How to Win at MagicFests | CCO Podcast 316 | EDH | CMDR | MtG

hey listen to commander coco

podcast

episode 316 i'm brandon here's ryan today we'll tell you how to win it commando fest now play our theme song hey ryan we're back for another whirlwind adventure how are you we're back what's going down a whole ton is going down let's count some stories now we actually came back from an event in calgary just before going to an event in winnipeg before we get to any of that we have to thank our official business dad fusiongamingonline.com your source for all your gaming needs and not forget cco spring and cco perks promo codes available for use at checkout at fusiongamingonline.com.

You will get a discount with cco spring on things that you are going to buy anyway or if you want to buy some of those double masters or whatever the deal of the week is and you are going to spend more than 100 dollars, you can use the cco promo code perks and get store credit, so if you're going to buy any of the cards we talked about yesterday in the foil guessing game, just one of them you could get a ten percent commission. Oh, this product is very expensive and yes, the two Brando cards. It was if you're talking about the booster pack game in yesterday's pre-show.

Brando's card was a battle ax forged with blood. Yes, I love that card. I'm so excited I want one and my card was fyrexian alter. I love it. card, I want to have a clean pile, yes, I have two, so if you guessed any of them, you will be entered in next week's drawing, yes, let's jump right into this week's drawing, holy shit, let's get right to it, you know why what we are doing. because we'll forget it if we don't, oh yeah, 100, we always forget it, okay, last week it was kedreck leviathan, so many people had it in the grain of a lightning bolt it made me so excited, a lightning bolt, a lightning bolt and a big thing grain-shaped all of you.

They're all after my heart and you can have it, yeah, when I think people aren't going to get it, they get it, they do, they get it, they do it, people who feel smart, I appreciate it, yeah, so the de the people who have that and I'm going to try to make your name because I think this is a real name because who would make a name on the Internet this no, I'll tell you, this is joel kudnozovsky, tell joel kudnakovsky what to do, just send us a email Commandercookoutgmail.com we are on the honor system so don't ruin it for everyone let us know who you are what you won where you live we will send you a booster pack in the mail yeah don't be the guy who cuts the skis for everyone else look see what I did there or cud clubs uh no hugs trying to do it it's all about sticks here it's about sticks or improvised sticks made from play materials like a bag of dice rolled into um absolutely matte and it's just things in a sock just sing in a sock maybe two socks tied at the end so you can do like a skittle I went to um that's the right thing a skittle yeah you throw it and it does trip the guys because it wraps around their feet yeah it could explode because they got rid of the bombs yeah that's how I would do it I don't know why people don't think about them they're stupid I probably went to the movies last night and one of the highlights of the movie was that a boy took what he had as a small telephone in the area of ​​the dungeon he was in, he took the phone off the wall and took off the receiver part, the mouthpiece part , fills it with earth.

It's full of dirt, he puts the jack back on and hits a guy with it, oh man, that was the dumbest thing I've ever seen in a movie, so he's a kid who built a bunch of makeshift traps, like he was alone at home, to tear down. ethan hawk in a devil mask and literally beat him to death with a phone full of dirt that rings oh my god, that sounds like a Brando movie, doesn't it? How long will it be before we can't do it? make a joke about the phone receiver because people aren't going to understand it oh yeah I guess all the old people in the country say there are probably people listening to our voices right now or watching our wonderful faces on youtube where You should be subscribed because Joe works very hard to make ourselves look good and we have never had a phone at home.

