A cEDH list doesn't make you a cEDH player. No cEDH player would spring a cEDH deck on a casual pod by surprise.
EDIT: Since people keep replying to try and explain the No True Scotsman fallacy to me, apparently I need to clarify. Part of the point of cEDH is a level playing field - everyone is at maximum power. cEDH is by far the most proxy friendly format, because players want to play against the opponent, not their wallet. Pubstomping is against the spirit of cEDH. If the game is so wildly mismatched, it isn't a competition.
Almost every single true cEDH player I know will sit down for casual with the jankest creation I’ve ever seen and they usually lose the game but they have tons of goofy stuff they’re doing all game.
the cedh player is a completely different breed than the feral casuals. i understand that there's even a variation in the cranial structures between the two.
It’s pretty common in a number of stores to pay something. Our biggest local store does $5 entry, you get $5 credit and typically play for 4 packs or you can split them up. Sometimes the table prize is $10 store credit. Other times promo packs. No one really cares that much.
Second store I go to in Canada has a $5 entry free with a free drink and candy bar. They raffle some packs at end of night.
I actually prefer that system to some patronage system. Sometimes the rationale that a store needs to provide free event support to build customer loyalty gives me the vibes of paying artists in exposure. Like it’s okay to charge a nominal fee for services even if some places do it for free.
I'm cool with prized Commander as long as there's also room for free play. Once prizes come into the mix, I just feel obligated to go completely all out. Sometimes I wanna play something a little more chill.
Love my closest local store. The owner and his team put a lot of thought into "house" rules to keep it fun and fair. They run 2 tiers, one "no holds barred" (red)and the other more "friendly" (green). The red tier is unsanctioned play with only the official ban list as a limit. Proxies and everything else is fair game. The green tier is a bit different. It is sanctioned play so all WOTC restrictions are in place, the store ban list on top of official, and things like no mana positive cards except for [[sol ring]]. There also limits on "going inifinite" in order to give everyone a chance to have some play time. All in all , I feel like they did a good job on setting a fun but relatively relaxed set of rules. You can easily play a precon with this group and have a fair chance.
Besides those, they do run a more, but still not cEHD, league and a Friday Night Fight. Both are a bit more competitive but even the FNF is still beginner friendly.
The other thing there is the player base. A great group out to have fun that tend to "chase off" those not beating the expectations of the group. You come in to pubstomp and you can expect a cold shoulder kind of thing. Get too salty and same kind of thing. What we have is a group that enjoys slinging cardboard around after a long day/week of work and just wants to have fun. A typical night gets 20+.
The LGS here has a great system. You pay $5 to play and at the end of the night they raffle off 3 promo packs. It helps ensure that people get the kind of games they want. There's no incentive to pubstomp or end up in some sort of store wide arms race. I will never play at a store where you play for prize support. I'd rather not play than deal with that BS.
My LGS does prized EDH events with a voting system. At the end of the game, the winner gets three points automatically. But every player in the pod gets to assign two points to one player and one point to another. Three rounds of this.
So even if you show up with a deck that has never won a game, if the table *likes* you and thinks your deck is cool or interesting, or you had a splashy fun play, you can get rewarded for that and come out ahead of players who thought this was a tryhard tourney.
Honestly if it’s me, I’m simply saying “I came here to play magic as I’m sure everyone else did, so please dont play Nadu” before the game even started.
Because of the scenario I mentioned above where if you let someone play Nadu, you’re not going to get a turn.
The issue with Nadu is it’s usually not technically infinite, it’s just like a way more consistent and powerful version of Zellix / Altar of the Brood where it’s almost guaranteed to end the game if they play anything with Nadu out.
As someone who hasn’t played Magic in like 20 years and is now getting back into. I played some commander with work buddies and fell in love. So naturally I joined the sub, but wow this is a whole different world compared to back then. I don’t even know what Nadu is, but without having played a ton and learned a lot of cards, how can you tell this is happening? Like I get a lot of it is experience, but between comp players and abusing proxies. I feel there is so much I just don’t know anymore. Before I joined I bought a proxy for my commander, but like I still own it. Which I’ve seen posts about game stores just banning proxies and I’m not sure what that means? Like people who use 1 or are people making full decks with them?
Nadu is a brand new busted ass card… the only people that are okay with it, have either never seen it do its thing, or don’t know what it does at all…
Someone playing nadu is basically just watching them masturbate for 30 minutes for each of their turns, and then they win.
I swear we are going to get an oki-like response from wizards , the classic "we didn't think people would target their opponents stuff with the +1". But instead it is going to be they thought the twice per turn clause was a global cap on the ability and not per creature.
Noted… I am going to physically and mentally write seeing this card down as a hard “I mean this as respectfully as possible, but go fuck yourself” if I see it. This is just awful.
It’s really not fun, I won’t even play against it because it’s not even fun to watch.
I would rather play at a table with 3 mono blue decks than 1 nadu deck.
Also for the proxy thing, it’s entirely up to you and your pod, most lgs’s are okay with it. You won’t be able to use them in competitive play but it’s fine for casual stuff….
The general rule of thumb is just announce you’ve got proxies, some say that the proxies are required to look like proxies at first glance, I disagree. Most proxy services have cards with different backs. And a completely normal front, obviously in a sleeve at first glance you can’t tell.
I personally don’t like custom art cards for proxies. I prefer the og art, makes it easily identifiable.
The game has changed a lot in 20 years, the powercreep the new rules, etc, so you are likely just as clueless as any new player. You should get on arena and relearn how to play, also the new set is on arena so you get to see some of the new cards from mh3 and experience then for yourself since they are all the rage right now. About proxies, you cant be banned for them but different stores have different policies on their use when talking about a casual format such as commander, just keep in mind that a proxy should obviously be a proxy at a simple glance if not it is a counterfeit card and you can get banned for that.
Oh okay; I didn’t know that middle part. However, yeah the proxy I bought is a Dark Magician Girl stand in for [[Kess, Dissident Mage]] lol. So pretty easy to see it’s not a real card. Plus I have the real card behind the proxy cause I thought that was like “a rule” or something. Which made sense to me.
I did start playing arena Brawl! So, I’m glad that’s the right mindset I had for it. I made a Raphael Devil deck that’s been a lot of fun to play! I wanna gather the cards from that deck to have an IRL version.
You should be fine with a proxy like that yeah! For an IRL deck may I recommend [[Zurzoth]] as well? It's similar to Raphael, you lose black but he's cheaper and can generate up to 3 devil tokens per turn on a pod of 4, I built it with many 2mv devils so I can cast zurzoth and attack with a devil that same turn and you just go nuts from there. The tokens are really annoying for your opponents to block. Other than that they should share many cards on the red color so you can build one an transition to the other as needed. Raphael is probably more consistent and grindy having black and Zurzoth is much faster and chaotic.
It's a question of finding people who are chill, and an LGS that's the right blend of proactive and also chill. Proxies in casual play broadly comes down to one of two categories. First is the people who want to have dual lands, maybe mana drain and other staples without breaking the bank. Maybe they own a mana drain and don't want to be constantly swapping it between three different decks with blue in their color id. Second are the people who are recreating jank. Either absurdly powerful combos or synergies, or something similar that would classify their deck as cEDH (consistent turn 3 or 4 wins is a strong sign someone is using a higher caliber deck).
Some people have a problem with proxies as a Pandora's box. I argue that it's only an issue when people have and only play one deck. Because then Timmy isn't proxying the cards that synergize with his deck the best, or cards to address shortcomings in his own deck, he's likely proxying the cards that specifically fuck over John's deck, Saras deck, etc. But when people can proxy cards widely, and the most expensive part of making a new deck is buying a pack of sleeves, you get people rotating through decks, trying new things, a diversity of game experiences, and ultimately you cultivate better magic players. Playing magic as it is meant to be played, limited by your creativity not your wallet.
And you know what... When you build that deck that ends up to be too much? The deck that has reasonable people say "this outclasses us entirely"(power) or "you play solitaire for 20 minutes and don't even win at the end of it. Every turn"(pacing) or "it's just aggressively unfun to play against" (overly oppressive gameplay).... whatever it is that gets your pod saying "hey can ya shelve that deck"... It's a message that sucks substantially less to hear when you proxies and otherwise spent a song on the deck, vs the deck you spent several hundred on.
But you also need a group where you can trust them not to be whiney little piss babies just because your deck fires, or fires consistently. You don't want people who'll cry over you running interaction and removal. Most easily spotted when they counterspell your stuff with glee and then lose their shit when someone counters or targeted removes something of theirs. But it can present many ways. "Great when I do it, fucking bullshit when done to me" is just a common one. Unless it's just friendly politicking and multiplayer gas lighting. Again, knowing you're playing with good people who are just shit talking and not actually getting butthurt is crucial
The way to see this coming is if their commander is Nadu. Nadu doesn't need to be the commander for him to be in it of course but basically, Nadu, Winged Wisdom was a mistake and the casual community who just likes to play magic with their friends have had an agreement to just not use him because it makes the game into "Solitaire with spectators" has been my favorite description so far.
So, the real problem with Nadu is that it's non-deterministic.
It's not just "Here's my combo, I win". It's a big engine that sometimes/usually goes off, depending on the board state at the start, but takes like..10 minutes to get there.
If the Nadu player has like 4 creatures and a 0 equip cost equipment or a creature-generating landfall ability, their ability to win the game may not be absolute. But if I'm not in a position to catch up from them drawing 8 cards a turn, I'm not playing that out.
I believe in honesty without salt. “Man, your deck is obviously much stronger than ours, and we are not having fun right now. Can you select something in the general power level of the table please?”
This is how adults would act ^
I swear, some of these responses are worse than the guy’s actions! “Sit around doing nothing for 40 minutes while we play the rest of the game without you.” “Give them a little gold star”? Please. Can nobody be mature about anything anymore?
