Competition

Magic, and by extension, Commander, is a game.

People play games for a number of reasons. There's a social element to Magic that I've always enjoyed. Folks that can appreciate a game's rules and mechanics often refer to Magic in discussions related to elegant game design. Some people enjoy the art (I can relate to this as well), and others still enjoy the fantasy settings in which the storylines take place.

And, of course, at any competitive level, people play for prizes.

And that's where some problems exist, at least on the Commander front.

For those that aren't aware, Commander was invented in Alaska by a handful of US Army guys. It was called EDH because the early decks played by these men were built around the 5 Elder Dragons from Legends. It was invented to be a relaxing, casual format where people would be forced to get creative with their deck building. Giant spells would be cast, huge creatures summoned, stolen, and killed, obscure cards would abound.

The format existed mostly underground when my playgroup got into it. I sort of went over that in another post, but CB and I agreed to give it a try, and the rest of the crew followed suit. We got into it, really into it, and our drive to win really put some strain on our group sometimes. Prizes weren't even on the line; we were just a group of guys that knew the game, knew what was good, and fought hard to win.

This kind of mindset can be healthy. Sometimes.

But there becomes a point at which it just becomes exhausting.

Problems also occur when not everyone at the table has the same mindset.

I got to talking with TB yesterday about this project. He was impressed with my post on getting one's SO to play Magic, though he correctly pointed out that that framework could (and should!) be applied to anyone you want to share a hobby with. We got to talking about my fiancee's progress in learning the game, and about how she can get overwhelmed playing in a game with more than three players.

This isn't a slight against her in the least; she's still learning, and that's fantastic. Enough goes on in the average 1v1 Commander game that the players involved can't always track everything. But to exacerbate her troubles during a 4 player game she played 2 weeks ago, one of the players in her pod actively cheated her out of the win.

To elaborate, it was a few days after the 2014 Commander decks had come out. I'd bought my set on release day (mentioned in an earlier post), and had already augmented our decks. The weekly Commander night we play in had a different layout to encourage more people to come out. 16 players showed up, so 4 pods of 4 players each would play, with the winner of each pod playing their own 4 person game for a Commander precon of their choice.

We had our set, but we still wanted to play to test out all the new cards we'd added to our decks. So we stick around to play. We get assigned different pods, but I advise my fiancee to stay calm, believe in her skills, and if she has a question, to ask the TO/judge. I know she had the skills to win, she was playing her favourite deck, and we were both excited.

My game goes well enough. It was the first one done. I was far ahead of the rest, when the Sharuum player rips a Demonic Tutor off the top for the win (Disciple of the Vault combo). Whatever; my deck played smoothly, some cool stuff happened, and I had fun.

My poor fiancee had a different story.

She had her first run in with a foreign language card. The way the player described the card's effect doesn't match any printed card. She was told that she should know more cards before trying play in an event like this one.

Misogyny reared its ugly head, as well. She was the only woman that had come to play, and comments like "I'm a man, I take what I want!" and other overtly sexual comments made her extremely uncomfortable. I pulled the guy that made the above remark aside and sorted him out. But he wasn't the only one. Apparently, it was a "psychological tactic" meant to put her on tilt (she was kicking ass). Indeed, it worked, as she started just playing to get the hell out of there.

The final straw was some sleight of hand. Someone's turn one Halimar Depths became their turn 5 Halimar Depths, as well (without any legal bouncing). By this time, she was so upset that she wasn't sure if she was just mistaken.

I tried to talk to everyone responsible, and we went in to talk to the store owner the next day (who wasn't there at the time) and he was more pissed off than I'd ever seen him. He was grateful I'd let him know, but we both knew that without the offending people being caught in the act or immediately reported, that there wasn't much that could be done.

As for my fiancee, she was upset enough that we didn't even go to Commander Night last week. I was upset. Not because I didn't get to go play Magic, but because a handful of "competitive" assholes had potentially ruined the game for someone close to me.

We didn't even play at home for a week.

She agreed to return this week, but I knew she didn't want to play with anyone from her last game ever again.

Fortunately, for their sake (and perhaps mine), none of them showed. We had a few games with an associate of mine, just the three of us, and had some fun.

I was just grateful she was still willing to play.

Obviously, the examples of cheating in her pod are extreme, and were committed by 2 of the three other players. And I get that misogynistic remarks aren't cheating, just unbelievably poor taste. But that's what prizes do. It would seem that some players resort to whatever they think they can get away with when prizes are on the line.

Competition isn't negative in and of itself. It causes people to innovate, helps players focus, and like TB mentioned yesterday, encourages light-hearted "trash-talking," which is fine among friends. But lines shouldn't be crossed, and rules shouldn't be broken. And the being mislead by a foreign card? It's why I'm not a fan of them to begin with (exculding German and French, as I can read them).

I guess the bottom line is: compete. Play to win. But if you're on track to lose, being an asshole shouldn't be plan B.