Yes, they don't even know what a telephone receiver is. You probably know what it is because you see them on TV and stuff, but you've never physically done it. I had one, yes, I know a lot of people who have never used rotary phones. I've never used a rotary phone in real life. Actually rotary phones were like toys in my daycare because, like the daycare lady, she took them. off his counter because he got one of those wall mounted ones that had buttons with the bobby bob bebop beat on it yeah ours was ours it was mounted on the wall because you used to do it I think this is the same in the US too where nothing it's the Same thing in the United States it's here buddy, well back in the '80s when I was really little and we had a rotary phone that you liked when you got service on your phone from whatever company it was, no I think it was a t and t in the United States. at that point I don't care, that doesn't matter, but they wish you had to rent the phone, you didn't own your own phone, oh yeah, that's a thing here and I think that's where all the rotating stuff came from and that's why that we had one and as soon as we didn't have to do that we all got phones with buttons because it's awesome because you can press buttons that's how dials are fun but they get annoying after a while while buttons are always fun and if you don't believe me press a button like the subscribe button oh I got there oh right now that was amazing we just went home that was the longest preparation for please subscribe yeah story Yes, we did it, we got there.

I did it? Yeah, speaking of sub, thanks to the new subs that found cco sidewalk slam 2 hyper slam oh that's good, yeah it was good, it was shorter and Tyler worked hard to make it look good with some sound and sound good with something. sound effects and we're in our game and it's good and if you like the Commander game you should find ours and check it out and like and subscribe because it's super fun yeah and the program costs a couple of dollars to make each one. month, so if you want to go to the patreon.com cco

podcast

and engage with the guys, with your guys, and with everyone who helps bring the show, you can become a part of our community and our discord and you can get the little sign up. gifts and things that we do well like the drug of our community, yes, it really is, and they helped us with the program and they give us feedback all the time and you'll find us in Calgary last weekend, yes, yes, Winnipeg. this weekend they recognized me several times in case okay, I was very excited, that's good, yeah and then the climax I wanted to say because you said it uh it's bellevue washington in July bell tower the bell the bell tower yeah, that's that what we're going to call the cco pentos penthouse ocean view mountain view bell tower belbies tower bigby's interposed house brando tower yeah that's a i've been saying different b words for like three months when i refer to this city because i'm making a point of not remembering where we're going and i never thought of my own name hmm that's why you made me see that yes, that's why ryan is here so i mentioned all these different events and i was thinking a lot about our local store games moved or is moving in the process of moving and long time listeners will know that it is in a mall, yes, so it is moving from a store, a store front in the mall, a stall in the mall, yes, yes, one position to another.

At the end of the aisle I was hoping you would say that, yes, at the end of the aisle and where we are now, the store next to ours is empty. I wish there was a word that rhymed with dwarf and meant empty. That was so good, oh yeah. Damn, we're probably not smart enough, yeah, everyone's good enough, yeah, so it's empty, so that's where we would play to avoid playing in the hallway with the tables and all the people saying, what's up? are you playing, children? It happens because it's like a geriatric mall, I'm not even kidding, I'm not even kidding, it's not even the whole mall complex is surrounded by nursing homes, so that's the mall they go to and they just like to walk around. and they drink coffee and they do that thing and they visit each other they go to the liquor store there and then they go home and they pass out yes, they don't go to planet fitness and yes, so to avoid playing in the hallway we play in the grocery store next door, but now the store next door is empty and our LG is now at the end of the aisle in the mall, yeah, and we don't have a place to play, so I've been thinking about that, I've been thinking about the amazing. and fun but not that big events we are attending in Calgary last weekend and Fusion 5k this weekend and I'm comparing LGS Play to Event Play, Command Fest or Magic Fest and we wanted to talk about the differences in and the expectations, I guess, about those different types of games and Brando's introduction to how to win at Command Fest, winning in this case is having the best time possible, man, we fooled everyone, hey, yeah, we told you there would be miniatures of click bait and we did it. and we're going to talk about actually winning too because that has influenced my discussion.

Winning is the biggest influence I think of any of the types of conversations that content creators or people have around experience, expectations, pre-game culture, rule zero. That's all a result of people wanting to win and some people don't care that much about winning and want the experience more than they want to win, so where do you fall? If it's left to right, where do you land? What's your address? which doesn't matter, how close to winning you are versus how close to not giving a shit, I don't really care about winning as long as I'm having fun, yeah, it's fun to win, it's cool, because yeah, my deck does the thing, but I'm more impressed that this pile of garbage I created did the thing, oh, and I'm more excited about it than I am like, oh, I won a game, like that's more.

