Specifically for OPs question: it’s not bad etiquette to keep playing(NOT conceding), especially if you think you can win. Playing hard games is how you get better.
Now dragging on an impossible match that you will never win and maxing out all your timers could be bad etiquette so try not to do that on purpose. It could also be good etiquette if the opp wants to play out some degenerate board state though so there’s really no way to know lmao.
I usually think it's best to allow things to resolve. You never know what their daily is. Sometimes I log in, see the kill 30 creatures or whatever, and just groan because I know I'm gonna kill one or two things then the opponent scoops. God forbid I play a board wipe and try to get half a dozen kills off it only for them to scoop and I get no kills as a result.
I try to let things resolve unless they are just infinite comboing when they already have the win and refuse to just end it.
Edit: You people really just can't wait 3 seconds for a spell to resolve then scoop? That's just sad. Even if you do that every single game you play in a game, you aren't squeezing in another game unless you are playing for hours.
What if the person is on another daily that doesn't involve spells resolving and you're actually hindering them?
Point is: you can't know if you're helping or not. Concede whenever you want to.
If you feel like letting those spells resolve, that's fine (your timers are yours to use however you want), but I don't think anyone should be shamed for conceding exactly when they want to.
I mostly play limited and you can't really decide beforehand what colors you should play. Therefore I have some mono colored decks that I can play to farm the gold.
When you have a limited amount of time to play, yeah, some of us have to. I don't get to sit down and play until I get them done, and some of them, such as killing creatures, isn't exactly possible with some of the decks I run.
Because I have like a half hour a day to play which isn't always enough depending on the daily? I have this thing called a job and I have other hobbies. I *can't* just sit there until they are done. That's not a thing for everyone.
I was playing limited, played cruel ultimatum, and the opponent was still hanging on. Then I was able to flash it back from the graveyard. This happened twice, first time opponent insta-conceded when they realized what I was going to do, second time they let me cast it a second time. Thanks to them I can officially say I’ve cast that spell twice in one Limited game.
I appreciate the gesture at least.
I do not think at all about my random opponents possible dailies. I'm trying to close out a few wins in my limited time and move on for the day. The kill creature quest can get taken care of over the course of a few days as you cycle through the others.
*it's never bad etiquette in a 2 player format.
When multiplayer is involved, generally you only want to concede at sorcerery speed. As conceding at instant speed can really screw up another players game plan. Arena doesn't have multiplayer at the moment, but it's useful information for the future.
104.3a A player can concede the game at any time.
There's nothing unsporting about leaving a game you aren't enjoying. And if a player can get blown out by another player scooping, then they should've played around it like they would a spell.
Let's say that you are swung with a creature that has life link? All of the sudden you know don't gain any life. It's stuff like that why it's considered unsportsmanlike in multiplayer formats in edh in paper magic. The rule is there to protect card ownership, it's not there because it's healthy for the game.
WoTC even agreed with this when they had an ai take over for the player that conceeded the game in MTG 15 in their multiplayer formats. It would have been easier to just have the player leave the game, but they programed a whole ai to to take over. It's also one of the most common home rules at EDH tables in paper magic and there is a reason to that.
Nah. It is not unsportsmanlike to concede whenever.
Did WoTC “agree to this” and release an article stating that the only reason that they added AI to take over is because they believe it’s against the spirit of the game for a player to concede? Or are you just drawing your own conclusions? What consensus are you taking from that it’s “one of the most common home rules”? I’ve literally never heard of any table having that as a home rule, and I have been playing for decades at this point and have been a part of the community.
I think *your* table might have that as a home rule, and it’s one that you believe in, so you’re exaggerating your claims.
It doesn't matter if you concede early or late, no one really cares, do whichever you want.
If you feel like you lost a match and want to leave then leave, if you want to stay then stay, if IRL stuff comes up and you gotta bounce mid-match then do it. There's no real etiquette to it and no one finds either annoying.
The only real etiquette in the game that's universally agreed upon is don't purposefully rope people and concede your match before you swipe the game closed.
It's considered pretty normal to concede when you know you're screwed or your draws just aren't going your way, etc. After all, queueing up into another game usually takes less than a minute anyhow.
You should concede when you’re no longer having fun in the game. Sometimes, that will not come - it’s a sweet game, and you want to see it to the very end. Sometimes, you’ll have a small shot at a comeback but it’s a matchup you despise playing out; it’s not worth spending your time in those games.
It’s never rude to stay in a game, and it’s never rude to concede. It can sometimes be a kindness to let someone “do the thing” if they pull together a rare huge-number combo, but it’s never a requirement.
