Has anyone encountered any strategy that's powerful enough to just simply go 3 V 1 and still win?
I'm by far the best drafter in our group and consistently beat everyone in drafts every time we do conventional drafting. This has led to basically every conspiracy game I play to be 3 v 1 from the start until I die since everyone agrees to basically go for me by default. Last game, I got beaten down by a flurry of 1/1 and 2/1s from all my opponent while any creature I played was met with removal spells. And since conspiracy is basically all we're doing nowadays...my choices are to either go 3 v 1 or not play magic for a while.
So far...I think I'm going to have stop playing magic for a while until the group gets tired of conspiracy as it's extremely frustrating to just get crushed over and over like that.
Was playing in a modern tournament and was in an interesting situation that I'm wondering how others on here would deal with.
Was playing Jund Vs Twin. Game 2, I had in my hand Rakdos Charm and Lightning Bolt with enough open mana to cast both when my opponent went end of turn Deceiver Exarch and then on his next turn, this is how the conversation went. (Note that I was at 10 life Vs my opponent at 6 life.)
Opponent: Taps out "Splinter Twin on Exarch? Got removal?"
Me: "Nope, it Resolves"
Opponent: "Make a bunch of tokens and kill you?"
Me: "How many tokens are you making?"
Opponent: "Does it really matter?"
Me: "You should always give a specific number"
Opponent: "umm...okay...hmm...you've got no removal in response to my splinter twin...hmmm"
*Opponent thinks for a while*
Opponent: "guess you could have Rakdos charm....okay, I'm not actually going to make any tokens. Pass the turn"
Me: Draws card and pass the turn back
Opponent: "Okay now make a million tokens and attack"
Me: "Rakdos Charm to kill you?"
Opponent: "Mana Leak?"
Me: "GG I guess"
Having played the same match up online, it would've played out very different, and is almost a guaranteed win for me as most players would rather not let me get an extra draw phase just to keep mana leak up without somehow thinking that I might have Rakdos Charm.
1) How would you respond to your opponent's questions in this scenario? (Does it differ in competitive Vs regular REL)
2) What are some good general tips to answer these sort of questions?
Curious what everyone thinks of this deal. I've always been a lands collector and have recently gotten a very tempting offer on one of my most prized possession. (Full play set of every single onslaught fetch land in foil)
Offer is $4K in cash for all 20 foil lands. Ignoring any sentimental value of this collection, and especially with all the rumors that fetch land is going to reprinted, this deals seems very tempting.
I'm not on expert, but I'm pretty sure that's bribery which will result in disqualification. Any time you offer an opponent something to concede, you're still trying to get them to concede which weakens the integrity of the game. Even if you gave him the prize money like you said you would, your opponent doesn't get any points on the slip which wouldn't reflect the actual outcome of the game.
I don't think there's any way around this. I would just play it out and hope for the best.
This is exactly why I didn't say anything because I don't want to get a DQ for bribery.
However, talking to the other player once the tournament was over, we both felt horrible because it feels as if the tournament rules of magic was basically screwing both of us over...
The feeling of just leaving $30 on the table basically ruins the entire night...But I guess if there's really nothing that can be said...then there's not much I can do about it.
The situation is below, I want to know how can I go about proposing the prize split I have in mind to my opponent in the last round of a tournament without breaking any rules.
Situation:
Swiss tournament with payout by record at the end
5-0: $50
4-0-1: $30
4-1: $10
It's the last round and I'm undefeated at 4-0 and I'm paired down to a 3-1 opponent.
If we play and I win, then I get $50 and he gets $0. If I lose, we both get $10. If we draw, I get $30 and he gets $0 again. So he has no incentive to actually draw with me.
However, if we were to play, and he wins, then we're basically losing value since each of us would only be getting $10 for a total of $20, where as if I win, the payout would be $50.
What I want to propose is for us to play the match, with the caveat that if he wins, then he concedes to me and we can split the $50 evenly. Since the maximum he can win at this point is $10 anyway, this gives him an extra $15 of upside and limits my downside by $15 as well. So it's basically better for both of us and I have no doubt that he would accept such an offer.
However, I was not sure how to go about proposing such an offer without breaking any tournament rules so we played it out, he won, and we each walked away with $10...
Since I'm pretty sure both of us would be happier if we each walk away with $25 instead, I want to ask what is the proper way to go about asking such a prize split? Do I ask before we play out match or afterward? What series of questions should I be asking?
