Forgive me if this is not in the right forum, I am not really sure where this goes, but it has to do with our casual playgroup, so i put it here.
Anyway, we have a group of people who are all experienced magic players, but none of us have overly expensive decks or anything ridiculously broken. But there is one guy who spent well over $1000 on a deck that can beat any of ours 9 times out of 10. And he insists on his own rulings for the group simply for his benefit. For example, none of us really use sideboards, but he insists on having an unlimited amount of cards on his sideboard so that he can stack it with tons of cards so that basically he has a giant pile of cards set aside of each of our decks specifically there just to fight our deck. The rest of the group and myself have all complained to him a few times with varying degrees of "Your deck really isn't that fun to play against." In short, he is ruining our playgroup and I was wondering if you guys and gals have any experience with this kind of situation and any ideas on how to deal with it.
It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.
Yea, its called not playing with him. That simple lol. Seriously, just make separate groups and tell him you wont play with him if he doesnt A) cut his sideboard down to 15, and fix any other of his own rulings, and B)Although you cant tell him not to use your deck, but you can try and censor it, hell, in a multiplayer game get everyone to gang up on him and maybe he will change his ways.
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Honestly? If you and the rest of the group don't like playing with him, don't play with him.
Don't call him to come over for MTG. Don't talk about MTG with him. If he does show up, refuse to be his opponent.
That is what I feared would be the response. It is easier said then done, but you guys are right, I don't think there is another way around it. The only problem is I know I won't play with him, but overall i believe "meek" is a good word to describe most of us in the group. I am not sure how willing everyone else will be to avoid him. I doubt the "if he's going to be a jerk to us let's be a jerk to him" approach will be unanimously favorable in our group. It feels like a "two wrongs don't make a right" kind of situation. Oh well. We can try at least.
It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.
Players like this make things unfun for noncompetitive players like ourselves. Winning is more important to them than friends and fun. Spike is the term.
You should all together confront him in a manner befitting of friends, usually a discussion, and let him know you will no longer host games for him as long as he continues to take the fun from the rest of you. As a whole you will present a stronger case and help him to realize he has affected literally everyone with his attitude and play style. Do not gang up on him! It is an intervention, not a roast.
The rules he makes up for himself need to stop. If everyone else is subject to them then so is he. For no reason should he be exempt. I suggest informing him of this, and if he doesn't stop then go with the previous suggestions of excluding him from your tables.
Unfortunately, for some, the line between casual and competitive is a little fuzzy. As you progress in your ever-growing conquest to better and better the decks you build I think eventually you always end up making something pretty nasty. I don't think that he can be faulted for succeeding at what every magic player strives to do.
Have everyone in your play group build a broken proxy deck full of mox & whatnot. Play your own decks vs each other, but when he wants to play, just have everyone use the proxy decks, and have everyone target him first.
If he is so proud of how much cash he has spent on his cards, or he does not seem to care about the price difference a deck is capable of (pauper deck vs someone using p9 cards) then he should not complain when he is facing a theoretical deck loaded with mox, even if they are not the authentic card.
Doesn't mater if he is a good player or not, if he is a good person he would have spent a little bit of chump-change on a more amusing / friendly deck and left his wallet-deck on the sidelines. The game to him seems to be more about winning, not having fun. Even if I had a deck that would crush him, I wouldn't bother playing with this person.
Run this deck. if you don't buy the tabernacle at pendrell vale, you can build this deck for about 65-75 dollars. You'll have a blast. and he won't be able to do much of anything. sometimes they need a taste of their own medicine. and the sideboard is huge so you can show him how easy it makes the game to play with all of your answers in the sideboard. infinite sideboard means you're not really designing a solid deck, it means you don't know how to and you're a cheap player. throw this at him.
Collectively meet with your friends and plot doing this THIS in a massive game.
If he plays sleeves, get the same kind of sleeves and play a junk deck in those sleeves.
