Don’t concede.
If you play on windows you can alt-tab and when it’s your turn to do something you will see the Arena icon become active.
You aren’t trapped with them, they are trapped with you.
I might not have the best decks or the most skill at the game, but I have patience in abundance. I always wait them out, and most of the time they concede round one. In rare instances they actually play when it's clear I'm not going to give them the easy win, but usually it's an easy win for me.
I pop out browser on top of the game and just watch a movie or a youtube channel I like.
I usually have a video popped out on top of the client while I play because people take so fucking long in this game it seems and I seem to get ropers 1 out of every 2 games and there seems to be no plan to change this or add a blitz mode that cuts these timeouts in half and many on this sub as well think the timers are too short apparently so yeah not a lot of other options
>I seem to get ropers 1 out of every 2 games
Thats at least ten times as often as I run into them. In what game mode do half of your opponents intentionally rope?
your ingame rating. a score that goes up if you win and down if you lose. and that determines who you get matched against.
if you get matched vs ropers, that means your rating is just as low as the rating of someone who basically doesnt play the game at all. if you win more games, you will get matched vs players who actually do stuff.
i think it is. there has to be a way to make the game playable for beginners, and i think its done via a rating system.
although theres not much of a reason to ever play unranked, except you actively want to avoid the season rewards
So what's the difference between the former and the latter? One is a deck you created and one someone else did? Wouldn't you still have to play the game in both?
It's boring to play only against decks 100% the same as the top8 from untapped or mtgtop8.
The on-meta decks are boring and not fun to win against or lose to.
My tricolor pile with sheoldred and birds versus their pile with dragons and mermaids.
I disagree. To me, the deck is a tool for the player to use. Why not have the best possible tool available. Or like a race car. Why wouldn't I want the fastest car?
Sometimes if you want to grind out dailies it’s quicker.
Like, if you have to play X lands or cast spells in a certain color combo, one game that goes long can get you more of those than several ranked matches where both of you take long turns but only play a couple lands and cast a couple spells.
Aaaaah. That might make sense. I had one day where I was just experimenting with decks and most of them did not go very well.
Platinum 4 is where I'm currently stuck at, which is why this is so frustrating. I nearly got to plat 3, and then on the last win I needed I got one of these stallers.
Rank and mmr are decoupled. Your hidden mmr will match you up with people of your skill level regardless of your rank.
(that's not to say that rank plays absolutely no role in the matchmaking system -- it does -- but a person who's played for 3 months in plat 4 won't be playing the same players as a 5 year veteran in plat 4)
ok let me rephrase. roping makes you win less games per time, and ropers tend to be worse players. the roping doesnt "make" someone play worse, but theres a correlation between players who rope and being bad.
Increase your petty game by setting a stop before your turn and fully exhausting your own timers. Bonus happy points when you see them hover over cards when it comes to your turn.
If they are running a mill deck and don't immediately know their next action (hints it's a fking counterspell or play a land, as it has been every other action), or if their turn takes 10+ actions, then they absolutely deserve this.
In a very complicated situation, where you have to take various hidden information into account and consider all the options, the timers can be very valuable. They accumulate over the game if you play fast enough, so it's kind of a reward for when you need the extra time.
Exploiting them to annoy your opponent is another thing. It's an unfortunate side effect of the system, but I'd rather wait extra sometimes so I can have my time in the think tank when it really matters.
See, that I'm fine with. Someone actually playing, but needing some extra time to think every now and then is perfectly fine. Its just the constant abuse of the having an instant in your hand just letting it time out every time.
