-3

So usually when I get to low HP and have no cards to fight, I pass the turn so that the opponent can finish me off. But 99% of the times they have to play every card they can and just waste time with animation. So why?

I just want to end and go on the next game. Why can't they have the satisfaction of delivering the final blow and finish it. At that point I just waste their time in return by waiting up my timer, especially if they pass without killing me.

Toon Krijthe
  • 11,742
  • 6
  • 55
  • 66
Anonymous
  • 25
  • 7
    This is more of a rant than a question. Do you not have the option of simply resigning when you know you've lost? – GendoIkari Jan 03 '19 at 20:33
  • 8
    "At that point i just waste their time in return by waiting up my timer"... you are asking why people display bad sportsmanship online; while admitting that you yourself display bad sportsmanship online? – GendoIkari Jan 03 '19 at 20:34
  • 8
    Your best course of action is probably just to hit esc then concede if you believe you have already lost the game. Often times if people are playing out their hand after they have already won it is because they are trying to complete their daily "Cast X Black or Green spells" quests or something similar. – Malco Jan 03 '19 at 20:50
  • 3
    I didn't know about the daily quests... I think this actually changes things; a good answer can come from this. – GendoIkari Jan 03 '19 at 20:58

2 Answers2

13

There are multiple reasons that a player may be doing this.

  • Players have been building up to a certain game state; and they want to see their deck actually do what it was built to do. I know in casual/friendly games, my friends and I have been known to do crazy things like attack for 100 damage on the last turn; even though it was overkill for just winning the game. It can be fun to see your deck do crazy things.

  • MTG Arena features quests, which reward you with Gold for completing certain challenges, such as "attack with 45 creatures". An opponent may be trying to achieve one of these; which could require doing more than the minimum to just win a game.

  • They may be just being extra cautious to ensure a win. You might think they can simply attack with their creatures against you not having blockers and win the game, but they don't know whether or not you're holding a Fog in hand or not. You can help prevent this issue by completely tapping out before your turn is over. Though depending on the types of decks being played; they may still not be able to know for sure that they can win right now.

  • It could be that some players are just exhibiting bad sportsmanship, as you assume. They aren't thinking about how it feels to the player that is losing. They think winning isn't enough; they want to completely crush you.

The best solution to this is simply to resign when you know you've lost. Instead of passing your turn, forfeit the match. This saves them time as well.

The worst "solution" is to try and retaliate by wasting their time. That makes you the "bad guy" in this situation; it would be completely reasonable of them to complain about someone they played with that purposefully slow-played them to waste their time when they knew the game was over. Acting this way will simply make for a bad experience for everyone.

GendoIkari
  • 74,922
  • 4
  • 167
  • 293
  • Your "quests" link is hosed. – John Jan 03 '19 at 22:59
  • 2
    I think your point about not being sure that they can win now is a good one as there are times when I have noticed after my attack that I could have won the game with the last attack but I was to caught up in being careful that I overlooked the easy win. – Joe W Jan 04 '19 at 00:42
  • 3
    The quests thing is a BIG one, one of the common quests are play X cards between two colors. I would get a bit upset that people conceded not because I cared about the finishing blow, but because I was going to play a few more spells and finish a quest, that now has to move into a new game. – Andrew Jan 04 '19 at 15:13
2

It's fun.

There're three kinds of Magic players: Spike, Johnny, and Timmy. Spike wants to win and doesn't care about anything else. Johnny wants to win, but wants to do it in a cool, flashy, combo-ish way that nobody else ever imagined was possible (e.g. by drawing their entire library and killing the opponent with the otherwise-unplayable Lightning Storm). Finally Timmy wants to win big, casting big creatures and attacking for huge amounts.

Take a look at this screenshot

Zomg I hit my opponent to -466 life!!! You can tell that this player is a Timmy, and kudos to his opponent for allowing him to make this attack. Similarly, the opponent you describe in the question is probably a Timmy (or Johnny if he's doing a long combo) and he finds it fun to be able to execute the play.

All that said, if you don't like being on the receiving end of this kind of play, just concede. The opponent cannot stop you.

Allure
  • 13,236
  • 2
  • 42
  • 103
  • 1
    I would disagree with your statement and there are plenty of more types of opponents including ones that like to be able to progress as much as possible on the different quests in the arena app to minimize the amount of games they need to play each day to complete them. – Joe W Jan 04 '19 at 00:19
  • @JoeW that's certainly possible as well. Why not write that as your own answer? – Allure Jan 04 '19 at 00:34
  • 1
    Because it is already stated in an existing answer so there is no need to restate it. I was just pointing out that there are more types of magic players who may take their time to end a game then you mentioned in your answer. – Joe W Jan 04 '19 at 00:41
  • I had considered mentioning Johnny in my answer; so glad this is here. – GendoIkari Jan 04 '19 at 07:29
  • Extremely minor nitpick, but I would probably put someone playing a Divine visitation deck pretty far into the Johnny Category :D – Malco Jan 04 '19 at 14:58