I'm happy that, what do they call these Rube Goldberg machines? Yes, my Rube Goldberg machine worked and I have successfully won a game. Yeah, I mean, we've talked a little bit in the past about how our deck does the and the satisfaction like what's the closure called that you get when that happens and I have to point this out as well because this is very important because Calgary and last time too They went to Calgary when you play in a pod they gave you packages. and as much as it seems like I like packs, I hate packs, I hate them, I hate the things you love.

Packages are the worst prizes you can give someone because it's practically nothing because you're going to open it and it's going to stink and I'm not going to have anything, I've got something about that for you, it's not even a prize, so why would you trick someone into winning it? It's nothing I can't disagree with, why would you cheat someone to win something so trivial? I don't want to call them worthless because some people can't afford to avoid it, I guess that's true, but if you can't afford to buy the bundle, how did you pay for it again and play the game?

Yes, exactly fine, if you can afford it. afford to buy one pack and have a chance to win a second pack oh yeah right then you could double your money yeah you're doubling five bucks to ten in Canada and I think we both know this but for people. Who doesn't know that it's different in Canada than in the United States and I guess in some places in Europe it's different too. The laws of the game here are such that when you enter a game of chance, in which magic the collection card falls, you must receive something for your entry, such as some piece of merchandise for your entry, otherwise, it is a game for the which needs a gaming license or needs to be in a casino, which is very expensive and no one wants to pay for that, yes, no, so when we go to like it. the open head to head last week or the fusion 5k next week when we play on a Commander Pod we get a booster pack.

I'm really excited about when they give us double master packs for every game we play in Winnipeg because I'm assuming that's going to happen, no, maybe that will happen in 15 years when each pack is three hundred dollars and a nineteen dollar pack is like misery kittens for the peasants, it's nothing, yes, because by then we are already in the masters of October, where they finally realize that they can print 10 rare ones in a package and it doesn't really cost them any more just us, yeah, they can charge just us, hey, that's how it works, that's how other things work, but we're not talking about this. it's not economics e-c-o e-c-o it sounds like a wrestling federation um okay so I don't want to get into the junk at the events yet yeah we'll get there stranger danger what's it called because it's not always junk that you can find a stranger and have a fantastic game, you absolutely can and we want to promote that as much as warn anyone andWe advise people to be honest, but I want to start from the bottom now that we are here, yes, you always start, you always start. from the seed, okay, look at the seed, spread the seed, the seed, don't Google it, the seed is learning to do magic on your kitchen table, that's where everyone learns, most people learn There, some people I have met have learned like at LGS level, but most people learn at the kitchen table, let's call it the kitchen table because we all know what that means, maybe it's like a table in a library .at your school maybe it's the sidewalk like in cco sidewalk slime that you should totally watch maybe it's who cares where the living room floor is the point is it's you and the people you know pretty well Well, probably the person who got you into magic in the first place, a couple of his friends, maybe one of your friends who's interested, you're all friends now, yeah, so that's playing at the table. kitchen and the expectation is that, when you play with probably your friends, you just go and everyone tries to have fun, yeah, after a while, people get to recognize each other's decks well and there's a bit of metagaming that's the result of that, but I think no one is trying to fool anyone because everyone helps each other build each other's decks, yeah. everyone plays against each other yeah and everyone knows each other's decks and wants everyone to have fun yeah well they're all together to socialize that's the social aspect of the game where the social aspect of edh came from. the kitchen table effect and once you've developed that meta, assuming if you're like Ryan and me, you don't even have the stupid pre-game conversation unless someone builds something new where it's like, hey, this mallet.

