Networking is very important in Magic, and it’s how many of the greatest players in the history of the game got to where they did. Behind nearly every single truly great player you can see a lot of strong players backing him up from the sidelines and helping him achieve his goals. At a local level, this can be as simple as testing Caw-Blade for a few hours and loaning someone a key piece of the deck he or she needs for the PTQ that weekend. In the end, it all boils down to having friends and making friends who are motivated and want to succeed in this hobby we love.

The first misconception I’ve noticed about networking is that to truly network well, you need to hang around and be friends with people you dislike or don’t get along with. Simply put, this isn’t true, and you shouldn’t waste your time trying to get along with some jerk just because you want to get better at the game. With that said, some people need to take a step back and ask themselves if they’ve actually interacted with that person in a meaningful way or if they’ve only judged that person on a small set of unrelated actions. I know from personal experience that some people prejudged based on comments I made offhandedly at the store or articles I’ve written in a snarky tone.

Some pros are pigeonholed like this, with many people never actually meeting them or interacting with them in any useful fashion. They come off a certain way in how they act and the tone in their writing, and people tend to not give others a fair shake when they read/hear a tone they dislike. You don’t have to like these people, obviously, but think about who you hang out with and if any of them have that same brash tone or slight arrogance and are still fun guys to be around or play MtG with. It doesn’t cost you much to give everyone a fair shake, and the real jerks of the community tend to out themselves rather quickly.

Building the Group

The key is to make friends and acquaintances with a fair portion of the MtG community in your area. If you’re in a town with a university, ask around and check around for any local game shops or clubs set up. There should always be a handful of people who play Magic in the general gaming group of any university, and from there you can join in. The easiest way by far is to go to events like qualifiers and large prereleases to maximize your time spent and still have some fun at a tournament.

For the most part, there are two things to keep in mind when entering a new community of people. First is that few people react well if you try to interact and come off as a socially awkward barnacle, so unless there are natural opportunities to get involved, don’t force it. Second, you need to be able to offer something in return, whether it be cards, rides, or your natural charm and sense of humor. By being able to offer something in return, you can dispel the notion that you’re only trying to become friends for some material benefit down the line. Sadly, the Magic community tends to attract a fair number of deadbeats and people who, if you went to dinner with them, would throw in fifty cents to cover their part of the tab and then lie about it.

Come off like a reasonable individual who isn’t just trying to leech off someone, and your experiences will largely be pleasant even if you don’t become the darling of the community overnight. By having favorable interactions with people and just being relatable in some fashion, you can get involved in most activities and sow the seeds for future friendships. I met a good chunk of my friends during and after college through Magic, and it really isn’t difficult to accomplish if you’re willing to come out of your shell.

Building a Community Online

Of course, you won’t always have the opportunity to be a part of a local community or consistently travel to a game store. Sometimes, you have to bite the bullet and live somewhere that’s away from the hub of Magic, and your relationships with those who play will suffer to some degree. However, we’ve come a long way from the olden days, and with technology, it’s still feasible to discuss and test with friends. Here’s a list of the tools of the trade for such a community.

• Facebook / Google+ / private forum
• Internet chat such as Pidgin / ICQ / AIM or a host of others
• Magic Online / Cockatrice / Magic Workstation
• Skype or simply a good phone plan

Social-networking sites have really changed how people interact with one another in Magic discussions. Rarely do you see serious technology discussed via forum or e-mail anymore; someone just makes a FB group, invites a bunch of people, and the content begins to flow. Unlike forums, which people need to make a part of their everyday routine or won’t necessarily check, social media is something many people have ingrained into their everyday lives. This makes it far more likely for people to spend a few minutes reading what a group member just posted or snapping off a quick reply to someone.

Once you have a group set up, decide what you want to get out of it and set guidelines accordingly. If it’s just a play to share some tech, BS with one another, and plan for events, there won’t be very much effort involved in the whole affair. On the other hand, if you want it to be a regulated and effective test group, you have to seriously consider who you want to be in it and what kind of posts are going to help your cause. If I’m in a serious testing group for a large tournament, it means we want discussions going about top matchups and breaking down certain tech we see around the net. It does not mean I want to stare at your netdeck that you totally 4–0’d FNM with and think has an amazing Caw matchup.

