I have been playing Magic since Legacy,and back then there were only 4 to 6
players(including myself and another friend of mine) in my area(a small
village near Lisbon)and in my school only 3(including myself and another
friend of mine, anyone else with a feeling of "déjà vue" or just my
impression?)I first started because this friend of mine(Sérgio)gave me some
cards and we just didn´t knew to play the game(back then he was just a
collector and had about 1000, or so, cards) so we just made mistakes that
any pro would laugh himself to death!We didn´t had Internet,just computer
but no Internet, so we weren´t netdeckers, we made our own decks. I bought
"Crusher"(from Legacy) and the Brian Selden 1998 World champion deck. My
first deck was something based around Recur-Sur but i wasn´t playing the
deck well(errata cards,and sometimes when i am explaining to a casual player
what a card does because it has errata, i just drive myself nuts because
many of them are just scared people who don´t want to trade their cards(like
myself when i started)  always think that they are right, and don´t
understand the game as a whole)).Then Urza´s Destiny came out and we as
scrubs were only thinking:"commons and uncommons are easier to get and we
dont care about rares" so we made trades that were just bad!!!!!!Then when
Masques came out , there was a brochure about tourneys.We decided to go to a
tourney and there we were.I took a deck based around the "Fiendish Nature"
deck from Destiny because in the strategy book it was telling that "there is
not much that can resist to this deck"(scrub usual error, someone says them,
this is a great deck,or card and they just get crazy saying that they could
win to anyone with it ) but i hadn´t got all the cards from the Advanced
version so i threw green,black,white and red onto the deck.It was so crappy,
but it was a 63 cards deck.My friend took a blue-black designed by him that
was a 90 cards deck!!!!It was an Extended Tournament, and i met some really
nice guys, the first i played against , thought me some valuable things and
recently i traded with him , i got a foil pre-release Overtaker(But i would
rather the Avatar of Hope that he also had). It was 6 rounds for everybody
to play. I went 1-5 and my friend went 1-4 because the last of his opponents
drop out. We went back home and we were amazed on how many cards the shop
had and guys with binders full of rares(the first card we saw that was only
to be seen and not to sell was a signed Black Lotus). We cranked up some new
ideas and we started making another decks.I got a pure Green(used to be my
favorite color but now i haven´t got any, so now people that see my binder
are always wanting to get my green cards,i have lots of good ones), and i
really saw the potential of Blastoderm.The deck was based around Weatherseed
Treefolk and one of my favorites, Thorn Elemental.I only had 2 of each but
it was enough because the deck was based around mana critters, pumpers and
tough creatures.I sometimes knocked my opponents out so fast that i was
amazed with all the victories i was getting, but there was one that started
playing Magic a week before and i just loved to play against him. I just
never gave him a chance(you will understand why in the end) and always let
him get me down to 5,eventually 2 or 3 life while he still was at 20 and
then i just beat him with 2 Thorns pumped up by 2 giant growths,dealing
exactly 20 damage to him, .I was getting from 6 to 10 wins a day and 0
losses against all my friends.Then we met a guy in our school that we just
didn´t know that he played Magic.He has about 10000 cards,and got 57 at
GP:Portugal in 1998,where about 800 people went. We started playing
multiplayer in my school(i love this format when i am playing control, as
anyone else in the whole world!).Well then me and Sérgio got to know Inquest
and he instead of having 40 rares he had 150.Well we were good players and
the game was starting to suck because there wasn´t many people playing the
game and no one was competitive enough. Well we got Internet and i dont need
to tell you why we are two of the best players in my school and pretty
competitive players at the local workshop in Lisbon. We aren´t Pros but we
are good damn players, when we see a deck that we like on the net we just
playtest it and do some modifications if needed.Currently we are using Tom
Guevin´s skies deck but with some changes(took out the 4 opt(really cool,but
we needed the slots)added 3 maindeck Waters and 2 Air elemental,making it a
61 cards deck and adding 3 chill to the sideboard because sligh is pretty
common in our metagame).
And what about Pros?What makes them the idols of little frightened
scrubs?Well they were the first to play the game so they understand it as
almost no one else understands.They are calm and "cold" players who don´t
give a damn if their opponent is a scrub or no(at least lots of Pros).Their
main concern is about winning Big Prize tournaments so casual players get
frightened when they get a Pro on his pairings(like me in my first
tournament).Pros dont make silly trades like this: I was wanting that foil
Lin-Sivvi and his Tangle Wire of another friend of mine and what i gave
him?Two Bargains Two Plaguelords,some black commons and uncommons. Pretty
good deal hu? Also Pros have decks that almost play by themselves and as
many Pros play perfectly or close to perfectly, they know when they are
gonna lose or win, once they know what is their next matchup. Lesson from
here? Casual players are rogue players who want to get fun playing the game
and don´t even want to get on the way of a Pro. There are two types of
Pros:The fun and kind ones, and the ones who just care about winning and
nothing else. So go on with your ideas,build your decks but when you feel
the game is starting to suck just go to a tourney and take a look on the
net.Then you become a hell of a good player.(unless you are not a normal
human been, and don´t learn with your errors*lol*)
Keep that in mind and also keep that dream of yours of becoming a Pro and be
about one of the famous players in the whole world, and Magic will never
suck.

Here is another about Skies:

Blue Skies in T2,best deck?I think so.

I was wondering what changes to do to my already modificated Skies from Jay
Elarar on top 8 Chicago when i saw Tom Guevin´s article about Skies.I liked
the deck but i was getting some losses to Fires,and "The Red Zone", but now
i just seem to constantly beat these decks.And on the mirror match it
becomes even easier to deal with them.Against U/W Control, and Rebels i
haven´t tested it yet;Against Skies it has done well too,because its a new
version beating the older ones that i know so good.

Here is the deck:
21 Island
 3 Sky Diamond
4 Gush
4 Wash Out
4 Foil
4 Thwart
4 Troublesome Spirit
4 Rishadan Airship
4 Spiketail Hatchling
4 Chimeric Idol
3 Rising Waters
2 Air Elemental

Sideboard
4 Withdraw
4 Submerge
4 Disrupt
3 Chill

My email is samuel.paiva@clix.pt