me and my friend play a lot of casual and EDH. He's been playing for longer than I have, though he had taken a break for a few years before getting back into the game. I tend to win about 90% of the games we play together and I'm trying to figure out why. I know it's not because he's a bad player because he comes up with good decks and plays well, but I always seem to win against him. It can't be the decks themselves either cuz plenty of times after I win we'll swap decks and I'll win again. I've been trying to look it up online to figure it out but I'm at a loss.... Do you guys have any ideas to help him?
That's a really vague question. People don't just randomly win games; there's a reason for winning or losing that should be apparent to the players involved. Does he make obvious bad plays? Does he have unusually bad luck?
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Formerly Angrypossum over at the now-defunct WotC forums.
That's a really vague question. People don't just randomly win games; there's a reason for winning or losing that should be apparent to the players involved. Does he make obvious bad plays? Does he have unusually bad luck?
Like I said he plays well... just it seems that I'm always one step ahead of him all the way. He plays something mean, I draw the answer for it. General is out? I snipe it. He's got me one turn from losing, I draw into a victory. Perfect example of that was me playing Prossh vs Oloro. He had 140 life, oloro, and had just played a serra's avatar. All I had was 31 0/1 kobolds cuz he kept sniping prossh and I wasn't drawing anything else. I was at like 14 life so next turn I was dead for sure. All I needed was a fatty so the overwhelming stampede in my had would be useful..... and I drew one. I had just enough mana for the 5/5 fatty I drew, the stampede, and gruul charm so he couldn't block the 155 dmg coming his way.
Games tend to go one of 3 ways: I have an answer to everything he does so his deck gets nowhere, his deck mana floods/screws him and I take an easy victory, or I come otta nowhere and win one turn before he would beat me. Very rarely does he win.
It's not the decks themselves cuz I'll take the losing deck and win with it next game.
Not sure what kind of answer you're expecting. If you insist that he is just as good at playing as you, and you are alternating decks, then there's nothing else in it besides sheer luck. There are no tips we can give him to get luckier.
It seems that you are quite lucky when it comes to playing your friend. Top decking the right card to turn the game around and you have answers to most things he plays.
:/ I had a feeling that it has to do with luck. He's been thinking of quitting magic because of it. On the one hand I don't want him to because he's fun to play against. On the other hand, I want him to have fun and losing constantly isn't very fun.
That's a really vague question. People don't just randomly win games; there's a reason for winning or losing that should be apparent to the players involved. Does he make obvious bad plays? Does he have unusually bad luck?
Like I said he plays well... just it seems that I'm always one step ahead of him all the way. He plays something mean, I draw the answer for it. General is out? I snipe it. He's got me one turn from losing, I draw into a victory. Perfect example of that was me playing Prossh vs Oloro. He had 140 life, oloro, and had just played a serra's avatar. All I had was 31 0/1 kobolds cuz he kept sniping prossh and I wasn't drawing anything else. I was at like 14 life so next turn I was dead for sure. All I needed was a fatty so the overwhelming stampede in my had would be useful..... and I drew one. I had just enough mana for the 5/5 fatty I drew, the stampede, and gruul charm so he couldn't block the 155 dmg coming his way.
Games tend to go one of 3 ways: I have an answer to everything he does so his deck gets nowhere, his deck mana floods/screws him and I take an easy victory, or I come otta nowhere and win one turn before he would beat me. Very rarely does he win.
It's not the decks themselves cuz I'll take the losing deck and win with it next game.
I don't know what was in his hand, but Serra avatar is an exceptionally unimpressive play against an army of chump blockers. He wasn't hitting you for at least 16 turns, let alone killing you.
If he had a wrath, he should've used it. If he had removal, he should've tanked it.
When you say he kept sniping Prossh, do you mean he was killing it as soon as it entered, or was he waiting until you attacked to kill it?
he didn't have any board wipes in hand, and he was killing prossh after I played him (which now that you mention it, that's probably why he lost that one) Maybe he isn't as good of a player as I was making him out to be. Still, it's hard to tell if the misplays are truly misplays or if it's because he's frustrated with losing/trying too hard to win.
I don't usually play EDH, but by definition a 100-card deck full of singletons is going to be less consistent than a professionally-made 60-card constructed deck. It's a casual format and designed for multiplayer fun times. I would venture to suggest that there is a strong element of luck in one-on-one EDH, especially if the decks are built personally and not fine-tuned by a professional. It may not be the best gauge for an individual's skill.