If you actually plan on doing the above, do it at a random interval- not just when he gloats that he's winning or complaining about how you're not following his rules.
Seriously, I'm in the "don't/refuse to play him" group.
players who sideboard against specific decks don't understand the concept of casual play.
There are some simple solutions to counter his arrogance, mostly- don't tell him what you're playing. how can he sideboard when you or your play group refuse to tell him what deck he's facing.
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^Thats hilarious. I usually play land destruction to make players not enjoy the game by denying them the ability to play cards, but that seems much more amusing in a play-anything-denial sort of way.
i call it, "i'm gonna black hand you". hardly ever loses, so i don't play it much. i save it for the annoying players and annoying decks. of course those dont' happen in my meta. but it does when we play at our local store. i'd also suggest a really good Orim's Chant and isochron scepter deck. here's a good starting list
I haven't played Magic "for real" in a long time and I went to my LGS, played a game of Multiplayer and one of the player's for Game 2 broke out his sideboard. I was so astonished I refused to play, to me he was being an incredibly rude prick for doing that. The question is: Are sideboards the norm for Multiplayer Magic now?
Also: Solidly in "Don't play him". The objective of a game is to have fun, if it isn't fun you don't play it. If it isn't fun because of an easily removed element, don't play with that element.
The question is: Are sideboards the norm for Multiplayer Magic now?
Not where I am from. Most multiplayers I know simply switch out decks - we all seem to have (too) many. Generally speaking, on the rare occasions that I have seen sideboarding in MP games, I wait until the person is done, then grab a deck of a different color and often strategy.
Granted, I am of the opinion that sideboards are for <nouns not printable in mixed company>, but seem to be of the minority in that regard.
As for the OP, I am in the stop playing with him group.
I also am curious about his deck and whether or not it is for duels or MP games. Depending on what he plays, I would like to point out that building an "anti-deck" can be done for little money. By anti-deck, I mean one wherein every card exists solely to target his deck.
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That is what I feared would be the response. It is easier said then done, but you guys are right, I don't think there is another way around it. The only problem is I know I won't play with him, but overall i believe "meek" is a good word to describe most of us in the group. I am not sure how willing everyone else will be to avoid him. I doubt the "if he's going to be a jerk to us let's be a jerk to him" approach will be unanimously favorable in our group. It feels like a "two wrongs don't make a right" kind of situation. Oh well. We can try at least.
But this isn't being a jerk! Context is everything.
Here's an example. Walking away from someone in the middle of a conversation is rude, right? But if this guy were to insult your mother every time you had a conversation with him, and refused to stop with the insults even when you asked... insulting his mother back would be rude (your "two wrongs don't make a right" situation), but simply walking away in the middle of the conversation would not be rude in that context -- it's just self-defense.
Similarly, responding to his cheaty rules with your own cheaty rules would be "two wrongs don't make a right", but refusing to play with him when he's cheating (and his sideboard rules are cheating!) isn't rude, isn't wrong, and isn't being a jerk. It's an appropriate response in context.
You and your friends are not obligated to turn the other cheek so he can slap you again. Just walk away!
There is a rule that is really fun: The winner of a match is always forced to swap decks, and can't use the same deck prior to 3 plays. Not just you guys will experience different decks on each play, as the spike dude will be forced to show his expertise as an experienced magic player.
Challenging his competence as a magic player can work to force him to swap decks.
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Collectively meet with your friends and plot doing this THIS in a massive game.
If he plays sleeves, get the same kind of sleeves and play a junk deck in those sleeves.
If you actually plan on doing the above, do it at a random interval- not just when he gloats that he's winning or complaining about how you're not following his rules.
Property damage & possibly injuring some one are neither recommenable nor to be recommended.
I've to barn the refuse to play him, 'til he gets it.
While techincally he's not cheating (but rather switching decks...), what he does is incredibily poor conduct.
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Like Blutsau said, what he is doing was against rule because he just build a new deck when he sideboard. And in casual game, the wish cards can have access too any cards you have access so if you have your library with you, you have access too everything you want.
