I wasn't exactly sure where to put this, so I figured the introduction area seemed the most appropriate. I'm basically only here for one reason and that is to get some advice. Almost twenty years ago I was an avid Magic player. But as the group I played with evaporated and careers changed I stopped playing. I eventually sold all of my cards thinking I would never play again. Then a year ago I started up again. Shortly thereafter my best friend broke out the cards he still had left and we both started spending money like crazy again. But now I am in a box that I feel like I can't escape from. I am really enjoying the game once again, but my friend is one of those special people that are difficult to deal with. You see he has no problem building a deck with all kinds of nastiness to trounce me, but when I do it he cries and moans and threatens to quit playing.
We've recently started building Commander decks. And Friday night was the first time that we played. He built, idk even know what to call it, a crazy deck, with cards I've never seen much less heard of. He was beating me silly, but I expected that because I was playing with a Dragon deck and its really slow. Anyway, he pulled out some card, Grandmas something or other, and it allowed him to gain life equal to his birthdays. He instantly went from 40 life to 80 life. And he was just laughing and having so much fun, meanwhile I think I was down to about 20-25 at that point. The problem came when I was finally able to activate my ultimate on Narset Transcendent. She had been sitting on the table for several turns, but he completely ignored her. When I got the emblem he said he was done and reminded me that stuff like that was why he stopped playing in the first place.
So the problem that I have now is that I just don't know what to do. I've spent too much money to just stop playing. I could build a deck of nothing but duds so he won't cry but then I won't be having any fun. My schedule does not afford me the time to go to the two places we have in town to play with strangers, and worse I'm very introverted so I probably wouldn't go anyway.
He is coming over tomorrow expecting to play again. I am supposed to be re-working my deck so that it's "nicer", but tbh I don't really want to do that.
Begin by having a person to person talk. At 40, he should be mature enough to talk in a sensible and mature manner. Discuss how his behavior is toxic.
I would question his use of Granny's Payback, even in a casual format. My casual group has some severe restrictions on using cards from the Unhinged and Unglued sets that we don't even bother building decks around them. The restrictions exist because the silver cards are completely off kilter and banned in pretty much every official format save Un-sets.
In essence, come to an agreement to what cards are allowed amongst the decks you build. Agree to some standards. You can agree to follow tournament formats as-is or modify them as appropriate, for example, Legacy format unless the card is over say.... $50 bucks. Or have something like Modern construction rules with a set cut-off. Be careful, you don't want to take said decks to an LGS.
If he refuses, offer to build a cube format. That levels the playing field for both of you.
If, after everything you try, he still refuses then simply don't bother with it. Walk away. It's not worth the stress and headache.
The ability to win or lose with grace is one of the most important traits to look for in a magic player (or in any competitive activity for that matter). Some people simply don't possess the personality to get there. I hope this is not the case but if your friend is one of those, I suggest you network at a local gaming shop or via MTG facebook groups. Games are supposed to be fun. You could build a pauper deck (all commons) and still get grief when you win. Best of luck.
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We've recently started building Commander decks. And Friday night was the first time that we played. He built, idk even know what to call it, a crazy deck, with cards I've never seen much less heard of. He was beating me silly, but I expected that because I was playing with a Dragon deck and its really slow. Anyway, he pulled out some card, Grandmas something or other, and it allowed him to gain life equal to his birthdays. He instantly went from 40 life to 80 life. And he was just laughing and having so much fun, meanwhile I think I was down to about 20-25 at that point. The problem came when I was finally able to activate my ultimate on Narset Transcendent. She had been sitting on the table for several turns, but he completely ignored her. When I got the emblem he said he was done and reminded me that stuff like that was why he stopped playing in the first place.
So the problem that I have now is that I just don't know what to do. I've spent too much money to just stop playing. I could build a deck of nothing but duds so he won't cry but then I won't be having any fun. My schedule does not afford me the time to go to the two places we have in town to play with strangers, and worse I'm very introverted so I probably wouldn't go anyway.
He is coming over tomorrow expecting to play again. I am supposed to be re-working my deck so that it's "nicer", but tbh I don't really want to do that.
Begin by having a person to person talk. At 40, he should be mature enough to talk in a sensible and mature manner. Discuss how his behavior is toxic.
I would question his use of Granny's Payback, even in a casual format. My casual group has some severe restrictions on using cards from the Unhinged and Unglued sets that we don't even bother building decks around them. The restrictions exist because the silver cards are completely off kilter and banned in pretty much every official format save Un-sets.
In essence, come to an agreement to what cards are allowed amongst the decks you build. Agree to some standards. You can agree to follow tournament formats as-is or modify them as appropriate, for example, Legacy format unless the card is over say.... $50 bucks. Or have something like Modern construction rules with a set cut-off. Be careful, you don't want to take said decks to an LGS.
If he refuses, offer to build a cube format. That levels the playing field for both of you.
If, after everything you try, he still refuses then simply don't bother with it. Walk away. It's not worth the stress and headache.