Restraint / Constraint

August 27, 2020

prudence – noun : 1 : the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. 2 : sagacity or shrewdness in the management of affairs. 3 : skill and good judgment in the use of resources. 4 : caution or circumspection as to danger or risk

Suppose you went to your LGS and sat down next to a Random Magic Player. You ask if they are up for a few quick games, and they agree. You immediately stomp their Planeswalker deck with your tier 1 tournament deck. You’d feel bad. I hope.

You might also apologize for the discrepancy in power levels between your respective decks, and offer to play something weaker (assuming you had such a deck with you – barring that, you might offer to let the other player try out one of your optimized decks.)

Random Magic Player might feel awful about that first game, but you’d have the ability to try and mitigate that by offering up advice, some kind words, or a fairer match-up. Looking an unknown opponent in the eye can ease all sorts of awkwardness. Assuming one or both players aren’t socially awkward to begin with.

On the other hand, you could just shuffle up and pound on them again, or change seats and look for another opponent.

It’s a random Tuesday night, nothing is on the line, you’re just looking for some pick-up games…what should you be expected to bring to this experience?

Do you owe Random Magic Player anything?

I’ll argue: respectful play, for starters. If you’re facing a friend then some good-natured trash talk or gloating might be fine or even expected. Outside of that, treating the opponent with dignity and respect should be a bare minimum. Within the realm of “respectful play” I’d also include respect for the rules of the game (i.e. don’t be a cheating scumbag.)

But what about deck strength or strategy? Now things get squidgy. If it’s EDH night, then players will likely try to group up based on self-ascribed deck power levels. But if you’re packing a cEDH deck you play masterfully, and everyone else is sporting slightly upgraded precons, what then? Do you owe it to the others to downgrade your deck or pull punches while playing? Or do the others owe it to you to elevate their deck construction and play ability? Or is this a situation only solved by the outsider(s) finding somewhere else to play?

Now imagine Friday Night Magic, with small prizes on the line. If you bring the best deck in the format, and everyone else hates playing against it and can’t find a way to beat it…does that matter?

Context obviously matters, and personal preferences will assuredly color how you feel about all of this.

I play most of my Magic in the “Play” queue on Arena, and I’ve thought a lot about what, if anything, I owe my opponents there. My personal feelings on the matter are thus:

1. Play respectfully. Arena handles the rules so there’s no cheating, so this point encompasses emotes, roping, and showboating. I rarely use emotes, and never in any way that might be construed as snarky or rude. Roping or intentional slow play is right out, regardless of how the opponent might be behaving. And finally, if I have the win or what appears to be a lethal play, I take it (within reason – no sending 15 creatures into an opponent with the mana available to play Settle the Wreckage.) No toying with a seemingly-helpless opponent, no making unnecessary plays in order to show off my deck or what cards I still had in hand at the end.
2. Don’t play cards or entire strategies I despise playing against. Superfriends decks, of any caliber, annoy the snot out of me. Thus I neither build nor play such decks. Mono red aggro crushes me so regularly that I often auto-concede to such decks. Making one myself is out of the question. Cards that cause me involuntary eye rolls, whether due to being overpowered or overplayed (such as Hydroid Krasis or Ajani’s Pridemate) are off limits (except perhaps as one-ofs in Brawl decks.)
3. No playing cards or strategies that I recognize as being excessively played or irritatingly frustrating. I’ve seen very few people claim to enjoy playing against heavy control decks. Thus I keep control elements of my decks to what feels like a moderate level. Everyone seems tired of playing ramp decks in the current Standard environment, so I keep ramp to a minimum. The one card I play that I know annoys a certain percentage of the playerbase is Doom Foretold. But it’s part of a pseudo-jank enchantment deck that doesn’t pair it with powerful finisher Dance of the Manse and has other (often better) win conditions than Doom itself. And I don’t mind playing against another Doom Foretold deck. I almost always lose to them on the rare occasions I see them, because I’m playing a much weaker shell.
4. Play off-meta. The game is so vast, the possible choices of what to play so numerous, that exploring the corners and crevices of Magic is just too fun not to embrace. Everyone is going to see plenty of tournament staples on a daily basis, so why not strive to increase the diversity: chase the obscure, or the chaotic, or the absurd, or the forgotten.

Ultimately, I follow my own Magic-specific variation of the golden rule: play the game as if I was my own opponent.

I don’t expect others to follow this same rule, and I think few would, especially on Arena where you don’t have to look your opponent in the eye or speak to them after an ugly blowout win.

Arena has no chat (thankfully) and no way to customize matches (sadly) so I approach my games as if I’ll be matched up with someone much like me – someone of a similar mindset, looking for a fair(ish) match-up against a respectful opponent. Sometimes I get that, often I don’t. And my win percentage undoubtedly suffers substantially for my self-imposed limitations. But the way I see it…

It’s what I owe my opponents, and the game.