So you cannot says too him: "You cheat ..." or "You only have access to a 15 sideboards in the rules ...".
The best way IMO was explain to him that you didn't enjoy playing against him when he doing this type of deck and how unfair was the wish cards.
In my playgroup, we have some conduct rules you have too follow.
Wish cards was tollerated but nobody have like 200 cards at the side of his decks. If we have wish cards we auto restrict herself to a small number of cards.
You cannot change your deck after each game outside of doing modification like: "I don't have enough land and I will add 2 lands." or "I will need 1 or 2 mass removal in this deck". But the modification was not for 1 game. It's for testing something new or for the perfection of the deck. It's not modification like: "I add artifact removal because you play your artifact deck". That type of modification wasn't accepted.
IMO, the best ways was explain him that his playstyle was unfun and that you want more equal game and fun game. If he didn't understand, you have no choice. You can add some house rules too restrict him and if he didn't follow them just stop playing against him because he didn't follow the rules.
My group plays strictly EDH. We are generally casual but not against strong decks or counterspells.
I have a friend in this playgroup who has a lot of money (and I think you can predict where this is going.) He insists on playing decks with Emrakul, as well as decks made entirely of counterspells and other degenerate denial methods.
He also on several occasions dropped out of multiplayer team (!!) games because his inability to build decks properly led to extreme resourcing issues, and he saw no way of catching up from a five-land deficit on turn 6.
The way we handled his lack of awareness for the kind of games the others enjoy playing (ie 'casual' ones) was to counter his cutthroat competitiveness and general un-sportsmanship with indifference, and ultimately a policy of "I'm not playing alongside/against that deck, period."
Its messy, and it can be challenging, but I agree either explaining the nature of the games you want to run or outright excluding the individual in question is the only way to reasonably stop people who can't grasp the concept of gaming for the thrill of gaming.
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Latest proof this forum is a trashfire:
Your authoritarianism will be the reason the company suffers another 60M in losses.
Sideboards for Wishes is great. When the Wishes came out, we had the rule was that you had to be able to get the card within arm's reach. You could not leave your seat. If your binder and/or sideboard was too far away, it was time to get real creative.
This sort of limit made people make Wishboards, which I am quite fine with. I am also glad to see that the two people who have responded said that Sideboards are not the norm when playing Multiplayer. That's what I would do if I had another deck: Switch.
Thanks for all the responses guys, I think we have a good idea of what to do.
In regards to what he has specifically, he has a modified version of "The Deck" with basically the best removal out there paired with all the old dual lands and such. All he does is sit there and counter any spell you play or kill any creatures with stuff like swords to plowshares or wrath of god. He has super efficient draw and always seems to have an answer in hand for whatever spell you play. One of the worst things he does is he claims that because we aren't in a tournament he doesn't have to bother about restrictions, meaning he has 4 fact or fiction, 4 demonic tutor, 4 strip mine, 4 sol ring. Stuff like that. he also says because it's not a tournament that he can have a sideboard as big as he pleases, and that he can sideboard game 1. As of the last time we played, he had a 116 card sideboard for a 60 card deck, and it was basically stacked with specific hate, like tons of cheap board sweepers against swarm, plenty of counter for combo, and plenty of circle of protections, story circles, leylines of sanctity/the void, Land destrustion, artifact/enchantment hate, And well you get the picture. He also asserts on this stupid rule that if he kills a creature in combat, it was like it was never there. For instance, if i block his morphling with a little 1/1 flying token, he uses something like lightning bolt on it and says his morphling still deals damage to me.
We do play about even amounts of 1 v 1 and multiplayer, but usually the multiplayer games are team ones, like 2 headed giant or emporer battles, where we can't gang up on him.
It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.
Yeah, I wouldn't play with a guy like that. I mean if it ever becomes competitive with him then I don't think it's casual anymore in my opinion. Casual is all about just having fun.