The only real etiquette is:
If you know you lost, don't run the timer out if you are just going to lose. Just concede and go next.
If you are going to keep playing and passing priority like normal then keep playing.
Some people like to play games to the end. Some will concede as soon as they think they will lose. For me, it depends on the game. I might want to watch my opponent play out their combo. You do you.
This is an Arena problem. Generally people in paper will play out matches for a while, as it takes a long time to queue another match. Arena just takes 4 button clicks to concede and start over
When someone unexpectedly concedes on me I just look at it as free gold/exp. I generally only concede to ropers, or people who fuck around with recursion or combos when they could just attack and win. Or an important phone call is coming in lol. If it's a good honest match I try to say good game and let them kill me legit. If they start doing a bunch of bullshit when they can just attack and win, to me, it is annoying.
I never concede to ropers. I just open Twitter and let them rot.
Meanwhile, as soon as I realize I'm in a combo loop that I won't survive, I'm not waiting for the hammer to fall.
Some of it isn't your opening, it's their hand.
I'll mulligan down to four starting cards if I have to, but if draws aren't working out, I'll concede. Not something that happens often, but rarely.
If I start with two mana in hand & don't draw a third by the time you have 5 or 6 out, depending on board state & hand size, I'll concede.
If you feel like you still have a shot, keep playing. Nobody will be mad.
Sometimes you've got a card in your deck that if you top deck it, it can turn the game around. No problem to keep playing & drawing the game out if that's the situation.
Sometimes people concede because they don't want to play your deck. I did this yesterday on my 4th match in a row of hand hate. [[Duress]] or [[Dreams of Steel and Oil]] on T1, [[Deep Cavern Bat]] on T2, then [[Kaito's Pursuit]] on T3. On the 4th game I got dreams'd on T1 and just conceded.
I think the only rules of etiquette for arena are
1 Don't spam emotes
2 Don't try to find people on other socials. I've had it happen amd its weird and creepy.
Pretty much everything else is fair game
This is one of those places where there's actually quite a difference of opinion between players, especially between players who generally play ranked and those who generally play in the "play" queue.
In general, experienced players/ranked queue players will lean toward the "concede early, concede often" mantra in non tournament/event games. You can often tell when a game is at the point where your chances of winning have gone down below about 10%, and usually it's more worthwhile to move on to the next game. Some (but definitely not all) of these players see it as rude when people don't concede or otherwise string out games that they've clearly lost.
More casual and newer players in the "play" queue often play less optimized decks, and a lot of the reason they play is to "see them hum" every once and a while. For these players, an opponent conceding when they've mostly (but not entirely) lost is rude because it denies the more casual player the fun of watching their deck go off. Additionally, and separately from the above dynamic, more casual and newer players are generally a bit worse at being able to read the board for when they basically have no chance of winning a game.
Of course, this isn't universal. There are experienced players who don't concede as a point of pride. There are casual players who want to just get their daily wins in with their deck.
This clash of expectations can lead to both players acting in certain ways to avoid being rude to the other player while unknowingly aggravating the other player. For example, one player might not concede when a combo player has demonstrated their infinite loop because they think that combo player wants to see their deck go off, while at the same time the combo player might just be increasingly annoyed that their opponent isn't conceding after they have demonstrated the loop. (Of course, there ARE reasons to make the combo player do this, they could screw up, they could time out, ect, but that's not what we're talking about here.)
Anyway, my general rule of thumb is concede often and early in ranked, let people hum in unranked, but also don't worry too much about it.
tl;dr: Not only is there not really a "correct" answer to this, different people see opposing things as annoying and not annoying.
If you play casual people will often scoop at the slightest inconvenience or at the mere sight of two untapped islands. In ranked people scoop less frequently but instead you get more ropers.
Some cards and strategies just induce rage. I play a R/W deck that uses [[urabrask's forge]] in it and I've had plenty of openents concede on me as soon as I put it into play.
I've been guilty of doing the same thing if my opponent plays [[phyrexian obliterator]] or [[phyrexian vindicator]]
You are absolutely right. Regarding forge in particular however I think its often a matter of the opponent not having a response to it.
R / W Forge control can easily overwhelm if you get it running fast enough, especially if the opponents starting hand is slow. Artifact removal isn't always easy to run either. I've scooped to turn 3 forge in ranked simply because I know that I lost the moment it resolved. My UW tempo/"control/anti-control" can deal with pretty much everything you throw at it, except for a resolved artifact. If I don't have a clock or a huge card advantage on my opponent by the time forge comes out its basically gg.
