Why is it that everyone hates Meandeck?

[Matt]

self-flagellation

I'm sure you think this is helping, but it's not.

Let's compare to, say, Shortbus. With them I get the impression that my presence here is appreciated, that they're glad to have everybody along. Whereas from Meandeck there's a constant vibe that you barely tolerate the average user, that you're upset or even angry that people aren't more like you. This is totally a Paragon legacy. The phrase I'm looking for is "looking down your nose at someone."

And when you ARE glad to see people who aren't as fanatical about type one as you, it's because you want the easy round one win - there's no sense at all of camaraderie, just ruthlessness.

Shortbus: "Howdy."
Meandeck: "How dare you."

Of course that's a caricature of the teams, but the thing about caricatures is that they accent the most memorable features.

[JACO]

Smmenen writes on a personal website that is full of pussy liberal bullshit - he is at the least, borderline socialist.  

Smmenen is such a rude mother fucker.  He doesn't even have the tact to keep his trap shut when he's won a debate.   Every win and his ego balloons.  Not to mention that he playtests every waking moment of his life becuase he lives off the interest of his trust fund.

Outside of magic, he's a real fucking elitist scum.  If a homeless person asks for change, he asks for a quarter for a pop.   One time, a homeless person was sleeping in the OSU Student Union and he told the guy to go home and take a bath becuase he smelled like dog piss.  

I also saw Smmenen spit on an arab.  

What a fucking asshole.

Referring to yourself in the third person is SO TECH. The parts in bold are my favorite.

Seriously. That is like the funniest post ever on TMD. Fucking MeanDeck is so good at everything!

EDIT:

self-flagellation

I'm sure you think this is helping, but it's not.

Holy shit this thread is funny. Can we please move this to the humor and then sticky it? I'm not joking about this. In fact, I demand it.

[dandan]

To give you all a European perspective on this, I don't hate Team Meandeck. I don't care if you have Meandeck Oath, Meandeck Blue or Meandeck (insery any old Legend [name], particularly one that Meandeck players winged about when Legend laid claim to a generic deck). Don't go around thinking that the world revolves around you, bad players like me (we ARE the majority, you will be assimilated -before you know it you'll start playing LED, Akroma, Bazaar and SotN) care less about Meandeck than farts we pass in public places (we are interested but we rarely bother to take the time to see the results).

To reply to Matt, as one of the more vocal members of the less-skilled wing of Type I I have never had the feeling that people here have looked down on me. I have felt welcome. I can see that when someone starts a pissing contest it is wise to be upwind. I think that many players have received a lot of help here and that unfortunately it is necessary to inform some players that they are not good, that their decks are bad and that job falls to established 'good' players, especially those with fairly large egos - a definition that includes some Team Meandeck members.

All joking aside, I just don't see a problem. This whole Meandeck/Shortbus thing seems like a local handbag fight and I am pretty sure most TMDers really don't give a damn.

[Bram]

Legendary industrial band Ministry said it best when they wrote:

Animosity and common hate
Feeds the hungry on an empty plate

Think about it.

I for one LOVE MeanDeck. Lemme refer to my team banner:


On a sidenote: smmenen, your 'self-critique' post was the funniest magic-related thing I've read since Kurtis Hahn got a lifetime ban for water bottle assault.

[Gabethebabe]

Hi-Val said: everybody CAN have the same success, because everybody CAN find time to spend on Magic.

True.

But not everybody WANTS to (I for instance, have a daughter, a pregnant wife who will explode within one month, a 40 h job and addicted to some nameless RTS game). Some people have magic not in their tier-1 or 2 priorities. This automatically means that "we" will automatically have less success. No problem. If you´re semi pro´s like meandeck, you win more and deservedly so. Nothing but respect.

But the problem is: if you´re at the top it is easily to be considered arrogant. People will quickly say you have an attitude. That comes automatically with being at the top and you will have to do your utmost to not be considered like that.
Well, Meandeck doesn´t do their utmost to keep low profile. And that´s an understatement. They don´t give a shit. They brag. They claim superiority over other players and teams. They have problems with keeping their feet on the ground. So therefore these threads happen.

