In General: Counter Examples: Part 1

A short time ago Uncle Landdrops approached me about doing an In General about counterspells. Specifically, the stygma that they bear in casual formats like Commander. Naturally, he felt that I was the right man for the job on this one. You have to nag me pretty hard to play a deck without counters. In fact, I specifically build sub-optimal decks (read: non-blue) in order to just have the option of playing a deck that doesn't have counterspells. Mostly, those decks are played by other people; borrowed when I want to battle, but they came unprepared. I am not going to waste any more of our time playing up my credentials as a counterspell aficionado. I'm not here to talk about me. I am here to talk about you.

For the purpose of this discussion, I am going to assume you are a scrub. Don't take it personally, this is getting posted on the internet after all. Strangely, Magic has a very high percentage of scrubs in its player base. Especially for a casual-competitive game. Especially for an adversarial, zero-sum game design. Scrubs are somewhat poorly defined, so allow me to offer a definition from author David Sirlin: "A scrub is a player who is handicapped by self-imposed rules that the game knows nothing about. A scrub does not play to win." He has a book about this topic called Playing to Win. I encourage you to read it, irrespective of your level of interest in game theory, game design, psychology, or books. You are interested in Magic. This will improve your game. Dramatically. If you don't care about improving your game you are, by definition, a scrub. So, welcome. You're in the right place.

Before I go any further I must disclose that I have a robust knowledge of game design concepts and the psychology discipline of game theory. I am going to be talking about these ideas and more related to them. I will do my best to explain terminology or concepts that would be unfamiliar to people who have not studied them. However, these ideas are ares of study unto themselves. If you want to learn, to understand, it will take more than reading this article.

To begin, what is a game? Not so simple as you might think. This video by Youtuber Vsauce, explains it quite well, if not for its lack of brevity.

To clarify an earlier point, Magic is a game that is played to win, by design. Even at the casual level, the goal of the game is to win. It is adversarial because the game is designed to have two parties, you and your opponent(s). This is even true in multiplayer because of the zero-sum victory mechanic. You win? Your opponents lost. You can't win together, there is no 'tie'. There is a draw, but a draw in the rules of Magic states that no player wins. This is closer to a 'push' in gambling than a tie in certain sports.

Now we have successfully made it back to the beginning. A rhetorical question: Why do scrubs play Magic? Why would people, who don't play to win, play a game that was made to be played to win. Sound silly? I think so as well. They might say that they play for fun. Maslow might say they play for self-actualization. I am still looking for the answer. I can tell you this though: they are doing it wrong. They might be enjoying it, but that isn't the point. Shocking and dramatic documentaries aren't necessarily fun. They weren't designed to be. They make you feel something else. If you want to laugh watch Anchorman.

The point I am making, is that scrubs really don't have a place in Magic. I am not saying quit Magic, I am saying quit being a scrub. Learn to play. Play to win. Have fun doing it. What does all of this have to do with counterspells and the social stygma against playing Blue in EDH? Stay tuned to the exciting conclusion in Part 2!