Networking

Hello Everybody!

Last week, I went into Boston with my uncle and cousin, and they showed me a really cool building on Broadway called the Venture Cafe. Basically, it's a place designed to create networking opportunities for aspiring business people. Networking, in case you don's know, is basically creating a web of connections of people that you can learn on for future endeavors. In this business world, this can be things like potential employees/employers, or maybe it can be someone who is looking to invest in a good business. As it is said, "It's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know".

In Magic, this is also significantly important. In Standard, I am playing UW Geist Aggro. However, I am borrowing these cards for the deck:

3x Hero of Bladehold (16, 48)
1x Sword of Feast and Famine (38)
1x Sword of War and Peace (19)
1x Dismember (3.5)

That's $108.5 in cards! Without borrowing these cards from 2 different people, I probably wouldn't be playing anything remotely good in Standard right now! How am I able to convince someone to give me over $100 in cards for a long-term borrow?? Simply put, networking!

A major part of networking is the simple clause of "if you do something good for me, I will do something good for you." I am borrowing all the above cards minus Feast and Famine from one guy, who I had lent Consecrated Sphinx for a couple months over the summer (which rose form 3 to 16 in that time). While there's a significant difference in value, there's still the symbol of trust and camaraderie between us. We are also very friendly, and I have once used his couch as my crash pad before a PTQ.

This is especially potent in Legacy where cards are rarer and more expensive. Having someone lend you just 1 Underground Sea is already more financially then all the cards I listed above! Never mind when you need the full set... I personally am lucky enough to have invested hard into legacy just before everything exploded in value, so I don't have to borrow as heavily, but I still had a moment recently where my connections and friends helped me out.

I was trading with a guy who came from a far off land, who probably wouldn't be back to the store for months, and we had finally come to an agreement. I felt like I was slightly ahead, and part of the trade included me pulling 1 Misty Rainforest and 1 Verdant Catacombs from my decks. We shook hands, and he went to the bathroom while I went to find those 2 fetches. As I discovered 5 minutes later, I didn't actually have any Mistys or Verdants in any of my decks! I muttered that under my breath which was overheard by one of the local Legacy players named Matt. I explained to him my epidemic, to which he responded, "I can lend you some, just as long as you can replace them next week". So he gave me the fetch lands, I finished that trade, and once I grabbed the fetch lands from my house and returned them to Matt, the world was at peace again.

I have been playing Matt for months at the weekly Legacy events, and we have lent cards to each other in the past, including him lending me Savannah and $30 in other cards so I could try playing Enchantress at one of the weekly events when I didn't meet the 15 proxy Threshold. I am the only one that I have seen indulge in his 300 card decks, and have taken the time to really learn how the my deck (storm) works, and have helped update the list to improve effectiveness.

With Matt, there's not a lot I can offer him as his collection vastly outclasses mine, so being able to form a comradery has to be through friendly means as opposed to "if you do something good for me, I will do something good for you." As much as I don't think I should have to say this, it is incredibly important to be a friendly person at all times!

What do you gain by being an asshole? Some sort of pride, convincing yourself that you are the best player because everyone else sucks? I personally never feel I am the best player in the room, even if I win the whole event. I know some people who are reliably assholes every time you meet them. I never see these players ever get help from anyone (unless of course it's something VERY minute). It simply blows my mind how some people act! Actively going around telling other people how much they suck, how much their deck sucks, how bad they just misplayed, how much their binder sucks, and how much better you are than them in every form of the game possible GUARANTEES that person will not like you! Why even start then?

On the contrary, if we all start being nice to each other, then everyone wins. For example, I was playing at FNM last week, and I was paired against a kid about 15 years old who was very new, and played faster than a turn 1 Belcher kill. At one point, I attacked with 6 creatures, and he did what new players tend to do: make each block and resolve them one at a time ["I block here, we trade" (moves cards off table) "I block here, your guy dies" (moves your card off table)]. I slowed him down calmly and told him to make all his blocks at the same time. By slowing him down, I prevented him from losing that turn because my Mirran Crusader was lethal, and he only had 1 blocker that could stop it (Solemn Simulacrum) and it was previously blocking my Hero of Bladehold when he was playing at 500 mph. Later that same game, I attacked and only would have won if he forgot about Inkmoth Nexus, otherwise I die on the back swing. He forgot and I won, but immediately explained to him the error, and we shuffled up for game 2.

Normally, you don't explain those plays until after the whole match is over, but I felt that the risk of him playing all his cards correctly and beating me was worth the potential gain of a new friend that may be able to help me down the road. Maybe he can never help me, but it doesn't cost me anything to add him to my network. He played like crap, but instead of attacking him, I said "Good job, you played well, except you missed this one play, which would have won you the game." He was appreciative and I felt good too for helping him learn more about this overly complicated game the easy way.

You may not realize it, but you do have a very large network of people you play/trade with and against. One last vignette: There is a player named Rion who lives in New York, which is a 4+ hour drive for me. I have met him only 3 times in my life, but I vividly remember him each time (1st time was round 7 at an SCG Open, next 2 were over trade binders). Unfortunately for him, I have come to know him as a trading shark who overprices all his foils by 5-10 a piece, and aggressively downgrades your cards. Also, about a year ago he was name-dropped in a ChannelFireball article as a jerk who played dumb saying he didn't know how a card worked (I think it was Jace, TMS or something obvious like that). Because of my personal experience with him, and based off the forewarning from CFB, next time I see him, I will have my guard up and be extra vigilant, because I have come to EXPECT him to try and skrew me over.

That's all I have for today! I feel it's incredibly important for everyone to acknowledge that everything we do adds to everyone else's network in a positive or negative manner. And besides, what can go wrong if everyone is overly pleasant to each other? Until next time, Stay Classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack