I'm the "unfun player."
General forum
Posted on Oct. 27, 2015, 11 a.m. by Cedrico_Suave
So my playgroup hates playing against me because of most of my decks. I'm the only one who fine-tunes them to make them more effective. I never play to win, just to have efficiency in my decks. They claim I just play to win and therefore am a bad magic player. They'll end up ganging up on me whether I have full board control or 1 mana on turn 6 just to bump me out. Here are my decks: http://tappedout.net/users/Cedrico_Suave/
What are your thoughts on this?
greenkingwashere says... #3
If you're "that spike" of the group, don't take it hard. If you don't care about winning, I would build a fun/gimmicky deck to play with them that'll make them laugh and not pout.
October 27, 2015 11:11 a.m.
Can't edit my post, so here's a thought I just had after I posted. You may consider playing decks that around the same price point as theirs, or even lower if you have good synergy/mechanics. This way they can't pull the "you pay to win" card. If they lose to a deck that is equal or lower value than theirs, then it must mean their deck isn't as effective and they need to re-think their deck.
October 27, 2015 11:12 a.m.
You could help your friends with their decks so you all are on the same level. Your friends probably just dont think its fun to play against you when you have much better decks...
October 27, 2015 11:17 a.m.
Crystalite says... #6
As someone who has been in this position of being the (supposedly) un-fun player, the simplest thing to do is play somewhere else. If they don't like your playstyle, they don't like your play style. The sad truth of the matter is that Magic is a game that's designed to be won or lost; and while you don't necessarily need to do so at all costs, that doesn't mean you shouldn't still try and win.
That being said, there's an exercise some people use to catch play mistakes that might help you. Try taking a video of your game. Make sure everyone is aware you're recording, and announces what they're doing so that it's easy to tell what's happening in the video. Don't watch the result until the next day, at least - it may be that some minor attitude issue is making you less fun to be around, and observing yourself from a third-person perspective may help you catch it. I know I had problems with this (I still do, in fact) and this helped my problem enormously.
October 27, 2015 11:18 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #7
Winning makes you a bad player. wut.
Honestly, it sounds like you've progressed past the playgroup you're in. I recommend finding a new playgroup that better suits your expectations and actions. If you must stay in your current playgroup, be tactful about how you improve your decks; clearly, your friends have a different expectation of what deckbuilding is and will attack you for not conforming to it.
October 27, 2015 11:19 a.m.
Hey i just quickly went through your decks, I can understand why you feel targeted. First i hope you understand that the decks you like are considered high target decks, meaning just playing them puts a target on your head doesn't matter who is playing them. Secondly from what i can see you have a love for 'control' style decks, which again theres nothing wrong with that but its hard to enjoy a game when creatures are constantly blown up or countered (some control decks can be considered "solitaire" decks meaning playing cards by yourself with no friends). And lastly it looks like you have a love with high power decks i have no suggestions to fix what you like because thats what you like its who you are but liking and having some of the strongest decks in a format or rotation makes you too efficient at killing people meaning your the highly competitive type try to tone the efficiency down or make your card choices slower like switching Demonic Tutor for Vampiric Tutor both tutors working efficiently just slower and gives warning so your plays are more visible. Other then all that nothing beats a good old talk with your friends! they are your friends after all and im sure a small discussion about targeting and singling out players wont go that badly and who knows maybe they can give you advice to tone your decks back a bit. i'm one of the weaker players in my group so i know how it feels to get picked on by stronger players, anyway I hope this helped!
October 27, 2015 11:20 a.m.
JakeHarlow says... #9
Play with more Spike-y players. Your skill level is above that of your current group, and they don't really seem to like that. Find some folks who are more competitive and play with them, see how that goes.
October 27, 2015 12:23 p.m.
My best friend and favorite person to play MTG with is just like you. He is brutal to play against. I typically will only win 2 out of 10 matches against him. His decks aren't so much built with "broken" or expensive cards, but he builds his decks for speed & efficiency.
However, our playing group takes this as a challenge. We judge our decks based on how well they perform against his. I constantly re-tweak my decks to try to find a way to stay competitive against him. Sure, it sucks to lose all the time, but its making me a better player.
A couple of suggestions...
As others have said, why don't you build a fun-themed deck that isn't based on speed, efficiency, or winning? I have a couple of those decks in my collection: Las Vegas Style Deck, Sengir Family Vampires, & Islandhome.
My "Las Vegas Style Deck" is the most hilarious! It NEVER wins! But the fact that the result of every single card I play is determined by coin flips & die rolls makes it just as likely to screw me over as my opponent!
The "Sengir Family Vampires" deck is just an old-school vampire deck. It's fun to play but easy to beat.
Finally, my "Islandhome" deck is simply a deck theme based off the weird card ability "islandhome". I mean, WTF? Who thought THAT ability was any good? But I built a deck around that ability and it has actually won me some games....
