When Did Magic Stop Being Fun?

justin and Kevin: Lights, camera, action. So good to be back. It's good to have you back, bud. God, I miss this. I miss seeing your beautiful face. Hey, I miss your beautiful face. I gotta say, how long have I been gone? You're you're melting away over there. thanks. The handsome W. Yep. Well, you've been gone a while. I have. Man, it is it's it's so good to be back. I'm so happy to be here and talking my favorite talking about my favorite hobby. I love Magic the Gathering and I love talking about magic with you. Thanks. It's good to be here. Yeah, I enjoy talking magic as well, playing magic and enjoying magic. What happens if you don't enjoy magic? Well, you know, this is something that's been on my mind and and today's episode what we're gonna talk about is magic should be fun. it should be fun. and sometimes it it's not. And and what happens when it's not? I think, you know, I I feel kind of well, let's go into this. there's a player in our in our group that is kind of been having a hard time lately. They've been I think struggling and And they haven't been having a lot of fun. And it's not me. I love this game. He's been having a little too much fun. Yeah, but you know, I I kind of feel this like responsibility a little bit as one of the matriarchs of of the of the playgroup to just make sure everybody has fun, because this is a hobby. and why else we be doing this if we don't derive some enjoyment from from this. And so I it's just been really on my mind. obviously I know I've been kind of busy with work, but I just been it's been keeping me up at night and been kind of thinking about it and kinda wanted to go over a little bit about like how can we make magic more fun. first off, this player is has been playing for a couple of years in her playgroup. And I think I personally I've been there, but it you know it's it's a hard game. This player in particular, how they derive enjoyment from the game is all they care about is winning. that is their mindset. Which is a bad way to I personally think that if your sole purpose is to win, then you're not gonna have fun. Well, this I mean, this format right is is really bad if you know, if all you care about is winning. Play one on one. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Play play sixty card formats. Play standard, modern, right? let's do some simple math here. this is a four player game. if all things are equal, and it never is, no, you have a twenty five percent chance of winning. if we're talking professional baseball, you're probably getting set down to the mi the triple A's, with that batting average, right? Yeah. It's yeah, you have a twenty five percent chance of winning. And and that that does not include skill. That does not include what your deck you know, if your deck has a bad matchup. But if if if you are only deriving enjoyment from winning and that is all you care about, I think that you are already getting set up for for failure. Yep. so I agree. Yeah. Don't set your mindset to just I have to win. Go into other scenarios. Try to find enjoyment by building decks. Yeah. Or playing new decks. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So let's talk about a little bit about why why are we not having fun? Excuse me. our reality is not matching our expectations. you know, I think most Players, especially if anyone listening to a Imagine of the Gathering podcast, they brew and they think about and they theorycraft decks way more often than we build decks. I I I think about magic almost every day. Who am I kidding? I think about magic every day. I do. It's my favorite hobby. I spend a lot of time thinking about this game. And sometimes we have these, you know, wild ideas that we try to, you know, make come into life and they just don't. you know, it's it could be depending on your pod. It could be something that you've been wanting to work on for a while. And sometimes that doesn't happen. so I think reality is is not aligning with the expectation of what you're trying to get from the the game. That's number one. two, deck problems. You know, decks, you know, the lifespan of a deck goes through ebbs and flows. And it's also very meta dependent as well. this, you know, so we're talking about our our good buddy Andrew. Andrew used to have the strongest deck in our meta at the time, which was Dinosaurs. It's a strong deck. It still is. but now our meta the way it is is we're all getting stronger decks and it's now much more middle of the pack. And I think s the reputation of his deck is also it still holds you know, pe people still think it's it's a strong deck. And and it is, but according to all of our our new decks now, it it's it's like