I like playing magic: the gathering and more importantly building decks that most people would shy away from. Generally, in my playgroup we have five players and play 5-way free-for-alls pretty much exclusive. So in our group each one of seems to display our own individual play styles. I would bet most groups probably break down to have similar character. The players are kevin the shock killer, nusret the steady ready battler, eugene the cunning mongoose, jen the reckless, and me i’m the snowballer.
Kevin the Shocker
Strategy
Basically, kevin’s decks work on a simple premise, “Kill them big, but don’t let them see it coming”. He is always was backed up by cards that suddenly cause a damage explosion (e.g. vicious shadows, notorious throng, corrupt, etc.).
Success rate
This shocker strategy often leads to streaky totals. As far winning or loosing if the shocker is goes untouched early he will have enough weapons at his disposal to kill the entire table at once. This is where all the wins come from and usually wins come strung together as we usually overlook this player early until its too late. The downfall of this is that eventually everyone will be tired of getting sucker punched, and will start killing the shocker player before he even gets close or bringing his life low enough where it would be difficult to comeback.
Originality
The originality spectrum in Kevin’s deck ranges greatly sometimes he will show up with the same boring old soldier deck everyone is used to seeing, and next week he will hit you a new creative way to use a clearly powerful card. However, as far as being the most original he usually isn’t because he wouldn’t always use cards that lack the necessary power level.
In traditional magic terms kevin is a mix between Johnny, and Timmy, if you ask me anyway.
Nusret the Steady Ready Battler
Strategy
As crazy as this sounds, I sometimes think that nus’ strategy is actually to have a counter to every action you are going to take. His style is very reactive, to what you are attempting to do, and if you decide to do nothing he spices it up with enough pro-active power cards to make you shiver.
Success Rate
This strategy seems to enjoy a very high success rate in our group. Why? beats me. It’s kind of like no one ever wants to hit him early. The only time that early in the game nusret faces alot of adversity is when he has absolutely nothing, then people hit him before he becomes a serious pain. Overall, nusret is probably has the highest win percentage in our group.
Originality
In this department nusret doesn’t usually excel because his decks are reactive and which cards he uses are determine by what cards others are playing. While the end result may not be like many other decks around, the themes of the decks don’t usually stray from a stereotypical battle decks. When nusret does create decks that aim at originality sometimes they border and flat-out silly mess. There is a difference there a silly deck works so hard to be original that it creates a extremely ridiculous way of winning, and usually becomes ineffective as a result, it if was effective it would not be silly it would just be ingenious.
Eugene the cunning Mongoose
Strategy
Eugene’s strategy is the simplest and most straight-forward of the bunch. He strategy is good’ol survival. Yep, that’s it make it to the last 2. His decks usually feature protection cards, and cards that buy you an extra turn or two. Usually, you don’t want to be left as the last player on the table with the mongoose. If you are the last player with the mongoose it usually means he didn’t use much of his survival cards to get there. Why? because early in the game often he looks weak and since his strategy is straightforward he gets left alone. Then the end of the game comes and you find yourself 1-on-1 with a guy who will kill you slowly and painfully.
Success Rate
Does he win alot? Eugene started out with a much higher win rate than he has been having lately. At first, we were not saavy to his strategy and so he was piling up some wins. However, at this point due to a lack of rotation in his decks and a familiarity with his strategy his wins have become fewer and farther between.
Originality
Not much. Just play’s power cards he likes. However, in his defense he does not make as many decks as the rest of us, and so this category is rather unfair towards him.
Jen the Reckless
Strategy
Kill, Maim, Kill! Seriously, she likes to come out swinging. Usually the reason someone dies nice and early, or the reason everyone has gotten hurt. It ends up working out that she usually runs out of steam but does little mid-game and then finishes with a strong late-game push again.
Success Rate
Surprisingly, somewhat high not as high as nusret but she usually mops up games that comes down to one player breaking a triangle is favor of one of their opponents.
Originality
none. Only has 2 decks and usually plays with everyone else’s decks, however, just like eugene before this category really doesn’t apply to her. Since she isn’t really a deck-builder and much more of just a player.
Eli the snowballer
Strategy
My strategy is to try and do something so viciously that it becomes unstoppable. It parallels kevin’s strategy except that my attacks can be seen coming from a mile away. I basically let you see what i’m doing and i dare you to stop it.
Success Rate
Admittedly, my success rate is not the best. When people see it coming they tend to retaliate, who would have thought people wouldn’t just sit there and die quietly. However, the victorious i do get i feel are well-worth all the loses since they usually are the result of some long-winded plans executing the way intended it to.
Originality
I like to believe that my decks are the most original. However, I think I am biased and so i will stop discussing this area of my magic game.
Alright so this is my magic playgroup. Hopefully, as we gather to play i will post-up deck-lists and game summaries of how things went. I’m tired of typing now.
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