Planeswalker's Guide to the Gathering – Introduction
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Welcome to Planeswalker’s Guide to the Gathering! Our podcast will have themed casts which cover a variety of MtG topics, as general as player etiquette, and as specific as the new hyped Standard decks!
Today’s cast includes myself, James (or Jim), Ian, Colin, and Brett. It centers around everything off topic. I can neither confirm nor deny that I have already mentioned a topic, player etiquette, but we also delve into our local stores, as well as (what we believe) is a previously unmentioned “treasure” perhaps…? I myself hint at a new standard deck I’ve been working on, originally designed by Coldlogik of the MtG Salvation forums, and possibly spoil what the next cast will be about.
Enjoy the show, and be sure to leave comments or questions (preferably not spam), in either the comments section below, or my email, at jfpfiene@gmail.com.
No comments yet? I want my cookie… Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.
Please send said cookie (or a case of Zen) ASAP, I am hungry.
Haha, thanks for listening!
I actually may have something for you, but I’m not making any promises.
Mana weaving is dirty pool, fellas. Look at it from the point of view of your opponent. You perfectly align your lands, and then shuffle a bunch of times. Why would you do that, especially when BEST case scenario the benefit is purely psychological and anything less then the BEST case scenario is varying levels of cheating.
I haven’t seen anyone mana weave since high school, and that was during Revised. Dirty pool, fellas. Dirty pool.
Forgot to mention, really enjoyed listening to the podcast! You guys have great chemistry and thoughtful comments. Will be listening in the future!
This was a good first podcast keep up the good work.
The issues you called etiquette are actually rules issues.
It is proper to wait to play until all Mulligans have been decided. When you start to play you can be setting up to call a judge on your opponent. The board state will look like the game has started and if your opponent starts shuffling up and drawing cards you could say that he was waiting for you to reveal what you are playing to gain advantage.
It just looks Shady!
On Mana weaving. DO NOT DO IT! It looks like you are trying to cheat. Also you said that you did 5 shuffles and then a Riffle. I hope you were trying to say you riffled 5 times. If you just pile shuffled or did slide shuffles (or whatever it is called when you just transfer cards from one hand to another) then you actually were cheating and may not have realized it.
There have been many articles written on shuffling and cheating. People who know how their opponents can cheat them do not like even the appearance of impropriety.
I did like the podcast though. I do not think you are cheats but I do think that you did not understand the issues that you think are bad etiquette.
Basically, you shouldn’t mana weave,
Because it creates a situation where the judge cannot tell if you are cheating or not.
If you mana weave, and then you truely randomize your deck, from a mathmatical standpoint, there was no value in mana weaving.
If you mana weave, and then you did not truely randomize you deck, you gain an advantage, and are cheating
Your opponent may not be able to tell which you are doing, and may call a judge. At the higher levels, he may even call a judge anyway just hoping you get a penalty or to put you on tilt.
At that point, the judge can only look at your deck to determine if there is a pattern. If there is one, then you will get the appropriate penalty. Where it sucks, is even with sufficient randomization, you may have created a pattern, or close enough to it for the judge to assign the penalty.
So basically, if you mana weave and then suffle (without the intent of cheating) you are trading a postive psychological effect for the possibility of getting a penalty.
Normally, I would say the risk is not worth the reward, so dont do it.
As a reference for the Proposal, Splendid Genesis, and Fraternal Exaltation cards, here are the card links:
http://magiccards.info/uqc/en/5.html
http://magiccards.info/uqc/en/4.html
http://magiccards.info/uqc/en/3.html
There were a limited number of each card printed, and were given out to friends and family as part of the “Announcements” mailings.
I’ve personally seen a real Splendid Genesis, which was owned by Gary Adkison.