I say, it's much more kind of what I would say, middle of the pack. And and no no shame to his Dino deck, but it's just our power level is increasing. It's not even only increasing, but it's also like when you're playing magic with the same people or even at your LGS if you're around the same people and someone has a certain deck and it's not always winning, but it's winning more than that 25% of the time, right? what's your main focus? well how can I take that deck down? You know? Mm-hmm and You don't have to overpower your deck to beat it. But at the same time, now you know exactly what's in his Dino deck. And guess what? I know exactly what to play against it. And you I changed a couple of my decks around to be like, okay, well, I need to go faster and harder than his deck can go, because it's got green in it, so he can ramp. But if I can get out faster than him and hit him a bunch. You know, like one time where I was playing against him and I was playing my Gore Claw deck. And I got out way faster than him. And I was like, well, I'm just gonna bring half his life total down real fast and then I'll deal with the rest of the people. And he was like totally butthurt about it. But I felt like I had to do that. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's like Andrew cares about winning. that's how he determines I think he judges himself and his decks based on his win percentage. he you know, if he loses, he I think he takes it quite personally. And I totally get it. you know, I think it's I I I think it's good to be hard on yourself as long as it's not a a hindrance to you growing as as a magic player. you know, and and yeah, I yeah, I j I I feel bad, you know. Yeah, but I I you're right. Like it's it's a gift and it's a curse having us all be in the same pod and and playing the same decks, you know, every week. It's we know how to how your deck runs and we know how to beat your deck as well. So I think I think that's a big part of it as well. so I mean with with this, I I'm just been thinking about like How do we make magic more fun? If if someone is struggling, if they're having a hard time you know, with you know, with with their, you know, the decks and and they're playing and you know, let's say their win percentage, how do we what can we do to kind of, you know, break that cycle and kind of get out of that that mindset? Let win. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We can't do that. good old Justin pulling his punches. Well, actually, you know what? Let's let's touch on this a little bit because we play in the same we play in a pod. We we play with the same people every week. We're we're lucky in that, you know, way that we play with our friends and we play with the same people every time we play. so in my opinion, when you do that, It's it's a marathon and it's not a sprint. you know, I I'm not saying let that person win, but you know, there there needs to be a there there's a healthy dynamic in in that, right? Where like, you know, maybe you're not picking on that person exactly like all the time, you know? so Yeah, that's what I meant. Like I'm not Trying to say, like, just let Andrew win or let anyone in our playgroup win. But it's like okay, maybe I won't focus on, you know, Andrew's gonna play his Vivi deck, and I'm like, I know I should focus on him. And I'm like, it's Vivi, right? I'll let it go a little longer and just like I don't know. You know what I mean? Like it's just kind of like I I'm not trying to like let him win, but at the same time, right? It's like, you know, even when I don't know how many games it was, but Marco went through a like a long dry spell of like not winning. Like it was twenty plus games. Yeah. Like there it was like it was like months of playing with us where he was just like in second place, second third, third place, just he was never last, but it was just like he never could finally win. And I was like, Man, have you won a game in forever? And he was like, No. Yeah. He wasn't upset. He just kept going and going and then well, like one night he won like three games and took our belt home. Yeah. for those who don't know, we have a like belt that the winner takes home every week and brings it back. It's kinda like a it's a magic gathering belt that we got at Magicon. but yeah, that's kinda like the prize. he ended up winning and brought it home and I don't even wear a belt. Yeah, a beltless. Another notch in the old belt. No, I have not. So yeah, that that happens. I've been there. and I think for me, it's really hard to change someone's mindset when it goes like a a person thinks the way they do. if a person is overly competitive and all they care about is winning, that can be really