Where to play in Utrecht or Amsterdam?

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mr.nine
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Lid geworden op: wo mar 08, 2017 1:41 pm

Where to play in Utrecht or Amsterdam?

Bericht door mr.nine »

Hello,

I'm new in the forum and also to this community. I played Magic when I was much younger and I would like to come back again. As I don't really like to play it online (tried already a couple of times), I would like to know if there is any people in Utrecht or Amsterdam willing to play from time to time? I'm living in Holland for fours years already, currently in Utrecht, but I still didn't find anyone interested on playing it. By the way, I'm from Portugal.

Maybe it's also a good way to start learning dutch... :P

Thank you!

Cheers!
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pi
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Lid geworden op: ma apr 01, 2002 11:00 am
Locatie: Amsterdam
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Re: Where to play in Utrecht or Amsterdam?

Bericht door pi »

Have you ever been to The Joker in Utrecht? There are other stores that sell Magic there too, but The Joker is the biggest as far as I know (as someone not from Utrecht). They should be able to tell you about events in the area.

Alternatively: I am from Amsterdam. In Amsterdam there are several events to consider. Every Monday you've got the draft in the 2 Klaveren, a games cafe, this draws people of all experience levels, don't be surprised to see some of the top Dutch players show up, but there will be different tables based on player levels so you wouldn't likely have to face them if you're not on their level. You can get a good meal and drinks here. Every Tuesday there's a draft in game store Friends & Foes. Very nice people and they have smaller snacks and drinks. They do have a maximum of 24 participants which I understand they sometimes hit, so it's good to register for their events: https://www.facebook.com/friendsfoes/. I understand that there's also a weekly FNM on Friday, but I haven't been there and I'm not even sure where it takes place, I can likely help you find more info though. I have my own games club that plays every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month. We don't focus on Magic specifically, but you'd be welcome to come play, I just can't guarantee opponents when it comes to Magic: you have to arrange for that yourself by asking for players in one of our events. On the other hand, there will be players for other games so if you would be open to trying something else I can guarantee players for that. For our event next Saturday we're trying to get a multiplayer game of Commander together and we do have other Magic events on an irregular basis working together with a webshop based nearby. Our FB group can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/504862016265361/. I am not aware of other regular events for Magic, but there are of course pre-releases.

I've tried to list everything I know of, but what kind of games are you looking for? Are you mostly a casual player, or are you looking for competition? Do you like one on one or multiplayer? Which formats do you prefer to play? I ask because it is most enjoyable to play when you're facing people with a similar mindset, especially if their decks are at a similar power level too. If you're too far apart on either it may not be enjoyable for one of you or even both, so this is good to think about.

I would not be opposed to playing every once in a while, but I have a strong preference for casual multiplayer games, preferably the Commander format. My decks tend to fall on the stronger side, though I keep the Commander precons available for games where my own decks would overpower the entire table. I don't mind a few one on one games, but don't expect me to have a Standard deck or anything competitive oriented really (though I do have the collection to build them, I just don't really enjoy that as much as I enjoy casual multiplayer games and so never build for it). Friends & Foes would be a nice place to just sit down and play (on some days they are open during the evening).
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mr.nine
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Lid geworden op: wo mar 08, 2017 1:41 pm

Re: Where to play in Utrecht or Amsterdam?

Bericht door mr.nine »

Hello Pi,

First of all thank you for all the information you provided me so far.
I will definitely take a look at Joker and perhaps this store as well: https://www.lab-monkey.nl/ . It looks that they do some events and I would like to know some people interested on playing.
Regarding to Amsterdam I do spend there a lot of time as I have some friends living there and I used to work close to Leidseplein. I'll take a look two all the options you gave me. Just joined myself to your group in facebook, I'll keep an eye on it. Basically I'm looking for people that do like to play some magic together and also some other board games. For magic I like Modern (for the time you take to build your "perfect" deck), but especially Standard and also Draft, mainly because is more fair.
I never tried the Commander format, maybe I should say that I started Magic in the 3rd to 4th edition, but I would love to play it (just read some of the basic rules). Given this I would be very interested to show up in some event you do anytime soon.

Thank you again for all the tips and hopefully we can meet for some nice playing ;)

Cheers!
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pi
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Lid geworden op: ma apr 01, 2002 11:00 am
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Re: Where to play in Utrecht or Amsterdam?

Bericht door pi »

I noticed that you joined, I confirmed that you could, I also sent you a private message on FB.

What makes those formats more fair to you?

You also left some questions open: do you like casual play or competition? Do you like one on one or multiplayer?

I started playing in '97 myself. Magic has changed a lot since the 'olden days'. I'm a little surprised that you like newer formats like Modern and Standard and Draft (which is normally played with newer cards) as it would seem that they are most likely to require rules knowledge you don't have yet. I could theoretically put a serious Modern deck together, though I wouldn't be likely to play with it otherwise.

You would be very welcome tomorrow and as a group member you should be invited to every following event.
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mr.nine
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Lid geworden op: wo mar 08, 2017 1:41 pm

Re: Where to play in Utrecht or Amsterdam?

Bericht door mr.nine »

Wow, that's weird I didn't get any message from you in facebook.

I think it's fair at least to say that with Draft all the players start from zero, ie they have the same conditions. There are indeed a lot of new terms that I'm not familiar with, but that's what I want to learn also with the new guys. Don't get me wrong, I know it's way more funny to make your own deck full of tricks, but it tends to benefit more the experienced players that have been playing and collecting magic for a long time. I do have my old Merfolk deck from back in the days, together with a Modern Merfolk deck that I have. We should play a few times :)

I like both casual play and competition (but for competition I think it's more fair the Standard and Draft, but maybe I'm wrong), althoug I never really entered in a Pro one. I'm now aware of the multiplayer mode but I think I would love. I remember doing that with my friend with our own rules, 6 to 8 decks playing at the same time. It was really funny. Maybe you can introduce me to that mode.

Yes, that would be great, otherwise I'll join for sure another weekend... (if you invite me!)
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pi
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Lid geworden op: ma apr 01, 2002 11:00 am
Locatie: Amsterdam
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Re: Where to play in Utrecht or Amsterdam?

Bericht door pi »

Perhaps it's hidden because we're not friends. If you go into messenger there's a cogwheel icon in the top left, click on it to expand a menu that among other things shows "message requests", it's likely that you see my message under there.

You mean to say that no player starts with an advantage due to a larger selection of cards in their collection? That's true for every limited format (so sealed deck too). Not so much for Standard though as Standard decks can still cost several hundreds of euros. I would agree that this gets worse for bigger formats like Modern, Legacy and Vintage and that you should definitely consider your level of comfort for spending.

Where I would disagree is for multiplayer games though. Commander is usually played in a multiplayer setting and nearly uses Vintage deck construction rules, with the change that you can only play cards 1x (and a few bans). A bigger collection definitely gives you a deck building advantage, but, that same advantage gives you a disadvantage during actual games: the more obvious it is that you deck may be strong the more people will be gunning for you. The diplomatics element of multiplayer games tends to level the playing field. I have taken down large multiplayer games with preconstructed decks especially because of this effect: everybody underestimated the deck and my play skill managed to cary me to victory despite having an objectively worse deck. This wasn't limited to just a single occurence either. The Commander precons tend to cost atout €30-€35 euros.

I'll be bringing some preconstructed Commander decks tomorrow, so if we do get the game going you'll be welcome to borrow one. Tonight I'll be at Friends & Foes and I have a few decks with me (send me a FB message if you want to reach me). I'm not a fan of lending out non-preconstructed decks though so bring your own. That's nothing personal, it's just my experience that I tend to get frustrated when people miss lines of play when playing my decks and so I only ever lend them to people who've seen me play with them many times to ensure that they'll at least see the more obvious ones (I tend to build heavily synergistic decks, there tend to be many non-obvious lines of play*).

* I once watched a game where a usually capable player was playing his own deck and I asked him whether he had plans for his infinite mana combo. He just looks at me in confusion: "which infinite mana combo..?". (Maze of Ith and Krosan Restorer were in play)
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mr.nine
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Berichten: 4
Lid geworden op: wo mar 08, 2017 1:41 pm

Re: Where to play in Utrecht or Amsterdam?

Bericht door mr.nine »

Thank you! Let's discuss directly in facebook! I do want to play with my own deck as well and learn from your experience ;)

But ok I think I would get the tap/untap the krozan and the maze of ith for infinite mana... Maybe the hint should be, hey attack with the druid ffs!! :D Anyway I was not aware of any of that combination although I remember the maze card from the dark if I'm not mistaken.. Krozan is totally new for me, but quite nice combination :)
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