MTG thread

That's mostly my assessment as well. It has a much higher bomb ratio than Khans to the point where it's actually a bit on the silly side. You've got the dragons, most of the sieges, the clan leaders, and another half dozen real power houses in the rare slot. It's more likely you are to open something baller than not. It's also extra unusual with physical cards at smaller events. You can have someone open a fetch in their Fate Reforged pack and then pass their bomb rare right over. Last week at FNM someone opened a Flooded Strand and passed me Dromoka when I had already first picked Mastery of the Unseen. The week before that I took a fetch and passed a Citadel Siege. I won the event I got passed the bomb and I got obliterated the event where I rare drafted the fetch. There's so little on the line that it is hard to not scoop up a Delta and pay for your evening.

Taloo and Chris thank you for your responses.

The deck is the cunning plan intro pack deck, and I got it because I thought it would be the easiest way to get into magic.

I do not plan on entering any tournaments anytime soon but the reason I came here to ask for advice is because I kept losing every game I played and I thought I was just not getting the point of the deck.

Pablos_sl said:

Taloo and Chris thank you for your responses.

The deck is the cunning plan intro pack deck, and I got it because I thought it would be the easiest way to get into magic.

I do not plan on entering any tournaments anytime soon but the reason I came here to ask for advice is because I kept losing every game I played and I thought I was just not getting the point of the deck.

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Intro decks are fine when played vs other intro decks, but they're designed more for introducing players to the rules and interactions of the current block than for actual "competitive" play. The idea is you'll start buying packs or singles and sub out the limited fodder (cards designed for drafting) for cards that are good in constructed.

If cost is a factor, you may want to consider entering some drafts at local shops. You'll get to open packs and learn more about set interactions in a less competitive (relatively speaking) atmosphere. I personally hate drafting because I'm terrible at it, but I do recognize that it can be a good way to learn about a new set. At the professional level, I tend to think it's a much more challenging way to play.

Mist_sl said:

I've seriously lost like 150 limited rating since FRF came out on MTGO. This set fucking blows, that whole pack is filled nothing but bombs and garbage.

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They're reporting it again? I've not logged in in a while. Or are you just throwing out a random figure to demonstrate how much your loss ratio has gone up?

Mist_sl said:

It's under your game history in options now.

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Ah good to see they opted to bring it back.

Pablos_sl said:

Taloo and Chris thank you for your responses.

The deck is the cunning plan intro pack deck, and I got it because I thought it would be the easiest way to get into magic.

I do not plan on entering any tournaments anytime soon but the reason I came here to ask for advice is because I kept losing every game I played and I thought I was just not getting the point of the deck.

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More than welcome I thought that's what it was. I'll second drafting as a suggestion but do some research first. Absolutely know what cards are $10+ dollars and take those fuckers if you see them. Early on even if you manage to draft a winning deck chances are you will lose games to mistakes anyhow so don't feel bad about it. Watch some videos online, I'd suggest Luis Scott Vargas drafts on channel fireball. It's entertaining enough usually and you will learn quite a bit about drafting a workable deck. It will also help teach you how to play correctly because I swear to Christ half the people I know who have played for years still don't understand the damn rules haha.

The rules are pretty complicated, to be fair. What seems to cause more problems at FNM is understanding the difference between Regular and Competitive REL.

So, GP memphis was mostly fun. My first actual GP, since they are rarely close enough to go to out here. Unfortunately, one of the three guys with me seemed to lose interest in staying Sunday once none of us made day 2, so didn't have time to do the side events.
Also, still a bit of a bad taste in my mouth about how I finished day 1. Sitting at 4-2, need to win next 3 to make day 2, playing an Abzan ramp deck (basically 4 caryatids, 3 frontier siege, and a couple more hornet queens/ugin over a midrange control list) and play my longest game of the day against abzan aggro. Takes 35 minutes, had a complicated and clogged board state but dude was playing pretty slow even with that in mind. I then do the same thing I do every time, and do my 'nice guy schmuck' routine of trying to rush while my opponent is still playing pretty slow (though slightly faster) and make a few subpar decisions as a result. He kills me on turn 4 of turns, so we get a draw and neither can make it to day 2. If I just matched his pace of play, would have been a draw for sure, I just wanted to win 'legit'. Judge is sitting there watching at the end, and since they've made a point about all the collusion and deals lately, wasn't sure if I was able to just ask the dude to scoop to me. Found out after that it is still fine, but pretty sure he wouldn't have anyway. He made a comment about 'came to play' before game 1. I know if I'm in the reverse position there, I'd scoop as soon as we got to turns.
Oh well, it's whatever, I would have had to win 2 more to make day 2, so not like it was a guarantee. But, my 2 losses were early and due to extreme variance (mulligans to 5, not drawing 3rd land for 5 turns, etc..) and felt like I was getting into the zone with the deck finally as well.

