I would start by approaching him personally. I know a lot of people will disagree with that, but my friendship comes before my responsibility as a player. I would let him know in private that I definitely saw him cheat, and let him know my stance on the issue. I would say that cheating is detrimental to the community, and also removes the legitimacy of anything you accomplish. Also, the game of Magic is not worth sacrificing your integrity for, even if it is for money. Money comes and money goes, but who you are can live beyond your life span. I would tell him all these things, and hopefully, if he is a good person and not too far down the rabbit hole of cheating, he can come back and be an honest player. I would be sure to warn him that, although I am his friend, if he continues to cheat that I will not allow stand by silently. That gives him fair warning in the future of what I will do and why I am doing it. If he continues to cheat even after that, it will be his choice to put strain on the relationship and not mine.
You just have to accept traditional draw-go control is dying. You can still do decently with it if you are good enough at piloting it, just like most decks in modern. I consider myself a good pilot, and I routinely finish in the 6-3 sometimes 6-2 bracket of tournaments. The trouble is that there are too many decks in Modern. I usually run into something every tournament from way out of left field and my deck wont be tuned to beat it. Proactive decks have an advantage in this situation because they have the option of trying to race. Because draw-go doesnt have this option, it suffers in a format thats so diverse. That being said, I still play it regardless because after years of playing it I still love the deck and I have fun with it. You can finish decently with draw-go, but dont expect to be taking down tournaments.
As a competitor and not a collector, I personally dont have a big issue with proxies. If someone wins a GP with proxied cards, he/she still earned that victory. He or she had to make all those tough plays to make it to the trophy. From my experience, proxies don't really hurt anyone except the secondary market anyways.
I tend to prefer attacking the best decks rather than playing the best decks. Admittedly, in some scenarios this is a mistake and I think I could have done way better if I had simply gone with my gut and played what I thought was the best deck at the time.
Honestly, Jeskai Tokens has soooo much play to it that I have never had an issue losing to the mid range decks. I sideboard to stay as aggro as I can while bringing in 4x Disdainful Stroke. Unless you see End Hostilities game 1, assume they are playing FLeecemane Lion and keep in the Lightning Strikes. If worse comes to worst, you can aim it at the face when they stabilize on board and you can have the burn plan as a viable back up. I do not board out soulfires either. They help the burn game become more legitimate. This is a tough matchup on paper, as many of their cards are simply stronger than ours, but because of the amount of play I can leverage out of the deck, I can usually find a way to squeeze out the win.
I'm not trying to step on any toes here, but SCG modern 5k IQs are more diverse events because they dont attract the same quality players that PTQs and GPs attract because of Pro Tour implications. Heck, iv had a ton of fun at these 5k IQs and even won cash a few times, but in my experience the PTQ grinds (at least around my area in TX/LA) are much tougher. You just dont get any "free" wins from player error, every round will test you. SCGs seem much more laid back and fun, but the player skill level does seem to be lower to me.
The draft experience this block has provided is imo one of the best in Magic's history, and I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. I have somewhat of a cool story about a guy at my local area. He has somewhat of a communication problem, he told me at some point but cant remember what it is. He apologized to me when we first met at Magic tables because he said he had somewhat of a brain deficiency where he could not easily communicate with others due to his inability to pick up on non verbal communication. He was definitely a very awkward person to play with, but I met his awkwardness with understanding and did my best to ensure he enjoyed his game of Magic at a local standard tournament. He has now continued to attend local tournaments and plays more consistently than ever (mostly because draft is so fun these days). From afar, I'm amazed as I see him a few years later speaking without his stutter he used to speak with, and even taking part in our group humor. His sense of belonging in the local Magic community has given him the confidence to speak more freely than he is otherwise comfortable with in other places. He sometimes says something odd, but then we laugh and tell him hes being weird again. He gets the message and moves on flawlessly now. It's honestly inspiring to see that as Magic players we have given someone a sense of belonging who would otherwise have difficulty fitting in. This is truly an amazing game and stories like this are reasons I am proud to be a part of this community.
I collect typical blue modern staples of any kind in general. In fact, I have an entirely foiled out Jeskai Control and Jeskai Midrange deck with about 20 cards difference between them. I also collect audiophile gear and have a few thousand dollars invested between headphones and amp/DAC gear.
I don't trade anymore. In fact all I bring to events is the deck I play with and some practical things (dice, pen, paper etc) I have gotten burned too many times with bad deals I don't want to risk it anymore. If people want to buy things from me they can let me know and I will decide whether I'm willing to part with those cards at my own leasure but I'm not trading just for trading sake anymore.
Anyone else had or have any similar thoughts / experiences?
I dont trade anymore because I refuse to deal with trade sharks. People who always value their cards as more valuable than yours. People who always try to find every little reason to come out ahead on a trade for whatever reason. Reasons like "Well your card will be less valuable a year down the line", while my reply is like "well we are trading today not tomorrow, so I will ask for it's current value" and they act like you are ripping them off. I'm just so done with it. So now I became an active Amazon seller with a 98.7/100 seller rating and 10 five star ratings....to help make sure I get as close to market value as I can without having to deal with all the bullcrap. I set the prices and you can take it or leave it.