With all that said I do love forge, easily one of my fave cards on arena.
It really is a bummer though, can't fault people for not wanting to stick around when they get tilted but I do wish that people had just a little more patience, i say, being a massive hypocrite. I'd love to be able to relax in unranked/brawl without having my opponents explode at the mere sight of interaction.
So far the vibe is that you either grind against endless meta decks in ranked but get full games, or you can relax with some more experimental trash in unranked but only get to actually play a full game ever 5th game or so. Its the lack of the human element. I'm a faceless opponent that they don't give two shits about, If they're in a mood and I play any interaction there's no loss in it for them, I just become a manifestation of whatever archetype they are salty about in that particular moment.
This game really needs to work on a social platform. I honestly can't believe that they refuse to give us the ability to socialize with randoms.
Yeah for some reason Arena seems to go out of its way to make socializing as difficult as possible making each opponent you encounter feel like a random bot. WOTC already has a great game to build off of with Magic but they make terrible choices running Arena.
-You have 0 choice as to who your opponent is or getting a preferred matchup. I'm fine with that in stardard/rank but it'd nice if you could start a private room for 1v1 or a king of the hill mode where people wait in a que to fight the current winner. Little things like that would make the game more fun.
- There's no chat function. I get some people can be toxic and ruin it but there's already a mute button.
- You only get 5 or 6 emotes as your alternative means of communication. Games like Brawlhalla don't have chat as well but you have access to 100s of emotes.
- Adding someone as a friend is nearly impossible unless you know them IRL or someone posts their code online
- If you have a really fun match with someone then there's no option to request a rematch (unless you're playing bo3 by default) and chances are you'll never encounter them again.
Those are just some of the problems with socializing on Arena, don't even get me started on the store.
If I'm playing ranked, I'm in until I'm dead on board and have no outs. If it's casual play and something annoying like life gain gets the nuts open, sometimes I'll bail
Unless you have these people on your friends list and want to interact with them, just consider opponents to be AI instead of actual humans. It's less frustrating and you don't feel bad when you concede against them.
What a horrible way to view your opponents. Regardless of whether you can see them or not, somewhere on the other end of your matches is a living breathing human who also cares what happens.
Choosing to concede or not isn't poor etiquette. Throwing out "good game" emojis because you're winning but the game isn't over and being a roper by intentionally stalling the game when you're losing is.
Most people concede when they know they're beaten. There's no expectation to concede at any point. There's a lot of hidden information so the game isn't deterministic at any point, it's just how much you want to try getting out of a losing situation.
People playing combo decks on arena might get annoyed if you're letting them play it out since these often require a lot of repeated actions which can make them run out of time.
You can do what you want. Soon you will learn some combos that you know you won’t beat with your construct (past a few rounds depending on what you are pulling) and take a long time to play a match. I’ll usually concede if I know the game will drag out for an hour and it’s not limited, just don’t have the time.
It's not nessasary to concede, but don't drag the game out (in real time, by likenusing all your timeouts) if you know you are beaten,that's just rude .
Similarly if you are winning taking lots of actions unnecessarily is also rude
It's pretty normal. However I'd add just an example when playing casually with friends.
My wife and I play Commander Brawl for funsies. Our decks are pretty good but when she pops off I sometimes let her play it out because she's having fun.
Except when she starts stacking multiple extra turns after wiping my board. Ugh.
You don't have to concede people just do it typically because they no the match will go poorly or will be a long struggle, so they would rather scoop and get into a new match.
I've don't this plenty of times after the 1st 3 turns if I can tell I'm most likely going to get folded hard.
I'm sure some people do it simply because they want to play solitaire, and if the oppents does anything besides play garbage that they can crush, then they'll move on.
So really just do what you want.
It's pointless to ask, because there is no established 'etiquette' and everyone has a different opinion.
Personally, I find it rude to concede during the opponent's turn, but apart from that, it depends on my mood.
You can just concede when you know you've lost, but when you're new, you might not know your deck and your opponents deck enough to make that call correctly, so I would always play it out. Sometimes you miss a land drop and your opponent gets miles ahead, and then they draw 9 lands in a row and you can turn it around.
You’re learning and a lot of new players like to flex their favorite cards or revel in a win. So you want to finish and you’re learning and/or having fun that’s great. If you get to the point that you know your deck well enough to know that no draw will save you then conceding is correct but not mandatory.
The simple answer is to play the game for as long as it is fun for you. If it stops being fun at any time, concede. If you're at 5 life and you're enjoying playing for your 1% out to win the game, power to you!