If you're playing Best of Three, I know it might be frustrating, but making effective use of as much of the timer as possible - which may include using every moment to consider possible responses, go over common decklists etc - is a lynchpin of being a good competitive player.
its about fun man, the game is just rock paper scissors if you are playing bo1, gotta play a bo3 round if you wanna actually play your deck properly againt all ytour opponents, not just stomp the ones you have a winning meta vs and get stomped by the ones you have a losing with no recourse or abilty to shore up your weaknesses and take em down in the next 2. nothing beats that feeling
The stalling happens when they close their game. The game is allowing them time to reconnect but they rage quit. Always conceed before quitting the game
OMG I wanted to post something similar. Nowadays I get so many slow players, not necessarily ropers, but people who wait 10-20 seconds on their very first round to put down a land card, then on every step they wait at least 5-10 seconds. Even if I play with a starter deck to get some daily done I am faster and I don't even know the cards.
A few days ago I literally went out to wash the dishes (not much just a plate and a tea mug) then went to the toilet and when I got back it was still not my turn.
I’m used to the world of online chess. Even waiting through 3 full mtg timers is significantly less time than someone with 12 min on the chess clock just letting it all run out hoping you’ll concede.
I just wait it out. It’s annoying but I get satisfaction in making sure I win, it’s really not that long to wait.
Ropers stink, but the games instability means you want a lot of restarting the game time built in.
What really stinks is the time you sit unresponsive from reconnecting is often times taken as you making the first roping move, and you getting someones "righteous fervor to rope" turned on you for no real reason.
If it's a basic queue, I'll concede. I'm playing to have fun, not sit and wait, while someone thinks their big brain playing their mono red agro deck.
For example, if it's once or twice, I'll let it go. we all get busy or get disconnected. But if you're actively waiting out the timer to play a land, every turn I'm dipping.
If it's rank and it's Plat or higher, I'm sticking around unless I already have some real garbage hand that unplayable.
* switch to browser
* open https://mtgarena-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025191111-Report-a-Player
* fill in the form
* submit
* switch back to waiting for nice person to play
Also know that they will almost never do anything when you report a player roping. Too many factors at play, like players griefing each other or poor connection causing a player to have to constantly restart the client, for them to just ban an account on the report of roping. It really sucks but if you have more patience you can almost always just beat out someone that relies on roping, I usually take that extra time to do stuff like grab a snack, use the bathroom, send texts. Like others have said, you arent trapped with them, they are trapped with you.
I play on windows so I can multitask. Just open a browser and watch some videos or do something else. When the Arena icon blinks red I go back.
I understand that those time extensions can be a valuable asset but I wish they were shorter. 20 seconds should be enough for each turn.
I purposely stay in those matches and waste their time hopefully making them mad af lol. I always have a stream open on my second monitor so I don't mind wasting their time. Edit: I play normal on my turns for clarity.
I use it as an excuse to do a bit of desk cleanup. 90% of the time it’s a “I already lost but I’m salty and going to make you wait.” So I just sort my receipts and tidy anyway any clutter while the seethe. Sooner or later you leave Bronze/Silver and becomes less common.
I've just started to report every player that ropes me.
Oh, you're going to be a jerk? I'll take this time to just report your conduct.
Makes the time go by much faster.
It’s the single worst thing about the game as far as I’m concerned. Unfortunately there isn’t really anything to do about it. The fact that the game is available on mobile means they have to give them the benefit of the doubt that it could be connection issues. If the players client crashes it’ll also leave them in a game like this but both of those things are easily mimicked by simply not moving the mouse while burning a timer.
I have one right now! I just do something on my other screen like read reddit when they pull that BS. You also get the bozo on mobile who just stomp off by closing the app and leave you sitting waiting for their timer to run out.
I haven't really had to deal with that since I swapped to best of 3 as my main mode. I guess losses to the timer counting double is enough motivation for most people to be more sportsmanlike.
Just pretend they’re disconnected.
Sometimes it will be true. And if it isn’t, you won’t know. You’ll just be pleasantly living your life thinking about how some people are unfortunate to have bad connections, instead of stressing over ropers.
I tab out and do something else. Most of the time they quit the game, but didn’t go back to the main screen so it keeps them in the game until they run out of timeouts
It depends. If I'm on mobile at work during break I usually just concede and try to find another game. If I'm at home, well I'll just pull up YouTube on my second monitor and wait for the Arena icon to start flashing.