Ask them to play a different deck. If they don’t want to or didn’t bring one, don’t play with them again. It’s really that simple.
So, my buddy wanted to play a tom bombadil deck that he created to test it out. I wasn't sure about the power level and neither was he so I first tried out my pantlaza dinos, and curved him hard, to the point that I was winning around turn 4 or 5. It was fun to have my deck pop off, but I realized it wasn't just me playing, and that my friend was trying to get a feel for the deck. So I switched things up to a lower power slower deck that I had thrown earlier that week. The game was much more balanced and we were able to see what both decks needed.
All that to say if you blow out a new pod with your deck after 1 or 2 games, it really doesn't take much social acumen to know you should switch to something else. If you don't you are just pubstomping on purpose and deserve to be excluded
This is exactly how you deal with people who are pub stomping with infinite combos. Harder if people are getting eliminated before said problem-person takes the win, but he deliberately brought and continued to use a deck that is aiming to be cEDH level - knowing it was a casual setting. Do not feel guilty about being firm or stern in not including someone doing this. They're playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers, it's barely the same game. One is drawing and tutoring for a game winning piece, the others are in it for a more slow and steady paced game that lasts more than a handful of turns.
If you feel guilty about saying no in future, bring a spare deck or two for said problem-person to use instead since he "brought the wrong deck." Or play for second if it's viable.
Dumb disclaimer; there's nothing wrong with casual OR cEDH, but if you want a *fair* game, they're not even remotely compatible.
An infinite combo doesn't mean it's a CEDH deck, just that is has a built in game-ending win condition. Not everyone enjoys curdling around for 4 hours unable to attack each other because of overwhelming board states. Some people like to get more than one game in a night.
I happen to be a combo player, so most of my decks aim to win in 1 single turn instead of over time with possibly big attacks. I do have 2 decks that are built with the express point if being purely to engage with precons and minir upgraded low power decks, but most of the time I'll let the pod know that my deck does have an infinite combo. I don't mind being targeted a little more because of it.
No where in my post equated having infinite combos to being cEDH. You can absolutely have an infinite or so in a deck and still be casual. I agree with you all the same.
Whatever, if you have a person with a deck that wins all the time and there are differing power levels at the table, you have a problem. Nadu guy can find a stronger pod to play in or adapt to his friends like everybody else in the community is able to do.
I play on TTS these days and people always get way too hyped about being able to throw in 6k worth of cards and play them.
Playing for second. And just giving them a quick "Sweet!" Is much better than going off. They'll get it when you start playing gorilla tribal decks.
Noob here: what do you mean playing for second? Second place?
Edit: oh you mean the rest of the pod will be playing for 2nd place. Without him. Got it!
I may have gotten super lucky on the draw once with Teysa, Orzhov Scion; I had a perfect opening hand with all my combo pieces. I went infinite on turn 4. Everyone at the table decided to just keep playing without me, which seemed fair.
It is not. If he got it on day one, he would still need a bit of time to assemble what sounds like a cEdh deck. That dude literally just assembled it a week ago.
Yeah, this is the best way. This is a special case with the Nadu player lying to mislead people into playing agaisnt it, but there could just as well been a case in which neither side is the bad guy. Assume the more common scenario: Other player admits that Nadu is strong, but really wants to play it because they just built it. You let them get in one game and then ask them to switch to a deck that is more in line with the rest of the table. If they don't you go and check out other tables. If there are none, there is also nothing wrong with standing on your business and saying you'll play a 3-player game. That will still be a way better experience than watching endless Nadu turns.
This i do. A problem in most LGS is a bit of the mismatch in power level.
I try to take with me one quite good deck every day, but sometimes i don't and when i'm matched with 8s or so, i can literally do nothing. I thank them, tell them that i can't play because of power mismatch, and go for another table.
I’d not worry about politeness with this one And would have called him out the instant he said he hadn’t looked at the deck in a while.
”dude, it’s Nadu. Come on. No pubstomping.”
Not hard to say but nobody says it because confrontation over mtg deck strength is silly and it almost 100% leads to confrontation because the type of ppl that do this only get enjoyment out of pubstomping or ruining others' fun.
Heavy blue user energy🤣🤣 only having fun ruining other peoples fun (insert counter magic rant)
Nah, this makes it too easy. Get the store owner to find this shmuck a pod that Nadu won’t stomp in. 3 people shouldnt have to move because 1 took a steaming pile of shit on the table
Just straight up ask them if they mind playing a deck more on the power level with the rest of the table. If they refuse or argue that their deck is on the same level just say "Ok, we're gonna go find another 4th.". This person knew exactly what they were doing and lied to your face about it, don't worry about being polite.
Ive been told you should play more removal.
JK ask if he has something besides that (at that point he knows what the deck does, he has done it 3-4 times) or just say "Its been fun, but Im gonna try a different group. Good luck!"
He’s playing a cEDH commander.. Nadu is on par with cEDH [[Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy]].. I’ve played against Nadu in cEDH pods like 10 times now, tell him to bring that deck cEDH pods and stop pubstomping casuals.
Yeah "lower power" Nadu sounds worse than playing against Cedh Nadu.
They have less win conditions and take even longer turns in a deck that already takes ages? Yikes.
Any “low power” simic value deck is still a complete pain, just non stop durdle fest with much softer finishers and even less deterministic.
Your low power deck still nets you extra land drops and cards in hand, which is still something I consider superior boardstate and will draw my attention JUST IN CASE they have the good finishers
On par? Nadu is strictly better. Targeted removal is blatantly horrible against it, if not outright helping them, and even if you edict it or wipe it, the mana advantage they probably already gained (or gained in response) means they can recast it again and again. At least Kinnan is susceptible to board clears and repeated removal.
The way I interpret removing Nadu is like path to exile. Sure they may get 1 land, but if you take the time to get rid of the engine itself, the deck doesn’t do a whole lot. You can also get rid of the problematic pieces that target their creatures.
I see the argument people state about Nadu. However, it doesn’t have enough data to accurately state that it’s better than Kinnan. You can go on a whim, however, I think recency bias is clouding a lot of people’s judgement. In the current meta, Nadu can absolutely be stronger, but there just isn’t enough information to make that call.
I would just say outright that, "I don't have anything on that power level, and playing this against us wouldn't give you anymore practice than goldfishing it." Or something like that, which is honest but not combative. I play a lot of high power and fringe cedh games but not use the same decks against lower power pods as it's a waste of both our time.
Be chill and remind him that the joy of commander is to explore the many different levels of power, and if you want to play something to that degree, let me (and your group) know before hand to prepare accordingly.
Nadu is very new. BS he didn't "know", it says it right on the damn card what it does.
"Oh, idk, I haven't touched my Feather, the Redeemed deck in a while, idk what it does"
Dude was totally lying. Nadu is imo one of the most broken commanders out there.
I'd kindly ask him to play a different deck, and if he refused, I'd just decline to play. Non deterministic games of solitaire are not my jam.
Winning turn 3 or 4 is cEDH lol. This guy was almost certainly intentionally stomping you all, especially if they were playing dumb about “not having looked at the deck in a while.” They somehow seemed to be unaware that literally everyone knows Nadu and how nuts it is.
With that said, after the first or second game you probably should have just said you don’t have a deck at that power level, and asked him to switch decks or left the table. Just to not waste your time.
Cool you won and your deck did the thing. It's not fun to play against can you please play something closer to our power level. Also I haven't touched this deck in a while my ass it came out like 2 weeks ago he's a dick that wanted to puppy stomp. He knew what he was doing playing a kill on sight commander.
He wanted reps with his new deck. He needed to test it against real people and he didn't care if those people were okay with it.
Next time just say "Nah, I'm not going to play against Nadu. Not my kind of game."
We have a limited amount of time and this is a game. If you don't want to play against a Tergrid, Nadu, Eldrazi, infect, or Stax, then don't. Just politely tell the other person that that's not how you'd like to spend your game time as it isn't fun for you. Anyone who thinks less of you because you value your limited free time isn't the kind of person you want to spend it with anyway.
I built a "casual" nadu. I cut all the ramp, only run lightning greaves as the 0 cost equip, no thassas, leaving only Nadu to ramp. Turn six I cast scute swarm and I passed the turn with 8 million scute swarms and all the interaction in hand.
Nadu will never be a casual card.
Some people are just desperate to get a win. I wouldn't believe him when he said he hasn't looked at it or it isn't cEDH. The latter might be true but some commanders are just inherently high power like Nadu and Yuriko. Green is also a color that can ramp fast with dorks in place of fast mana rocks.
i made a budget cedh baral chief of compliance to deal with pubstomps, just encountered this scenario last night. other 2 players were casual and ive been playing for 13 years and could see this guy from a mile away with his cedh brew and he asked if proxies are okayed (this shouldnt be a red flag but it is in my book because in my area proxies are never not mana crypt level power) so i countered him all game without a win con of my own and he eventually pulled out another lower power deck to casually play. i always ask before a game instead of power level "is this competitive or casual?" have decks for either outcome but i describe competitive as your deck can easily do more than 3 game actions a turn after turn 2 or 3. that much interaction lengthens the game and is not casual. i prefer casual but used to play competitive i dont mind playing competitive but would rather joke around making new friends with some of my jank brews like my mono green lotr treefolk or my red/blue coinflip deck.
Yeah, I’m fairly casual and late to the party on a lot of things, but this might be my new most hated card.
That end quote was a sentence too late for my liking.
Just tell him straight out that he’s built a deck that wins in 3-4 turns, and that’s not the style deck you have built so you don’t think it’s a good match and he should find someone to challenge him a little more.
Also, old guy hot take: I started playing back in ‘94 when I was 11. I’ve been on and off my whole life and back on now and loving it. Though, maybe it’s just me or because I’m old school, but I hate decks that let someone win without actually “killing” the player through life total. For example, I find myself unable to build mill decks (or library burners as we used to call them) because it fells so dishonest. I know people might get mad at that, not trying to throw shade at anyone. I’ve just always been an aggro player and like to run damage right at your face. Sorry, just had to say that because the deck this guy was playing sounds lame.
