When is it impolite to concede?
Online Magic forum
Posted on June 30, 2015, 10:26 p.m. by hyena69
Title says it all, I hate sitting through games that I can't win. But I don't want to annoy people, so wonder if it is frowned upon to concede early if you see that you are going to be steamrollered. If so, when is it considered ok to concede?
Depends how casually you're playing. The way I see it, the more casually you're playing, the more rude it is to concede early. The more competitive you're playing, the more your opponent doesn't care that you conceded.
Don't be a sore loser though. If it looks like you're about to get steamrolled, don't drop you hand and explain how you would have won if such and such happened differently, or say that you only lost because of bad luck. Basically, try not to make it seem like you're impatient when it comes to losing a game, so you quit a losing game just to get back to a game that you stand a better chance at, like you have to prove that your deck is better. "No no no... I scoop. C'mon let's play again, and maybe this time I'll draw a good hand."
From another perspective though, if your opponent scoops because you absolutely destroyed them, try to resist the urge to show them your hand that could have added even more destruction to their already bitter defeat, and/or peeling cards off the top of your deck describing how broken your future turns would have been. No one appreciates that.
I will say though, that if your opponent has several extra turns queued (like in EDH when you drop Omniscience and then follow it up with Time Stretch, Eternal Witness targeting Time Stretch, and then recasting Time Stretch...) and they're clearly going to win, no one will fault you for scooping right there. No one should receive shame for not wanting to sit around while someone takes a 20 minute turn until they finally win.
EDIT: Damn sorry that kind of went on a rant.
June 30, 2015 10:38 p.m. Edited.
Usually, I just shrug, shake my head and say, "I got nothing, you win." I don't think it's a problem the concede, especially if you feel as if you aren't going to win.
June 30, 2015 10:41 p.m.
If you're playing against someone who's new to the game though, try to play until the end. If they're trying to get better and are preparing for competitive-level play, let them get the rep of actually finishing you off.
June 30, 2015 10:43 p.m.
I totally agree with that. Usually when I play against someone I'm trying to help teach, I will prolong the game as long as possible to show them more tricks and explain when it's appropriate to play which cards. I do the same thing if someone I know wants to test a new deck or something.
I don't feel that the OP was asking about that sort of thing though.
June 30, 2015 10:47 p.m.
pumpkinwavy says... #8
Conceding is rarerely considered rude... Being a sore loser or complaining about luck or insulting your opponent is much worse. If your not going to win, then concede!
June 30, 2015 11:01 p.m.
ButtercupTheDeathDealer says... #9
As a new MTG player (who hasn't played with anyone but my husband yet!), I appreciate all this feedback and am glad to know there's an etiquette code that one might expect in any other type of game- i.e. nice people are nice <3 If I were being beaten badly and noticed it, I'd simply ask questions and try to prepare a defense to avoid such a beating in the future; we're all learning! :-)
June 30, 2015 11:04 p.m.
Thanks for the answers folks :-)
Situation usually occurs because I copy my physical decks to MTGO. Mostly utterly useless casual decks. But since I have been playing since Legends they tend to include cards like Clay Statue or such garbage, which means that they are mostly Legacy or Vintage.
Getting duels for Legacy and Vintage decks ain't easy. And many of those decks seem highly competitive. When I see round 1 Verdant Catacombs Bayou Deathrite Shaman I know excactly what is going to happen in 3-5 rounds when I get a gang of Tarmogoyfs up my rear end. When I know there will be no way in heaven or hell I can stop that, it is tempting to just go "gg" round 1. But when I run into something I haven't seen before I am tempted to sit out the match to see how I am going to die
June 30, 2015 11:31 p.m.
RussischerZar says... #11
You should probably not be looking for Legacy or Vintage matches then, but rather Casual or Freeform. This way you might actually win a game or two at some point, if you go up against someone else that just built a deck around a silly theme. :)
July 1, 2015 5:47 a.m.
