Why Some Magic Cards Suck 

Storm Crow isn't the thumbnail....

It was Colossal Dreadmaw for those here after they changed it.

you are very close. so I'm a spike

Melvin and the 15 squirrels.

*slow claps*

Then don’t buy packs… ?

Edgelord Timmies unite!

Hamsters and rangers everywhere, rejoice! (c)

I would say so. The initial trio of Timmy, Johnny and Spike describe how players interact with the game of magic, while Melvin and Vorthos don't have to play magic to appreciate the aspects that they like. I for example am a Melvin, in terms on how I look at the mechanical design of cards and can appreciate a good design separated from the context of the game of magic. But when I play magic I don't really have that urge of brewing and deck building that Johnny players have. I usually just go for lists made by someone, maybe with some substitutes. Also I feel like the 90% of custom card makers (at least the good ones) are Melvins, because they like thinking about the design space.

Haha shhhh

Oh I think that was one of the types I was trying to remember and couldn’t!

@distractionmakers be my pshyco analyst for a second. I make Commander decks for the interactions, but mostly for the other players and passerby to go "oh wow, that's a neat way to use that" or "I haven't seen that before" It might be a Timmy/Johnny cross but idk?

That's Timmy

@@jaredwright1655 Thats a Jonnhy they play to express

I think a Cube is likely the closest thing a Melvin would build.

Custom cards I feel like would also be something I could see. Trying to design something new and fun within the system of magic. Or maybe a deck that revolves around unique/unintuitive synergies that push on the limits of the rules.

Queen Allenal of Ruadach / Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang. 'Okay I'll explain, bring me a whiteboard'

It makes me rather sad that we don't have room for vanilla creatures in sets anymore.

What is a Melvin?

Eh... Metagamers are a subset of Spike, just with a contrarian streak.

Spikes are on Meta. Other Spikes are anti Meta in order to attempt to get an edge.

The colours don't map cleanly on to the various psychographics, they have different fundamental principles at play, but within colours a lot of individual cards are definitely made by catering to them. Blue's one of the easiest examples; spike blue's force of will and brainstorm, Timmy blue's krakens and stuff, Johnny blue is like future sight, etc. You can also look at successful cards in the colour and how the hit multiple archetypes; Urza's good for vorthos, spike, johnny. Kappa Cannoneer and Murktide Regent are both very spikey but have a strong Timmy "Lol, why turtle/dragon so big." element, etc.

Timmy cards can 100% be good.

I've heard this mentioned before, and the conclusion I usually see is that if this type actually exists, they're Johnny players. As mentioned in the video the psycho-graphics aren't about what you do, but why you do it.

@@Ninjamanhammer yeah, wanted to say that sounds like a subset of johnny. They want to self-express how they "don't care for the rules" so it's about being liberated. Often times they don't play to win or rather they don't care about the win condition of the given game. They make their own win condition, which could be "everything is pure chaos" or "nobody can't do anything I'm staxing every player including myself", they're playing "divine internvention" to force a draw, they start an infinite loop, that doesn't stop by itself and as such forces a draw. But it can also be just using their cards and removal to unbalance a game and make one player miserable, e.g. intentional misplays. They're trying to break the game. In short, they're trying to "escape the matrix while bragging about it"? And of course, it can be incredibly annoying, because especially in a multiplayer format, that kind of player will often non-sensically king-make another player. The way to comabt this is to have a talk with these kinds of players and make them understand, that just because they're having fun, that doesn't mean everyone is having fun. And if they don't understand this or don't want, then you just gotta move on and not play with them anymore. A good friend of mine was like this and I told him that his tendency to always try and find a way to "not actually play the game" made me miserable and not want to play with him. He actually understood eventually and now we're having way more fun, whenever we play a board game. He's still very "creative" and on the hunt for edge cases but he's now playing to win, not to be free.

I think you can’t help but lean towards the archetype you are. In the current landscape of easily data I think spikes are being overly represented though.

We should switch that to the Johnny/Jenny.