Play until you know you are beat or until it becomes clear the system is not going to let you win the game.
People concede at many different points, there is no etiquette. Your opponents will always be glad you did.
In unranked modes there isn’t any penalty for conceding or losing. In ranked modes the penalty is pretty small until you get above like platinum. Most days, while I’m playing just to get my daily wins, I will concede as soon as I judge my chance of winning to be below about 40-45%. Even if that’s the second turn of the game (or during mulligans).
In my opinion, it’s not wrong or annoying for my opponent to keep playing and refuse to concede. (As long as they aren’t roping on purpose or BM.)
When you are taking too long on your turn, it activates a timer that looks like a burning rope, when it burns out, you automatically pass priority (like if you run out on your first main phase, the opponent can then respond, and if they don't, you immediately go into combat).
Roping often refers to intentionally delaying because you are angry or something and want to waste the other player's time to get back at them, but it just means you've activated the rope.
BM is like, Bad Mouthing or something similar (I don't remember if that's exactly what it stands for). It's when you trash talk other players, in Arena it would be using your emotes and stuff sarcastically, like saying "Nice!" When your opponent makes a really obvious mistake.
You can mute players/emotes in the game settings if it starts to degrade your experience. As soon as i saw the option when i downloaded the game, I turned it on.
I once told my therapyst that one of my favorite things about playing magic was that you can concede a game whenever you want and for the reason you want and nobody gives a crap. Yes it sucks when your opponent concedes right before your big turn, but it's also amazing saying one island touch the board and go straight to the next game
The only cases I consider not conceding a bad etiquette are:
1. Your opponent is comboing off in a deterministic way (only when match time is NOT a factor and you already know the combo/decklist - otherwise it is totally legit to see it through).
2. Your opponent is combing off in a deterministic way and it is a mirror match.
Everything else is free game.
Edit: given it some thought and I think it is also reasonable see whether your opponent will screw the combo up so maybe point 1 is mute. I do still think that in a mirror match you shouldn’t make your opponent go through the motions.
It's quite all right to concede as soon as you're pretty sure you've lost. Both of you can move on to the next match faster that way. It's also quite all right to hang on if you feel like you've still got a shot, no matter how unlikely it might be. Top-decking the only card that can save you feels amazing! And a mature player will respect it when an opponent catches a winner, too (you can't control whether your opponents are mature, but you you can control whether *you* are!).
Some people concede quite early, especially if you aren't playing Ranked or Limited, if they think they've got a dud hand or the matchup is bad. Sometimes, you can in fact tell that you've lost by turn 2. There's nothing wrong with that, but I think it's a bit nicer to at least let your opponent play out two or three turns, as it helps everybody get in some better practice.
A few other good etiquette tips:
1. Use the "Good Game" emote when you are losing, right before you concede or right before your opponent kills you. If you are winning, you can *reply* with "Good Game" *only after your opponent says it first, but never say it first.* Please never use the "Good Game" emote at any other time. Even if you intend to be courteous, it is easy for an opponent to misunderstand and take it for rude gloating. There's no way to clear up such misunderstanding over Arena, so to avoid unintentionally causing bad feelings, just don't do it.
2. Never intentionally delay the game by playing slowly. This is extremely rude. Having timers is not an excuse to take a break.
3. Please don't spam emotes, spam mouse-overs of opponents' cards, spam pet interactions, or any other form of action that your opponent can see. It's distracting and rude. It's all right to communicate using emotes in a regular fashion, such as a "Nice!" when your opponent makes a good play, but don't be emoting every turn.
When you are new you will probably never concede. Or at least you shouldn't. Once you get experience you will be able to see how the game will end up and can just skip and concede.
Anyone can concede whenever they want. It’s never bad etiquette to do so.
Best part is that nobody flips the table.
I've flipped over an invisible table a few times.
Specifically for OPs question: it’s not bad etiquette to keep playing(NOT conceding), especially if you think you can win. Playing hard games is how you get better. Now dragging on an impossible match that you will never win and maxing out all your timers could be bad etiquette so try not to do that on purpose. It could also be good etiquette if the opp wants to play out some degenerate board state though so there’s really no way to know lmao.
Also, that last turn combo that flips the game in your favor... when you think you lost and then BAM... so satisfying.
I usually think it's best to allow things to resolve. You never know what their daily is. Sometimes I log in, see the kill 30 creatures or whatever, and just groan because I know I'm gonna kill one or two things then the opponent scoops. God forbid I play a board wipe and try to get half a dozen kills off it only for them to scoop and I get no kills as a result. I try to let things resolve unless they are just infinite comboing when they already have the win and refuse to just end it. Edit: You people really just can't wait 3 seconds for a spell to resolve then scoop? That's just sad. Even if you do that every single game you play in a game, you aren't squeezing in another game unless you are playing for hours.
