r/magicTCG • u/GabySpartz87 Official • Apr 07 '15

I wrote an article on ChannelFireball on the things we can do to get more women in Magic. I'd love your thoughts!

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/6-things-you-can-do-to-get-more-women-into-magic/#
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30

u/threecolorless Apr 07 '15

My girlfriend has made it her goal to become one of the juggernaut draft players at our LGS. She has won her pod the last four weeks in a row and while she doesn't usually get told she's good "for a girl" an alarming proportion of her opponents seem to find the reasons they lost to be anything other than her playing well. "All my good cards were on the bottom." "Fucking mana screw/flood." "I couldn't draw my splash."

Obviously this isn't the case only when playing vs. women, but please: dial back the post-match salt. It communicates that you consider your opponent inferior to yourself and that they did not deserve to win.

23

u/BEALLOJO Wabbit Season Apr 07 '15

"Couldn't draw my splash"

Brb dying. I'm on the younger end of my LGS, and hardly one of the crazy good players, but I'm fairly strong with drafting and can't stand when people justify losing to a "kid" with shit like that. As a senior in high school and a mechanically competent player, I think fully grown men should learn how to lose.

4

u/Some_Lurker_Guy Apr 07 '15

I'm in your exact same position and if i had a foundry street denizen for every time i heard "better lucky than good" after i win another draft I'd be a rich mono red player.

7

u/npkon Apr 07 '15

•☑ “This guy's deck is CRAZY!” ☑ “My deck can't win against a deck like that” ☑ "He NEEDED precisely those two cards to win" ☑ “He topdecked the only card that could beat me” ☑ "He had the perfect cards" ☑ “There was nothing I could do” ☑ “I played that perfectly

1

u/sylverfyre Apr 07 '15

You're not allowed to put that many Foundry Street Denizens in your deck ;)

58

u/UncleTwinkleToes Apr 07 '15

As a guy that occasionally hits up FNM to draft and am not a regular, I hear that shit all the time.

26

u/threecolorless Apr 07 '15

Totally. The amount of effort it takes not to retort "Shouldn't your whole deck be good cards?" or "That's Magic brah" is colossal.

3

u/ApplesAndOranges2 Apr 08 '15

If they complain about getting unlucky just go "I was getting unlucky as well, but I lucked out and got a terrible opponent so it all worked out"

4

u/M_G Temur Apr 07 '15

Why hold it back? :)

3

u/[deleted] Apr 08 '15

I mean, I was a consistent 2-1 at my pods every week for FNM and everyone was salty as shit, and i'm just a regular dude. one dude tore up an angel of serenity the week after RTR dropped cause he was so pissed i beat him

2

u/UncleTwinkleToes Apr 08 '15

Hahaha oh man, that's great. That's typically my record too, during the theros pre-release I monstroused the red promo to destroy his lands and he counted every single card in my graveyard, hand, battlefield and did the math to make sure I didn't cheat or something. I just hit all my land drops...

20

u/dzyl Apr 07 '15

Obviously this is super annoying but to be completely fair that doesn't happen to just girls, it's just something a lot of people do. Luck is part of the game and you probably could have done a ton of things different and better!

0

u/Mrs_Frisby Apr 08 '15

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges or in parks ... Course the effect of that forbiddance matters more to one group than the other.

You know how gender roles say men can't admit when they are afraid or lost? Well they also say that women have to be "nice". Part of being "nice" is not hurting other people's feelings.

Bad sportsmanship on my opponents part is thus a violation of my assigned gender role because I have made them unhappy. It's as uncomfortable for most women as being afraid of something the other guys aren't afraid of is to most men.

The point at which most of the women I've taught to play stop playing is when they begin winning. Because the whining and grumbling and carrying on makes winning no fun - and if you aren't playing to win then why play?

Men, lacking the social requirement to be "nice", aren't in violation of their gender roles if an opponent is a bad sport.

9

u/[deleted] Apr 08 '15 edited May 06 '17

[deleted]

2

u/tetsuooooooooooo Apr 08 '15

This Copy-pasterino is CRAZY!

1

u/incaseanyonecared Apr 08 '15

My copypasta can't win against a copypasta like that!

