So I got a "vent" about something...

Killer Joe

New member
Last night two of my longtime friends came over to play Magic. Both are very good players and have beaten me time & again so I don't think I'm anything special against them...BUT...

Most of the night they teamed up against me even when they could have each other eliminated. If I told you that I was killing them and destroying all their stuff or milling them or whatever I would be inclined to agree that yes, they needed to team up to eliminate me every game where I was doing that to them....but I wasn't, I wasn't showing aggression towards either of them the whole night but I WAS protecting myself. I was playing cards like; Ghostly Prison, Wall of Denial, Witchbane Orb, Briar Patch, Wall of Omens, Drift of Phantasms, ya know, stuff to protect oneself.

I "get it" we play Magic to win and I'm no different and neither are they but SPORTSMANSHIP, where's the sportsmanship in teaming up against another player like this? I wached a lot of the Steeler vs Giants game last night because AFTER they'd eliminate me quickly they would drag on against each other because they used all of their killing resources against me and then played "Drop a Land, go" game.

The last game of the night was the last straw, I played a turn 1 Sensei's Diving Top and bam, they were playing discard decks and I got hit by 2 Traumatizes, The second one I didn't even count the cards, I simple put half of my deck in my graveyard and when my friend looked at me I said, "What, more?" and so I put another half of what I had left of my library into my graveyard. I had maybe 8 turns in that game in which I played ZERO aggression cards save one Kraken's Eye (IDK how but it kills your opponent in a few turns apparently).

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

turgy22

Nothing Special
It's a sign of respect. They're probably well aware of many many times when you were playing nothing but "protecting yourself" cards and ended up beating them in the end.
 

Killer Joe

New member
Yeah, I "get that", too. I suppose I was thinking more along the lines of sportsmanship rather than the strategy of "Oh crap, let's kill him now before the game goes on too long".
 

Killer Joe

New member
@Spidey: No I didn't because it's a forgone conclusion based on my past games with them that if I am NOT eliminated from the game quickly my deck will slowly sink it's teeth in and then it's nigh impossible to eliminate me. I thought for sure Moosie would chime in, he's usually in our play group but not this time.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Oh, well, if it's a forgone conclusion, I guess that's why. This initially sounded like a "one-time" thing that came out of the blue but if they're going by past experience, I guess they wanted to eliminate the "slow and steady deck" (since not every deck needs to be actively aggressive to be a threat :) )
 

Mooseman

Isengar Tussle
Ok, I will chime in. He deserves it:D ... well not that much, but KJ is a control player and his decks don't get worse as the game goes on.
Let me explain... KJ gets a ghostly prison or two and a few Kraken's Eyes or other life gainer and the proceeds toi kill you with a theiving magpie in 26 or so turns.
That siad, I do feel his pain as I have gotten that randon aggresion from one player at the table.
Not sure who the other players were, but Richard, Bill, Matt, Larry always tries to take me out, even if it's to thier detriment. It's a competative thing.
My suggestion is to change to a killer aggression deck for game 2 and take one of them out. I have a red direct damage, I don't expect to win deck, that has won..... but you get the idea.

Friends don't let friends abuse multi-player games.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Ok, I will chime in. He deserves it:D ... well not that much, but KJ is a control player and his decks don't get worse as the game goes on.
Let me explain... KJ gets a ghostly prison or two and a few Kraken's Eyes or other life gainer and the proceeds toi kill you with a theiving magpie in 26 or so turns.
That's interesting. I'm rather obsessed with combo decks and, many years ago, used to bring combo decks to multiplayer games all the time. Despite that, I really think that anyone bringing a combo deck to a multiplayer game, and the same goes for a really explosive aggro or aggro-combo deck that can bulldoze multiple people quickly, deserves to be ganged up on. Control decks, not so much. Well, maybe if it's an extremely hard lockdown situation, some sort of really nasty prison control, although that might be more control-combo than just regular old control. Stuff like Propaganda, though? That seems innocuous enough.

But then, what kind of decks are his opponents playing?
 
B

BigBlue

Guest
I never EVER liked 3 way magic. It always ended up being 2 on 1 (and I was typically the 1). It is one of the most frustrating things. In fact, I got to the point where we actually tried making a way to really have it 2 on 1 and giving extra life, just to avoid the inevitable teaming up.
 

Killer Joe

New member
@Moosie: It was Bill & Larry. In Bill's defense most of his decks are now tuned/tweaked for Matthew's tournament decks so he's got a ton of "I'm gonna screw you because your decks make me mad" kind of cards like Traumatize, Labotomy, Armageddon and the likes.
@Big Blue: My original invitation was for 36 people but only 2 showed up, summertime is bad for magic nights because everyone is so busy with vacations and whatnot.

As for my decks: Yes, I do play control a lot and as a result of last Saturday night I have made a response deck, it's RBW & mostly aggressive. Since I am not well versed in these kinds of decks it'll be challenging tweak it & then to play it, here are some cards in it:
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Helix
Terminate
Unmake
Nekrataal
Flametoungue Kavu
Lightning Reaver
Vampire Nighthawk
Ashenmoor Leige

I also have:
Windborn Muse
Seal of Cleansing
 

Killer Joe

New member
I can see me in that control role but if someone attacks me I don't pay them back in spades. I will only attack for "The Kill", I DO use the strategy to let the others kill off each other then I CAN kill off that last player most of the time.

Hahahaha, as for the sacrificial lamb, if I play that part I will be killed off asap by everyone even if they see me just attacking the biggest threat, why? Just because.
:confused:
 
B

BigBlue

Guest
We had a player in our group very similar to you. He would play 'fun' decks and be all passive, until it got close to the end and then he would kill the last man standing from the real duelists... Of course then he would get ganged up on and get grumpy... :)

Me, I play the control game, but I am usually too impatient and aggro. So, I was always singled out early by the better players. If one of my decks got going it was hard to stop as I tended to have synergy and combos... Oh for the days of pros-bloom... I remember just enjoying that final turn...
 

Mooseman

Isengar Tussle
To KJs defense, I usually enable his decks by taking a lot of the attention away by playing weird decks and I have no problem coming 2nd.
Also, the players he played against do have a habit of focuing on one person they think is the better player to their own detriment.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Horrible idea #1:
Have Mooseman play a deck that looks extremely threatening. When the other players take the bait and gang up on him, he should protest and try to convince them that having everyone attack the most apparent threat isn't actually a good idea. They kill Mooseman (or perhaps nearly manage to). Then Killer Joe locks them down with a Stasis engine or something. Killer Joe's deck has no win condition other than decking opponents, so he makes everyone take every locked down turn. After each player's draw step, Mooseman says softly, "Now what did we learn?"
 

Mooseman

Isengar Tussle
Okay, Oversoul is close to what happens alot of the time, except that I almost always hit KJ early in the game if I can.
Then I start taking out players since KJ plays a wierd game that causes players to attack each other... it's an odd way of politicing without talking. He is well known to win if he isn't taken out early and he hates, but he does it all the time. It's his deck building style.
I usually have a deck that is slower to start but can do damage to all opponents (love that in multi-player) or can be just out and out unpredictable, even to me.

Unfortunately in 2GH, his locks won't help me that much.
I wiould become the whipping boy on the team, I'd have to run Wall of Hope, Wall of difusion and some enchantments to keep up...... ha ha haha
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
So are you guys wedded to one style all of the time? I always tried to mix it up when I played, having both aggro and control decks (never really like combo decks).
 
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