For years, my friends and I have always played Legacy. We adhere to the ban lists of the format but don’t drop insane amounts on our decks. I would classify our decks as fun/casual, probably costing us $300 max per deck. Not tournament quality by any means, but we have fun and that’s what matters to us. We have decks that are fun to play but definitely aren’t over powered due to our budgets. Weenie, board lockdown, burn, zombies, elves, etc. the type of decks that kill on turn 5-6 or even later.
We recently have been discussing finding new players for our legacy group. What we are finding though are players who don’t want to play with casual Legacy players because our decks aren’t up to par with theirs.
We always knew are decks weren’t tournament quality but I never expected it to be this hard to find new players for our group. Do other formats have this same issue?
Have you actually played with other players and they said they didn't like it because your decks are underpowered? Or, did you go in and say you were playing underpowered decks and they didn't want to bother? I think this is important. It seems odd that they wouldn't want to even bother playing at all; giving your decks a shot against their would at least be sporting. But, if they played against your decks and found it was too "easy" for them, I guess I can kind of see that as they may not feel it is worth the time to play if there is no challenge.
I also assume these are just random people and the games are being played outside of a tournament type atmosphere. Since in a tournament they would obviously have no choice but to play against your decks.
As to whether other formats are like this: I don't think this is really a format issue necessarily. However, Legacy tends to be on the high side for power and complexity and it might make it tougher to compete against "normal" Legacy decks. Or, at least, ones running some of the higher powered cards. I have seen a number of decks in Modern at FNM that wouldn't be considered Tier decks and I haven't seen anyone balk at having to play against them. I do think Modern is a bit better for this as the cards are cheaper and the meta a bit more diverse where someone can bring in a rogue deck and win a few games.
As another alternative, if your area supports the players, is Commander. I don't want to totally drag you away from competitive Magic if that is what your group likes to play, but Commander allows for lower powered decks (or, at least, more budget-conscious ones), it might be easier to find players to play against, and you get to use an Eternal card pool like Legacy. Has your group given any consideration to this or are you set on Legacy as your format of choice?
We have played with a few people at FNM. We lost some and won a couple, the games were anything but one sided which was surprising. Others, we have talked to but never played. They asked us what decks we play and we tell them, then we never hear from them again or they flat out tell us they want to play against more competitive decks.
We would like to stay in the Legacy format because we have a lot of fun with it. We have discussed making some Modern decks. Legacy is where we would like to stay though.
That is certainly disheartening for your group, but if you can continue finding games at FNM, that seems to be the route to go. At least then the opponents have no choice but to play against you. I know Legacy can be a bit tougher as it doesn't always have the players that other formats do.
Do you have any other LGSs you can go to or are your options pretty limited? It is possible, depending on what your group wants to do, that you might have to branch out into Modern if you just can't the games in that you want against other players. It is certainly not ideal so hopefully you are able to build your group a little and find consistent play groups to play games with.
Yeah, there is another store that is a bit farther from us and we could make a point to start traveling there every now and then. We try to get together once a month at someone’s house to play and right now there is 4 of us. It’s gets a bit hard between work and family responsibilities though.
We also can’t go to FNM all the time, it’s actually rare that we can go because of work and stuff. When we do go, we do kind of feel like the odd ones out but I think that is because we don’t have any relationships built with anyone there.
We are talking about branching out into Modern and still play legacy as well. I don’t know much about modern other than its sets 8th Edition and newer, with different banned cards than other sets. I think anyways.
Man, that's a real shame. To be honest though, I think that many legacy decks are designed to prey on a particular meta/strategy/aspect of legacy that many 'underpowered' decks can completely wipe the floor with them. I'm not really sure what's up with those legacy-playing peeps though; i'm guessing they don't realise that if they keep it up, legacy isn't going to survive that much longer in their area.
Heh, when i first read the title, i thought it was more along the lines of "bring whatever legacy deck you want throughout the history of legacy". So obviously, i went straight to flash-hulk, and UG-survival!
Your issue is “legacy”.
If you want to attract people, just call it casual. Sure, you might find one but with Silverborder and Vanguard cards (official ruling with Vanguard cards is that all players must use Vanguard cards in order for one player to use them), but it would get fresh blood.