Relax. It´s just a game.

[Eastman]

Because when Carl asks a simple question like 'why does the community dislike meandeck', meandeckers think its an invitation to blah blah blah about how they're great (see above)



Because they're the only guys who are in no position to answer carl's question, but they're still chiming in with self-serving responses.

I want to apologize, I guess I was wrong saying 'they're the only guys who are in no position to answer carl's question'

I'm such an asshole I've been called a "walking debate." I insult everyone who dares question my authority and my clearly superior knowledge of Type One.

I stand corrected. I couldn't have put it better myself.

[CF]

I can familiarize with Matt's sentiment. Flaunting should be limited to actual matches, where it can help gain an edge over your opponent. There are no matches being played at tmd.com...

--
Chris

[kl0wn]

My issue is that waaaay way back in the beginning (back when they were just a secret Yahoo group), I was a member of Meandeck. I kept harassing other team members to get cracking on Storm combo whilst they were still crying about the restriction of Gush and trying to make GAT work. I posted lists and tried to hammer it into their heads that the Storm mechanic was still ridiculously degenerate despite the restriction of Mind's Desire.

Then after a little while of solitary goldfishing to improve Storm combo since nobody else was interested in it, I was kicked off the team for not fellating the other team members and for not complimenting their bad Neo-GAT lists.

A few weeks later, I see the skeleton of one of my Storm combo lists with the added bonus of LED being flaunted by Meandeck. Obviously my name wasn't mentioned in any of the articles written by Smemmen, despite my handing his team the 56 other cards in the deck.

A while after that, right when Mirrodin came out, I began working on Workshop Slaver. I gave my list to a local (Eli Kassis) before going to Waterbury and he managed to pilot it to a third place finish. A week later, I see a "revised" build of "Meandeck Slaver" that is nearly identical to the third place deck listed in the Waterbury Top 8.

I did manage to get a tiny bit of satisfaction however, when I faced Kevin Cron at SCG1 in Virginia. He was playing Stax with a little added "secret tech" called Transmute Artifact. I was also playing a deck using said "secret tech", except my deck was built around abusing it. In game three of our match, he Transmuted a Mox into a Darksteel Ingot and Artifact Mutationed it so that he could stave off the unrelenting onslaught of my fat, untargettable artifact beaters for the draw. But a draw just wouldn't do for me; I wanted blood. A small crowd had gathered as we were one of the last matches going in extra turns, among them being Smemmen himself. Cron was at very low life, but it appeared that he would be able to survive until our extra turns had run out. Up until that point in our match, I had not cast a Transmute and had taken extra care to not pitch it to Force anything or discarded it at all, trying to not reveal my sweet, sweet action if I didn't have to.

Cron looked up at Smemmen and said something to the extent of "looks like it'll be a draw". I looked at Cron and simply said "no, it won't", then turned to Smemmen and said "anything your team can do, I will ALWAYS do better...THIS is what you do with these cards" as I put MY Transmute on the stack, sacrificing Su-Chi to fetch Pentavus and making men to fly over for the win. Ah...sweet revenge.

I'm sure this post will be 1984ed like the others I've made along these lines, but hey...gotta speak my piece.

[Zherbus]

I'm sure this post will be 1984ed like the others I've made along these lines, but hey...gotta speak my piece.

I was totally going to stay out of this thread because it's a bad idea, until you posted that. I really hope you weren't insinuating that I'd delete your post because I'm on the Team.

Btw, it sound like most of you have problems with INDIVIDUALS not the team.

EDIT: My bad, Bryce. I thought it was common knowledge that I'm basically the only one who can mod here.

[Smmenen]

My issue is that waaaay way back in the beginning (back when they were just a secret Yahoo group), I was a member of Meandeck. I kept harassing other team members to get cracking on Storm combo whilst they were still crying about the restriction of Gush and trying to make GAT work. I posted lists and tried to hammer it into their heads that the Storm mechanic was still ridiculously degenerate despite the restriction of Mind's Desire.

