WARNING THIS IS WRITTEN IN HEAVY NERD SPEAK.
I 44M and have younger nephews, aged 18-25, who have started to embrace their geeky side. So one of them decided to "challenge" the old master. Mind you, I’m a super casual 1.5 or now, as it’s called, a legacy player with decks that wouldn’t hold up in standard tournaments today, nor would they then.
So, the oldest nephew and partner show up at the house. And I pull out the old deck box with my unsleeved cards (WIP). In the four games I lost, I graciously three times, as I played one deck three times in a row to try to get the mechanics started, but the mana well was dry.
On the fourth and final game I whip out my now IN-famous 100 card Elf deck. Needless to say, I pulled the NEAR perfect setup. For one mechanic.
For context, this deck, with way too many cards, has been built as a
1. Overrun trample deck
2. A forestwalker nightmare
3. A brutish thug single creature trampling god
4. An insect swarm
5. A Neverending life spring
6. Never ending manawell
With some abilites that make you think it’s a control deck.
By turn 4, I had 3 green and 7 creatures and one legendary that made all of those Elf creature types immune to spells and abilities. The only way to succeed at this point is to attack my waifish elves that have no higher defense than 2.
Partner concedes, and nephew goes full blue screen of death all over his face (yep, I’m that old)
I try explaining it to him that he’s literally not seeing the Forest for the Trees. I have an army of Swiss cheese!!
I flat-out said as he was cleaning up. Dude, you’re the one who wanted to play. And I admittedly said, ‘Hey, my decks are dated, so if I miss something or it’s restricted or whatever, I’m sorry.’
(Upon reference, everything is legal) I even, for clarification, pulled up the updated text on my old legend to show that its abilities even cover it.
So AITA for playing fair against semi-seasoned-casual players with a trope of a green deck?
NTA for your question but YTA for your attitude.
I’m sorry if it comes off as such; I was being playful, honestly, towards them. They were in such a spinout, I don’t think it would have mattered. But again, thank you, I’ll be mindful of my tone.
It’s also the attitude you present in the writing. If the way you wrote is similar to the way you acted, I’m not surprised people were annoyed.
While I can understand you saying that you were being playful based on your nephew’s reaction as well as kind of what I’m gleaning just from the way you wrote your story, I don’t think you came off as very sportsmanlike. And nobody really likes an arrogant winner. Once he conceeded, you should have accepted his concession instantly and thanked him for a good game.
NTA, you even said you let them win the first 3 rounds. Although you could have offered to help him get better afterwards.
On top of that, it helps novices to see different strategies and ability interaction.
I would play a variety of different decks so they can explore.
I’d also approach it more sensibly, humor is great when in gest but they’re new players, make the game fun.
Ive been playing the same decks against them for 15 years… this is the 4th time they wanted to pick up the hobby again
Oh that makes more sense, def NTA
Yeah, tbh, my decks are not built for tournament play, but they are designed to pivot at least two ways to victory. No one trick ponies for me.
Try switching decks with them. It will give everyone a fresh set of experiences. I have a bunch of really old decks that were great in their day, but are totally ineffective against modern decks. However, it’s a lot of fun playing those decks against each other. That way the playing field isn’t tilted towards the better (or richer) deck builder, but based on skill of working what you have.
I would have happily said dude you are looking at twigs and seeing redwoods!!
Yeah I don’t play mulligans, so I pulled what I pulled those first 3 hands.
NTA.
I was expecting something broken or degenerate like a ‘demonic consultation’ + ‘Thassa’s oracle’ combo. Or something unfun like Azorius hard control + land destruction.
Instead you played a pretty straightforward elfball midrange that just happened to pop off because your nephew didn’t have removal.
It happens sometimes. You didn’t do anything wrong nor did you play something way stronger than his decks. You just got lucky by drawing the exact cards when you needed them.
If he wants to play Magic, then he needs to be comfortable losing once in a while. Because it can get way way worse than this.
Where’s the conflict?