That's where I'm at right now. Since the Theros game day event, I've just had terrible luck. I typically play at least 2 tournaments a week and since the first of the year, there are only 5 events in which I have a winning record. I just get mana screwed over and over and over again. The last FNM I went to, I used a control deck with 27 lands and had to mulligan to 5 cards 4 times because I'd get 1 land or less. I just decided to walk away for a while because it just got too frustrating. Sorry for the vent.
I did this when I faced an $800 Fairy Deck with my awful $10-15 standard, since then i've learned more and I got a better deck, it's value isn't much higher but it has a much better strategy, maybe you should arrange your deck so that it's like every 1-3 card,s or so put a land so you can pretty much get a land even if it's shuffled or cut by your opponent, sorry if this all sounds stupid, I'm a noob at all this.
Thats mana weaving, which you cant do legally.... I had the same issue a while back, instead of walking away completely go crazy with deck building/brewing. Helps get the mind off of painful losses and can help re kindle your "spark".
I've been having this problem a lot lately, I either draw way too much land or hardly any, and yes, because of it I am planning on walking away from playing standard. I don't really want to quit playing, I enjoy it when things don't go horribly wrong like they have been, but it's just been so frustrating lately. For now I'm going to stick to playing EDH, maybe some day in the future I'll give standard a shot again, but for now I'm done.
Sure you can. It's even specifically mentioned in the IPG. You just have to randomize your deck sufficiently after doing so.
Either way, I've had variance losses that just made me want to rage. Keep a five-lander at the JOU prerelease, including a Read the Bones. Draw two land. Read the Bones. Scry two land to the bottom, then draw two land. Or its polar opposite in Standard, the keep two land on the draw hand, in a control deck, and literally never see a third land ever despite a scry and like 5 turns of drawing. But variance is just that: Variance. As long as you're shuffling properly, such losses are the exception, not the rule. It's just painful when the game reminds you that "random" does in fact mean you have to flood out or see no land from time to time.
Sometimes walking away is the right thing to do. If you get too focused on variance you start to let that affect your plays--you end up focusing on what you should have drawn vs. What is actually happeneing in the game.
Variance games always involve downswings that aren't easy to explain and can be hard to get out of psychologically. The best thing is to understand that these things happen in this kind of game, and don't resent it because it is happening to you--you aren't unique. Take a break and reset, you'll come back in a much better state of mind.
Sometimes you just can't win with what your deck gives you. Tonight I had to mull to 5 in Mono U, but despite not a bad Raptor/Tidebinder/Nightveil/2 Island hand, every single subsequent card was an Island. I had pile shuffled, but shuffling is just that: randomizing your deck. There is always the chance of no land and land-flood.
If Magic is stressing you out, though, take a break. Unless you're making a living at it, it's a game played for fun. The moment it stops being fun is the moment it's not worth putting one more second of your time into.
If your draws are really that bad you probably need more scrying. I recently had access to full playsets of temples and it is amazing how much more smoothly your games go. Could even gather other scry outlets as every color has access to them.
I just get mana screwed over and over and over again. The last FNM I went to, I used a control deck with 27 lands and had to mulligan to 5 cards 4 times because I'd get 1 land or less. I just decided to walk away for a while because it just got too frustrating. Sorry for the vent.
Venting is okay.
This stuff happens to everyone if they play enough. Basically you need a thick skin to endure games of chance. There is not a professional poker player in this world who hasn't at some point gone weeks on end without showing a net gain. Realise that if your cards are truly randomised, these extreme cases are absolutely inevitable given enough time playing.
But if you are not having fun there is no need to play the game! You are right to take a break (or quit altogether) if you are not enjoying yourself. If you want to keep playing,try to make special note of all the better than average hands you draw,and all the times you win a game because your opponent gets screwed, flooded, or otherwise can't draw what they need. Bad luck tends to linger in our minds more than good luck, so actively trying to change your focus can be effective too.
"There was no darker or more evil creation in all the multiverse than that of the mana screw."
If you call it bad luck, why not just pass it off as bad luck and keep on playing? Being on a streak of bad luck is unfortunate I guess, but would you really let that stop you? Honestly, I don't understand why people get frustrated about their luck. I can understand being upset, because sometimes you miss top 8 by a tie-breaker and there goes your prizes and stuff, but getting frustrated sure isn't going to make it any better.
Secondly, my philosophy is that the more you sweat your luck, the worse it'll get. Like when you're taking an opening hand and your only thought is "PLEASE BE AN ACCEPTABLE HAND WITH 4 CAST-ABLE SPELLS AND 3 LANDS", you're worrying too much. That's when you get a hand with 6 spells and a mutavault (and no aether vial lol).