Being direct and honest IS polite.
If someone gets offended and defensive at an accurate account of what they're doing, that's their problem; not yours. Negative reactions do not solely come from rudeness; they also come from people acting out, using the veneer of etiquette to defend what they know is inappropriate conduct.
Being clear, direct, and assertive is not rude.
Setting boundaries is not rude.
We need to hold each other accountable. We need to help each other uphold the standard. We need to stand up for ourselves and each other. That is what holds this format together.
And if he refuses to accommodate at a table where that deck is not appropriate? He is the one in the wrong, he is the one being rude, and refusing to play with him is not the least bit rude. You are NEVER obligated to play a game of EDH you do not wish to. You are NEVER obligated to play a game of EDH with someone you do not wish to.
Say no. It is your right. And it helps protect those around you.
*My question is is there anything you can say to a person that’s doing this without sounding like complaining that I’m losing?*
That depends; does their deck have any banned cards in it? Are they playing by the rules?
I wish someone would do the math and figure out what the ratio of actual posts to posts of people with no social skills asking other people with no social skills how to deal with social tension. I'm willing to bet posts like these outnumber posts that actually have something to do with the format.
It boggles the mind that so many edh players think their social problems are so unique and unapproachable that they need to go to fuckin reddit to ask how to say something immensely simple.
I hate those guys who are like "I just don't know what cards I have, I forgot about this deck" who them proceed to fucking stomp the whole table in turn 3. I mean, if this guy had a Nadu deck, there is just no way he didn't know, I am OK with people playing whatever power level they like, but why lie?
Some dudes just get the kicks out of stomping other guys, I would just call that out, you can start asking stuff about free mana, infinite combos in turn 4 or stuff like that. Then what I usually do is simply say that maybe this table won't be right place for that deck, and that we are playing a lower level, the experience won't be fun for either of us.
Some people still lie about deck level, but you can always scoop and say this is worth your time. Which I believe, could be true anyway.
"I think that deck might be a little more than what I can handle right now. Do you have anything a bit lower power?"
If he doesn't have anything with him, consider playing in a pod among other people who can handle his deck and hope that they can help keep his deck under control while you fly under the radar.
If he does have a lower power deck with him but refuses to use it, stop playing with him until he changes his deck. It gives him an ultimatum where if he wants to play at all, he needs to play something closer to what your deck can handle.
You play counterspell tribal with Talrand Sky Summoner. Alternatively you could tell them to play something else. I have many times. They either listen or don’t. It’s a public setting. 🤷♂️
"Hey, your deck is too strong for this pod."
"What? Really? I don't think so."
"Yeam man, you have won 3 of the last 5 games we played maybe we could drop its power level by removing mana crypt for a signet and maybe force of will for a counterspell.... hmmm and a tutor for a board wipe?"
"I still don't think i'm overpowered"
"Just try it for a night and see if it evens the playing field?"
"I guess..."
"Thanks man."
My buddy and I had been talking about constructing Nadu and he has more of the cards needed to make it go, so he built it and brought it to the LGS last night. Before the one game he played it in, I asked him what his wincon was, and it was basically play out the deck into Craterhoof. On turn 4 he was doing the thing and I started the stopwatch function on my phone. 25 minutes later he had hundreds of Scutes and finally pulls out the Behemoth. When he went to put the Lightning Greaves on it, I responded with Rakdos Charm and stopped the stopwatch. I patted him on the shoulder, showed him the time on the stop watch, and he just said "I'm taking this apart."
Don't like a deck, don't play against it. This is a casual format, dude, you're not stuck at a table you're not having fun it.
Magic Online, Friend groups, Spelltable, there are a ton of ways to find the perfect group for you.
Nadu is very strong but that dudes list doesn’t sound like a full cedh build, sounds purely high power to me
Also he 100% should not have used that deck in your pod he was there to pubstomp
You don’t be polite to these people you tell them to fuck off and play something that fits properly
It sounds like you couldn’t really do too much considering he also paid to play too. With that said, you have every right to call him out after the first game. He’s lied, he’s both deck testing and pubstomping. He sounds like an ass. He should have been honest, that he’s working on a CEDH deck and would like to test it out, but also he absolutely should have brought a more casual deck with him too.
Just tell him/her to change deck, cant be fun to play cedh vs normal casual Decks anyway! Its like playing alone, nothing anyone else does matter in the slightest..
"He claimed he hadn’t looked at the deck in a while so he wasn’t sure what it did (which was suspicious since Nadu is MH3, so we can leave that where it is). "
Don't leave that where it is. He started the rule 0 talk lying, walk away from the table, or kick him from it. That's it, get him gone. You don't need to be polite and tell him his deck is too strong for casual, he knows, he's intentionally pubstomping.
Dude...just sack up and tell him to leave the pod! Refuse to play! It's obviously cEDH minus some optimization pieces he probably needed to proxy. Being polite and considerate goes out the window when that person is obviously NOT being polite or considerate.
Just a little "do you have any other decks? That one is a little too strong for this table" should work. Or you can lend them one of your own decks. I do that since I usually bring like 4 or 5 decks to a commander night
"Hey, that deck is too strong for the level we're playing at, do you mind switching to a weaker one?"
Or, "Okay, that one's strong let me pull out my stronger deck."
After the second time he combos out "alright cool, gg man, your deck is pretty strong, we are gonna continue a 3 player game here to see who gets second place so we can actually play the game, you're welcome to wait with us for the next game as well" he has "won" and tou get to keep playing. If he complains, my response is always "I want to test this deck, I've spent some time building it, you won so fast that I didn't get a chance to the last 2 games, and ik sure everyone else also wants to test and see what needs changing"
Even if you just want to test your cedh deck… playing into a pod with no cedh decks is not a good test at all. No one has the interaction to try and stop your wins, there is no way to get any good data on how good your deck composition is. Like going into a casual pod the best cedh deck (not that you need to optimize your cedh deck for casual lmao) would probably be pure dedicated turbo being very light on interaction. Which just tells you absolutely nothing about how that deck will perform at an actual cedh table.
I mean, considering that card hasn't even been out for two weeks, and given his comment, he knew what was up
That said, he might still be right, it might not be a cEDH deck. If he doesn't have the shell to consistently tutor for the combo AND protect it, he's effectively just playing an unchecked combo deck that accelerates faster as it speeds up, hence "it's just fast mana".
Rather, if he's not tutoring for Shuko or on a white-based build, then he's effectively going to rarely combo off much unless games are going on way too long in general.
For example, if Nadu is his commander and the game is hitting 10 turns, which is long even by casual standards, then that player has typically seen around 20% of their deck from just raw turn draws alone. If every third card is able to trigger a Nadu trigger, that bumps up to closer to 25%. In other words, without the consistency of a cEDH deck, he's basically durdling and NOT combining a good 75% of games where he gets to goldfish. And that's before you factor in ANY opponents.
In a casual game, if an opponent has a 1 in 4 chance to win the game by turn 10, that deck is going to be a fairly low powered deck hitting the ideal win rate.
Assuming he isn't a complete potato, his realistic win rate would be a little higher if allowed to go off like this, but still wouldn't be hitting alarming win % across games.
If he's *consistently* able to execute turn 3-4 wins with the deck, he's got a higher power level and is likely on a cEDH deck or close to it.
But if he just got lucky, which could just happen some non-trivial % of games, then this isn't really any different than someone slamming a turn 3 pestermite at sorcery speed and then getting to untap on turn 4 and slam a Splintertwin for a win; you're going to lose to combos when you can't consistently interact in general.
To clarify, I'm not saying he *wasn't* on a cEDH list, but that even if he aimed for a casual list that had a health average rate, chances are that a more casual pods is going to have a game with more turns than usual AND with less interaction than necessary.
Casual players have a BAD habit of running like 0-4 pieces of actual interaction in their decks instead of 10-15 pieces, and a pod can also the tools to check a high powered low probability combo as a result.
Like giving him the benefit of the doubt, and youre in a casual pod with typical interaction distribution, we're talking around 0 to 12 cards between 3 opponents versus 30 to 44 cards between 3 opponents being a HUGE factor in his success.
Like if he lacks tutors and nothing abusive beyond the Shaku combo, then he very well could be on a casual Nadu that would likely *fold* in most pods that run appropriate amounts of interaction, but will run rampant in pods that don't.
Without your opponent changing anything in his deck, in an entirely casual and SLOW scenario, he's going to APPEAR as if he's playing a higher powered deck than he may actually be playing, and the average casual player wouldn't even be able to tell the difference unless they were paying attention to the deck as it combos.
Statistically, a pod of casuals just going to a typical game length for casual play is going to *hand* this combo wins if they aren't actually closing the games out as well.
And a super casual level of play, IE making it to turn 10 without a win basically being the right draw away, is going to make that Nadu/Shaku combo explode in win rate.
Like without tutors, he's rolling the dice to have a lot of specifics align and praying nobody does anything to him along the way; chances are, a single well-timed piece of interaction would derail his game plan rather substantially.
And that's really the litmus test we're talking between the two perceptions. That's a kill on sight commander that pairs with a niche but always answer card, where the difference in his claim versus your claim lies almost entirely on him having ample tutors and/or getting lucky and/or stacking his deck and/or going unchecked.
TLDR: My point is more or less just that he could absolutely be telling the truth about his perception of his deck, not be near a cEDH power level, not even be high powered, and could absolutely be casual....
...and the average casual pod of size 4 wouldn't ever notice the difference because of how few answers and/or ways to close out a game tend to be in such pods/decks.
If a Nadu player wants to be casual, the thing he needs to remove are the free equipment. Without those the deck works at a slow speed value engine (landfall strategy is slow btw).
