Genius or Grifter?
Added 2020-09-03 19:06:26 +0000 UTCWe are doing a Genius or Grifter episode today and Luis thought it might be a good idea to ask you fine folks if you had any good Genius or Grifters for use on the show.
So, if you have any Magic or real life scenarios that skirt that ethical line, fire away, anything goes :)
Comments
Let’s say you are drafting at your game store and have your deck laid out on the table. Another player who views you as their biggest competition comes over and sets up building their deck next to you each week. They don’t act like they are doing anything out of ordinary and maybe they really just like talking with you while building their deck, but you know they are catching glimpses of your deck as they build. Is this a genius move since everyone is building out in the open, or a grifter move since they literally move next to you in order to build rather than staying in their own space?
Taylor Newman
2020-09-04 15:38:01 +0000 UTCHype my wife up and make her want to build a swimming pool so in turn she will allow me to buy a Nintendo Switch.
Atipong Pathanasethpong
2020-09-04 00:40:20 +0000 UTCPretending to throw the ball for your dog - but keeping a hold on it.
vel levine
2020-09-03 23:13:42 +0000 UTCThis is a pretty basic one and is no extra effort for me. Where I work I use a work car, and we fill it up with diesel about once a week. I usually go to the same place that has a loyalty rewards card and my boss doesn't have one for the work car, so I got my own and use it every time I fill up the car. So is it grifter that I'm getting a bonus off fuel im not paying for or genius ?
Santino Maher
2020-09-03 22:07:34 +0000 UTC20+ years ago, my roommate built a deck around Soldier of Fortune. (R, 1/1, R,T: target player shuffles their library) and a bunch of clone and untap effects, hoping to get people to concede, rather than shuffle 4 or more times a turn. (Card sleeves were still a new thing, and not very strong, nor universally used) He had no other win-con. Genius or Grifter?
Ron Laufer
2020-09-03 21:47:16 +0000 UTCSaying "gg" on MTGO when your opponent has lethal on-board but not conceding, and then playing a combat trick/removal spell after they attack, making their attack no longer lethal and allowing you to win on your next turn. I feel like if you've been on mtgo long enough odds are you've experienced this.
James Gardiner
2020-09-03 21:25:55 +0000 UTCI think this is fully Grifter, but I think it's interesting to look at what G-or-G problems are brought on by modal DFCs.
Richard Blocher
2020-09-03 20:52:54 +0000 UTCIn a post-Zenikar Rising world: You are playing paper Magic. You have a Pathway in hand (let's say W/B), it's turn 1 game 1 and you're on the play. Your hand contains impactful 1-mana cards of each color that are good in different situations - Thoughtsieze and Path to Exile, for example. You deliberately and slowly make your land drop for the turn, with your hand poised to desleeve and flip your Pathway, but you try to take a fraction of a second to see your opponent's reaction to seeing white mana ('phew, no hand disruption') before you decide to flip to the black mana side. In short: trying to gain an edge by being dicey about which side of your modal DFC you're playing.
Richard Blocher
2020-09-03 20:52:24 +0000 UTCHaving your patreons come up with genius or grifter questions for your podcast so that you don't have to do so much work in advance to prepare for the episode. Genius or grifter? ;)
Andrée
2020-09-03 20:51:56 +0000 UTCAmong Us Genius or Grifter: describing in excruciating detail (like the colors of the wires you connected) a task you did, since impostors who are newer to the game aren't familiar with what the tasks look like.
Richard Blocher
2020-09-03 20:43:51 +0000 UTCI talked to a parent who stated that she has cut small slits into her school-age son's mask so that he can "breathe better" while at school--while disguising the slits within the folds of the mask. I think this is total grifter!!!!
Luke Johnson
2020-09-03 20:43:50 +0000 UTCYou fetch up a land with a card, and the exact land you want is on the bottom of the deck. You didn't look at the card second-to-bottom, and no other effects have resulted in knowledge about the deck configuration (scrying, Big Teferi, etc.). To save time, you ask if you can just put the deck back without shuffling, since it's as random now as it would be if you shuffled. Genius time-saving or grifter?
Drew Acquaviva
2020-09-03 20:33:18 +0000 UTCTaking an extended bathroom break to post on LR's patreon, while the kids are going nuts outside (wife if handling it just fine).