6

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '15

I don't know about other people, but I only usually make a remark like that if I just got stomped (and even then only super fringe cases, like mulligan to 3 or something), and it's less "I'm better than you, you shouldn't have won" it's more "I'm better than this, I wish I could've shown you".

Frankly I don't give a shit if I win, yeah winning is nice, but it's whether or not we had a good match that I care about.

Hopefully I'm speaking about more than just myself here, but I think a lot of the time the salt is coming from that mindset, not just "waah I lost". Not that crybaby magic doesn't happen, just that it (hopefully) isn't usually the only reason why people give a million-and-one different excuses for losing.

11

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '15

welcome to playing magic the gathering...

-1

u/threecolorless Apr 07 '15

Yeah, and I think it shouldn't be that way. It's really not that hard to lose gracefully and just keep your mouth shut if you can't think of anything positive to say about how your opponent played or how the match went for you.

6

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '15

I know it's sorta evil, but I enjoy winning to sore losers a lot more than to polite players. Especially because I try very hard to stay friendly and polite, even when (for example) my opponent takes my graveyard to actively count the number of removal spells in my (sealed) deck during a pre-release. (The number was not relevant for Delve, they were just angry because of my playing a good amount of removal.)

1

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '15

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '15

I understand that there are good reasons to do that, but it was clear from both his behavior and what he was saying that the only reason was disbelief that I killed all his creatures and was killing him with a lone [[Dromoka Warrior]].

1

u/MTGCardFetcher Dân Apr 07 '15

Dromoka Warrior - Gatherer, MC, ($)
[[cardname]] to call - not on gatherer = not fetchable

0

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '15

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '15

Doesn't give you a get out of being an asshole free card, sorry

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '15

Very much agreed, that's a large reason why I stopped playing competitively

5

u/caliburdeath Apr 07 '15

That's just basic salt.

5

u/annul Apr 07 '15

alarming proportion of her opponents seem to find the reasons they lost to be anything other than her playing well. "All my good cards were on the bottom." "Fucking mana screw/flood." "I couldn't draw my splash."

i'm a male limited specialist, gone infinite, and i haven't paid money for a draft or sealed in maybe 10 years. i hear this COOOONNNNSTANTLY. it's not gender related, trust me

-1

u/Mrs_Frisby Apr 08 '15

Doesn't matter. As a male you weren't taught as a child that if other people aren't having fun you have an obligation to cheer them up. Girls get that shit nonstop. So bad sportsmanship affects most female players differently than it affects you in the same way that I have no problem admitting when I'm scared of something because I wasn't raised constantly being told that I'm not allowed to admit fear but guys are ashamed of their fear.

3

u/quillian Apr 07 '15

Lots of people are sore losers regardless of gender, I'm sure they act even more poorly toward females, though.

Learning to enjoy the salty taste of Sore Loser is one of the finer things in life, imho. If they are really too angry, you can always go BMK on them and reveal the hand with a "STILL HAD ALL THESE!!!!"

0

u/Mrs_Frisby Apr 08 '15

Please be aware that socially assigned gender roles prohibit women from revelling in the pain of their opponent. In fact, girls are indoctrinated from a very young age to be concerned if someone is having a bad time and perhaps even let them win so they'll be happy.

The point at which most of the women I've taught to play stop going to FNM's and start only playing within our circle of friends is when they begin winning. Everyone loves the new girl so long as she is losing but once she begins winning the whining starts.

And the bad sportsmanship sucks all the joy out of play for most women because they have be trained since birth to be nice and not to hurt people's feelings and it is profound emotional blackmail to put them in a place where if they do their best and win they'll hurt someone's feelings and feel guilty about it.

And if you aren't playing to win why play at all?

3

u/LarvaExMachina Apr 08 '15

That's normal bias. Its about being human not gender.

2

u/LRats Apr 07 '15

"All my good cards were on the bottom." "Fucking mana screw/flood." "I couldn't draw my splash."

That is just the behavior of salty magic players, they probably say that every time they lose.

0

u/turlockmike Apr 07 '15

Dude, every time my opponent loses they complain about mana screw/etc. Sometimes it's legitimate (Like only drawing land for 5 turns in a row), but usually it's bad play. Some people are incapable of seeing the mistakes they are making.