Is there some unspoken rule that MtG hobbyists must be insufferable cunts to newbie MtG players?

Insufferable "Muh secret club" cunt detected

Probably because while Magic HAS a competitive scene, the vast majority of Magic that gets played isn't competitive?

You remind me of that fat greasy ball of spaghetti that sits in the back corner of our shop smelling like cheese and piss, who claims to have been Army infantry and never actually plays with anyone. He just picks a random deck out of his box to shuffle it every few minutes.

Becasue the vast majority of MtG players are both hypercompetitive shits AND don't know how to build a deck to save their life and rely instead on net lists. They're both cunts and have no advice to give.

Hazing new members is a normal part of group bonding.

Also, mtg players are a bunch of autistic nerds.

The entire concept of collectible card games is basically a dick-punching pyramid scheme.

The people who have been in it the longest punch the newbies in the dick until they ascend to veteranhood, and in turn punch a new crop of player in the dick.

If you want a newbie friendly social game, don't pick the one played by people who feel a constant need to win harder vs new players to justify spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a fantasy card game.

>spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a fantasy card game.
Why do people do this?

I mean, all hobbies cost money. Some people spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on Playstation games.

Same reason people play warhammer.

You can win more by buying the best stuff, instead of having to work on any useful personal skills or physical attributes until you have an edge.

Nerds love games where being "competitive" means either just being a total dick when building armies, cheesing, spending more money or breaking the system.

Go back to /v/.

Social interaction is a key part of traditional gaming, even if you're doing it competitively.

I will do you the favor of listing, in order of enjoyment, the best ways to have fun playing Magic: the Gathering.

1. The obvious best way to play Magic is to not play it at all. Magic is a dumb card game and there are lot of dumb people involved in the hobby. Avoid playing MtG at all if you can.

2. If you've decided that you're going to make the bad move and play MtG, casual play with friends is about the most fun you can have doing it. Grab a couple of friends, each you buy a few packs from the same set and do some Sealed at one of your houses. This has the advantage of you being able to drink doing this, plus it's a social event and an excuse to be doing something enjoyable with your friends.

3. Playing MtG online with strangers. Again, you can drink doing this. You're not paying actual money. You can take a break to use the bathroom so long as you're between games. You can do it in the nude and it won't be socially unacceptable. Plus, you're in the comfort of your own home, with all the amenities therein and the only one who's schedule can interfere with playing is yours. But then, you're no longer playing with your friends.

4. Events at local cardshops, either with friends or with strangers. You can't drink doing this, you can only go the bathroom between rounds (and given the median MtG player, you really don't want to use the bathrooms at places where MtG players congregate). You will likely have to provide your own food and you should have a social shield with you to defend against other players.

5. Basically any other kind of playing MtG. Any kind of tournament where there are going to be more than a couple dozen people is kind of like paying money to be tortured and you should just never do it. Ideally, you should also do what you can to avoid people who unironically enjoy going to these things, which may make events and local cardshops verboten. It's possibly the least fun way to play the game.

Or they could behave like human being and save everyone some time.

Except that's not true. I could buy the most expensive deck in Modern and hand it to a complete idiot, and give Brian Kibler a 50 dollar budget to build the best deck he could, and I would bet you cold hard cash that Kibler wins more games than he loses. Money can replace a very finite amount of skill in Magic, and it's nowhere near enough to actually be competitive.

Well if you don't have a proper deck each game vs you, is a waste of time for other people. If you want to learn which deck to build there are forums that list all the best decks for different formats. Check those, don't expect that people are going to use their time to teach you stuff you should be learning yourself.

Man, I love shouting as I play my games. It's what I do. I once played an entire match doing a bad Hulk Hogan impersonation. "Your turn, brother!"

>so that our hobby can be sullied by your presence sooner rather than later.
>sullied by your presence
>sullied

If you're going to be an overly-aggressive pretentious faggot-boy, you should at least use words that don't mean the opposite of what you're trying to say.

Complete bullcrap.
Competitive magic was very small in it's infancy. This led to name-players being recognized in the community. Wizard deliberately set out to keep this going to always have "cool" famous players who promoted the image that you could get good enough to make money playing it, which means that the stupidly expensive cards are an investment! The pro-player program and earning byes by just grinding lots of tournaments that you get subsidized travel and so on was to promote the idea that skill was the deciding factor, but it relied on just making things way easier for the big name pros.