Tyler Spiering
2020-09-03 20:32:07 +0000 UTCFresh out of a job and interviewing over zoom - I've hung cheat sheets from the ceiling behind the computer on both sides, so sometimes when it looks like I'm looking pensively at the ceiling, deeply considering the interviewer's question, I'm actually reading the cheat sheets :)
Mo
2020-09-03 20:20:09 +0000 UTCI knew an acquaintance who was a bartender at an upscale restaurant. I once heard him tell a group of friends that wealthy diners would frequently order tawny port because it was an expensive option for a dessert wine, but they would have no idea what it was and didn't actually care what they were drinking. He took advantage of this by filling their order with ruby port, a much cheaper drink, and pocketing the difference. He claimed he had done this dozens of times and had never had a single complaint from a diner.
Hayden Everly
2020-09-03 20:14:37 +0000 UTCThis happened to me during a game against a well-known MTG personality. May 2014, I'm playing mono blue and my opponent is playing an esper control deck. I have a Thassa, God of the Sea and several creatures in play. I activate mutavault and attack with everything - a lethal attack. My opponent, eyes half-open and saying nothing, taps mana and points to their own mutavault. I activate Thassa's ability to make all my non-flying creatures unblockable, one at a time. My opponent, looking disinterested and again saying nothing, casts Fated Retribution, destroying all creatures but does not put their own mutavault in the graveyard, implying that they cast this with their mutavault activation on the stack. I personally felt like they were deliberately being as vague as possible to misrepresent their actions but I'm curious what you all think. Genius or grifter? (btw I went on to win the match anyway, go Aetherling)
James Gardiner
2020-09-03 20:00:24 +0000 UTCPlaying for top 8 at a PPTQ my opponent is clearly in a rush and plays everything at lightning speed to begin the match. I deliberately start playing at a slower pace, not necessarily slow play, but thinking about my moves more than ever. This infuriates him and he plays even faster. He ends up so tilted that he made countless mistakes that gave me the easy win. we finished the match with 20 minutes left on the clock
Tony Levesque
2020-09-03 19:57:36 +0000 UTCThing is, players do backups without involving a judge (even at GP level) all the time, and if both players are cool with it, then it's considered a good thing. It's a weird spot, because if they'd never cast the Oath, you'd be in the clear for letting them believe they can't, and if you'd allowed them to cast it and it was illegal, letting them roll it back is *also* fine. But since they did it, then decided it was illegal, you're not actually allowed to let them roll it back (this is allowing an illegal action to occur, intentionally, for an in-game advantage) - which meets the definition of cheating, even if you did not intend for it to be cheating, you'd be in a real uncomfortable spot. So, it's a good thing for you this was discovered in the way it was - you brought it up to the judges, so I think the judges are giving you the benefit of the doubt that you had no ill-intent.
Fukata
2020-09-03 19:56:34 +0000 UTCNot one I encountered, but LSV needs to tell the story about Zvi and the Cursed Scroll. The answer’s obvious, but it’s a fun story.
Mike Frentz
2020-09-03 19:51:46 +0000 UTCGenius or Grifter: My friend has a so called "Move" at Panda Express. He asks for a two item plate, but he asks for Orange Chicken for both items. They do one scoop, then the 2nd scoop, but right when the scoop hits the plate he says... OH WAIT WAIT WAIT! and he says he wants beef and broccoli instead. They sometimes just leave the 2nd scoop of orange chicken and give him beef and broccoli as well.
Russell Ludwick
2020-09-03 19:44:06 +0000 UTCFaking a real-life interruption to cover shady behavior (in Among Us). Genius or Grifter?
Daniel Schneider
2020-09-03 19:42:19 +0000 UTCOh, and for the record, I made it to Mythic without ever needing to deploy this strategy.
Jaeger
2020-09-03 19:39:17 +0000 UTCHey guys! I’m a longtime limited veteran, and my win rate is high enough that I am always able to draft for free, often stockpiling gems. As I reached the upper echelon of Diamond, it struck me that I could easily afford to abandon poor-to-average quality drafts by simply resigning and redrafting, and that I needn’t accept anything less than a “B+” or better version of a deck. Wins mattered more than gems. By artificially inflating the average quality of my decks, I would be more likely to cross the Mythic finish line. Is this ethical? Love these episodes, and thanks for your feedback!
Jaeger
2020-09-03 19:36:00 +0000 UTCI don’t remember if I told you this story before, but: 2 days before our wedding, my fiancée is in Michigan and it’s on me to bring our luggage from Chicago. I drive all the way to Michigan at night but forget all our luggage 🥶 so I need to go back again the next day. 4 hours to Chicago in the AM and then turn around 4 hours back. Genius or grifter to use this as an opportunity to take in an early afternoon White Sox game at the ballpark before heading back?
