Oversoul
The Tentacled One
When the CPA had more activity, some of the cards I've written about in these threads would be criticized as "tournament cards." And like I said in the Wheel of Fortune thread, I have mixed feelings on the concept. I also noted this in one of my Comboist Manifesto articles (I forget which one and it's not important), but I've been influenced by an argument here between Ransac and Al0ysiusHWWW over the "casual" credentials of the card Mutavault. The gist of it was that Al0ysiusHWWW cited Mutavault as a casual card for the "Casual Card Hall of Fame" because he loved man-lands and the combination of an efficient man-land and the Changeling mechanic had some interesting applications that were right up his alley, while Ransac had seen the ubiquity of the card in tournaments and didn't like the notion that such a card was ideal as an example of a casual card.
On that issue, I sympathized with both sides, although ultimately my own reaction came down to trepidation at the circumstances. Al0ysiusHWWW played in more tournaments than I ever did, but he wasn't much of a tournament player and, at the time when Morningtide was a current set, he had dropped out of tournament play entirely and was strictly building his own casual brews. He didn't follow tournament play at that time at all and his biggest exposure to it would have been from me chatting about particular Legacy decks. Ransac actually did play Standard. So the idea that a "tournament player" could dictate to a "casual player" which cards were and were not casual struck me as bizarre. Of course, the issue was really more nuanced than that. The argument wasn't over whether Mutavault was acceptable for casual gameplay to begin with, but whether it was "Hall of Fame" material. And that's a different thing.
I'm thinking it's kind of a spectrum. Just looking at cards I've started threads on here, I see stuff like...
Survival of the Fittest: multi-format superstar. Sure, you can use it in casual decks and people do, but lots of people are bound to associate the card with Rec-Sur, or ATS, or Vengevival, or Madness, or Full English Breakfast, or whatever.
...and also stuff like...
Pursuit of Knowledge: either completely unknown in tournament gameplay or close enough to it that it might as well be, but remember fondly by the minority of casual players who found a niche for it in some deck.
...but most card are in between, like, uh...
Soldevi Digger: spotted in tournament decks, mostly CounterPost, but not that prolific as a tournament card. Also valued for its utility in casual decks.
This seems fine. It is good to showcase a diverse range of cards. Being "memories" I'm stuck with what I can actually remember, and there's a definite bias there, both in terms of what I chose to use historically and in terms of what was available historically. That's why I started a thread about Abyssal Hunter and not Harbinger of Night (I owned both cards, but never actually put Harbinger in my decks). It's also why I started a thread about Wheel of Fortune and not Timetwister (I really liked both cards, but never got my hands on a copy of Timetwister until 2015).
Pondering this, I do want to dedicate more space to some of the cards in my memories that might be a bit more weighted toward the "Pursuit of Knowledge" side of the spectrum. Not that I'm actually quantifying these things. But here's one, anyway...
Anyone ever use this card? I may be ever so slightly guilty of being one of those players called a "blue mage" and I know we're suckers for taking control of other people's stuff. In my early years, I only owned one copy of Rootwater Matriarch, but I tried her out with various shenanigans. I think it's fair to call Rootwater Matriarch "obscure" because I don't remember ever seeing anyone else use the card, although some people must have at some point.
On that issue, I sympathized with both sides, although ultimately my own reaction came down to trepidation at the circumstances. Al0ysiusHWWW played in more tournaments than I ever did, but he wasn't much of a tournament player and, at the time when Morningtide was a current set, he had dropped out of tournament play entirely and was strictly building his own casual brews. He didn't follow tournament play at that time at all and his biggest exposure to it would have been from me chatting about particular Legacy decks. Ransac actually did play Standard. So the idea that a "tournament player" could dictate to a "casual player" which cards were and were not casual struck me as bizarre. Of course, the issue was really more nuanced than that. The argument wasn't over whether Mutavault was acceptable for casual gameplay to begin with, but whether it was "Hall of Fame" material. And that's a different thing.
I'm thinking it's kind of a spectrum. Just looking at cards I've started threads on here, I see stuff like...
Survival of the Fittest: multi-format superstar. Sure, you can use it in casual decks and people do, but lots of people are bound to associate the card with Rec-Sur, or ATS, or Vengevival, or Madness, or Full English Breakfast, or whatever.
...and also stuff like...
Pursuit of Knowledge: either completely unknown in tournament gameplay or close enough to it that it might as well be, but remember fondly by the minority of casual players who found a niche for it in some deck.
...but most card are in between, like, uh...
Soldevi Digger: spotted in tournament decks, mostly CounterPost, but not that prolific as a tournament card. Also valued for its utility in casual decks.
This seems fine. It is good to showcase a diverse range of cards. Being "memories" I'm stuck with what I can actually remember, and there's a definite bias there, both in terms of what I chose to use historically and in terms of what was available historically. That's why I started a thread about Abyssal Hunter and not Harbinger of Night (I owned both cards, but never actually put Harbinger in my decks). It's also why I started a thread about Wheel of Fortune and not Timetwister (I really liked both cards, but never got my hands on a copy of Timetwister until 2015).
Pondering this, I do want to dedicate more space to some of the cards in my memories that might be a bit more weighted toward the "Pursuit of Knowledge" side of the spectrum. Not that I'm actually quantifying these things. But here's one, anyway...
Anyone ever use this card? I may be ever so slightly guilty of being one of those players called a "blue mage" and I know we're suckers for taking control of other people's stuff. In my early years, I only owned one copy of Rootwater Matriarch, but I tried her out with various shenanigans. I think it's fair to call Rootwater Matriarch "obscure" because I don't remember ever seeing anyone else use the card, although some people must have at some point.