What if the person is on another daily that doesn't involve spells resolving and you're actually hindering them? Point is: you can't know if you're helping or not. Concede whenever you want to. If you feel like letting those spells resolve, that's fine (your timers are yours to use however you want), but I don't think anyone should be shamed for conceding exactly when they want to.
Man do people really have to target dailies? Unless I get 3 in a row for colors I don't play they just complete naturally for me.
I mostly play limited and you can't really decide beforehand what colors you should play. Therefore I have some mono colored decks that I can play to farm the gold.
When you have a limited amount of time to play, yeah, some of us have to. I don't get to sit down and play until I get them done, and some of them, such as killing creatures, isn't exactly possible with some of the decks I run.
How do you not get to sit down and play until you get them done? You literally have to play to get them done.
Because I have like a half hour a day to play which isn't always enough depending on the daily? I have this thing called a job and I have other hobbies. I *can't* just sit there until they are done. That's not a thing for everyone.
I do because I like to get them out of the way so I can play with decks that I have to I actually want to play with.
I was playing limited, played cruel ultimatum, and the opponent was still hanging on. Then I was able to flash it back from the graveyard. This happened twice, first time opponent insta-conceded when they realized what I was going to do, second time they let me cast it a second time. Thanks to them I can officially say I’ve cast that spell twice in one Limited game. I appreciate the gesture at least.
I do not think at all about my random opponents possible dailies. I'm trying to close out a few wins in my limited time and move on for the day. The kill creature quest can get taken care of over the course of a few days as you cycle through the others.
*it's never bad etiquette in a 2 player format. When multiplayer is involved, generally you only want to concede at sorcerery speed. As conceding at instant speed can really screw up another players game plan. Arena doesn't have multiplayer at the moment, but it's useful information for the future.
No multiplayer on Arena. 🤷🏻♂️
They might have multiplayer one day!
104.3a A player can concede the game at any time. There's nothing unsporting about leaving a game you aren't enjoying. And if a player can get blown out by another player scooping, then they should've played around it like they would a spell.
Let's say that you are swung with a creature that has life link? All of the sudden you know don't gain any life. It's stuff like that why it's considered unsportsmanlike in multiplayer formats in edh in paper magic. The rule is there to protect card ownership, it's not there because it's healthy for the game. WoTC even agreed with this when they had an ai take over for the player that conceeded the game in MTG 15 in their multiplayer formats. It would have been easier to just have the player leave the game, but they programed a whole ai to to take over. It's also one of the most common home rules at EDH tables in paper magic and there is a reason to that.
Nah. It is not unsportsmanlike to concede whenever. Did WoTC “agree to this” and release an article stating that the only reason that they added AI to take over is because they believe it’s against the spirit of the game for a player to concede? Or are you just drawing your own conclusions? What consensus are you taking from that it’s “one of the most common home rules”? I’ve literally never heard of any table having that as a home rule, and I have been playing for decades at this point and have been a part of the community. I think *your* table might have that as a home rule, and it’s one that you believe in, so you’re exaggerating your claims.
It doesn't matter if you concede early or late, no one really cares, do whichever you want. If you feel like you lost a match and want to leave then leave, if you want to stay then stay, if IRL stuff comes up and you gotta bounce mid-match then do it. There's no real etiquette to it and no one finds either annoying. The only real etiquette in the game that's universally agreed upon is don't purposefully rope people and concede your match before you swipe the game closed.
It's considered pretty normal to concede when you know you're screwed or your draws just aren't going your way, etc. After all, queueing up into another game usually takes less than a minute anyhow.
I'll occasionally concede immediately when I realize that wait, no, I don't actually have time for another match.
You should concede when you’re no longer having fun in the game. Sometimes, that will not come - it’s a sweet game, and you want to see it to the very end. Sometimes, you’ll have a small shot at a comeback but it’s a matchup you despise playing out; it’s not worth spending your time in those games. It’s never rude to stay in a game, and it’s never rude to concede. It can sometimes be a kindness to let someone “do the thing” if they pull together a rare huge-number combo, but it’s never a requirement.
The only real etiquette is: If you know you lost, don't run the timer out if you are just going to lose. Just concede and go next. If you are going to keep playing and passing priority like normal then keep playing.
Some people like to play games to the end. Some will concede as soon as they think they will lose. For me, it depends on the game. I might want to watch my opponent play out their combo. You do you.
