Magic is a great game, but the social aspect might just be the best thing about it.
Back when I was still heavily involved in the paper Magic community in my hometown of Salvador, I was always delighted to attend my local store's Saturday standard tournaments, usually a 30+ person affair that involved several local teams and playgroups vying for domination of our corner of the woods. With internet event coverage still in its infancy in the early 2000's, it was exciting to see what each team would come up with, or whether a lone player would come up with some weird tech and take the metagame by storm. This sense of community is what I miss the most about this period, especially after I started making the trip along lots of those guys to play in Nationals once a year.
Magic Online, especially with its now nerfed chat capabilities, can't really offer a similar experience, and that's my biggest qualm with the platform. I wish we still had a reasonably functioning clan system, an easy and pleasant way to talk to people, or even V2's display of avatars sitting along tables while playing.
What MTGO does offer, however, is a way to get with friends and play in tournaments together, discussing draft picks and specific plays in real time. This is precisely what I bring you today: I'm joined by Juca Oliveira, a good friend from those local store days in my home state who happens to be my neighbor here in São Paulo. Let's get to it!
Well, that was fun. The dynamic of having a partner really helps to pay attention to details that might have otherwise eluded me, and of course, it makes the crazy blowout moments significantly more enjoyable. I hope you enjoyed this as much as we did, and see you soon.
That was great, man. You should use the webcam even when you're alone! Why you never did before? Your gestures help selling your speeches about picks and blocks, even when they're misguided. :)
Will you try and talk Juca into appearing again? He complements you well, I think. (Does everybody speak perfect English in Brazil?) The only thing is, he was sitting farther than you from the microphone, so his voice was a bit too low at times. So maybe you should find a different setup, even if the framing with you in the foreground and him a bit behind looked good.
We had a lot of fun doing this, so we'll definitely want to do it again. When it happens, I'll make sure to try a better audio setup, as the sound differences were a combination of him being a naturally low speaker and my voice being way louder that I like to think it is. :)
Yeah, that was also it, but I liked the difference between you guys. You're more high energy, while he would calmly tell you you shouldn't do the thing you were going to do. :)
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That was great, man. You should use the webcam even when you're alone! Why you never did before? Your gestures help selling your speeches about picks and blocks, even when they're misguided. :)
Will you try and talk Juca into appearing again? He complements you well, I think. (Does everybody speak perfect English in Brazil?) The only thing is, he was sitting farther than you from the microphone, so his voice was a bit too low at times. So maybe you should find a different setup, even if the framing with you in the foreground and him a bit behind looked good.
Glad you enjoyed it!
We had a lot of fun doing this, so we'll definitely want to do it again. When it happens, I'll make sure to try a better audio setup, as the sound differences were a combination of him being a naturally low speaker and my voice being way louder that I like to think it is. :)
Yeah, that was also it, but I liked the difference between you guys. You're more high energy, while he would calmly tell you you shouldn't do the thing you were going to do. :)