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Look, sometimes things happen in Magic that we don't necessarily want to discuss... we just want to get the fact that we're frustrated off our chests.

Standard rules apply as in the general venting thread and games thread; don't start arguments over someone's vents, and don't use the thread as a way to criticise someone specifically. Feel free to continue posting in the general Magic thread if you feel like it, but I felt like it would be good to have a designated place where we just want to get our feelings out there and move on.

Playing sealed, was pretty much all a vent other than my deck. I got mana-screwed pretty badly, to the point I wanted to tilt out.

First off, my deck. It was an RTR block sealed. I had gotten Exava, Carnival Hellsteed, Ghost Dad, Crypt Ghast, and some other good rare I can't remember. I had 7 kill spells, and 3 combat tricks. My opponents couldn't do much unless I was off my game or said so. Problem was, despite opening 6 packs, I did not get a single piece of fixing for my colors. This only cost me the game one time though, and it sucked.

But the mana-flooding incident was worse. I kept seven good cards. Three lands, one of each color, Exava, Balastard Spy (the one who makes them mill till they hit a land, the 2/3 flier), Boros Elite, and Carnival Hellsteed.

I never hit a fourth land in seven turns of playing.

My opponent had an Aurelia too. She ended up getting Aurelia out turn 7. Worst part is, I had the removal for it in hand. The +4/-4 instant. But my opponent had blown up my mountain. And because I couldn't get anything else out, I just ended up dying. It was pretty frustrating. To top it off, my top deck the turn before she killed me was a plains. And for those wondering, I was playing 17 lands. Considering most others there had decided to play 15 lands, including my opponent I got mana-screwed on, I'm surprised I was the one having issues.

I went to a standard tourney today, and my first opponent has a habit of going over time (I've honestly seen him draw 1-1-1 more than any one player). We went to turns and I had him dead on board, but I needed to untap one more damn time to get that 2-1.

Is the person slow-playing, or is it something else? Because that seems like something you'd want to talk to your judge about if you haven't already.

This one is a little weird...

I draw mountains. Always mountains. If there is a mountain in my deck, I will draw it. If there are several, I will draw them before anything else. Some people laugh it off when I tell them and say it could be useful... Until they see the results. There have been cases where I have splashed red in a draft and put in a single mountain, and that is the only land I ever drew. In all four rounds. It was as though the multiverse figured "He's playing red! Give him all the land he needs for red spells! What do you mean other colours? Fuck them! He got his land for the important colour."

It baffles me to no end. It seems mathematically impossible. And I've tried a lot of different things. I've pile shuffled after every game. I've had other people shuffle my library at FNMs. I've tried metagaming myself and playing only dual lands. Shit, I'm currently playing mono red in standard with 10(!) mountains total and I can still cast stormbreath dragon on curve.

There is only one thing that I can take from this. Magic is real. And I am cursed.

I have a friend who has something similar. He always, ALWAYS bricks on mana. I've played games w/ and against him and he'll mull to 5 sometimes to get decent mana. And then that's it for about 7 turns. It's uncanny how he ALWAYS bricks. We've looked over his mana bases and he runs the usual amount or MORE than probably needed but nope. He's bricked more times then a champion breakout player.

In general I try not to be particularly superstitious, but Magic makes that difficult. I fall into bad habits in that regard - I don't have problems nearly so extreme as 10 land -> Stormbreath Dragon, but I've definitely had experiences of playing fewer land than recommended because I honestly don't feel like I've needed it.

Case in point, mono-B. I've looked up pro lists to compare to mine and there's been some differences, like running one fewer Erebos or distributing the removal spells differently and I know I'm short 2 Thoughtseize, but nearly every list I've seen recently runs no Whip (or Whip in the sideboard) and two more land. Surely they must be doing that for a reason, they're better players than me and perform better than me. I just can't justify adding extra land and cutting a card because of superstition: "I flood".

There's no rational reason on Earth why the game of Magic would know it's me playing and provide me with more land than I could ever want, but it's happened to me enough that I'm convinced it happens. :/ silly superstition.

Superstition I don't know about but i've seen probability be obstructed enough to wonder.



For example as unlikely as it is in the 30 games that i've played my mono green infect deck i've never had a Glistener Elf in my opening hand ever including mulligans.

Had a bad night. Beyond some shitty school stuff, I ended up going 1-4. Which is pretty abysmal for me. the only person I beat was a new-ish guy who didn't have a great deck and it durdled against me. Honestly, I was so worn out and depressed that I asked a couple people I know/like if they wanted to buy my cards. And to be honest... I wasn't joking all that much. I'm at the point that I'm just sick of it. The place I go is basically a 'you aren't going to top 4 unless you're very lucky or playing at least a tier 2 deck.' And just getting stomped on by others, a decent chunk of whom are just using decks they got online, has finally broken me down. I think I might just quit constructed, sell my cards, and start playing pretty much exclusively limited.

Maybe this will change with the next set. Or maybe it'll change when I'm not as tired and depressed. But honestly, I just feel like I want out at this point.

I wouldn't quite go so far as to sell your cards. You'll never know when the constructed bug will bite again. I'd definitely consider, if I were you, just making a switch to limited for a little bit. If something's not fun: don't bash your head in over it.

Something you can do that i know i have done is just take a month off from playing tournaments, I find that if i am in a rut it helps to get a bit of distance

Dix wrote:I wouldn't quite go so far as to sell your cards. You'll never know when the constructed bug will bite again. I'd definitely consider, if I were you, just making a switch to limited for a little bit. If something's not fun: don't bash your head in over it.