Lastly, as a friendly reminder: you can't win them all. You can't. Period. Such is the nature of magic. If you must play a game where your luck won't come into play, look into a different game. I am a pretty competitive person at heart, meaning luck and variance were initially something I wanted to avoid entirely...but Magic has taught me Humility, and that having something other than yourself to attribute to a loss is a huge relief.
Take a 2 week break. Find something else that's fun. Like.. Go volunteer to help the Homeless.
You could recruit an Army of the Homeless to help the Homeless, thus bolstering your ranks ad-infinite.
With enough Homeless you could sweep across Mexico and fight the Drug Cartels in guerilla warfare. Building up a hardened group of freedom fighters and people who have finally gotten meaning in their lives.
And before you know it, probably at the crucial point where your command is most needed. You can drop those guys and go do a Conspiracy draft.
Nope. Its a card game, been playing them since I was 5 and I know what comes with the territory. Luck is a big factor in most card games, both for better and worse.
That said, I don't blame you for feeling the way you do. I know plenty of people like you, who would generally rather play games with smaller luck components.
All I need to do is read a thread like this to realize that my own luck is not that bad.
That being said, I've had my moments of poor luck in my over 15 years of playing. I have considered quitting many times. However, I just try to focus on my play and just shuffle differently the next time.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
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)
Yeah,everyone should take a break every now and then. I havent played in 3 weeks, but I'm ok with that. sometimes you get burned out on something and taking a break helps refresh yourself.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hey guys, looking for extra money for cards?
I do it with CashCrate and Swagbucks. Get paid to complete surveys, offers, and other online tasks. Refer friends and family to get even more money. It may not be a lot, but it adds up while messing around on the computer. If you have any questions, feel free to message me and I'll help the best I can.
That's where I'm at right now. Since the Theros game day event, I've just had terrible luck. I typically play at least 2 tournaments a week and since the first of the year, there are only 5 events in which I have a winning record. I just get mana screwed over and over and over again. The last FNM I went to, I used a control deck with 27 lands and had to mulligan to 5 cards 4 times because I'd get 1 land or less. I just decided to walk away for a while because it just got too frustrating. Sorry for the vent.
The odds of you getting constantly mana screwed in 45 of 50 events if you've constructed your decks with an appropriate amount of land and shuffled well is astronomical. Sorry to hear about your troubles.
If someone has walked away from the game, they won't be reading and posting here. So, you should imagine many more than those who post here would answer "yes" to the question in the subject.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Because we cannot prevent draws in paper Magic we allow IDs. If we could prevent draws we would not have IDs in paper Magic. " Scott Larabee.
I am guessing you are at step 4 in your MTG career. Take some time off, go outside and get some fresh air, and when you come back you will start enjoying playing again:
1. Your learning all these cool new cards and having a blast but not winning very many games.
2. You've learned how to play Standard and have discovered some neat card interactions/combos. You've started winning games at FNM.
3. You've been researching online for top tier decks. You build these decks and expect to win most FNMs. Your possibly starting to expand into other formats like Modern/Legacy/Commander.
4. You've started going to PTQs and GTPs and hoping to win first place but unfortunately you notice your losing some games to unpredictable variance. It's getting frustrating.
5. Your starting to get burnt out of MTG. You take some time off.
6. You come back after a while and discover new things that have changed with MTG. Congratulations your back at step 1.
As long as you shuffle and present a sufficiently randomized deck within a reasonable time frame, it honestly doesn't matter.
Well then what was the point of mana weaving? If your deck is sufficiently randomized, a deck that had 35 spells on top and 25 lands on the bottom before shuffling will be indistinguishable from the mana weaved deck.
like all sports sometimes your in the groove and sometimes your not. Decks and luck get to much blame (yes it happens but most of the time it's poor meta gaming or play mistakes. When you are in a slump your play skill suffers so take a break and become a spectator for a couple weeks to get a better feel for your local meta game.
As long as we are venting, here was the story of my Conspiracy release draft (before I continue, yes I know its supposed to be a casual format, I would have preferred a theros block FNM draft, but everyone wanted conspiracy):
I sat at a 9 player draft pod with 4 or 5 newer players. Normally this wouldn't bother me but conspiracy is complicated, so I knew I was in for a long draft. It ended up taking over an hour just to finish the drafting portion, and after another 30 minutes of deck building, I was assigned to be one player in a 5 man game. I had put together a very solid G/B deck with spirit monger, lots of removal, 4 howling wolves with 4 hidden agendas to back them up, etc. All in all I thought it would at least be fun to play to see how the synergies of the set worked. At least that was until turn 5, when one of the players at the table played 2 mana geysers into the multi kicker ogre to hit me for 20, with a big grin on his face, with the rest of the players at the table ready to tear into his now empty hand and meager board state. So, with that, my 2+ hours of drafting and deck building led up to getting to play 8 minutes of magic for the evening. A frustrating story I'm sure will get picked apart, but venting does feel good sometimes.
