikes with their speedy black and cracker white decks should be taught a lesson that the old timers take to heart everytime they build a deck.

 

[Chaos Turtle]

I'm quite satisfied with WotC's current direction. Nothing really motivates me to push for anything.

Unglued 2 might be neat, though.

 

[train]

So there's support for Unglued 2 from Chaos Turtle, though not the full casual implementation into the tourney environment...

That's all we need - little encouragements here and there - and soon those snowballs can develop into an avalanche...

 

[Spiderman]

Well, the problem with little encouragements is that they don't really translate to action, which means this kind of initiative will languish for another year or so before being brought up again... unless you don't really mind.

 

[train]

Sometimes great actions take patience...

I'm just hoping to hear from more so we actually begin compiling support!...

 

[Notepad]

Sounds like a good plan. Why don't ya write an article or something?

I would...but its your idea.

 

[train]

That was the first time I had time to write something so long winded...

My 3rd - The Depot - got erased when they switched out hard drives... and I haven't had much time to type such large items in a while...

I'll do so soon though...

 

[Ferret]

Originally posted by Nightstalkers
I say bring back T1 just to make more sets like Chronicles and the like. It makes money for WotC, while giving the players back their beloved T1 gaming atmosphere.

Deja vu, anyone? If anyone wants to take the time, go WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY back in the forums and you'll see that "Chronicles II" was one of the things that a few of the founders were pushing for - myself, included...

-Ferret

"In the current environment, this might not be such a good idea..."

 

[Captain Caveman]

my two cents.......


I think it would be very difficult for Wizards of the Coast to support
any type of casual environment. I believe Friday Night Magic is/was
an attempt to give us, casual players, an environment that can be
less intense than a Pro level event. Having never played in a FNM
League my understanding of the format is incomplete but I believe
they gave away prizes just for signing up and additional prizes for
being a League winner.


I'm not sure what they could do beyond FNM. Of course, anything is
possible but organized tournament play for most casual players seems
to be something they/we have little interest(for whatever reason) in.


However, there are two alternative ideas that interest me. They are
a Tribes format Invitational and a 5-Star Multi-player Invitational.
Anyone with a DCI number should be allowed to put there number in
the hat(so to speak)then randomly chosen numbers(from those interested)
would be selected and given the Invitation.


Winner Should be allowed to design an Tribal-MP card just like the
Pro invitational winner.

 

[train]

That's exactly what I'm talking about!!!...

And Ferret - Looking at the feasibility of Chronicles II - why would you say it might not be such a good idea?...

Chronicles brought back 2 cards I can think of that made huge impacts... Erhnam Djinn, and Feldon's cane... and that was it... The set was printed as a fun set, and to give people access to some of the cards that were hard to find... that was all...

The only reason I see WoTC not bringing back a chronicles - is the mixture it would create with the storyline of current sets - but it's not like the "core sets" don't do that anyway...

"someone throwing down a Pavel Maliki would not scare me one bit..."

I'm really just looking for reasons - and if they're good points - then I may be missing them now, and need to know about them to increase my base for pushing more casual play...

Thanks to everyone thus far!!! Let anyone you think might be interested in this know about it and hopefully they'll voice their opinions and thoughts!...

 

[Spiderman]

This part's for you train... it's at the tail end of today's WOTC article

want to put in a plug for something cool that’s going on at Mirrodin prereleases. They are going to include one flight that uses the Team Sealed Deck format. That means you and two of your friends get to open a bunch of Mirrodin product together and build three decks out of it. Then each round the three of you play against another team and best 2 out of 3 matches wins the round. Anthony will have whole article tomorrow devoted to this subject, but I just thought I’d mention it here as a quick tease so you can start thinking about who you want to play with. Getting to play alongside teammates who are rooting for you during the rounds, talking strategy with you between rounds, and helping you build your deck before the rounds even start is a quite fun way to play Magic. (There’s also a Team Pro Tour going on this weekend in Boston that you might want to check out coverage of.)

 

[train]

I knew WoTC had a trojan in my systems that let them know everything I was thinking and typing!!!...

This is pretty cool!...

Now - Would you and Az be willing to play teams if all our schedules were cool with it - and after our moving up there?...

 

[Spiderman]

Maybe, I can probably only get away with one night for Magic a week, so I'll have to see between that and my buddy (if he wants to do that, it's cool, but since he doesn't know you guys right off the bat, he might feel strange. I'll ask him when you finally get here).

 

[mythosx]

You have many good points. But im not sure if I would like another unglued set. The cards were ugly and didnt seem to fit with the rest of my cards.

 

[Spiderman]

Here's that article on Team Sealed

 

[train]

I think the token cards now look better - but, except for new foils - I have a hard time finding "neater" looking lands...

Mythosx - Are there any ideas you have that may not have been presented by myself or others?...

 

[mythosx]

Nope you guys got everything covered. However, I do wish they would just print tokens. I know they are supposed to be rewards. But dammit, I dont want to pay 8 bones for a sliver token card!!!

 

[Nightstalkers]

Do you have a color printer handy? I could always draw up some tokens for ya guys, and let yer printers do all the work.