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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PoeticJustice" data-source="post: 4992477" data-attributes="member: 51788">One must also realize, as the article on mtg.com points out, that few are one archetype and one archetype only--most people have a primary mindset and hints of one or both of the other archetypes guiding their thinking. Some share the considerations of two archetypes equally. Some try and achieve all three simultaneously, because much as some might like to believe it, winning big, winning creatively, and winning competitively are not mutually exclusive.What you describe, Dausuul, is actually another archetype (or non-archetype, depends who you ask) called Vorthos. Ironically named for D&D character played by a mtg.com staffer, Vorthos spits in the eye of winning as a goal. To Vorthos, the inferior mechanic is one that does not directly correlate to the story. Indeed, winning--contextually defined as defeating one's M:tg opponent--is absolutely irrelevant to Vorthos, who just wants to build a functioning deck comprised of cards that all depict the same battle, or all have flavor text spoken by the same character, or represent characters that are plot-correct (a weatherlight deck that features all the crew, for instance).Let's review1. Spike ("optimizer") takes Linguist because he's traveling to a land where common is not spoken and he wants to be able to communicate normally. He retrains it away as soon as he leaves the land. If there was a feat that did something better than allowing one to speak, Spike would take that instead. Ceteris Paribus, there is no feat better than speech.2. Johnny ("combo player") takes linguist because a paragon path requires one to speak Elvish. If the paragon path required another feat, he'd take that one instead. Power and optimization is secondary to working toward a mechanical goal.3. Timmy ("power gamer") takes linguist because it allows him to speak the seven words that makes a woman fall in love with him. Timmy wants BOLD! SWEEPING! RESULTS! with less complexity than Johnny's combo and less nuanced than Spike's comparatively utilitarian build. Timmy seeks the awesome, the legendary. Spike's archer build might be better overall, but can Spike get a woman to fall in love with him by saying seven words?4. Vorthos ("?") takes linguist because his background mentions his ability to speak more languages than his race would ordinarily let him.I know this is a long post, but it's a complex topic. The essentials articles probably do not optimize very well. On the other hand, the Paladin handbook reads a lot like the local M:tg crowd describing the metagame.</blockquote>

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