Pattern Recognition #256 - Player Types (Part 1)

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

22 September 2022

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Good day everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut's longest running article series. I am something of an Old Fogey and a definite Smart Ass, and I have been around the block quite a few times. My experience is quite broad and deep, and so I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. Be it deck design, card construction, mechanics or in-universe characters and the history of the game. Or whatever happens to catch my attention each week. Which happens far more often than I care to admit. Please, feel free to talk about my subject matter in the comments at the bottom of the page, add suggestions or just plain correct me.

Welcome back everyone! This week is something of a last-minute choice as my original plan was starting to look a little vindictive, so I needed to step back and work on something different to clear my head. And thankfully, Wizards provided this week with our Unfinity spoilers. What they provided was an excuse to step back and get really meta with the game, and talk about the players who play the game.

You see, Wizards has created a pair of complimentary demographic charts or graphs that represent the two major metrics by which players interact with the game of Magic. The first and most famous is the Timmy/Johnny/Spike trio of player archetypes and preferences, while the other trio is still be developed and defined, being the Vorthos/Melvin/Meta.

Now, I want to say one thing right up front. The Wizard' gender-inclusiveness means that most of these names have variations on a name when the default name isn't seen as gender-neutral enough. To whit, Timmy is also Tammy, Johnny is also Jenny, Spike is neutral, Vorthos is neutral and Melvin is also Melanie, while the Meta is neutral. I respect and agree with these choices, but for the purposes of writing here, I will default to the names I know best as I write. This is not be saying one is better than another, just that when I say one or the other, the other gender variant name is implicitly implied.

And that I have to even give that boilerplate annoys me because we're all Magic Players. Your gender shouldn't matter, just that you enjoy the game with the rest of us.

Anyway, on with the show.

The first and original tri-part demographic is what Wizards describes as a Psychographic profile, which in more layman's terms, is an attempt to categorize how a player plays the game. And I want to make one thing clear here. These denominations are not exclusive to each other. They are not points around the edge of a circle, they are range bands that overlap with each other in different directions. A person can be one or more or even all or none of them. They are descriptive, not prescriptive.

Timmy (and Tammy) is often described as the player who plays the game for "The Big Plays". They are the ones who look for the largest spells, the biggest effects, the most powerful and over-the-top cards and seek to play them as often and and and quickly as possible. If you ever see a card in the game with a huge cost, and a commiserate effect, it's probably a card aimed at appealing to Timmy.

Timmy, when faced with a horde of 1/1 tokens, won't cast Pyroclasm to take them out. They'll cast Wildfire instead. Not because it's better for the task at hand, but because it is bigger. Timmy and Tammy will throw everything they have into a single spell because "Why Not?" Spells with in their casting cost appeal to them because it gets as big as they want; from the classic Fireball through to March of the Multitudes or Torment of Hailfire.

Timmy, as a Power Gamer, is a firm believer in bigger being better, and they will go to great lengths to prove that to themselves and to everyone else at the table. On the positive side of things, these are the players who will see their plays as not only massive and great in of themselves, but they want to share the sense of entertainment when they do their thing. To them, their best plays are a showcase of not only their own skill and dedication to the end-result, but also a tribute to the cards themselves that make it possible.

But on the other hand, Timmy's desire to go big has negative values attached to it as well. Their desire for strength and bigger numbers can lead them into punishing gameplay where the only thing that matters is being bigger, with more cards, more lands, more creatures with bigger numbers; and challenging them leads to them either doubling down or taking their inability to be the best out on other other people.

Mark Rosewater describes them as the Experience players, those who play the game for the positive experiences they get from the game itself, and while it includes the above description, it can also be the Social aspects to the game - Timmies can love multiplayer formats more than others for this reason -, or the joy of watching their deck just work.

Timmy's natural colour is , as that is the colour with the biggest creatures, the best ramp, and the largest ability to generate the largest effects. They can be in any colour, but 's slice of the colour pie is where many of them start, and many of them stay. Look at the flavor text in the card image above, and in the most recent printing of Timmy, Power Gamer. In both, they reference what was the most common "large" creature at the time, the ones most likely to be played by a player who embraces this archetype.

Yes, used to have the largest creatures, it was a thing. Leviathan is bigger than Force of Nature.

Moving on, we get Johnny and Jenny, the Combo players of the game. If Timmy and Tammy are the Performers of Magic, then these players are the Technicians of Magic. Combo Players of this stripe look at the interactions of the cards in Magic, how the mechanics and the rules touch each other and they see the game as a Great Machine whose intricacies are beautiful in design and execution. To them, there is no such thing as a bad card, just a card whose use hasn't been uncovered yet.

