Мысль №.... Выбор сердца, выбор души

     Небольшая заметка Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, одного из игроков Magic the Gathering.

The Lord of the Pit Story

     A while after I started playing, my mom gave me a Lord of the Pit for Children's Day. I was delighted - it was by far the biggest creature any of my friends had, and I quickly added it to my deck. Sometimes, I get the impression that people think competitive players have no idea what it is like to be a non competitive player - most people think I don't understand, for example, why cards like Sliver Queen and Doubling Season are printed and sought after, but I do; I started playing Magic when I was very young and I was also enthralled by cards like those. This also means I understand the appeal of Werewolves - I merely think it is not worth the cost, but that's neither here nor there.

     Anyway, back to Lord of the Pit... for a long while I was happy with it. Then I started getting better, and it started to seem like that Lord of the Pit was not going to cut it. A guy offered me to trade it for four Black Knights. I refused, of course - not only was Lord of the Pit, well, Lord of the Pit, but my mom had bought it for me - how on earth am I going to trade a gift away? She would never forgive me, I was going to play with it forever!

     But then, the time came when it became clear that Lord of the Pit was really not going to cut it. And my deck could kind of use those Black Knights. I knew I had to make a choice, and that choice would help defining me as a Magic player. I chose the Black Knights. 

     Moral of the Story: If your priority is winning, then act it.

     Oh, don't get me wrong - it is perfectly fine to choose the Lord of the Pit - it was just not who I was, it did not match what I aspired to be. What is not fine, though, is to lie to yourself - if you choose the Lord of the Pit, know that this is the path you're choosing to follow; many people think of themselves as competitive but when the time comes they will choose their weapons based on criteria that should not be taken into consideration, such as "this card is different", "this is my pet card", etc. If you are in the competitive world and you think like that, it will cost you.

     Так что важнее? Ценный для души, в какой-то степени сентиментальный, Lord of the Pit, или комплект Black Knight'ов, который поможет победить в игре и продвинуться вперед по лестнице профессионального игрока в Магию? Я пришел к ответу на этот вопрос не сразу. Но на данный момент выбор для меня очевиден...