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  • Are you a Spike?
  • Are you a Johnny?
  • Are you a Timmy?
  • Are you a Vorthos or a Melvin, or any combination of them all?

I think I am a Johnny-Vorthos. I love plot and flavor and I love combo decks, though lately i have been doing my best to win so I may be a tiny bit Spike.

Here is an article explaining this: link text

obligation fulfiled.

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lol you stripped that question down GOOD, haha. I always tell myself not to change the format of the question because it might break down the question, but you made it into some kind of checklist haha. – Ancarma Nov 3 at 19:37
well, i'm new to this whole Q&A time forum so i'm throwing things against the wall to see what sticks. – rif-raf Nov 3 at 20:27
What are you talking about? Where's the obligatory link to the explanation of these types? – Avish Nov 4 at 7:27
added obligatory link, though the idea of this question was to ask it and then answer it immidiatly so others would know what I am talking about. – rif-raf Nov 4 at 9:12

7 Answers

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Timmy crossed with Uber-Johnny. I've a pretty limited collection, so I try to think of original uses for my cards in order to keep myself from getting bored. If I make a good deck, I usually take it apart again within a month.

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I've often thought about this, but I could never really decide what category I fell into.

I usually start off by thinking I'm a Johnny. I'm an engineer by day, so I love to understand how everything works; I like to explore all the subtle interactions between cards and come up with devastating combos that others would probably overlook. When evaluating new cards, my first thoughts is, "How can I break this?", not so much in the sense of winning, but more to just use the card for unintended purposes.

I also enjoy tinkering with my decks, tweaking them until they're really good and can win very consistently, which I guess gives me a Spike streak.

Lately, I've been playing a lot more (during lunch with some friends at work), and I've gotten more into the social aspect of the game. I try not to play my really powerful decks very often, often retiring them after I've tweaked them to the point where no one wants to play against them anymore, which I suppose is a Timmy thing to do.

So, I guess my answer is that I'm a little of all 3 types...but I still fancy myself a Johnny.

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Exactly right, all three of the main psychographics are incomplete; merely reflections of a few aspects of actual players. – Shushoto May 18 at 1:52
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I wanted to add something:

Spike is a 'netdeck-player' most of the times. People who recently started playing Magic, and need to get a good deck to get started. Money is not an issue. Google is your friend.

Johnny is also a 'rogue-deck' player. In formats where one or two decks are very popular (Jund for example), Johnny tends to play something completely different, like some weird non-combo deck. These decks are called rogue because they're mostly the sole deck of it's type in a tournament.

As for myself, I'm a pure Johnny.

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I haven't considered this but youre right. but I guess some of those net decks were originaly deseined by jhonnies :) – rif-raf Nov 3 at 18:56
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I'm definitely Johnny with a bit of Spike. I also connect with Vorthos and Melvin - one of the reasons I disliked M10 edition is its total lack of plot.

This was also reflected in the card mechanics - the mechanics often are interrelated with the plot (e.g. in Alara the very existence of five different worlds was felt very strongly in the cards, flavor text, etc...).

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couldn't agree more about M10, oh wait you said 10th, well either way even with new cards they have zero appeal for me with no flavor and plot motiffs. – rif-raf Nov 3 at 18:54
M10 / 10E / 9E etc. don't have plot / story, because most of the cards in those sets are cards from earlier series. The idea behind this is that you can bring back old interesting cards, or cards that fit the other sets in standard. They're not meant as standalone sets with a story, they're just recycling cards to allow players to add them to their Standard decks. – Ancarma Nov 3 at 19:36
well, and also to allow new player a bland and relitavly simple version of what mtg is, before thrwing them into a random world of "expert" sets. – rif-raf Nov 4 at 6:14
I meant M10, yeah, but core sets in general. The thing is they tried to sell M10 off as something better than it was - for me it was just another core set. – ripper234 Nov 4 at 6:58
I like the flavor in each set (I even read the Time Spiral books), but I actually liked M10, though more for nostalgic reasons. It reminded me of classic magic with all its color hate (which adds flavor, too) before all the crazy rules. It's not a particularly interesting set outside that, but I liked it for what it was. – CodeSavvyGeek May 18 at 1:21
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The player psychographics are the sort of theoretical player types that Wizards of the Coast design cards for.

The main ones are Spike, Johnny, and Timmy.

Spike is the kind of player that loves winning so they bring high-priced cards that are designed to win games for him.

Johnny is a combo player so he uses cards that have synergy and combo with each other.

Timmy is an enthusiastic player who uses powerful feeling cards for him like huge powerful creatures or effects that win the game in certain conditions and such.

Vorthos and Melvin are sort of newer by products.

Vorthos is a player that loves flavor and plot.

Melvin is a player that loves finding obscure rules and weird in game situations in which it is unclear what is supposed to happen, or maybe something cool and unexpected happen.

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Editted for grammar. – Ancarma Nov 3 at 14:34
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Completely Jhonny and a litle bit of Timmy haha

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Almost full Timmy. I love the experience of throwing creatures around, and the feel of spell-casting. If nothing else was enough to convince me, the fact that Rise of the Eldrazi was my first ever tournament pushes it over the edge.

I'm a bit Spike enough to enjoy a good play, but not so much that I feel good about sacrificing my creatures. Not even Eldrazi Spawn. Nor do I net-deck at all, or even trade much. I might go Johnny if I had enough cards, but it sounds like too much work.

On the other axis, I swing widely between Vorthos and Melvin. I enjoy the mechanics of game design, but I also enjoy the flavor of worlds. I appreciate both [[[Form of the Dragon]]] and [[[River's Grasp]]], but for very different reasons. "Exile" excited me both for its concise template and its perfect flavor. I've read several of the novels, as well as most of Making Magic. While actually playing, the two vie for dominance, usually depending on how much I need to concentrate on correct decisions.

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