When you play EDH in a multiplayer group, how well does he do? Do you ever play Standard or other 60-card formats? How well does he draft or build Sealed decks?
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Formerly Angrypossum over at the now-defunct WotC forums.
I don't usually play EDH, but by definition a 100-card deck full of singletons is going to be less consistent than a professionally-made 60-card constructed deck. It's a casual format and designed for multiplayer fun times. I would venture to suggest that there is a strong element of luck in one-on-one EDH, especially if the decks are built personally and not fine-tuned by a professional. It may not be the best gauge for an individual's skill.
When you play EDH in a multiplayer group, how well does he do? Do you ever play Standard or other 60-card formats? How well does he draft or build Sealed decks?
Him and I don't really play standard or other competitive magic (banks accounts won't lets us haha.) We do play casual a lot as well and I end up winning a lot there too. As for larger multiplayer EDH games, we both end up losing a lot to higher-power/combo decks.
he didn't have any board wipes in hand, and he was killing prossh after I played him (which now that you mention it, that's probably why he lost that one) Maybe he isn't as good of a player as I was making him out to be. Still, it's hard to tell if the misplays are truly misplays or if it's because he's frustrated with losing/trying too hard to win.
He definitely should've waited for you to attack and possibly sacrifice some of the tokens. Hell, if you went for the stampede with Prossh out, he could've killed Prossh in response to effectively blank your play.
magic is extremely high variance. Even a hall of fame pro player of the year candidate grinding 1000s of games will only expect to win 65% of them. That said, losing 90% means he's either making very poor plays, he's shuffling insufficiently (or you're unintentionally stacking your deck; do you manaweave?), or he's just gotten unlucky over a small sample.
I would guess that he's bad at important in-game skills such as planning ahead, reading the opponent for information, playing to his outs, maximizing the utility of his cards, etc. Either that, or he just doesn't care about winning as much as you do.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
Something I've noticed especially with my casual group that I don't see when I'm testing for a GP or something is that casual players often won't make backbreaking plays like killing a land if their opponent is mana screwed. It's possible that your buddy is too nice to make "mean" plays that would have won him the game while you're slightly less concerned about it and just play to win.
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I doubt it's bad luck. As someone mentioned above, it might be poor shuffling skills.
However, seeing as you don't really play competitively, there's a very high chance that you're just naturally much better than he is and you just haven't been able to recognize it yet.
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It sounds like he may have a severe case of bad. Common symptoms of bad include game losses, saltiness, and threats to quit playing. The exact incidence of bad in the Magic community varies from area to area, but generally 20-30% of players suffer from chronic bad, and up to 50% may experience it at some point in their Magic career. Studies have shown that being bad is correlated with significantly worse outcomes both in large tournaments and small, kitchen table games. The current leading treatment option is to get good, which has been shown to improve symptoms of bad in almost all cases.
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add someone new to your playgroup if it is just you 2. i have this all the time, i play mostly against 1 classmate, if one of us is on a really stupid streak, we add someone new, mix it up and that fixes whatever the bad luck is. not scientific, but we are talking about luck. you could also observe him as an outsider doing this, see if you can spot the problem. it could be something as simple as bad shuffling
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we ended up going to a game shop we just found out about nearby and played a few games with other people. He was happy to get some wins in and I think it spiked his confidence. Our other friends are either waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than either of us and have really expensive decks (like decks the same price as our monthly rent) or are just starting out so it's basically a whompy-fest. I'm trying to get the new players to work at it more, but they're rlly casual and only play on rare occasions (plus they don't like being whomped on by our weakest decks)
There are players here who will try to convince you that nearly everybody has a 50% win ratio vs. all of their opponents. I have played the game since 1994 and I will tell you that it is completely false.
There is a site where you can check your sanctioned win/loss record vs. all players who you have played - I believe it's kavu.ru. There are just going to be some players who get very lucky against you or always seems to play a deck with a good matchup vs. you. Then there are players who are the exact opposite.
