Drain PowerDrain Power | Art by Jerry Tiritilli
Hello, and welcome to Am I the Bolas? This week, a follow-up from this previous article!
This column is for all of you out there who have ever played some Magic and wondered if you were the bad guy. I'm here to take in your story with all of its nuances so I can bring some clarity to all those asking, "Am I the Bolas?"
I'm ready to hear you out and offer advice. All you have to do is email amithebolas@gmail.com with your story, a pseudonym you want to use, and of course, only include details you don't mind in the column! You might see your story below one day. You might even hear it on the podcast. Which podcast?
THIS PODCAST! Do us a favor a subscribe to us. We've got some fun stuff in the works and it would mean a lot to Michael, Morgan, and I if you did! Become a Bolcut and get into the Bolcast!
I'm Mike Carrozza, and I've finally seen a doctor following my reaction to the pizza lands.
It's a legit condition! Please keep them away from me!
(Post edited for brevity, clarity, and then some.)
SUBMISSION
Hi again, Mike!
I wanted to thank you for posting the last article; it has driven some great conversations in my normal group and offered many different perspectives. I have a follow up below if you would like to share this story. This ends in a new Am I the Bolas? scenario. It is a longer post as I wanted to give a full update to my previous submission.
I wanted to send in an update on my last submission regarding land base construction and how it fits into the Bracket System. First thing, thank you everyone who offered comments and insight in my last post. I love the feedback and growth opportunities! For context, I’m part of a 16-player group that was split on the use of optimized mana bases and what that meant for our gameplay expectations.
After sharing the previous post with the group, we hopped on a Discord call for nearly four hours to hash it out. I spent most of that time taking notes to get a clear picture of what everyone actually wanted.
First, a quick correction on the group dynamic: I misjudged the numbers. It turns out 11 players prefer tuned land bases, while five do not. Through our discussion, we realized the issue wasn't just about the lands. For the five players who prefer a lower-power experience, the frustration with "optimization" extended to the entire deck construction, which many of the comments on the last post actually pointed out.
Since my last post, we've had eight separate days where at least 12 of us got together, including one of our semi-annual parties where we had 30 players playing. We've made several changes based on our talk. We are now very clear during our Rule Zero conversations, and we actively shuffle pods around to fit what people want out of their games.
We’ve also adjusted our decks. In the previous post, people called out my Winter, Cynical OpportunistWinter, Cynical Opportunistdeck for being closer to a high Bracket 3 based on the mana base alone. I have since adjusted that deck fully up to a Bracket 4 and have had much more enjoyable games. Many of the players with optimized decks have also scaled theirs up to Bracket 4.
At the same time, most of us picked up a few precons to play in the less optimized pods while we figure out what we want to build for Bracket 2. We now have nearly 20 different precons available to the group that we pass around, so everyone always has something appropriate to play.
Overall, this has led to a much happier group. The Rule Zero talks at the higher-power tables are shorter and easier to navigate, and having precons available at the lower-power tables has helped prevent major power disparities. Our life total app tracks our games, and the players who prefer less optimized decks have seen an increase in their win rates, which initially made them much happier.
Now enters this week's question, though. After our large party, one of the very vocal players who prefers less optimized gameplay got pretty frustrated. He felt that players were now "pulling their punches" when playing with him. He said his wins felt "free" because the quality of the decks he was playing against had been intentionally lowered.
We tried to explain that we were just trying to ensure everyone had fun, especially since he was frustrated all the time under our previous setup. We reminded him that the most important thing is just hanging out and getting time to game together. He didn’t care for that response and just kept complaining that people "are playing bad decks now."
So, am I/are we the Bolas for scaling down our decks?
Thanks,
Bubba Trubba
VERDICT
Thank you for writing and asking me to weigh in on your story. As I mention every week, if folks don't write to me, there's no column, so if you, the reader, want to send me a story, whether it's your own or one from Reddit or a friend's, please send it to amithebolas@gmail.com and I'll get to it here.
It's absolutely beautiful that you've got such a big group of pals that hangs out so regularly to play Magic. I'd put good money on most readers being a little jealous of this playgroup you've got going. A four-hour call to discuss the dynamics of the group and to come to solutions that largely have improved the morale of the group is such wonderful dedication. Reading about your playgroup made me very happy. Enough friends to fill a small LGS gets together to play games semi-annually? Incredible. Keep it up. This is what a successful playgroup looks like.
Anybody who's had any success will tell you that it doesn't stay like that without work, and while you've demonstrated great ability within the group to keep things running well, it seems a new question's emerged. It's not an easy one to address.
I can understand where the feeling of "pulling punches" can come from and how that can also feel like putting on the kid gloves. It's likely a matter of feeling condescended to, frankly. It's possible there's an unconscious bias within the playgroup to do exactly what this player (I'm going to call him Tony) is experiencing. I think it's fair for him to address this concern, certainly, but I have to admit that something's stuck in my craw on this one.
If Tony is one of the original players who was vocal regarding the lower-Bracket experience, as is implied in this follow-up, then is this not what was asked for? The group has agreed largely on this new way of doing things, but Tony thinks the punches are being pulled on him and doesn't feel like his wins are earned. Now, what? You got what you asked for! Don't it feel good?
The Bracket System is a conversation starter, but what happens when you have a conversation and everybody's listened? At a certain point, don't we have to get to the core of what's going on with Tony if he's the sole squeaky wheel on this? Does he have examples that come to mind when he cites that people are pulling punches? The Bracket System is pretty clear on the fact that decks in a bracket can play up or down if the group is fine with it.
If Tony's biggest gripe is that people are playing "bad decks now," then it's time to pair up against a Bracket 3 deck, I guess.
But then what? If the decks are mismatched and his win-rate plummets, but the games are interesting, is that enough for Tony? What does Tony get out of all of this? What is the source of Tony's frustration with this situation? Before it's not having "fair" matches and I guess it still is a matter of "fair" matches.
Tony still craves a challenge despite his dedication to Bracket 2. If precons are floating around for these games and people are brewing Bracket 2 in anticipation for more games with Tony and the rest of the vocal five, then I think brew with this in mind. Don't cross over into Bracket 3, but put up a fight. It feels like Tony wants to earn it, still.
"But Mike, we're not holding back!" I bet you aren't! However, Tony's speaking up about an overcorrection. I don't think y'all are the Bolas whatsoever. Oh, you're the Bolas for accommodating players in your playgroup? What's this column become if that's the case!? I think more conversations need to happen with Tony.
The curmudgeon in me wants to hit back with "This is what you asked for and this is what you all talked about," and let this response be a sentence long. I think Tony needs to build a list of bullet points to describe what constitutes a perfect game for him in regards to the playgroup and if there's anything else to adjust as the dedicated bunch you are, I think you'll find it.
If everybody else is happy, it's important to not shift off of things too drastically, but if there's something Tony points out that can make a difference for him, it's worth the chat to get everybody up to the same level of content. Don't forget to take stock of how you play against Tony. Do you find yourself resisting the instinct to swing at him? Is it because of this Bracket 2 situation? Yeah? Well, then you better turn those creatures sideways. It seems like he wants a challenge in his weight class. Give him the goods!
Thanks again for writing in, Bubba. It's delight to learn of your whole group!
Mike Carrozza
Mike Carrozza is a stand-up comedian from Montreal who’s done a lot of cool things like put out an album called Cherubic and worked with Tig Notaro, Kyle Kinane, and more people to brag about. He’s also been an avid EDH player who loves making silly stuff happen. @mikecarrozza on platforms.
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