Today, we are answering questions. You're questions. To Me. It is like a 'mail bag' article, but we don't get mail. Please don't send me anything. This is a blog. On the internetz. We communicate with electricity instead of paper. Welcome to the future...
What formats are you playing?
I don't play Legacy, Vintage, or Modern. I think that these formats are all very interesting, but they just don't appeal to me. In paper, the constant activation of fetchlands makes any game in an eternal format very laborious. Also, they tend to get stale very quickly once the buzz from a new set dies down. Take Modern right now: It was solved and there were established decks, Khans comes out and changes those decks, but now there is a new set of decks. I wouldn't exactly call it 'solved', but we are close enough that you are just going to be playing the same few matchups over and over. For that reason, I try to steer clear. I play Commander in paper and I will play Cubes of various flavors, but that is pretty much it.
Online, I don't mind fetchlands at all. The interface on MTGO may not be the best, but it cuts down a lot of the wasted time that you need to do things like draft or shuffle. I love to play online for the convenience. I partake in Pauper, MTGO cube, Commander, and a variety of limited events. Currently, I am playing a lot of Khans draft because it is pretty great.
I have heard that a lot of people play Standard. I don't. The last time I played in a Standard event was an FNM in Shards-Zendikar Standard. The last time I played a competitive REL or higher event was in the mid 2000's.
What decks do you play in format x?
Commander: My decks don't change much. I only change a few cards per year unless something dramatic happens. I have been playing Glissa the Traitor, Maelstrom Wanderer, and Bruna Light of Alabaster since they were released. I also have a Jhoira of the Ghitu deck that I have been playing since Scars block and a Nicol Bolas deck that I have had in various forms for many years off-and-on. I always have at least two side projects that I will get excited about and build, but never really develop. Currently, those are Sharuum the Hegemon and Purhporos God of the Forge.
Pauper: I literally own the entire format. My MTGO collection, much like my paper collection, is old and includes thousands of cards. So I basically play whatever I want to when I enter the cue. Delver is still the best deck, that is pretty obvious. I have been brewing a lot lately trying to come up with something else to play that can actually compete with the field. I have been working a new version of Mono Black that is more aggressive, but I am stuck at an impasse. If you want to beat Delver you can. There is a way. Play your own Delvers, but maindeck all four Hydroblasts and all four Pyroblasts. Don't play Counterspell, play Dispel. The problem with this is that you are worse off against any other decks and you are only like 60-40 vs. Delver. That is a lot of loss for little gain.
Sidenote: I have played against the same guy 6 or 7 times in the last couple weeks and he is playing UW control with Jeskai Student. He is beating the crap out of me with a deck that looks like a steaming pile. I might have to play that, maybe it is the future.
But what else are you playing?
When I am not playing Magic...? That is what I do to exercise my mind. I play drums to exercise my creative muscles. I like jazz, blues, and progressive metal. I play Ultimate Frsibe to exercise my body. When I am goofing off I play a variety of Steam games. I am addicted to the value of Steam sales.
What is your creative process?
When I first began writing about Magic I never thought about it. I just turn on some music and sit down at my keyboard. It was well into my second year before I stopped and thought: "what am I going to talk about this week?" If you have never done a periodical you may not think about the commitment it takes to regularly produce something on the same schedule without hitting any hiccups. Everyone has deadlines at work, but this is something that we do in our 'off time' you might say. So finding room in my schedule to write for an hour or two hours (in the case where no additional research is required) is tough. I just have to get it done so I can move on to other things (or play more Borderlands apparently).
My creativity comes in waves, so I have to capture that in the moment. Sometimes I will just jot down all my ideas on a list and pull from them later. Sometimes I will write multiple articles weeks in advance. I am almost always a week ahead so that I can take care of editing and formatting issues before the piece goes up, but there have definitely been times where I was writing my articles the day of. So far, I have been doing it over two years and only missed one post. I am satisfied with those results.
The easiest way that I get material is that I sit down to write and have more to say than I originally thought. We have targets for word count and such so I often have to break my articles into multiple parts to keep the length appropriate. That results in me writing up to a month's worth of content all at once, and uploading it over time. That was the case with the Pauper Cube series and that is also the case with this very article.
You're an MTG writer, do you like any other MTG community authors?
Of course! I love to read and to digest other opinions. That is the primary way that I learn about the game. My favorite is Matt Sperling of Channel Fireball, particularly "Sperling's Sick of It". I agree with him about a great many things and I love to bark up the authority tree when I see someone do something that doesn't make sense to the community.
Also on CFB, I like Alexander Shearer and Frank Karsten. They have a very analytic approach to the game that I respect. The numbers don't lie kids.
I dig pretty hard on Adam Styborski, creator of Gatheringmagic.com I modeled my Pauper Cube off his design and routinely go to his site for all my spoilers.
Are you actually a Grandpa?
No. Also, my last name isn't actually Growth.
Why do you even have pen names then?
That is a really good question. UL had one, and when I came on board I just followed suit. So did the other guys. It is kind of our thing, I guess. We don't really have anything to hide, in fact, if anything our anonymity is kind of bad. It prevents us from growing our audience face to face. People wouldn't ever recognize me if they saw me at a store or event.
That is all for this week guys. Next week, I will be doing another article like this, tackling more of the most common questions that I get from players and readers. After that, we are on to December, the end of the year, and time once again for our annual review articles. See you then and enjoy the turkey.
-GG
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