What I Learned From FNM Last Week

So, this post might be a little late in actually appearing, but it's backdated properly, so there's that. My apologies, things have been busy in the real world and blogging had to take a back seat.

Last week's Standard-format FNM saw half of our attendance from the previous week, which was somewhat expected but also kind of disappointing, that we couldn't maintain the attendance from the release party. I have a feeling that Limited really just is a more inclusive format for casual players, which is probably true. Even with an environment where most players don't play serious decks that you might find at a Grand Prix, more casual players have attached a stigma to competitive Constructed play, even at REL-0.

The hard part with this as a judge is that it's not really your job to try and maintain attendance. The other side of the coin is the fact that before I was a judge at my LGS, I was a player at said LGS, one of the two who were involved in bringing FNM events to the store. That leaves me with what I feel to be a small obligation to have an effect on the attendance of events at the store, because I'm invested in the whole thing as a founding player. I will point out though that a good number of players at the store are friends of mine from outside the game, who mostly came back to competitive play because I convinced them to try out the Return to Ravnica pre-release, and got them hooked again.

As for what I actually learned from last week's FNM, I spent the entire week trying to discern a lesson from the night as a judge, and came up wanting. Instead, I learned something as more of a player. Attending an FNM doesn't have to be for the explicit purpose of participating in whichever nightly event your LGS is hosting. You can show up, and just play Magic on the side with whoever's free if you so desire, and your store has room for you to play alongside those participating in FNM.

If you happen to be a more casual Magic player, and happen to be reading this blog (and for that, thank you, because this blog is brand new,) try looking up your local game store's FNM events, and just go out with any deck and see if anyone wants to sling spells. You'll more than likely have a good bit of fun playing Magic, and who knows, you might see that your local store's FNM atmosphere is quite laid back, and you might actually want to participate the next week, which might be your first step towards one day playing on the Pro Tour. (I'll admit, I'm watching Pro Tour Journey Into Nyx coverage while writing this post.)

As for my lessons from this week, as it's Draft night, I'm hoping to just have fun, and actually have something meaningful to learn from for next week's post.