The term “Legacy” even outside of MtG is prestigious, which brings to mind people with monocles that use only Alpha Basics as their basic lands and everyone there knows the secret handshake and inside jokes about Jace and Teferi.
I have my Legacy decks of which turned out really well. Then I have my casual Shades deck that is worth over $100 because I grabbed My Cabal Coffers when they were new (and why I didn’t have a Nantuko Shade until years later for it, as it was a $15 dollar card at the time. People don’t always consider your experience of the game and how at the start you (probably) didn’t buy every single you needed. You traded, you cracked packs when you could, maybe the kids in the neighborhood pooled money and bought a box to share and draft. Your really good expensive card is really good and out of circulation. Their really good cards might still be in standard, but will appreciate in value over time if they are modern and legacy worthy, bringing their boat closer to yours.
TL;DR: just advertise for “casual” magic. You’ll get more people in. Worse comes to worse you can loan them decks to use during the meetups.
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We recently have been discussing finding new players for our legacy group. What we are finding though are players who don’t want to play with casual Legacy players because our decks aren’t up to par with theirs.
We always knew are decks weren’t tournament quality but I never expected it to be this hard to find new players for our group. Do other formats have this same issue?
I also assume these are just random people and the games are being played outside of a tournament type atmosphere. Since in a tournament they would obviously have no choice but to play against your decks.
As to whether other formats are like this: I don't think this is really a format issue necessarily. However, Legacy tends to be on the high side for power and complexity and it might make it tougher to compete against "normal" Legacy decks. Or, at least, ones running some of the higher powered cards. I have seen a number of decks in Modern at FNM that wouldn't be considered Tier decks and I haven't seen anyone balk at having to play against them. I do think Modern is a bit better for this as the cards are cheaper and the meta a bit more diverse where someone can bring in a rogue deck and win a few games.
As another alternative, if your area supports the players, is Commander. I don't want to totally drag you away from competitive Magic if that is what your group likes to play, but Commander allows for lower powered decks (or, at least, more budget-conscious ones), it might be easier to find players to play against, and you get to use an Eternal card pool like Legacy. Has your group given any consideration to this or are you set on Legacy as your format of choice?
We would like to stay in the Legacy format because we have a lot of fun with it. We have discussed making some Modern decks. Legacy is where we would like to stay though.
Do you have any other LGSs you can go to or are your options pretty limited? It is possible, depending on what your group wants to do, that you might have to branch out into Modern if you just can't the games in that you want against other players. It is certainly not ideal so hopefully you are able to build your group a little and find consistent play groups to play games with.
We also can’t go to FNM all the time, it’s actually rare that we can go because of work and stuff. When we do go, we do kind of feel like the odd ones out but I think that is because we don’t have any relationships built with anyone there.
We are talking about branching out into Modern and still play legacy as well. I don’t know much about modern other than its sets 8th Edition and newer, with different banned cards than other sets. I think anyways.
Heh, when i first read the title, i thought it was more along the lines of "bring whatever legacy deck you want throughout the history of legacy". So obviously, i went straight to flash-hulk, and UG-survival!
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
I do agree that this kind of attitude from “elitist” players will end up ruining legacy around here. It’s a shame for sure.
If you want to attract people, just call it casual. Sure, you might find one but with Silverborder and Vanguard cards (official ruling with Vanguard cards is that all players must use Vanguard cards in order for one player to use them), but it would get fresh blood.
The term “Legacy” even outside of MtG is prestigious, which brings to mind people with monocles that use only Alpha Basics as their basic lands and everyone there knows the secret handshake and inside jokes about Jace and Teferi.
I have my Legacy decks of which turned out really well. Then I have my casual Shades deck that is worth over $100 because I grabbed My Cabal Coffers when they were new (and why I didn’t have a Nantuko Shade until years later for it, as it was a $15 dollar card at the time. People don’t always consider your experience of the game and how at the start you (probably) didn’t buy every single you needed. You traded, you cracked packs when you could, maybe the kids in the neighborhood pooled money and bought a box to share and draft. Your really good expensive card is really good and out of circulation. Their really good cards might still be in standard, but will appreciate in value over time if they are modern and legacy worthy, bringing their boat closer to yours.
TL;DR: just advertise for “casual” magic. You’ll get more people in. Worse comes to worse you can loan them decks to use during the meetups.