Doing stupid shit with the cards is the best part about card games

Flicking them, doing overly dramatic shit, arranging them into patterns, etc

Its so fucking fun

You are not playing card games right if you haven't dramatically windmill slammed a card into place.

Isn't that what every player did when they drew a miracle card? Like I remember one time casting entreat the Angels for 8WW by windmill slamming it on the table.

Doesn't anyone else make attack squads and defensive formations for blocking? Helps that board wipes are heavily frowned and bitched at in our group.

First response and its already /thread.
If you're going to get into a "nerd" hobby, you have to accept that most of the people who will share your hobby will be social outcasts, and despite years of media trying to pretend otherwise, outcasts tend to be outcasts for good reason.

tl:dr if you choose a sperg hobby, you'll meet sperg hobbyists.

This. All the need supremacy horseshit you've been fed dies not reflect reality.

Reblogged.

Shitty people will always be shitty. It's not the game's fault.

I had exactly the opposite experience. Everyone was nice and helpful and everyone was willing not only to play, but also offer advice.

I didn't need much but the important thing is I could have it if I wanted.

Why did you pick a trading card game? If you want to burn all your money to socialize you can go out drinking. And don't play at your shop- go there to see if there are any game invitations on the bulletin or check facebook or whatever the fuck for local groups.

I'm building my nine year old niece tier one decks and teaching her how to play, it's only a week in and she's already piloting these decks without my assistance and showing good judgement in her plays.

I figure another month of play and I'll take her into a fnm to shit on some neck beards at the lgs.

Sounds hilarious.

People like you are the reason why newcomers avoid shops.

I've done so before because I couldn't stand this one guy I kept getting paired with

Here's the thing you have to remember: a lot of nerds came to their nerdy communities to avoid social pressures, to attain social status, and to have fun doing what they like to do.

These lead to some issues that arise over time: many nerds HAD social pressures because they never mastered the finer points of social interaction. I have a friend, mechanical engineer. Generally a cool guy. He has never, in the years I've known him, ever been able to pretend to be interested in things outside his interests. If you start talking to him about how you and your friends like sailing, for example, he's likely to let you have like, a single paragraph, and then say "Cool." and abruptly change the subject to something HE cares about. And he is on the upper end of magic players I've encountered.

You also have to think how most of these people VIEW social status. From television to their own personal experiences, many have seen nerds bullied by higher status people. The "Jocks vs nerds" conflict so many discuss. That informs a person's decisions when THEY attain social status. "The benefit of status is the ability to mock those beneath you" is a lesson a lot of people subconsciously learn.

Finally, Magic has a very math-oriented playstyle. Reliable card draw, land-to-spell-to-creature ratio, damage and counters and tokens, etc. That appeals to some people who lack social graces through mental disadvantage, and rewards intellect, drawing in more of the socially disenfranchised nerds.

Personally, whenever I meet a rude magic player, I just remind myself that he didn't start this way. Someone taught him to act like this.

And there are friendly players. People willing to give you a hand. They're just mixed in with the others. I went to a prerelease once, and my opponent was rather taciturn throughout the game. The instant it ended, he said "hey, can I see your card pool?" I was a little worried, but said sure.

(cont)

He proceeded to explain that, from watching me play my deck, it was clear I was used to Constructed play, not sealed. I was angling for a longer game than I was going to get.

And he was right. I hadn't played magic in several years, and previously had been almost solely constructed play.

So he took my pool, and showed me that I should be running my red, since I had a ton of aggro options.

He was the only player I lost to over that prerelease.

Most magic nerds, in my experience, are all a little afraid of being mocked, or made to feel like shit. They're a little more sensitive to it than most, and many feel that the proper way to stop that is to discredit their risk immediately.

It's not a perfect game community, but personally, I think it's overall better than it initially appears.

I love teaching people to play, but cannot stand when they inevitable lose after a few games and instead of learn from their mistakes start complaining about the game like they've got a PhD in game design. No, instants aren't unfair. No, counterspells shouldn't be banned. Yes, you totally could have seen that play if you read the board. Yes I DID already explain that.
It doesn't matter how many times I walk someone through it, when crunch time happens and I stop handholding they mess up and blame me. People suck at learning.

MTG as a rule has a pretty awful community. Even the more casual events will have 15 year old schlubs who think that they are hot shit. Like with everything you can eventually find some dudes who are cool and just play and hang out with them.

