Multi-Player type matches are a completely different animal than any other format in Magic. There are lots of little nuances about the format that makes me believe that it can be viewed as one of the purest forms of Magic, along with being one of the most diluted.
The reason why I can believe that it's the former is that you get to social the most. Now, as a human being who likes to talk to people, this makes me happy. Let's get a little more to the point of this article and a bit more down and dirty.
In tonight's gaming session, we played 2 EDH matches, both of which were both frustrating, in my opinion. A lot of decisions are based decisions from the heart and not the state of the game. At one point in the evening I was at 36 life. I had Horn of Greed, Rites of Flourishing, and some other stuff. Sitting in a more defensive position. Another player was at 40 with not much on the board and another player at 29(ish). My opponent is playing Zur and in a intriguing turn of events, uses Zur to grab Unspeakable Symbol and then swings into a different opponent, he pumps Zur the Enchanter into the sky and goes down to 3 life....this is where is gets weird, he then plays Reverse the Sands.....Yeah, I had to read it too. While a applaud my opponent for a deck design you would not normally see (spending life then switching life totals), he did change my life total to 3, essentially ending my game (my opponent to my left kept flashing me burn spells to keep me in check).
This is where I think that a multi-player format is bad for Magic. You don't get the calculated plays you might get in a one on one match up. Instead, you have players thinking "Golly gee, he beat me with this deck 3 weeks ago, so I have to take him out" or a favorite one of our gamers: "He swung at me last time (even if that meant 3 games ago) so I'm coming in at him again."
Yeah, my thoughts exactly.
So here I am, sitting with a few losses under my belt and this causes me to pull out some more powerful decks in the next couple of matches because, hey, I feel picked on. This then prompts one of our gamers to whine about how we always pull out these decks that are insanely hard to beat, and the cycle continues.
By the way, Time Sieve is an awesome way to show players how dumb Magic can be.
Until next time!
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