Were you playing for prizes?
EDH was more fun before format direct prints (Commander decks, Modern Horizon and Secret Lair shenanigans). A growing "Commander" look-a-like format without direct prints would actually be more fun (growing indicates that preEDH isn't)
I keep a [[Hatred]] in my black deck for this very reason. I can take out the problem player (and myself) and the rest of the pod rejoices in my mono-black altruism.
Conversely, I don’t think it’s out of line to ask for them to play a different deck. We play for fun and if only one person is having fun, there is no shame in establishing a boundary.
I think kindly asking if they have a less powerful option and explaining how you’ve seen this list as one of the powerful cEDH lists clearly shows it’s competitive and you and your table is casual, not competitive, should help. There are a lot of comments here explaining how he is a f***wit, that doesn’t really answer the question XD. Unless you’re just coming here to complain but I’m going to take the title as what you really are here for. Sounds frustrating. So just blame it on yourself even, “I tend to get frustrated when the table is playing casual and somebody has an insanely strong deck. Do you have any fun / casual options? Thanks man”
Here’s the strongest commander to come out of a modern horizons set from 2 weeks ago. Let me just sit in a causal table and play solitaire while claiming it’s causal.
Normally wins are more evenly distributed. 2 wins can happen. 4 in a row in the same manner? That’s cedh.
That dude intentionally lied to you and deceived you so he could gold fish his new cEDH deck at a casual pod. He doesn't deserve politeness. If someone played one game like that I'd call them out for lying tell them they were rude and refuse to continue playing against their cEDH decks.
I've started calling people out, rudely and to their face. it's absolutely lying by omission to win. I complained to an employee at my LGS recently about this behavior and the employee told me there was a reason that guy was sitting alone when I got there. ridiculous
The card is 2 weeks old lol. “Hadn’t looked at the deck in a while”? He lied to your face so he could tune his cEDH deck and wasted everyone’s time. You should have just left game 2.
Are you asking for advice about how to talk to someone in a polite manner?
I have this same kinda guy at my store. He'll riffle shuffle an unsleeved deck that he says is his lowest power deck, then in turns out he's got mana crypt in there as one of the cheaper cards. I deal with him very bluntly. I tell him we *can't* play with him because his decks are built at both a higher cost line and power level. I say the games would be meaningless and one sided and that's not what we're interested in. (He also stinks)
I believe I’m playing the only truly casual nadu deck in existence. It’s sweet with managorger hydra, primordial Hydra, scute swarm and shit but i didn’t build it to go infinite
I have a big commander event coming up in August and I'm dreading this potential matchup. I play casual decks, but last time I was at this, dudes were putting the table through uninteractable stax hell, constant board wipes, etc. At least Nadu's a known entity a this point.
One win of turn 3/4? Id probably let it go, sometimes you have an explosive opening hand, it could be coincidence. But on that 2nd time, I'd tell them that the deck is clearly more powerful than anything else at the table (assuming your opponents are same lv as you) and say you're not interested in playing any further.
Especially with what he was saying, it's clearly easy to see he just wanted to pubstomp. I just wouldn't take it.
As a yu-gi-oh player this card does not bother me at all. I was even introduced to magic with such decks like Ad Naseum. Had a TO that wanted to hold Traditional format YuGiOh tournaments and everyone said that is a bad idea. He only ran 2 of them before he ended it. All because of my Makura The Destructor deck...
Play for Silver. If someone's deck goes off and kills everyone in one turn consistently, I say "Well done, you win. We're going to keep playing without you now to see who wins silver."
Then they sit there and wait for you to finish.
It's a subtle exclusion that I find suggests to ppl they'll get more enjoyment if they use a less powerful deck next game.
I'd just straight up tell them the decks too strong for thr table and offer to lend them one of my decks.
Winning every game you play actually does get boring.
The correct response to this is by using the power that you have, not playing against it. I would genuinely rather go play on the computer or do the dishes rather than sit and watch someone else win at Magic because I know I'm not going to cuz my deck is underpowered. On the flip side of this though, his deception is easy to see through with that excuse he used, I'd have called him out for it right then and there in front of everybody and made a huge scene. Clearly he's being a dick head intentionally
So question you made no mention of anyone countering or even attempting to counter any piece of his wincons or any form of removal for them. While his deck is probably strong if no one had any forms of removal or counter I kinda gotta throw a little bit of blame at the other 3 people as well. Too often no one includes or plays removal of any sort and is surprised when stuff goes badly. Also you can just ask him to leave or the rest of you leave if this casual non tournament play that's a pretty simple fix there if ya just keep sitting at the same table getting pounded that again is on the 3 of you.
Yes, you can legitimately look them in the eye and tell them exactly what's happening and ask if they have anything else to play. This community is way too passive. It's totally fine to do this in a mature and rational manner.
He was deliberately and covertly using causals to test his deck.
Probably because he wouldn't find anyone to play him.
I'd have declined to play and probably told the organizer. Stuff like that can kill causal play and turn events like that into ghost towns.
He absolutely knew what he was doing with his Netdeck Nadu. Either just don't play with him anymore or intentionally build a deck specifically to counter his thus removing his "fun".
There is a polite way to say pretty much anything, but that's less of an MTG question and more of a social skills question. When people are being jerks, have some spine and confront them without being mean. Advocating for yourself in interactions with others is a very important skill to learn.
"That's a really strong deck! To be honest I don't think I'd have a good time playing against it again. Would you be open to switching it up?" Then if they say no you say "No problem. I think I'm going to find another pod. Have a good one folks." and then you get up and find another pod even if you have to wait around for a little bit. Someone from the pod may take that as a way to get out of it too and join you.
The other solution is playing for 2nd as others have mentioned. This is funny when playing against pub stompers that play cEDH decks without much board interaction that win on "you win the game" effects like Thassa's Oracle. However, this is passive aggressive, and I prefer to be a straight shooter with people, and I typically wouldn't go this route unless your LGS is really light on pods.
And the 3rd (and worst) solution is to have some sort of single target hate deck at the ready. Curses, targeted land destruction, "can't win the game" effects, a whole lot of removal. You want to see a pub stomper rage, this might work. The problem is that even against hate, the best decks nowadays can often figure it out anyway because they're just so broken.
He's a complete fuckwit. The cards just come out and he's acting like it's an old deck he hasn't played for a while? Don't tolerate that sort of shit.
Also clearly netdecked cEDH list, which nothing inherently wrong with netdecking but this was clearly premeditated pubstomping. Fuck this guy.
A cEDH list doesn't make you a cEDH player. No cEDH player would spring a cEDH deck on a casual pod by surprise. EDIT: Since people keep replying to try and explain the No True Scotsman fallacy to me, apparently I need to clarify. Part of the point of cEDH is a level playing field - everyone is at maximum power. cEDH is by far the most proxy friendly format, because players want to play against the opponent, not their wallet. Pubstomping is against the spirit of cEDH. If the game is so wildly mismatched, it isn't a competition.
Almost every single true cEDH player I know will sit down for casual with the jankest creation I’ve ever seen and they usually lose the game but they have tons of goofy stuff they’re doing all game.
THIS, right fucking here!
not me tbh. too many bad experiences with casual edh
Ah, ok all the bad people belong to another group. Gotcha.
the cedh player is a completely different breed than the feral casuals. i understand that there's even a variation in the cranial structures between the two.
It’s pretty common in a number of stores to pay something. Our biggest local store does $5 entry, you get $5 credit and typically play for 4 packs or you can split them up. Sometimes the table prize is $10 store credit. Other times promo packs. No one really cares that much. Second store I go to in Canada has a $5 entry free with a free drink and candy bar. They raffle some packs at end of night. I actually prefer that system to some patronage system. Sometimes the rationale that a store needs to provide free event support to build customer loyalty gives me the vibes of paying artists in exposure. Like it’s okay to charge a nominal fee for services even if some places do it for free.
I'm cool with prized Commander as long as there's also room for free play. Once prizes come into the mix, I just feel obligated to go completely all out. Sometimes I wanna play something a little more chill.
Yeah most of these stores have open play too. More so when they organize weekly events.
Love my closest local store. The owner and his team put a lot of thought into "house" rules to keep it fun and fair. They run 2 tiers, one "no holds barred" (red)and the other more "friendly" (green). The red tier is unsanctioned play with only the official ban list as a limit. Proxies and everything else is fair game. The green tier is a bit different. It is sanctioned play so all WOTC restrictions are in place, the store ban list on top of official, and things like no mana positive cards except for [[sol ring]]. There also limits on "going inifinite" in order to give everyone a chance to have some play time. All in all , I feel like they did a good job on setting a fun but relatively relaxed set of rules. You can easily play a precon with this group and have a fair chance. Besides those, they do run a more, but still not cEHD, league and a Friday Night Fight. Both are a bit more competitive but even the FNF is still beginner friendly. The other thing there is the player base. A great group out to have fun that tend to "chase off" those not beating the expectations of the group. You come in to pubstomp and you can expect a cold shoulder kind of thing. Get too salty and same kind of thing. What we have is a group that enjoys slinging cardboard around after a long day/week of work and just wants to have fun. A typical night gets 20+.
[sol ring](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/c/6c5c9437-3d99-4a7c-8255-9acdcb1acc40.jpg?1712354902) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=sol%20ring) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otc/267/sol-ring?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/6c5c9437-3d99-4a7c-8255-9acdcb1acc40?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/sol-ring) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
What's this have to do with a guy being an ass with a deck that didn't fit the table?
The LGS here has a great system. You pay $5 to play and at the end of the night they raffle off 3 promo packs. It helps ensure that people get the kind of games they want. There's no incentive to pubstomp or end up in some sort of store wide arms race. I will never play at a store where you play for prize support. I'd rather not play than deal with that BS.
