The Winner's Circle

This past Saturday I entered a Magic tournament with a “Type 2” deck made to completely ruin what is popular at the venue. The top spot was 3 boxes of the latest expansion, Guildpact (almost $300).

After making Top 2, and under immense pressure to leave from my friends worried about the storm and my wife who wanted to go hang out with our friends in town, I was prepared to split the prize…but only in my favor.

He held out his hand. “Split?” He says.

“Depends on the split,” I say, and he withdraws his hand.

“What do you mean?”

“Dude, Jefferson,” I say, “my deck will destroy your deck. I’ll give you a box just so I can get out of here. You take 1 box, I take the other two, we all leave happy.”

He mulled it over, repeated the offer to himself, then shook my hand. The deal was done.

This, as you could imagine, didn’t go down well with his friends. But it was the truth—the boy had very little chance of beating my ‘meta’ deck. A deck that was made specifically to beat certain types of other decks, those that were being played that Saturday.

Next thing I know I’m hearing cussing and bitching and moaning and you know what? I don’t care. They were the top dogs at the store and I show up for the first time in months and pound them into the pavement. They needed a little dose of humility.

They were pissed because I offered the one box as ‘charity’, as if they ‘couldn’t beat my deck.’ And they couldn’t. That’s a bold statement (in Magic you can get resource screwed no matter how good your deck is and just get ran over), but it was true: I had beat every other good player in the room, and I had just beaten who I had considered the best player in the store other than myself.

It’s interesting to me how others cope with losses and status and defeat. Jefferson, the player in question, was cool with the split. He had seen my deck demolish his friends. But some of his friends—notably the pricks who weren’t even playing—were pissed off and wanted to fight it off fair and square. This sort of pride mentality runs rampant and geeks are no stranger to their effects. I mean, everyone loves a good fight, right? Even if its on a tabletop between two good players.

The problem was that there was no 2nd place prize. I liked Jefferson, he was a good Magic player, and I didn’t want to send him (and his teammates) home with nothing. So there you are.

Me? I can’t wait to show up for the next time and see how many players copied my decklist. It will prove to be interesting, I’m sure.

I turn my camera on
I cut my fingers on the way