hard to. break that, you know, mindset of, you know, of thinking that way. Yep. To me, I I think there are things that we can focus on in a game of commander that have nothing to do with the the outcome of a win or a loss. so is there something like an achievement unlocked that we can do right You know, can we get every single basic land out of our deck onto the battlefield in our landfall deck? Right? Landfall loves getting lands out there. Can we do that? that's an achievement unlocked. Master of Cruelties kill on somebody. this guy. you know, it in in your Kalia, Kalia the vast deck. Right? gosh, there there are these these really cool things that your deck can do. that have nothing to do with the actual outcome of winning or losing the game. There have been lots of games of Commander where I thought were successful and I didn't win. Right. And I think it's kind of the idea is maybe changing that mindset a little bit about for you know, for me when I think of a successful game of magic, I want my deck to function well. I want to interact with my friends and my opponents. I want to make good choices, smart choices. and I want to have some sort of effect on the game that is, let's say, memorable, if we can. that's what I think a successful game of commander is for me. Yeah, I think I would say for me, a successful game would be just not be last. Okay. Okay. and I guess if I am last, yeah, maybe if my deck is doing what it's supposed to do and I am getting those, you know, achievements that I'm searching for or or trying to unlock. yeah, sure. But for me, I think it's more like as long as I'm not in last place, as long as I kill one person, I'm okay with it. Yeah. I I don't have to kill everyone at the table who I mean, I would love to win and everyone, you know, is below zero besides me. but yeah, alternate win cons I I achievement unlocked. I I mean I am a maze's end fanatic. You are. I love Maze's End. And I've I I maybe it's 'cause I started and the gates were like Just unlocking then and I have a special special place in my heart for mazes. That's such a fun, like cool win con, you know? Like that is it's different. It's not thossorical or it's not like, you know, right, right. Some thing that everyone's I mean, yeah, it's cool. You know, approach of the second son. Yeah. I mean I do like me some approach to the second son. That's harder. And I've seen it happen. Maybe once. But yeah, no, it's it's like it I don't know. Yeah. To get ten different lands out. my god. And they come out tapped anyway. So man, when you win amazing. Yeah, but but that's cool. Like I I feel like our our decks are they have stories to tell, right? And and it doesn't always need to end in in victory for me to feel really good about my deck. In fact, I have a story about the last time we played. I my deck did something really cool. I at least I thought. so quick story time. so Glover, by the way, Glover, thanks for filling in, buddy. I appreciate you. I know with work being crazy for me. didn't say it in the beginning, but thanks, bud. Appreciate you filling in and you guys did a great job on those last last few episodes. So Yeah, we had fun. but Glover, I'm gonna tell you about the time I killed ya. last time we played. so Glover was popping off with his CODIS. Is it Codus? The Fang it's Fangbearer? Something like yeah. It's yeah, bug, Voltron, yeah, Indestructible, and you get to play people's crap. And then you also had the Buster Sword out. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, I was busting the move with the Buster Sword. Yeah. he was stealing everything from everybody and his board I I didn't even see any of his playmat it was covered covered in stuff so anyways so I had I was playing my Atla Pulani Changeling Tribal deck and I had Atla Polani out there I had Maskwood Nexus I had a sacrifice outlet and I had Aminath. yeah, Amnath, was it locust of rage? Is that the one with every time an elemental dies, it deals three damage? So essentially all my stuff is elementals. and I have a lot of damage? It's three. I believe it's three. I think he was at quite a high life total as well, like in the h mid mid twenties, something like that. Anyways, I sacked all my stuff. I looped through my deck. more more elementals entered. And I I was able to kill him ba I mean at at instant speed. and I did something freaking cool, right? And I was hoping for a little bit of charity, which I certainly did not get because you know, I kind of I shot my shot there and people did not want me to do that again. So they ended up killing me right after. So I did something so cool. I killed Glover out of nowhere. and I don't remember, but I was I was the next person out. I got