r/magicTCG • u/ataraxic89 Wabbit Season • 23h ago
General Discussion Did I overreact?
Last night I went to a different LGS than usual. Ive been before, but not as much as my main store.
Anyway, I sat down to a group and we had rule 0 discussion and all agreed very clearly to player Bracket 2. I chose my Kimahri copy deck because, by its nature, it tends to just reflect the power of the table.
I was already a little suspicious when one player said they were gonna play Krenko, as In my experience he can be very strong with little or no support. But I didnt say anything because I figured ill just copy Krenko and have a goblin-off.
Around turn 3 the Krenko player joked about playing blood moon.
On turn 5 or 6 they played blood moon. Now, first I want to say I had 2 counter spells and actually another player countered it. So its not like it did anything. But, I called out, obviously that it was a MLD and the other players generally seemed fine with it and one said "it's fine", i said "is it?" and realizing they didnt care I decided to scoop (I was in the strongest position). I was very visibly irritated but didnt say anything further to the cheater and packed up to move.
Thankfully it was early in the night and was able to join another group immediately.
TBH i have a bad habit of scooping a little too easily, and I'm working on that. But I feel like it needs to be made clear that whipping out cards 2 brackets ahead of the one you agreed to play in isn't acceptable. I considered talking to the store employees but didn't want to make more of a deal about it.
I also want to be clear I usually don't really mind if someone forgot or didn't know a card ward a Game Changer in a B2 deck. But no one who runs blood moon is confused on how strong it is and this person was not recently returned after a long break. They knew damn well they were cheating and that's what actually pissed me off, combined with the other 2 people acting like it was fine.
What do you think? What do you do when someone blatantly disregards the pre-game discussion? Have you scooped or ejected a player from your pod over this kind of thing?
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u/GrippySockAficionado 23h ago edited 23h ago
I'd have done the same, just bounced after that game. To be clear, dude was definitely in the wrong. Blood Moon is absolutely not acceptable for a Bracket 2 game, and I'd be extremely suspicious of Krenko in that bracket to begin with. I've gotten slammed with similar in Bracket 2 ([[Magus of the Moon]]) and, just like you, had a pod that mostly laughed it off. I handled it differently from you, though. I just pulled out a Bracket 3 deck for the next game (wasn't really another pod to move to for me at that time or I would have).
That being said, I think you could do with a bit of adjustment on your framing of the issue. "Cheating" isn't really how I'd put it. Cheating applies to drawing extra cards, stacking your deck, any kind of blatant rules violations. The "Bracket System" isn't really so much a set of rules as much as a set of guidelines for determining where your deck roughly sits on an arbitrary scale of power level. It's vibes, fundamentally. It's there to help you make sure you're not playing a deck that hurts the vibes of the table, to make sure people are going into the game with roughly similar expectations.
To be clear, some will try to "fudge" these brackets. They are assholes and they show up in every hobby with at least a mildly competitive element. Just don't play with them. Play with people who are demonstrably engaging with the Bracket System in good faith.
I have both a Bracket 2 deck and a Bracket 3 deck that I would each defend do conform to the brackets, but I rarely play them in those brackets because the vibes tend to be off and I only play them after clarifying what these decks can do. Some decks are just bad vibes regardless of what bracket they are in; that would be my Eldrazi deck which doesn't seem to have a home because it is so utterly mean when it is "doing its thing" and yet it is too slow to be B4 or B5.
So yes, you should move to another pod, but only because it's clear your interests and expectations aren't aligned with this group. It's fine if they think Blood Moon was acceptable in Bracket 2; others won't agree and would take your side, so go play with those others.