I have destroyed some lands this weekend

[JackWilson]

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Is there actually any skill involved in magic? It seems like it would be very easy to always find the optimal play and you can always copy someone else's deck

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LOL. I hope you realize this is a very weird question to ask, coming from a poker player. Do people ever ask you if there's actually any skill in poker? Do you get annoyed?

A lot of the skills from Magic carry over to poker and vice versa, especially things like retrograde analysis (to determine the cards in a person's hand) and constantly assessing your chances of winning are, along with what cards you need to increase your chances etc since this affects the value of plays that are currently available to you.

However, one of the most significant skill sets in Magic, rules knowledge, has no equivalent in poker. The Magic rules can be fairly complicated and you have to have a really good understanding of how they work in order to train your mind to spot some of the more advanced plays. Don't get confused though, this is entirely different from the rules knowledge required to be a judge. A judge can be presented with a situation and make a ruling because he knows the rules well, a good player can spot that play in the first place. It's like a proactive vs reactive thing.

So to put it bluntly, yeah, you could say there is some skill involved in Magic. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

BTW, Congrats on your finish, old-timer!