Then after a little while of solitary goldfishing to improve Storm combo since nobody else was interested in it, I was kicked off the team for not fellating the other team members and for not complimenting their bad Neo-GAT lists.

A few weeks later, I see the skeleton of one of my Storm combo lists with the added bonus of LED being flaunted by Meandeck. Obviously my name wasn't mentioned in any of the articles written by Smemmen, despite my handing his team the 56 other cards in the deck.

A while after that, right when Mirrodin came out, I began working on Workshop Slaver. I gave my list to a local (Eli Kassis) before going to Waterbury and he managed to pilot it to a third place finish. A week later, I see a "revised" build of "Meandeck Slaver" that is nearly identical to the third place deck listed in the Waterbury Top 8.

I did manage to get a tiny bit of satisfaction however, when I faced Kevin Cron at SCG1 in Virginia. He was playing Stax with a little added "secret tech" called Transmute Artifact. I was also playing a deck using said "secret tech", except my deck was built around abusing it. In game three of our match, he Transmuted a Mox into a Darksteel Ingot and Artifact Mutationed it so that he could stave off the unrelenting onslaught of my fat, untargettable artifact beaters for the draw. But a draw just wouldn't do for me; I wanted blood. A small crowd had gathered as we were one of the last matches going in extra turns, among them being Smemmen himself. Cron was at very low life, but it appeared that he would be able to survive until our extra turns had run out. Up until that point in our match, I had not cast a Transmute and had taken extra care to not pitch it to Force anything or discarded it at all, trying to not reveal my sweet, sweet action if I didn't have to.

Cron looked up at Smemmen and said something to the extent of "looks like it'll be a draw". I looked at Cron and simply said "no, it won't", then turned to Smemmen and said "anything your team can do, I will ALWAYS do better...THIS is what you do with these cards" as I put MY Transmute on the stack, sacrificing Su-Chi to fetch Pentavus and making men to fly over for the win. Ah...sweet revenge.

I'm sure this post will be 1984ed like the others I've made along these lines, but hey...gotta speak my piece.

Does anyone actually know what he's talking about?  I'm asking meandeckers?  The only time I remember Klown saying something to me in person was at the first Waterbury when I said something like "hi".  Or is Klown joking like PTW did in the SCG II picture thread?  I suppose Klown invented Gat and Stax too.  LOL.

[Hi-Val]

Wow, I'm sure you sure showed Kevin!

For the record, I went back to the original Yahoo group and read what was happening during the Long time. To your credit, you posted a few times about storm combo, but your statement that everyone else was messing with bad GAT decks is untrue. In fact, the discussion was started by Steve about Storm combo, citing Westredale's deck. On the same timeframe people were discussing STAX and joining in the conversation about Tendrils kills. To say that you were the only one discussing it would be historically disengenuous. In fact, the real discussion of Long.dec started on August 16 by Steve, not you.

The real reason from what I gather and observe is why anyone gets cut from Meandeck, not posting anything. You're welcome to think it's a personal grudge but from my research, it appears otherwise.

[Smmenen]

From:    "Tito D. Clowne" <ahappyclown@yahoo.com>
Date:  Sun Aug 10, 2003  1:22 pm
Subject:  Mask: Is there enough interest?

   
ADVERTISEMENT
   
As you all may know, I haven't been active in the group lately. This
is mainly because almost all of the discussion has been about
Workshop-based decks (MUD, $T4kS) and, since I don't have Workshops
and haven't ever played with a Workshop-based deck, I don't feel
qualified to chime in.

For the past few months I've been playing and refining Survival/Mask
pretty much on my own. I've been running it in both small local and
large out-of-town tournaments. For the record, I have never missed the
single elimination with the deck (this includes the 85-person NE
Champs and a 66-person Waterbury), which leads me to believe that it
is still a contender even as the Type 1 environment evolves and mutates.