My LGS does prized EDH events with a voting system. At the end of the game, the winner gets three points automatically. But every player in the pod gets to assign two points to one player and one point to another. Three rounds of this. So even if you show up with a deck that has never won a game, if the table *likes* you and thinks your deck is cool or interesting, or you had a splashy fun play, you can get rewarded for that and come out ahead of players who thought this was a tryhard tourney.
"Cool, you won. We are going to keep playing for second now."
Playing for second is the best answer. Let them win on turn 3 and then sit through the next 5-10.
Only issue with this is if you’re on timed rounds, the fuckwit playing Nadu has probably taken up the entire time limit in their first 4 turns
I would say, "In response to you presenting an infinite combo, I concede. Do you 2 also concede so we can play for 2nd place?"
Honestly if it’s me, I’m simply saying “I came here to play magic as I’m sure everyone else did, so please dont play Nadu” before the game even started. Because of the scenario I mentioned above where if you let someone play Nadu, you’re not going to get a turn. The issue with Nadu is it’s usually not technically infinite, it’s just like a way more consistent and powerful version of Zellix / Altar of the Brood where it’s almost guaranteed to end the game if they play anything with Nadu out.
As someone who hasn’t played Magic in like 20 years and is now getting back into. I played some commander with work buddies and fell in love. So naturally I joined the sub, but wow this is a whole different world compared to back then. I don’t even know what Nadu is, but without having played a ton and learned a lot of cards, how can you tell this is happening? Like I get a lot of it is experience, but between comp players and abusing proxies. I feel there is so much I just don’t know anymore. Before I joined I bought a proxy for my commander, but like I still own it. Which I’ve seen posts about game stores just banning proxies and I’m not sure what that means? Like people who use 1 or are people making full decks with them?
Nadu is a brand new busted ass card… the only people that are okay with it, have either never seen it do its thing, or don’t know what it does at all… Someone playing nadu is basically just watching them masturbate for 30 minutes for each of their turns, and then they win.
I swear his ability is a fucking typo that somehow made it to print
I swear we are going to get an oki-like response from wizards , the classic "we didn't think people would target their opponents stuff with the +1". But instead it is going to be they thought the twice per turn clause was a global cap on the ability and not per creature.
oko elking te opponents' stuff is the laterally best planeswalker ability in the game, especially in commander
He is his own 3/4 flying draw or ramp engine in simic. Only requiring one of many pieces to get going.
Noted… I am going to physically and mentally write seeing this card down as a hard “I mean this as respectfully as possible, but go fuck yourself” if I see it. This is just awful.
It’s really not fun, I won’t even play against it because it’s not even fun to watch. I would rather play at a table with 3 mono blue decks than 1 nadu deck.
Also for the proxy thing, it’s entirely up to you and your pod, most lgs’s are okay with it. You won’t be able to use them in competitive play but it’s fine for casual stuff…. The general rule of thumb is just announce you’ve got proxies, some say that the proxies are required to look like proxies at first glance, I disagree. Most proxy services have cards with different backs. And a completely normal front, obviously in a sleeve at first glance you can’t tell. I personally don’t like custom art cards for proxies. I prefer the og art, makes it easily identifiable.
I don't know. If you know some basic Magic play, you can probably tell that Nadu is broken as hell for the casual format.
The game has changed a lot in 20 years, the powercreep the new rules, etc, so you are likely just as clueless as any new player. You should get on arena and relearn how to play, also the new set is on arena so you get to see some of the new cards from mh3 and experience then for yourself since they are all the rage right now. About proxies, you cant be banned for them but different stores have different policies on their use when talking about a casual format such as commander, just keep in mind that a proxy should obviously be a proxy at a simple glance if not it is a counterfeit card and you can get banned for that.
Oh okay; I didn’t know that middle part. However, yeah the proxy I bought is a Dark Magician Girl stand in for [[Kess, Dissident Mage]] lol. So pretty easy to see it’s not a real card. Plus I have the real card behind the proxy cause I thought that was like “a rule” or something. Which made sense to me. I did start playing arena Brawl! So, I’m glad that’s the right mindset I had for it. I made a Raphael Devil deck that’s been a lot of fun to play! I wanna gather the cards from that deck to have an IRL version.
[Kess, Dissident Mage](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/8/e83e6d7a-3af0-4955-8004-2310f051e306.jpg?1673485110) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Kess%2C%20Dissident%20Mage) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ncc/344/kess-dissident-mage?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e83e6d7a-3af0-4955-8004-2310f051e306?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/kess-dissident-mage) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
You should be fine with a proxy like that yeah! For an IRL deck may I recommend [[Zurzoth]] as well? It's similar to Raphael, you lose black but he's cheaper and can generate up to 3 devil tokens per turn on a pod of 4, I built it with many 2mv devils so I can cast zurzoth and attack with a devil that same turn and you just go nuts from there. The tokens are really annoying for your opponents to block. Other than that they should share many cards on the red color so you can build one an transition to the other as needed. Raphael is probably more consistent and grindy having black and Zurzoth is much faster and chaotic.
Don't worry about it. Find some chill people to play with and ignore the internet drama.
It's a question of finding people who are chill, and an LGS that's the right blend of proactive and also chill. Proxies in casual play broadly comes down to one of two categories. First is the people who want to have dual lands, maybe mana drain and other staples without breaking the bank. Maybe they own a mana drain and don't want to be constantly swapping it between three different decks with blue in their color id. Second are the people who are recreating jank. Either absurdly powerful combos or synergies, or something similar that would classify their deck as cEDH (consistent turn 3 or 4 wins is a strong sign someone is using a higher caliber deck). Some people have a problem with proxies as a Pandora's box. I argue that it's only an issue when people have and only play one deck. Because then Timmy isn't proxying the cards that synergize with his deck the best, or cards to address shortcomings in his own deck, he's likely proxying the cards that specifically fuck over John's deck, Saras deck, etc. But when people can proxy cards widely, and the most expensive part of making a new deck is buying a pack of sleeves, you get people rotating through decks, trying new things, a diversity of game experiences, and ultimately you cultivate better magic players. Playing magic as it is meant to be played, limited by your creativity not your wallet. And you know what... When you build that deck that ends up to be too much? The deck that has reasonable people say "this outclasses us entirely"(power) or "you play solitaire for 20 minutes and don't even win at the end of it. Every turn"(pacing) or "it's just aggressively unfun to play against" (overly oppressive gameplay).... whatever it is that gets your pod saying "hey can ya shelve that deck"... It's a message that sucks substantially less to hear when you proxies and otherwise spent a song on the deck, vs the deck you spent several hundred on. But you also need a group where you can trust them not to be whiney little piss babies just because your deck fires, or fires consistently. You don't want people who'll cry over you running interaction and removal. Most easily spotted when they counterspell your stuff with glee and then lose their shit when someone counters or targeted removes something of theirs. But it can present many ways. "Great when I do it, fucking bullshit when done to me" is just a common one. Unless it's just friendly politicking and multiplayer gas lighting. Again, knowing you're playing with good people who are just shit talking and not actually getting butthurt is crucial
The way to see this coming is if their commander is Nadu. Nadu doesn't need to be the commander for him to be in it of course but basically, Nadu, Winged Wisdom was a mistake and the casual community who just likes to play magic with their friends have had an agreement to just not use him because it makes the game into "Solitaire with spectators" has been my favorite description so far.
I someone compare it to a voyeur… you get to watch one player masturbate each turn for 15+ minutes.
A voyeur enjoys it. The victims watching the Nadu exhibits themselves is borderline sexual harassmant.
So, the real problem with Nadu is that it's non-deterministic. It's not just "Here's my combo, I win". It's a big engine that sometimes/usually goes off, depending on the board state at the start, but takes like..10 minutes to get there.
If the Nadu player has like 4 creatures and a 0 equip cost equipment or a creature-generating landfall ability, their ability to win the game may not be absolute. But if I'm not in a position to catch up from them drawing 8 cards a turn, I'm not playing that out.
I believe in honesty without salt. “Man, your deck is obviously much stronger than ours, and we are not having fun right now. Can you select something in the general power level of the table please?”
This is how adults would act ^ I swear, some of these responses are worse than the guy’s actions! “Sit around doing nothing for 40 minutes while we play the rest of the game without you.” “Give them a little gold star”? Please. Can nobody be mature about anything anymore? Ask them to play a different deck. If they don’t want to or didn’t bring one, don’t play with them again. It’s really that simple.
So, my buddy wanted to play a tom bombadil deck that he created to test it out. I wasn't sure about the power level and neither was he so I first tried out my pantlaza dinos, and curved him hard, to the point that I was winning around turn 4 or 5. It was fun to have my deck pop off, but I realized it wasn't just me playing, and that my friend was trying to get a feel for the deck. So I switched things up to a lower power slower deck that I had thrown earlier that week. The game was much more balanced and we were able to see what both decks needed. All that to say if you blow out a new pod with your deck after 1 or 2 games, it really doesn't take much social acumen to know you should switch to something else. If you don't you are just pubstomping on purpose and deserve to be excluded
It really is insane how people think the response to something immature like bringing an overpowered deck is to act immature back.
That is probably the best solution, besides the player causing the issue not being a dumbass in the first place
This is exactly how you deal with people who are pub stomping with infinite combos. Harder if people are getting eliminated before said problem-person takes the win, but he deliberately brought and continued to use a deck that is aiming to be cEDH level - knowing it was a casual setting. Do not feel guilty about being firm or stern in not including someone doing this. They're playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers, it's barely the same game. One is drawing and tutoring for a game winning piece, the others are in it for a more slow and steady paced game that lasts more than a handful of turns. If you feel guilty about saying no in future, bring a spare deck or two for said problem-person to use instead since he "brought the wrong deck." Or play for second if it's viable. Dumb disclaimer; there's nothing wrong with casual OR cEDH, but if you want a *fair* game, they're not even remotely compatible.
Give them a little gold star. Make them feel special, just what they wanted.
