What is Wrong With Magic Players: A MTGO Story

[Quentil]

This might ramble a bit, as it's been ages since I posted in a forum and I'm slightly rage-typing, heh.  But yeah...

So about once a year (usually in the winter), I play on MTGO online for a few months.  I enjoy MTG, have played it on and off for ages, and MTGO gives me the experience of new decks and cards that I might not otherwise use in real life cardboard action.  My MTG group and I usually play Vintage Magic with rather powerful decks.  On MTGO, I simply play Standard, as it lets me roll over my cards once a year and trade for newer ones without any real new financial investment in addition to using cards I normally wouldn't deem "good enough."  I use mostly budget decks, but I definitely try to build them as good as I can, even if I'll never be able to afford Planeswalkers or the best Mythics currently in Standard.  Mostly though, It's a win-win for reasons I've already stated.  But then the same thing happens every time I play MTGO, and it makes me give up playing on the site for awhile:

The players.

I mean, I get it.  MTG is competitive and we all want to win.  I'm fine with that.  And it's not 100% of the players.  Some are rather decent folks.  The thing that seems to trigger people the most though is the fact that I don't use netdecks.  I am aware that they exist, and I honestly don't give a crap if others use them.  Again, the idea is to win, and it's MTG and Standard....There's only so many decks you can come up with and you are bound to see repeats in theme.  But my main problem is that oftentimes I homebrew decks that are similar to existing netdecks or tourney winners.  And I get shit for it.  Or I get shit for using a homebrew against a netdeck.  The main two MTGO decks I've been toying around with are:  A black/white Vampire tribal (which wins most of the time, but certainly loses a fair share) just because I've never used Vampires before and Standard has a nice mix of them at the moment.

The second is a mono Blue Tempo deck.  This one gets the most flak.  For those interested, you can see it here:  https://deckstats.net/decks/21453/1113822-somethingblue-mtgo-

For the record, I built this deck on my own before I saw any others like it.  But shortly after making it, I started seeing similar ones.  Which is fine.  I get it, for (again) already stated reasons.  Evidently someone just finished second in a tourney with a similar deck, and there's supposedly a similar one available on a common MTGO deck buy site.  And I also get that it's Blue Tempo.  I mean, seriously, MTG isn't rocket science.  Blue Tempo goes back to Alpha, I'd wager.  It's not a new idea. 

But then I hear comments like:

"Nice netdeck, shitbag."
"Ghetto Mono Blue.  Play a real deck."
"I see you are playing <Insert Player's Name>'s deck.  Get a life."

The irony is that almost all of these comments are done by people using common netdecks that are massively popular right now.  Decks full of cards that are worth more than my entire deck put together.  Which, to allow me to restate, I'm okay with.  Again, I understand competition, and if you have the money to buy a better deck, then go for it.  But why such fragile egos and seeming need to crap on everyone else?  Why so bitter?  How can that even start to add to the enjoyment of the experience?  I told one player today who was using a similar deck that it'll likely come down to whomever hiccups on mana first since we are using similar decks, and he replied,

"I'm using <Player>'s deck.  It recently finished second in a tourney."  My reply was, "Ah, that's cool.  I built this as a homebrew, but it's nice to see others using the idea and winning with it."

I figured this was a fine response, one without spite or any scorn or whatever.  The reply was, "Eh, I'm sure you'd like to think you're using a homebrew, but this deck is documented online and thus you aren't being original."

This reply was mind-boggling.  The logic that 'someone else posted up a similar deck online on a site that i've never even seen and thus my own deck is a copy and garbage' is either the most bizarre attempt at trolling i've seen in awhile, or (more likely) some sort of passive aggressive spite at an implied insult that I don't really fathom.  I say this to him, and he simply uses vulgarity and quits the game.

When I use the Vampire deck, I get the strange flipside to it.  If anyone cares, here's the deck:  https://deckstats.net/decks/21453/1107322-white-black-vampires-mtgo-

Since I guess it's not a super popular deck in tournies right now, I get people quitting and bitching that i'm using a loser deck that isn't even tiered.  And again, my responses of, "well, it plays well against your deck, so it can't be all that bad" or "Eh, I put it together because i've never actually used Vampire Tribal before" simply get back a host of insults and false accusations.

I mean, I'm playing in the "just for fun" category, usually against decks far more expensive to build, and decks just being copied card for card from those others have used.  And yet the general opinion of the playerbase on MTGO seems to be that I'm somehow the one in the wrong.  Like I'm an idiot for knowing how to build a decent deck without Google's help, or for just messing around with cards to see what happens.  Every single time I play MTGO, this is the result.  And after a few months, I'm happy to not play the game online again for another 8-10 months because I simply get sick of all of the negative attacks for no real reason other than to salve fragile egos.

Lastly, I see the constant people quitting after one game.  They almost always use gimmick decks that would get destroyed with any halfway decent sideboard.  So it's like, you win one game, then quit because you know you won't win another against a decent player?  I mean, how is that fun?  Or you get the people who realize they are losing and simply go idle, making you have to leave the game open for 15-20 minutes just to "win."  And then, you get the players who realize they are losing, toss out some scattered shotgun blast of insults like "you are a slow player" (no matter what the timers are) or simply some racist slur.  And if you block the players, it doesn't seem to actually prevent any of these players from being able to join a game with you again.  Making the idea of blocking a player seem kind of worthless.

