MTG Salvation

Silly question, but I've often wondered: does anyone else switch your playmat to match your deck you're currently playing?

For example, I have about 10 playmats and about 15 decks. One of my favorite decks is Roon of the Hidden Realm, and I now only play that deck on top of a really fancy playmat featuring Azor, the Lawbringer because he's in the deck. I used to play this deck on top of a playmat that featured Sunpetal Grove, but I no longer play that card in that deck, so I no longer use that playmat.

I have been playing commander since 20010 and in that time I have owned one playmat that I probably used for.... 5 games ever. I don't use playmats because honestly I freaking hate transporting and remembering them. I double sleeve all my decks and I have probably 10,000 of the same KMC sleeve that I use across all of my commander and board games so if anything gets messed up or splits I have spares.

Playmats seem like a waste of money in my mind. The only exception I would give is if a play area actually seems dirty but usually you can clean the area up if that is the case with some paper towels and water.

Playmats aren't typically my cup of tea. I have the one that was given to me and I bring it to LGSes only if I remember.
I DO however appreciate artistic representation of my decks, be it handpicking exactly which basic lands are used in my shade deck, picking up oil-brown card sleeves in my EDH infect deck, to buying/creating custom deck boxes for many of my decks. I also picked theme songs for a few of my decks, but even I think that "might" be overkill.
I like my decks to have an identity prior to play as it helps the people I loan them to make their choice.

Oh and if I am playing in an LGS with a non-limited deck, best believe I have handpicked which two roll-down dice I am using to display my life total.

Not even a little. I own a couple mats and the only reason for the second was because the first one was getting beat up. I've considered getting something custom, but it's way more likely to be stupid and unrelated to MtG than anything thematically appropriate for my decks.

The playmat I use is from a friend when I lived in another state years ago. No theme, just reminiscing.

I find playmates too small for EDH and pretty distracting.

Well I only have three play mats. Two are game day champion mats so I didn't pick them... and the third is the star city games Fate reforged prerelease penguin Sarkhan. I mean I have a dragons deck featuring sarkhan and a bird tribal deck so that kind of fits...

I only match my Modern Deck (Tron obviously) with my Ugin Fate Reforged Game Day champion playmat. My other playmat is the recent Nicol Bolas mastermind playmat which I find to be very amusing that I won the Ugin game day and the Nicol Bolas Game day years later.

Sure I have one made out of carpet for my "cat tribal" deck.

Short answer: No. It's not practical to assign a playmat to each deck when you typically bring about 3 decks for a session at the LGS. Either you drag along 3 playmats (and 1 is already space-consuming honestly) or you will end being biased when selecting decks to bring.

There's a long answer and it basically amounts to me making some purchase "mistakes" back then. I own a total of 4 playmats, 2 of which were from GPs and the other 2 were the "mistakes". Both of those "mistakes" were me with some overly-ambitious thematic ideas. One was the M13 Bolas Symbol playmat and the other was a playmat of In Garruk's Wake when M15 came out. Both were purchased with the corresponding set of sleeves enough for an EDH deck.

I got the M13 Bolas ones because I liked the design (and still do honestly) and I was running a Thraximundar deck and thought it was the perfect fit, which it was, but that was from the era when I was building and dismantling EDH decks nonstop so one could tell it didn't last.

The M15 wasn't directly related to EDH (although it was still sort of considering I played EDH the most even back then), I initially thought of building a Garruk Horde deck, but the idea never really manifested (and even if it had I highly suspect it'll get played so little it wouldn't last anyway).

I definitely didn't want to waste the sleeves so now Bolas covers for Grimgrin and Garruk for Freyalise, as they are the spiritual successors for the initial plans gone wrong (Grimgrin carries the Zombie theme and Freyalise, being completely creature-cardless is a homage to the Horde Idea that never came to be). However, due to the short answer I gave above, I don't hold particular attachment to the playmats, so while I might occasionally consider bringing them instead if Grimgrin/Freyalise happened to be the "main" deck I wanted to play/test that session, I don't usually use them.

As for the GP playmats, I play only Affinity in Modern and one of those playmats feature Mox Opal so that's the easiest assignment if I ever saw one. So yes, ironically the only other constructed I (really rarely) play has a matching playmat that I will actively pick out (but to be fair I don't play a lot of Modern at all so it doesn't really see that much use either).

The other one features Deathpact Angel and is special to me because it was the playmat from my first Grand Prix and the only one I had signed (by the artist Jason Chan), so while I technically got the Bolas one earlier, being first didn't make it feel special. It's the default playmat I use for all occasions except for Modern and the occasional "overwrite" I mentioned above.

I probably could just sell the two "mistakes" at some loss, but honestly I'm too lazy at this point of time and would rather just take comfort that I ended on precisely 4 playmats, which is perfect usage on the very rare occasions I have my friends over at my place to play some games (I usually head out to the LGS for EDH games and with that group of friends we usually play Cube at some other place instead) and also that I made these "mistakes" before playmats were relatively commonplace "prizes" at LGS-level events (so they're "rarer" than the typical Game Day Champion ones in a way).

