Do you enjoy playing T1?

[Smmenen]

I agree Rich. Stephen's statement is insulting to me as well. To say that *I* don't enjoy or support the format is strong. It goes beyond being controversal to get attention. Some people don't realize the luxeries they have until they lose them.

It seems like I can't say anything but that someone, somewhere is insulted.  

I'm just going to apologize ahead of time for everything I say ever becuase I Know that someone is going to find it insulting.  That out of the way, thanks for the replies and keep them coming!

[Milton]

My personal enjoyment of the format is at an all-time low.

I've been around for a long, long time.  I remember the old BD days.  We were trying to maintain an all but dead format.  Type I was a joke.  We were laughed at in the convention halls by the Type II players.  We were all but forgotten by the DCI and Wizards.  We were on the brink of fading away.

So we came together.  BD was a place for us to exchange ideas, to be a community.  The goal was simple: keep the format alive.  We did.  The goal then shifted: get the format to grow to respectability.  We accomplished that also.  TMD and BD were crucial in accomplishing those goals.  I remember going to tournaments and seeing some rando playing bad Megrim deck and telling him to check TMD for some ideas.  The next month he was a much better player with a much better deck.   A year later he was making the top eight and winning tournaments.  Remember those days?

We were united, despite our harmless bickering, to make the format better.  And the format got much better.

Presently, though I'm upset with the format for two reasons:

1) Interaction is at an all time low.  I like reactive-control decks.  Phid, EBA and Keeper were all great decks to play.  Now, you play proactive-combo decks or combo-control decks.  Matches are either really long (combo-control playing against combo-control) or really short (proactive combo against an unsuspecting opponent).  To me, that's not very fun.  Others, though, really enjoy the current meta.  I suppose the lack of interaction depends on your perspective and, of course, we can't bring back the good ol days (assuming such days were actually good).

2) My biggest dissapointment is that our format has shifted to a new level of haves and have-nots.  This is going to be hard to explain, and I might fail, but I feel as though the community is greatly fractured.  We have a select few that are "in the loop", assuming there is such a loop, and others that are not.  I feel as though I am out of the loop in almost every respect.  The group that is "in the loop" is on a team, has playtest partners, has good information, has money and has access to good cards.  

Those that are not "in the loop" have no playtest partners or team or good information.  They check TMD daily and may goldfish on a regular basis, tinkering with their decks, but they cannot keep up with the rampant shifts in the metagame.  They cannot keep up because they have jobs or families or other committments that make it difficult to stay competitive.  In the past these people could log on to BD or TMD and stay up-to-date.  That's impossible now, for whatever reason.  In fact, TMD has made it even harder for guys "out of the loop" to remain competitive.  This site is great for beginers, and great for those who are "in the loop", but not great for those trying to keep their heads above water.

I'm not trying to lay blame.  I'm not saying that people who work hard to develop decks and build teams shouldn't be rewarded with victory.  What I am saying, though, is that with the present state of the format, why the hell should I travel 6 hours to Chicago?

[CrazyCarl]

I've been on TMD ever since Steve started the site so many years ago.  Like Milton, I've seen a lot.  I've been through FoF, TnT, GAT, Long, etc, etc.  Things are much more balanced and stable as of late than ever before.  Honestly, when I hear people bitch about interactivity, I want to just toss old GAT together and rip them a new one.  Ok, not really, but come on people, the format is legit now!  We have a predictable metagame, prize support, player base and the community needed to keep us afloat.  That's why I like Vintage more than other formats: The community.

The past few months/year or so I've felt differently about TMD.  Why?  The sense of community I enjoyed way back when is gone.  Yeah, there is a community and it's cool and all, but I miss the days when I knew who EVERYONE was at every event I went to and everyone on the site.  We're missing out on the old awesomes like PsychoCid, jazzi, Joel Rojo, etc.  I'll cope though because I know that the community has more or less fractured a bit to where regional communities have been able to develop because of the growth of the format.

Anyways, as for tournaments:  Whenever Ted or someone else IMs me and is like "Come to Virginia/Chicago/Zimbabwe" I get kind of sad.  I'd LOVE to go, but I can't justify spending the money on it.  My limit is somewhere around 150 or 200, cuz like, I could spend more, but with the increased number of events as of late, yeah I'll miss one, but in a month or two there will be one that's more reasonable to attend.  If you read my report from the SCG P9 event that I played in you'll see I had a good time, but the trip was fucking terrible.  That just isn't worth it for a one day event.  With Waterbury becoming a mini-convention the attendance will go way up.  I love seeing the people I've become such good friends with over the years, but there are times where it's unreasonable to make an 8-10 hour trip just to hang out and play some Magic.  I prefer to wait until events such as Waterbury or a giant con like GenCon to make those long trips.