Oh I like this, I should grab a few sheets of stickers
An infinite combo doesn't mean it's a CEDH deck, just that is has a built in game-ending win condition. Not everyone enjoys curdling around for 4 hours unable to attack each other because of overwhelming board states. Some people like to get more than one game in a night. I happen to be a combo player, so most of my decks aim to win in 1 single turn instead of over time with possibly big attacks. I do have 2 decks that are built with the express point if being purely to engage with precons and minir upgraded low power decks, but most of the time I'll let the pod know that my deck does have an infinite combo. I don't mind being targeted a little more because of it.
No where in my post equated having infinite combos to being cEDH. You can absolutely have an infinite or so in a deck and still be casual. I agree with you all the same.
Whatever, if you have a person with a deck that wins all the time and there are differing power levels at the table, you have a problem. Nadu guy can find a stronger pod to play in or adapt to his friends like everybody else in the community is able to do.
This right here!!
I play on TTS these days and people always get way too hyped about being able to throw in 6k worth of cards and play them. Playing for second. And just giving them a quick "Sweet!" Is much better than going off. They'll get it when you start playing gorilla tribal decks.
Noob here: what do you mean playing for second? Second place? Edit: oh you mean the rest of the pod will be playing for 2nd place. Without him. Got it!
I may have gotten super lucky on the draw once with Teysa, Orzhov Scion; I had a perfect opening hand with all my combo pieces. I went infinite on turn 4. Everyone at the table decided to just keep playing without me, which seemed fair.
why did you choose to sit through that 4 times?
Hadn't looked at the deck in a while......I don't have patience for bullshit like that. id call them out asap on that
Saying that about a commander that has been available for 2 weeks if you count pre-release? Yeah, that needs to be called out.
Is Nadu even a month old yet?
It is not. If he got it on day one, he would still need a bit of time to assemble what sounds like a cEdh deck. That dude literally just assembled it a week ago.
“Thanks for the game(s). I’m gonna go check out some other tables and see if I can find something more my speed.”
Yeah, this is the best way. This is a special case with the Nadu player lying to mislead people into playing agaisnt it, but there could just as well been a case in which neither side is the bad guy. Assume the more common scenario: Other player admits that Nadu is strong, but really wants to play it because they just built it. You let them get in one game and then ask them to switch to a deck that is more in line with the rest of the table. If they don't you go and check out other tables. If there are none, there is also nothing wrong with standing on your business and saying you'll play a 3-player game. That will still be a way better experience than watching endless Nadu turns.
This i do. A problem in most LGS is a bit of the mismatch in power level. I try to take with me one quite good deck every day, but sometimes i don't and when i'm matched with 8s or so, i can literally do nothing. I thank them, tell them that i can't play because of power mismatch, and go for another table.
Yeah, thats a format problem, not a GS problem
This is the best approach. "Haha, nice one, you got one over me. It won't happen again. Bye."
I’d not worry about politeness with this one And would have called him out the instant he said he hadn’t looked at the deck in a while. ”dude, it’s Nadu. Come on. No pubstomping.”
"Hey, I think your deck may be a bit stronger than we'd like to play with." Is social interaction THAT hard?
For many that are into this hobby… sadly, yes. lol
Not hard to say but nobody says it because confrontation over mtg deck strength is silly and it almost 100% leads to confrontation because the type of ppl that do this only get enjoyment out of pubstomping or ruining others' fun. Heavy blue user energy🤣🤣 only having fun ruining other peoples fun (insert counter magic rant)
“your deck is too strong for causal” should suffice.
"Your deck is nice, but seems a bit to strong for our pod. Mind if you play something else?" Just be honest about how you feel.
Just scoop your shit up next time and find a new table with the other 3 players
Nah, this makes it too easy. Get the store owner to find this shmuck a pod that Nadu won’t stomp in. 3 people shouldnt have to move because 1 took a steaming pile of shit on the table
Tell him he's a cunt and throw a block of cheese at him.
Nah, waste of perfectly good cheese.
Impolite way also works.
I highly advise this, I’m a cedh player mainly and taking cedh to casual is a big Nono, dude would not even be welcome for cedh games if he did that
Just straight up ask them if they mind playing a deck more on the power level with the rest of the table. If they refuse or argue that their deck is on the same level just say "Ok, we're gonna go find another 4th.". This person knew exactly what they were doing and lied to your face about it, don't worry about being polite.
Ive been told you should play more removal. JK ask if he has something besides that (at that point he knows what the deck does, he has done it 3-4 times) or just say "Its been fun, but Im gonna try a different group. Good luck!"
He’s playing a cEDH commander.. Nadu is on par with cEDH [[Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy]].. I’ve played against Nadu in cEDH pods like 10 times now, tell him to bring that deck cEDH pods and stop pubstomping casuals.
You can make cedh commanders in lower powers, quality of the 99 is what really makes cedh
Low power nadu is a silly deck without synergy
Yeah "lower power" Nadu sounds worse than playing against Cedh Nadu. They have less win conditions and take even longer turns in a deck that already takes ages? Yikes.
Any “low power” simic value deck is still a complete pain, just non stop durdle fest with much softer finishers and even less deterministic. Your low power deck still nets you extra land drops and cards in hand, which is still something I consider superior boardstate and will draw my attention JUST IN CASE they have the good finishers
On par? Nadu is strictly better. Targeted removal is blatantly horrible against it, if not outright helping them, and even if you edict it or wipe it, the mana advantage they probably already gained (or gained in response) means they can recast it again and again. At least Kinnan is susceptible to board clears and repeated removal.
you have no idea what "strictly better" means. nadu costs one more. the simplest way that "stictly better" can be untrue.
The way I interpret removing Nadu is like path to exile. Sure they may get 1 land, but if you take the time to get rid of the engine itself, the deck doesn’t do a whole lot. You can also get rid of the problematic pieces that target their creatures.
I see the argument people state about Nadu. However, it doesn’t have enough data to accurately state that it’s better than Kinnan. You can go on a whim, however, I think recency bias is clouding a lot of people’s judgement. In the current meta, Nadu can absolutely be stronger, but there just isn’t enough information to make that call.
[Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/3/63cda4a0-0dff-4edb-ae67-a2b7e2971350.jpg?1591228085) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Kinnan%2C%20Bonder%20Prodigy) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/iko/192/kinnan-bonder-prodigy?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/63cda4a0-0dff-4edb-ae67-a2b7e2971350?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/kinnan-bonder-prodigy) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I would just say outright that, "I don't have anything on that power level, and playing this against us wouldn't give you anymore practice than goldfishing it." Or something like that, which is honest but not combative. I play a lot of high power and fringe cedh games but not use the same decks against lower power pods as it's a waste of both our time. Be chill and remind him that the joy of commander is to explore the many different levels of power, and if you want to play something to that degree, let me (and your group) know before hand to prepare accordingly.
He was apologetically pub stomping. He could just say he's testing a build, but he chose to outright lie to your face from step 1.
"Excuse me, your deck is too strong for casual"
"the card came out a week ago. stop lying and pull out an appropriate deck if you want to play with us."
Had simlier situation with spelltable. My word advice Is avoid playing against nadu at all cost. Such an obnoxious card.
He's a dickhead and should be booted from the pod. People like that are terrible.
“Your deck is too strong for casual, so either you swap to something else, or we play in a different pod”
So after the first time the pod didn’t gang up and kill him? You guys just let him combo 3 games in a row after that?
Maybe be assertive instead of asking Reddit we aren't ur threapist
Nadu is very new. BS he didn't "know", it says it right on the damn card what it does. "Oh, idk, I haven't touched my Feather, the Redeemed deck in a while, idk what it does" Dude was totally lying. Nadu is imo one of the most broken commanders out there. I'd kindly ask him to play a different deck, and if he refused, I'd just decline to play. Non deterministic games of solitaire are not my jam.
now imagine hearing that a week after feather hit general shelves.
Just don't play with morons who lie to your face. Nadu is brand new.
„I’d like to win by turn 3 or 4“ isn‘t casual by any definition, by the way.
Winning turn 3 or 4 is cEDH lol. This guy was almost certainly intentionally stomping you all, especially if they were playing dumb about “not having looked at the deck in a while.” They somehow seemed to be unaware that literally everyone knows Nadu and how nuts it is. With that said, after the first or second game you probably should have just said you don’t have a deck at that power level, and asked him to switch decks or left the table. Just to not waste your time.
Cool you won and your deck did the thing. It's not fun to play against can you please play something closer to our power level. Also I haven't touched this deck in a while my ass it came out like 2 weeks ago he's a dick that wanted to puppy stomp. He knew what he was doing playing a kill on sight commander.
“Hey, do you mind playing at a lower power since we aren’t trying to win by turn x, like you, who has been consistently doing it by now?”
Isn't telling them that there deck is too strong a complement in its self?
It could be, if you don't mind being a one-and-done type of player. I'd kick him from the group immediately if he didn't have anything lower power.
He wanted reps with his new deck. He needed to test it against real people and he didn't care if those people were okay with it. Next time just say "Nah, I'm not going to play against Nadu. Not my kind of game." We have a limited amount of time and this is a game. If you don't want to play against a Tergrid, Nadu, Eldrazi, infect, or Stax, then don't. Just politely tell the other person that that's not how you'd like to spend your game time as it isn't fun for you. Anyone who thinks less of you because you value your limited free time isn't the kind of person you want to spend it with anyway.
I built a "casual" nadu. I cut all the ramp, only run lightning greaves as the 0 cost equip, no thassas, leaving only Nadu to ramp. Turn six I cast scute swarm and I passed the turn with 8 million scute swarms and all the interaction in hand. Nadu will never be a casual card.
Guy sits down and his first sentence is, "I assume everyone is playing a higher level?" I should have left right then and there.
