Fancy Play Syndrome

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/li/157

Great article by Steve Sadin. I fall into this often in cube, where the probability of making an extra fancy play grows exponentially. But sometimes you just need to win, not set up a Mulldrifter/Crystal Shard combo.

i've ben really thinking about my drafting style, and this is something i try to really avoid (even as fun as trying to assemble the Empiretron in M12 would be). i realize that i have a different fault: i undervalue curve. it's rarely something i think about during the actual draft. i think about my path to victory, what kind of archetype i'm heading into, as well as the basics (bombs, removal, evasion, etc.), but curve falls behind. often in core set, this is not a problem because the set is crafted in such a way to maximize the "basic" tenets of the game, so naturally my curve is more solid. but in Expert-level sets, i often fall to high curves because i focus on goodstuff in my colors. this is something i'm working on.