third place. I did awesome, right? did something cool, but I didn't win the game. Well, Glover was about to beat He was gonna win the game that next turn if I didn't kill him, right? No, that turn. I th yeah or maybe that turn, yeah. I think he was trying to win and you were like, All right, I gotta kill you. And was like, I have to do this. But you know. We were all like, Wait, what? Yeah. But I was exposed. My pants were down. You guys This is a PG thirteen show, bud right anyways, yeah, I I I was very vulnerable, right, at at that moment. and I got taken out next. So but I did still I still did something cool and I'm always gonna remember that moment. and and I think And you felt so bad doing it too. I remember you were just you were you felt so bad doing it. And I was like, Why? And even Glover was like, dude, why are you so upset? Like, that was awesome. You gotta do what you gotta do. And you were like, No, it wasn't. I I you just you were destroying us and did something amazing. And then you know Well, the thing I think what I felt bad about was he was owning that game from the the start of the game. He was owning us. And I felt like I just kind of st snuck in real quick and and took away his victory just for me to die the following turn. It just felt a little like he had to die. He he had to die. He did. you know, but it's just kinda like I killed him just for me to get third place. It just I think it felt a little bit bad for me. I feel like I stole that place win for him. But but anyways, this is what I'm talking about. There is so many cool things and cool stories that you can get from a magic game without even winning. some of my coolest memories in magic, I didn't even win. it just part of the game, right? And it's really cool. So that's what I think about, right? Is is making those cool stories and and try to get those achievement unlocks. Something else that I think we can do is Yeah, I get out of our mindset, right? So we need to play other people's decks. I do this a lot, actually. I find it really refreshing to play other people's decks. I know some people were like, I don't want to play someone else's deck because I mean I don't know what's in it. Okay, we'll learn it. It's like you read the cards. Explains the cards, people. Right. but yeah, like I find it refreshing playing your decks. Glover's decks are fun. I've played Andrew's decks. And I think some people don't like letting people play their decks because it's in their minds like, my god, I'm gonna watch someone else do what my deck is supposed to do and I can't pile it like that. Okay, well, no, it's it's you know, you know exactly what's in the deck. So and you know, someone's trying to learn a new deck, and that's the best thing is Then you can look through their deck and see exactly how Right. I play way different than you do. absolutely. I play way different than Glover does. Yes. And that is that's beautiful. Like we're not all supposed to be the same. This is not cookie cutter. This is a form of self expression. And and you know, it's like our brains are making, you know, these cards come together and we're built this is what deck building is, right? And it's really cool to see how other people do it. also it just gets me out of the when I play I have so much emotional investment in my own decks. I think about them constantly. I'm tinkering with them. I'm brewing new decks, right? I have a lot of money invested in my own decks. And when when I don't win, that can really set me off, right? and when you just play other people's decks. You're just playing cards for cards. You just you read the card, even if you've never seen it before, and you just play the card for what it does in that exact moment. And it just it gets you out of your mind for a bit. And you just play magic. And playing magic is beautiful. It's so fun. so I love playing other people's decks. And I was saying earlier, we play in the same group. So it's a marathon, not a sprint. when I play other people's decks. I get to see how what what the power is. I get to see what its weak points are. And I get to better understand how to beat those decks. So it it's it's great. I think one time I played someone's deck and I was like struggling so hard with lands. It might have been one of Marco's decks or maybe Andrew's decks, I don't know. And I was struggling so hard with lands and I got pissed and I was like, How many frickin' lands are you running in this deck? And they're like I don't know, like thirty six, thirty seven, and I was like, okay. That's usually what I run. And when the game was over, I and I got my butt kicked. And when the game was over, I was like, I'm counting how many lands are in your deck