The Magic Venting Thread

[Kapol]

Right, it depends on the situation for MTGO. If someone was like he was in the situation you mentioned (the MTGO one), I'd just not engage. Honestly, I feel like someone just leaving like that is one of the rudest things a player can do. Not only is it inconsiderate for your time, it's bad for everyone else in the event too. There's a lot of dickish people on MTGO, but I think the volume of 'ass-to-fine' people is about on par with a LGS overall (by which I mean the ratio is about the same).

As for the physical thing, yea. That's just being an ass. I agree it's more unsportsmanlike than most of what goes on in MTGO.

[Dix]

ING SHUFFLER.

(am I rite?)

[Duckay]

Yes, speaking of people being unsportsmanlike, it's not appropriate to make comments on your opponent's decision-making when you -2 your Jace.

(Also, the three cards were Supreme Verdict, Sphinx's Revelation and Elspeth. How was I supposed to sort the three without "giving you the game", hmm?)

[Prospero101]

Ah, yes. Blue-White Control.

AKA "No, Sorry, If You Were Under The Impression That You Get to Play Magic This Round, You Were Misled and I Apologize."

[Kapol]

That's not 'blue-white control.' That's just control. That's the point of control.

But yea, not all control players are jerks. But when a control player is also a jerk, they tend to be very smug and condescending in my experience.

[Duckay]

It was Esper, actually, for all that it matters.

And... Look, I get that it can be frustrating when the control deck has all the answers and you don't get to land a creature or whatever you're trying to do, but I personally don't like the argument that control means you "don't get to play Magic". Isn't the same true of aggro that can win turn 3 or 4 (before some decks get rolling), or ramp decks that drop big creatures before you can deal with them?

[Kapol]

That saying is more of an exaggeration than anything. I admit that I don't like playing against control decks. Mostly because I find it unfun. But that said, I don't think that it's any less of a valid strategy.

[Prospero101]

It's really more frustration with my local meta than anything else. All the decks are one of two flavors: extremely oppressive control or All the Planeswalkers.

...I don't go to FNM much anymore.

[korvys]

Find a place to play Modern! There's a ton of competitive decks, including (and I don't know why I would mention this, after all, I have no way to know what sort of decks you might like ) a U/B mill deck. All it will cost you is your soul.

Also, a few hundred dollars for fetch lands.

The Pro Tour this weekend had 8 different decks in the top 8, and (aside from bannings) as an eternal format, your deck will never rotate out, making it cheaper in the long run.

[Kapol]

But your value cards might become worthless or get devalued too. If they're reprinted (Thoughtsieze) or something better replaces them, then you've lost a lot of value. Though the same thing is true with most constructed things.

I've actually been considering getting into Modern. I'm waiting to see what's in the Modern event deck. If it's any good/something I think I'd enjoy, I'll likely pick it up.

[korvys]

Might devalue, yes, but they'll still be playable, meaning you never have to change decks again, if you don't want to.

The cheapest deck I've seen (and the one I play) is Restore Balance. No fetch lands, nothing expensive really. Cost me about $50. Someone at my LGS had already built it, and was bored with it, so I traded him 4 cards for the whole deck, and just had to tweak it a little. A lot of fun to play, and has a pretty good shot against everything.

[Prospero101]

That does sound neat, korvys, but there's no place anywhere nearby to play Modern. My LGS will host a Modern tournament once in a blue moon, but the nearest town that would host regular Modern is thirty miles away, and I can't drive.

Also I've been playing subsistence Magic for years now. I've never been able to build up a tradable collection. Maybe I should get into Magic Online? Grind Limited for a while until I have enough traders? Digital cards tend to be cheaper anyway, right?

[tamaness]

I goddamn hate current Standard. I've got a mono-black devotion deck that's just miserable to pilot. I've got all of the sequencing down, and from there it's just a decision tree. From what I've seen of most of the winningest decks recently, it's the same for Esper/Bant control, mono-blue, and X aggro. "For this matchup, play things in this order; hold some things back in case of a wrath."

[Duckay]

I honestly haven't had that experience and I've been playing mono-black devotion since the start of the format. Of course, clearly I'm not one to talk. Scrubbed out at the GP, dropped after round 5. Partly because I'd gone 2-3 at that point and partly because my opponent in the last round was such a... argh. Just, guys? Don't touch another player's deck while they're trying to re-sideboard after a game. It's rude. And if you ever feel the need to give a perfect stranger advice on what cards to not run or how to fix their play mistakes, consider asking if they would like your input first. Don't tell them that you're "helping them learn" by touching their shit and giving advice on it unsolicited.

[Kapol]

To revive this, I hate punting. Especially out of an 8-4.

Game 1 of match 2. I have a heroic guy (the 3/4 for 5). I Time To Feed his Disciple of Phenax with the 2/1 bestow guy on it. In response, he Bile Blights. I think "oh, no big deal." In my hand is a Mortal's Resolve. But I want to save that for a removal spell.

