I drafted BFZ last night and had an Oran-Rief Invoker in play with 3 untapped lands. My opponent was tapped out with a 3/4 Tajuru Stalwart. I'm holding a Swell of Growth and attack, making it blatantly obvious that I have a trick and he should just take the perceived 2 damage. I take my pen and am about to write down the new life total (before the declare blockers step) thinking "there's no way he would block". But he does. Now, you could argue that he knew I had a trick and was baiting it out of my hand, but he confessed after the match that the game unraveled for him after I used that combat trick and he couldn't back it up. Part of me thinks that perhaps my motion to write down the new total triggered some reaction that he should just block. It's a far-fetched theory, but I remember Chapin talking about using his pen as a jedi mindtrick or something. Either way, "wtf?".
The 2nd instance was in a game I was watching. Player 1 has a fully developed board with a 3/3 awakened land, Breaker of Armies, a 5/5 Undergrowth Champion, and a Fortified Rampart. His opponent has a Nettle Drone, Lifespring Druid and a Cloud Manta. Player 1 attacks with Breaker of Armies and only Breaker of Armies. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand that there could be some hidden information Player 1 is not aware of. However, in a dominating board position such as the one he had I was asking myself why he wasn't being more aggressive. Again, "wtf?"
I would like to reiterate--hidden information is a massive part of this game. As such, casual observers may not know the entire story and it's just what they see that can be critiqued. This is meant as a more light-hearted, entertaining story-time thread instead of one where we openly mock bad plays. My first story is a bad play and I can say so because I was apart of it. The second one could be up for further debate. Keep this in mind.
Do you have a memory of any "wtf" plays either you or your opponent committed that just can't be reasonably explained? If so, let's hear it.
Once in a while, I'll be dead on board to a control player, with an out and another spell or two in my hand. Playing to my outs, I'll play a do-nothing spell in an attempt to draw a counter. More often than not, they'll counter it. I then play my Wrath or whatever to stabilize.
I guess there are just a lot of bad control players out there, countering anything ever. I would have thought it obvious that counters should only be used on relevant spells, especially given a dominant board state, but a lot of people just don't get that.
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I watched two new players that was the last game to finish at FNM. I started watching on turn 4, where one player taps out to play Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker when his opponent is at 4 and all tapped out along with his creatures. Instead of +1 and winning the game, he -3 to kill a 1/1 on the board, even though there were two 2/2s on the board and he himself was also at 4. His opponent untaps and instead of swinging for game, he passes turn and it becomes a draw.
Everyone watching the game collectively had a brain aneurysm.
I remember a game where I was a bit ahead on my board state but too low on life to attack with anything and we both had several dudes. The other guy swung in with everything... I couldn't let anything through at all but my blockers were bigger than his attackers. I said something like "block here, here, and here... kill all your dudes?" He looked at the board for about 5 seconds and said "wow. That was a terrible decision." (referring to himself). I swung for lethal on my turn.
I'm humble enough to know though that for every story like that I can tell, my opponents probably have 3 about me.
Playing a game of magic with my ex room mate with a bet on the line. Whom ever looses the game has to take a shot of the winners choice. I'm on a standard Rakdos deck Gatecrash was just coming out) with my room mate on a casual elf list. He knows I run a playset of Rakdos Charm in the main, but decided that I didn't have it at some point. He lands a Nissa and eventually ult's her, as I commit very little to the board. He tells our other room mates that there is no way he can loose as he pulls out 23 elfs out of his deck, After he is done adjusting his board to a usable state (that's a lot of elfs!), I cast Rakdos Charm for he win. I was kind and told him to shot some Kraken rum, a house hold favorite, instead of the Tito's vodka we all hated, and couldn't get rid of, but it was still a good memory.
Well bit of a reversal but just this Friday, Standard FNM game 2 against Dragonless Esper, I'm running Grixis Dragons (5 creatures, basically Esper Dragons swapping White for Red). I won game 1, we finish boarding, we shuffle and draw for game 2, keep and go to turn 1. He plays ebt land and passes, I draw, play island, and tap for Salvage Drone and nearly crack up watching his face as he tries to figure out wtf is going on. He figured it out pretty quick when ingest exiles a top deck land he needed, followed by foul-tongue invocation, followed by Jace #1 of 3. Has to use Stasis Snare to try and remove it so I just Fiery Impulse it for the loot. I would've loved to see what would've happened after that but we hit time and called a draw so I won the round 1-0-1.
Some people are bad at combat math and combat decisions in general. Recently I've been bluffing tricks more than I used to--just confidently swinging cards sideways like I didn't have a second thought. I'm amazed how much people take their cues from from an opponent's confidence; I'm almost never called on these bluffs.
It's also not uncommon to have an opponent with lethal on board not go for it. I've learned to not just sit there dumbfounded by their inaction, but to try and figure out what they're playing around. That info can help me leave the right mana open to keep them honest or even can help me realize outs I didn't think of.
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The 2nd instance was in a game I was watching. Player 1 has a fully developed board with a 3/3 awakened land, Breaker of Armies, a 5/5 Undergrowth Champion, and a Fortified Rampart. His opponent has a Nettle Drone, Lifespring Druid and a Cloud Manta. Player 1 attacks with Breaker of Armies and only Breaker of Armies. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand that there could be some hidden information Player 1 is not aware of. However, in a dominating board position such as the one he had I was asking myself why he wasn't being more aggressive. Again, "wtf?"
I would like to reiterate--hidden information is a massive part of this game. As such, casual observers may not know the entire story and it's just what they see that can be critiqued. This is meant as a more light-hearted, entertaining story-time thread instead of one where we openly mock bad plays. My first story is a bad play and I can say so because I was apart of it. The second one could be up for further debate. Keep this in mind.
Do you have a memory of any "wtf" plays either you or your opponent committed that just can't be reasonably explained? If so, let's hear it.
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I guess there are just a lot of bad control players out there, countering anything ever. I would have thought it obvious that counters should only be used on relevant spells, especially given a dominant board state, but a lot of people just don't get that.
Everyone watching the game collectively had a brain aneurysm.
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I'm humble enough to know though that for every story like that I can tell, my opponents probably have 3 about me.
Playing a game of magic with my ex room mate with a bet on the line. Whom ever looses the game has to take a shot of the winners choice. I'm on a standard Rakdos deck Gatecrash was just coming out) with my room mate on a casual elf list. He knows I run a playset of Rakdos Charm in the main, but decided that I didn't have it at some point. He lands a Nissa and eventually ult's her, as I commit very little to the board. He tells our other room mates that there is no way he can loose as he pulls out 23 elfs out of his deck, After he is done adjusting his board to a usable state (that's a lot of elfs!), I cast Rakdos Charm for he win. I was kind and told him to shot some Kraken rum, a house hold favorite, instead of the Tito's vodka we all hated, and couldn't get rid of, but it was still a good memory.
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It's also not uncommon to have an opponent with lethal on board not go for it. I've learned to not just sit there dumbfounded by their inaction, but to try and figure out what they're playing around. That info can help me leave the right mana open to keep them honest or even can help me realize outs I didn't think of.