and I counted and they had like thirty two. and it wasn't and it was not a green deck. And I was like I was like, You have thirty two frickin' lands in this deck? And they're like, I I guess I took too many lands. Maybe it could be. I don't know. It was it was some someone else's deck, but I but they were able to realize, crap, I took out way too many lands to put in, yeah, kill spells or removal or interaction or creatures, whatever it was. Because people, I I'm how easy is it to take out a land to put a sweet ass card in? It's so so easy. Lands are important. Keep the lands in. It's I dude. I tremble every time I have to replace a card. I'm like, I I know I shouldn't take out a land, but it's it's it'd be easy to take out a land. But then I I I've done that. do you do you remember my my Kedis Sakashima deck? Yeah. My copy just trying to copy Kedis and clones. You love to copy I love clones. What's better than one Ishtola? The Baker's dozen there Bob Clones are awesome. but I ran a very low land count on that deck. lot of ramp and my mana curve was quite low. But I I was I kept cutting and cutting, cutting lands out and replacing it. And pretty soon my deck stopped working. And I was like I could not figure it out and I was getting so frustrated. I ended up taking it apart actually. But it probably was just 'cause I needed more lands in the deck. Honestly. it's it's easy to do. It's easy to swap. That remind that reminds me of my even if when I played green, right? My my elf deck. Remember my elf deck? You don't need lands in an elf deck. I thought so too. I was like, you know what? I don't need to run any I I can run like I can run 30 lands. I'm all right. I can run 30 lands. And it it just turned out that like every single time I drew a card, it was like a creature or a spell. And it's like, damn, maybe I do need lands. Yeah. so Yeah, you lands are important people. You need lands, people. You need lands. Yeah, but that that's another good point. Like This goes back to it, you know, sh checking on your deck, the health of your deck, right? it it's it's easy to wanna put the new hotness in in all of your decks, you know, and and cut those lands and cut those and pretty soon your numbers are are are off. and your deck is just not working anymore. But I love playing other people's decks. Yeah. Whenever I'm in a rut, it it helps me get out of my rut and I just I learn what they do, I learn how they brew, how they think. I learn what the weak points are of a deck and I just play the cards for the cards and it gets me out of my mind. Yep. Yep. and another thing kind of along that line is play low power or silly decks. play pre cons, right? I don't think I've ever had a bad game with a pre con. as long as everyone's playing pre con. yeah, I think it's pretty much even playing field. Or I mean even if other people are playing low powered stuff and it's a pre like pre cons versus like a silly low powered deck. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Pre the but the best thing about pre cons is that they just work. They do. it's like they were designed by Wizards of the Coast. Yeah. wait. A lot of the new ones, right? Yeah. A lot of the old ones you had to like throw ten out, throw ten in. I mean, my squirrels deck from I believe Bloomberg. Bro, I think your squirrels deck beaten like my high level high bracket three, practically bracket four deck before. I refuse to change that 'cause it's just so good. yeah, I could make it brutal. I trust me, I get it. It's got chatterfang it. I understand. But I like Hazel. Hazel's good commander, it's fun. is there ten cards in that deck that make no sense? Or could it be more synergized? Hundred percent. Totally get it. But it's just it works. I don't know. My my Ninja Turtle deck. I bought that for my son and him and I like to play it together, against the guys 'cause he's only four and Yeah. He wants to play with me. but yeah, that thing slaps too. Dude, that thing was going crazy the other night. That you had a big board quick. yeah, yeah. I mean, like I say, there is this emotional investment in our decks that we build ourselves and we brew. Pre columns, someone else made it. I just have it, right? And it and it Takes away that and you just again you just play the cards for the cards. And that's why I keep it pre-cons. So there's so if you're gonna buy a precon for the first time and you decide, yeah, I wanna upgrade it, so be it. I'm talking straight pre cons. That is something for me that I'm able to play in heavy off Kevin, sorry, no emotional attachment to. Once you start taking cards in and out of a deck, you get emotionally attached to it. So keep a pre con a precon and you know, if it wins it