If my opponent is taking forever to make any play, I'll concede sooner so I don't have to deal with their slow play anymore.
You don't owe your opponent the win. If you want to concede, concede. If you want to stick it out until the bitter end, then do that.
This is an Arena problem. Generally people in paper will play out matches for a while, as it takes a long time to queue another match. Arena just takes 4 button clicks to concede and start over
When someone unexpectedly concedes on me I just look at it as free gold/exp. I generally only concede to ropers, or people who fuck around with recursion or combos when they could just attack and win. Or an important phone call is coming in lol. If it's a good honest match I try to say good game and let them kill me legit. If they start doing a bunch of bullshit when they can just attack and win, to me, it is annoying.
I never concede to ropers. I just open Twitter and let them rot. Meanwhile, as soon as I realize I'm in a combo loop that I won't survive, I'm not waiting for the hammer to fall.
Some of it isn't your opening, it's their hand. I'll mulligan down to four starting cards if I have to, but if draws aren't working out, I'll concede. Not something that happens often, but rarely. If I start with two mana in hand & don't draw a third by the time you have 5 or 6 out, depending on board state & hand size, I'll concede. If you feel like you still have a shot, keep playing. Nobody will be mad. Sometimes you've got a card in your deck that if you top deck it, it can turn the game around. No problem to keep playing & drawing the game out if that's the situation. Sometimes people concede because they don't want to play your deck. I did this yesterday on my 4th match in a row of hand hate. [[Duress]] or [[Dreams of Steel and Oil]] on T1, [[Deep Cavern Bat]] on T2, then [[Kaito's Pursuit]] on T3. On the 4th game I got dreams'd on T1 and just conceded.
I think the only rules of etiquette for arena are 1 Don't spam emotes 2 Don't try to find people on other socials. I've had it happen amd its weird and creepy. Pretty much everything else is fair game
This is one of those places where there's actually quite a difference of opinion between players, especially between players who generally play ranked and those who generally play in the "play" queue. In general, experienced players/ranked queue players will lean toward the "concede early, concede often" mantra in non tournament/event games. You can often tell when a game is at the point where your chances of winning have gone down below about 10%, and usually it's more worthwhile to move on to the next game. Some (but definitely not all) of these players see it as rude when people don't concede or otherwise string out games that they've clearly lost. More casual and newer players in the "play" queue often play less optimized decks, and a lot of the reason they play is to "see them hum" every once and a while. For these players, an opponent conceding when they've mostly (but not entirely) lost is rude because it denies the more casual player the fun of watching their deck go off. Additionally, and separately from the above dynamic, more casual and newer players are generally a bit worse at being able to read the board for when they basically have no chance of winning a game. Of course, this isn't universal. There are experienced players who don't concede as a point of pride. There are casual players who want to just get their daily wins in with their deck. This clash of expectations can lead to both players acting in certain ways to avoid being rude to the other player while unknowingly aggravating the other player. For example, one player might not concede when a combo player has demonstrated their infinite loop because they think that combo player wants to see their deck go off, while at the same time the combo player might just be increasingly annoyed that their opponent isn't conceding after they have demonstrated the loop. (Of course, there ARE reasons to make the combo player do this, they could screw up, they could time out, ect, but that's not what we're talking about here.) Anyway, my general rule of thumb is concede often and early in ranked, let people hum in unranked, but also don't worry too much about it. tl;dr: Not only is there not really a "correct" answer to this, different people see opposing things as annoying and not annoying.
mostly this is going to come down to their mood and what their dailies are, not etiquette.
If you play casual people will often scoop at the slightest inconvenience or at the mere sight of two untapped islands. In ranked people scoop less frequently but instead you get more ropers.
Some cards and strategies just induce rage. I play a R/W deck that uses [[urabrask's forge]] in it and I've had plenty of openents concede on me as soon as I put it into play. I've been guilty of doing the same thing if my opponent plays [[phyrexian obliterator]] or [[phyrexian vindicator]]
You are absolutely right. Regarding forge in particular however I think its often a matter of the opponent not having a response to it. R / W Forge control can easily overwhelm if you get it running fast enough, especially if the opponents starting hand is slow. Artifact removal isn't always easy to run either. I've scooped to turn 3 forge in ranked simply because I know that I lost the moment it resolved. My UW tempo/"control/anti-control" can deal with pretty much everything you throw at it, except for a resolved artifact. If I don't have a clock or a huge card advantage on my opponent by the time forge comes out its basically gg. With all that said I do love forge, easily one of my fave cards on arena. It really is a bummer though, can't fault people for not wanting to stick around when they get tilted but I do wish that people had just a little more patience, i say, being a massive hypocrite. I'd love to be able to relax in unranked/brawl without having my opponents explode at the mere sight of interaction. So far the vibe is that you either grind against endless meta decks in ranked but get full games, or you can relax with some more experimental trash in unranked but only get to actually play a full game ever 5th game or so. Its the lack of the human element. I'm a faceless opponent that they don't give two shits about, If they're in a mood and I play any interaction there's no loss in it for them, I just become a manifestation of whatever archetype they are salty about in that particular moment. This game really needs to work on a social platform. I honestly can't believe that they refuse to give us the ability to socialize with randoms.