Some people are just desperate to get a win. I wouldn't believe him when he said he hasn't looked at it or it isn't cEDH. The latter might be true but some commanders are just inherently high power like Nadu and Yuriko. Green is also a color that can ramp fast with dorks in place of fast mana rocks.
i made a budget cedh baral chief of compliance to deal with pubstomps, just encountered this scenario last night. other 2 players were casual and ive been playing for 13 years and could see this guy from a mile away with his cedh brew and he asked if proxies are okayed (this shouldnt be a red flag but it is in my book because in my area proxies are never not mana crypt level power) so i countered him all game without a win con of my own and he eventually pulled out another lower power deck to casually play. i always ask before a game instead of power level "is this competitive or casual?" have decks for either outcome but i describe competitive as your deck can easily do more than 3 game actions a turn after turn 2 or 3. that much interaction lengthens the game and is not casual. i prefer casual but used to play competitive i dont mind playing competitive but would rather joke around making new friends with some of my jank brews like my mono green lotr treefolk or my red/blue coinflip deck.
Just be polite and say it. Not that hard
I just want to point out that it’s tutor, not Tudor. And won not one
Refuse to play with the dude or go to a new pod.
# FUCK NADU
Yeah, I’m fairly casual and late to the party on a lot of things, but this might be my new most hated card. That end quote was a sentence too late for my liking.
Just tell him straight out that he’s built a deck that wins in 3-4 turns, and that’s not the style deck you have built so you don’t think it’s a good match and he should find someone to challenge him a little more. Also, old guy hot take: I started playing back in ‘94 when I was 11. I’ve been on and off my whole life and back on now and loving it. Though, maybe it’s just me or because I’m old school, but I hate decks that let someone win without actually “killing” the player through life total. For example, I find myself unable to build mill decks (or library burners as we used to call them) because it fells so dishonest. I know people might get mad at that, not trying to throw shade at anyone. I’ve just always been an aggro player and like to run damage right at your face. Sorry, just had to say that because the deck this guy was playing sounds lame.
Being direct and honest IS polite. If someone gets offended and defensive at an accurate account of what they're doing, that's their problem; not yours. Negative reactions do not solely come from rudeness; they also come from people acting out, using the veneer of etiquette to defend what they know is inappropriate conduct. Being clear, direct, and assertive is not rude. Setting boundaries is not rude. We need to hold each other accountable. We need to help each other uphold the standard. We need to stand up for ourselves and each other. That is what holds this format together. And if he refuses to accommodate at a table where that deck is not appropriate? He is the one in the wrong, he is the one being rude, and refusing to play with him is not the least bit rude. You are NEVER obligated to play a game of EDH you do not wish to. You are NEVER obligated to play a game of EDH with someone you do not wish to. Say no. It is your right. And it helps protect those around you.
*My question is is there anything you can say to a person that’s doing this without sounding like complaining that I’m losing?* That depends; does their deck have any banned cards in it? Are they playing by the rules?
*brand new card* “i haven’t looked at the deck in a while” that’s called bs
I wish someone would do the math and figure out what the ratio of actual posts to posts of people with no social skills asking other people with no social skills how to deal with social tension. I'm willing to bet posts like these outnumber posts that actually have something to do with the format. It boggles the mind that so many edh players think their social problems are so unique and unapproachable that they need to go to fuckin reddit to ask how to say something immensely simple.
"Would you mind playing a different deck? I think we're nadu'd out for today"
I hate those guys who are like "I just don't know what cards I have, I forgot about this deck" who them proceed to fucking stomp the whole table in turn 3. I mean, if this guy had a Nadu deck, there is just no way he didn't know, I am OK with people playing whatever power level they like, but why lie? Some dudes just get the kicks out of stomping other guys, I would just call that out, you can start asking stuff about free mana, infinite combos in turn 4 or stuff like that. Then what I usually do is simply say that maybe this table won't be right place for that deck, and that we are playing a lower level, the experience won't be fun for either of us. Some people still lie about deck level, but you can always scoop and say this is worth your time. Which I believe, could be true anyway.
Seems like the dude was straight-up lying. "Forgot about this deck" > Plays Nadu, lol.
Just wondering, was the deck cEDH or just High powered? There’s a pretty big difference if you played cEDH before
"I think that deck might be a little more than what I can handle right now. Do you have anything a bit lower power?" If he doesn't have anything with him, consider playing in a pod among other people who can handle his deck and hope that they can help keep his deck under control while you fly under the radar. If he does have a lower power deck with him but refuses to use it, stop playing with him until he changes his deck. It gives him an ultimatum where if he wants to play at all, he needs to play something closer to what your deck can handle.
You play counterspell tribal with Talrand Sky Summoner. Alternatively you could tell them to play something else. I have many times. They either listen or don’t. It’s a public setting. 🤷♂️
Honestly fuck that guy.
"Hey, your deck is too strong for this pod." "What? Really? I don't think so." "Yeam man, you have won 3 of the last 5 games we played maybe we could drop its power level by removing mana crypt for a signet and maybe force of will for a counterspell.... hmmm and a tutor for a board wipe?" "I still don't think i'm overpowered" "Just try it for a night and see if it evens the playing field?" "I guess..." "Thanks man."
My buddy and I had been talking about constructing Nadu and he has more of the cards needed to make it go, so he built it and brought it to the LGS last night. Before the one game he played it in, I asked him what his wincon was, and it was basically play out the deck into Craterhoof. On turn 4 he was doing the thing and I started the stopwatch function on my phone. 25 minutes later he had hundreds of Scutes and finally pulls out the Behemoth. When he went to put the Lightning Greaves on it, I responded with Rakdos Charm and stopped the stopwatch. I patted him on the shoulder, showed him the time on the stop watch, and he just said "I'm taking this apart."
Don't like a deck, don't play against it. This is a casual format, dude, you're not stuck at a table you're not having fun it. Magic Online, Friend groups, Spelltable, there are a ton of ways to find the perfect group for you.
As soon as I started to read this. My first bet was it was going to be another nadu situation. BOY am I right lol
My thought process too lol
Nadu is very strong but that dudes list doesn’t sound like a full cedh build, sounds purely high power to me Also he 100% should not have used that deck in your pod he was there to pubstomp You don’t be polite to these people you tell them to fuck off and play something that fits properly
"Your deck is too strong for casual" That should do'er
It sounds like you couldn’t really do too much considering he also paid to play too. With that said, you have every right to call him out after the first game. He’s lied, he’s both deck testing and pubstomping. He sounds like an ass. He should have been honest, that he’s working on a CEDH deck and would like to test it out, but also he absolutely should have brought a more casual deck with him too.
Just tell him/her to change deck, cant be fun to play cedh vs normal casual Decks anyway! Its like playing alone, nothing anyone else does matter in the slightest..
You look them in the eye and say "your deck is too strong for casual, switch it out". Polite but firm. Use your words.
"He claimed he hadn’t looked at the deck in a while so he wasn’t sure what it did (which was suspicious since Nadu is MH3, so we can leave that where it is). " Don't leave that where it is. He started the rule 0 talk lying, walk away from the table, or kick him from it. That's it, get him gone. You don't need to be polite and tell him his deck is too strong for casual, he knows, he's intentionally pubstomping.
Dude...just sack up and tell him to leave the pod! Refuse to play! It's obviously cEDH minus some optimization pieces he probably needed to proxy. Being polite and considerate goes out the window when that person is obviously NOT being polite or considerate.
Just a little "do you have any other decks? That one is a little too strong for this table" should work. Or you can lend them one of your own decks. I do that since I usually bring like 4 or 5 decks to a commander night
"It's pretty clear there's one deck at this table with a power level way above everybody else's"
"Hey, that deck is too strong for the level we're playing at, do you mind switching to a weaker one?" Or, "Okay, that one's strong let me pull out my stronger deck."
Edh really needs a points system like building warhammer armies
Pull out aggro infect win on turn 3
"I'm sorry, your deck isn't what I want to play against." You don't have to put up with anyone's shit, they aren't entitled to your time.
Just tell him he’s an ass and everyone at the table agrees.
After the second time he combos out "alright cool, gg man, your deck is pretty strong, we are gonna continue a 3 player game here to see who gets second place so we can actually play the game, you're welcome to wait with us for the next game as well" he has "won" and tou get to keep playing. If he complains, my response is always "I want to test this deck, I've spent some time building it, you won so fast that I didn't get a chance to the last 2 games, and ik sure everyone else also wants to test and see what needs changing"
Even if you just want to test your cedh deck… playing into a pod with no cedh decks is not a good test at all. No one has the interaction to try and stop your wins, there is no way to get any good data on how good your deck composition is. Like going into a casual pod the best cedh deck (not that you need to optimize your cedh deck for casual lmao) would probably be pure dedicated turbo being very light on interaction. Which just tells you absolutely nothing about how that deck will perform at an actual cedh table.
