Because Old School Magic the Gathering tournaments are few and far between, choosing what deck to play sometimes proves to be harder than it should. If you have a single pet deck that you black-bordered over the years, choosing right might not be that hard, but even with a finite card pool, there is a surprising amount of variety in possible archetypes one can choose from while making a deck. What makes the game fascinating 25 years after its creation is essentially us. We are all different in our approach to deckbuilding. I’d like to have fun playing at the tournament, but I’d also like my opponents to have a good time as much as possible. Of course, what is fun for me might not be to you. And as Hamlet eloquently puts it, there’s the rub.

People here know that I love casting Armageddon; a new leaf, a breath of fresh air, starting over. I do admit this spell is brutal in its simplicity, but I find its symmetric nature very fair overall. Sometimes, the best way to fight it is to stay calm and avoid doing anything rash with your lands in response. People often go into panic, fire-sale mode and cast a hasty Disenchant on your Mox, or cast Swords to Plowshares on the lone Savannah Lion while feel like they still can. When Icy Manipulator or Serendib Efreet hits the table off the floating, post-apocalyptic mana, the game is lost.

Obviously, if you pack one or many copies of that devastating white spell, you play around it and often your opponent doesn’t. Fair point. But when you sit across another mage, you have to try to be ready to deal with the worst scenarios. When you cast your own Eureka, for example, it might be a good idea to keep a key creature in hand instead of overextending. What if they cast Balance? Nevinyrral’s Disk? Wrath of God? Armageddon? If all my lands are tapped, what are the chances my opponent casts Winter Orb? What are the odds that out of the two cards they are holding, one of them would be one of those devastating cards? Always be ready for the worst possible spell, and try to predict the likeliness of this happening. It keeps your mind busy and will ensure you won’t facepalm when one of these cards inevitably rears its ugly head and crushes you.

Probabilities and guesswork are fine and all, but sometimes opponents will give you straight up answers by simply asking you questions. I’m sure you know where I am going. Even the most seasoned players will do it, too. An opponent on White Weenie who asks you how many cards you have in hand spontaneously after drawing his card for the turn, runs a much higher risk of having a Balance in hand. Very often, “How many cards in hand?” usually reveals your opponent has either a potentially annoying artifact (Black Vise, The Rack) or game-changing spell (Mind Twist, Winds of Change, Wheel of Fortune, Balance, Timetwister) in hand. Picture this. You are holding a pair of lands. You randomly ask your opponent how many cards they have in hand. They think you might have Balance, so they hesitate but still cast Eureka and keep a creature in hand so they don’t commit too much. You face a single beater instead of a pair for a few turns. Simply asking the question might have given you enough time to live, and maybe even turn the game entirely in your favor.

If playing The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Ankh of Mishra or Nether Void is for you pleasure at its zenith, that’s perfectly fine. Again, to each his own. While I don’t mind playing against something like Stasis, which I see as an interesting puzzle that needs solving, I will always concede the subgame if someone casts Sheherazade. This is personal. I know deep down I should try to win the secondary game to show the caster of that aberration the error of their ways, but I just don’t. Now, some people hate Serendib Efreet because the creature is just “too good.” Same goes for Mishra’s Factory, “It does too much.” If you don’t like these cards, play cards against them specifically. Include Red Elemental Blasts in your deck. Play a full set of Crumbles. Maindeck a Spinal Villain or 4. Be proactive, not whiny.

In the end, if your idea of fun is to destroy all my lands one by one with Stone Rains and Sinkholes, I respect you. I do, indeed, because you went through the painstaking process of acquiring all the cards to play this deck you’re shuffling for a reason. Maybe you have memories of a distant past where you would gleefully crush a manabase on a picnic table in the schoolyard. Who am I to tell you your deck is boring? If your thing is to lock the board with Kismet and Stasis, again, more power to you. While your idea of fun and mine are light years apart, I am happy to have a player in front of me sharing the same love for the game.

Next time your opponent picks off your lands one by one with this combo be zen. Smile and remember that your slight touch of annoyance is outweighed by the delight your enemy experiences as he sees his deck work the way it should.

There is a 93/94 tournament a few hours away from my place this weekend. I’ll be attending and will post a report on it hopefully next week, but it looks like lots of mages from the area will be there. I don’t really know what to expect, to be honest, but I know I’ll be playing a “fun” pile for sure.