The thing is, he spent a ton of a money on this massive "answer" deck and sideboard of his, and odds are no other playgroup he would try to join would even humor him trying to argue with them to bend the rules like he is. I'm guessing the reason you guys have allowed it at all is that he's your friend (maybe a long time one?), and I can appreciate that, but like you've made clear, it needs to stop since it's ruining the game for everyone else.
I don't know the guy or if he can be reasoned with, but the simple fact is that if he ruins the game for everyone constantly just because he can't be satisfied with the rules or with the chance of a fair game, one of two things will likely happen: 1) He won't be invited to play anymore (this is what should happen over the second), or 2) People will stop showing up or the playgroup will disband when the fun is gone entirely and people don't want to play Magic anymore. Competitive decks are fine, even in casual, but blatant disregard of rules and the spirit of the game or playgroup isn't, and neither is being a total jerk to your friends.
I think if I were to approach such a player, I might reason with him that in both of those outcomes, he'd be out all that money and be left looking for a new playgroup, or worse if he keeps running his friends down, for new friends. I say that last part, because just a game or not, how you treat your friends in a game really reflects how you treat your friends out of the game and impacts that friendship.
I think most rational people would be willing to consider the impact their bad attitude or play style (or in this case bending and breaking of the rules) has on their play group or friends and change their play style. Like I said though, I don't know the guy, so I can't say he would. I just think most people would be willing to reconsider if it was presented to them that way.
Hope you can resolve this amicably and that your play group and games come out the better for it!
I would agree as a group to a format restriction (ie. Vintage or Legacy banned/restricted list) and enforce it. Also, have the Comprehensive Rules (pdf or whatever) handy when you play so he can't pull out bs rules.
I also don't think sideboarding is really an unsporting thing, it just becomes pointless (Wishes aside) if you switch out decks between games as I see most groups do.
I'm not going to dig into what falls under casual, since the definition varies wildly from person to person.
The question is: Are sideboards the norm for Multiplayer Magic now?
I don't see why not; it's the norm in my playgroup for every member of said playgroup, but the power levels of our decks vary so much, person to person, that it's actually a requirement (or we just start banning cards, which is for [nouns that should not be said in proper company]).
Like, one player in our group, his best deck is Tempered Steel. Like, Standard Tempered Steel + 4 Cranial Plating and that's it. Another guy's best deck is Vampire Hexmage + Dark Depths. With 4 Duress to strip suspected removal (Dispatch for example). It's not even fair competition with that kind of deck- notwithstanding that even if there's 3 or so other players in the game, sometimes one or two of us will tap out on our second turn so we can't Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile or Vapor Snag the 20/20 token with flying when he makes it at the end of someone else's turn. Odds are, the Dark Depths guy will get to knock 1 player out of the game before getting knocked out himself, which is frustrating for the one knocked out before his or her third turn because the three remaining players often take their sweet time for the rest of the game (though it's become far less of an issue since CoD:MW3 was purchased).
So, yeah, oftentimes if he cracks out that combo, the guy knocked out will put some Pithing Needles, Phyrexian Revokers, etc., to slow him down to reasonable levels (20/20s on turn 5 after he's Naturalized the artifacts are easily dealt with).
I mean, there's a player there who is even worse than that: He has Painter's Servant/Grindstone, Reanimator, Thopter/Sword, and even though he never plays the former two in multiplayer, it's still reasonable to keep a sideboard of Relic of Progenitus and Pithing Needle just in case they do get set on the table. I mean, what's the alternative? Be a sour puss and just say, "I'm not playing that tier 1 Legacy wannabe with my Knight deck"? Nah.
@ OP: This guy flat out ignores the Restricted/Banned list? That is a Grade A douchebag.
Perhaps he doesn't understand, in which case you should enforce a "Legacy or Vintage B/R". That's my definition of Casual anyway - yes, I don't think Unglued should ever be played outside of some really strange formats (one of which I play, Type 4). Casual lets you play what you want, but not to the point where it warps the metagame where they're forced to play something to adapt.