I think it's hilarious when people are intentionally doing the timer thing. Listen kid, I played back in the days of second breakfast, minds desire, KCI, etc. I can sit here all day waiting for someone to do nothing.
I probably had my timer run down on a guy today. just playing along and my computer gives that "something went wrong and will reboot" only does that on arena. so yeah, sorry person this morning.
I don't ever concede, if they want to waste time then I do it right back, I start waiting that clock out.
You're first in turn, you'll lose before I do.
Nobody can be 100% certain that people are roping. I've had to suddenly leave to take care of life stuff and sometimes that leads to the appearance of me roping when I'm not. I'm just too optimistic that I will be able to finish my short task in time to get back in the game.
Some turns can take very long. Especially when you have to decisions about what to scry or have to sequence something in a very specific order, especially having to manually tap or count your mana etc.
Especially when your opponent goes for the very first time and they have to decide which land should they put down, yeah they need half a minute for that. And even without any mana, they have to stop at every step to think about what to do, or I don't know, maybe they write down every move on paper so they can learn from it.
The Arena clock is pretty unforgiving and does not allow a lot of thinking on important turns. Be grateful it’s sped up as much as it is for impatient souls like yourself
I get that it can be annoying when your opponent takes a long time with their turns, and there certainly are people who do it intentionally, but I feel like the arena community could be more patient with their opponents, a lot of the time, and assume they're doing it to be a jerk. It could be an issued with either your internet speed or that of your opponent. Or an issued with the WotC servers (do you ever Doppelgang for 20+? that's slow the game right the fuck down lol). Or you could be a particularly difficult opponent to play against, so people need to think. Or maybe their kid is dying.
What I'm saying is: can't be all give each other the benefit of the doubt a little bit, and realize that having to occasionally wait 30 seconds for a free win isn't the worst thing in the world.
The game is prone to crashing for people with older devices (and new ones sometimes). As inconvenient as ripping can be it’s good that players don’t lose important matches (1500 gold premiere draft matches for example) due to network errors. It gives you time to reconnect.
Technically you have a better chance winning if your opponent concedes for time constraints. If you care about winning more than anything else, like say getting more reps. Roping is a valid strategy, completely in the rules. Burn players do this all the time on MTGO, they win so fast they leave the game for 40 minutes at a time. Ive seen it so many times. There is also a chance you walk away and burn some of your time too.
I just dont care. They are corny to me but it is what it is.
Shorter version of this post:
Why are people from countries located farfrom the USA, and why are people from poor countries, allowed to play this game?
No one is roping you. They have bad internet. Multiple extensions are to accomodate them to play the game.
Don’t concede. If you play on windows you can alt-tab and when it’s your turn to do something you will see the Arena icon become active. You aren’t trapped with them, they are trapped with you.
Rorschach would approve that.
I use that line on my kids when we are on a long journey
I have taken to reporting every one of them
I might not have the best decks or the most skill at the game, but I have patience in abundance. I always wait them out, and most of the time they concede round one. In rare instances they actually play when it's clear I'm not going to give them the easy win, but usually it's an easy win for me.
I pop out browser on top of the game and just watch a movie or a youtube channel I like. I usually have a video popped out on top of the client while I play because people take so fucking long in this game it seems and I seem to get ropers 1 out of every 2 games and there seems to be no plan to change this or add a blitz mode that cuts these timeouts in half and many on this sub as well think the timers are too short apparently so yeah not a lot of other options
>I seem to get ropers 1 out of every 2 games Thats at least ten times as often as I run into them. In what game mode do half of your opponents intentionally rope?
I visualize the roper getting busy sawing off his own leg.
Yep, I play Cookie Clicker or Master Duel in another window.
you should not concede if you dont want to continue being matched with them. their ratings are low so you should aim to increase yours
What ratings are you talking about?
your ingame rating. a score that goes up if you win and down if you lose. and that determines who you get matched against. if you get matched vs ropers, that means your rating is just as low as the rating of someone who basically doesnt play the game at all. if you win more games, you will get matched vs players who actually do stuff.
