The Game, The Etiquette, The Fun, and you #5
General forum
Posted on March 24, 2016, 11:45 a.m. by Titilanious
Hello and welcome to another The game, the Etiquette, the Fun, and You!I would like to talk today about draws, drawing to top 8 and similar aspects of the competitive game.
I want to say that once again these are just some thoughts of a simple Johnny that has played magic for a long time and I am not here to irritate anyone, I am just here to perk some thought.
Drawing to top 8
Now as it comes about, with playing this game competitively for quite a while, if you are going well in a larger tournament you will likely encounter in one of the later rounds someone asking if you would like to draw to top 8 rather than playing out the last game. If you encounter this, it is likely that you are already locked into the top 8 so why not just say ok take the draw and take a rest before the top 8.
This has happened to me several times in the past some larger tournaments just to go to top 8 and some smaller ones just to split a prize rather than playing over it. And every time I get asked this it kind of feels awkward. I know at sometimes it is nice to get a break from playing but it just seems so underhanded and a cop out. Now Im sure a lot of the time it is just people are tired and want to take a break, but it is also the possibility that, as with playing, you find out what the other person is playing and decide not to play as to have a higher seed in the top 8 rather than risk losing to a deck that you may not be able to beat. Now yes you may not be out of top 8 if you lose but it could be the difference between 1st seed and 3rd seed. I feel as though sometimes drawing to top 8 (in bigger events) should not be allowed.
Drawing in General
In a recent Article by Brian Braun-Duin Link to artical from Channel Fireball, he and others have been saying draws should be worth 0 points, it would make drawing to top 8 a lot harder if now oust it all together, but I think that this is a tad bit extreme. This would make a draw worth the same amount as a loss and that just does not seem right because a draw is not a loss it is a stalemate between 2 players and they shouldnt be penalized because they are on equal terms. Now some will say that having draws worth 0 points would force people to play accordingly as in not play time intensive decks or keeping up with tempo of play, while true this will also hinder diversity in a format as well as the people that attend. Also I would like to say that I am not discrediting or claiming that I know more than Brian Braun-Duin, he is an outstanding writer and I quite enjoy all of his articles. Also I do agree with him about players should not be able to draw out in larger tournament that have coverage for them.
So how much would making a draw worth 0 really mean for the game? Well, it is hard to say really but I can see it having some good effects and some more negative effects as well, as I said before that it would get rid of some slower decks. But I feel it would also have the opposite effect as well, to a point. I think it would be possible to see decks that would have card(s) in their side that would be for a Im taking you down with me kind of thing. Kind of like being in a game that you know you cant win and then proceeding to be vindictive and give your opponent a loss as well to hurt his progress in the tournament. I feel like that could really have a negative effect on the game and fun for that matter.
Conclusion
This I feel is kind of a grey area and I do not believe we will see a change like this made for quite a long time if ever. This was just to get some other opinions on the subject. As always thank you for reading and have a great rest of the day
I've had opponents who having won a long game one, intentionally take forever in their decisions in game two so as to try and win 1-0-1. I've even overheard a player doing this at a PTQ. When his opponent asked him to play faster, he told him "sorry man, but i'm not gonna play faster, it's strategy". Obviously, this is slow play and not allowed, and I even though I was just an observer to that match, I called a judge over and the guy was given a warning.
Now, I don't think this happens too often, which is good. However, if we make draws worth 0 points, I think that this situation would occur much more often. Instead of diminishing the popularity of grindy decks, it would encourage people with grindy decks to win game one in 30-35 minutes (intentionally taking a while), and then just stall game two. After all, if you're playing a grindy deck, you usually have the advantage pre-sideboard, and would want to keep control and stall game one out as long as possible.
Most magic players, while having a wide range of personalities, tend to be somewhat meek when it comes to arguments and judge calls. It's because of this that people can slow play intentionally. On top of that, the judges themselves are not comfortable on the issue of slow play. There have been articles written over the last year covering this, explaining that judges are more likely to allow slow play even standing there watching the game because they don't want to interrupt what might just be the player "going in the tank", or whatever you want to call it.
I understand that the issue of drawing into top 8 bothers some people. I understand WHY it bothers some people. If you draw into top eight, then both of you are getting in, which inevitably means someone else isn't getting in to top eight.
However, I've always loathed how much people complain about stuff like this. If you wanted to make top eight so badly then you should have practiced more; you should have played better; you should have had better luck on your draws. Sure, sometimes your deck doesn't cooperate, but that's the game we play. That's life.
DrFunk27 says... #2
Awesome Doran! I wish that was tournament legal. =\
March 24, 2016 12:20 p.m.