The other reason you need to be stricter with one type of group is because, in the end, you want to find out who really wants to be in it. There’s nothing wrong with not being the type of player who’s interested in high-level play or only wants to read a forum, just don’t impede others trying to make use of it. People being rude to one another in there is also not something you want to go on very often unless everyone knows each other—so the smaller chance of a culture-clash happening, the better. You see this happen a lot on MTGSalvation in the Competitive forums. There are two different definitions of “competitive” to these players, and suggestions for one aren’t going to carry over to the other.

Having a private forum also helps you from having a crusader pop up and make all real discussions unreasonable. This is another drawback of public forums when someone who knows everything buts in and then won’t drop an issue. You built the deck differently from his? Allow him the opportunity to waste multiple posts talking about how silly you are for not liking Jace, Memory Adept in Caw. Dismember in Caw? Once again, you are mistaken, my friend, and don’t let the list featuring three main-deck in top-placing U.S. Nationals lists fool you, because that metagame was entirely different. At some point, you realize he’s no longer interested in evidence, learning something, or optimizing a deck—he just wants to be right and for everyone else to know it.

The downside is if one of the people you like and talk shop with actually is one of these players. There’s no skill cap on this, and some of the best players around are also the most stubborn and set in a specific way of thinking. If it becomes a huge issue, you need to take time to evaluate whether his contributions are worth the nuisance and disruptions of dealing with him on a constant basis. You also need to ascertain whether other people in the group are hurt or offended by comments, and who should try to grow thicker skin. Ultimately, nobody wants to kick someone who means well out of a discussion or test group, but sometimes it has to be done before others just leave the group of their own accord.

Group Talk

Most ideas about deck-building and tweaking are atrocious, and the actual decks we cobble together aren’t much better. No matter who you are or how good you are at Magic, it takes a lot of effort, thinking, and a bit of luck before you have a viable deck to throw around. This is the process, and while having a group will help it along and slay bad ideas more quickly, your group will still have plenty of them. By studying the process of how each of you comes up with what, you can eliminate the worst of the ideas without needing to spend much time on them.

Having a solid group of guys (and gals) to bounce ideas off can be a huge help, more so if they’re willing to put some of the grunt work in with you. However, the most important attribute for someone in a testing group to have is the ability to say no. The capability to articulate why a concept is bad or unworthy of continued attention can save many hours of testing and thinking time, and ultimately lead the group down the right path. It’s difficult to do, though, and you’ll see even pro-level testing teams led astray at times by a few people who can’t or won’t stop the other members. Better to get into a small argument and head it off early than when a bad idea has grown and sunk its talons into the creator and possibly others.

Aside from the open sharing of ideas and decks is the easy and quick ability to set up testing sessions. You have what is effectively a built-in bulletin board, calendar, and reminder all rolled into one, so take advantage of it. If you live a significant distance away, setting up online playtest sessions is easy and free via Magic Workstation or Cockatrice. If you do have the cards online and prefer Magic Online, that’s also an option and also more helpful in some ways (you’ll never forget a trigger or have an awkward rules-question moment).

What’s even better about having all of this in one package is that you can also easily record test data and transcribe it online immediately. No scribbled notepads or memory errors—you can just pop open a Facebook page and write down all your information and post it in near real-time. Then it’s just a matter of the group organizing and dissecting it at their leisure, since it’s all in one space. Right now, it’s never been easier to spawn a place for the community to interact in a nontournament environment and get players from all over the globe to join in. You just have to be willing to put yourself out there and try it.

Okay, that sounds a lot like a tagline for a dating service, so I think that’s my cue to end the article. Next time on the Real World: Magical Christmas Land, I’ll be talking about U.S. Nationals and what it means for the next few weeks of Standard play. After that, I’m open to suggestions, so feel free to make a comment or send an e-mail!

Josh Silvestri

Email me at: josh dot silvestri at gmail dot com