Yesterday, Chris Hyde wrote an interesting article about several much-hated cards in the hope of discouraging you from playing with those cards. Each of the cards he listed brought with it a large effect that made continuing to play difficult for your opponents. He referred to them as “cards that elicit sighs of frustration – or flat-out concessions when they resolve.” In particular he listed several cards (Megrim, Grip of Chaos, Shared Fate, Limited Resources, and Stasis) as prime culprits for taking the fun out of the game.
The problem I have with his list is that those are the cards that bother him. Fair enough; Stasis makes the game unfun for me too, but when I’m playing multiplayer, any card that interferes with me winning the game bothers me. Those cards are generally known as “good cards.” If your opponent isn’t taking some of the fun out of the game for you, then they aren’t using good cards.
I’m not going to try to convince you to stop playing with a list of cards that seem to come up regularly in multiplayer games that I’ve played and end up beating me. While Chris claims that decent human beings™ don’t play with these cards, we all know that most of the people we play Magic with – including ourselves – are not decent human beings™, at least according to Chris’s definition! These people are not going to become decent human beings™ just because someone tells us that the cards we use wreck their fun.
I am going to do something a little better. I’m going to provide you with the weapons you need to fight your opponents. I am going to show you what to do to keep the fun in the game… or at least keep the fun in your game!
1. Play Only With Decent Human Beings™.
This is an obvious one. If you can find a playgroup where no one plays a card that irritates you, then you should have lots of fun. Of course, you’ll be bored out of your mind after a while since it isn’t much fun to play against people who have weak decks all the time.
Besides, good luck finding that many people to play Magic with on a regular basis who are willing to play lousy decks all the time. I have a hard enough time just finding anyone to play multiplayer with.*
The variation of this is to ban any card that you find takes the fun out of the game. I understand this works for some groups, but the people I’ve played with don’t like that idea at all. You own the card, you should be allowed to play with it. Besides, I expect your group’s “unfun” list would get longer and longer every time someone came up with a brilliant idea – and who wants to stunt creativity with Magic cards? That is a big part of the fun for me is watching how the decks evolve into killing machines.
2. Get The Right Cards In Your Deck.
The Ferrett (and other multiplayer luminaries) have written about some of the cards in particular you should have at least four of in your collection. Telling you that you should have certain cards in your decks will only limit your creativity, and I’m not interested in doing that. Instead I’m suggesting that your deck be able to do two things:
a. Stop other decks from winning, and;
b. Win.
You might be able to win without being able to stop other decks from winning. If everyone else takes a longer time to win than you, you will win, even if you can’t stop their deck. The problem in multiplayer is that you won’t always be the first one who can win, so you had better be able to stop others from winning.
Now, how you go about winning is your business. It doesn’t matter how you win – choose big creatures, direct damage, Battle of Wits, whatever, it’s up to you. Stopping other decks from winning is where I can help. How can you stop other decks from winning?
a. Stop their mana.
If they don’t have mana, they can’t cast spells. If they can’t cast spells, they have no way to win or to stop you from winning. Land destruction is most commonly used, but the Hyde-hated Stasis and Limited Resources also work on this level. Just remember that in a multiplayer game, land destruction is a difficult thing to keep up, and probably not the best way to stop other decks from winning.
b. Stop their spells.
Land destruction fits here too, but only because it stops the spells by preventing your opponents from ever casting them. Counterspells and other cards that prevent anyone from casting spells fits in here. Just be sure to be picky. If you are matching up your resources against all of your opponents’ resources, you will lose, so counter only the spells that will cause you to lose or prevent you from winning.
c. Deal with their spells.
This is my preferred method for dealing with my opponents. If something comes down on the table I want to be able to deal with it. When you build your decks, keep in mind that you will have to be able to deal with artifacts, enchantments, and creatures. If your deck can’t handle any of those, you will likely find yourself in trouble. Chris’ list of hated cards were all enchantments… But there are at least thirty-three different cards available that can “destroy target enchantment.” Only Grip of Chaos can escape those cards, and even it does not escape the thirteen other cards that destroy all enchantments (or all other enchantments)… And this doesn’t even include cards that reset the entire board. While four Disenchants will not save you every time, at least you have a shot at Stasis. Be sure to at least give yourself a fighting chance.
Use your group’s metagame to your advantage here. You probably can’t stop everything that gets put out… But perhaps you don’t need to. Has the rush of artifacts from Mirrodin block finally faded from your group’s decks? If so, take out your full complement of artifact destruction. Is your group plagued by the nasty enchantments that Chris despises? Perhaps more enchantment removal is in order for your deck.
3. Get others to do your dirty work.
Come on – this is multiplayer! It is likely that if an opponent has played something that you don’t want, there will be others playing who don’t want it there either. If you can convince them to get rid of it, all the better for you! Hey, if you can convince someone to get rid of the bothersome creature/enchantment/artifact/land when it isn’t hurting them, then kudos to you; you are a force to be reckoned with!
This option is constantly overlooked. This is the most important way that multiplayer is different from one on one duels. While being able to deal with anything that hits the board is a good thing, a better thing is being able to convince someone else to deal with it for you. You have opened up space in your deck to add more ways to win. You can’t seriously hope to have an answer to everything all of your opponents do and still have room for cards that let you win. You build your deck to stop some of what your opponents do, and hope your group can stop the rest.
Obviously, this is all overly simplified, but there are straightforward ways to deal with some of Magic’s more frustrating cards. Rather than ban or gripe about them, use the obvious ways to handle them. Better yet, work on creative ways to handle them, and the people that play them. Study the metagame, build your decks to deal with it, and do your best to convince others that the sky is about to fall on them, and the Megrims and Stasis cards in Magic should be much easier to deal with.
Bruce Richard
bnrichard AT hotmail.com
* – I’m new to Boston and looking to start a regular multiplayer group. Send me an email if you’re interested.