First Time Magic the Gathering

[MrPopo]

If you play competitively go draft. Drafting takes a while to get good at, but it actually requires some skill (as well as luck, of course.) There used to be another type where you got a starter and 2 boosters to make your own deck.

That's sealed deck. Now they do it with 6-8 boosters, and it's the primary format at prereleases.

[Erik_Twice]

Its less about that niode and more that it was painfully obvious that player x wasnt going to attack player y because they were married, or player z since they were brothers. Regardless of all other factors.

Man, that sucks. It's like when people refuse to trade or attack someone just because, without any clear strategy leading to both of you losing.

[Ivo]

If you play competitively go draft. Drafting takes a while to get good at, but it actually requires some skill (as well as luck, of course.) There used to be another type where you got a starter and 2 boosters to make your own deck.

That's sealed deck. Now they do it with 6-8 boosters, and it's the primary format at prereleases.

There are some major misconceptions here about constructed at the highest level (not from MrPopo).

The price of a competitive deck is not infinite, so after a certain point a person richer than you can no longer get a competitive edge.

I can go more in-depth about this if anyone wants me to. If you guys playing never bothered playing competitive constructed because you think money wins you really shouldn't be commenting as you're just ignorant of the reality (I'm no pro by the way, but at least I understand important concepts about the economics).
Now, someone with loads more free time than you have, that is what you really should worry about having a competitive edge over you, regardless of innate skills. But that is just how it works. In the end the best pros winning reliably have both good skills and enough free time to practice and understand the format (that goes for limited, not just constructed).

By the way, in MTGO there are *officially sanctioned* (i.e. you pay a fee and get prizes, organized by WotC) pauper tournaments. That is a format where only commons are allowed getting official support from WotC. I dislike what they did with the Mythic Rares and mostly the way they did it (a big reason for me to stop playing)... But I must also praise them for some of the things many people never expected them to do and yet they did (and I think it was indeed good for their bottom line to sanction the format, as I and many others believed it would, despite the naysayers).

Ivo.

[Erik_Twice]

I dislike what they did with the Mythic Rares and mostly the way they did it

I think that the problem was not so much creating a new raririty since thanks to the reduced number of cards per set they are not rarer than old rares*.

The problem was that they failed to prevent the effect that a price spike would have in such cards.

Up to Kamigawa no chase rare, no matter how used, was more than 20 dollars. Ravnica started to break the trend and before you knew it, Tarmogoys was released and a Playset was worth more than most decks I have ever played. If people were paying such prices for a rare, how much is a Mythic going to cost?

*I don't remember it well so perhaps it's somewhat more rare but not astronomically so.

[Niode]

Its less about that niode and more that it was painfully obvious that player x wasnt going to attack player y because they were married, or player z since they were brothers. Regardless of all other factors.

Oh yeah, that's bullshit. I'm a ruthless motherfucker. "go easy on X, she's new". Nah, fuck that. If she leaves herself open then I'm going for it, I don't care if you've been playing 10 years or 10 minutes. Letting factors from outside of the game affect the way you play is just dumb. The game is just a game, who cares who lost at the end?

[fastbilly1]

Oh yeah, that's bullshit. I'm a ruthless motherfucker. "go easy on X, she's new". Nah, fuck that. If she leaves herself open then I'm going for it, I don't care if you've been playing 10 years or 10 minutes. Letting factors from outside of the game affect the way you play is just dumb. The game is just a game, who cares who lost at the end?

Ill go easy on people if it is their first game, or if it is a complicated game, first few, but yeah, it is annoying. They even do it in games like Settlers of Catan: "Dont build there, if you build there I cant get out!." My cousins asked me on Sunday if I would bring a more complicated game around- ie Dune, Titan, Twilight Imperium 3, or some sort of wargame. Yeah thatll never happen.

[MrPopo]

Oh yeah, that's bullshit. I'm a ruthless motherfucker. "go easy on X, she's new". Nah, fuck that. If she leaves herself open then I'm going for it, I don't care if you've been playing 10 years or 10 minutes. Letting factors from outside of the game affect the way you play is just dumb. The game is just a game, who cares who lost at the end?

Ill go easy on people if it is their first game, or if it is a complicated game, first few, but yeah, it is annoying. They even do it in games like Settlers of Catan: "Dont build there, if you build there I cant get out!." My cousins asked me on Sunday if I would bring a more complicated game around- ie Dune, Titan, Twilight Imperium 3, or some sort of wargame. Yeah thatll never happen.

I go easy on people when they're newer so I don't dishearten them. If I give it my all I tend to crush newbies, and you want them to see the fun parts of the game.

[PixelPixii]

When it comes to being easier on new players, I think time should be taken to make sure they understand the game. Once you get to actually playing, then there is no need to hold back.

I have played people before that were teaching me a new game and just walked all over me without completely explaining all the rules. In the end, I did not learn a damn thing except that I really did not understand the game any better.

[Niode]

Oh yeah, that's bullshit. I'm a ruthless motherfucker. "go easy on X, she's new". Nah, fuck that. If she leaves herself open then I'm going for it, I don't care if you've been playing 10 years or 10 minutes. Letting factors from outside of the game affect the way you play is just dumb. The game is just a game, who cares who lost at the end?

Ill go easy on people if it is their first game, or if it is a complicated game, first few, but yeah, it is annoying. They even do it in games like Settlers of Catan: "Dont build there, if you build there I cant get out!." My cousins asked me on Sunday if I would bring a more complicated game around- ie Dune, Titan, Twilight Imperium 3, or some sort of wargame. Yeah thatll never happen.

ARGH that's so annoying in Catan. I love Catan but it pisses me off when people start introducing these meta rules into the game. Then fall out with me because I don't follow these 'rules'. Blocking roads is a valid tactic in the game. Although it does get annoying when people won't trade with me because I win all the time. Even when I'm practically giving away all my resources they won't trade. So it basically means that I have to resort to pretty much the same strategy every time: Place my initial settlements to get the most brick and wood at the beginning of the game, then proceed to make huge roads that end up blocking everybody off just because I need to get to the docks to get the good trade rates because I can't rely on normal trade with other players. So they get pissed at me because nobody can build out because I've blocked them off. It's a vicious circle. Suffice, I don't play that game with those people any more because 8/10 I win. The other two times is because I get unlucky with placement or shitty dice rolls.

Have you played Carcassonne? I love that game. If you like Catan then you should definitely check it out if you haven't.

[fastbilly1]

I own Carc just have never played it. I got the travel version last year as a freebie on a large purchase. Looking at it reminds me alot of River, Roads, and Rails (Connect/Contact where you are) which was a game I loved as a child.

Back on the subject of Magic, I have a funny story about rares. One of my old bosses played magic heavily in the Alpha/Beta days. He was working at a bar and going to college at the time so he just dumped all of his tip money into new cards. He had 3 black lotus's, 4 of each Mox, and most of the rest of the power 9 in multiples. He and his brother boxed up their cards once they got out of college and didnt think about it for a long time. Then one day he asked me if I could sell them for him, 50/50 split he said, hell yeah I said. A few days later he brought them to me, several shoe boxes worth of card boxes and two 5 inch binders. I started flipping through them and noticed some awesome cards - Shiven Dragon signed by the artist for one. But noticed a lack of super rares. Well it turns out when he got married in 04 his brother had found the cards. Sold the super rares and bought him his wedding present of a new F350 truck... needless to say we were both alittle peeved.