I think this deck sucks, so let them know, yeah, let's play it a little weaker. I built a new garbage deck because all my decks were winning in the LGs, so I built this garbage pile like you guys have a garbage pile that you want to play and We do it, yeah sure, but other than that, it's like You sit down, you just grab a deck of cards from your bag and you can usually bounce them off each other, right? Yes, I have the Lord of Truster's horn, you have Noren Aiden's. smitty runes have a jury or whatever, yeah, oh yeah, we all know that, yeah, and they all go together and there are some fluctuations, but basically you can play whatever you want, you can build whatever you want, you can spawn all the time, always you can assume. that you're going to have a good time because you're literally with your friends, yeah, and if you're not having fun with your friends just because you're not winning at the game, that's on you, and you got it, yeah.

I like that, I like that, I watch a lot online, you know, the big Facebook groups that I always mention, like 39,000, 50 thousand people, my friends always sign me up, so if they're all your friends and they're all having a good time play archenemy because your decks are too strong, they make weaker decks, oh but they still target me because my ducks think so, you're still doing it, yeah, be worse, yeah, be worse, just be bad, worry, it's well and you will be fine. with losing because you're hanging out with your friends, okay, so yeah, this is the preferred way to play for me, yeah, it's funny because I'm going to keep asking and every time I ask I'm going to say yes.

I think we're both going to say yes, this is the preferred way to play magic and cats out of the bag because of what we do, who we are, and how we are as humans and as our own. I am going to say our position in the community as if we are above others, but we are not, but we are more visible in the community in many cases where we have the advantage that when we appear somewhere, maybe someone will tell us. meet, so it's easier for us to just walk in and get along with strangers, whereas other people just like, no, I'm not talking about social anxiety, I'm not talking about any of that, I just want to say you show up, You call the magic festival with your only friend who is playing.

In the main event I'm just going to play a few Commander games, it might be harder for you to find a group of nine or 10 people that you just want to jump in and play with everyone exactly and especially if it's your first event, yeah. what this show is not is what to expect at an event how to prepare this is not don't drink your water bring your backpack like we just did a top five and five on that you can see it i will put it on the card at the top of the screen, yeah, and you can do all of that in five minutes, it's very easy, it's not such a Herculean effort to prepare for yourself, I think so, yeah, what it is is the expectations and the different levels of play that you can. kind of butt with and and how to handle it all or how to think about how we think about it I guess not tripping over the roots on the way to the big magic festival thing pinnacle top of the pyramid temple temple sure the temples have deep rooted roots I saw the ruins, everyone saw the ruins with the plants that ring the bell, imitate cell phones, can eat you, oh yes, that was an incredible sight.

The kitchen table. The kitchen table. We all know it because everyone has been there. yeah, yeah and probably if you've found a magic podcast online, you're probably past the kitchen table point, yeah, so it's dumb, it's dumb, it's debatable to continue talking about it, such key things in oh, that's well, yes, on the table you have. to remember that you will always have a good time if you play with your friends or if you are not around look inside if you are the only one not having fun look inside sometimes it is okay that you are the problem because it is an opportunity to grow as a human being. cco's life lesson there are other things it's okay this is where your creativity can really flourish and just play games there doesn't have to be a lot of time where you have to explain this is my zerthian chanter, everyone has a mohawk mallet or what you know what I mean, yeah, yeah, you just show up with your friends and say, oh, I built this zer deck, it's going to be crazy, that's garbage and everyone's going to believe that you're just going to play it and that just works. at the kitchen table you can basically do whatever you want, however you want, if you want to do Rule Zero Commanders, that's a common non-legendary enchantment, you can probably do it, you know what I mean, you can do whatever you want and then, when you move.

Of that, you'll find that some of that starts to erode when you get to the lgs level, which is what we'll probably talk about next, not because the people on your lgs don't want you to have fun, but because the rules of magic now have have to become more rigid, yes, because now you are in a structured environment where not everyone knows everyone and there has to be some kind of framework for all those things, yes, like a temperature and pressure standard in chemistry or like standard operating procedure in management exactly it's like a unit of measurement where you're going to measure something like every American says oh yeah I guess it's because they're using it if you know the metric The system was designed to be standardized and therefore transferable to all the areas.

