Sunday, March 4, 2018

If you have a grandparent who wants a game to "keep sharp", here's how MtG can be a great fit.

I decided to start a blog because of the response to a a post of mine over on reddit. It struck me as fitting to start my blog with that post.

This post over at /r/boardgames got me thinking I should share my experience introducing my grandmother to Magic.

My grandmother knows I like tabletop games and wanted a game to "keep her sharp", so I built some very simplistic decks. As we played, I would review her deck with her, explaining what the cards meant and occasionally pointing out strategic considerations.

Here's how I approached deck-building.

  • 1) Mono decks, White vs. Black. I felt it would be easiest for her to understand what White and Black represent, versus Blue for example.
  • 2) I bought as many "vanilla" cards as possible. That way she'd only have to focus on the bare bones rules--mana, power / toughness, combat, life. Four of each card.
  • 3) I also kept the cards as thematically straightforward as possible. Humans vs Zombies. That's something an 80-year-old woman can immediately understand. And she can infer the relative power of an Eager Cadetcompared to Foot Soldiers. I even avoided overly "fantasy"-sounding names as much as possible. If the first name my grandmother read was "Neurok Invisimancer', I figured her eyes would glaze over and she'd check out.
  • 4) No instants, no artifacts--I kept the focus on creatures, so I stuck to enchantment buffs (Holy Strength and Unholy Strength. This further drove home the Power / Toughness rules, as well as the thematic difference of White and Black.

I figured that by the end of the first game, my grandmother would get the gist of the main rules, so for the highest-mana cards I selected something special. I put a lot of thought into how these two cards interact.

  • 5) For her White deck, I chose Serra Angel. She likes angels. She understood Flying right away, and (since the black deck has no fliers) she immediately appreciated the ability's usefulness. She picked up Vigilance more easily than I'd expected, too.
  • 6) For the Black deck, I chose Halo Hunter. Its "destroy Angel" rule introduces the importance of playing a card at the right time (both in my case and in hers). After I destroyed one of her angels, she immediately realized that she could play a second Serra without worrying about the Halo Hunter. (I then summoned a second Halo Hunter, which got me a slap on the shoulder). When she got another Serra out and tried using Vigilance to stop a Hunter, I reminded her how Intimidate works, and she said, "Oh, he's so sneaky! He backstabbed my angel and now I can't get him!". It was a great moment to showcase, mechanically, the thematic differences between Black and White.
  • 7) In addition to the two special creatures, I also threw in some high-CMC sorceries. Sorceries allowed me to introduce the concept of "permanents", which is important because the White sorcery I chose was Planar Cleansing. I chose Zombie Apocalypse for the Black deck.
  • 8) Importantly, I prearranged every card in both decks. I knew our opening hands would only contain lands and low-mana creatures. She'd eventually pick up a creature card that she didn't have enough mana to play yet. She'd pick up a few simple enchantments before the sorcery. She'd pick up a second Serra Angel after I had destroyed the first. She'd get a Planar Cleansing immediately after I played Zombie Apocalypse.

That's basically it. She was very patient for the first half of the game, but by the time the Serras emerged she was getting into it, and she loved when I dropped Zombie Apocalypse--and was even more excited by Planar Cleansing (and the game-deciding Serra that happened to be her next pickup). I of course rigged it so she'd be assured to win.

After the first step-by-step game, I only reviewed her cards when she had questions. Gradually, she got more confident.

Eventually, we switched. She played the zombie / demon deck, and had a great time using Halo Hunter and Zombie Apocalypse against me.

Meanwhile, I used the same method to teach my mom to play. The pivotal moment came when I arranged a two-headed giant game--my mom and my grandmother against me and my cousin (with duplicate White and Black decks). That was what won my grandmother over, and now she expects to play at most family gatherings. She had my cousin help her sister play a White vs White game with her yesterday, so the cult is spreading! : ) Next time I see her, I plan on introducing a some slightly more complex cards, such as Charging Paladin. I think Llorwyn / Shadowmoor would be a great "phase two" to work towards.

Anyway, I had some success with making my grandmother feel good about "staying sharp", and figured I should share. If you have someone in your family who'd be open to it, consider giving this introductory system a try!

Edit: Thank you, everyone, for the kinds words! A few folks have requested the deck lists:

White Deck



*A reddit user made me aware of Angel of Glory's Rise, which is a much more fitting counterpart to Zombie Apocalypse. See original reddit post for more detail.

Black Deck 

(Disclaimer: it kills me that I couldn't compile a list of 100% vanilla Zombies, like the Humans, and that the stats aren't mirrored perfectly at each CMC tier (2/4 vs 4/2, for example). In light of the Zombie thing, I went with the most straightforward creature types possible, giving preference to whatever was most likely to intrigue or gross out my grandmother. I think I managed a diseased Noseferatu-esque rat / vampire feel.


:)
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