Have never been able to get a casual or freeform duel. Hard enough to get a legacy or vintage duel as it is
July 1, 2015 7:17 a.m.
shaistyone says... #13
Really, only if your concession is going to king-make in multiplayer.
You may not be able to stop the player who is ahead, but you can serve as a speedbump to let someone else take them down. :)
July 1, 2015 10:40 a.m.
In a multiplayer I would consider it really bad form to concede before I am actually killed. Even if you are utterly manascrewed and can't do a thing you soak up damage that would have gone to other players
July 1, 2015 11:27 a.m.
I was in a 3-player game once, and I was about to win. I had True Conviction in play with at least 40 damage coming at one of my opponents. Instead of getting hit by my army and letting me gain life from the lifelink, he conceded and I didn't get to gain any life. Gaining that life was imperative to my plan, and without it, I lost.
July 1, 2015 12:50 p.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #16
I say its impolite only if your being a sore loser about it. But if draw into an awesome hand then draw nothing but lands or no lands to support then you just say good game, and fold. Some may not like it because of reasons but that's their problem. Esp in tourney setting where you have time limits this can help to speed things along if you know it's inevitable. I like to try and play things out myself as you never know what you'll top deck into.
July 1, 2015 1:09 p.m.
I don't think conceding should be considered rude unless we are really creating a super-sensitive threshold for rudeness, here. Anything added to a choice to concede could be rude, but conceding itself seems like a crazy thing to consider to be rude.
I remember only one time that I conceded and someone didn't seem to take it too well. However, as you will see, there were other issues at play as well. In fact, I even think the whole of the situation is bordering on "being taken too seriously" by me even bringing it up, let alone any other extent it gets taken to.
Game1: This was a close match and truly a "good game". I was playing abzan in a pre-release event and he was playing mardu. I had the stronger board position and a slow working synergy set to take him out but he got his anthem and broke through, defeating me. It was a close and exciting enough match that it drew some on-lookers who were his friends.
Game2: I don't know why, but I got a little like "flustered" or something. I had to mulligan a few times in a row with mana screw. It was my fault because I had put way too few lands in since it was my first draft. Somehow, and I don't know why, things took a severely negative turn. I don't know if it was the mana-screw or having all those other players watching, I don't know. Maybe it was me realizing that I had serious weaknesses in my deck including the too few lands and needing to switch some things out. Maybe it was the fact that the other player was clearly a spike archetype and I was clearly a casual player who had mainly come to get a few EDH pieces from the abzan outlast thread. Things just started feeling "too aggressive" for my taste and I conceded a little bit quick in the last game. Strangely, I encountered that same player later in the night after having an EDH break and he seemed to take further aggressive interest in me during a game that didn't involve him. I just chalked the whole thing up to my being green a bit and him being a little extra competitive. I really still don't understand where he was coming from. I wouldn't be surprised if he was mad that I conceded, though, because he seemed to somehow "hold on" to that encounter in a way that I felt wasn't commensurate with what had happened at all.
In summary: I can imagine how some people might feel a concede to be rude but that doesn't mean I agree. It isn't an objectively obvious rude thing in and of itself.
July 1, 2015 1:09 p.m.
Or wait: actually as I remember, it was that second game that I conceded quickly and I didn't play the last one.
July 1, 2015 1:12 p.m.
I like what I am reading here :-)
What I take out of it, If I'm in the "just for fun" lobby and get my rearend handed to me by a competititve deck, I am most likely facing Spike. Spike really only cares about winning, so as long as I don't whine about it, Spike is cool about me conceding, so he can go hunting for another victory.
I'll let Timmy have a few rounds of fun, but if he is dragging his feet in killing me off I might concede. Since I am a Johnny myself, I'll propably stick around vs Johnny to see the combo go off, mainly because I look forward to losing in a fun way
July 1, 2015 1:28 p.m.
I can't think of a situation where it is impolite to concede.
NoPantsParade says... #2
Just tell them "good game," and hopefully they'll get the message. But don't leave out of nowhere. That's when it's impolite.
June 30, 2015 10:29 p.m.