wins, if it loses, it loses. Who cares? I mean, that's how I feel. Yeah, I didn't make it. It's not my fault. Exactly. Yeah. I blame you wizards. Yeah. Right. Right. My wife blames you wizards from our bank accounts. Of course. Of course. It's up to us to temper ourselves, right, Justin? Yeah. You know I can't do that. No way. I'm addicted to cardboard. Shiny cardboard. Yeah, dude, fractured reality, hold on. Let's just pause for a sec to talk about that real quick. sweet lord. Let's timestamp this video. Yeah. It's coming out in a couple weeks. Yeah. So spoiler season is upon us, and I am I didn't think I was gonna be that excited about it, but they got me. Hook, line, and sinker. They got me. Yeah, I have not bought A box in a long time Daddy bought box. man. They gotcha. They gotcha. But I'm happy for ya and yeah. the cards have been spoiling are been pretty bonkers. So And I have a special place in my heart for Jace. Absolutely. My first bone firstborn son is named Jace, so after the mindsculpt, right? Of course. My wife will deny that, but I will not. We all know the truth. Yeah. So, yeah, I saw this coming out and I like, I gotta get something. Yeah, some of the spoiler cards in it are just disgustingly awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. so yeah, pla play the pre con. play your silly decks, right? a lot of the times when we are playing, you know, our our our decks that are higher powered, let's say. Or at least have a reputation of of being synergistic and higher powered. a lot of times they get the most hate in aggro. there's a reputation around them. So when we play the the newer deck or the lesser known deck or the you know, the sillier deck, let's say. you know, it like Angie's black deck? yes, that that deck, exactly. but it's higher powered, so it tends to get a lot more aggro. it tends to get a lot more hate because people know it more and it's more powerful. So a lot of times the squeaky wheel does get the grease when it comes to to decks. but if you're playing the cilia deck and the lower powered deck, it can tend to kinda stay in the zone of it it people let it do its thing a little bit more often. So until it bites him in the ass. I mean, look at my bird's deck. I made our eyes out. Dude, I made that deck just for fun because my wife his nickname is Bird, and she I was like, I was anyways, going through my family and trying to like build decks that reminded me of them. So I built my wife a bird deck and it's kind of it's just blue, white and super silly, and it's just I refuse to put anything in it besides birds. Like Kevin's like, put this in there. And I'm like, Absolutely not. It's not a bird. And he's like, But it'll be so much better. And I was Don't care, it's not a bird. And it Consecrated Sphinx would be so good in the deck. It's a Sphinx. It's not a bird. It's got wings and feathers. it counts. It flies. but I I just wanted a silly deck that that Yeah, it works in trust people let me get away with stuff and I'm like, I have like twelve Tempest Hawks in that deck. Tempest hawks, people, Tempest hawks. They're crazy. You know tutors? They're pretty good, right? Tutor's another Tempest hawk. It just Yeah. And people just let me do things 'cause it's not powerful. And I'm like, Okay, sounds good, but you know what's powerful? A shit ton of flyers. Flyers win games, dude. You ever seen the movie Birds? They peg people's eyes out, right? Exactly. man. Actually film next kind of close to our hometown. Fun fact for you. There you go. Bodega Bay. Yeah, Bodega Bay. Yeah. yeah, play the fun, silly deck, man. It's you'll stay in the game a little bit longer, usually. usually, usually. Yeah. but I I just I like silly stuff. I really do. And silly stuff can still be synergist synergistic and powerful. Yeah. but yeah, it's it you can tend to stay in the game a little bit longer. So This next one is what I like to do. You know how I like to have fun when I'm in a rut? What's that? Play a different archetype. Yes. Yes. I like to, you know, have decks that are not the same. All my decks have a different direction. I recently have come into realization that all the crap I talk about blue is because I am a because he loves it. He just he hates himself. It's so funny. Anyways, but yeah I have different decks that do different things. Like I don't have like four decks that just make tokens. I don't have decks that just put one one counters on it. I try to have like this deck was an artifact deck. This deck is silly vehicles. This deck is landfall. this deck is, yeah. Big green stompy creatures, of course. That's that's Justin, of course. I gotta have one those. My b my Toby Blink deck. Yes. up you know, I just try to play