One of the big selling points of tabletop games vs. video games is that you get to go to a store and play and hang out with people in the flesh, so don't be discouraged. It's better than playing Hearthstone or something like that. See if your buddies would be interested in MTG. You can build a second deck, see if they would like to pay $15 for a starter deck, or even make a draft cube if that is more for you (Proxies can work to start).

I only go to the shop for a FNM once in a while. Its rare we get to see a new face but i usually welcome them and encourage they visit frequently. I will still beat them in a straight up game but will offer advice and deck tips afterwards.
There are theese 3 people who are real close friends with the shopkeeper. My main goal is to piss them off by beating them in underhanded situations. I just pretend i dont have the cards and that i just topdeck them.
>playing against some elf deck
>maindeck boardwipes
>guy sacrafices his board to bring up some giant indestructable guy but the card is in russian.
>already have path of exile in hand but pretend i dont as if held Day of Judgment.
>Ask him in a desperate voice if that guy has indestructable.
>Draw, exile the dude, end turn.
>guy flips switch

Honestly i only enjoy doing this versus them. Enough time has passed and they bitch about stuff like this constantly even before the game has started. LovingIt.jpg

Being an elitist, cock-sucking reject is essential to competitive MtG. If you want to play for "fun" then the kitchen table is your best bet.

In my younger years, when I couldn't stop sucking cock, I spent many a FNM trolling the flgs.
My cousin was an owner and I was able to "borrow" cards for the evening. I would show up with the latest net-deck and proceed to kick the shit out of the "professional" players, all while asking the most annoying newb questions and intentionally fucking up basic gameplay.

It was fun as hell watching the nerdrage. Yes I had a table or two flipped at me and one punch was thrown....MtG players (even the fat ones) generally can't punch for shit so it was all good.

Seriously, MtG players are cunts.

>Seriously, competitive MtG players are cunts.
Only place where you'll find a lot of cool people is in kitchen table groups. Stuff like unhinged cubes, penniless ($1.50 or less cards only), BORROWING CARDS (literally never happens anywhere else, putting all our decks in a circle and using a spinner to select which one you play, three-headed giant, 6 person EDH, etc...

Thank you for the correction, and I agree 100%.

Kitchen table is the only format worth a damn.

>a thread about rudeness in MtG itself becomes filled with rude posts

Just chill, brochachos.

>a thread about rudeness in MtG itself becomes filled with rude posts

It's like pottery

Why does he even come then?

My LGS is so large that I don't even really know any regulars. Most people there are decent enough, though some of them are more standoffish.

I usually only play in drafts and pre-releases though. Entry cost isn't that steep and you don't get people using all the best cards because everyone is opening packs then and there.

I am always nice to new players and always try to help out when I can. The problem is that traditional games in general attract shit heels.

...

>they all did
Actually no, most of us didn't. It's because some guy at the local back in 1997 wasn't a cunt and took the time to show me the basics that I picked up MtG at all. Most players even now learn casually, taught by someone they know or some random at the store, and later pick up the rest of the details if they want to play competitively.

You shouldn't need a reason to not be a cunt to someone, but please: do try to remember that we were ALL new at one point?

>Not popping out of your mom with a competitive tournament-ready deck clutched in your tiny hands.
What are you, some sort of casual?

No, it's just that unlike most of the players in my local I'm actually older than the game itself.

Maybe they're trying to protect you from their insufferable doom by repelling you into a different game/hobby

Pick any other hobby that revolves around something you buy. Car culture, for instance.

You'll find the same ratio of dicks to friends.

The cylinder count of your vehicle is like picking a color in mtg

>Hazing new members is a normal part of group bonding.
>group bonding
>group
>bonding
I might almost agree with you if I could believe the average mtg player understood the meaning of ether of the above words.

you don't have to understand the basics of human psychology to be subject to it. You is one, after all.

This

Other hobbies like fishing or hiking can easily cost a lot more. If you want a cheap hobby just play chess or something.

To be fair after the SOI pro tour the response to kibler's deck was "we are not sure if the deck is good, or kibler is just good enough to run what he wants"

It's funny that you think MtG players don't treat each other like shit regardless of how long they've played.

> I'm tempted just to list my cards on eBay and be done with it.

Easily the best choice here, user.

