---

The Top 10 Signs that you might be a little too obsessed with Magic and Magic Online.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

10. You've playtested your own homemade magic cards

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. You can list the names of Planeswalkers easier than you can list the names of your extended family members.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

8. You know Magic's storylines better than you know World History.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. You think the debate over the definition of "casual" magic is more likely to evoke a hostile response than talking about religion, abortion, or politics.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

6. You have pets named after magic characters (fish don't count)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. You spend more time thinking about Magic than you do thinking about the opposite sex.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. You've told yourself "just one more draft" at 2 AM in the morning on a weeknight when you have to go to work or school the next morning.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. You have tried to play Magic Online while holding a baby.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. You have thought about naming your children after Planeswalkers

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. In a fit of rage and frustration, you've uninstalled Magic Online only to reinstall it a couple of hours later.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I was in junior high school I was on the chess team.  I spent huge amounts of time trying to be the best chess player I could be.  Games are a family tradition and I was trying to live up to it as best I could.  My dad was even the coach of our school's chess team.  During one match against another school, I lost a very close game and I simply snapped.  I walked out of the school without telling anyone I was leaving and just starting walking.  My dad found me a couple of hours later outside of the school.  I was so frustrated and disappointed in my behavior that I just had to get away from it all, and blow off some steam.  I realized after that day that I needed to give chess up forever.  I was too emotionally involved in the game.  Every game I lost seemed like a knock-out blow to my self-worth. 

Most of us assign value to what we do and who we are.  I'm a good father. I'm smart.  I'm good at games.  I care about others.  Those kind of statements define who we are and more importantly who we want to be.  With chess, I associated winning with being smart and being good at games.  Therefore when I lost, I felt the opposite must be true about me. 

There is no chance or random factor in chess.  If I lose a game of chess there is no obstacle or outside factor that my ego can hide behind.  I can either face the fact that my opponent is better than me, or challenge him again and again until I can win back my self esteem.

That was my line of thinking back in junior high and that is why I had to give up chess. 

I moved on to other games and even though I love strategy games, I stayed away from games that had little to no luck involved in them.  After my experience in junior high, I wanted games to be fun again.  I know there are a million definitions of fun, but here is mine.  A fun game is a game in which your pride, ego, intelligence, or self-worth is not on line.  A fun game is a game that challenges your mind and forces you to think in new and interesting ways, but it does not define you as a good or bad person. 

In short, I don't want my games to be too competitive.  I don't want to do "anything" for a win.   I don't want the stakes to be too high so that I can't afford to lose.  My self worth is not determined by how well I play Magic, no matter how many times my opponents tell me differently.

Sure, sometimes I catch myself slipping back into my super competitive mode, and it hurts.  I want this game to be a fun little hobby or a mental challenge to keep my brain sharp and alert.  I don't want it to become an obsession that diverts my attention from the things that matter the most to me.  I'm married now and have a wonderful baby girl.  I know twenty-five years from now I won't say to myself "I wish I had more time to play Magic Online."  But it's possible that I may regret not spending enough time with my daughter.  

There are many people that enjoy hobbies at a healthy level.  I think many of us play magic online in the same way that other people spend time on facebook or watch sports.  It's perfectly normal and perfectly healthy.  However sometimes we can get a bit carried away and enter the area of an obsession.  I am always monitoring myself to make sure that I keep my hobby in check.  It doesn't always work.  Sometimes I stay up a bit too late playing Magic or end up playing 3 or 4 nights in a row.  My family comes first in my book, but with most hobbies, it's easy to get carried away.

My family is filled with game players.  Even when she was in her 90s, I was rarely able to beat my grandmother at scrabble.  Her mind was sharp until her dying day, and I believe her mind stayed sharp because she was always using it by playing games.   Games and hobbies such as Magic are a very good thing in moderation, and a very destructive thing in excess.

If you've identified with a piece of my story or my top ten list, please take a break from Magic every now and then.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   

Now, on to the actual strategy part of my article.  I've been looking at the latest Zendikar Block tournament results in order to get a feel for what happened after the release of Worldwake.  The answer to that question is "not a whole lot."  Vampires and White/Blue control were the two dominant decks before Worldwake and they are the two dominant decks after Worldwake. 

Here are the deck counts from the decklists that I obtained.

Deck Name	Count of Decktype
Vampires	59
White/Blue Control	54
Mono Red Burn	9
Nissa Eldrazi	7
Red/Green Valakut	7
Kor Weenies	7
Allies White	3
Allies Blue White	3
Landfall Boros	3
Allies Green White	1
Grand Total	153

And here are the top players to watch out for over the past week.