Going to go with keeping it real simple, as in mono-colored decks, basic core set stuff. Some common creatures and spells to start off with. This game is surprisingly complex for beginners.
When you are still trying to explain how attacking and blocking works, the last thing you need is more complexity.
Sure, this happens at my store as well. I'm also perfectly okay with it since the store is pricing in a convenience fee basically. You are paying for the luxury of having that card right now for the tournament that's about to start in 10 minute.
And trust me, these uncommons are the ones that are priced at the most premium. If I'm missing a Sphinx's Rev, or an Elspeth, I can probably find a friend who has extra in his binder to loan, borrow or trade for it before the tournament. If I'm missing a set of dissolves, and doomblade. I'm probably going to have suck it up and use alternatives, or buy it from the store at a premium since nobody is carrying these cards in their binder. (This is why high end rares tends to be priced at about market price, while commons and uncommons carry a heavy premium offline)
In fact this happens so often before tournament at my store that often times our store would run out of these uncommons even at $1 per card. I don't begrudge the store for it, they provide us a place to play, and if we aren't prepared with our decks, they are perfectly legit in charging a premium for these cards.
So far, demand is not slowing down for these uncommons, so I don't see store pricing them at less anytime soon.
Yes, because it is pretty much impossible for them to search for a particular card without actually looking at the cards in the deck. Also:
It's fine if they want to look at all the cards in their library, but it doesn't say they should also know the order of the library when the search happened. MTGO does that automatically since it presents a preset layout for searching cards.
I figured if we want to do it in paper as well, all they'd have to do is shuffle their library first, then search, then shuffle their library again afterward.
Been playing U/W miracles and I have noticed a major difference between online and offline play, mostly involving Jace locking someone with fetchlands in play.
In online play, If I activate Jace, the Mind Sculptor +2 ability and leave the card on top, I can pretty much expect my opponent to crack a fetchland in order to not draw what they think is a dead card. It doesn't matter what I actually leave on top and whether it's truly a dead card or not since they'll never know if they shuffle with their fetch.
In offline play, my opponent will usually look to see whether I actually left a dead card on top or not when they fetch. Usually this means that I have to be a bit more careful in leaving live cards on top of their deck since they now know whether I've been tricking them or not.
Pretty sure this is just something that's different between online and offline play, but figured I ask anyway.
I think having the right expectation is important, so don't expect to win every match. In fact, don't expect to win any match.
That, however, doesn't mean you shouldn't draft. Not only is it a fun experience, but nobody got to become an expert at draft without first losing a bunch of times.
I'm one of those draft spikes that have drafted for well over 10 years and I still remember my first draft and how I got roflstomped without even a clue as to why I lost. It happens to everyone, and we become better player for it.
There was an interesting situation that occured in one of the recent tournament I was in. I wanted to see what the general opinion is on this as well as what is correct according to the rules.
For top 8, Let's assume the standing at the last round of swiss was below
1) X-0
2) X-0
3) X-1
4) X-1
5) X-1
6) X-1
7) X-1
8) X-1
9) X-1
10) X-2
The pairings for the last round were as below
1 - 2 (Intentional Draw)
3 - 4 (Intentional Draw)
5 - 6 (Intentional Draw)
7 - 8 (Decides to play their game since if 9 wins, one of them would not make it if they drew)
9 - 10 (Decides to play their game since if 10 wins, he can still make top 8 on breakers if 7 - 8 plays out their game)
The game between player 9 -10 finishes first and 10 wins the match. At that point, both player 7 and 8 decides to draw since now they are guaranteed to top 8 if they draw. This means that neither player 9 or 10 will make top 8.
I have four questions
1) Is what player 7 and 8 does legal?
2) What if player 7 and 8 finished their matches first, can they wait to turn in their result until they see who won the match between player 9 - 10?
3) Assuming this is for the top 8 of a PTQ, what would you do if you were player 7 and 8?
4) Again, assuming this is for top 8 of a PTQ, what would you do if you were player 10 and after you turned in your match slips, you saw player 7 and 8 decides to draw their game?
Three months ago I paid $250 for the only NM pack foil Flooded Strand I could find on the internet. I was looking around for a good three weeks, too. These things are impossible to find nowadays for some reason, even though Onslaught was opened a good bit and the Judge foils provide an alternative to players looking to foil out decks.
Though the demand is really niche, the supply is super low and that's what the problem is. Also it seems like the current magic playerbase includes way more people who are older and have jobs (and often grew up playing the game) so there is now vastly more money chasing the cards in the secondary market.
It's funny to hear this when I've been trying to sell my NM foil flooded strands for ages (pulled it from a pack myself years ago and stayed in my binder ever since) and no one is interested at all. Or I'd just get lowball offers all over the place until I finally just said screw it and buylisted to a store.
It's interesting, the problem with these cards are that people who want to sell and people who want to buy simply aren't able to connect, and the less there is of the card, the more a shop will charge premium for doing the transaction.
Wait, are we saying that either player, if they wish, can force the game to play itself out? This was a top 8 match and there was no time limit on our games.
Does this mean that unless either player concedes or both agree to a draw, we'd just be sitting there shuffling magic card until one of us passes out? (that can't be right, we'd hold up the entire tournament)
I'm by far the best drafter in our group and consistently beat everyone in drafts every time we do conventional drafting. This has led to basically every conspiracy game I play to be 3 v 1 from the start until I die since everyone agrees to basically go for me by default. Last game, I got beaten down by a flurry of 1/1 and 2/1s from all my opponent while any creature I played was met with removal spells. And since conspiracy is basically all we're doing nowadays...my choices are to either go 3 v 1 or not play magic for a while.
So far...I think I'm going to have stop playing magic for a while until the group gets tired of conspiracy as it's extremely frustrating to just get crushed over and over like that.
Was playing Jund Vs Twin. Game 2, I had in my hand Rakdos Charm and Lightning Bolt with enough open mana to cast both when my opponent went end of turn Deceiver Exarch and then on his next turn, this is how the conversation went. (Note that I was at 10 life Vs my opponent at 6 life.)
Opponent: Taps out "Splinter Twin on Exarch? Got removal?"
Me: "Nope, it Resolves"
Opponent: "Make a bunch of tokens and kill you?"
Me: "How many tokens are you making?"
Opponent: "Does it really matter?"
Me: "You should always give a specific number"
Opponent: "umm...okay...hmm...you've got no removal in response to my splinter twin...hmmm"
*Opponent thinks for a while*
Opponent: "guess you could have Rakdos charm....okay, I'm not actually going to make any tokens. Pass the turn"
Me: Draws card and pass the turn back
Opponent: "Okay now make a million tokens and attack"
Me: "Rakdos Charm to kill you?"
Opponent: "Mana Leak?"
Me: "GG I guess"
Having played the same match up online, it would've played out very different, and is almost a guaranteed win for me as most players would rather not let me get an extra draw phase just to keep mana leak up without somehow thinking that I might have Rakdos Charm.
1) How would you respond to your opponent's questions in this scenario? (Does it differ in competitive Vs regular REL)
2) What are some good general tips to answer these sort of questions?
Curious what everyone thinks of this deal. I've always been a lands collector and have recently gotten a very tempting offer on one of my most prized possession. (Full play set of every single onslaught fetch land in foil)
Offer is $4K in cash for all 20 foil lands. Ignoring any sentimental value of this collection, and especially with all the rumors that fetch land is going to reprinted, this deals seems very tempting.
Thoughts?
This is exactly why I didn't say anything because I don't want to get a DQ for bribery.
However, talking to the other player once the tournament was over, we both felt horrible because it feels as if the tournament rules of magic was basically screwing both of us over...
The feeling of just leaving $30 on the table basically ruins the entire night...But I guess if there's really nothing that can be said...then there's not much I can do about it.
The situation is below, I want to know how can I go about proposing the prize split I have in mind to my opponent in the last round of a tournament without breaking any rules.
Situation:
Swiss tournament with payout by record at the end
5-0: $50
4-0-1: $30
4-1: $10
It's the last round and I'm undefeated at 4-0 and I'm paired down to a 3-1 opponent.
If we play and I win, then I get $50 and he gets $0. If I lose, we both get $10. If we draw, I get $30 and he gets $0 again. So he has no incentive to actually draw with me.
However, if we were to play, and he wins, then we're basically losing value since each of us would only be getting $10 for a total of $20, where as if I win, the payout would be $50.
What I want to propose is for us to play the match, with the caveat that if he wins, then he concedes to me and we can split the $50 evenly. Since the maximum he can win at this point is $10 anyway, this gives him an extra $15 of upside and limits my downside by $15 as well. So it's basically better for both of us and I have no doubt that he would accept such an offer.