One of the main problems is that the main place I go doesn't have limited tournaments very often. I actually found out that the secondary shop I go to has a weekly draft (even if it only gets like 5-6 people). The problem with that is that said place doesn't have anyone I like, and I get the vibe that most people there don't like me. Which makes it not very fun to go there. The shop owner used to be pretty nice, but then they switched to her son.

And I likely wouldn't sell literally all of my cards. But I'd likely get rid of the more valuable ones, especially from RTR block. Mostly because I don't want to stop playing with them, then have them drop in value. Or maybe I'd just sell the things I don't need except for from one deck. That way I have something to start back up, and can build some decks based on whenever I get the itch again.

I dunno though. I think I'll likely just go with taking a break until I'm feeling more into it. There might be something in the next set to catch my interest. I'll likely try standard a couple times after it comes out just to get a feel for my local place.

There's always MtGO, Kapol. It costs basically the same as IRL Magic, and there's always a draft ready to fire.

I say this because I'm in a similar boat, where my FLGS only has drafts once a month.

My FLGS only really does drafts for set releases anymore. :/ Despite the fact they do two events a week.

As for MTGO, I don't find that to be as fun honestly. I prefer playing in-person against people I kind of know at least. Plus, the fairly large value difference in cards is a factor. My first MTGO draft, I got a foil Bonfire of the Damned when it was pretty high in value. It was only worth about $25 I believe. The normal version was worth about $50+ at the time I believe. The reason that's important is because, being poor, I would need to use the value cards I get on MTGO to help pay for future drafts.

And it's actually more expensive, as the place that runs weekly drafts does so for $10 with prizing.

That's some cheap drafting. Drafts at my store cost $15.

$20 here. I know it's different depending on where you live and so forth, though.

Kapol wrote:Maybe this will change with the next set. Or maybe it'll change when I'm not as tired and depressed. But honestly, I just feel like I want out at this point.

Been feeling the same myself lately. After last FNM, I came home and packed all my cards up into a cupboard again. BotG has gotten me interested, and I've started to brew a little, but it's mostly just been on paper not with physical cards.

I guess I'm a little lucky since I have the choice between two stores, but I get the same feeling that you do - most of the people at one of the stores seem to not like me. The sad thing is that for the longest time, that was my main store. It's the most competitive (literally split into "serious" and "casual" FNM tournaments running at the same time) with everyone who plays seriously using PT/GP decks, some of them fully foiled out. It also happens to be the place I get to practice my judges rulings etc the most (since I'm the only judge in my area) so I tend to go there to be challenged. I've also been (politely, mind you) banned from really playing on the casual side because the TO assumes I will try to break whatever format they are running that night. However, at the other store, people on the whole are a lot more casual (which don't get me wrong, I love) but that means that the FNMs are a lot smaller on constructed nights. But at least the decks are more interesting. They do draft every two weeks too, which I've started to get in to.

I think my problem is that I've grown incredibly bored of standard. I've played a different deck every week, but it's like no one seems to want to have fun. They all grind the exact same GP deck they bought a month and a half ago and winge that it can't beat deck X, but none of them have the ability to change anything until a pro does it. Then they winge that my Borborygmos combo deck or my Reanimator deck isn't "real" (despite me proving it by showing them that I do in fact have the physical cards in my hands) and it just makes the entire environment unfun.

Prospero101 wrote:That's some cheap drafting. Drafts at my store cost $15.

It's really cheap drafting. And if there wasn't the constant feeling that I frankly wasn't welcome there, I would go every week. Like, I would frankly quit constructed and just sell a decent chunk of cards to pay for drafts, with only keeping one or two decks, if there wasn't that bleh air that makes it no fun.

slashx24 wrote:*snip*

Yea, that's pretty close. I have two stores as well. But the one has the issue that keeps me from drafting. It's a lot more casual, but there are still around four people who use the PT/GP decks. The main difference seems to be that your places a much bigger than mine. I don't think either store could actually run two events at the same time. Just too small.

It kind of sucks that you're left out of the casual at one event. I can kind of understand mind you, but it still sucks.

There's actually another group that plays, though it's not an FNM thing. It's just a group of people who play casually. Except... none of them play standard from my understanding, the majority don't know much about rules, and it sounds to be not my type of thing. Plus, there's one person who I honestly cannot stand to such a degree that I refuse to go to it because of him. It doesn't help that he apparently tags along to any and everything the group does.

Just realized the reason I don't play more MtGO is a combination of the time it takes to sit down and play it and that I don't actually like Sealed that much (which is most of what I can do since I don't want to spend much money on MtGO right now). I wish cube was more common... or that there were Phantom Drafts. I'd love that.

I'm surprised by the lack of Phatom Drafts. I feel like they would be very popular with serious players (no rare drafting) as well as more casual players (lower barrier to entry).

Maybe WotC thinks they'll take away from the real drafts, which I expect make them more money.

That's the only reason I can think of. If they had 4-ticket phantom drafts with only phantom points as a payout, I would play quite a lot to be honest.

I'd be on all the freaking time if I could do 4-tix phantoms. As it is, I'd prefer to put my money into dat paper.

Same here. Especially when the value of the paper cards is considerably more than the digital versions despite packs costing the same.

Kapol wrote:Same here. Especially when the value of the paper cards is considerably more than the digital versions despite packs costing the same.

Well, as Graham said, WotC does not and cannot consider the secondary market when making decisions.

*cough*reservedlist*cough*