Power Level Discussion is a Symptom

“Magictating” is defined as getting into the zone with your Magic the Gathering collection--thinking, planning, organizing, reminiscing about past games, and imagining future games. It is a combination of hard thinking about the game and calm meditation, reveling in the joy it brings you.

If you want this article’s point in a single sentence: Power level conversations are a waste as they are treating the symptoms and not the cause; we need to fix the lack of having a regular play group rather than simply attempting to abate the symptoms of not having one.

Crackle with Power - Micah Epstein

Power level talk. Let’s bore everyone with another discussion about how power level conversations will help fix our non-regular play-group problems. I have to say the reason we need these power level conversations is that we don’t have regular play groups. We are treating the symptoms and not the cause. The cause of casual EDH/Commander woes is not power-level mismatching or deck pricing or even whacky house rules. The real root cause of people’s issues with having a good time while playing the best Magic format ever is simply the lack of a regular play group. So, what’s the solution to this power-level conversation? Is it having good conversations about our decks? Is it sharing deck lists? Is it discussing in-depth goals for our games? All of those things are decent ways to treat the symptoms of not having a regular play group. Yet, they don’t solve the issue at hand. These “solutions” don’t create a regular play group. Let’s look at ways to develop a regular play group.

Tablet of the Guilds - Nic Klein

Create a league at your local store (or join an existing one). Set the parameters and put it all in writing. Let every person planning on joining know ahead of time so they’ll know all about the group’s goals. I’ve seen points-sheets, rewards and achievements, and custom banned lists. Any of these can be just fine, but ultimately they all achieve the same goal: a physical copy of your intended social contract. The league lays out what types of motivations people should have when they arrive, and lets others know what types of plays are rewarded by the group. This is a great way to design a play group. You basically set out to build a group of people to play Commander the way most of you want to play it. This essentially precludes the possibility of sitting down to a four player pod and finding yourself carrying your sweet battle-cruiser deck down into an arena filled with cEDH sharks. That’s a scenario that’s often more than a little frustrating; no one likes “playing” a game where the most they’ve done is play lands and pass. The league and its physical creation of a social contract to govern it allows a play group to begin growing rather quickly.

While growing a play group at your L.G.S. (local game store) can be a great start, there are those that just can’t do that. Whatever the reason, there’s other ways to build a playgroup. Ask around your job, school, or other recreational areas. Look for peers, and if you can’t find any of those, then look for mentors and perhaps they can help connect you with mentors. I must confess, in my early years, that I did not truly have a Magic mentor. I had peers, and I was lucky enough that we had a regular group. If we weren’t playing Dungeons and Dragons, then we were playing Magic. Lots of games of multiplayer, and twice as many sneaky alliances. These were the days of sixty card multiplayer, but it was similar in many ways to what we have today in Commander. None of us had more than one deck. We each had a deck, and we kept developing it over time. It felt remarkably similar to how people feel today when they are building their favorite Commander deck. The beauty of my early play group was that we were all on fairly equal ground. A few of us had more expensive cards than the others, but that often made those of us with the pricey decks more of a target. That’s more than fair. The point being that having a group of peers to play with helps shape your deck building and by extension what your playgroup looks like.

Show and Tell - Zack Stella

The playgroup you want is actually not that difficult to build. It might require you to invest in buying extra pre-cons and introducing your current group of friends to the greatest game ever made. It might involve expanding your current group of friends or perhaps find brand new friends altogether. That’s actually really exciting. Sure, you might think it’s more of a nervous feeling, but last time I checked, the hormones our bodies put out for nervousness and excitement are the same…so our interpretation is really the key. Perhaps you can compromise and just be nervouscited?

