Over the weekend Aaron and I decided to drive down to a big legacy tournament a little farther from home than we normally like to travel. There was great prize support and a lot of people from our LGS were going to be in attendance so we thought it would be fun. I spent the whole week debating what deck to play. I wanted the additional experience with Infect but I didn’t feel like I had enough practice to pilot it for 7-8 rounds yet. So at the last minute I switched to another deck that Aaron had done well with last year and that I enjoyed playing. I felt like I knew the deck well and that it was consistent enough that I would enjoy piloting it again.
It turned out someone who is well known in the New England Legacy circuit for seeing some success with another variant of the deck was there playing the same variant as me. They had switched over to the same variant I was playing and brought along a bunch of people playing the same thing. Honestly I love the deck so much I was happy to find out that the deck was gaining some popularity and seeing so much play. The deck is very good and has been around for quite some time but doesn’t see as much play as it deserves. While I don’t know this person very well, we’ve always been on friendly terms and they came up to me while I was playing and said to me ‘Oh look, you’re playing *my* deck,’ (yes there was actually an emphasis on my) and proceeded to make it very obvious they took credit for the creation of this deck. This bothered me a little bit—this is a list that has been seeing play for a few years, it isn’t new, and this person most definitely did not create it (they’ve only picked this variant up very recently).
The deck itself has been around for a few years and while not the most popular deck it is without a doubt not new. I responded cheerly mentioning that I was actually playing one of Aaron’s lists from last year that he had been successful with and that I was happy that the deck had started seeing increased play over the last year. Later in the day when I tried checking in with them to see how they were doing they blew me off and walked away.
I had been warned previously that this person was known for having an over-inflated ego, a problem that I feel like runs rampant in the Magic community. This is definitely not the first person I have met at Magic who thought that they were the best thing ever to happen to a deck or Magic in general. Personally, I think an important part of Magic is bonding with the people around you and having a big ego definitely gets in the way of that. Maybe I’m more sensitive to how much of a problem this can be than the average player. I’ve written before about my experiences as a woman and many of my negative experiences boil down to someone having an ego and assuming that they’re better than me because they’re a guy. I’ve had many opponents sit down and make it quite obvious that they expect an easy win from a girl but then when they’re not focusing and playing loose they end up losing.
Letting your ego get too big can hurt you in a lot of ways. If your ego gets too inflated when you lose to a person or deck you feel you shouldn’t lose to it’s going to put you on tilt. Losing one round isn’t normally a big deal—letting it affect you so you lose multiple rounds is. I can’t pretend that this hasn’t happened to me. The last round at an SCG Legacy open I was on Mudpost playing against UR Delver. The winner would get 20th and the loser would get 40th. This was while Treasure Cruise was still legal so I thought it was going to be the easiest win this century, especially since I was friends with my opponent. Boy was I wrong. I drew awfully and my opponent saw multiple Price of Progresses so you can probably figure out how that game went. Despite my success in the tournament—finishing 40th, winning money, and doing better than most of my friends—I was really upset with myself. I had let my ego of doing well all day and being the preferred match-up get in the way of being focused on the match-up in the way I needed to be. We all have some ego but it doesn’t do anything positive for your gameplay so it’s important to practice checking it at the door.
It’s pretty easy to cross the fine line between excitement about doing well and turning it into having a large ego but I hope it’s something that people are aware of. To go back to the above incident, someone did create this deck (albeit a few years ago) and worked hard to do well with it. There is no reason to steal someone else’s thunder and take credit for it. I hope when you top 8 with your standard brew, or with your RUG Delver list that you celebrate and enjoy it. I also hope that you remember that while you may feel like the king of the world, you need to respect the people around you and their achievements as well.
Kate hails from Worcester MA and also does a bit of Card Altering. Check her Stuff out on Facebook! She mainly plays legacy and modern though will occasionally find herself playing EDH or Standard if she’s desperate.