I say if you can make it to events that are over 200 miles away from you: Awesome!  I'm guilty enough of spending too much at times on Magic, so it's not like I'm going to be like "OMG YOU'RE SPENDING SO MUCH ON THIS TRIP!!!", and winning at these events used to be much more important.  Winning is still a priority, but even if I don't win if the group of people around me are fun and awesome, the trip is worthwhile.

That said, hope to see lots of you at SCG V

[bedafile]

I'm glad someone brought up this topic, because I've been thinking about it for a while.

I'm a bit confused about the number of Type 1 celebrities who are not willing to participate in a major event like the upcoming SCG Syracuse tournament, and the number of those who boldly say, no I really don't like T1, or I'm not interested right now.

This is a great time for the format I love the most. Major events at least once a month, awesome prizes, the best block (Mirrodin) since Urza's for type one; major events are like an NBA all star game to me; innovators and great players are my opponents. As Steve implied, this is the most freedom and potential rewards we've been given as a format and it's time to create our destiny.

Maybe it's time for the founding father's to fade away into marriage and careers and obscurity and have a younger generation with a vibrant and healthy attitude take over T1?

Let's get serious about playing, teams and testing: On Fridays I play T2 with some Brooklyn locals, many who have 1800+ constructed ratings. These guys have people watch them and take notes on how they play, and they confer with on the complexities of their moves after the match. Having played at the last Waterbury I saw almost no players this serious about T1. Is T1 then a casual format? Are some players playing a casual game with serious cards? I would love to form or be a member of a serious team, however I just moved to NYC a few months ago from Milwaukee and have yet to meet enough T1 players to form a team.

Also I would like to comment about some choices about the SCG series. Why only 5 proxy? This restricts quite a few players in meta where fish is no longer competitive. Locations? Virginia, Syracuse? Who picked these locations and why? I could understand Chicago since both Chicago and Milwaukee can support a healthy T1 community.  

Overall I'm a little disappointed in how many people claim to not be interested in type 1 but by lurking or replying quickly to a new thread like this one I would think otherwise.

Innovate, test and enjoy people!

[Kowal]

The older players are generally disgruntled now because we remember when the format was interactive.

The locations were picked by Star City Games.  Virginia because that's where they are, Chicago because that's the center of the midwest, and Syracuse because people were whining about not having SCG tournaments in New England and Pete Hoefling of SCG didn't want to step on Ray's toes by hosting something close to Connecticut.

Why 5 proxy?  Star City makes its money on card sales.  It sucks for them to increase to 10 proxies, because they would lose out on a ton of sales.  People seeing what deck is doing well and buying out the stock of the core cards from it over the course of the day is how SCG can end up wanting to hold more tournaments, despite turnouts of 80-100 for an entire set of the power nine.

[iamfishman]

Do I enjoy playing type one? Comme ci, comme ca. (Toad could translate, but rather than ask I'll tell you that means so-so.)

Do I enjoy going to type one tournaments? Absolutely!!!

Gather around kids, it is story time.

The time in my life when I most enjoyed playing magic, and I assume this is true for many people, is when I first started the game.  I began playing back in revised.  I can remember the rares in the first starter I ever saw(Roc of Kher Ridges, Timber Wolves, Taiga).  I loved playing the game with my friends at school, and have memories of the day Alliances was released.  I walked 3 miles, including 1/2 mile on the off ramp of I-84 to get to my friend Adam's house and open the booster box I bought.  I gave him all my Force of Will's cause blue sucks, and we played for hours, over pizza and rock music.  It wasn't about the game then, it was about everything else.

I graduated high school and began to start playing competitive magic.  Then, I heard about tournaments.  And the first event I heard about, RONCON, was THE tournament in CT.  These tournaments were huge(100 person) events held by Ron Kolbig.  I can't think of the last thing in my life I looked forward to as much as the monthly RONCON events.  I would count the days, I would pack my backpack the night before.  I would resort every card I owned prior to them(only about 2000 cards at the time).  I saved up every cent I owned to make sure that RONCON was the best day of that month.  I talked to Ron a few times at his events, even traded the Balduvian Horde and Helm of Awakening out of my Alliances box to him for an Argivian Archeologist(at the time Horde was the "new" Juzam).  The one thing I notice though, was that Ron always had a smile.  He seemed to love what he was doing.  Even though he wasn't playing magic...he seemed to be giddy with excitement about all that was happening around him.  The players, the atmosphere, the general feel of it all gave him joy that showed in his face all day.

After a few years I started to get good at tournament magic, I playtested all the time and did well in many local tournaments.  One thing was different, though.  I seemed to not like my opponents as much.  Maybe it was their "must-win" attitude, the occasional cheating that was done to me, or maybe the problem was with me.  Maybe I was so consumed with the need to win, that (although I did so fairly) I saw those other players as beneath me and found reasons to not like them.

I can remember Pro Tour New Jersey(Masques block constructed).  I didn't play, but I went to the event and had a terrific time.  
-I watched a 6x9 card torunament!
-I played Hacky Sack with Richard Garfield(no lie)
- I met alot of artists and got my cards signed, including 24 foil forests with different "girl and guy running through the forest" artwork.(Followup...a chain of reactions from this caused me to find myself in an empty train station 50 minutes from home in the rain only to have said girlfriend rescue me...I broke up with her 2 weeks later.)
However, I also started to get discouraged with the people playing the game in general at seeing a number of poor sports, intentional cheats, etc.

Finally, it happened.  On a team with two of the few competitive magic players I got along with, I qualified for the team pro tour.  Pro Tour Boston was a terrific event.

Nope...not for that reason...our team went 1-4-1.  The mathces were the least fun magic matches I can remember.  My opponents were so stuffy and lacked any kindness whatsoever.  Mike Flores didn't stop talking shit about how good his deck was from the moment we sat down(and it was) but it felt good to beat him two games in a row by making my guys unblockable with, of all cards, "demoralize."
Also, I got incredibly sick the last day we were there.

The reason it was great had little to do with playing magic.
I met tons of cool people and played hackysack outside the convention center for 5+ hours on Saturday.
Saturday night I played in the Magic Trivia and had a blast.
I had my bro by my side rooting for me every round.

Grand Prix Philly was the last straw for my competitive magic stint.  I couldn't believe how much money I was spending going to events when the main focus what what I hated: playing competitive magic. (Sidenote: During round 3, I played a certain Insane Carl "the season after fall" and pile shuffled his deck...it was a little light and as a result he got a game loss for having a 38 card deck...I have never let him live it down.)

For about a year prior to this, I started running events at the Courtyard by Marriott.  They were small events, typically 16-40 people events that I usually lost money or broke even on.  Still, there was something about them.  They were fun!

At about the same time as Grand Prix Philly, I started to discover type 1.  It started innocently enough..."hmm...The Mana Drain?"...and grew to..."hmm...what is this Hadley Place?"

My first type one events were in Hadley and New Jersey at Game Masters.  Something was different about these tournaments though.  I think it happened around round two of my first Hadley.  My opponent, smiled and said "good luck"...and I'll be damned...I knew he meant it.  Then, IN THE MIDDLE OF A TURN...get this...he told me a quick one-liner that made me laugh.  I immediately scanned for sarcasm(quote Lisa Simpson) and IT WAS CLEAN.

I grew to really know and enjoy all the players in the Hadley group.  Gradually, the people I knew in the type one community that actually made the game feel like a game again grew as I was on TMD more.

It was then that I decided to make one of my events a type 1.

That first type 1 Waterbury had 40 something people.  Someone from Hadley...played a Battle of Wits deck which I found very amusing.  I remember when Brian Phelon came to the next Waterbury on his birthday and I had a Birthday Hostess Cupcake with a candle presented to him.  I remember watching a sub-sub-sub-sub-game via shararazard(sp?).  I remember asking two people to not come back to Waterbury: Sean Buckley for incredibly unsportsmanlike conductin and attempting to alter match results, and Ted James for cheating.

I remember having a smile on my face, just like the big grin Ron Kolbig always had at RONCONS, because I knew I could make Waterbury a place where Type 1 tournaments could be popular and competitive, but never lose sight of the key points I used to love in the game...fair play, community, and most importantly fun.

I've been absolutely reinvigorated since I started playing type 1 more and since I've run more and more Waterbury events.  I have made so many friends that I absolutely cherish.  I have sooooo many stories and memories that can't be bought with money or traded for time(Adam Bowers channeling me for 2...ask and I'll tell the story).  If Marc is right...and I assume he is...that eventually something will happen to either change type 1, or take me out of it.  In the mean time...if it cost a decent chunk of change, then so be it, I want to finally enjoy the game I have played for 9 years now. I don't want to ask what could have been.  I want to be thrifty here and there so I can do what I love now again for the first time in many years...have fun going to/running magic tournaments.

As a side story, something so circular it will blow your mind happened about a year and a half ago.  I am finishing setting up for a Waterbury about 10 mins before registration starts and guess who comes in.

None other than Ron Kolbig.

It was like Babe Ruth visiting Sammy Sosa...like William Shakespeare meeting Robert Frost...like Euclid meeting Mandlebrot(little math joke there)

I told Ron all about how I used to be in awe of the events he put on...and how he was the inspiration for me running my own tournaments.  He simply smiled modestly.

Ron still comes to Waterbury events to this day.

Am I going somewhere with this...yes.  I commented to Marc Perez in IM that I agree completely with what he said in his post earlier in this thread.  
- Type 1 is not about Welders and Force of Wills.  
- Type 1 is about the people.  
- Type 1 is about friendly team rivalries
- Type 1 is about meandeckers partying with shortbussers despite those rivalries
- Type 1 is about giving people rides, places to stay, and loaning cards and/or money so your buds can be at the tourney as well
- Type 1 is about type 4
- Type 1 is about playing Japanese Invasion Block Draft at 2 AM in the lobby of a hotel and having no idea what the cards do.
- Type 1 is about this    plain and simple.


In conclusion,

Do I love type 1?  Yes...because now I realize again why I first played magic.

Am I going to Syracuse? Absolutely...Pete runs a tight ship and is a great guy...I am glad to support him and although I don't think less of you, or think you can't love type one if you don't go...if IT IS possible for you to go...make sure you do.(Which by the way...please don't ream Steve...he was just really trying to encourage you to go...I think we all now that Steve wasn't implying that you hate type one if you don't go.)

P.S.-I plan on partying the night before and the night after...anyone who is interested...shoot me a PM

[Outlaw]

Do I enjoy T1?  Yes, with everything I have inside of me yes.  I find myself looking up more and more on the drain, becoming more and more involved with everyone.  Lately people are actually knowing who this Outlaw guy is, and its making me happy.  Myself, im just a random guy from a random city in Mass, but some magic players know who I am.  Type 1 has brought my friends and I even closer (TrixR4Kids, Purplehat, Sextiger, Cross, Nataz) and that what it is all about.  

What makes type 1 great?  The people, thats what makes it great.  Yet on the opposite side of the sword, they can also make type 1 bad.  Friends like Kowal, Eastman, Brassman, M.E.T.H.O.D, and everyone else that I have met through magic are what its all about.  

Meeting an idol like Rich Shay makes Type 1 great, having Hi-Val edit a mass of your cards is what makes it great.  Playing in Waterbury and talking to the Man Ray makes it great.  Everything in this makes type 1 great.

Yes I drive to a tourney for the people, and to play competitively.  You'll see this Outlaw with his shades and music not showing emotion, because he loves the people (its true underneath it all   )  I find it awesome that when I state that I am going to a tourney, people are excited to actually meet me.  Type 1 rocks.

[Jacob Orlove]

a bunch of truly awesome stuff. Seriously, go read it again.

Type One is about Ray being THE MAN. Well said, Ray.

[Purple Hat]

I love type one.  it saved me when I was going through a really tough time last year.  That's when I really began becoming serious about playing and discovered the type one community.  The growth of the community in my local area has been awesome.  I've now got a whole bunch of friends that don't go to my school, share an interest with me and are fun and smart and interested in me.

I love the community.  Like alot of people have said I go to tournaments in part because I can have tons of fun hanging out with people, but I also love the fact that If I sit down across from Kowal or Outlaw or MixingMike or Rich Shay we're gonna try like hell to beat each other.  One of us is gonna lose, but that's ok.  I wouldn't have it anyother way.  We compete but be do it in a friendly atmosphere.  I love the competition, but if I had to sit in a room with a bunch of players who were being assholes cus it gave them an edge I think I'd find the outlet for my competative instincts elsewhere.

On another note, having people recognize me at tournaments is awesome.  Having people at waterbury tell me they've wanted to meet me is amazing.

so yeah, I love playing type one and I love being part of the type one community.

