My wife loves to play magic (why yes, I am a lucky bastard, thank you), but, well, our games are usually only close because I engineer them to be. Has anyone had experience with any Magic Handicaps, ideally ones that can be used without the other player noticing?
My wife plays too..When we first started, she wouldn't even play an instant if it wasn't her turn because "she didn't get it". We've been playing a couple years now, though, and she is starting to get pretty good. Until she met me she had never played any sort of strategy game like MtG, so it was harder to learn than it was for me since I grew up playing board/card/video/etc. games. Try to explore what cards she likes and help her build a deck she understands and enjoys playing, then tailor a deck or two to compete well against it. The better she gets and also the more comfortable she is with the game, the more involved interactions you can introduce and then maybe bump up the power level a little. Just be patient, friend.
Don't gimp yourself so she can feel like she's doing better. Teach her how to play properly so she gets better naturally.
Many players want to enjoy the game casually and not suffer multiple utter beatdowns that have to do with rules based effects instead of flavor based effects.
Like losing most games to some giant creatures or getting burned to death doesn't bother most new players.
Losing to hivemind/pact turn 3 makes new people want to quit.
I do, I generally let my wife win when we play, or keep it very close. Magic is more my thing than hers, so i humour her a little and she humours me by playing.
Don't gimp yourself so she can feel like she's doing better. Teach her how to play properly so she gets better naturally.
Its clear you're not married. When I'm looking for a test of skill and deck building ill go play in a tournament. When i want to spend some time with my wife, we might play some magic. The only thing accomplished by smashing the wife is turning her off the game and being denied sex later "because i cheated"
I can't get my wife to touch the cards. Although when we had a Easter tourn, she did poke into the garage and showed interest by sitting and asking about the 101's.
If she would pick up a deck casually i would totally humor her and let her win or almost win a majority of the time.
My wife plays too... Until she met me she had never played any sort of strategy game like MtG. Try to explore what cards she likes and help her build a deck she understands and enjoys playing, then tailor a deck or two to compete well against it.
Actually she used to play with her brother back in the day, so already pretty much new what the game was about. She has an Angel deck now that she loves, and I've started making singleton flavor-themed decks instead of the tuned casual combo decks I used to like. The major thing I had to learn was to let the cards work based on her interpretation most of the time. Like, her Akroma's Vengeance kills my Planeswalkers because Planeswalkers didn't exist then and "that's obviously what they meant".
But Akroma's Vengeance doesn't kill Planeswalkers, and it wasn't meant to, and further proof to flaw this theory is Vindicate. It was printed far before 'Walkers were and it can kill them.
Rules are exactly what they sound like, not suggestions.
Screw all that noise, I pound my girlfriend, over and over and over again. I combo out, burn her out, control the game to the point where I essentially just playing the game by myself.
What makes my girl cool though is she doesn't get mad or frustrated, she asks a lot of questions. I never let her take back a play, but after the play is done, if she asks, I will explain in painful detail everything she did wrong and what she could do to improve the next time a similar situation arises.
The only thing shes not happy with at the moment is the size of my collection, and it's depths. While I allow her access to everything I own that's not decked, she's just not happy because they are not "HER" cards.
To alleviate that we recently started digging into Pauper, and I have to say it's quite fun, and she's loving it. Other than that, I've been doing a little trading for her, and I've pointed her in the direction of MTGS, and she's currently researching the game, in her spare time.
Start with a smaller hand. There's a huge difference in how the game plays when you have less options available. Try 5 opening... sometimes I play 4 or 3.
edit: they're talking about planes walkers, not plains walkers. Still, you made a valiant effort to answer the question, I tip my hat to you.
Oh, the first part was a little joke, sorry. Haha.
My point is that if you want to let your significant other kill Ajani Goldmane with Ak'sV, there is no reason to not treat that as a handicap and let her. But that's only my opinion on the matter. Other people can do as they see fit.
But Akroma's Vengeance doesn't kill Planeswalkers, and it wasn't meant to, and further proof to flaw this theory is Vindicate. It was printed far before 'Walkers were and it can kill them.
Rules are exactly what they sound like, not suggestions.
Yeah, I had pretty much this attitude when we started playing. "What's the point in playing if we're not going to follow the rules?!" But actually the "rules" truly are suggestions: Wizards wants you to buy their cards to have fun with them (so you'll buy more) and suggests the game rules as one way to do that. But people make up their own magic rules all the time, develop new formats and other ways of using the cards, or even just collect for the art and sake of collecting.
