Unlocking the Vault #27: Year 1, a Retrospective

Posted on June 19, 2012 by enderfall

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  2. I feel like the overall trend for Classic participation is: throw lots of shit at them and they’ll play. Arguably the two most successful “events” were the Winter Celebration (not strictly an event) and the Blippy events. The thing is, they were a) incredible EV and b) were by-and-large populated by non-Classic players. What I mean is that they are not the ones who usually play Classic and aren’t in one of the major Classic clans or members of Classic Quarter. The next most popular might be the League and there again, it was just free stuff thrown at people. For as long as I have been a “member” of the so-called Classic community, there has been an incessant beg-a-thon style of pleading with people to join Wizards’ events (Winter Celebration notwithstanding, of course) with people (myself included) periodically doing a “join/drop” just to help reach the minimum threshold of 16 players *worldwide*! Not a sign of a healthy format.

    I have written this before in an article, the main barrier to entry is not financial, it is knowledge. Classic is a format that functions on a completely different axis than other formats, with a tighter top deck pool and a bunch of unique win conditions. Time Vault, Tinker, Bazaar, Oath of Druids, etc. are all powerhouses that do not exist in other formats. Even transitioning from Legacy to Classic requires a steep learning curve. Compare this with Modern. Most decks in Modern are pretty straight forward and easy to understand and therefore easier to jump into the format, especially when it’s so easy to get in practice games in the TP room (regardless of their value in true play testing).

    Classic has a lot stacked against it. It has a catch-22 of needing to attract players based on its own merits. It should be less “please, help us!!” and more “this format is awesome, come have fun!” Unfortunately, that cannot happen with no events. The problem with the League is the expectation of free play. I had hoped it would draw people out of their shells and it worked for some, but obviously I failed long-term as here we are a year later and in a worse situation than we were last year.

    Overall, enderfall, I just wanted to say thanks for your effort in trying to maintain the format. I wish you the best of luck and lots of success over the following years! :)

  3. @PlanetWalls: There are two things going for Yawgmoth’s Bargain: It can be hard cast within reason from just a single Dark Ritual and 4 or less lands (with artifact acceleration) and you can draw a card in increments of 1. The Soul Spikes are a good source of gaining some of the life back, but if you are below 10 life, it’s a serious gamble to activate Griselbrand and hope you hit something. The upside is that Griselbrand is a win condition in and of himself. Bargain can’t say that. Still, he is just one guy and against an aggro deck, he can only block one creature at a time. I wish it could be more viable but not while Delver is running around.

    It’s possible that Show and Tell into Griselbrand should take an entirely different route. It’s also possible that Oath is just plain better than Show and Tell.

    @MMogg: Thanks for your kind words. I think you may have made your argument of “knowledge” in one of my earlier articles. That said, I hope my primers and articles can be a tool for people interested in getting into Classic and bridge the knowledge gap. If anyone has any ideas that could make my articles better in this regard, please let me know! I agree that Modern is much easier to jump into.

    The free tournaments have brought in new people but they’ve failed to capture anyone. It could be the expectation of free play, but I think there is something else that is the root of the problem. Either way, I will continue to fight the good fight.

  4. Actually, I made the argument almost a year ago in a Blog post on the Wizards’ site called “Classic: What’s the Deal with This Format?”

    http://community.wizards.com/mmogg/blog/2011/07/18/classic:_whats_the_deal_with_this_format

    :)

    Anyway, I think the problem with articles bridging a knowledge gap is that much of the knowledge is experiential, such as how a (your) deck interacts with other decks in the format and how that influences your decisions. Every format has that, but Classic has the potential to brutally punish mistakes.

    I suppose the best foot forward might be to actually do videos. I know for me, I learn best visually. More importantly, though, is the potential for creating interest in the format by displaying it and thereby crushing some of the misconceptions. People are far more receptive to videos than written articles about formats outside their normal sphere, don’t you think?

    You have a noble fight on your hands and — unfortunately — real world commitments prevent me from joining in. Once more, good luck, sir! :)