If you're going to go to Germany and build something, it's the same as building something in Canada, as long as you're using something metric in Canada because we use both, but yeah, but. The point is that you can do it, if you are a person from Germany coming to play and you are someone from Canada coming to play, you are playing the same game and that is why you apply the rules structure in an event and follow your advice. It will play right, that's for sure, yeah, okay, so we're talking about the LG game now. The kitchen table, I think it's my favorite, but I think it's my favorite because I can do anything with my friends.

I can see anything. I watch TV. I can play. I can make any game with any game, but I think my favorite time to play Magic is at an established LG where you know everyone and have a group of people you like to play with because you get pretty much the same experience from the kitchen table, but you get people outside of your set goal who build and think differently than you, so the stakes are usually a little higher, we'll say we're at stake, but also a little higher. It's nice because now people show up a little more to enjoy a game.

Yeah, we've had some pretty intense kitchen table games, but like when you get to the LG and you have your new deck. you're really proud that you tried it out with your friends and you want to get it out into the world you're going to get it on the lgs yeah so I have some points from everything you said but if there are a couple of extra things maybe you can add to my bullets, you'll go to the lgs, there are more decks, there are more people, there is a varied gaming experience that interests us all and that's why this could potentially be our preferred way. play because you are still in familiar waters, you are still in blue, warm, shallow tropical waters, but you have a more varied experience, yes, which is fantastic, incredible, but this is the first place where you can run into danger strange, yes, at that. someone new comes in or someone says hey I usually draft or I don't play modern anymore I want to play Commander yeah what happens then?

Many times I heard Commanders the format I can play Jenkin in, so I built this Jank deck, yes, which one. it's cool I could play this crap sometimes you understand uh I'm not going to tell you what my deck does later well sometimes you understand I used to play modern and legacy so I built my modern and legacy deck in Commander yeah and then You say well, how strong is it and they say, I don't know what, what do you mean how strong is it? Yes, because they don't know and that's not because it's their fault, they just don't know, yes, of course and. sometimes you just don't know what you don't know, we run into that a lot of times in the next level of play where uh and I don't want to talk about it yet, we'll get there, where the people, where the people. they drop out of the main event or people who are new to commander because they saw some cedh gaming channel on youtube and say hey I want to play that, it looks like fun, this is a place to sync all my legacy playable cards, yeah.

You get that on LGs, but it's easier on LGs because you have, let's call it, a finite number of people? Let's say there are 20 regulars at your LG, sure, or 8 or 30. Whatever that number is, it's a relatively small number and can start if you step back and look at the types of decks people play, the length of the games and the level of competition that people play at, you can start to see a trend, a culture or a norm, I guess, a social norm in that type of game and I think it's important for everyone to identify, recognize and identify what that level is so they know if they are above or below him and then they can articulate: I want to play above or below him in any game and it's important in that too because everything that Ryan said is exceptionally true and very visible in our personal LGs because we have a guy who just came from the legacy and competitive modern was in the pro, went to the pro circuit, yeah, very. well he's got two decks and they're both obscene, obscene, obscene good and it's just because that's the kind of magic he plays, it's not because he's trying to fool anyone, but he knows if you brought a competitive deck today I'd say sure and that's and that's him recognizing that we have a culture where not everyone plays cedar, so we have the CDH guys and we have super casual guys, you have people like Ryan and I who are in the middle and when you do the suitcases overnight bag, you know what to bring because you know who is probably going to be there next, plus the levels of decks that people like to play, one of the best things about the LG is that you can play with a wide variety of people, which means you're playing with a wider variety of people and people have quirks and personalities and all that stuff and sometimes they clash with yours and over the course of a few weeks in the LGs with the regulars you'll learn who you get along with who You don't get along with who you like to play with and that doesn't mean you have similar enemies, yeah, no, you hate, it's not that, but I freely admit it, I don't get along with everyone, I test you.