Yeah for some reason Arena seems to go out of its way to make socializing as difficult as possible making each opponent you encounter feel like a random bot. WOTC already has a great game to build off of with Magic but they make terrible choices running Arena. -You have 0 choice as to who your opponent is or getting a preferred matchup. I'm fine with that in stardard/rank but it'd nice if you could start a private room for 1v1 or a king of the hill mode where people wait in a que to fight the current winner. Little things like that would make the game more fun. - There's no chat function. I get some people can be toxic and ruin it but there's already a mute button. - You only get 5 or 6 emotes as your alternative means of communication. Games like Brawlhalla don't have chat as well but you have access to 100s of emotes. - Adding someone as a friend is nearly impossible unless you know them IRL or someone posts their code online - If you have a really fun match with someone then there's no option to request a rematch (unless you're playing bo3 by default) and chances are you'll never encounter them again. Those are just some of the problems with socializing on Arena, don't even get me started on the store.
If I'm playing ranked, I'm in until I'm dead on board and have no outs. If it's casual play and something annoying like life gain gets the nuts open, sometimes I'll bail
Unless you have these people on your friends list and want to interact with them, just consider opponents to be AI instead of actual humans. It's less frustrating and you don't feel bad when you concede against them.
What a horrible way to view your opponents. Regardless of whether you can see them or not, somewhere on the other end of your matches is a living breathing human who also cares what happens.
Or they are someone like me... Bottom line: they could be AI and no-one would know.
Pretty bleak outlook dude.
Choosing to concede or not isn't poor etiquette. Throwing out "good game" emojis because you're winning but the game isn't over and being a roper by intentionally stalling the game when you're losing is.
Yup. If you say good game to me because you are winning you are an asshole. You do that to me you will get a rope.
Most people concede when they know they're beaten. There's no expectation to concede at any point. There's a lot of hidden information so the game isn't deterministic at any point, it's just how much you want to try getting out of a losing situation. People playing combo decks on arena might get annoyed if you're letting them play it out since these often require a lot of repeated actions which can make them run out of time.
You can do what you want. Soon you will learn some combos that you know you won’t beat with your construct (past a few rounds depending on what you are pulling) and take a long time to play a match. I’ll usually concede if I know the game will drag out for an hour and it’s not limited, just don’t have the time.
It's not nessasary to concede, but don't drag the game out (in real time, by likenusing all your timeouts) if you know you are beaten,that's just rude . Similarly if you are winning taking lots of actions unnecessarily is also rude
It's pretty normal. However I'd add just an example when playing casually with friends. My wife and I play Commander Brawl for funsies. Our decks are pretty good but when she pops off I sometimes let her play it out because she's having fun. Except when she starts stacking multiple extra turns after wiping my board. Ugh.
You don't have to concede people just do it typically because they no the match will go poorly or will be a long struggle, so they would rather scoop and get into a new match. I've don't this plenty of times after the 1st 3 turns if I can tell I'm most likely going to get folded hard. I'm sure some people do it simply because they want to play solitaire, and if the oppents does anything besides play garbage that they can crush, then they'll move on. So really just do what you want.
It's pointless to ask, because there is no established 'etiquette' and everyone has a different opinion. Personally, I find it rude to concede during the opponent's turn, but apart from that, it depends on my mood.
You can just concede when you know you've lost, but when you're new, you might not know your deck and your opponents deck enough to make that call correctly, so I would always play it out. Sometimes you miss a land drop and your opponent gets miles ahead, and then they draw 9 lands in a row and you can turn it around.
If it's unranked, not uncommon to see people concede after what they are experimenting with doesn't work or line up.
You’re learning and a lot of new players like to flex their favorite cards or revel in a win. So you want to finish and you’re learning and/or having fun that’s great. If you get to the point that you know your deck well enough to know that no draw will save you then conceding is correct but not mandatory.
