[Free Article] You, but Better

[voltron00x]

This week, since I took the previous week off, I wrote a double-length article with tips on becoming a better Magic player and a better Magic writer. There is considerable overlap between the two, but this is still the longest single-shot article I’ve submitted, at over 7,000 words. Hope you enjoy it.

It isn't Legacy specific, but several of the major examples I use are from Legacy tournaments (such as how to beat 3 Rhox War Monks and a Progenitus with Zoo, or how to deal 20 damage with TES to an opponent playing Merfolk when you have only 7 cards in hand and none are Brainstorm, Ponder, Infernal Tutor, or Burning Wish).

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/20408_The_Long_Winding_Road_You_But_Better.html

[GGoober]

If you write a list of your favorite cards, it will be criticized. If you state an opinion about almost anything and state it definitively, people will argue that you're wrong. If you don't state it definitively, people will complain that you're too wishy-washy. If you don't provide a sideboard for a deck, people will complain. If you provide a sideboard but don't give a how-to guide on how to use it, people will complain. If you do those things, someone will complain that your suggestions were wrong, and someone else will say that you left out a key deck that was only played by one guy, once, that you've never even heard of. At any point, another writer might misstate your position in an article, or attack you in a forum, or mock you on Facebook.

This is the most important essence for writing in my opinion, and why many writers incur wrath on readers. Even though every writer writes to convince, and to convey personal/community thoughts, this is a key thing to note when writing. It doesn't help if you voice out "You know, a lot of Legacy players actually don't know how to play this format, ..." and get everyone bashing you because you failed to explain why Legacy players are bad at their format etc etc.

I've been a fan of your articles Matt. For some reason they always flow well. And no need to keep emphasizing on your thousands of words of article. We get your point :P Your articles are long but never felt long. And I really like the part where you mention statistics being the cheap-weapon used to convince the mass crowds. This is very true indeed. I remember reading Menedian's Why Workshop Doesn't Suck article and I felt I was entirely convinced by the article until I read counter-arguments on TMD by Nick, which got me questioning the essence of arguments, and how statistic and 'tournament reports' don't accurately depict the correct scenarios. Not that I'm an un-fan of Menedian, I enjoy his articles but I'm stressing that powerful voices in MTG can be wrong at times, and a lot of times, it's the malevolent work of deceiving information/statistics that cover you from encovering further material. To stop questioning and is to stop learning. Convincing good writers sometimes do that, fallaciously yet effectively, and lead crowds to believe that so-said decisions are absolute. But only with opening your mind and questioning can you find more information than you ever could find. This is something I learn from playing, and from criticism. I find myself enjoying building decks rather than playing them. I get a lot of feedback that I'm the Jank pilot in my playgroup. I used to take it negatively and get discouraged, but some of their harsh criticism often allowed me to rethink about my decks, either to scrap them or improve them.

All in all this is quite an important article. I think the nature of the article still doesn't instill and manifest itself as a potential "true-classic" aritcle e.g. "Who's the Beatdown", perhaps raising way too many examples to prove a point (but I see why you do that), but this is one pretty damn good article. Keep up the good work Matt, I'm thinking of writing articles for my community eventually, just casually and for fun. People ask "Do you get paid to write?" I don't really ask that question, I just want to write some day, after I pick up more experience and make sure that I'm conveying information instead of convincing information.

[voltron00x]

Fairly or unfairly, I got a couple of complaint emails about my last article due to its lack of specific MTG content. So, I only mention the word count so that those folks feel like I've given them their "money's" worth, since this is a double-length piece.

That sounds odd since this is free content, but... you know what I mean.

[frogboy]

Fairly or unfairly, I got a couple of complaint emails about my last article due to its lack of specific MTG content.

f those people

article was gas you are mighty etc etc

[Rune]

Great article!

That hand should never have been able to beat the Merfolk player, but you played to your only out (Merfolk player doing something extremely bad/stupid) and it worked

[Jonathan Alexander]

Really good article. Actually I'm enjoying longer articles a bit more than shorter ones. I agree that that should never have been able to beat the Merfolk player since he should know that you won't get lethal storm even with Tendrils Of Agony in hand without a bomb. He should've waited for the bomb and then counter it. But using my opponent's spells to get lethal storm is something I'm doing a lot when playing combo.
Whatever, you're definitely one of the best writers out there and your topic was really good. I think there won't ever be enough articles about how to get better at Magic in general. This is the kind of article I really want to read and you're absolutely right in saying that articles without too many examples will be more useful in general, even though examples are an important tool when you want to underline your claims. Especially when you're writing about something new or odd examples are useful to make your articles more concing.

[voltron00x]

Also, hopefully everyone saw that SCG is continuing the Legacy events next year, which is great news. I'd really, really encourage people to submit Legacy articles to internet sites, or to blog, etc as it is really important that people invested in the format write about Legacy, to keep articles on it "fair and balanced", so to speak.

[Plague Sliver]

Fantastic article. I'm an aspiring (non-Magic) writer so this article really hit close to home. I can share the Moneyball love as well, having read it a few years ago. MTG statistics are still in the early stages, too many variables involved.

Enjoyed all 7000 words of it - nice work.