Failing that, you guys can start busting out Unglued on him.
Anyway, we have a group of people who are all experienced magic players, but none of us have overly expensive decks or anything ridiculously broken. But there is one guy who spent well over $1000 on a deck that can beat any of ours 9 times out of 10. And he insists on his own rulings for the group simply for his benefit. For example, none of us really use sideboards, but he insists on having an unlimited amount of cards on his sideboard so that he can stack it with tons of cards so that basically he has a giant pile of cards set aside of each of our decks specifically there just to fight our deck. The rest of the group and myself have all complained to him a few times with varying degrees of "Your deck really isn't that fun to play against." In short, he is ruining our playgroup and I was wondering if you guys and gals have any experience with this kind of situation and any ideas on how to deal with it.
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That is what I feared would be the response. It is easier said then done, but you guys are right, I don't think there is another way around it. The only problem is I know I won't play with him, but overall i believe "meek" is a good word to describe most of us in the group. I am not sure how willing everyone else will be to avoid him. I doubt the "if he's going to be a jerk to us let's be a jerk to him" approach will be unanimously favorable in our group. It feels like a "two wrongs don't make a right" kind of situation. Oh well. We can try at least.
You should all together confront him in a manner befitting of friends, usually a discussion, and let him know you will no longer host games for him as long as he continues to take the fun from the rest of you. As a whole you will present a stronger case and help him to realize he has affected literally everyone with his attitude and play style. Do not gang up on him! It is an intervention, not a roast.
Unfortunately, for some, the line between casual and competitive is a little fuzzy. As you progress in your ever-growing conquest to better and better the decks you build I think eventually you always end up making something pretty nasty. I don't think that he can be faulted for succeeding at what every magic player strives to do.
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If he is so proud of how much cash he has spent on his cards, or he does not seem to care about the price difference a deck is capable of (pauper deck vs someone using p9 cards) then he should not complain when he is facing a theoretical deck loaded with mox, even if they are not the authentic card.
Doesn't mater if he is a good player or not, if he is a good person he would have spent a little bit of chump-change on a more amusing / friendly deck and left his wallet-deck on the sidelines. The game to him seems to be more about winning, not having fun. Even if I had a deck that would crush him, I wouldn't bother playing with this person.
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If he plays sleeves, get the same kind of sleeves and play a junk deck in those sleeves.
If you actually plan on doing the above, do it at a random interval- not just when he gloats that he's winning or complaining about how you're not following his rules.
Seriously, I'm in the "don't/refuse to play him" group.
players who sideboard against specific decks don't understand the concept of casual play.
There are some simple solutions to counter his arrogance, mostly- don't tell him what you're playing. how can he sideboard when you or your play group refuse to tell him what deck he's facing.
comtemplate an Enchanted Evening/Opalesence/Pendrel Mists statis deck.
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^Thats hilarious. I usually play land destruction to make players not enjoy the game by denying them the ability to play cards, but that seems much more amusing in a play-anything-denial sort of way.
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Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
or a really fast RW land destruction deck with pardic miner and limited resources, fulminator mage and lots of other fun LD stuff.
you won't have to make up any rules of your own to frustrate him with. his rules will never take effect because he won't be allowed to play basically.
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I haven't played Magic "for real" in a long time and I went to my LGS, played a game of Multiplayer and one of the player's for Game 2 broke out his sideboard. I was so astonished I refused to play, to me he was being an incredibly rude prick for doing that. The question is: Are sideboards the norm for Multiplayer Magic now?
Also: Solidly in "Don't play him". The objective of a game is to have fun, if it isn't fun you don't play it. If it isn't fun because of an easily removed element, don't play with that element.
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Granted, I am of the opinion that sideboards are for <nouns not printable in mixed company>, but seem to be of the minority in that regard.
As for the OP, I am in the stop playing with him group.
