Psuedo Newb and the International Community

Well, for the last two days on facebook ( which has my real name) and Twitter (which also has my real name) I've been involved in conversations with two magic players, one competitive and currently really worried about the changes in Organized Play(OP) and the other one someone who misssed Magic and was thinking about playing again so I sent him a kind of "You really should!" tweet.

Oddly one player was I think from Norway and the other from Sweden.

Talking to them I realized two things ( as I pack up my magic cards to go up to my family's Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma's). One, I really, really do like magic as a fun game just to play and wish it was more like mille bourne or uno where you could just break out a set of duel decks and play with anyone. Two, talking to the pro player the new Organized Play changes really do cut off smaller countries from competing at the same level as the US, but the US has coverage issues too. Gaming stores are pretty much where OP happens and if you live someplace without a gaming store or if you are not someone who has good players at the store there seems to be a serious gap in your acess to the game.

The Norway player thinks we should learn slang, strategy and rules from "our community" but I think that assumes there is a functional, voluntary, organic community to be learning from.

Now I am a grown woman walking into an FNM and I'm not a "natural" person for teenage boy and young 20-something men to want to explain insider information to. I can ask, but I promise you I will not be approached. Which means I have to ask. Some people just won't. Or be embarrased.

That's why thinking hard about it I realize that Magic OP really needs something more like a coaching system that feeds up into Pro Tour just like regular sports have. There are little leagues, chess clubs, bridge tournaments that have organized teams that are not money.

The new rules clarifications and strategies are more complex but in a way that's good, however things like timing and how to read a board state would be better learned with a real coach - the way a coach helps you with your golf swing.

I just gave out the link to this blog for the first time - it's really still just my journal of myself as a competitve player and a sort of diary of how I feel in competition - so it's long and wordy and wandery - I'm not sure if I'll do things differently now that I've let it out but it's still basically the way I break down thoughts and feelings and strengths and weaknesses to become a competitor.

It's a tool I learned to use in order be a better debator - if it sounds negative or down it doesn't necessarily mean I'm not enjoying myself, or that the game isn't fun, it means I'm using the game for something else while I'm having fun.

I taught my neice and nephew last time I was out at my mother's. I taught my brother-in-law so he could play with his son. The Boy's Girl will be up and hopefully play this weekend too.

Super casual - just a family game like trivial pursuit. Magic is fun like that too : )

But for the OP I wanna coach : P