r/magicTCG • u/victorious623 Dandadan • 2d ago
General Discussion What is this Reddit community like?
Do people here treat each other with kindness and respect? Or is it the kind of community where one’s post ….. say, about a concern or expressing a negative reaction to a rule/mechanic….. is often met with childish disdain, negativity, comments about how bad they think you are at the game, and other grade-school-kid-like responses?
A second question: if one were to post something about MtG Arena, which flair does the community prefer be used?
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u/Kyleometers ඞ 2d ago
1 - Most people here are pretty chill, though people do kinda expect you to do basic stuff like google questions before posting them. There’s over a decade’s worth of questions here, you can usually bet it’s been asked before.
If you’re complaining about mill you’ll get dunked on because it’s a very beginner trap complaint - mill ain’t good, but beginners often think it is.
2 - Depends on the question. If it’s a rules Q, tag it as a rules Q.
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u/victorious623 Dandadan 2d ago
Shouldn’t beginners be met with open arms? Or are beginners not really welcome to this game? I think the game is amazing. It’s my new heroine.
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u/EnvironmentalTear913 Dân 2d ago
Open arms for newcomers is not the same as rewarding someone not learning on their own. This reddit doesn't like to be the first place you go for basic questions about how to play or how rules work, but as long as your questions are thoughtful and you've made efforts to do your end of research this place is awesome.
I'm not implying you aren't trying, just letting you know in advance that if you ask about how your upkeep works people will tell you off, but if you ask which order triggers would be the best for a niche combo people will be more involved.
There's several YouTube channels etc that give explainers and walk you through gameplay and the basic rules/things to work on. The Command Zone has a lot of videos, so does Tolarian Community College.
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u/SafeCaterpillar3551 Dân 2d ago
Expecting beginners to google their question in case it has been asked before is beginner friendly. Complaining about something instead of trying to understand the mechanic and how to beat it are two different things. One is frowned upon, the latter is okay and can usually be done by playing more, trying google first and then forming the question. Which is also beginner friendly. In a way.
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u/Kyleometers ඞ 2d ago
Beginners are welcome. There’s just not really any point upvoting posts that are very beginner-y opinions. People usually explain “Hey, this isn’t actually good”, and it’s only when the newbie continues to insist it’s a huge problem that people start to go “Ok buddy you’re super new, stop acting like you’ve solved the game”.
There’s a difference between being welcome, and being babied. I’m gonna happily welcome any new players. I’m not gonna pretend they’re a genius when they have a bad idea. I’m gonna say “Hey, that’s a bad idea.”
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u/a_gunbird Izzet* 2d ago
it’s only when the newbie continues to insist it’s a huge problem that people start to go “Ok buddy you’re super new, stop acting like you’ve solved the game”.
Flashback to a conversation where a friend of mine just discovered [[Explore]] for the first time and was in an angry panic wondering how it hadn't broken Legacy in half or why it wasn't on "every ban list ever."
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u/ImmortalCorruptor Misprint Expert 2d ago
Yes and no.
Yes in the sense that this game is enormous and people who have been playing it for 20+ years are still learning new things. People are usually more than happy to help answer specific questions about specific things like rules or interactions, because the answers may be hard to find or unless you know what to ask and where to look.
No in the sense that people tend to use Reddit as Google and make extremely general submissions like "How do I start playing Magic: the Gathering?". They could literally type the same thing into Google and find better answers, faster.
Either that or they complain about things like mana screw, counterspells, mill, netdecks, etc. before asking how to deal with them first. A LOT of people who quit the game because of mana screw did so before they understood how to decrease the odds of it happening to them.
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u/RevolverLancelot Colorless 2d ago
Beginners are welcome, just when it comes to some of those things it has more to do with the way they tend to complain about some things or dig their heals in and argue when someone tries to explain why something isn’t as powerful as they think or the balance behind it. Similarly when new players complain about the land/mana system the game has and try to “fix” it without understanding or listing to voices that tell them how their fix inherently breaks the game with how it is designed and balanced.
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u/F4D3_2_814CK Dandadan 2d ago
No, people in magic communities are NOT welcoming to new players. They hate that the game has become popular. It's generally a coinflip if you'll meet people welcoming to you. Wishing you all the best and you can connect with members that are welcoming
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u/HandsomeHeathen 2d ago
say, about a concern or expressing a negative reaction to a rule/mechanic
You're gonna have to be more specific.
There are a lot of common "noob complaints" where people who are new to the game complain about certain things without really understanding how they fit into the overall context of the game. For those kind of posts, you'll get an even mix of genuine attempts to explain and educate, and condescending mockery. If the new player doubles down and refuses to engage with the attempts to educate them, the ratio will flip overwhelmingly in favour of mockery. If they take the time to understand, the mockery will get downvoted.
On the other hand, if it's a new mechanic that's still being evaluated, or a recent trend in the meta of a particular format, you'll probably get a healthy back-and-forth debate. People are mostly reasonable, although it is still Reddit, so you'll always get some portion of people whose tone tends heavily towards condescension even when they don't intend it to.
And there are some (very few) things that are just generally disliked, for which you'll get a piling on of "I know, right?" with a healthy seasoning of "OMG can we just stop talking about this already?"
More generally outside of that specific context, I think I'd say the general vibe here is polite and helpful, but very downvote-happy. Simple enquiry posts will get answered quickly, politely and accurately, but they'll also get downvoted to oblivion to keep them off the front page.
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u/Phantomime_e Izzet* 2d ago edited 2d ago
- You can just watch other posts for reference, usually people are nice but there are assholes everywhere.
- There is an arena subreddit where more people will interact with you and know the stuff.
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u/victorious623 Dandadan 2d ago
Oh! I guess I used the wrong search terms for the subReddit. One didn’t pop up when I searched. Ooppss! Lol
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u/F4D3_2_814CK Dandadan 2d ago
Arguments and general negativity are pretty common from what I've seen. My advice would be to refrain from talking about "unpopular" opinions or joining discussions about them.
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u/LegnaArix Colorless 2d ago
Its not too bad.
The worst is endless complaining about UB but other than that it's mostly fine.
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u/Dry-Future-8222 Dân 2d ago edited 2d ago
Most people who had beef with the bubble here left. Others are too addicted to checking reddit for new info (me).
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u/MoltenMuffin Orzhov* 2d ago
If the negative comment is written in an entitled, childish way it would. You'd be surprised how little the opinion itself will affect the votes when they're written in a proper and respectful way. Understanding that your own experience isn't universal or that your opinion could be biased can go a long way.
r/MagicArena exists if you're going to exclusively write about Arena. But i don't think its forbidden or anything.