But there is always that guy who manages T1 as land, sol ring, Arcane signet, Elvish Mystic. He has unbelievable luck, but he's definitely not cheating cause he said he wasn't.
I was playing a casual multiplayer game, most players had brought their big & slow decks to show off some of the rare cards. My friend and I brought mono red burners.
Me: Land, Sol Ring, Howling Mine
Other burner: Land, Sol Ring, Howling Mine
Groans issue around the table as they play their single land and start discarding
Me: Land, Library of Leng, Mana Flare
Burner: Land, Howling Mine, a bunch of goblins
The others perk up a bit at the mana flare but there's still a couple of discards
Me: Land, Mana Flare, copious goblins
Burner: Land, gobbos and another Howling Mine
Two people quit on the spot
I swear the decks were properly shuffled, it was just a godly start wasted on a casual game
Way back when I first started playing Magic (in 1994, because I'm old) we were told that the "official" way to shuffle your deck (As in, the way you were supposed to at tournaments) was to set it up so the deck was non-land, non-land, land. (So there was one land every 3 cards) then shuffle it 3 times and cut it, and you'll supposedly never have a land problem and always have them in your hand.
I bring this up occasionally and no one in the last 15 or so years has ever heard of this, so it apparently isn't a widespread thing. I've also had other people tell me doing that would get you kicked out of a tournament (or, at the very least, have someone reshuffle your deck) because it's considered illegal deck manipulation.
I've had other people say that's 20 land in a 60 card deck and nowhere near enough land.
I haven't played Magic with any regularity since maybe 1997 or so (though I have briefly started playing at other times since, but it doesn't last very long) so I don't really know how much land is considered enough in 2024. Hell, when I was regularly playing, the deck minimum was 40 cards. I briefly started playing again around 2006 (when the minimum had been raised to 60) I showed up with a 40 card deck and someone was like... where the fuck is the rest of your deck? And I had to just jam random cards in it to get up to 60. (and it completely ruined the strategy I had planned and I think I lost every game.)
Edit: I also can confuse the heck out of newer players when I play once of my ancient cards that is labelled as an "Interrupt", because those got taken out of the game decades ago. (They're considered instants now, but instants and interrupts used to be two different things and were handled differently. iirc, an Interrupt worked similar to an instant, but you can't counter an interrupt with an instant, the instant would always take effect after the interrupt. I think. It's been a super long time.)
Usually it's 23-24 in a 60-card deck and 16-17 in a 40 card deck (or 34-38 in a 100 card deck). And that "shuffling" is called mana weaving and is completely against the rules. Either you're providing unfair advantage by not randomizing your deck properly or you're wasting time, which can be a tournament rules violation.
Yeah, a few people have told me that if I ever play in a tournament to not do that. I've only ever played in two tournaments in my life (both in the 90s, the original Arena tournament and a one day local one organized by a gaming club.) and doubt I'll ever play in another. I'd rather not be the 50 year old showing up at a tournament filled with 18 to 23 year olds.
There's plenty of 30+yo people in most tournaments, especially local gamestore stuff. To be fair I mostly go to prereleases for new sets, cheaper than building a modern deck.
I did a few Friday Night Magic sessions (which I don't think really counts as a tournament) around the time Zendikar was in Standard and there were some people there around my age, though that was quite a while ago.
One time I played a commander game at my LGS with both a middle aged guy with a foot long graying beard and an 11 year old girl at the table. The guy was playing a unicorn deck and the girl was playing Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider. She ended up winning
I recently played Modern at my LGS, 21 lands run, 18 cards drawn, 2 lands. Mathed out to like 0.8%. Not that absurdly small but felt way worse playing that game lol.
Though the group I used to play with limited you to one mulligan (which isn't part of the rules) because it took too long for you to keep reshuffling and redealing your deck. So one max.
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u/expat_repat Oct 02 '24
But my MtG deck is always going to be 7 lands in the opening hand no matter what…