different and they all win differently, right? Yeah. So and they all have different directions. And that's something that makes me excited. and if I'm ever in a rut, I even I even asked I even asked Kevin or the pod, I'm like, hey, what should I play? Mm-hmm. And then I'll name like three decks that I haven't played in a while. And then usually Kevin's like, yeah, play that deck. And then it gets me excited because someone else wants to play against it. So Yeah. Well, I mean, especially for you. You you have quite a few decks. but even for me that that does not have a ton of decks. I tend to play the same three or four or five. And sometimes I'm like, man, it's it's actually has been like a a few months since I've even played this one deck. And let's let's play it. Right. And but yeah, I I think I think yes, that is good for your roster to have kind of different styles of playing. I think it gets you thinking differently. It gets you thinking maybe a little bit more like completely about the game of magic. you know, you can be an expertise in maybe one of those fields, but I think it makes you a better magic player to to play different styles and and learn how to play against different styles. but it can definitely be beneficial to kind of get you out of your head is is just play something completely different than you normally play. I love graveyards. I'm not an aggro player generally. My my my Voltron deck is No pretty crazy. You are not an aggro player. And even when you do play other people's decks and you almost don't even know how to like fight or swing and I'm like, dude, you need to swing. You're like, I don't know how and I'm like, just go to combat and you're like declare as attackers. Pay mana to to attack. Hey, that was a long time ago. Okay. Yeah. You don't need to be bringing that up. But yeah, I I you know, you're right. I I don't it's hard for me to be aggressive. that's not really my temperament normally. But I probably should learn how to play more aggressively. I think it's it's important in skill development. maybe that's why I started playing or splashing blue. 'cause blue is very like methodical, thought provoking, you know. they They wanna soak up all the knowledge, right? So not playing a lot of like spells on your own turn, but like holding mana open to play spells on other people's turns. That is not how I ever started playing magic. I'm very like aggressive and go. Yeah. Big creature, smash hard. Right. So but yeah, I mean just trying to learn to play a different style. I f I feel like personally I feel like that's made me a more well rounded magic player. Yeah, I I'd agree. I'd agree. In fact, I would say even the the blue your the blue nature of of what you're liking now is is infiltrating even your mono green decks. His Goreclaw is now Radagast. Is it Radagast? Yeah. Is that right? It's got flash, so actually all my creatures have flash now. Yeah, you lo you love you love blue. Once per once per turn, but yeah. They all puse me. Excuse me. man. Yeah. But yeah, you know, look. I I care about people having fun. you know, we are I mean, I hate to age us here, but we're we're approaching forty. whoa. Well, okay. We're almost thirty-nine, you and I. We're we're getting close here. birthday. The sun is set. But, you know, as as you know, you age and you get older and you have more responsibilities of life, we you know, we all have We all have children and we just get less time to play. and I think the time that we get to play is less, but and I just want that to be as fun as we possibly can make it. And and that's not always possible. This game is brutal. It's brutal. you know, you can get salty playing the game. But I think I just want us to have more fun and I want us to think about ways of of having more fun and getting out of our heads. I'm I'm in my head all the time. I I really am. this is obviously a kind of an outlet for that, but I am constantly inside my own head about everything in my life, but also this game. And I think it's kind of nice to step outside of that and kind of think differently and and think of ways that we can make this game more fun. you know, switch sw switch up our decks, switch the darker types that we play, switch our mindset. I know it's hard to change the mindset, but if we can if if all you care about is just wins and losses, I think this format is is failing you in in that regard. You're gonna constantly fight an uphill battle. Like you're just never gonna get to that peak. If you're sole mindset is to win every single game or have the highest percentage of win rate, then yeah, you if you're playing four against four different people, you're gonna lose at some point. And you just gotta be okay