Yeah i get the feeling you dont play much limited. Draft from here out until MTG Origins and you may get a better grasp on how easy it is to completely break Limited, which is easily Wizards most profitable format because it sells packs. Limited always comes first, then standard, everything else is somewhat expendable.
I dont understand why some people think draw-go decks dont let you do anything. You are still casting your spells. You are still playing magic, for quite a while I might add. I always enjoy playing against draw go as well since its kind of fun having to maneuver around their mana and removal spells while still trying to clock them fast enough to race their win condition bombs. Its a great challenge. Interaction makes magic interesting, I WANT people to try to stop what Im doing. It wouldnt be fun otherwise.
If you think UW Control was the strongest deck in standard why was Mono black AND mono blue placing in more events?
I like the part where you completely ignore him saying "at the end of the format". I guess because it totally disproves what little semblance of a point you had to begin with? By the time rotation came around, monoblue had almost completely died off (in fact, it had been on a steady downward trend since Born of the Gods), and monoblack was dying due to new cards in M15 allowing other decks to compete. Jund Planeswalkers and Rabble Red had as large meta shares as monoblack by the time Return to Ravnica left Standard. UW Control was definitely the best deck in the format by that point - it was consistently winning in tournaments, and it won Pro Tour M15 too in the hands of Ivan Floch.
As to your earlier point about Standard being a format where "control is neutered beyond all recognition" - I'm just going to assume you're making sweeping statements to exaggerate a point without actually have a clue of what you're talking about. UB Control is a top deck in Standard right now, UW Control was in the top three decks for the entire of the past Standard season, and Esper Drownyard was very viable in the season before that (Innistrad / Return to Ravnica). All of those decks play very traditional draw / go games. Sure, their cards are weaker because the format is weaker, but they're recognisably control. So if Standard is the format where "control is neutered beyond all recognition", where are the control decks in Modern? I don't see any. Legacy is hardly awash with control decks either - there are certainly a few, but they make up a very small percentage of the deck types as a whole.
Saying control is dead in Modern because Standard players hate control and thus Wizards won't support it is total nonsense, because each of the past three Standard seasons has had a very strong and very viable control deck in the format - which is more than I can say for Modern.
And im guessing you have no idea how an actual meta game works, otherwise you would know it makes no difference whether a deck was good at the beginning or end of a format. If the format was one month longer or shorter, it would be another deck being the top dog and we would all be talking about another deck entirely. Just because its the best at the particular time the format ends doesn't make it the best, so I chose to talk about something that actually matters. UW Delver wasnt the best at the end of it's standard format. Next i guess you're going to tell me that wasn't the best deck either. I already talked about why UB control was doing well so I won't repeat myself. Esper Drownyard was in fact a decent deck, as you could tune it to beat almost anything.
I love how your last sentence shows you know nothing of modern either, since Jeskai Control was considered tier 1 during the last 3 seasons and even won a Pro Tour. The entire reason it has fallen off is that wizards refuses to print good control cards in standard while other decks are gaining cards like Become Immense and Siege Rhino.
While that would certainly be an annoying deck to play against. It certainly wouldn't be good either. I think its mostly an unfounded fear. There aren't many people who would even want to play such a deck.
Probably wouldnt even be good, although I would certainly consider playing it anyways just because. Also, if people are going to play in anything but standard, they need to have thick skin when it comes to having their spells countered. If they want to play a format where control is neutered beyond all recognition they can play standard. (I do understand UB control is doing well but only because every other deck is weak as well, save for Abzan/Sultai Reanimator, which UB happens to be good against)
Control is often very strong in standard. Look at the last season, UW control was the most powerful deck at the end of the format.
If you think UW Control was the strongest deck in standard why was Mono black AND mono blue placing in more events?
You are right. This is true especially for draft.
I dont trade anymore because I refuse to deal with trade sharks. People who always value their cards as more valuable than yours. People who always try to find every little reason to come out ahead on a trade for whatever reason. Reasons like "Well your card will be less valuable a year down the line", while my reply is like "well we are trading today not tomorrow, so I will ask for it's current value" and they act like you are ripping them off. I'm just so done with it. So now I became an active Amazon seller with a 98.7/100 seller rating and 10 five star ratings....to help make sure I get as close to market value as I can without having to deal with all the bullcrap. I set the prices and you can take it or leave it.
And im guessing you have no idea how an actual meta game works, otherwise you would know it makes no difference whether a deck was good at the beginning or end of a format. If the format was one month longer or shorter, it would be another deck being the top dog and we would all be talking about another deck entirely. Just because its the best at the particular time the format ends doesn't make it the best, so I chose to talk about something that actually matters. UW Delver wasnt the best at the end of it's standard format. Next i guess you're going to tell me that wasn't the best deck either. I already talked about why UB control was doing well so I won't repeat myself. Esper Drownyard was in fact a decent deck, as you could tune it to beat almost anything.
I love how your last sentence shows you know nothing of modern either, since Jeskai Control was considered tier 1 during the last 3 seasons and even won a Pro Tour. The entire reason it has fallen off is that wizards refuses to print good control cards in standard while other decks are gaining cards like Become Immense and Siege Rhino.