If you’re feeling overly nervous, then I’d like to give you some tips about how to overcome such a feeling. Chat with other people about Magic. If you’re in a store or a comic shop or even a club, then ask people about their favorite formats. Often this can lead to a natural progression of deck types, cards, and even favorite plays. Remember that conversation is a two-sided experience and pay careful attention to what people are telling you. This will let you know if these are people you want to try developing a regular play group with. Similarities are important. You want to seek people that will share your love of the Commander/EDH format, but that doesn’t mean you have to love playing the same types of decks. Sure, you’re a power-gamer and love dropping beefy creatures, but that doesn’t mean you have to look for others that want to do the same thing. The fun of play can be emphasized by the different play styles. Having a control player, a combo player, a power-gamer, and a mid-ranger all diving into a game together can make for some truly swingy moments. It doesn’t always work out for the combo player, and nor does it always shine for the control player. The goal is to have people that play in a way that feels fun and friendly to all those involved.

Training Grounds - James Ryman

Part of having fun is to socialize. So, how do you do that? Well, you get a time machine and go back and change your personality…no I’m only kidding. I’ve already covered a few of the easy talking points to actually socializing with others. Start by finding common ground concerning Magic experiences. I would suggest starting at the beginning—like when you started playing. Discuss formats you’ve enjoyed. Share what your favorite Commander decks you own, want to build, or have played against. Ask people about theirs. Seriously, these are easy talking points. You don’t have to ask them to rank, rate, and explain what their power levels and price points and specific criteria for rating might be. Additionally, I wouldn’t necessarily lead with something like which political party they most closely affiliate with and why. Or the ever popular, “How do you feel about hot button issues in the media and what’s your opinion about media sources?” I am not saying you can’t eventually lead into talking about things like this, but I tend to play Magic as an escape from the world. I don’t play it to make political statements, affiliate myself with ideologies, or otherwise promote anything non-magical. Heck, I just want to play fun games with my buddies, and the one thing that has drawn all of my playgroup together has been Magic itself. The elements that have helped form my regular play group are things like playstyles, goals, and free time.

Free time is probably one of the most prominent factors that draws a group together. It is rather hard to plan a gaming session with people that don’t share the same free time. We tend to play with the people we can actually play with. When you’re younger and have fewer responsibilities it can be easier in some ways to find people with similar “time off”, like when you’re in high school or even college. Having the same breaks and days off makes for easy planning. Heck, pick-up games were easy to have in college. Just walking past the study lounge you could see if people were free to play or not. Games could be going on at literally any time—like say 2am to 6am? Meanwhile, as an adult, I find that I haven’t played past midnight in quite some time. My point is that you can more easily be drawn to those that have similar time off. This can work out great, but not always. There are times we try to play now, and a few of us don’t share the same time off. Our days off don’t always line up, and so it’s harder to plan time to play. When you add in the competing desires (well, it’s not much of a competition because time with kids always wins) you end up having an even harder time lining up your time off with your buddies to plan some games. I have found that there are two ways to successfully deal with this. Saying you’ll play again soon, or desiring playing again soon are things we all think, but perhaps we don’t always manage to execute. It can be very difficult to make things happen, but again, there are ways to make it easier.

Strategic Planning - Zhang Jiazhen

One way to keep your established, or soon to be established, playgroup together is to plan regular days. Rather than be overly ambitious I encourage you to all chat about when and where to play when you’re all already exhausted from a full week of work. Seriously, plan to make plans when you’re all stressed, exhausted, and worn out in general. That should help to keep over enthusiasm at bay. Now, when you plan your Magic gathering you can more easily make plans all of you can keep. By agreeing on a regular play day, say Monday night Magic, then you can all agree that on Monday nights you’ll play for a few hours that evening. Perhaps it’s only the first Monday of the month, and then from there you might expand. Perhaps add the second Tuesday? Or maybe you add the last Friday? Perhaps you all decide you would like to go to FNM once a month and that way you can start making your regular play group a real life regular occurrence. That’s the way to end up being a bit more regular, because no one wants to suffer from magical incontinence.  May your gaming groups and the cards be ever in your favor!