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I was pretty sure I put the "Is Ari Lax a douchebag?" issue to bed with a comprehensive article on the subject.
I was wrong.
Reddit, in all of its inherent mediocrity at Magic, bristles when someone implies they're better at Magic than the average redditor. Ari Lax doesn't imply he's better at Magic than the average redditor. He implies he's better at Magic than EVERY redditor. He did so in a recent "Inside the Deck" interview with Richard Castle for Gathering Magic.
You can watch the video, fast forwarded to the relevant part here
While he didn't come out and say "you're all bad at Magic" he did imply that the way a majority of people who think they're better at Magic than they are use Brainstorm is wrong. He also talked about walking out of a playstesting session with someone who used Brainstorm incorrectly, implying that this would cause him to win games for no reason and therefore the testing session had no merit.
Can we lay off of Ari Lax? It isn't just reddit doing it; I've seen some snarkiness on facebook and twitter since this video went up and it's old. If it were just reddit, I wouldn't care because reddit is famous for being knee-jerk reactionaries. In an article about a year ago written by Brian Kibler, someone in the comments section said something really dumb to the effect of "Well, I don't understand why you're not including X card" and, uncharacteristically, Kibler replied, pithily, "Well, fortunately I DO understand" and reddit formed their characteristic lynch mob to burn Kibler in effigy - that is until Kibler began commenting in the thread. Within a few minutes, Kibler's responses were the number one upvoted comments in the thread and people were lining up to tell him how much they've always respected him.
Maybe Ari Lax should try being handsomer.
Or maybe we should get off of Ari's back. Is Ari arrogant? Yeah, a little bit. Being really good at Magic and having that disposition will do that to you. But everyone has their BS threshold, and just because someone wasting his time in a testing game by playing Brainstorm like a scrub is below Ari's doesn't mean he needs to be pilloried every time he shares a story about someone wasting his time in testing.
The reddit thread was titled "There's [sic] the Reid Duke's [sic] of the world, and then there are the Ari Lax's [sic]". Maybe if we spend a little less time calling someone a "douchenozzle" because their attitude hurt our feewings and more time listening to someone who is better at Magic than we are then we won't keep playing Brainstorm EOT. If you won't listen to a lesson someone is trying to teach you because you don't like them as a person, you don't deserve to get better.
Can also add antics like him being proud of his 6-3 switching to 7-2 on opponent not revealing a morph as why people might get annoyed (better word here?).
I think his bravado is pretty fun in the magic circle. Brings that professional althete melodramatic mindset to our magic amusement. More please!
he’s quickly become one of my favorite players. He brings alot of personality to the game.
Plus anyone who shits on Reddit automatically gets 2 points in my book.
This thread made my day. Knowing Ari personally makes it easy to get fired up at the opinions that some people display, but you have to realize that “haters gonna hate”. All their talk does is reveal their ignorance. Nothing Ari does crosses the line in way, and if the Pro community thought it did then he would have been officially or socially sanctioned by now, as opposed to being respected as a genius of the community with a paid column on the biggest site in the game. He sure as hell isn’t going to change his behavior, which is nothing more than living in the moment.
I can’t knock you for wanting to engage with these people and write what you feel, but I’d rather let them rot.
I can’t believe I am agreeing with Jason where people are out witch hunting on a video made 2 years ago.
That said, this kinda goes back to the FTV rumor post from earlier where just posting this stuff up without thinking of ramifications really makes this part of the site a joke. Why even post this to the front of the page, all a non-zero amount of people are going to see is the title and just go from there.
TBH, I like Ari. The windmill-slam zurgo helmsmasher from the PT was a great moment and I admit to having gone back to rewatch it MULTIPLE times. Because good magic is good magic.
Since when do we expect magic players to have developed social skills?
I get the impression that Ari will continue to serve the role of the heel for many Magic fans but I believe this is a good thing for the game. Coverage and the narratives of the game can only benefit from someone that fans love to hate.
Why does everyone need to be universally loved? Some people don’t like Ari’s attitude. Why do we need to keep writing articles defending him?