I, right, I really am the guy who is so passionate about everything, yeah, sure, but there are people I don't really get along with, so it's not that I don't like them, I just don't want to play magic with them. I'll sit next to them at the table and talk to them and stuff as long as we're in the same game, it's okay if you Jesse, I love that guy, I hate playing magic with him, I never quit and after you Jesse, in a good game I hate it I don't know what it is I just hate it every time we play together I have to kill this guy I kind of kill him the only thing I want to do in real life but god take the shirt off his back oh yeah I absolutely love it to that boy, he's a great guy, he's a good friend, he's a good person, he's a good father and he's great at everything, but eh, but after that man in real life, I don't want, I just want. murder him in real life as soon as he shuffles his deck, I understand how he puts his cards together, I don't know how he wraps it, I don't like anything about him and that's okay because we're still friends, right? be people like that in your lgs that you will meet and therotating cast of characters that you have in a local store that you have the opportunity to know that you will be able to navigate those waters, so if you get involved even if it's with someone maybe you won't bump into them a little bit at least you can still have fun you'll know what what's waiting for you so you can gird yourself because like your loins gerge your loins newbie exactly oh man I'm oh here we go he's a sadder we're going to do it but then you do it and it's fun and it's okay and you move on , you know what this is, after the game is over, you pick up and go and sit with your friends there. who are looking for a fourth, everything is fine if the LG gaming experience is new to you if that is the step you are at in your magic or commander career step one look for the cco t-shirts step one look for the cco t-shirts if there is there is none go to commander im just kidding get one get another yeah be the change you want to see yeah and change to a cco shirt if there are no shirts in stock just buy 500 stickers and make a shirt with them, step one.

Yeah, okay, the second step is to ask, maybe an employee, maybe the owner of the LG store, maybe they play, maybe one of the employees plays, I know that's a common thing. Game stores hire players who play well if that's not available, but you can go to the store owner or the person who runs edh night and say I'm new. I don't know what kind of games to play. I'm a little shy. Maybe the store owner could direct someone to a regular person who would be willing to talk. to new people who are regulars in the local game store environment and who can tell you a little about the culture we've been talking about.

This is where these guys sit. These are the more competitive things that we like. play jank here uh if you can come with maybe two or three decks because we play from six to 8 30, you'll probably get three games so maybe you have a jank deck, a good deck and then like a c edh deck. If you want all three experiences, find someone who can give you the Kohl's Notes version of the LG experience and then go from there, venture into deeper waters and have fun, yeah that's cool, yeah, talk about deeper waters. next level oh my god the next deep oh my god here we go here we go baby it's fusion 5k and the tour style events are the same as Magic Fest no no how about the I play edh in my experience.

In these typically smaller 5k events that you'll end up in there will be people like us who show up just for Jam Commander and there will be less of those than you think and then there will be a group of people who showed up and it's their backup if they come out. main event or whatever, and that's what happens at those events because a lot of times there aren't a ton of free tables that you can just show up and play, they're pay-on-demand events, so people show up like no, I mean they show up to try to win, but like you're there to pay and play some more competitive magic. and then the levels go up a little bit just because every game there's something at stake in my experience, in my experience, that's right, that being said, if you've never attended an event like this, whether it's a smaller event, even at a LGs, even a magic or commando festival, there is no need to bring competitive decks and we don't want anyone to feel intimidated into thinking that they or their decks or their knowledge or their experience are not good enough to be at these events because they are for everyone, yes, and they are free to enter through the door.

That said, we've got you covered with the booster pack if you sit down and have to have paid money to play. Commander people want the closure of winning, yes, usually in our experience these types of games fall into two categories: the cheaper, you get a booster pack to play, you pay for a pack and they give you one and then you play and that's like your ticket. the entry is right and those are the ones we play when we go yeah and then there's the head to head they call them the commander plus the pod they're ten dollars and you get a pack and then you try to win forty dollars in credit.