Another suggestion I have would be for you to swap decks with your friends. Allow THEM the opportunity to play your decks and be the target of everyone's wrath! Use it as a teaching moment. Show them how the deck is constructed and what is the best strategy of play. The overall goal (as others have said) is to help them build better decks of their own and become better players.
October 27, 2015 12:33 p.m.
a brief description of my playgroup would be that we only play edh (a few others have modern/standard decks, but not everyone so we just play edh). three people strictly play with one deck and pour all their resources into it. another three of us have multiple decks that we'll swap out from game to game to keep it fresh
in the last ~6 months our decks have gotten very strong, so strong that i've dismantled a few decks to pump up the rest with better options.
i'm very much a 
player, with Animar, Soul of Elements as my best deck. but, to keep myself interested, i always need other options with different strategies available. i've taken on challenges like building a creatureless Narset, Enlightened Master deck, a hyper-control Sen Triplets deck, and my girlfriend's Aurelia, the Warleader deck
as mentioned above, if you play a lot of control decks, that will tend to piss people off. i personally hate Counterspells and barely run any because it is so disheartening to have your plan splattered into oblivion by a counterspell. obviously this is a big portion of the game and would never hate on anyone for using them, i just prefer not to
i guess the point of my post would be to challenge yourself. create a deck that goes in a complete opposite direction of what you're used to. keep the decks you love, but some that you aren't super attached to could be used as the base for these challenges.
also it'll keep your playgroup guessing. and it's always fun to create a group hug deck lol
October 27, 2015 1:09 p.m.
There are a few ways to deal with this.
Sure, build decks on their level. If you want to play with them and are just there for he fun - why not. If you like the challenge of deck building, take it as a challenge. Build a pauper deck that tries to compete (keep that info to yourself). I'll often build something i think is fun, blow out my playgroup with it, then stick it in a drawer for a few months. They all know what they could be up against, so they up their builds, and in the mean time I go back to something more on par until it gets slowly outclassed itself. Also, part of the challenge of building an EDH deck is the political aspect. Don't look like your target until you can deal with being one.
Or raise to the challenge of everyone coming at you. Build a deck that can deal with that. Probably a dick move, but whatever. it's all in how you handle it.
You can also adjust your own play. I'll sometimes hold back a backbreaking play if i've won a few games and see a buddy getting disheartened. I also keep that to myself.
and ya, you can find a second playgroup, one with a stronger decklist.
all said... there's always someone that's gonna push the group to up their quality; might as well be you. Just be cool with loosing, and don't seem like you NEED to win.
October 27, 2015 2:06 p.m.
I'm going to add my voice to this.
I was reading an online article about this and it said what a lot of people already have.
If you keep beating people constantly they won't look forward to playing you. Not because they are sore losers, just because they feel like they are pushing bricks uphill. It's a natural human emotion.
As has been said, you can set yourself the challenge of building weaker decks and see if you can win a fair percentage with those. Laugh and celebrate when they lose.
As others have said, find a more competitive group but play in BOTH groups. One will provide you with challenge and the other with fun and maybe silliness.
I slowly got better in my group and have a deck they just can't beat. I play that one about every six months, to give them a chance to see how they go against it. One day they will wreck it.
For the rest of the time I play quirky little decks to see if I can make them win, despite all odds. It's fun for me to play something less competitive; for shits and giggles.
There is a guy in our group who ONLY ever plays Mill or Control decks. I beat him, but he sure does make the games less enjoyable.
"Here comes the guy with the deck that takes all my cards or won't let me play them. What a fun deck to play against."
I am forced to target him because his deck is the one that hurts me the most.
To be honest, it's not that difficult to wreck people when using that style of deck, if they are inexperienced with building.
Challenge yourself to build all different kinds of decks. It will improve your building as well.
October 31, 2015 10:37 a.m.
Cedrico_Suave says... #14
Thanks for the tips, everyone! These have helped a lot!!
November 9, 2015 12:27 a.m.
Cedrico_Suave says... #15
As an update: We all got Pre made commander decks to play against one another. They all got the 2015 ones, and I have the Prossh 2013 deck. We've made tweaks here and there, but mine has become an extremely high target with Purphoros and Prossh as best friends. I made it to be able to handle the group hate haha it's beautiful. Take a look if you'd like!
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/osh-prossh-bigosh/
Bosna says... #2
Based on what you described, my thought is that haters gonna hate. The fact that they feel compelled to gang up on you every game makes them the "unfun" players. Just because you have more of a mind for deck building than they do does not mean you should let them slow you down or force you to play gimped decks. If I was them I'd take the ass whoopings you give as a chance to learn, not to hate.
October 27, 2015 11:09 a.m.