Playing against a griefer in EDH

You know what really grinds my gears? People who ruin things that are meant to be fun.

For example, I met with my brother and one of his friends for some EDH today.  The friend was new to EDH, and convinced that it was a “dumb format”, but for some reason he built a deck and wanted to play. I was pretty happy about this.. Well, until I got there at least.  You see, the kid refused to play multiplayer.  Yeah, that’s right, we’re playing a  format designed for multiplayer, but we’re not playing multiplayer.  I decide to play, and it quickly becomes apparent that his deck is designed solely to grief the other player in a 1-v-1, and wouldn’t stand a chance in actual multiplayer.   Cards like Mishra’s Helix aren’t anywhere near as powerful in MP, but they sure can disrupt the hell out of a 1-v-1 game.  Do you know what it’s like to have all your land tapped during your upkeep for 15+ turns in a row? I thought the goal was to play magic, not to prevent someone else from playing it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that he wasn’t “cheating” or anything, but looking back it does seem like it wasn’t exactly a level playing field. Playing decks designed for SP against decks that aren’t usually doesn’t end well for those with the MP decks.  EDH is by definition a “casual” format, so I see no reason to just grief someone, especially in a 1-v-1.

I guess in the end his decks worked, he managed to cause a ton of grief and remove any fun from the experience.  It’s a shame; the three of us could have had some really fun and interesting games together.