Couple things; I hadn't provoked this player, I had a decent board state but nothing overwhelming. The way the tournament was set up was pretty poor, only one game, winner of each pod gets a few extra packs. So you basically only get to play with your deck once. I happenned to really like my deck, and was looking forward to playing it, which only added to my frustration. I honestly don't mind losing all that much, but I hate not getting to play the game. Getting basically booted out of the tournament because some guy decides arbitrarily to kill both me and himself just sucks. Oh well, my next few drafts of conspiracy went much better.
I had that after the RTR prerelease. Me vs my opponent, our board states are about equal, we're both playing Rakdos. I have 4 lands out, and in my hand I have Rakdos Ragemutt and Carnival Hellsteed, so I figure I'm in good shape as long as I draw a land. He has nothing left in his hand at this point. His turn, he rips...Mind Rot, and the next 5 turns I draw 4 land and Gore-House Chainwalker, while he drops Land, Land, Chaos Imps, Carnival Hellsteed. Stupidest game I've ever had. Caused me to stop going to sealed for a while.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Well, this will be my third week in a row for missing FNM. The longest stretch since I've started playing. The only problem is that now I need to come up with some other way to spend my Friday nights as all my friends are playing Magic
I've never walked away from a game of magic. League of legends? Absolutely. But magic? The closest e to rage quitting I've come was playing my elves deck against stasis at 9 years old. Looool
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire." - Jaya Ballard
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
Sure you can. It's even specifically mentioned in the IPG. You just have to randomize your deck sufficiently after doing so.
Either way, I've had variance losses that just made me want to rage. Keep a five-lander at the JOU prerelease, including a Read the Bones. Draw two land. Read the Bones. Scry two land to the bottom, then draw two land. Or its polar opposite in Standard, the keep two land on the draw hand, in a control deck, and literally never see a third land ever despite a scry and like 5 turns of drawing. But variance is just that: Variance. As long as you're shuffling properly, such losses are the exception, not the rule. It's just painful when the game reminds you that "random" does in fact mean you have to flood out or see no land from time to time.
Variance games always involve downswings that aren't easy to explain and can be hard to get out of psychologically. The best thing is to understand that these things happen in this kind of game, and don't resent it because it is happening to you--you aren't unique. Take a break and reset, you'll come back in a much better state of mind.
Sometimes you just can't win with what your deck gives you. Tonight I had to mull to 5 in Mono U, but despite not a bad Raptor/Tidebinder/Nightveil/2 Island hand, every single subsequent card was an Island. I had pile shuffled, but shuffling is just that: randomizing your deck. There is always the chance of no land and land-flood.
If Magic is stressing you out, though, take a break. Unless you're making a living at it, it's a game played for fun. The moment it stops being fun is the moment it's not worth putting one more second of your time into.
UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU's prison: blue is the new orange is the new black.
Mizzix Of The Izmagnus : wheels on fire... rolling down the road...
BSidisi, Undead VizierB: Bis zum Erbrechen
GTitiania, Protector Of ArgothG: Protecting Argoth, by blowing it up!
GYisan, The Wanderer BardG: Gradus Ad Elfball.
Duel EDH: Yisan & Titania.
In Progress: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV duel; Grenzo, Dungeon Warden Doomsday.
This stuff happens to everyone if they play enough. Basically you need a thick skin to endure games of chance. There is not a professional poker player in this world who hasn't at some point gone weeks on end without showing a net gain. Realise that if your cards are truly randomised, these extreme cases are absolutely inevitable given enough time playing.
But if you are not having fun there is no need to play the game! You are right to take a break (or quit altogether) if you are not enjoying yourself. If you want to keep playing,try to make special note of all the better than average hands you draw,and all the times you win a game because your opponent gets screwed, flooded, or otherwise can't draw what they need. Bad luck tends to linger in our minds more than good luck, so actively trying to change your focus can be effective too.
https://fieldmarshalshandbook.wordpress.com/
RUGLegacy Lands.dec
RUGBLegacy Lands.dec
RGLegacy Lands.dec
WUBRG EDH Lands.dec
UBR EDH Artificer Prodigy
B EDH Relentless Rats
At which point you have completely wasted your and your opponent's time.
