Is Vintage fun?

[netherspirit]

I chose no...

I love the format usually, but I hate the state it's currently in.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Hell yes vintage is fun!

I think people get burnt out too quickly. It happened to me for a time. I would test like every deck 5 hours a day and do nothing else. During that time, I got burnt out so badly I almost quit. I left it alone for awhile, enjoyed life, and when I came back, it was just as fun as it had ever been.

Don't take it to seriously. I always have a good time when I playtest with friends or go to a tournament. I think when people get the idea that they need to prove themselves by doing well at a tourney or by creating a new deck they get stressed out and it no longer becomes fun.

Relax. Magic is a game. It's suppose to be fun. If it's not, take a step back.

[ErkBek]

Vintage is awesome. If you aren't enjoying it, why are you playing it? Take some time off and come back later.

I took a 2 month break because it was getting a little stale (and 0 tournaments). I'm back to playing 1-2 times a week again and its been great. 

[jcb193]

1.)
I stopped playing competitive Vintage a few years ago, but still play socially with friends.  We've found multiplayer 100 card highlander to be the most fun.  You get the feel of vintage, win in a different way each time, it's slower, and with all the cards, interactions are not predictable.

2.) Question for the community:

Do you think that 10 proxy tournaments have actually hurt vintage?  It is possible to theorize that since most vintage collections are not complete, people would have to play what cards they have- hence variety.  It might lead to $=wins, but also more variety, better hate decks, and more diversity. 

With 10 proxy tournaments, I think Vintage is close to being optimized.  Decks might get better, but marginally. 

[Implacable]

With 10 proxy tournaments, I think Vintage is close to being optimized.  Decks might get better, but marginally. 

No, it is not.  It just isn't.  This has been said many times; if Vintage became a professional format, the Pros would break it in half.  That's fine.  Just don't think that we've even come near to tapping this formats potential.

[unknown.root]

It's because he plays stax and won't play the fun decks, like combo. 

Come on becker, you know that I love your combo decks. Belcher IS and WILL always be my favorite deck to play.
However if I want to win, or too mindfucked I play stax based off my ability to handle the deck.

Like Becker i've taken a sudo break, only playing in 2-3 tournaments in months and very little testing.
I may return to the game a bit more later on, but like I've said before it's just a stupid game with expensive cards.
I also work in a card shop so i'm around the shit, might as well play and keep up with it.

Then there is time, I have a hot young girlfriend i need to break in before playing cards.

Life > Magic right now

[Imzakhor]

I chose no. The telling fact is that on a Vintage site, more than a quarter respondents chose 'no'.

Some things need to change for Vintage to feel like it used to. I know it can, too.

[mogote]

2.) Question for the community:

Do you think that 10 proxy tournaments have actually hurt vintage?  It is possible to theorize that since most vintage collections are not complete, people would have to play what cards they have- hence variety.  It might lead to $=wins, but also more variety, better hate decks, and more diversity.

To give you an idea what might happen without proxies:
In Germany you have almost only sanctioned Vintage events. So what happened? Tournament attendance is much lower than it used to be with now 20-30 players being a good turnout for the "big" tournaments.
It seems that most unpowered players switched to Legacy where you don't have to rely on hate or budget decks to at least stand a chance against the powered players. For Legacy there are several regular tournaments with 50+ players each month (sometimes approaching 100 players). Also, the prices of the P9 have dropped noticeably since less people play Vintage.

[Liek]

I started playing Vintage because I wanted to constantly have a constructed format to play. I play Magic way more than I should, and I can't stand Sealed deck events, and "sealed season" happens to exist roughly one half of the time. One particular sealed season I decided I needed some other form of magic to think about, and there was a weekly vintage tournament that just started allowing proxies. Armed with a terrible, awful, miserable uw fish deck with proxied flying men (for one week only, those guys got cut immediately,) I played as much as possible out of a desire to win and get better at something new (to me.)

It took about a year of playing to win enough to have a deck with zero proxies, and it's been fun all the while. Even though I still play a terrible fish deck, it has changed and grown since I started probably a dozen times. Whenever something in the format changes (flame fusillade gifts, or recently empty the warrens,) instead of giving up and playing a real deck, I keep playing Fish and keep making changes to figure out how I can still play all of my favorite cards.

To me, Vintage is entirely about having fun. If I took it as seriously as I do other formats, obviously I would stop playing Aether Vial and start playing Mana Drain. But I see no reason to take Vintage too seriously, mainly because there aren't enough events to justify devoting serious time to it, and secondly because it would remove most of the fun.