So his 3/4 kills my (now) 2/3 and I proceed to not draw another creature. I win the second game with an early Ajani, Mentor of Heroes, and he wins the last with a turn 3 Master of Feasts. But honestly, had it not been for my punt, I think I would have won that game. He only had 2 cards in hand and another one of those 2/1 guys out.

[Lord Hosk]

RAWRRRRL RARWNNG GGARRBL!

I quit magic forever

[korvys]

1) Why?
2) Can I have your Bump in the Nights?

[Lord Hosk]

I created an account just to do some new player drafts, cause its 10 bucks for 10 drafts. Last time I after I won 3 packs I would just concede match if I won so that real new players could get the packs and be happy.


No no, it was 15 bucks for 10 drafts because I NEVER WON A F*ING GAME... Not a match.. I WENT 0-2 every Fing time. I never even got a bye. 40 games, every single one a loss.

Then tonight, because I didnt really want to quit magic I thought hey I will join a draft and I opened a foil godsend regular ajani, so I passed the ajani and got this deck. Green was WIDE open the whole time. The time to feed and leefcrown were like 8th and 9th pick.

I lost 2-0 2-0 2-0 on that. I got Godsend down every single game, I never had more than one mountain and never got more than 1 creature in play except with I cast the flurry of horns.

I have lost 43 strait games on MTGO 2 of them were my mistakes, once I cast Hunt the week targeting the wrong guy, and once because I misclicked through my attack step. I have gone back and watched the replays. those were the only mistakes I made. there were a couple of "well in retrospect that might have been better" but not like not leaving the right color mana open or playing the wrong card just stuff like "well If I would have kept that 2 mountain 7 card hand instead of mulling to 5... or I should have played the green doomblade instead of troll hide..."

[korvys]

Wow, that's a hell of a bad run. Did they seem like other people smurfing?

[Lord Hosk]

There were a few people who ere clearly sharking the event but for the most part the people really seemed new to MTGO they made typical mistakes... they just always seemed to draw a pacifism to hit my one flyer, or a bounce spell into essence scatter both off the top deck.

I had one opponent go Essence scatter, Negate, Cancel, Archaeomancer (returned cancel), Disperse all off the topdeck when they were on one life.

one time I kept a 3 swamp, hand and ended up discarding 4 cards because I never drew a 4th land the only spell I cast was a Quag Sickness, the next game in that match I kept a 6 card hand two swamps two islands tenacious dead and Gnawing zombie and drew seven islands before dying.

I get randomness im not all pissed off because the shuffler is messed up, but to lose this many games in a row to just pure chance is really pissing me off, considering that my last 5 live events have been, winning Born of the gods prerelease, getting a terrible pool in the journey prerelease, going 4-1 3-1 and 2-2 in drafts and I won the pod I was in in the fan draft.

I know im not a pro playing but im not a complete scrub either.

[Kapol]

I'm lrrEFFing done with MTGO at this point. I've not ever been screwed as often as I am in MTGO. Every single time I've played a draft on MTGO, I've lost due to getting flooded twice in a row. Not just generally screwed, but actually flooded. Even in R/W aggro with 16 lands, I get flooded. And it's never just one time. It's always twice in the same match too, meaning I can't recover. I don't think there's been a single draft where I've not been screwed over by land twice in a single match. So when I am, I just have to hope my opponent is too. It's not because of bad keeps, as it usually happens when I keep really strong opening hands.

I'm just effing done.

[Duckay]

Okay... So yesterday I played in a competitive REL event. The same guy who last week complained about how the tournament organizers know he's "just a collector" and yet always make him play the "good players" was complaining to me during the event about his opponent calling a judge over some gameplay error (not naming a colour for Hall of Heroes, I think, but could be wrong), on the basis that it was rude and any reasonable person would have known what he meant to do or asked him directly instead of getting a judge involved.

This kind of behaviour (complaining about being matched up against good players, complaining about their opponent calling a judge rather than letting an error slide or assuming an action) bugs me but I can't articulate why.

A friend of mine did a similar thing, he was complaining about having a judge called for an error he had made, when ignoring said error (if it had been noticed later) would have earned a harsher penalty.

[Phosphatide]

I hope the "collector" realizes that by entering a Competitive REL tournament he is almost guaranteed to be matched up by "good players" and it's his own fault.

[Duckay]

Well, yeah. A guy I can confidently say is one of the best players in the state*, if not a higher accolade, was there, and most of the field fell somewhere in between "not too shabby" and "good at this". That said, the complaint about being matched up with "good players" was at FNM so I don't know if that changes things.

*Citation: I either attend or pay attention to all competitive REL events in the state, he's always up there.

[korvys]

That really annoys me. Calling a judge is not rude. Calling a judge is an acknowledgement that something has gone wrong, and the best person to fix it is the guy who's job it is to be impartial and make sure everything is fair.

It is not an accusation of cheating. It is not implying you don't believe your opponent is correct on a ruling. It is, in fact, not only completely appropriate, but required, to call a judge is something is wrong. To not do risks making things worse, and potential being investigated for cheating.

I encourage everyone to call a judge if something is wrong. Call them on your opponents, call them on yourselves. The only way to make people understand is to make judge calls so common that they aren't a big deal.