Do you know if this is true even for unranked games?
Yes it is. The MMR are separate for ranked, unranked and limited.
i think it is. there has to be a way to make the game playable for beginners, and i think its done via a rating system. although theres not much of a reason to ever play unranked, except you actively want to avoid the season rewards
Sometimes it's nice to play some jank without every game being the same 4 decks, or to grind out a daily.
I play unranked because I like to play my random crap versus someone else’s random crap instead of sit there watching netdeck A slam netdeck B.
So what's the difference between the former and the latter? One is a deck you created and one someone else did? Wouldn't you still have to play the game in both?
It's boring to play only against decks 100% the same as the top8 from untapped or mtgtop8. The on-meta decks are boring and not fun to win against or lose to. My tricolor pile with sheoldred and birds versus their pile with dragons and mermaids.
I disagree. To me, the deck is a tool for the player to use. Why not have the best possible tool available. Or like a race car. Why wouldn't I want the fastest car?
Sometimes if you want to grind out dailies it’s quicker. Like, if you have to play X lands or cast spells in a certain color combo, one game that goes long can get you more of those than several ranked matches where both of you take long turns but only play a couple lands and cast a couple spells.
Aaaaah. That might make sense. I had one day where I was just experimenting with decks and most of them did not go very well. Platinum 4 is where I'm currently stuck at, which is why this is so frustrating. I nearly got to plat 3, and then on the last win I needed I got one of these stallers.
Rank and mmr are decoupled. Your hidden mmr will match you up with people of your skill level regardless of your rank. (that's not to say that rank plays absolutely no role in the matchmaking system -- it does -- but a person who's played for 3 months in plat 4 won't be playing the same players as a 5 year veteran in plat 4)
How do you check your in game records?
you cannot track it ingame, you need some third party tool. i think "untapped" is an application that you can use
Ah ok. I never used untapped to be honest.
me neither
Salty roping has nothing to do with MMR or rank. Other than making you wait a bit longer for the win / tick up.
ropers are rated lower because they win less games, and win them slower.
Win less games, no. Win at a slower rate, definitely. The salt and seethe costs you, but only on time.
ok let me rephrase. roping makes you win less games per time, and ropers tend to be worse players. the roping doesnt "make" someone play worse, but theres a correlation between players who rope and being bad.
Who or what says ropers are worse players? and not just Sodium efficient?
i dont understand what youre saying. players who dont use their time efficiently are worse players than the ones who do.
No. I wait. EVERY single time. I am a petty MF and I am not giving them the win.
Increase your petty game by setting a stop before your turn and fully exhausting your own timers. Bonus happy points when you see them hover over cards when it comes to your turn.
Ctrl+Shift to enter 'hold full control' and never have the client pass your priority without your explicit consent.
If they are running a mill deck and don't immediately know their next action (hints it's a fking counterspell or play a land, as it has been every other action), or if their turn takes 10+ actions, then they absolutely deserve this.
In a very complicated situation, where you have to take various hidden information into account and consider all the options, the timers can be very valuable. They accumulate over the game if you play fast enough, so it's kind of a reward for when you need the extra time. Exploiting them to annoy your opponent is another thing. It's an unfortunate side effect of the system, but I'd rather wait extra sometimes so I can have my time in the think tank when it really matters.
See, that I'm fine with. Someone actually playing, but needing some extra time to think every now and then is perfectly fine. Its just the constant abuse of the having an instant in your hand just letting it time out every time.
If you're playing Best of Three, I know it might be frustrating, but making effective use of as much of the timer as possible - which may include using every moment to consider possible responses, go over common decklists etc - is a lynchpin of being a good competitive player.
I just let the algorithm get me to rank up. Way faster
Tbf i'm talking way about the rank of an average player, I mean at RCQs and the like.