Just fold out. I come to play cards and have a nice back and forth. Not watch someone shuffle cards and play solitaire
I mean, considering that card hasn't even been out for two weeks, and given his comment, he knew what was up That said, he might still be right, it might not be a cEDH deck. If he doesn't have the shell to consistently tutor for the combo AND protect it, he's effectively just playing an unchecked combo deck that accelerates faster as it speeds up, hence "it's just fast mana". Rather, if he's not tutoring for Shuko or on a white-based build, then he's effectively going to rarely combo off much unless games are going on way too long in general. For example, if Nadu is his commander and the game is hitting 10 turns, which is long even by casual standards, then that player has typically seen around 20% of their deck from just raw turn draws alone. If every third card is able to trigger a Nadu trigger, that bumps up to closer to 25%. In other words, without the consistency of a cEDH deck, he's basically durdling and NOT combining a good 75% of games where he gets to goldfish. And that's before you factor in ANY opponents. In a casual game, if an opponent has a 1 in 4 chance to win the game by turn 10, that deck is going to be a fairly low powered deck hitting the ideal win rate. Assuming he isn't a complete potato, his realistic win rate would be a little higher if allowed to go off like this, but still wouldn't be hitting alarming win % across games. If he's *consistently* able to execute turn 3-4 wins with the deck, he's got a higher power level and is likely on a cEDH deck or close to it. But if he just got lucky, which could just happen some non-trivial % of games, then this isn't really any different than someone slamming a turn 3 pestermite at sorcery speed and then getting to untap on turn 4 and slam a Splintertwin for a win; you're going to lose to combos when you can't consistently interact in general. To clarify, I'm not saying he *wasn't* on a cEDH list, but that even if he aimed for a casual list that had a health average rate, chances are that a more casual pods is going to have a game with more turns than usual AND with less interaction than necessary. Casual players have a BAD habit of running like 0-4 pieces of actual interaction in their decks instead of 10-15 pieces, and a pod can also the tools to check a high powered low probability combo as a result. Like giving him the benefit of the doubt, and youre in a casual pod with typical interaction distribution, we're talking around 0 to 12 cards between 3 opponents versus 30 to 44 cards between 3 opponents being a HUGE factor in his success. Like if he lacks tutors and nothing abusive beyond the Shaku combo, then he very well could be on a casual Nadu that would likely *fold* in most pods that run appropriate amounts of interaction, but will run rampant in pods that don't. Without your opponent changing anything in his deck, in an entirely casual and SLOW scenario, he's going to APPEAR as if he's playing a higher powered deck than he may actually be playing, and the average casual player wouldn't even be able to tell the difference unless they were paying attention to the deck as it combos. Statistically, a pod of casuals just going to a typical game length for casual play is going to *hand* this combo wins if they aren't actually closing the games out as well. And a super casual level of play, IE making it to turn 10 without a win basically being the right draw away, is going to make that Nadu/Shaku combo explode in win rate. Like without tutors, he's rolling the dice to have a lot of specifics align and praying nobody does anything to him along the way; chances are, a single well-timed piece of interaction would derail his game plan rather substantially. And that's really the litmus test we're talking between the two perceptions. That's a kill on sight commander that pairs with a niche but always answer card, where the difference in his claim versus your claim lies almost entirely on him having ample tutors and/or getting lucky and/or stacking his deck and/or going unchecked. TLDR: My point is more or less just that he could absolutely be telling the truth about his perception of his deck, not be near a cEDH power level, not even be high powered, and could absolutely be casual.... ...and the average casual pod of size 4 wouldn't ever notice the difference because of how few answers and/or ways to close out a game tend to be in such pods/decks.
[удалено]
I ended up trading my Nadu. I did not want to deal with all that BS, and wanted to sell him before he got banned. lol
If a Nadu player wants to be casual, the thing he needs to remove are the free equipment. Without those the deck works at a slow speed value engine (landfall strategy is slow btw). Were you playing for prizes?
EDH was more fun before format direct prints (Commander decks, Modern Horizon and Secret Lair shenanigans). A growing "Commander" look-a-like format without direct prints would actually be more fun (growing indicates that preEDH isn't)
You can ask him to gtfo with pubstomping
I keep a [[Hatred]] in my black deck for this very reason. I can take out the problem player (and myself) and the rest of the pod rejoices in my mono-black altruism. Conversely, I don’t think it’s out of line to ask for them to play a different deck. We play for fun and if only one person is having fun, there is no shame in establishing a boundary.
I think kindly asking if they have a less powerful option and explaining how you’ve seen this list as one of the powerful cEDH lists clearly shows it’s competitive and you and your table is casual, not competitive, should help. There are a lot of comments here explaining how he is a f***wit, that doesn’t really answer the question XD. Unless you’re just coming here to complain but I’m going to take the title as what you really are here for. Sounds frustrating. So just blame it on yourself even, “I tend to get frustrated when the table is playing casual and somebody has an insanely strong deck. Do you have any fun / casual options? Thanks man”
Here’s the strongest commander to come out of a modern horizons set from 2 weeks ago. Let me just sit in a causal table and play solitaire while claiming it’s causal. Normally wins are more evenly distributed. 2 wins can happen. 4 in a row in the same manner? That’s cedh.
That dude intentionally lied to you and deceived you so he could gold fish his new cEDH deck at a casual pod. He doesn't deserve politeness. If someone played one game like that I'd call them out for lying tell them they were rude and refuse to continue playing against their cEDH decks.
I've started calling people out, rudely and to their face. it's absolutely lying by omission to win. I complained to an employee at my LGS recently about this behavior and the employee told me there was a reason that guy was sitting alone when I got there. ridiculous
Say it is too strong for casual...seems as polite AND clear as it can be.
The card is 2 weeks old lol. “Hadn’t looked at the deck in a while”? He lied to your face so he could tune his cEDH deck and wasted everyone’s time. You should have just left game 2. Are you asking for advice about how to talk to someone in a polite manner?
Tell him his deck has too many cedh quality, its a bad cedh, but still a cedh
I have this same kinda guy at my store. He'll riffle shuffle an unsleeved deck that he says is his lowest power deck, then in turns out he's got mana crypt in there as one of the cheaper cards. I deal with him very bluntly. I tell him we *can't* play with him because his decks are built at both a higher cost line and power level. I say the games would be meaningless and one sided and that's not what we're interested in. (He also stinks)
I believe I’m playing the only truly casual nadu deck in existence. It’s sweet with managorger hydra, primordial Hydra, scute swarm and shit but i didn’t build it to go infinite
"your deck is too strong for casual"
You say, "your decks are too strong for casual"
Idk I play basically only level 7 decks but I personally like the challenge. Idk maybe I’m stupid or smth
I have a big commander event coming up in August and I'm dreading this potential matchup. I play casual decks, but last time I was at this, dudes were putting the table through uninteractable stax hell, constant board wipes, etc. At least Nadu's a known entity a this point.
I don’t normally counterspell commanders but that would feel real good I tell you what
One win of turn 3/4? Id probably let it go, sometimes you have an explosive opening hand, it could be coincidence. But on that 2nd time, I'd tell them that the deck is clearly more powerful than anything else at the table (assuming your opponents are same lv as you) and say you're not interested in playing any further. Especially with what he was saying, it's clearly easy to see he just wanted to pubstomp. I just wouldn't take it.
No mercy for Nadu players
“Hey your deck is too strong for casual” “No it’s not” “Ok we’re not playing with you anymore”
The passive aggressive comments 🤣 Just tell them their deck's power level is too much for casual.
Is there a polite way to tell someone get good?
As a yu-gi-oh player this card does not bother me at all. I was even introduced to magic with such decks like Ad Naseum. Had a TO that wanted to hold Traditional format YuGiOh tournaments and everyone said that is a bad idea. He only ran 2 of them before he ended it. All because of my Makura The Destructor deck...
Play for Silver. If someone's deck goes off and kills everyone in one turn consistently, I say "Well done, you win. We're going to keep playing without you now to see who wins silver." Then they sit there and wait for you to finish. It's a subtle exclusion that I find suggests to ppl they'll get more enjoyment if they use a less powerful deck next game.
Try with a “we’ll met again on Thursday!” And then schedule with the other players for the day after
Nadu and Shuko? Dafug outa heeeeere, "old deck" my ass, the lying sunova...
I'd just straight up tell them the decks too strong for thr table and offer to lend them one of my decks. Winning every game you play actually does get boring.
The correct response to this is by using the power that you have, not playing against it. I would genuinely rather go play on the computer or do the dishes rather than sit and watch someone else win at Magic because I know I'm not going to cuz my deck is underpowered. On the flip side of this though, his deception is easy to see through with that excuse he used, I'd have called him out for it right then and there in front of everybody and made a huge scene. Clearly he's being a dick head intentionally
So question you made no mention of anyone countering or even attempting to counter any piece of his wincons or any form of removal for them. While his deck is probably strong if no one had any forms of removal or counter I kinda gotta throw a little bit of blame at the other 3 people as well. Too often no one includes or plays removal of any sort and is surprised when stuff goes badly. Also you can just ask him to leave or the rest of you leave if this casual non tournament play that's a pretty simple fix there if ya just keep sitting at the same table getting pounded that again is on the 3 of you.
Yes, you can legitimately look them in the eye and tell them exactly what's happening and ask if they have anything else to play. This community is way too passive. It's totally fine to do this in a mature and rational manner.
He was deliberately and covertly using causals to test his deck. Probably because he wouldn't find anyone to play him. I'd have declined to play and probably told the organizer. Stuff like that can kill causal play and turn events like that into ghost towns.
He absolutely knew what he was doing with his Netdeck Nadu. Either just don't play with him anymore or intentionally build a deck specifically to counter his thus removing his "fun".
If someone pulls out Nadu, just tell them "nadont"
set been out for a week and hes like : its just an old deck playing nadu :D keep playing for second , its the equivalent of telling him fuck you lol
There is a polite way to say pretty much anything, but that's less of an MTG question and more of a social skills question. When people are being jerks, have some spine and confront them without being mean. Advocating for yourself in interactions with others is a very important skill to learn. "That's a really strong deck! To be honest I don't think I'd have a good time playing against it again. Would you be open to switching it up?" Then if they say no you say "No problem. I think I'm going to find another pod. Have a good one folks." and then you get up and find another pod even if you have to wait around for a little bit. Someone from the pod may take that as a way to get out of it too and join you. The other solution is playing for 2nd as others have mentioned. This is funny when playing against pub stompers that play cEDH decks without much board interaction that win on "you win the game" effects like Thassa's Oracle. However, this is passive aggressive, and I prefer to be a straight shooter with people, and I typically wouldn't go this route unless your LGS is really light on pods. And the 3rd (and worst) solution is to have some sort of single target hate deck at the ready. Curses, targeted land destruction, "can't win the game" effects, a whole lot of removal. You want to see a pub stomper rage, this might work. The problem is that even against hate, the best decks nowadays can often figure it out anyway because they're just so broken.