I also am curious about his deck and whether or not it is for duels or MP games. Depending on what he plays, I would like to point out that building an "anti-deck" can be done for little money. By anti-deck, I mean one wherein every card exists solely to target his deck.
Cheers!
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But this isn't being a jerk! Context is everything.
Here's an example. Walking away from someone in the middle of a conversation is rude, right? But if this guy were to insult your mother every time you had a conversation with him, and refused to stop with the insults even when you asked... insulting his mother back would be rude (your "two wrongs don't make a right" situation), but simply walking away in the middle of the conversation would not be rude in that context -- it's just self-defense.
Similarly, responding to his cheaty rules with your own cheaty rules would be "two wrongs don't make a right", but refusing to play with him when he's cheating (and his sideboard rules are cheating!) isn't rude, isn't wrong, and isn't being a jerk. It's an appropriate response in context.
You and your friends are not obligated to turn the other cheek so he can slap you again. Just walk away!
Challenging his competence as a magic player can work to force him to swap decks.
Property damage & possibly injuring some one are neither recommenable nor to be recommended.
I've to barn the refuse to play him, 'til he gets it.
While techincally he's not cheating (but rather switching decks...), what he does is incredibily poor conduct.
So you cannot says too him: "You cheat ..." or "You only have access to a 15 sideboards in the rules ...".
The best way IMO was explain to him that you didn't enjoy playing against him when he doing this type of deck and how unfair was the wish cards.
In my playgroup, we have some conduct rules you have too follow.
Wish cards was tollerated but nobody have like 200 cards at the side of his decks. If we have wish cards we auto restrict herself to a small number of cards.
You cannot change your deck after each game outside of doing modification like: "I don't have enough land and I will add 2 lands." or "I will need 1 or 2 mass removal in this deck". But the modification was not for 1 game. It's for testing something new or for the perfection of the deck. It's not modification like: "I add artifact removal because you play your artifact deck". That type of modification wasn't accepted.
IMO, the best ways was explain him that his playstyle was unfun and that you want more equal game and fun game. If he didn't understand, you have no choice. You can add some house rules too restrict him and if he didn't follow them just stop playing against him because he didn't follow the rules.
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I have a friend in this playgroup who has a lot of money (and I think you can predict where this is going.) He insists on playing decks with Emrakul, as well as decks made entirely of counterspells and other degenerate denial methods.
He also on several occasions dropped out of multiplayer team (!!) games because his inability to build decks properly led to extreme resourcing issues, and he saw no way of catching up from a five-land deficit on turn 6.
The way we handled his lack of awareness for the kind of games the others enjoy playing (ie 'casual' ones) was to counter his cutthroat competitiveness and general un-sportsmanship with indifference, and ultimately a policy of "I'm not playing alongside/against that deck, period."
Its messy, and it can be challenging, but I agree either explaining the nature of the games you want to run or outright excluding the individual in question is the only way to reasonably stop people who can't grasp the concept of gaming for the thrill of gaming.
This sort of limit made people make Wishboards, which I am quite fine with. I am also glad to see that the two people who have responded said that Sideboards are not the norm when playing Multiplayer. That's what I would do if I had another deck: Switch.
I like the 'winner must switch' rule.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
In regards to what he has specifically, he has a modified version of "The Deck" with basically the best removal out there paired with all the old dual lands and such. All he does is sit there and counter any spell you play or kill any creatures with stuff like swords to plowshares or wrath of god. He has super efficient draw and always seems to have an answer in hand for whatever spell you play. One of the worst things he does is he claims that because we aren't in a tournament he doesn't have to bother about restrictions, meaning he has 4 fact or fiction, 4 demonic tutor, 4 strip mine, 4 sol ring. Stuff like that. he also says because it's not a tournament that he can have a sideboard as big as he pleases, and that he can sideboard game 1. As of the last time we played, he had a 116 card sideboard for a 60 card deck, and it was basically stacked with specific hate, like tons of cheap board sweepers against swarm, plenty of counter for combo, and plenty of circle of protections, story circles, leylines of sanctity/the void, Land destrustion, artifact/enchantment hate, And well you get the picture. He also asserts on this stupid rule that if he kills a creature in combat, it was like it was never there. For instance, if i block his morphling with a little 1/1 flying token, he uses something like lightning bolt on it and says his morphling still deals damage to me.