My point is that if you want to let your significant other kill Ajani Goldmane with Ak'sV, there is no reason to not treat that as a handicap and let her. But that's only my opinion on the matter. Other people can do as they see fit.
Exactly. Far too slowly I came to realise that having cards suddenly work differently than they're supposed to is exactly the kind of handicap I was looking for
Have you thought about buying pre-constructed decks? Play each other with some store bought "bad" decks, then take the time with her to find out which aspects of the deck she likes. She can tweak it by taking out the crummy cards and adding new ones. This might help with the "handicap" issue by placing you both on even ground, and it's a helpful way to get people to learn deckbuilding.
Think I could get a turn? Playing magic with your girl friend sounds fun
Oh it is fun, come over whe could play a little chaos....... wait we're not talking about MtG any more are we?
Either way your Spam Warning was not in vein this is so sig material.
To add something to the thread though, I personally feel that someone should earn a victory, to me it's not winning or losing its just playing the game, knocking back some beers with friends, using my mind to think things up, and just having fun playing.
If any one who plays me wants a win, they can go and earn it, if not then it's all just a lie to keep the other player interested. I'd rather fish bowl if it comes to that.
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Many players want to enjoy the game casually and not suffer multiple utter beatdowns that have to do with rules based effects instead of flavor based effects.
Like losing most games to some giant creatures or getting burned to death doesn't bother most new players.
Losing to hivemind/pact turn 3 makes new people want to quit.
FUN is the purpose of this game.
So Pro I have an alpha Volcanic Island
Its clear you're not married. When I'm looking for a test of skill and deck building ill go play in a tournament. When i want to spend some time with my wife, we might play some magic. The only thing accomplished by smashing the wife is turning her off the game and being denied sex later "because i cheated"
If she would pick up a deck casually i would totally humor her and let her win or almost win a majority of the time.
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Actually she used to play with her brother back in the day, so already pretty much new what the game was about. She has an Angel deck now that she loves, and I've started making singleton flavor-themed decks instead of the tuned casual combo decks I used to like. The major thing I had to learn was to let the cards work based on her interpretation most of the time. Like, her Akroma's Vengeance kills my Planeswalkers because Planeswalkers didn't exist then and "that's obviously what they meant".
We tried planechase once, just with a random, shared plane deck, but the extra randomness wasn't helpful.
Rules are exactly what they sound like, not suggestions.
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They all die to Akroma's Vengeance, last I checked, haha.
But we are talking about handicaps here, no? And Casual. If you can have "house-rules" for Monopoly, why not for Magic?
What makes my girl cool though is she doesn't get mad or frustrated, she asks a lot of questions. I never let her take back a play, but after the play is done, if she asks, I will explain in painful detail everything she did wrong and what she could do to improve the next time a similar situation arises.
The only thing shes not happy with at the moment is the size of my collection, and it's depths. While I allow her access to everything I own that's not decked, she's just not happy because they are not "HER" cards.
To alleviate that we recently started digging into Pauper, and I have to say it's quite fun, and she's loving it. Other than that, I've been doing a little trading for her, and I've pointed her in the direction of MTGS, and she's currently researching the game, in her spare time.
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oh my god I lol'd.
edit: they're talking about planes walkers, not plains walkers. Still, you made a valiant effort to answer the question, I tip my hat to you.
Think I could get a turn? Playing magic with your girl friend sounds fun
Spam.
-GR
Oh, the first part was a little joke, sorry. Haha.
My point is that if you want to let your significant other kill Ajani Goldmane with Ak'sV, there is no reason to not treat that as a handicap and let her. But that's only my opinion on the matter. Other people can do as they see fit.
Yeah, I had pretty much this attitude when we started playing. "What's the point in playing if we're not going to follow the rules?!" But actually the "rules" truly are suggestions: Wizards wants you to buy their cards to have fun with them (so you'll buy more) and suggests the game rules as one way to do that. But people make up their own magic rules all the time, develop new formats and other ways of using the cards, or even just collect for the art and sake of collecting.
Exactly. Far too slowly I came to realise that having cards suddenly work differently than they're supposed to is exactly the kind of handicap I was looking for
Thanks to GR @ Yavin IV Studios for the signature!
Oh it is fun, come over whe could play a little chaos....... wait we're not talking about MtG any more are we?
Either way your Spam Warning was not in vein this is so sig material.
To add something to the thread though, I personally feel that someone should earn a victory, to me it's not winning or losing its just playing the game, knocking back some beers with friends, using my mind to think things up, and just having fun playing.
If any one who plays me wants a win, they can go and earn it, if not then it's all just a lie to keep the other player interested. I'd rather fish bowl if it comes to that.
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