UBBreya's Toybox (Competitive, Combo)WR
RGodzilla, King of the MonstersG
-Retired Decks-
UBLazav, Dimir Mastermind (Competitive, UB Voltron/Control)UB
"Knowledge is such a burden. Release it. Release all your fears to me."
—Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
If you call it bad luck, why not just pass it off as bad luck and keep on playing? Being on a streak of bad luck is unfortunate I guess, but would you really let that stop you? Honestly, I don't understand why people get frustrated about their luck. I can understand being upset, because sometimes you miss top 8 by a tie-breaker and there goes your prizes and stuff, but getting frustrated sure isn't going to make it any better.
Secondly, my philosophy is that the more you sweat your luck, the worse it'll get. Like when you're taking an opening hand and your only thought is "PLEASE BE AN ACCEPTABLE HAND WITH 4 CAST-ABLE SPELLS AND 3 LANDS", you're worrying too much. That's when you get a hand with 6 spells and a mutavault (and no aether vial lol).
Lastly, as a friendly reminder: you can't win them all. You can't. Period. Such is the nature of magic. If you must play a game where your luck won't come into play, look into a different game. I am a pretty competitive person at heart, meaning luck and variance were initially something I wanted to avoid entirely...but Magic has taught me Humility, and that having something other than yourself to attribute to a loss is a huge relief.
Modern Junk Primer
Legacy ANT Primer
L1 Judge
Land, Land, Land,Land, Land, Land, Ponder, Land, Land, Land, shuffle, Land
You could recruit an Army of the Homeless to help the Homeless, thus bolstering your ranks ad-infinite.
With enough Homeless you could sweep across Mexico and fight the Drug Cartels in guerilla warfare. Building up a hardened group of freedom fighters and people who have finally gotten meaning in their lives.
And before you know it, probably at the crucial point where your command is most needed. You can drop those guys and go do a Conspiracy draft.
That said, I don't blame you for feeling the way you do. I know plenty of people like you, who would generally rather play games with smaller luck components.
That being said, I've had my moments of poor luck in my over 15 years of playing. I have considered quitting many times. However, I just try to focus on my play and just shuffle differently the next time.
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)The odds of you getting constantly mana screwed in 45 of 50 events if you've constructed your decks with an appropriate amount of land and shuffled well is astronomical. Sorry to hear about your troubles.
If someone has walked away from the game, they won't be reading and posting here. So, you should imagine many more than those who post here would answer "yes" to the question in the subject.
1. Your learning all these cool new cards and having a blast but not winning very many games.
2. You've learned how to play Standard and have discovered some neat card interactions/combos. You've started winning games at FNM.
3. You've been researching online for top tier decks. You build these decks and expect to win most FNMs. Your possibly starting to expand into other formats like Modern/Legacy/Commander.
4. You've started going to PTQs and GTPs and hoping to win first place but unfortunately you notice your losing some games to unpredictable variance. It's getting frustrating.
5. Your starting to get burnt out of MTG. You take some time off.
6. You come back after a while and discover new things that have changed with MTG. Congratulations your back at step 1.
Well then what was the point of mana weaving? If your deck is sufficiently randomized, a deck that had 35 spells on top and 25 lands on the bottom before shuffling will be indistinguishable from the mana weaved deck.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I sat at a 9 player draft pod with 4 or 5 newer players. Normally this wouldn't bother me but conspiracy is complicated, so I knew I was in for a long draft. It ended up taking over an hour just to finish the drafting portion, and after another 30 minutes of deck building, I was assigned to be one player in a 5 man game. I had put together a very solid G/B deck with spirit monger, lots of removal, 4 howling wolves with 4 hidden agendas to back them up, etc. All in all I thought it would at least be fun to play to see how the synergies of the set worked. At least that was until turn 5, when one of the players at the table played 2 mana geysers into the multi kicker ogre to hit me for 20, with a big grin on his face, with the rest of the players at the table ready to tear into his now empty hand and meager board state. So, with that, my 2+ hours of drafting and deck building led up to getting to play 8 minutes of magic for the evening. A frustrating story I'm sure will get picked apart, but venting does feel good sometimes.
Couple things; I hadn't provoked this player, I had a decent board state but nothing overwhelming. The way the tournament was set up was pretty poor, only one game, winner of each pod gets a few extra packs. So you basically only get to play with your deck once. I happenned to really like my deck, and was looking forward to playing it, which only added to my frustration. I honestly don't mind losing all that much, but I hate not getting to play the game. Getting basically booted out of the tournament because some guy decides arbitrarily to kill both me and himself just sucks. Oh well, my next few drafts of conspiracy went much better.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire." - Jaya Ballard