Andrew Parnell
2020-09-03 19:35:45 +0000 UTCReal situation from team GP: I control Kasmina (spells that target my creatures or planeswalkers cost 2 more). My opponent controls 4 lands. My opponent taps 3 lands, casts Oath of Kaya, and says 'kill your 3/3'. This is a LEGAL play, because the trigger targets, not the spell itself. While I'm deciding if I want to respond, my opponent says 'oops, sorry, I can't cast that because of your Kasmina', untaps their lands, puts Oath of Kaya back in hand, and makes a different play. I say nothing and carry on, reasoning that we allow our opponents to rewind 'mistakes' all the time at FNM level, and if I want to do the same at a GP, even if it's not a mistake, that should be fine. Genius or Grifter? (I later asked a judge, and several judges had to confer for ~10 minutes to answer my question, but ultimately I was told something along the lines of 'this is a backup, and you can't do a backup without involving a judge. If we had been aware of this situation when it happened, we would probably have started an investigation into whether or not this was cheating')
Daniel Schneider
2020-09-03 19:35:22 +0000 UTCHi boys! I’m a primary school teacher (the Australian equivalent of elementary school). One of my students last year asked if he could call me ‘Budu’. I asked him what it meant and he told me it was the Australian aboriginal word for ‘sir’ or ‘teacher’. Not wanting to be disrespectful to his culture, I said “sure, go for it”. Two weeks later one of my colleagues heard him say that and started yelling at him. Turns out “Budu” is not the Australian aboriginal word for “sir”, but in fact means “penis”. So, is my little mate a genius or a grifter for taking advantage of my white guilt?
JDHD
2020-09-03 19:33:52 +0000 UTCA while back, my GF bought a box of Unstable because I love the set, and we cracked it and played some Sealed. She got a Modular Monstrosity out (3/3 for 7, when an opponent casts a spell you have 5 seconds to name a new keyword ability for it). In hand, I had capital offense (target creature gets -x/-x where X is the number of capitals in its rules text). My lines were 1. Try and win the honorable way, just try and race it as it slowly gains keywords and gets out of hand 2. Take the low road, spew off the spell, start counting down, and hope she messes up because of time pressure and a hole in her rules knowledge and names "Indestructible" instead of "Hexproof", "Shroud", or "Protection ". I chose the second option, she named "Indestructible", and I won the game. Genius, Grifter, or just optimal play?
Paul Barrett
2020-09-03 19:32:48 +0000 UTCYou go to your local taco shop and sometimes when you order your burrito, you want a little extra meat. You notice after a few times that they have a side of meat a la carte that is cheaper than ordering a “burrito extra meat” so you start ordering your burrito as normal with a side of meat. Then, you unroll you’re burrito and add it manually. Genius or grifter?
Zach Marshello
2020-09-03 19:28:47 +0000 UTCSo this was pretty early on in the m21 draft format. This was the very beginning of pack 2, and i pretty hard set of Golagri, had lots of busted uncommons and rares and what not. I open a foil fabled passage, Chandra, and a goremand. Because i had 2 rise agains, so i took the Goremand, it was more appropriate to what i was doing. The person to my right whom i passed the chandra and foil fabled passage, does the classic "why are these still in the pack?" But not just saying it out loud, literally turns the two cards around to show everyone. I was pretty upset with the situation, mostly because of everyone judging me because i "was losing so much monetary value". That same drafter also proceeding to draft his entire third pack face up (as in the cards he was picking were all face up). In general, I was pretty upset and the fact that the store owner didn't really do anything, even though he was literally in said draft was pretty frustrating in general. I expressed my feelings after as to not trainwreck the draft experience for everybody else. Please do let me know if I'm being overdramatic or if me being upset was actually a reasonable sentiment. Thank you so much for everything you guys do!
Jacob Gross
2020-09-03 19:28:43 +0000 UTCGenius or grifter: showing up at a gp with a Chandra plaumat, red deckbox, red dice and red sleeves. Then playing UW control.
Søren Lahn Sloth
2020-09-03 19:24:08 +0000 UTCGenius or Grifter: Not reporting a body right away so you can corner the impostor in among us.
Ryan F Stroud
2020-09-03 19:12:15 +0000 UTCWhenever I run out of Gems on Magic Arena I make a new account and buy the $5 welcome offer (I don't care about collection building because I only play limited), Genius or Grifter?
Michael Hanifan
2020-09-03 19:12:10 +0000 UTC