Top Players with 4 or more Appearances
Yunhao_Wu_CHN	L1X0	_DissonancE_	hongen11221986	CopHyak
White/Blue Control	Vampires	Vampires	White/Blue Control	Mono Red Burn
965513	965515	965514	982743	965520
965514	965516	965519	982746	982741
965519	965520	965520	982749	982752
965520	965521	982743	982751	982753
982743	982738	982744	982754	folcojp
982744	982742		korno	White/Blue Control
982749	982744		Vampires	965512
982750	982746		982741	965516
			982742	965521
			982744	982752
			982750

 

02/22 | ZEN Block 965516 02/23 | ZEN Block 965517  02/24 | ZEN Block 965518 02/23 | ZEN Block 965519 02/23 | ZEN Block 965520 02/24 | ZEN Block 965521 02/25 | ZEN Block 982738 02/25 | ZEN Block 982741

02/25 | ZEN Block 982742 02/26 | ZEN Block 982743 02/26 | ZEN Block 982744 02/27 | ZEN Block 982746 02/27 | ZEN Block 982749 02/27 | ZEN Block 982750 02/28 | ZEN Block 982751 02/28 | ZEN Block 982752

02/28 | ZEN Block 982753 03/01 | ZEN Block 982754 03/01 | ZEN Block 982755 03/01 | ZEN Block 982757 03/02 | ZEN Block 982758 03/02 | ZEN Block 982759 03/02 | ZEN Block 982760 03/03 | ZEN Block 982761

 Here are the example decklists for every deck that I saw.

Example Decklists
Allies Blue White	Kor Weenies	Nissa Eldrazi	White/Blue Control
982751	982754	982753	982754
Grivan	Hunter	intherain	Nunown
Allies Green White	Landfall Boros	Red/Green Valakut
982746	982754	982752
IssLer_Br	Demons_Engima	Ivan_Kulbich_aka_Striped
Allies White	Mono Red Burn	Vampires
982753	982753	982754
DampingEngine	CopHyak	FikFik

 

	Vampire Deck Comparison

 

Vampires	_DissonancE_		korno		L1X0		luissergio82
	MD	SB	MD	SB	MD	SB	MD	SB
Land	24	7	24	4	23	1	23
Swamp	16		15		16	1	15
Marsh Flats	4		4		4		3
Verdant Catacombs	4		4		1		4
Tectonic Edge		4		4
Dread Statuary		3	1		2		1
Spell	16	4	13	11	15	10	15	13
Mind Sludge	4			3		4		4
Urge to Feed	4		4		3		3
Hideous End		4		3		3		3
Mire's Toll			3		4		4
Grim Discovery	4		1	1	1	1	3
Feast of Blood	4				2	1	3
Smother			3	1	2	1	2
Basilisk Collar			2		3
Carnage Altar				3
Nemesis Trap								2
Marsh Casualties								2
Blade of the Bloodchief								2
Creature	20	4	23		22	4	22	2
Vampire Nighthawk	4		4		4		4
Malakir Bloodwitch	4		4		4		4
Bloodghast	4		4		4		4
Gatekeeper of Malakir	4		4		4		4
Vampire Hexmage	4		4		3		4
Bloodhusk Ritualist		4				2	2
Kalastria Highborn			3		3
Anowon, the Ruin Sage						2		2
Grand Total	60	15	60	15	60	15	60	15

 

I'm going to keep my comments to a minimum here as I think the comparison between decklists is useful with or without my cursory observations.  Basically the core creature set of the Vampire decks is unchanged with Worldwake but the removal and discard parts of the deck have been shaken up a bit.  Dread Statuary and Tectonic Edge have also added a bit to the Vampire deck's playbook however its hard to add too many of those cards because they are more or less dead weight in the mirror match.

	White Blue Control Deck Comparison

 