EDIT: Fixed Typo

I do that with sleeves, matching my deck with the ones I use. Playmat takes up too much space in my bag to carry too many. I do, however, bring a mat that matches my mood. For multiplayers, I have the Conspiracy mat.

I have two mats. A signed Guru Swamp playmat that I like to use for when I leave the house or participate in special events, and a Chandra, Roaring Flame playmat that I like for more casual house games. They don't really correspond with my decks (though, I did sort of specifically buy the swamp playmat to use with Chainer, Dementia Master).

I rotate through too many decks in a night to match well, but I do have both Damia and Jodah playmats that feel super awesome to play when I'm actually using that color combination or general.

Not trying to tell you guys what to do, but if you want specific art, you can use Inked gaming. I have a Playmat featuring Cthulhu. dark but also really sharp. i use to have a pony mat (Was cheapest one at the store when i bought it and later got my custom mat)

I personally do not see the need for multiple playmats. I have mine, it is MY MAT. No one else has the same one (At least no one I know) Meanwhile at the store i sometimes see people using the same mat at the same game. It kind of bothers me as it shows a lack of personality. I feel your mat should be something unique, which is why i like custom mats.

Quote from Gashnaw »

Meanwhile at the store i sometimes see people using the same mat at the same game. It kind of bothers me as it shows a lack of personality. I feel your mat should be something unique, which is why i like custom mats.

Why though? Maybe something important for you might not be of any importance for someone else?

When i searched for a playmat i kept it simple. I wanted to have one that more or less fits all color combinations, looks neat and doesn't cost a ton of money.It's the "Plains" one of a cycle drawn by Svetlin Velinov, who drew a lot of memorable artworks i like, such as Fumigate, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, Legion's Landing, Phyrexian Arena, Thing in the Ice, Thought-Knot Seer, Torrential Gearhulk and Toxic Deluge.

Quote from NoNeedToBragoBoutIt »

Quote from Gashnaw »

Meanwhile at the store i sometimes see people using the same mat at the same game. It kind of bothers me as it shows a lack of personality. I feel your mat should be something unique, which is why i like custom mats.

Why though? Maybe something important for you might not be of any importance for someone else?

When i searched for a playmat i kept it simple. I wanted to have one that more or less fits all color combinations, looks neat and doesn't cost a ton of money.

It's the "Plains" one of a cycle drawn by Svetlin Velinov, who drew a lot of memorable artworks i like, such as Fumigate, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, Legion's Landing, Phyrexian Arena, Thing in the Ice, Thought-Knot Seer, Torrential Gearhulk and Toxic Deluge.

I am not saying i am right, I am just saying it bother me. I have my opinion on the matter and everyone else can have their own.

I prefer to travel light. I see lots of Magic players coming in with a loaded backpack for Magic events, with multiple decks, playmats in plastic playmat holders, etc, and I'd rather just carry a deck in a deckbox. I have a Satin Tower with a cube worth of mini dice in the bottom tray and a single-sleeved commander deck w/ tokens in the main. That's all I carry around. When I owned a shop, it was crazy how much space so few people could occupy, with bags on one table, trade binders on another, and gameplay on a third. A few guys could make the place look full.

Thanks for the responses!

I actually won a neat playmat at a Legacy event at my LGS using a Maverick deck. I don’t play much Legacy, but the playmat sort of made me want to build a Legacy burn deck (I think it depicts some Fireball of some sort, not sure which card/character it refers to).

Kind of. Depending on how I feel I might take out the playmat that makes the most sense aesthetically. It's not something I lose sleep over.

i currently own three playmats, one from a gran prix 5 or 6 years ago with a random angel on it, one that i won at games day or some other store tournament that has the art work for selective memory on it , and one that i designed and had made at inked gaming. the one i had made at inked gaming has characters on it that match my edh deck that i have fully altered. in that case my deck matches the playmat very well though i still run the deck when using the other playmats and i run other decks when using that playmat. mostly i just try to rotate my playmats so as to slow down the wear.

Quote from ISBPathfinder »

Playmats seem like a waste of money in my mind. The only exception I would give is if a play area actually seems dirty but usually you can clean the area up if that is the case with some paper towels and water.

i used to feel the same way and other than my custom mat i have never bought a playmat. i do think playmats are very useful and worth carrying with you though. giving your cards a clean surface is definitely a common reason to use one, but there is more than that. for starters a playmat is a softer surface when sliding cards across or easier to maneuver due to the cloth top. not every playing surface will be smooth, but your playmat is. likewise i find it is easier to pick cards up off of a playmat. however the biggest reason i use playmats is because it basically marks my territory when playing. this may not be as big of a deal at a friends house, but at a shop or in a tournament setting having a playmat helps give you enough space to play comfortably and to keep people from crowding into your personal space.