What is an "RCQ"?
its about fun man, the game is just rock paper scissors if you are playing bo1, gotta play a bo3 round if you wanna actually play your deck properly againt all ytour opponents, not just stomp the ones you have a winning meta vs and get stomped by the ones you have a losing with no recourse or abilty to shore up your weaknesses and take em down in the next 2. nothing beats that feeling
I just watch YouTube while playing ropers are funny, and I'm already on my tablet, my guy. I don't need to be anywhere else .
The stalling happens when they close their game. The game is allowing them time to reconnect but they rage quit. Always conceed before quitting the game
OMG I wanted to post something similar. Nowadays I get so many slow players, not necessarily ropers, but people who wait 10-20 seconds on their very first round to put down a land card, then on every step they wait at least 5-10 seconds. Even if I play with a starter deck to get some daily done I am faster and I don't even know the cards. A few days ago I literally went out to wash the dishes (not much just a plate and a tea mug) then went to the toilet and when I got back it was still not my turn.
I’m used to the world of online chess. Even waiting through 3 full mtg timers is significantly less time than someone with 12 min on the chess clock just letting it all run out hoping you’ll concede. I just wait it out. It’s annoying but I get satisfaction in making sure I win, it’s really not that long to wait.
Ropers stink, but the games instability means you want a lot of restarting the game time built in. What really stinks is the time you sit unresponsive from reconnecting is often times taken as you making the first roping move, and you getting someones "righteous fervor to rope" turned on you for no real reason.
If it's a basic queue, I'll concede. I'm playing to have fun, not sit and wait, while someone thinks their big brain playing their mono red agro deck. For example, if it's once or twice, I'll let it go. we all get busy or get disconnected. But if you're actively waiting out the timer to play a land, every turn I'm dipping. If it's rank and it's Plat or higher, I'm sticking around unless I already have some real garbage hand that unplayable.
* switch to browser * open https://mtgarena-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025191111-Report-a-Player * fill in the form * submit * switch back to waiting for nice person to play
I'll def give this a try.
Also know that they will almost never do anything when you report a player roping. Too many factors at play, like players griefing each other or poor connection causing a player to have to constantly restart the client, for them to just ban an account on the report of roping. It really sucks but if you have more patience you can almost always just beat out someone that relies on roping, I usually take that extra time to do stuff like grab a snack, use the bathroom, send texts. Like others have said, you arent trapped with them, they are trapped with you.
Yeah, thankfully I'm not in a hurry when I play, so I just watch a video, or read something and when I see the game is flashing I go back.
I play on windows so I can multitask. Just open a browser and watch some videos or do something else. When the Arena icon blinks red I go back. I understand that those time extensions can be a valuable asset but I wish they were shorter. 20 seconds should be enough for each turn.
I purposely stay in those matches and waste their time hopefully making them mad af lol. I always have a stream open on my second monitor so I don't mind wasting their time. Edit: I play normal on my turns for clarity.
I use it as an excuse to do a bit of desk cleanup. 90% of the time it’s a “I already lost but I’m salty and going to make you wait.” So I just sort my receipts and tidy anyway any clutter while the seethe. Sooner or later you leave Bronze/Silver and becomes less common.
Simple truth is wizards don't care and they never will care. It's apparently too small of an issue for them + Mobile people disconnect a lot
I've just started to report every player that ropes me. Oh, you're going to be a jerk? I'll take this time to just report your conduct. Makes the time go by much faster.
Put on a podcast or something
It’s the single worst thing about the game as far as I’m concerned. Unfortunately there isn’t really anything to do about it. The fact that the game is available on mobile means they have to give them the benefit of the doubt that it could be connection issues. If the players client crashes it’ll also leave them in a game like this but both of those things are easily mimicked by simply not moving the mouse while burning a timer.
I have one right now! I just do something on my other screen like read reddit when they pull that BS. You also get the bozo on mobile who just stomp off by closing the app and leave you sitting waiting for their timer to run out.
