There are three types of Magic players in the Magic community, and I’m not talking about Johnny, Timmy, and Spike. These refer much more to the play style of Magic players. I’m looking at the players in the Magic community

Haters

The first group is the Haters. You know the Haters. These are the guys who can’t resist an opportunity to make others feel bad. These are the guys who stomp on dreams and thrive on your tears. There are all kinds of Haters:

Local Game Store Ass

The guy you play against at the local game store who tells you what a pathetic Magic player you are or how bad your home-brewed deck is. This guy can only feel good when you feel bad. You can be sure he is going to take every opportunity to make you feel bad. Remember that new kid who came into the store for the first time with his hundred-card deck and was crushed in the first round by this Hater? No, of course you don’t—that new kid doesn’t come to the store any more.

When he isn’t driving Magic players out of the game and making it miserable for the rest of you, he is demanding that you trade with him. He pretends he is a value trader, but everyone knows that is just his dressed-up way of saying “ripoff artist.” He has never seen a card worth more than his cards, and he is always trying to get a throw-in at the end of a trade. Something like that crappy Snapcaster Mage in your binder.

Online Gamer Hater

These are the guys who insult you while playing online. These guys are the players who can see they are going to lose but refuse to pass priority, and they make you wait to get the win until they time out. The variation of this guy is the one who will pass priority back to you when his clock has almost run out, hoping that you got up to make a sandwich and you’ll time out, giving him the dirty win he was hoping for. Another variation is the guy who just berates you and explains why you suck for the whole time you have to wait for him to time out.

Prize Support Hater

There are two very different prize support Haters. The first type is the player who always complains about how the store is ripping everyone off because their prize support in the tournaments is so lame. It doesn’t matter if everyone in the tournament is receiving 5 prize packs or if the winners are getting serious cash, the store is never doing enough for this guy.

The second one is the store owner who is always complaining about prize support. This is the guy who gives out hardly any packs for the prerelease and charges $30 or more for entry. He knows that Wizards has sent him free product to use as prize support, but he’d rather sell it in a week than give it away now. This is the same guy who complains that no one is buying product at his store.

Brewer Screwer

This is the guy who takes every deck idea ever created it and derides it. He loves crushing your dreams and the dreams of anyone who has created a deck he thought might be good. Sometimes, these Haters have a favorite deckbuilder who can do no wrong while everyone else is simply horrible. These guys review a decklist (or not) and know in under a minute that everything there is garbage. He may even ask you if you playtested at all. Assuming you have, he tells you that your playtesting was flawed and actually made your deck worse. They never play with decks that haven’t already been through a Pro Tour, and as far as they are concerned, rogue is a dirty word that is properly spelled “rouge.”

Article Troll

You are reading this article, so I know you have seen these Haters. Someone reads an article, and there is something about it he doesn’t like. Perhaps the writer included a decklist he didn’t like. Perhaps the writer espoused a point of view with which he disagreed. Perhaps he thought the writing was poor. Perhaps he just hates the author. In any event, he whips off a quick comment telling the writer that he is an idiot and forgets about it.

The real troll, though, is the one who spends a long time crafting a long, careful response, explaining the author’s stupidity. He goes into long, excruciating detail explaining every factual error, grammar issue, and/or failing in logic in the article. This troll is a talented writer who feels it is his responsibility to crush anyone whose writing is not perfect in every way. You can always spot this troll. It is the long-winded comment in which the troll runs down the author while attempting to display his higher education.

The Silent Majority

While the trolls play their games, the second group in the Magic community make up the majority of Magic players. Generally, Magic players are a good bunch. I rarely run into an opponent I can’t stand. The friends I play with every week are my friends; they wouldn’t be friends if they were Haters. The silent majority consists of a great group of people who love Magic.

Most of this group simply plays Magic. These players are the consumers. This group of players is the largest group, by far. This is the group that buys packs, cards, and Magic-related products.

This group attends tournaments run by others, judged by others. The silent majority listens to podcasts produced by others and read articles written by others.

Contributors

The last group consists of the people you recognize. They are the guys who make an effort to bring something to the Magic community beyond being a consumer. Your judge and tournament organizer are Contributors in your local community. The editors of the Magic sites you visit are Contributors. Podcasters, writers, and the players who do live streaming are Contributors.