Hale

[jpmeyer]

Basically, my interest in Magic has waned over the past year mostly because of Mirrodin block and the subsequent reboot that it's required.  I also felt the same way back during the days of Saga and its reboot through MM.  Right now, I think Type 1 could use a reboot.

There's a line when it comes to the power level of a format.  It sometimes seems that the line is constantly crossed and thus gets pushed forward a little bit more, raising the overall power level of the format.  What I think actually happens is that the line never moves.  Thus, rather than needing to constantly keep amping up the power level of the cards in a format in order to keep up with everything else, the format "snaps" and you have to start all over again.

Usually this isn't a huge problem because you can always wait for Ravager to rotate out, but Type 1 has no rotations.  That's why people are asking for all sorts of different restrictions right now, in order to reboot the power level on the format and thus allow for new cards and decks to be played for reasons other than being complete design abominations.

[Gabethebabe]

Yes

Playing Magic is great. Playing T1 is the greatest.

In my meta it is never boring. We don´t allow proxies which creates a lot more random decks. Random = good. It prevents things from getting boring.

With my family situation (wife, 3 month and 20 months old daughters) there remains very little time, so I spend it on the format I like best and that is also the cheapest to maintain.

If I had more time I would play limited as well. I love pre-releases.

T2 is much too expensive. T2 is like buying a car, T1 like buying a house. Fuck type II.

Extended.. well.. ever since duals rotated out I dropped the format and never looked back.

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

<3 Vintage

[kirdape3]

I much prefer the Premier-level formats.  Don't get me wrong, it's a warm feeling to cast Mana Drain then Will off the next turn for a completely masturabatory fifteen card and two turn boost, but I'd prefer actually getting better at Magic.  Absurdly powerful plays like that don't really make you good at the game - most of the time a trained monkey can win after they just drew half of their deck in a single turn and have another untap phase coming.

Drafting this block is ABSURD.  It's by far the most fun I've had in Magic in a good long time - Mirrodin and Onslaught blocks were actually really annoying to run Limited with.  Standard at this lower level is actually diverse since nobody can just power Ravager through the hate, and Extended is the best format EVER.

While I like the people in Vintage a lot more, playing it is tedious and dull -'oh look, I just mised Will off the top hl' despite the fact that you've been blowing them out in every facet of the game up until that point.

[ELD]

I enjoy competition.  Magic has been my favorate source of competition for many reasons.  Some of my favorate aspects are

The strategy and other skills that go into being a good player.  
The money made by winning moxen/selling cards.  
Tournaments are very available in my area.
The game is differant every time (compared to, for instance, chess).  (ie playing Control Slaver or Deathlong)  

When I play though, I do play for money.  I fully expect to make up for my time whenever I flop cards.  I do not travel to SCG tournaments because they either interfer with my work, or are too far away to make money.  

Well that's all I have time for now.

[Mykeatog]

I love playing Vintage Magic.

I don't play it alot because I really hate it when people cry about lame shit. I hate when people cry about a good top deck. I hate it when people are pissed off at losing on turn 1. Generally; I hate complaining alot and that is what Vintage magic often is... a giant cry-fest.

And for the record-- Stop fucking comparing Vintage to Standard, they are a different game. If you can't handle "broken" then just shut the fuck up and go play something else; please. Guess what... EVERY FUCKING DECK has a Yawgmoth's Will, or Ancestrall Recall, or something else that is broken; if it isn't your taste then they have milder formats for you.

Venting. Sorry. Done.

[CrazyCarl]

After all these awesome replies I realized how awful my post was.  Heh.

The way I see it is this: Vintage is the format where I'm going to play Control Slaver, Meandeath, Stax, Dragon, etc, and I play to win.  Type 1 on the other hand is the format I started playing 5 or so years ago and where I get to cast all sorts of cool cards and hang out with people and just have a great time in general.

I love hanging out with people at Type 1 events.  I've stopped to think on it before and I realize I've met a ridiculous number of people I like to talk to on a fairly regular basis at Type 1 events.  I've met people from all over the place and have learned a lot about people and how they think and interact (psychological magic pwnz).

Then if you take it a step further and I think about how TheManaDrain.com has influenced my life.  It's almost scary.  I have no idea where I'd be if I hadn't joined up.  Before GenCon '03 I was already a well known/respected member of the community, but despite all the controversy, after the first annual Vintage Championships (Blown a bit out of proportion by people who called them the "World" Championships), I was thrust into the limelight.  It's changed my life immensly and for the better I'd like to think.

So yeah, I like Type 1.

[DavidHernandez]

I love type 1.  I find it exciting and challenging. Like many others here, I have a wife, kids, job, and mortgage.  Combined with the lack of available type 1 tourneys (until recently) it was difficult (or impossible) to keep up with the format.

Now that we have a regular T1 that's worth going to (at Dear Mr. Fantazy's) I find that I'm looking forward to playing more than ever.  I even find that I make time to quietly reflect on the cards and their interactions, which can be a lot of fun.

This is a format that requires practice. You can't just disappear for a few months and then come back with an expectation of doing well if you don't study.  If you find the format stagnant, then get bold and build rogue. It's not like you're playing for ratings points. And maybe you'll come up with something surprisingly good.

Dave.

[nataz]

The way I see it is this: Vintage is the format where I'm going to play Control Slaver, Meandeath, Stax, Dragon, etc, and I play to win.  Type 1 on the other hand is the format I started playing 5 or so years ago and where I get to cast all sorts of cool cards and hang out with people and just have a great time in general.

This is interesting for me. I wonder how many of the people that "don't like vintage right now" are people who are just nostalgic for the good ol' days.

I'm new, so for me those days that you had never existed. All I know is right now, and I like it well enough the way it is.

[rozetta]

I love Type 1 and could not honestly see myself really playing any other format right now.

My hunch is that interest generally does wane a little when a new set comes out that really offers nothing new for the format - I think people are feeling that it would be boring to still have the same metagame for the next 3 or 4 months with nothing remarkably new popping up. All magic players are creative and want something to work with every time a new set comes out. So when a set comes out that really doesn't provide at least a few possibly playable cards, it's a real buzz kill. I seem to remember things feeling similar when Legions came out, too.

[virtual]

"I agree Rozetta.

Couple that with a bit of unrest over any lack of changes to the banned/restricted list last time around (whether or not it needed it), the meta has been fairly steady for a few months past, and I don't think people really feel invigorated by months to come without something to make a splash.

-Virtual

[jpmeyer]

"I agree Rozetta.

Couple that with a bit of unrest over any lack of changes to the banned/restricted list last time around (whether or not it needed it), the meta has been fairly steady for a few months past, and I don't think people really feel invigorated by months to come without something to make a splash.

-Virtual

The invigoration thing is part of it with me, but that's in a lot of the formats since Kamigawa block is deliberately underpowered, espescially compared to Mirrodin.

[Mixing Mike]

I play Type I because I like how broken it is. I like it because the assumption that all games end on turn 1 is a lie.

I like going off on turn 1 with some crazy combo deck, I like taking someone’s turn, I like making it so my opponent can't play spells.  The only problem is that they can do it right back to me, but that's okay, because I deserve to take a beating now and then for all the times I've done it to someone else.

I have just about the same attitude as Mykeatog.  If you're going to bitch about losing to something broken or lucky, then get over it.  I know I've done it before, and it even annoys me when I complain.  If you have an issue with any format at anytime, then you can do one of three things;

- Stop playing until that format settles down to something you like.
- Play the broken stuff that you hate so much.
- Make something totally new that beats the broken stuff you hate.

That's enough venting for me.

[Dozer]

I am travelling through Australia right now, 14000 km from home, and I STILL carry my P9-deck around. Plus a second deck box with random good cards and my playables binder. I am on a 20kg baggage allowance for my flights (and half a year of travelling), and I carry my cards with devotion.

I love my cards. Do I love to actually PLAY Type 1?

Yes. It's a real community up-link, wherever I go. Also, my playskills are on a medium level: I don't get to play as much as I would like to (only once a month, maximum). Other priorities take preference... but you know what? In Vintage, it does not matter. The people still like you, even if you make an obvious blunder. People sympathize, much more than in other formats.

Also, powerful plays instead of subtle advantages are so much more satisfying. Instead of gaining inches in a Limited ground clutter, carefully thinking about blocks and possible combat tricks, I love killing Akroma with Powder Keg, or Berserking a Darksteel Colossus, or taking a Giant Will Turn.

Taking an opponent by complete surprise, either by deck design or a completely unexpected card, is another thing that really only comes up in T1 (and to a lesser extent, Extended). The card pool is SO big, you will always find something new or weird or unexpected. I love that, and I only get to see it when I play.

Yes, I love and enjoy playing Vintage!

Dozer