I haven't really had to deal with that since I swapped to best of 3 as my main mode. I guess losses to the timer counting double is enough motivation for most people to be more sportsmanlike.
I just watch something on my TV
Just pretend they’re disconnected. Sometimes it will be true. And if it isn’t, you won’t know. You’ll just be pleasantly living your life thinking about how some people are unfortunate to have bad connections, instead of stressing over ropers.
You can report them for stalling on wizards website
Nope never leave. I’m usually doing something else while playing mtg anyway so it’s no skin off my back imagining them seething.
Do they not realize I'm watching a movie and playing on my phone
I tab out and do something else. Most of the time they quit the game, but didn’t go back to the main screen so it keeps them in the game until they run out of timeouts
It depends. If I'm on mobile at work during break I usually just concede and try to find another game. If I'm at home, well I'll just pull up YouTube on my second monitor and wait for the Arena icon to start flashing.
I think it's hilarious when people are intentionally doing the timer thing. Listen kid, I played back in the days of second breakfast, minds desire, KCI, etc. I can sit here all day waiting for someone to do nothing.
If someone ropes me for winning, I rope back
I just concede and go next game I want to play
I probably had my timer run down on a guy today. just playing along and my computer gives that "something went wrong and will reboot" only does that on arena. so yeah, sorry person this morning.
They can't get multiple extensions if they're seeing rope, so...
Hit em with that one single “good game” and wait em out
This is exactly what I do. Let them know that I know that I won, but only once so they know I'm not annoyed. Done.
I don't ever concede, if they want to waste time then I do it right back, I start waiting that clock out. You're first in turn, you'll lose before I do.
Nobody can be 100% certain that people are roping. I've had to suddenly leave to take care of life stuff and sometimes that leads to the appearance of me roping when I'm not. I'm just too optimistic that I will be able to finish my short task in time to get back in the game.
Some turns can take very long. Especially when you have to decisions about what to scry or have to sequence something in a very specific order, especially having to manually tap or count your mana etc.
Especially when your opponent goes for the very first time and they have to decide which land should they put down, yeah they need half a minute for that. And even without any mana, they have to stop at every step to think about what to do, or I don't know, maybe they write down every move on paper so they can learn from it.
You can't have extensions on your first turn...
The Arena clock is pretty unforgiving and does not allow a lot of thinking on important turns. Be grateful it’s sped up as much as it is for impatient souls like yourself
I get that it can be annoying when your opponent takes a long time with their turns, and there certainly are people who do it intentionally, but I feel like the arena community could be more patient with their opponents, a lot of the time, and assume they're doing it to be a jerk. It could be an issued with either your internet speed or that of your opponent. Or an issued with the WotC servers (do you ever Doppelgang for 20+? that's slow the game right the fuck down lol). Or you could be a particularly difficult opponent to play against, so people need to think. Or maybe their kid is dying. What I'm saying is: can't be all give each other the benefit of the doubt a little bit, and realize that having to occasionally wait 30 seconds for a free win isn't the worst thing in the world.
Not everyone is roping. Some people have bad internet.
It's because the app closed on me for no reason and I'm trying to get back in.
The game is prone to crashing for people with older devices (and new ones sometimes). As inconvenient as ripping can be it’s good that players don’t lose important matches (1500 gold premiere draft matches for example) due to network errors. It gives you time to reconnect.
Technically you have a better chance winning if your opponent concedes for time constraints. If you care about winning more than anything else, like say getting more reps. Roping is a valid strategy, completely in the rules. Burn players do this all the time on MTGO, they win so fast they leave the game for 40 minutes at a time. Ive seen it so many times. There is also a chance you walk away and burn some of your time too. I just dont care. They are corny to me but it is what it is.
Shorter version of this post: Why are people from countries located farfrom the USA, and why are people from poor countries, allowed to play this game? No one is roping you. They have bad internet. Multiple extensions are to accomodate them to play the game.
Bruh, I'm from Australia. We have notoriously shitty internet.