So what exactly am I missing here?  I play in real life at the local gaming shop, and people aren't like that.  At least not nearly as bad.  Is it simply just the internet and the anonymous aspect and ability to ragequit that makes people jerks?  Or are the people that play MTGO just more asinine than the average shop player?  Or is there something that i'm just missing?  For the record, I also saw it when I played the old Xbox 360 MTG games online as well.  Although not as much. 

Anyhow, for anyone that made it this far, thanks.  It's just frustrating to see a game I enjoy be soured by people who just can't seem to enjoy the game at all no matter how much they win.

[Morganator 2.0]

Made it to the end! Woohoo!

But seriously though, it's the internet. The annonymity and inability to punch them from across the table changes the way people act. Damn near every online game has these sour-pusses, from Overwatch, to League of Legends, to RuneScape (I honestly can't believe this game is still kicking).

It happens in real-life too, just not as often. People will get salty, but hostility and racial slurs is rare, mostly because the annonymity is gone.

So there's a couple things you can do. First, business as usual. Play for a few months, quit, come back in a year. Nothing wrong with that. Second, play only with friends. I'm not familiar with MTGO, but I'm assuming there's a friend list.  If you find someone who's a good sport, add them to play with them latter.

[Firegriff]

You could try Arena.  I just started up on it, but Chat is limited to preset phrases.  I just started and haven't paid anything into it just yet, but you can earn some free "preconstructed decks" and packs to play with.  I have still run into players stalling and rage quitting, but not a majority so far.  Plus, you sometimes get Wild cards that you can use to select specific cards at a specific rarity level.

[Quentil]

"First, business as usual. Play for a few months, quit, come back in a year. Nothing wrong with that..  Second, play only with friends. I'm not familiar with MTGO, but I'm assuming there's a friend list.  If you find someone who's a good sport, add them to play with them latter.

Yeah, it'll have to be the first option, methinks.  Because I only play for a few months a year online usually, it usually means my friends list in mostly inactive by the time I come back, heh.  Although, I've found that simply shutting off the chat does help somewhat, even if it removes part of the interaction.  It's just a bit of a bummer.  Ah well.

[Quentil]

Soap Opera update:

Well, at least this experience has taught me who "saffronolive" is.  And before people express shock at me not knowing this before looking him up yesterday, I don't follow MTG much outside of actually playing it.  Also, since I don't use other people's decks, I've never actually gone to his site before.  .

But yesterday was literally one of the most shocking experiences in my MTG life.  I was playing the blue deck and someone just started screaming at me.  Instantly vulgar and abusive, evidently I am "the problem with MTG today, with people just stealing other decks and using them to beat up on others to me <insert more abrasive words here.>  It was honestly the first time I've heard the name of SaffronOlive.  The guy was excessive about his insults to the point where I worried for him.  I tried to talk to him, but he wanted nothing of it.  The height came when he said something like, "OH.  A TEMPEST DJINN.  LOSER.  I BET YOU HAVE CURIOUS OBSESSION IN THERE TOO HUH?  <Insert graphic words>"

And it's like, I reply, "Oh yeah, how dare I use a better than average card drawing buff mechanic in Blue tempo/control.  How dare I use a good card that evidently someone else used.  I'm gonna go full disclosure here, my dude:  I have some counters in here too.  DON'T TELL ANYONE!!  I'm gonna surprise everyone with using them in a blue deck."  Not that it stopped his ranting.

So after this experience, I would like all of you, every single magic player (NO EXCEPTIONS!~!)  , to make sure they clear their decks through me first before posting them up online.  And if they use any of the same cards, I want full credit for their decks, mmmkay?

(The kicker is that I looked at Safron's deck after googling him yesterday.  It's actually not really that similar outside of the core group of cards that should be in almost any blue deck in standard currently.  There's literally 20 different cards in the deck and sideboard.  But I guess I'm unoriginal and just a cheater or something.  Haha.)

I'm just gonna take all of the hate about this blue tempo deck of mine as a compliment.  Haters Gonna Hate, I guess.  Honestly, I'm already working on a new deck, as it gets boring to win all of the time in a casual setting.  I'd rather lose a close game than dominate over and over in fun play. 

[DelverMage]

SaffronOlive is the main deck builder and personality of mtggoldfish.  He builds competitive decks specifically for people to copy and play.  It seems weird that he would behave like that on MTGO.  Makes me wonder if it was truly him.

[Soren841]

That seems very out of character. I even talked to him on MTGO. He's v nice.

[WWolfe]

But seriously though, it's the internet. The annonymity and inability to punch them from across the table changes the way people act. Damn near every online game has these sour-pusses, from Overwatch, to League of Legends, to RuneScape (I honestly can't believe this game is still kicking).

This times two.

It's much easier for people to be buttheads over the internet than IRL. It's one of the reasons I quit playing Madden & COD online.

[Quentil]

SaffronOlive is the main deck builder and personality of mtggoldfish.  He builds competitive decks specifically for people to copy and play.  It seems weird that he would behave like that on MTGO.  Makes me wonder if it was truly him.

Oh crap.. No, the guy yelling at me said I was using SaffronOlive's deck.  I'd never heard of the guy before, and had to look him up.  And he put up a blue tempo deck aa few days ago, although when I looked at the cards, it was somewhat different than the one I made.  He seems like a cool dude.

I can see I didn't quite explain it that well.  My apologies, and no intention was there to accidentally slur Saffron.