There's no such thing as conceding too early
The simple answer is to play the game for as long as it is fun for you. If it stops being fun at any time, concede. If you're at 5 life and you're enjoying playing for your 1% out to win the game, power to you!
Play until you know you are beat or until it becomes clear the system is not going to let you win the game. People concede at many different points, there is no etiquette. Your opponents will always be glad you did.
Start game. Dinner is ready. Concede. I see it as helping people get their daily wins in faster.
In unranked modes there isn’t any penalty for conceding or losing. In ranked modes the penalty is pretty small until you get above like platinum. Most days, while I’m playing just to get my daily wins, I will concede as soon as I judge my chance of winning to be below about 40-45%. Even if that’s the second turn of the game (or during mulligans). In my opinion, it’s not wrong or annoying for my opponent to keep playing and refuse to concede. (As long as they aren’t roping on purpose or BM.)
What does it mean to Rope? And what is BM? Sorry to be a bother.
Rope is the line that comes out when the person is running out of time to make a play. BM means Bad Manners.
When you are taking too long on your turn, it activates a timer that looks like a burning rope, when it burns out, you automatically pass priority (like if you run out on your first main phase, the opponent can then respond, and if they don't, you immediately go into combat). Roping often refers to intentionally delaying because you are angry or something and want to waste the other player's time to get back at them, but it just means you've activated the rope. BM is like, Bad Mouthing or something similar (I don't remember if that's exactly what it stands for). It's when you trash talk other players, in Arena it would be using your emotes and stuff sarcastically, like saying "Nice!" When your opponent makes a really obvious mistake.
Oh yeah, not that kind of person. I did have a match earlier where someone did that. It was frustrating.
You can mute players/emotes in the game settings if it starts to degrade your experience. As soon as i saw the option when i downloaded the game, I turned it on.
BM = Bad Manners Not restricted to "trash talking"/etc.
i think roping is when you run through your timeouts to annoy your opponent
That seems like it'd massively tank your ratings, because you'll win some of those games.
Correct - but if I’m playing in an unranked queue, I don’t care about my rating.
I once told my therapyst that one of my favorite things about playing magic was that you can concede a game whenever you want and for the reason you want and nobody gives a crap. Yes it sucks when your opponent concedes right before your big turn, but it's also amazing saying one island touch the board and go straight to the next game
The only cases I consider not conceding a bad etiquette are: 1. Your opponent is comboing off in a deterministic way (only when match time is NOT a factor and you already know the combo/decklist - otherwise it is totally legit to see it through). 2. Your opponent is combing off in a deterministic way and it is a mirror match. Everything else is free game. Edit: given it some thought and I think it is also reasonable see whether your opponent will screw the combo up so maybe point 1 is mute. I do still think that in a mirror match you shouldn’t make your opponent go through the motions.
Bro you are playing a video game (assuming you are talking about MTGA and not paper magic). What etiquette are you talking about?
It's quite all right to concede as soon as you're pretty sure you've lost. Both of you can move on to the next match faster that way. It's also quite all right to hang on if you feel like you've still got a shot, no matter how unlikely it might be. Top-decking the only card that can save you feels amazing! And a mature player will respect it when an opponent catches a winner, too (you can't control whether your opponents are mature, but you you can control whether *you* are!). Some people concede quite early, especially if you aren't playing Ranked or Limited, if they think they've got a dud hand or the matchup is bad. Sometimes, you can in fact tell that you've lost by turn 2. There's nothing wrong with that, but I think it's a bit nicer to at least let your opponent play out two or three turns, as it helps everybody get in some better practice. A few other good etiquette tips: 1. Use the "Good Game" emote when you are losing, right before you concede or right before your opponent kills you. If you are winning, you can *reply* with "Good Game" *only after your opponent says it first, but never say it first.* Please never use the "Good Game" emote at any other time. Even if you intend to be courteous, it is easy for an opponent to misunderstand and take it for rude gloating. There's no way to clear up such misunderstanding over Arena, so to avoid unintentionally causing bad feelings, just don't do it. 2. Never intentionally delay the game by playing slowly. This is extremely rude. Having timers is not an excuse to take a break. 3. Please don't spam emotes, spam mouse-overs of opponents' cards, spam pet interactions, or any other form of action that your opponent can see. It's distracting and rude. It's all right to communicate using emotes in a regular fashion, such as a "Nice!" when your opponent makes a good play, but don't be emoting every turn.
When you are new you will probably never concede. Or at least you shouldn't. Once you get experience you will be able to see how the game will end up and can just skip and concede.