Being Nice in Magic

[StratGuy74]

Hello guys and gals at the DeckConstruct forums,

Today at my local club, I played in two tournaments. I came 2nd in the first, and then 1st in the second.

So, altogether, I won 3 boosters as prizes. My brother, unfortunately, had a bad run and only won 1 or 2 matches each tournament. So I, having won a Zendikar booster and 2 Worldwake boosters, gave him a free booster as a sort of compensation, as I had played him in both tournaments and won both times.
On this very same day, I had bought 2 boosters before the tournaments started, and there was a new player. I like to see new players, as it's always great to get more people into the game. So I gave him one booster.

This kid, in that booster, opened a foil Eldrazi Monument and a Sorin Markov.
I groaned.

And later, in the 2 boosters that I won, I pulled a Chandra Ablaze, and an Abyssal Persecutor.

My brother said 'I bet I can top those pulls'. I didn't believe him.

And the lucky beggar opens his booster, revealing a FOIL Jace the Mind Sculptor.

I groaned louder. However, I had great pulls, my brother was really happy (he is actually mildly autistic, so this is really great for him. MTG is something he really enjoys and he is really good at it. He wasn't playing his own deck today.) I had given a new player some good pulls, and he may stay with the game.

So Alex, if you're reading this, please mention it on the show. I'm a keen listener of Deckconstruct, and I would love to hear what you think about this sort of thing. I may have lost £60 all in all, but we all had great fun.

Also, if anyone wants to share their best booster pulls, please message me or something. It would be great to hear some of them.

Cheers guys and gals on the DC Forums,

Stratguy74

[browncoat]

First I have to say: Wow that is some pretty crazy luck with those pulls for the three of you.

Aiding newer players is very important and generally overlooked. Giving cards to players through trades advantageous to them or even simply giving them cards to allow them to build deck x (they have most of a solid deck but lack a few key cards). You really don't need more than 4-5 copies of a card, even fewer if you don't play a particular card.

Newer players also fall prey to older players ripping them off for their chase rares. A number of players think that it is fun to trade shivan dragons for baneslayers. This is not even limited to newer players as some players think it is fun to con people out of powerful cards. At the Worldwake release tournament I had one of the better players try to get me to trade 3 NM crucible of the worlds + some other money cards for a single HP rishadan port. He also wanted the manlands I had pulled after bragging about preordering a foil playset of every worldwake card. It is this group of players that make Magic far worse as a game. Giving boosters out is a cool idea but I generally don't have boosters around unless I am drafting.

[Dark Wolf]

Crazy pulls indeed! My congrats to you all! I agree with you both...I've seen more than one innocent new player get conned out of a good card by an old card shark. I disagree with it. If Magic's image becomes the experienced players just waiting to prey on the inexperienced players, we are in trouble. It's really too bad that kindness as a general rule has virtually disappeared from society today. Many just simple common courtesy things have taken a perverted twist or are forgotten completely. It's sad.

[valk]

I'm with you on this one. Sharking is bullcrap and people with that kind of exploitative attitude I just don't deal with. Never give them the benefit of doubt, grace or mercy in a game. They obviously have no understanding of it themselves.

Nice work Strat, we could definately use more of that in the world, not just magic.

[articpenguin]

Holy cow. My jaw dropped when I read what that kid won. But being nice in Magic is good, you basically give them the idea that the people who play the game are friendly and not total assholes to play with. When I first started playing, I bought some cards here and then, and a guy came up with a couple boxes and said take what you need. So what I really mean, it changes a person perspective on the game greatly.

Oh, and I once opened a booster pack and it contained a foil Baneslayer Angel.

[StratGuy74]

Damn lol I think the best thing I ever pulled was a foil Garruk.

[Alex]

That was a really nice thing to do, StratGuy! There's a saying that you get out of Magic what you put into it. Maybe you'll open something crazy soon.

The best thing I ever opened was a foil Jace 2.0 at the Worldwake pre-release. The irony is I didn't really need a Jace at the time, let alone a foil one (I don't play with foils except for EDH generals).

I'll definitely do a segment on the subject of being nice in Magic.

[StratGuy74]

Cheers, Alex, I just really think that not daunting new players, not just with magic but with any hobby that requires getting really into it, is massively important.

I remember when I started playing Warhammer 40k, one of the first games that I played was at a local games workshop and this guy was saying stuff like 'Dude, your tank has some really bad weapon choices and your infantry are placed really badly.' Anyway, I went on to beat him and won his tank in the process.
Not a bad day. I think people like this though are a deterrent to new players and will lead to the inevitable loss of MTG.
It will stop entirely one day unfortunately, but that can be prolonged or even prevented by introducing new players.

[Ferridge]

Wow that is some very lucky pulls.

My club has had a new guy start, so I gave him all my copies of uncommons and commons that I had more than 4 of. He seem really happy as it helps with cards from the recent set, and got the misses off my back about how many piles of cards i have.

I do think members should look at doing that more oftern, we all seem to get alot more copies of common and sometimes uncommon cards. Giving us the play set and extras, and it realluy bugs me when you see people who having been playing the game for ages try and trade these unneeded cards for ones from the newer sets.

[articpenguin]

(2010-04-22 12:18 PM)Ferridge Wrote:  Wow that is some very lucky pulls.

My club has had a new guy start, so I gave him all my copies of uncommons and commons that I had more than 4 of. He seem really happy as it helps with cards from the recent set, and got the misses off my back about how many piles of cards i have.

I do think members should look at doing that more oftern, we all seem to get alot more copies of common and sometimes uncommon cards. Giving us the play set and extras, and it realluy bugs me when you see people who having been playing the game for ages try and trade these unneeded cards for ones from the newer sets.

I helped my buddy who bought a theme deck from Kamigawa. Gave a good deal of my extra cards that I never really used. To, you know, give him a start on his collection. Seems to be going pretty good so far.

[derpderpderp]

I'm fairly new to magic so I really appreciate any card I can get. My limited card library really restricts my ability to keep up with my friends who are constantly building new decks for our casual games.

Anyway, a few weeks back (a bit before the RoE release) my friend got a really great deal on a Shards booster box. He decided he was going to draft the entire box, for free with several of our friends, and just collect the cards back at the end of the day. When it came time to return the cards I had drafted he said "keep 'em." He gave me both of the decks I had created; giving my library a fairly significant boost.

To me it was as if he had just handed me the money it would have cost to draft the cards at a DCI sanctioned tournament; however, to him it was nothing. Needless to say it really made my day. It sounds incredibly lame; but it was also fairly inspiring. This was my first draft and by giving me those cards it instantly became an incredibly positive experience.

Sorry for taking so long to get to the point, but, I really wanted to remind anyone who felt a bit overwhelmed when they began playing magic about how far a kind gesture of some sort can really go with a new player.

[Ghoatet]

I must say that it is awesome to hear other people do this. I have yet to play in tournaments and just recently started playing online. I have played casually for a couple years and it was always fun for me. Whenever I encounter a newer player online that needs help I usually give them some cards to help them along. I think the nicest I ever was to any of them was when I gave a newcomer a Master of the Wild Hunt and a Birds of Paradise. He was so happy and I must admit, I think it was a good idea because everytime I log on, he is playing(he added me to his friends list).

All in all, I think it is very important to help cultivate the newer players as they give wizards a reason to keep the game going. I really don't know what I would do in my spare time if this game were canceled.

[sparkmage]

Well for magic i would say a nocturnus but i rarely buy boosters mostly singles but i'm pretty new to magic