This is easily the smallest of the groups. It takes a lot of work to be a Contributor, and almost nothing to be a Hater or a member of the Silent Majority. The efforts of the Contributors are the reason the Magic community is as vibrant and alive as it is.

Taking Action

So, we’ve identified the three groups, what now?

The Haters are going to read this and tell me I’m delusional or an idiot. Many of the Haters don’t even recognize they are Haters.

I understand where all the hate is coming from. All through high school and college, we are taught to think critically. Early on, we were told something and expected to accept the truth of the statement. Then, somewhere along the line, we were told to stop doing that. Start thinking about things critically. Consider the source of the information when determining the reliability of the information. Pretty soon, we internalized that critical analysis and began applying it to every situation, including Magic.

The problem lies with the failure to differentiate critical thought and blind negativity. “That decklist is stupid,” and, “You’re an idiot for writing that article,” have become commonplace and expected. This blind negativity is rampant. Many people on Twitter just skip reading articles and read the comments section in which everyone lines up to take cheap shots at writers and deck-builders who put forth their ideas.

The Magic community doesn’t need the Haters. We don’t need the criticism. What we need is the positive. The Haters will eventually drive the Contributors out of the game. If you are told your podcast is terrible, week after week, at some point, you are going to stop podcasting. If your TO is told repeatedly that the tournaments are terrible, at some point, he will stop offering tournaments.

The most blatant example of this for me was in an episode of the Eh Team podcast. The guys had been planning to meet at the Magic Cruise. Significant money had been spent, and each of them were excited about the chance to all meet face to face (for those who have not listened to the podcast, the guys live in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, and Portland, Oregon). That particular cruise was a bit of a mess from the start. There were issues with signups and other problems. The real problem was when the departure location changed from California to Texas. This made it impossible for all of the guys to attend. The costs of traveling to Texas were much higher than California, so the trip had to be called off.

The guys spent an entire podcast ripping on the Cruise. They ripped the agency, the agent they dealt with, the organizer of the Cruise, and pretty much everything related to it. They went up one side and down the other on everyone involved in any way with the Magic Cruise.

The next episode had Patrick Chapin as a guest. Chapin called them out for all the negativity and nastiness. The organizer of the Magic Cruise was a personal friend of Chapin’s, and Chapin defended him. His main point in his defense was to encourage the Eh Team, and everyone else, to focus on the positive. Instead of constantly attacking what the Contributors in the Magic Community were doing, he strongly encouraged constructive criticism and positive reinforcement.

We have seen this again more recently with the Planeswalker Points fiasco. Wizards came up with a system that ended up having some serious problems. The initial response was straight criticism of Wizards of the Coast and everyone involved in these decisions. Helene Bergeot, the Director of Organized Play, was personally threatened.

Thankfully, the Magic community responded to this negativity by suggesting alternatives and solutions to the problems created by Planeswalker Points. Wizards listened and made many of the suggested changes. Positive reinforcement provided the solution.

The Magic community needs positive reinforcement, and I don’t see why we have to wait until the Haters get their say before anyone speaks up. I want the Silent Majority to stop being so silent. I’m not suggesting we all become pie-in-the-sky, everything-is-wonderful, pastel-dreaming freak shows. I am suggesting that if you like something, say so! I am suggesting that if you didn’t like something, let the originator know, and make a well-thought-out solution. If you spend two minutes looking at a decklist and determine that the deck-builder is an idiot because he didn’t include Card X, keep in mind that the deck-builder likely spent significantly more time building the deck than you are spending to criticize it. Rather than, “This list sucks; Card X should be an auto-include in this deck,” why not try, “Card X seems like a better choice in the deck than Card Y; was there a reason you picked Y over X?”

I enjoyed the Eh Team long before Chapin came on, and that hasn’t changed. The guys are funny and positive about what is happening in the Magic community. When there are things that annoy them, they talk about it in a way that offers solutions. These guys have become examples of positive reinforcement.

Finally, take that step beyond positive reinforcement. I also want to see the Silent Majority become Contributors. We all have various talents that could be used in the Magic community. If you are thinking about taking the judge test, stop waiting, and do it. Your organizational skills could be used as a Tournament Organizer. More artists and writers are needed on all sorts of websites. Keep the Magic community vibrant. Step up. Be a Contributor.

Bruce Richard