If neither of you were going to make day two but a win would have put one of you into day two than you also had the option to concede rather than be disappointed he did not.

Yes, thank you, I am aware of the ability to concede a match. The difference being, he had no chance to win the match after losing game 1 with the time left due to his glacial pace of play. I could have played at a normal pace to ensure that I won 1-0 rather then rushing to try and win 2-0. Winning 1-0 just doesn't feel totally legit to me while I'm actually playing.

Yeah, you sound like such a sweetheart expecting your opponent to concede to you and when he doesn't choosing the outcome the eliminates you both. I'm pretty sure you've complained about this exact same thing before with the exact same outcome. You didn't win and you were mathematically out of the event but expect the other guy to pack it up. This is literally the MtG version of the Prisoner's Dilemma and you picked "we both get fucked in prison."

No sympathy here either. I can't count the number of times I have been in turns (by virtue of the match up, slow play, etc) and having my opponent in a hammer lock yet they refuse to concede despite the fact that a draw is just as bad as a loss excluding some rare situations. GP New Jersey was the tournament where I lost all my fucks given for this as I didn't make day 2 despite only having 1 loss and it was because of this bullshit.

Every time I have gone to turns and it's clear I was going to lose I scoop. I have even scooped after asking for a concession (and they refuse) when I was a the clear favorite just because the draw achieves nothing.

I was in Memphis as well. I played very poorly in the main event , dropped, and did the Sunday Super Series. In round 1 I end up in a control mirror, we go to turns. All I have to do is untap and he loses. I ask for the concession. He refuses because he doesn't want to mess up his friends tie breakers......is this real life? I rattle off 4 wins in a row before taking a game loss for showing up to a match late because we were repaired twice and there was a lot of confusion. Tilted hard, I lose the match. After that, I just drop because I really couldn't care less about the jank prize payout (the trip to Seattle is the only thing I cared about) and in the SSS only the top 4 make it to the draft. X-1-1 is not locked for top4 especially considering when my loss and draw happened. Not to mention I had queued for the Weekend Champion via winning a Legacy qualifier and just did that.

Tldr Fuck you if you know you're going to lose in turns and don't scoop (barring extenuating circumstances)

A lot of pros will say to play until the bitter end but I don't see it, especially if one player is on something really durdly. The time you spend watching the clock wind down while one player is in the sleeper hold might be vitally important in game 3 to prevent a tie.

Mostly I just don't bother registering for competitive events when I can volunteer to staff them and take a similar prize payout, or just trade and walk away with money for the day after playing casual legacy for fun. I did get to play a standard PPTQ on Sunday, though, which netted me 6 packs just for showing up. The event was advertised as paying down to the top 16, and only 14 people attended. Thanks GP Memphis + 3 other local events the same day.

Snagged a Flooded Strand and some random junk I traded in immediately, so basically I broke even.

Arbitrary_sl said:

Yeah, you sound like such a sweetheart expecting your opponent to concede to you and when he doesn't choosing the outcome the eliminates you both. I'm pretty sure you've complained about this exact same thing before with the exact same outcome. You didn't win and you were mathematically out of the event but expect the other guy to pack it up. This is literally the MtG version of the Prisoner's Dilemma and you picked "we both get fucked in prison."

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The BEST outcome for him based on gameplay was exactly what happened. All he did was play spoiler to my chances at day 2 by playing out game 2. When you are down a game, and you hit extra time for turns, you have no chance to win the match. The closest thing to this outcome I might have mentioned before was when I was on the OTHER side of it and I DID concede. I've also given opponents a draw, who refused an ID before the match, after I beat them so that they still had a chance to get into top 8. That's the only reason I'm upset about it, because he had a chance to do the nice thing and didn't, and I'm always doing it in that situation. Or, that if I hadn't been as nice about rushing to finish, I would have won anyways. He took 80% of the time in the match.
In fact, the only reason we could think he didn't concede is he just didn't know the math, figuring he still had a chance at day 2, and I was too tilted explain it.

@Grabbit Did you even read the full situation? I was up a game, he couldn't win the match. It wasn't game 3, it was game 2. If that game goes to a draw, I win the match 1-0-1 and improve to 5-2. No one scoops there. If I had drawn a blocker or another removal spell, he wouldn't have won game 2 either. He swung for exact on his last turn. If it was game 3 and it looks like I would lose in another turn or something, and in the same situation where a draw eliminates both of us, then I would have scooped for sure. I have done exactly that many times before.

Oh, and while a draw in round 1 sucks.. it's far preferable to a loss then. You still get a point, and that can mean the difference between being above the cutoff or not, regardless of tie breakers. No one concedes at that point in a tournament either. You would rather be 5-1-1 then 5-2 at the end.

My comment was general in nature. It wasn't directed at you, Enzie.

Oh, sorry, sounded like it was agreeing with arbitrary.