White/Blue
	folcojp		hongen11221986		Nunown		Yunhao_Wu_CHN
Row Labels	md	sb	md	sb	md	sb	md	sb
Spell	29	7	28	5	28	6	28	5
Cancel	4		4		4		4
Day of Judgment	4		3	1	4		3	1
Journey to Nowhere	4		4		4		4
Treasure Hunt	4		3		4		3
Everflowing Chalice	4		3		4		3
Jace, the Mind Sculptor	3		3		3		3
Into the Roil	2		2		3		2
Archive Trap				4				4
Luminarch Ascension		4				4
Mindbreak Trap	4				1
Spell Pierce			3				2
Rite of Replication			2		1		2
Spell Contortion			1				2
Pitfall Trap		3
Dispel						2
Land	26	3	26		26	1	26
Plains	6		5		6		4
Island	5		5		4		6
Celestial Colonnade	4		4		4		4
Halimar Depths	4		4		4		3
Sejiri Refuge	4		4		4		2
Misty Rainforest	1		1		1		1
Arid Mesa	2		1				1
Tectonic Edge		3				1
Kabira Crossroads					2		2
Scalding Tarn			1				2
Marsh Flats			1		1		1
Creature	5	5	6	10	6	8	6	10
Devout Lightcaster		4		3		4		3
Kor Sanctifiers	2	1		3	2	1		3
Sphinx of Lost Truths	3		3		3		3
Hedron Crab				4				4
Emeria Angel			2				2
Kor Firewalker						3
Iona, Shield of Emeria			1		1		1
Grand Total	60	15	60	15	60	15	60	15

It's no surprise that Jace, Treasure Hunt and Celestial Collonade make strong appearances in post worldwake White Blue control decks.  What may be surprising is that so White/Blue decks are willing to play up to 12 "enters the battlefield tapped" lands. 

	Nissa Mono-Green Deck Comparison

Mono Green	Column Labels
	Auriokkk		intherain		julian_simon		vv1nc3ntt
Row Labels	md	sb	md	sb	md	sb	md	sb
Creature	20	6	20	7	26	2	20	10
Arbor Elf	4		4		4		4
Wolfbriar Elemental	4		4		4		4
Nissa's Chosen	4		4		4		4
Leatherback Baloth	4		4		4		4
Lotus Cobra	4		4		4		4
River Boa		4		4
Lodestone Golem					2	2
Rampaging Baloths		2						2
Joraga Warcaller					4
Oran-Rief Recluse								4
Mold Shambler								4
Oracle of Mul Daya				3
Land	24	1	24	1	23	6	24	1
Forest	10		8		11		10
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood	4		4		4		4
Misty Rainforest	3		4		4		3
Tectonic Edge	2	1	2	1		4	2	1
Verdant Catacombs	3				4		3
Dread Statuary	2		2			2	2
Khalni Garden			4
Spell	16	8	16	7	11	7	16	4
Nissa Revane	4		4		4		4
Nature's Claim		4		4		3		4
Eldrazi Monument	4		4		3		4
Bestial Menace	4		4				4
Slingbow Trap		4		3		4
Everflowing Chalice	4		4
Vines of Vastwood					4
Explore							4
Grand Total	60	15	60	15	60	15	60	15

Green got a lot of good cheap weapons from Worldwake, so it's not surprising that there is now an up and coming Mono-green Nissa Eldrazi deck on the Zendikar Block scene. 

	Red Burn Deck Comparison

 

Sum of Qty	Column Labels
	armyofachiliad		Beatz McOwnzington		Boin		CopHyak
Row Labels	md	sb	md	sb	md	sb	md	sb
Spell	20	15	23	7	16	11	23	10
Burst Lightning	4		4		4		4
Punishing Fire	4		4		4		4
Zektar Shrine Expedition	4		4		4		4
Searing Blaze	2		4		4		4
Runeflare Trap		3				4		4
Ricochet Trap		3				3		2
Unstable Footing		3				4
Elemental Appeal	3		4
Inferno Trap		3					2	1
Roiling Terrain		3		3
Comet Storm			3				2
Basilisk Collar				4
Crusher Zendikon	3
Chain Reaction							2
Stone Idol Trap								2
Mark of Mutiny							1	1
Land	25		25		24	4	24
Mountain	16		13		12		9
Scalding Tarn	4		4		4		4
Dread Statuary	1		4		4		4
Arid Mesa	1		4		4		4
Tectonic Edge						4
Teetering Peaks	3
Smoldering Spires							3
Creature	15		12	8	20		13	5
Goblin Guide	4		4		4		4
Plated Geopede	4		4		4		4
Goblin Ruinblaster	2			4	4			4
Cunning Sparkmage				4	4		3
Goblin Shortcutter	2				4
Goblin Bushwhacker	3						2
Obsidian Fireheart			4
Hellkite Charger								1
Grand Total	60	15	60	15	60	15	60	15

Both White/Blue and Vampire decks have gotten a bit slower.  There are no more 1 drop vampires and more tapped lands for White Blue.  So to capitalize on this fact, and the presence of a cheap burn spell that can kill a Nighthawk, Red burn decks have also started to appear on the scene.  Although there are still quite a few differences between the decks.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, anyway, Thank you for reading, and I wish you all well in your future games

 - Marcus, "Shuyin Knight of Zanarkand" on Magic Online