Everything is a resource to Johnny, and of the three primary archetypes, they are the ones most willing to try something new, to try something different and to see if what they think will happen, will happen or not. The more complex the interaction, the more detail-oriented the cards, the more fringe things are, the better they view themselves. On the bright side, they know all the rules interactions, so Jenny will be a good person to ask a rules question of, as they will be more likely to have an answer without needing to refer to other resources.

Johnny as a Combo Player, is a firm believer in knowing the game, knowing the rules, and knowing the cards. They will demonstrate their depth of knowledge about the game at the drop of a hat, and will gladly help other people with their interactions. To a Johnny, the worst possible thing you could be is wrong. Mistakes? Those happen. But never wrong. And because of this, they tend to be extremely innovative and off-the-wall with their designs. Johnny and Jenny were at the forefront of trying to figure out how to make the infamous (at the time) One with Nothing could possibly work. Before Madness and Hellbent were mechanics.

But of the three primary types, I view Johnnies as the most... well, let's go with self-absorbed. They want their combo, and come hell and high water, they will get it. I've been at EDH tables where a Chulane, Teller of Tales player goes off, and starts moving pieces around the board, doing this and that and something and another thing, so I got up, got a can of pop. Drank it. Went back to the table and asked if the Combo player was done yet. 10 minutes later. The answer was "No!" and the Johnny didn't see what was wrong with that. A Bad Johhny will play the game at the expense of everyone else, for their opponents are obstructions at the worst, and irrelevant at the best.

Rosewater describes Johnnies as being a Creative force in Magic, always pushing boundaries and bringing new life into old cards. They seek, they strive, and they create works of art with the same cardboard that other players see as nothing more than a stack. If you ever see a card that seems incomplete, it is because it is a card designed with the Johnny in mind, and it is open-ended to allow them to fill in the gaps.

Because of all this, Johnny's affiliated colour is , the colour of knowledge, planning and options. They know what they want to do, how to go about doing it, and one way or another, it's going to happen. Nothing personal, you see, they just have a setpiece they want to assemble. And like the other cards representing them, the flavor text reflects a slightly viable infinite combo from Mirrordin block. A more modern reprinting would include a more modern combo-order, probably involving Jhoira, Ageless Innovator

Spike. Spikes are, unlike the Performer or the Technician, are the Efficiency players. They play to win. They play the best cards and the best value and build the best decks they possibly can. Of the three core archetypes, they are the most competitive. To them, their deck is the epitome of their skill and their desire to win, and they take great pride in the effort they have gone through to do their best.

Spikes view the game as a test of skill and cunning. To them, every new set is a chance to iterate their existing deck designs, looking for that one trimmed card that could be replaced, that one slightly better piece of cardboard. They know their decks inside and out, and know the best ways not only to pilot their decks, but also how to respond to the actions of other players. They strive to perfect their game at all levels, and will take the opportunity to hit that sweet spot if it becomes available to them.

Spike is a Tournament Grinder. They don't give up. They will fight to the bitter end if that's what it takes to win. They will look for paths to victory that are narrow and perilous, but still possible. They are the most dedicated archetype to their craft, and it shows. But despite their desire to win, to have and be the best, a good Spike will respect being beaten. Because to them, an honest loss just means that there is room for improvement, that there is still something out there that can be better still and that is a goal worth striving for. Constant improvement.

On the flip side, Spikes are perhaps the quickest to flip on an opponent. The switch between Respectful Nod to Punish You for Playing can be very easy to cross indeed. I disagree with Rosewater on this - the Griefer isn't a Timmy, they're a Spike. They want to win, and if you ruin their fun, they can take it very hard. A bad Spike gets angry - at themselves, at their deck, at the other players - for their loss, or even just the perception of losing, and that quickly spirals out and ruins the enjoyment of the game for everyone else.

I agree with Rosewater that the Spike is the most competitive archetype, and plays the game for the love of playing the game and in the challenging and being challenged. In a set, the cards with the most disproportionate effect to their cost are aimed at the Spikes, to give them something to work with and to encourage them to take that risk with the new rather than the old

It's telling that Spike, Tournament Grinder is . Or rather is . Phyrexian Mana, the payment of Life instead of mana for a spell is an extension of the core conceit of - that there is no cost to great in the pursuit of victory. All that matters is that you win.

With that out of the way, join me next week when I talk about the other three types of players, the Secondary Archetypes. They're even more fun and interesting! Talk about your experiences with these player descriptors below in the comments, as I'd like to hear what you think.

Until then please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!