I know of many players who are much better than myself and I have a lifetime better win percentage vs. them. My explanation? I've gotten lucky vs. them and have used decks that tend to do well vs. what decks they gravitate towards. There are also some players who always seem to get me. Some of this is just small sample size, like for example a player who is 2-0 vs. me who I believe that I am much better at playing than. Some of it has just been tough breaks. My worst 2 records are this. I am an estimated (I haven't checked it recently) 5-15 vs. one particular player. He is very naturally good at the game and plays quite a bit. He has played at Pro Tours before, although I don't think he has since coming back to the game a few years ago. Then there is a kid who I am something like 3-10 vs. I feel that I am a better player than him, although admittedly he is a good player. He is only 10 years old I believe. He has done very well at GPTs and IQs, but hasn't really played beyond that because of his age.
I feel that there are a lot of trends in Magic. The only way for him to stop you from beating him is to actually do everything possible to beat you. Once he gets over that hump, he will have a much easier time. There were many players who had never beaten me, but once they did, it really gave them confidence and they did much better after that. You have to remember; Magic has a lot of skill in it, but also will always have that element of luck.
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Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
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Like I said he plays well... just it seems that I'm always one step ahead of him all the way. He plays something mean, I draw the answer for it. General is out? I snipe it. He's got me one turn from losing, I draw into a victory. Perfect example of that was me playing Prossh vs Oloro. He had 140 life, oloro, and had just played a serra's avatar. All I had was 31 0/1 kobolds cuz he kept sniping prossh and I wasn't drawing anything else. I was at like 14 life so next turn I was dead for sure. All I needed was a fatty so the overwhelming stampede in my had would be useful..... and I drew one. I had just enough mana for the 5/5 fatty I drew, the stampede, and gruul charm so he couldn't block the 155 dmg coming his way.
Games tend to go one of 3 ways: I have an answer to everything he does so his deck gets nowhere, his deck mana floods/screws him and I take an easy victory, or I come otta nowhere and win one turn before he would beat me. Very rarely does he win.
It's not the decks themselves cuz I'll take the losing deck and win with it next game.
I don't know what was in his hand, but Serra avatar is an exceptionally unimpressive play against an army of chump blockers. He wasn't hitting you for at least 16 turns, let alone killing you.
If he had a wrath, he should've used it. If he had removal, he should've tanked it.
When you say he kept sniping Prossh, do you mean he was killing it as soon as it entered, or was he waiting until you attacked to kill it?
When you play EDH in a multiplayer group, how well does he do? Do you ever play Standard or other 60-card formats? How well does he draft or build Sealed decks?
Him and I don't really play standard or other competitive magic (banks accounts won't lets us haha.) We do play casual a lot as well and I end up winning a lot there too. As for larger multiplayer EDH games, we both end up losing a lot to higher-power/combo decks.
He definitely should've waited for you to attack and possibly sacrifice some of the tokens. Hell, if you went for the stampede with Prossh out, he could've killed Prossh in response to effectively blank your play.
However, seeing as you don't really play competitively, there's a very high chance that you're just naturally much better than he is and you just haven't been able to recognize it yet.
Legacy: dragon stompy
Pauper: UG madness
MTGO: big_hat
MTG finance guy- follow me on Twitter@RichArschmann or RichardArschmann on Reddit
EDH 1v1...switch it to 4 man free for all.
Magic gets really boring with only 2 people every time all the time.
also: I really hope the Bad isn't contagious
There is a site where you can check your sanctioned win/loss record vs. all players who you have played - I believe it's kavu.ru. There are just going to be some players who get very lucky against you or always seems to play a deck with a good matchup vs. you. Then there are players who are the exact opposite.
I know of many players who are much better than myself and I have a lifetime better win percentage vs. them. My explanation? I've gotten lucky vs. them and have used decks that tend to do well vs. what decks they gravitate towards. There are also some players who always seem to get me. Some of this is just small sample size, like for example a player who is 2-0 vs. me who I believe that I am much better at playing than. Some of it has just been tough breaks. My worst 2 records are this. I am an estimated (I haven't checked it recently) 5-15 vs. one particular player. He is very naturally good at the game and plays quite a bit. He has played at Pro Tours before, although I don't think he has since coming back to the game a few years ago. Then there is a kid who I am something like 3-10 vs. I feel that I am a better player than him, although admittedly he is a good player. He is only 10 years old I believe. He has done very well at GPTs and IQs, but hasn't really played beyond that because of his age.
I feel that there are a lot of trends in Magic. The only way for him to stop you from beating him is to actually do everything possible to beat you. Once he gets over that hump, he will have a much easier time. There were many players who had never beaten me, but once they did, it really gave them confidence and they did much better after that. You have to remember; Magic has a lot of skill in it, but also will always have that element of luck.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)