What's the point of people mis-reading their card (and ruining the game) in a tournament game?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Yesterday, two pods (matches) in a row, a different player misread their own card (probably intentionally) and ruined the game by playing the card in a way it absolutely does not say to play on the card itself nor the game rules.

One opponent, Jon, was playing this card on the battlefield, and it clearly says that it copies TOKENS, not actual creature cards, but he was repeatedly using it to copy creature cards at the end of turn. I didn't realize he was "misreading" the card, because I never got to read the card. Had I read the card, I would have called the Judge and got "Jon" disqualified.

In any case, this card is broken as hell and needs to be banned even as it is written, but the way he was playing it would be literally unbeatable.

Notice, it says "copy of target creature TOKEN..." it does not just say, "Copy of target creature..."

So he was flat out cheating and he's a grown ass man in his middle 40's.

[msmissydc]

Yeah, the cards intended play is that you both get an 8/8 token creature and because frogs have lot of bounce you bounce theirs to their hand making it disapear. If not token it would be an exponential play because it could target itself.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Yup. He "copied" my Emperess Galina, an illegal play, and got to use his copy before I could even use my own due to summoning sickness.

I absolutely was supposed to win both pods yesterday, but because grown ass people CHEAT at a game originally marketed to children and teens, I "lost" both pods.

I swear, I'm going to confront the guy and the judge about it next Saturday, because the card obviously does not do what he was alleging it did.

Once my Emperess Galina hit the field, I was about to steal his commander and half his other creatures anyway, but he illegally "copied" Galina, and I made the mistake of not reading his cards, so I scooped.

[msmissydc]

I agree, hope he did not actually do it by misstake. I wouldn't call magic a children's game though. That is an asshole play.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

How do you like this, for what MTG has turned into. Read this card. It was one of my opponent3's commanders yesterday. He intentionally played a card which emptied his own hand and lost him 11 cards on turn 1 all together, then on turn 3 he played his commander and then played every card in his deck and won the game on turn 3.

Flubs the Fool.



If this is what the game is turning into, I'm probably just going to stop playing. This isn't worthy of my time or money.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

The judge was like, "I just need to remove his commander".

The other player in the game was playing Dargo the Shipwrecker with jeska. I had to counter dargo on turn 1 to keep from automatically losing the game, and then on turn 2 I had to PLOW dargo again to keep from losing the game, and then on turn 3 the Flubs player just played his entire deck and won the game on turn 3 anyway.

[msmissydc]

I play flubs myself🤣. I love him. His gameplay is pure luck because you can easily have a dead draw early on. If you don't, though, it's gg. It's a fun deck, but not a consistent or strong one. If he has a streak he can seem strong though. Also yes, he is a kill on sight commander as others are as well, but he isn't an instant win which others might be.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Okay, I used to play with pro gamers back in the day, and we invented a mathematical formula for evaluating the power of cards and what their "fair" mana cost (or other costs) should be. The formula is called "The Rule of Four".

The card itself is worth 4 points.
Mana symbols in costs are worth 1 point each up to 4 mana. Mana costs above 4 are worth 3 points each.

Discarded cards are worth 0 to 2 points each.
Drawn cards are worth 4 each.
Playing an extra land is worth 4 every time you do it.

Flubs the Fool's "Rule of 4 cost" is 7 according to the card, but it's benefit is a variable X where you pay nothing but discarding your extra (unused) cards. Depending on how lucky you get, the card is literally worth 400 mana to cast, according to the Rule of Four formula, but it only costs 3 total mana to cast.

This makes Flubs literally the most over-powered card I've ever seen since Black Lotus.

At one time, Stroke of Genius was banned because it was considered too powerful, yet the Flubs card nets you as many cards as Stroke of Genius for just 3 total mana.

Where is people's conscience when they win a game by playing dozens of freely drawn cards all at once, while other people who didn't know this card existed are stuck drawing one or two cards per turn?

I wrote a formal complaint to Wizards and I complained to my local tournament judge. If this is what Magic: The Gathering has devolved into, I am not spending anymore money playing the thing.

[msmissydc]

There are tons of cards that are at least on his powerlevel. Also he would never work outside commander or as the 99. you need a flubs deck, if you dont have a deck build around it it nets you negative cards. Also you can never play card draw with flubs otherwise you are left with a card in hand. Flubs isn't as strong without luck and A specific deck. I mean there are 1 mana enchantments with play an additional land. If you draw your third land it ends the combo, and you need to find a way to discard one card outside of flubs every turn otherwise his combo only works every second turn. While you could in theory work around that dead turn combo with card draw as well, card draw cards end the combo as well. Its a fun random deck. But I am not seeing how a three coloured mana card with a huge downside you consider strongest card. I think you just don't like losing against luck. Someone playing jodah shouldn't complain about this.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

There are net negative draw cards: Careful Study, Frantic Search, etc, which is what that guy was doing. Sensei's Divining Top is an infinite loop by itself.

I wasn't playing Jodah. I quit playing Jodah last week, because I would need like 10 true dual lands to make that work, and I'm not spending that much money on lands.

No, I'm not just complaining because i lost. I'm complaining because I'm an expert at the game and have placed in pro events, and If I knew that card was printed before yesterday I'd either quit the game or complain to the judge and the company, which is what I've done.

I'm not lying to you. The fair mana cost for that card is in excess of 400 mana.

[strateguy632]

Well some games do have flexibility but he shouldn't cheat like that. His win definitely does not count.

[Anonymous]

I like it.