Starter mistakes
The Kitchen Table forum
Posted on Nov. 2, 2019, 4:51 p.m. by Eledain
Hey magicians,
tell me your funny mistakes which happened when you started playing MtG.
I recently "taught" the father and son of my girlfriend playing. Today I had a match with the son. He slammed his Llanowar Elves on turn one. The next turn he tapped it and began to search his library for a forest and put it into play. "Thats how we always did it."
Imagine OP Llanowar Elite Elf:
1G 1/1
T: Search your library for a forest and put it into play.
Tell me your stories.
420blazeitxxx says... #3
"taught". you "taught" them how to play. not "teached".
November 2, 2019 5:11 p.m.
Hey now, when I'm under the influence, I can't write English correctly either :)
November 2, 2019 5:13 p.m.
You can use each planeswalker ability once each turn right?
Oh you cant?
Wish I knew that over the last 6 month...
November 2, 2019 5:18 p.m.
At least you guys knew what I meant. :-)
Seriously, I don't wanna google every word which I write. It wouldn't be a problem to write in german, but then nobody would understand a word. But it's ok to tell me the mistakes, I'm willing to remember it for the next time.
I think the wrong turn order or forgot to untap your stuff are typical kitchen table mistakes.
November 2, 2019 5:19 p.m.
420blazeitxxx says... #7
If you don't know the language, then yeah you should google any word you don't know before using a website that uses that language.
November 2, 2019 5:37 p.m.
Or you could just write something constructive and on topic or leave the thread.
November 2, 2019 5:48 p.m.
ScionsStillLive says... #9
I used to think flying creatures could only block flying creatures.
November 2, 2019 6:36 p.m.
ScionsStillLive says... #10
lmao a lot of the guys in my playgroup STILL make the same mistake of putting lands into play when a card says : add 1 mana to your mana pool
(they had been playing for over a year and I had only been playing a few months at this time)
November 2, 2019 6:37 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #12
If you are brand new to a community, you shouldn't give it a bad name by trolling users who are on it making a good faith effort to communicate in a second language. The state of writing from adults who speak english as an only language is in fact detestable, and if the OP was a primary English speaker I would agree. But using English as a second language it is understandable to conjugate all verbs into past tense with -ed and not be aware of the exceptions. Just like I wouldn't expect an ESL speaker to correctly pluralize exceptions to the "add an s" rule like moose, goose, and mouse. Especially since those words don't even follow a pattern.
As for beginner mistakes, the first time I tried to learn to play (like back in 2006) the person teaching me tried to teach me that you discard lands to cast spells and draw back up to 7 on each of your draw steps. That version of a game with MTG cards seemed off to me. When I got into the game in 2013 my co-worker, who is a rules advisor, taught me how to play according to the correct rules. I have enjoyed the correct game since then.
November 2, 2019 7:05 p.m.
ShutUpMokuba says... #13
A friend of mine was sure that in order to block a creature needed to be tapped. That created some complicated situations in multiplayer games (modern) since if you blocked once with a creature you couldn't do that any longer untill your next turn.
November 2, 2019 7:59 p.m.
I thought that walking ballista got 2 counters for every mana. This lead to a situation where we were playing the 2017 commander precons with slight tweaks and I had 20 lands out due to a card called traverse the outlands, and I went cast a 40/40 on turn 7, kill you.
November 2, 2019 9:33 p.m.
Tyrant-Thanatos says... #15
he tapped it and began to search his library for a forest and put it into play
Everybody seems to do this at first. I haven't seen WotC address this issue ever, and I feel like the removal of "mana pool" from card text has made this even more confusing and difficult to explain to newcomers.
November 2, 2019 11:25 p.m.
The person who taught me how to play believed if your double strike creature killed the blocker with first strike damage, its second strike would hit the player; that regenerate could bring the creature back from the graveyard if it died that turn; and all kinds of silly things about protection. So, for a while, that’s just how I, and everyone else I played with, understood the rules.
The addition of reminder text was a huge improvement to this game.
November 3, 2019 1:17 a.m. Edited.
ShutUpMokuba says... #17
TypicalTimmy prof vs rudy... The Prof after the mistake:" whatever will happen now i have already lost..".. Poor Prof
November 3, 2019 2:26 a.m.
I had Dragon Hatchling in my first deck and didn't realise you could keep paying to pump up its Power.
I thought it was a one and done payment.
November 3, 2019 10:04 a.m.
When my buddy and I first got into it, he'd seen the commercials on TV! Back in the 90s haha we had no idea
I believe we were casting the creatures for free, but had to pay their mana cost each time to attack. It made for very long games if you're trying to accrue enough lands to attack w multiple creatures lol
November 3, 2019 10:13 p.m.
Halbrechtt says... #20
Not to stir up trouble from old comments, but I'd like to see 420blazeitxxx conjugate every German verb correctly, with only Google to help him.... Seriously, though, even after taking 4 semesters of German in college, I was still very shaky on even the basic standard rules, much less any weird exceptions. And Google often doesn't help all that much for figuring it out. Eledain actually writes much better than many native-English speakers I encounter. Maybe we should start asking native-English speakers to use Google before participating on English-language websites....... [/rant]
But on to the topic! I don't have any particularly crazy stories. I was taught by a guy who at first seemed like a rules GOD, because he had crazy-complicated decks that had all sorts of interactions that I couldn't keep track of. I quickly surpassed him, though, in my knowledge of the rules and discovered he had weird little misunderstandings of the rules — like thinking you could simply choose to not untap your stuff. (I had to show him not only clauses that explicitly allowed you to not untap, but the actual relevant rule from the Comprehensive Rules before he would give up on the idea.)
He also didn't explain priority or the stack at all, leaving me to believe that it was partly a game of reflexes, where e.g. after you draw (now you're in your main phase), he could whip out an instant and mess with your board while you're still deciding what to do (but he can't, because you have priority first). Conversely, if someone went straight to combat before I had a chance to decide I'd use my Gideon's Lawkeeper to tap down a potential attacker, he wouldn't let me retroactively declare it, effectively completely leaving out the Beginning of Combat Step! I know that's more nuanced stuff, but it really messed up my game for a while!
Now that I'm teaching my kids, the most common mistakes are still thinking that they can directly attack creatures (or that I will be able to directly attack theirs) and not understanding the difference between lands and mana (and that mana dorks produce mana, not lands). I really threw my son for a loop when I gave him a deck with a hybrid mana card (and forgot to explain it... bad teacher...). He thought he had to pay 10 mana for Doomgape !
November 6, 2019 3:35 a.m.
Thanks for your compliment Halbrechtt. I really appreciate it. The last time I learned english at school is now twelve years ago. :-) Many people from other countries I met, said that german is one of the most difficult languages to learn, except all that asian stuff with different letters.
Btt: I think it's pretty hard to learn other people everything about the phases and the stack interaction. Lastly my girlfriend hated on me, because I Lightning Bolt ed her creature in response to a pump spell - we are playing for years now!
Profet93 says... #2
Draw, Upkeep, Untap. In that exact order. Every single time for years.
When I learned you could use a Vampiric Tutor on upkeep to set up your draw, I lost my mind.
November 2, 2019 5:07 p.m.