We do play about even amounts of 1 v 1 and multiplayer, but usually the multiplayer games are team ones, like 2 headed giant or emporer battles, where we can't gang up on him.
I don't know the guy or if he can be reasoned with, but the simple fact is that if he ruins the game for everyone constantly just because he can't be satisfied with the rules or with the chance of a fair game, one of two things will likely happen: 1) He won't be invited to play anymore (this is what should happen over the second), or 2) People will stop showing up or the playgroup will disband when the fun is gone entirely and people don't want to play Magic anymore. Competitive decks are fine, even in casual, but blatant disregard of rules and the spirit of the game or playgroup isn't, and neither is being a total jerk to your friends.
I think if I were to approach such a player, I might reason with him that in both of those outcomes, he'd be out all that money and be left looking for a new playgroup, or worse if he keeps running his friends down, for new friends. I say that last part, because just a game or not, how you treat your friends in a game really reflects how you treat your friends out of the game and impacts that friendship.
I think most rational people would be willing to consider the impact their bad attitude or play style (or in this case bending and breaking of the rules) has on their play group or friends and change their play style. Like I said though, I don't know the guy, so I can't say he would. I just think most people would be willing to reconsider if it was presented to them that way.
Hope you can resolve this amicably and that your play group and games come out the better for it!
I also don't think sideboarding is really an unsporting thing, it just becomes pointless (Wishes aside) if you switch out decks between games as I see most groups do.
I'm not going to dig into what falls under casual, since the definition varies wildly from person to person.
I don't see why not; it's the norm in my playgroup for every member of said playgroup, but the power levels of our decks vary so much, person to person, that it's actually a requirement (or we just start banning cards, which is for [nouns that should not be said in proper company]).
Like, one player in our group, his best deck is Tempered Steel. Like, Standard Tempered Steel + 4 Cranial Plating and that's it. Another guy's best deck is Vampire Hexmage + Dark Depths. With 4 Duress to strip suspected removal (Dispatch for example). It's not even fair competition with that kind of deck- notwithstanding that even if there's 3 or so other players in the game, sometimes one or two of us will tap out on our second turn so we can't Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile or Vapor Snag the 20/20 token with flying when he makes it at the end of someone else's turn. Odds are, the Dark Depths guy will get to knock 1 player out of the game before getting knocked out himself, which is frustrating for the one knocked out before his or her third turn because the three remaining players often take their sweet time for the rest of the game (though it's become far less of an issue since CoD:MW3 was purchased).
So, yeah, oftentimes if he cracks out that combo, the guy knocked out will put some Pithing Needles, Phyrexian Revokers, etc., to slow him down to reasonable levels (20/20s on turn 5 after he's Naturalized the artifacts are easily dealt with).
I mean, there's a player there who is even worse than that: He has Painter's Servant/Grindstone, Reanimator, Thopter/Sword, and even though he never plays the former two in multiplayer, it's still reasonable to keep a sideboard of Relic of Progenitus and Pithing Needle just in case they do get set on the table. I mean, what's the alternative? Be a sour puss and just say, "I'm not playing that tier 1 Legacy wannabe with my Knight deck"? Nah.
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
Perhaps he doesn't understand, in which case you should enforce a "Legacy or Vintage B/R". That's my definition of Casual anyway - yes, I don't think Unglued should ever be played outside of some really strange formats (one of which I play, Type 4). Casual lets you play what you want, but not to the point where it warps the metagame where they're forced to play something to adapt.
Failing that, you guys can start busting out Unglued on him.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs