House rules?
The Kitchen Table forum
Posted on Nov. 23, 2014, 6:02 p.m. by AcidZephyr
So, I finished playing with my cousin - who plays strictly casual and only has gone to prerelease tournaments. So I'm playing at his house and he runs a modern mardu super aggro deck and I'm running 4 color walkers, turn two I play Hymn to Tourach and he says we should ban it. I take this as a joke, then turn 4 I ramp into Volcanic Offering and he rage quits and wants to say that if it ain't modern or standard you can't play it because its his house. Any thought on this or any similar stories?
AcidZephyr says... #3
I though about it but I actually go over to his host to hang out with my actual cousin, Michelle. He just wants to play, buy it's even worse when he wins because he gloats for eternity. Like I want to play with michelle but not him.
November 23, 2014 6:08 p.m.
lemmingllama says... #4
Well, Legacy decks are more powerful than Modern decks, so I can see why he would be upset. Still, if you don't enjoy playing with him then just don't play with him. There are plenty of other people who play Magic
November 23, 2014 6:20 p.m.
AcidZephyr says... #5
But volcanic offering is literally the only legacy card in there. But thanks guys, I wont play with him until he pulls the stick out of his ass
November 23, 2014 6:22 p.m.
Set ground rules and write them down. My play group's house rules are:
No land destruction
No inf combos
No first turn win decks
Have fun. If you're playing to win go to a tournament
November 23, 2014 6:23 p.m.
AcidZephyr says... #8
Oh, that too then. But still, he gets pissy when we play multiplayer too, because we destroy his rabblemasters or parts of his combos, I mean were not hyper competitive, its casual. Our playgroup (him, Michelle and my other cousin Travis) it's not ultra competitive, like me and Travis like janky combos and just fun decks. Michelle just plays Boris and planeswalkers but cris always wants to play hyper competetibe, like he has the ravnica mono black devotion deck with mutavaults and all,he buys a shot ton of "good" expensive cards and its just vecmojg not fun to play anymore
November 23, 2014 6:48 p.m.
Cobthecobbler says... #9
Formats exist for a reason. Either clarify that youre playing casual or find someone else to play with because you both honestly sound like children about it
November 23, 2014 7:21 p.m.
Couldn't you just proxy a deck for his sake? If he's interested in playing against you and its only casual, why not just create something fun that's within the format?
November 23, 2014 7:48 p.m.
Play the same format... There's a reason why formats exist...
November 23, 2014 7:51 p.m.
AcidZephyr says... #12
Maybe I didn't make it clear, he only plays "modern" to have access to Lightning Bolt and a couple goblins, he doesn't have problems with my deck, just those two cards. And if we are playing casual then it shouldn't matter, it is only for fun and he only uses words like standard and modern because he heard me say them and Travis say them and asked what they were, he doesn't care about tournaments, he cares about excuses to act like a baby
November 23, 2014 8:14 p.m.
Named_Tawyny says... #14
There's nothing wrong with playing casual but limiting the cards to modern viable ones; that's a great way to stop casual from becoming 'casual, legacy'.
Just agree on the rules before you start playing; it's not that tough. Unless he demands modern-legal only, and then starts bringing out vintage cards, I don't see an issue.
November 25, 2014 7:45 a.m.
I think there is a mismatch of intentions. I mean if he's playing a bunch of goblins and lightning bolt and you're playing Hymn to Tourach which is an INSANE card there's definitely discrepancy in power level. I mean, I would moan if someone brought a gun to a knife fight.
Running from problems is never an answer. It seems like you just need to have a mature discussion of what you expect from your games of magic, and which ruleset to follow. You can have structured casual play.
November 25, 2014 7:52 a.m.
followthegospel says... #16
When my close friend finally bought and started playing Dark Ritual I managed to get everyone in the playgroup to make jokes about how he only ever won because he was playing vintage against our modern, despite that being the only illegal card he played and it being a one of. Good times.
Besides a group disdain for land destruction, we don't really argue. There is one guy who always insists that the house rules are infinite free mulligans, and when we play multiplayer he will try to "roll for clockwise or counterclockwise" if he is in a bad spot. My aforementioned friend and I always have a good chuckle about those, especially given that we play at his apartment, but neither of us care enough to make it an argument since we just play to have fun and kill time anyway.
November 28, 2014 3:42 p.m.
My playgroup is pretty casual but we always preface our games with something along the lines of "You're playing a standard deck? I'm playing a modern one, is that cool?" so then no one is surprised by the power level of the cards that we are playing.
Also, I would definitely complain if I was playing a modern deck and someone started dropping Hymn to Tourachs and commander cards. There is a reason there is a ban list and there is a reason there are formats so we follow those rules for the fairness of the game.
And I'm not a fan of the "casual" format anyway because there is no cap on the power level. It just turns into whoever in your playgroup spends the most money will have a huge advantage.
November 29, 2014 4:12 a.m.
I play with a number of people from very casual to highly competitive people. It's hard to have a deck list for all formats and be very familiar with them. I've found it pays off to proxy simple decklists if you're going to play against people that play outside your favored format. It allows you to play with others on the level that they want. It's pretty hard to get someone who insists on using Daxos of Meletis as a general to play against a group filled with generals like Azami, Sydri, Azusa, etc. It pays off to be able to adjust how you play without necessarily having to invest money into something you don't enjoy as much as your preferred way of playing the game.
November 29, 2014 10:38 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #19
So dump a couple of g's on a competitive modern deck and see what he bans next.
November 29, 2014 10:46 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #20
Daxos can be as good as an edh commander, you just need to build the deck correctly. (for casual play)
November 29, 2014 10:49 a.m.
Sure he can, but decks in my primary group tend to be quite competitive. I think the cheapest deck in the group would be my Azami build, and that's around $900, to give you some kind of reference. We're all decent players. Look, my point is that if someone wants to pick up a lesser option and hop into one of our games without a well-crafted deck, he's not going to have a good chance of winning.
November 29, 2014 11:22 a.m.
bobbytiffles says... #22
I think it's fine to make house rules, my friends and i dont care what cards everyone plays. It only really matters if you have two Avatar of Mights to win, or if you have some other overpowered card to win with. (my Iridescent Angel has caused some problems)
The only rules are:1. No infinite combos if you base your deck around them
2.As i said before, no 15/15 Eldrazi wins
3.Lifecap 50,unless you play lifegain (then its 100)
4.When someone plays a really good card, team up on them
and 5:have fun, and play your best.
One friend of mine has recently made a simic mana ramp +1/+1 deck. He has created a 1864/1864 Chasm Skulker and a 50/50 Fathom Mage in this way. Of course, that was banned, as they had trample, and none of us played life gain.
Epochalyptik says... #2
Play with someone else.
November 23, 2014 6:05 p.m.