However, I was not sure how to go about proposing such an offer without breaking any tournament rules so we played it out, he won, and we each walked away with $10...
Since I'm pretty sure both of us would be happier if we each walk away with $25 instead, I want to ask what is the proper way to go about asking such a prize split? Do I ask before we play out match or afterward? What series of questions should I be asking?
Thanks
When you are still trying to explain how attacking and blocking works, the last thing you need is more complexity.
And trust me, these uncommons are the ones that are priced at the most premium. If I'm missing a Sphinx's Rev, or an Elspeth, I can probably find a friend who has extra in his binder to loan, borrow or trade for it before the tournament. If I'm missing a set of dissolves, and doomblade. I'm probably going to have suck it up and use alternatives, or buy it from the store at a premium since nobody is carrying these cards in their binder. (This is why high end rares tends to be priced at about market price, while commons and uncommons carry a heavy premium offline)
In fact this happens so often before tournament at my store that often times our store would run out of these uncommons even at $1 per card. I don't begrudge the store for it, they provide us a place to play, and if we aren't prepared with our decks, they are perfectly legit in charging a premium for these cards.
So far, demand is not slowing down for these uncommons, so I don't see store pricing them at less anytime soon.
It's fine if they want to look at all the cards in their library, but it doesn't say they should also know the order of the library when the search happened. MTGO does that automatically since it presents a preset layout for searching cards.
I figured if we want to do it in paper as well, all they'd have to do is shuffle their library first, then search, then shuffle their library again afterward.
In online play, If I activate Jace, the Mind Sculptor +2 ability and leave the card on top, I can pretty much expect my opponent to crack a fetchland in order to not draw what they think is a dead card. It doesn't matter what I actually leave on top and whether it's truly a dead card or not since they'll never know if they shuffle with their fetch.
In offline play, my opponent will usually look to see whether I actually left a dead card on top or not when they fetch. Usually this means that I have to be a bit more careful in leaving live cards on top of their deck since they now know whether I've been tricking them or not.
Pretty sure this is just something that's different between online and offline play, but figured I ask anyway.
That, however, doesn't mean you shouldn't draft. Not only is it a fun experience, but nobody got to become an expert at draft without first losing a bunch of times.
I'm one of those draft spikes that have drafted for well over 10 years and I still remember my first draft and how I got roflstomped without even a clue as to why I lost. It happens to everyone, and we become better player for it.
For top 8, Let's assume the standing at the last round of swiss was below
1) X-0
2) X-0
3) X-1
4) X-1
5) X-1
6) X-1
7) X-1
8) X-1
9) X-1
10) X-2
The pairings for the last round were as below
1 - 2 (Intentional Draw)
3 - 4 (Intentional Draw)
5 - 6 (Intentional Draw)
7 - 8 (Decides to play their game since if 9 wins, one of them would not make it if they drew)
9 - 10 (Decides to play their game since if 10 wins, he can still make top 8 on breakers if 7 - 8 plays out their game)
The game between player 9 -10 finishes first and 10 wins the match. At that point, both player 7 and 8 decides to draw since now they are guaranteed to top 8 if they draw. This means that neither player 9 or 10 will make top 8.
I have four questions
1) Is what player 7 and 8 does legal?
2) What if player 7 and 8 finished their matches first, can they wait to turn in their result until they see who won the match between player 9 - 10?
3) Assuming this is for the top 8 of a PTQ, what would you do if you were player 7 and 8?
4) Again, assuming this is for top 8 of a PTQ, what would you do if you were player 10 and after you turned in your match slips, you saw player 7 and 8 decides to draw their game?
It's funny to hear this when I've been trying to sell my NM foil flooded strands for ages (pulled it from a pack myself years ago and stayed in my binder ever since) and no one is interested at all. Or I'd just get lowball offers all over the place until I finally just said screw it and buylisted to a store.
It's interesting, the problem with these cards are that people who want to sell and people who want to buy simply aren't able to connect, and the less there is of the card, the more a shop will charge premium for doing the transaction.
Either I combo out and win and we can get another game started or I don't and the game keeps going.
Does this mean that unless either player concedes or both agree to a draw, we'd just be sitting there shuffling magic card until one of us passes out? (that can't be right, we'd hold up the entire tournament)