What are your experiences with playing EDH on the internet with random people?

[Aetherium Slinky]

You've got Cockatrice, Spelltable, untap.in, xmage, MTGO... Then there are many Discords that provide the chance to look for a pod. People who do this keep saying they've had miserable experiences with power imbalance and/or rude behaviour.

What are your experiences? I'd like to hear both positive and negative experiences to get a clearer picture of what's going on. (Obviously the ones who have had bad experiences are the most vocal ones.)

Mention the community through which you've searched for pods or just say random if you join open lobbies without any community behind it. (Don't link them, this isn't an ad thread.) Also, do you use Discord for communication or the in-app chat box?


I sometimes play on Cockatrice with random people and I've had mostly positive experiences even though I've joined games straight through the platform and haven't bothered with a matchmaking community. The trick is to make your own room and describe the game you want as accurately as possible in the room name. And then have the pregame talk.

[Morganator 2.0]

I know what online play can be like from other games, so I tend to avoid it. My only experience with pure randos has been with the cEDH game days. That's really nice because no one gets salty about anything, and there is no pregame discussion. We all know what we came for. My experience there has been positive.

[Mynus]

My main experience is that most people tend to undervalue the power of their decks, so when someone says something like a 5 or 6, that usually means a 7 or 8. This leads to lopsided and games that aren't fun. Secondly, the online community seems to be gearing towards higher powerlevels/combos/commanders, and I very much enjoy casual level EDH.

[Morganator 2.0]

My main experience is that most people tend to undervalue the power of their decks, so when someone says something like a 5 or 6, that usually means a 7 or 8.

How do you know that everyone else is undervaluing instead of you overvaluing? The whole number scale is subjective based on each individual player's previous experience.

[Mynus]

My main experience is that most people tend to undervalue the power of their decks, so when someone says something like a 5 or 6, that usually means a 7 or 8.

How do you know that everyone else is undervaluing instead of you overvaluing? The whole number scale is subjective based on each individual player's previous experience.

You are absolutely right, which highlights a problem in the number system that has been discussed again and again. Either way, undervaluing or overvaluing, my personal experience is the same. However, I would argue that more people tend to undervalue their power-level than overvalue.

[Slyvester12]

My main experience is that most people tend to undervalue the power of their decks, so when someone says something like a 5 or 6, that usually means a 7 or 8.

How do you know that everyone else is undervaluing instead of you overvaluing? The whole number scale is subjective based on each individual player's previous experience.

You are absolutely right, which highlights a problem in the number system that has been discussed again and again. Either way, undervaluing or overvaluing, my personal experience is the same. However, I would argue that more people tend to undervalue their power-level than overvalue.

But like you and Morg acknowledged, that's subjective. From the perspective of high power magic, most players overvalue. From the perspective of low power magic, most players undervalue.

Our perception is biased by the end of the scale we care about.

[anjinsan]

I play on Cockatrice and it's usually decent. There are problems with people flaking out, dropping, etc, as well as getting mad about "power levels" or some card they dislike or whatever, ragequitting, etc etc, but I get a lot of good, fun games in, too.

[larkimpressive]

Generally speaking, when someone claims they're a 5 or 6, they're really a 7 or 8. This results in uneven and boring games. Second, it appears that the online community is moving toward commanders or higher power levels.

[fire5167]

I play on Cockatrice and it's usually decent. There are problems with people flaking out, dropping, etc, as well as getting mad about "power levels" or some card they dislike or whatever, ragequitting, etc etc, but I get a lot of good, fun games in, too.

+1 to this.

I played on untap.in for quite a while and dropping out is the most annoying part. Any four player game has a high chance (like 50%ish) of having 1 or more disconnections due to either salt, internet issues, or some prior commitment. Generally you can still have fun with the remaining players though.

It can be kind of funny sometimes though. I remember a game that went like this: Player one plays land, jeweled lotus into Grand Arbiter Augustin IV on turn one. player 2 plays plains, lotus petal into swords to plowshares. Player 1 immediately complains about being teamed on in chat then disconects, all before I and player 4 have made our first land drops. We went on to have a fun game without player 1.

Edit: i think it was actually gemstone caverns… lotus petal wouldnt have worked there

[anjinsan]

Oh yeah dropping out is far and away the biggest problem, and it messes up games a lot (partly, this is just a problem with multiplayer I suppose).

Issues I've had with people just being actual jerks or whatever are thankfully quite rare (though they do happen).

[stuffnsuch]

I once was in a game on Spelltable and someone just stopped playing after getting salty.  He didn't quit or scoop or disconnect, he just stopped playing.  It was his turn for several minutes as we sat around and discussed whether he went to the bathroom or something and we should wait, of just continue.  As soon as we moved on, he started packing up his cards.  It was weird.

Overall, however, overwhelmingly positive, though I still prefer in person.

[sgen1313]

 My experience there has been positive.
Run 3