Pleasae do it.

I was at the library recently, which also hosts a local Magic group. Entirely 20-40 year old men, as is to be expected. A 9 year old girl showed up with her dad and deckbox clutched in her hand. The look of disgust on her dads face was priceless.

Well user are you a neckbeard like most magic players? As a normalfag who's been playing for about a year I normally just raise my voice when I talk to them and assert myself and they back the fuck down and stop with the elitist mumbo jumbo. Just gotta not be a pussy.

Most players I ran across while learning the ropes were pretty easy about it. My first FNM, though, they'd let honest mistakes only happen once (example, accidentally touching hand with a miracle card because I didn't know how it worked); after the first, tough titties.

Honestly, I'm surprised people were that lenient in a competitive setting.

Was the look of disgust before or after the grognards horribly violated his daughter's deck?

Before. I think he was expecting a full group of kids playing card games, which is not an unfair expectation.

I wasn't watching closely, but it looked like only two of the guys bothered playing with her. The rest just ignored her. It was pretty sad actually.

Aw man, how rude of them. I love playing with the lolis at my LGS, they get amazed so much when you show them how to swing for 5,000+ damage with your own deck.

What's the point of having a thousands of dollahs deck if you can't crush scrubs with it?

Sadly there are a lot of magic players like this, even though the game is fun. I play it with friends rather than with strangers, and that makes a huge difference.

Custom formats, pretty proxied decks built to the same price value as those of us with real decks, drafting, cube, and sealed.

I don't know why there are so many douchey mtg players. They're not just douchey to newbies, they're douchey in general. But christ can some of them be real dicks when a newbie comes along

>Playing the game seriously
>not talking about the game and enjoying the company of others >
Wow aren't you "Mr. Popular-at-parties"

It rhymes

Man, where do you live tho, OP? I picked up the game just in time for the pre/release event of Eldritch Moon and I've met nothing but pleasant quiet nerds, My very first dude got annoyed that I didn't finish deck building in designated time, but later he told me how many lands I'm supposed to have and tips and tricks and everyone past him was a cool dude who I had fun with. Making a vampire deck currently, is there a facebook or similar page people in your area have?

I remember me and a friend brought a theme deck of cool-looking commons and a few uncommons. He played a druid-themed deck full of forest creatures and I played the deck of proud knights traipsing around his territory. We never got into the game much but we both collect several shoeboxes full of commons because the art is beautiful and the flavour text is often really cool. We had done this to have something to do in the LGS in between 40k matches.

As soon as we start and we're clearly having fun, these fucking 17-20 year oldcheeseballs in designer clothing and massive binders full of shiny cards came over to inspect in a dour mood. These are the types who always play with a really monotone voice and slam cards down like the game isn't fun at all and they're in a big hurry to get it done with.

They told us the cards are shit because they're low-value and the entire deck is shit and worth a few cents tops for the entire thing while throwing some of the cards haphazardly on the table like they were burning his fingers or something. The nerve of these pricks. This is partly why I never got into MtG, the community is generally too seriousbusiness for my liking.

We still play with shit like 7th Edition Honor Guards because come on, awesome quote, rad artwork. Just cause the card isn't worth 2 grand on ebay doesn't mean it's shit.

Did you not get the memo?

I prefer playing on mtgo just not deal with the crowd that plays.

Because you can play multiple planeswalkers, and they're all low mana cost now.

Bad LGS group, find another LGS.

The majority of the players in mine respect both learner play and experienced play (having decks for both). Only a couple can be tools at times. One of them actually competes.

However, he assumes people get salty because he likes to play really controlly decks that lock a player out until he gets his lethal combo.

I noticed that recently, because I tend to get deep in thought when I lose trying to think of how I can play differently or change my deck, and people think I'm salty due to my silence and expression, and his demenour changes greatly when he thinks anyone is. However nobody at my LGS insults anyone. The store employees foster friendliness too much.

Tl:dr learn to read these players social signels because autism, or find a new LGS if they continue personal attacks.

Also play EDH. It's a casual format that can help you learn more rules faster.

EDH isn't always a casual format. At my shop you'll get shut down unless you filled up your mana base and use nothing but non-creature spells due to all the creature wipes every deck in the shop has.

To some extent I would agree. However at the end of the day a shit deck in the hands of an amazing player won't beat an amazing deck in the hands of a pretty decent player.