While much of this information is still relevant today, much has also changed over the past three years. With the added Standard Pauper filter on Magic Online, there is no longer the need for players to take extra steps to figure out whether or not a deck is Standard Pauper legal. Further, with the release of new features for the Gatherling program on PDCMagic.com, registration is sometimes handled differently than before. And finally, with the upcoming release of the new client for Magic Online, the way that players create tables, join channels, and even navigate to a particular game room have changed.
So, the time has come to create an updated version of this New Player Primer. The plan is to release a new version by the beginning of 2014. And that's where you come in. Take a minute to look over the previous version. Then, in the comments below, help answer the following:
- What information is still relevant?
- What information is outdated or needs to be updated?
- What isn't included but would be helpful for new players?
- What is unclear or could be presented better?
- Link to current sets
- Standard Pauper filter
- Sideboarding rule changes
- Deck registration using Gatherling
- Room name differences between old and new client
- Join channel differences between old and new client
- Using pdcmagic.com forums instead of Wizards forums
- Updated information about typical Worlds qualifications
Great ideas, glad to see this being taken up!
ReplyDeleteI am all for using the PDCMagic forums instead of the WotC forums. PDCMagic runs well in the backgrond while I am hosting or competing. WotC's site just slows things down too much.
I'm also dealing with Worlds issues this very day. I really needed to close the current SPDC season before it just got too big and so I can begin a new one that runs alongside the set-based seasons of MPDC.
I feel very strongly that running a year-long season as opposed to short seasons in keeping with set releases was a big mistake, the major contributing factor to the drop-off in hosting availability and player attendance that I'm now trying to remedy. Too much can happen in a year.
I cannot find a lot of the early season players to afford them the Worlds exprience they were promised, so I've decided to carry over the Season 19 points into Season 20 in hopes that they return so they haven't lost everything due to the drop-off. Keeping track of season points and making them known to players is going to be a top priority of mine.
I will say that the Season leaderboards are kind of overlooked to on PDCMagic. They are available in each event report, yes, but I feel the top performers would be well served to have the leaderboard featured more prominently. Also, another reason to hold shorter seasons, standings need to be readable. This is the way SPDC Season 19 looks after a years' worth of events:
http://pdcmagic.com/gatherling/seriesreport.php?series=SPDC&season=19
Ugh. It's just too long. Compare to how neat and clean the current MPDC season report is:
http://pdcmagic.com/gatherling/seriesreport.php?series=MPDC&season=23
Much nicer.
One other thing I would add to the list is to somehow present players with some reassurance that this is indeed a strategically deep and competitive format no matter what sets have been released. A little historical context could prove some general points about what it's like to play with only commons in the Standard card pool.
We have Standard Pauper metagame data dating back seven years to provide proof of these particularities. It's important that we hook people into wanting to play the format in the frst place. Then we have reason to provide the how-to information on joining the community and participating in events. Let's give them some of the basics of building decks and playing them in this environment to spark the interest of new players...and so their first deck in their first event isn't 100% fail like mine was :-)
Clan members, if you browse the Newcomers section on the forums, you can find a link to the draft version of the New Player Primer 2014.
ReplyDeleteNow available! http://puremtgo.com/articles/writer-adept-new-player-primer-2014
ReplyDelete