Topic: A magical relapse story.

So a couple of months ago my nephew came to me and said hes been playing MTG at school during lunch. The kid he was playing was being rude and belligerent. Saying things like my nephew will never be good at the game because he doesint own cards. I had quit playing shortly after mirage block, sold all my cards, and forgot about the game. My nephew had no idea that his father and I used to play. At least until he told me about about his struggle. The kid was shocked! "what you used to play?!¿¡" I was then barraged by a thousand questions.   

Personally I hated players that gloated in such a sour manner. I know I sold my cards and I didint really want to spend a lot of money so my nephew could beat this kid like a school yard tattle tail. Then my brother mentioned he had his cards in the attic. CHA CHING!!! That weekend I spent hours trying to put together a workable deck.

Sunday night I spent the kid packing, armed with a mono green deck I was hoping he could pull off a win. The strategy was simple any creature that can add mana play early then throw down a large creature asap. i just wasint sure if it was going to be good enough to shut up the kid who told my nephew that he will never be a good player. Tuesday night I got a message from my nephew. "I won on turn 5!"

Apparently the deck worked. As a result my nephew and I got the magic bug. Hes been continuing "training" playing with mono colored decks so he gets a feel for each colors flavor. For him I can only hope he can become a compassionate player, with some decent playing skill.

Not sure where I was going with this, but what I can say. Magic is about making friends, critical thinking, and sharing ideas. Magic is not about inflating your ego. Maybe your reading this and you have a  tendency to lean towards the arrogant side. If so just remember. One day a seemingly novice player will come from out of nowhere and surpass you.

Re: A magical relapse story.

Good story!

I feel you, I think the Magic world has some arrogant people towards noobs. I just (re-)started few months ago and a lot of the really competitive players are arrogant and mean against new players. Luckily there are a lot of competitive players that are really nice to noobs and help you out.

Re: A magical relapse story.

I had been playing around 9 years before playing formal events. Most players were great and helpful I but a few were jerks. The helpful ones would provide tips and corrections during play, or after each game. Others would just wallop me and provided no feedback, or would let me go through with something ineffectual a illegal without as much as a "You sure you want to do that?"

As my kids have learned to play, they've benefitted from those helpful players. [A special shout of thanks out to the players at Kobold Hoard, who've been very kind, especially to my special needs daughter!]

As they've gotten better, however, I've seen some of them start to act like jerks at times. When it happens, I'm quick to remind them of their first few months of formal play, and ask than how they felt when others behaved that way. That usually pits things in focus.

For the players who have been around a while (i.e., longer than me) I do expect more. I had one recently who was running an illegal sideboard (at least 30 cards), and I called him out on it. Had he apologized, I might have let it go, but he started making excuses (e.g. Most of it is just land). In the end, a judge came over and gave him a game loss. It was sad.

Good luck to your nephew. It sounds like he has a great coach.

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Re: A magical relapse story.

Not just to bump the thread, but I agree that MTG should have a compassionate playerbase.  It's the sort of game that' is as relaxed or competitive as you want to make it.

I remember a few years ago going down to my local comic shop to buy a few singles on a friday night and seeing a new face asking around if he could get in a few practice rounds with his new deck.  Next thing I know, one of our local "pro" players is sitting next to him, walloping him with a turn 4 win with his elf-ball deck. I was flabbergasted that anyone would think this was OK to do with a new player. I subsequently told the new kid that I was sorry that happened, told him not everyone who plays there is a jerk and asked if he wanted to play a slow relaxed game.  I took an awful mana-screwed hand that started to turn around on turn 6, but we had to call it short in order to make way for the evening's draft event.  I'm sure it helped make him feel better about his own abilities and the environment he was playing in. 

On the other hand, competition is a healthy motivator, and I do keep a few decks together, that while they would never win a vintage/legacy tournament, have a healthy handful of old faithfuls (dual lands, and powerful things like demonic tutor, balance etc) Just to troll around and show new arrogant players that there are more ways to win than they think, and if they learn to play a better game/build a better deck, then maybe one of these days they'll beat the kid who doesn't use creatures while they still have a deck left to draw from.

I guess in conclusion, there's a lot more to it than who has what cards, and most of what keeps players wanting to sit down to duel together is sportsmanship. Unfortunately, some people just never get around to learning that aspect of the game. If you sent the kid to school with power 9 in his deck, I'd bet the gloating winner would just be a sore loser, and no one really learned anything.

In any case, I'm glad you took the initiative to get involved with your nephew on common ground. It's good to see family coming together over such a classic game.