with that. you know? Yeah. It's just part of the game. And you need to learn to just move on, people. Yeah. But yeah, changing mindset's rough. I I I I wish I knew more how to help Andrew in changing his mindset. Yeah. Well I'm hoping that some of these, you know, things that were mentioned tonight can, you know, can be implemented into, you know, helping him kind of get out of that rut. I I know I've been there. to be honest, I've I've thought about quitting the game on a handful of occasions. I did quit the game. Yeah. I quit the game for two years. Yeah. So I just said no more, can't do this. I don't want to. sold a all of my cards, some of them, I don't know. Yeah, probably the majority, huh? Yeah. And then came back and haven't stopped since. Exactly look at us now. Yeah, we had a podcast about right. Look at us now. Yeah. Yeah. Even yeah I mean, even just taking short breaks. Let's just okay, let's just not even talk about quitting. But sometimes you just need to like step away, right? And just you know what? I'm gonna miss next week. I'm not gonna go to next week. Yeah. I just need to recharge, look through all my decks while everyone else is playing, then I'm just gonna miss. Or if you don't want to miss, guess what? That week you bring zero decks. You play everyone else's decks. Hey, I didn't bring any of mine because I don't care. And I'm gonna play everyone else's decks. If you want to be part of something, be part of it. But just don't bring any of your decks. Trust me, you won't care. We got plenty for you. Yeah. Love to share. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. absolutely. You're right. That's a great, great point. Yeah. Take a week off, right? Just do something else that's fun. it's a hobby. It should be fun. Maybe during that week off buy some shiny new cardboard. retail therapy? Retail therapy. I mean, that's a thing too. that doesn't solve everything, but that can help. I hate I hate saying it, but y yeah. We love shiny cardboard, don't we? Man, I h we always go back to Magicom, but man, did you see like your face lit up like a Christmas tree when you bought okay. Kevin doesn't buy a lot of cards. I don't so Kevin doesn't buy a lot of expensive cards. That's true. And and the cards that he bought are quote unquote not they're expensive to us, right? Some people collectors spend thousands of dollars anyways. You know, for Kevin and I, spending $50 on a card is an investment for us, right? That's a lot of dinero. Yeah. We have wives, multiple children, yeah, homes. Yeah. Cars. We got Yeah, we're in the band. It ain't cheap. So I mean, spending I mean 50 bucks on a card. And I saw Kevin spend 50 bucks on a card and he lit up like a Christmas tree. it's not even like an amazing card. He just really wanted it. Actually, it was in the story that I talked about Maskwood Nexus. But it's a beautiful Nexus. And I think what I love about that too is there's a story along with that card. Yeah. I remember places that I got certain cards, right? my friends giving me certain cards. And I always remember that. It's kind of like a snapshot of of the time of of that time, right? So that that's when I sold all my cards. I sold one of my prized possessions was an original World Wake Jace the Mind Sculptor. Yeah. Back then when I sold it, it was like hundreds of dollars. Yeah. Yeah, I remember that. And this time at Magicon, I was like just walking around thinking of something. And Kevin's like, dude, there's a Jace right here for 20 bucks. And I was like, What? Like I've never seen him get his wallet out so fast. I did. I was like, I I was like, Is it World Wake? And he goes, No. But I think it's Eternal Masters, which think it's like the second time it was reprint. I don't know. Anyways, I was like, I don't care. I'm gonna buy it. And I was so happy that I now have a Jace the Mind Sculptor again. You got it at Magic Con, right? There's a story behind that. God, this game is so awesome, isn't it? I love this game, dude. Yeah, love doing this with you. Yeah, man. Yeah. Glad to have you back and talking magic. And yeah, hopefully you guys learned something from this episode. Just like try to have more fun. Yeah, and everyone's different, right? Just just if we like to buy cards, Yeah, like we say, there there are lots of free ways to to to have fun too. But yeah, hopefully you guys all all learn something. maybe you guys have felt, you know, Andrew's in our pain a a little bit and we'd love to hear from you. we want to connect with the community a little bit more. You know, if you guys have thoughts, hit us up. yeah, love to talk to you guys and appreciate you listening. And we'll catch you on the next episode. That's Top Deck Therapy.