Yes, and store credit for a supplier, suddenly you are quadrupling your money if you win and that's where the cedars play. Yes, and if that's the experience you want, then that's the group you'll follow if that's not what you want. you want and you want to play with low to mid level power, you play the cheaper games, yes, over and over again, they are for everyone when you sit down at one of these events and the expectation is to play more casually casually. or game of janker and then you don't do it, that's where you encounter the first case of real stranger danger because there is no culture in a one day event, the culture is let's just play magic and if you sit down and get an opponent who you think is trying to shoot you at an angle, not before the game or rule zero, telling you how powerful their deck is, which is actually a rule of the game, rule zero says if there is something I must reveal before the game regarding the power or expectations of the game or violations of the rules. you should do it you should do it like you do it because that's the rule and if you go up to a judge and say judge, I think this person is playing a game or a deck that's too powerful the judge will say, "Okay, if not "They know nothing about the commander, if you're lucky and they know something about the commander, they'll say, okay, let's try to put you in a different capsule." You move on to the next one that activates and more than a hundred of these capsules activate a day, it's not that you're not going to get one, yes, you're going to get games, but the problem like all that, despite the problem, could be that a newer player may I don't know how to ask these questions or maybe they don't feel comfortable saying I don't know if this is for me, maybe this is above my level of competence, yeah, and they're too shy or whatever, right, and then I had a bad experience, so this happened to Brando and I was your first game of the day.

My second game of the day. Those were all the games I played that day. Try not to let that cloud you. and we'll just go over this first game because we were both there yeah and you and I sat down with casual decks yeah we sat down with casual decks my deck has seen maybe four games and I don't even know what. deck that you sat down with and then there was, oh, Dyson Dragons, I want to play Dyson Dragons, that's as casual as it gets, baby, and hey, what are we playing? I like playing Jank, but I have some more powerful stuff if you want.

The guys are inside and one guy says: Yeah, I don't know, my deck is pretty slow, it was your luck, the scorch thrash, right, and he said it was slow and a little annoying, but it can do a lot of damage at the end of the game or whatever he said. as expected from your lock, the scorch thrash yeah, von doom played that deck, it's a good deck and that whole exchange between me, you and that guy took, I don't know, 15 seconds, yeah, it took like zero time and another guy shuffling says uh my deck is pretty strong yeah like two seconds my deck is pretty strong if we were playing Commander Plus Pods okay let's sit down we all have strong decks two seconds right and one phrase my deck It is quite strong, yes, but that was not the case. what we were playing on and that wasn't what our expectations were right according to Brando, me and this other guy's initial 15 second conversation yeah so I'm going home how strong like c e d h strong or just like the top end powerful and it was lathril the elf golgari makes you lose 10 lives elf yes and I go like a ball of elf like ced8 strong he goes maybe not I'm just going to tell you my dad oh and as soon as he said that I switched from Dyson dragons to uh rurik , massive land destruction stacks up, yeah right, because this guy isn't giving us anything, yeah, I know exactly what he's doing and I'm doing fine, it kind of changes like our expectations of the game, this is the lesson, now this is the lesson.

Because we do this all the time, that changes the expectations of the game, like your blocking is a little slow and I'm not trying to get information about your deck or anything I just want. I know if we're going to have a good game because I just want to have a good game, like you're going to leprechaun us and do three years like we paid money to be here, man, and he's like oh, like that never happened. for him, yeah, he just didn't think about it, which is great, maybe now he'll think about it before a game starts and the whole culture of the day will improve.

He says, he says. Oh well, I have to keep up. c-e-d-h decks but because this deck is black and white I can't run any of the removal or anything like oh yeah sorry black and green I can't run any of the interaction and removal I can only run like all the one drop of idiotic mana and fast mana and then I like green protection spells and I'm doing well, so you keep up with c-e-d-h and you're probably going to elf-ball us, he says, he says, yeah, yeah, and now we know, yes, and you change the deck.

I didn't switch decks, I kept an opener that had hordes trump and I was going to try to infect it and it worked in such a way that it killed us on turn four or five, yeah, and if I had had my turn four or five, I would have dropped the jet simply. I already had the Jet mirror in play. I would have stopped trying the hordes and he would have died and I was one lap behind him because he went ahead of me based on the dice roll. Yes, because I advanced. Yeah. and I kept a shitty opener and I had the sweeper in my hand, but my sweeper was 10.

