Breaking The Habit

People are creatures of habit.  We do what we know and we take a certain amount of comfort in the routine, relying on that routine to add a certain level of certainty to our lives.  When that lends to our comfort and ability to function in the world and deal with others in a beneficial and cooperative fashion its a good thing.  When it stifles our creativity and prevents us from enjoying and reveling in the unexpected it isn't  That's true whether its our careers, our relationships and even our games.  Breaking habits and trying new things can lead to unexpected pleasures, new outlooks, and a wider set of experiences.  That's true when we play MTG as well as in the other aspects of our lives.



When we play MTG we do the same things that we do in the rest of our lives.  We fall into ruts, we get tunnel vision, and we become in the end, a type of player. In fact, there is enough truth to that statement to lend credence to the the player archetypes known as Timmy, Johnny and spike.  For those of you who don't  regularly read the articles on the official WotC Daily MTG site, those player profiles were best defined in an article by Mark Rosewater back in 2002 aptly titled Timmy, Johnny and Spike.  Timmy the power gamer, Johnny the creative deck designer, and Spike the ultra-competitive player aren't just philosophical constructs, they're real enough and dependable enough that they are an integral part of game design.  There's even hybrid gamer types like Timmy/Spike and Johnny/Timmy.  The point is that MTG players are like anyone else, we do what we know and we take some measure of comfort of being able to have an expectation about how things are going to turn out.

That caveat is evident in how we build our decks, what colors or color combinations we play, and even in the way we play those decks.  A good example of that is the card Evolving Winds.  I regularly see people play the card on their own turn and then wait until one of the phases on their opponent's turn, typically the second main phase, to sac it and look for a basic land.  That might make sense on turn one when you can hold off on your opponent knowing what color you're going to play, but later in the game, when your opponent knows very well what colors you're playing it smacks more of habit than strategy.  I've heard veteran players derisively commenting that casual players who do this "just want to look pro".  They're not saying in the good way either.


I'm not suggesting that we throw all habit out the window here, after all, having reasonable expectations is one of the ways in which we make sense of the world around us and how we move through life with some sense of confidence.  When our habits go from functional to hidebound, well, that's where they become a hindrance instead of a help.  I'm as guilty of this as anyone else, so please no comments about being on a soapbox.  Recently, though, I've been trying to take the road less traveled a little more often and break some of my own hidebound habits.


I have to thank MTG online for giving me the opportunity to do this.  One of the main differences between the digital version of the game and the paper version is that once I have digital card I can use it in as many decks as I want where its legal.  That means that I never need more than four copies of any non-basic land card (save the obvious Relentless Rats).  On its face that sounds cool but not epic, unless you consider the impact that cost has for most of us casual players.  Like most casual players, I have to balance my card wishlist against my financial responsibilities.  Every card is a finite resource that can only be in one deck at one time.  As a result when I decide which card goes to which deck I have to ask myself whether I want to place it in a deck that is not necessarily one I want to play, or whether I use it to empower a deck I like instead.


With that decision removed in MTG Online, I have found myself with the freedom to build any number of decks that I would not usually waste my time or my resources on in the paper world.  Normally I tend to play creature-centric decks, often mono colored, rarely more than two color, and I love the big beat down.  I gravitate to black or green and I have an obsession wit artifacts.  Yes, anything Mirrodin is all good with me.  Probably that is an outgrowth of my personality which is blunt, straightforward, and very much what-you-see-is-what-you-get.  That is the polite way of saying that I often lack that self editing feature that knows the difference between saying what I think and saying what I should and being able to know when which one is appropriate.


The point of all this is that suddenly I find myself playing around with control decks, five color decks and burn decks, all versions I rarely to never play with in the real world.  That is not to say that suddenly I'm tearing apart all my paper decks and starting all over.  Rather, it means that I am gaining a better understanding of deck types that I rarely play myself but will have to play against at some point.  A better understanding of how to play those decks leads to a better understanding of how to defend against them and what tactics I might expect from my opponents.  Where I might once have seen my opponent start to roll out the Cancels and Unsummons, or Lightning Bolts and Blightnings and thought well I'm toast, now I start formulating my defense so I can win instead.


Winning is far from the most important thing.  Don't get me wrong, I love to win as much as the next player, but in the end its the enjoyment of playing the game that means the most.  Opening my eyes to new ways to thinking about the game and how I play has reinvigorated my play and enhanced my enjoyment.  If you enjoy the game for its mental workout, it unpredictability, and its sheer breadth and scope, then consider traveling down that road you might normally have passed by.  I can't promise you'll find the same things that I have, but I can say with some amount of certainty that you will find something interesting, and new, and probably completely unexpected.