So, I only had nine, so yeah, and once we have the conversation and we know what the expectation is, even if our decks They have very little power. If we know his is the deck to beat because we had the conversation, we can't get mad because we didn't win the die roll and he was before us, you were third, I was fourth, yes, he was second, so his fifth , fourth or The fifth round of the table was before ours and it's like, oh, I guess this was good, learn to be good at rolling dice, kids, that's the main one, that's the main lesson, if you learn anything from this program, just roll, get a die that you feel comfortable with. get a little tray that you really like and just practice, practice rolling, get that, get them 20 years old, baby, don't practice, yeah, don't talk about a game, talk about practice, practicing, man, it's always true, I guess yeah, practice, practice, practice, make perfection, and all that, so. after that, after you get good at rolling dice, yeah you have to be good at communicating what your expectations are and I feel like we're beating a dead horse, I even put that in my notes, we're beating a dead horse, but man He is defeating a dead man.

Horses are so easy that you have to make sure that if there is everything, they just stand there and smell bad, they are easy to beat if there is a mismatch or a perceived mismatch in power and expectations because I think they go hand in hand, level of power and Expectations are poignant pieces of advice that you should communicate to the player or judge who seated you. Hey, wait. I don't think this is for me. I'm going to see if I can jump to a different group and get someone. That will play in a better deck than crab tribal, yeah, right when you're playing elf ball and you're playing job and massive land destruction, yeah, I can't compete, it doesn't work.

I'm going to go into a different group that you have. to be able to communicate that, yes, and it's the most important thing in these smaller events, yes, because they are not command festivals, the commander is something secondary to the main event, the commander is there because the commander is too big to ignore in a event, now you have to have it if you want to make money and that's why they are having these advancements to make money, yes, so you have to have a commander and we are there so the barrier I don't think the barrier to entry is higher, but in certain So you'll get a lot less crap at a small event then you'll be at a commando fest if you show up with everyone sitting in a tribal chair that just rolls people home yeah you're probably not going to get very far in one of these because most decks will probably focus on at least winning a game rather than just replaying it, unless you're going for the cco merch, in which case we'll pile on the crap with you and that.

That being said, with the exception of the 30 seconds of rule zero we just described, I had a fantastic time in Calgary, the complete opposite of you, oh every game I played was good, I think every game I played, my deck did it. It's up to each individual and I got closure from doing the thing and I even won a game there you go, I won one game I think I played five I played six five yes five or six and I won one I also won one so 20 20 15 the rate of wins is not high, we don't have to win a lot to have fun because if you do what you do and interact with people and it's a fun place, it's like going to the bar with your friends.

Yes, they may not have your favorite beer, but you're still hanging out with your friends. Yes, like our friend Effu. Alex doesn't even drink at the bar. Yeah, he's just coming to hang out. He eats some dry ribs with mustard and honey. I think funny and he likes to eat chips, it controls his blood sugar and it's fun for him even though he's not doing what the rest of us do and that's acedar, but I don't think he did. It was like we just wanted to have a game, yeah, and if we all went out like tribal crabs and equivalents in the C edh area, it's not like we had to move, yeah, they're not going to force you to move, yeah, yeah. probably going to be like, man, those casual attempts, yeah, what are these guys doing?

Cdh tryhards, right? and then we all end up playing together anyway, like it's awesome, yeah, yeah, so the preferred way to play has to be yeah, it's got to be man, now I'm excited. for bellevue or belvedere or whatever you call it where are we going botswana botswana butt swan no bats I want to be botswana with botswana butts we want to be there right now yeah, I want our butts to want to be there yeah, a couple of weeks and we'll all be there with you, It's going to be great, yeah, so I don't know what you think, final thought of the day, that's how you win at magic, that's how you win at magic, you show up and you have fun and you always win and you'll make a new friend in the road and it will be a great moment and that is the fundamental thing because as you said it