I haven't participated in any of the discussions over on TMD about
Venguer Masque as they're all quite a bit behind in the evolution of
the deck concept (yes, this includes Carl Devos). I'm also not a big
fan of just donating free technology to the general Magic community
and being ignored afterwards. Not to mention, the vast majority of
people over there just don't have much to offer on the subject.

Bitching about the quality of Mask discussion on TMD aside, this is my
question: is there enough interest amongst Team Mean Deck in
Mask-based decks to begin a discussion on it (and possibly construct a
nearly-unbeatable behemoth of a deck)? Or am I alone in my love of
12/12 tramplers? Has anyone within the group ever played with a
Survival/Mask deck extensively other than myself?

[CF]

I suppose Klown invented Gat and Stax too. LOL

But Stephen... neither did you ;o)

Let my advice about flaunting extend to displaying large egos too.

--
Chris

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

Nas - Hate Me Now  

Don't hate me, hate the money I see, clothes that I buy
Ice that I wear, flows that I try
Close your eyes, picture me rollin,
sixes, money foldin
Bitches honeys that swollen
the riches, nas get in ya
most critically acclaimed pulitzer prize winner
best storyteller thug narrator my style's greater
model dater, big threat to a lot of you haters
Commentators ring side try watchin my paper
almost a decade quite impressive
most of the best is in the essence
for this rap shit that I stand for
expanding more to the big screen
bill gates dreams
but it seems youd rather see me in jail
with state dreams
want me off the scene fast
but good things last
like your favorite m.c. still makin' some mean cash
first rapper to bring a platinum plaque
back to the projects
but you still wanna hate, be my guest
I suggest

ANYWAYS, you should hate 187 soon, for all the EVIL things that were are going to do to you in the next couple of months.

[Saucemaster]

Does anyone actually know what he's talking about?  I'm asking meandeckers?  The only time I remember Klown saying something to me in person was at the first Waterbury when I said something like "hi".  Or is Klown joking like PTW did in the SCG II picture thread?  I suppose Klown invented Gat and Stax too.  LOL.

I think he's being serious.  If anyone cares, I've researched this before, when kl0wn made a similar accusation (since I was on the team when all of this supposedly happened, and remembered none of this occuring).  It looks like, despite my efforts and those of a few others--on both sides--this will end up (predictably) as a flame war.  So if anyone cares about kl0wn's accusations and wants details from our side, PM me.

[Phantom Tape Worm]

Does anyone actually know what he's talking about?  I'm asking meandeckers?  The only time I remember Klown saying something to me in person was at the first Waterbury when I said something like "hi".  Or is Klown joking like PTW did in the SCG II picture thread?  I suppose Klown invented Gat and Stax too.  LOL.

I think he's actually being serious.  

I was being serious too.  My account of what happened in the SCG 2 picture thread is 100% accurate.  How dare you for insinuating otherwise!

You know, this doesn't surprise me at all; as usual Meandeck is trying to cast doubt on what really happened and rewrite history to paint themselves in the most favorable light.

[leviat]

I think the problem in general is that people feel betrayed when they see members of MeanDeck "basking in the glory" for having similar thoughts or ideas as unsaid person.

TheManaDrain is huge and while many threads stray from the path, the idea behind TMD is a collective effort to discuss the very best decks. As a result, many ideas get discussed for most decks, if only for a brief moment. Unfortunately, what usually happens is that 95% of the people get immediately shot down and called idiots (in many more words) and the idea is tossed out.

Things would be okay if it stopped there but then a month later that same person will read a post, or an article, that says something to the effect "MeanDeck came up with this idea, we're awesome, go us."

*** About 30 minutes have passed ***

You know. I really think it's just the flaunting part as Matt said. MeanDeck is a group with a lot of very GOOD players, they will undoubtedly do well at tournaments with almost any deck. I have a lot of respect for most members of MeanDeck and some of them are actually really cool and great people to hang out with. It's just that a few other members have such a InYourFace-YouSuckWeDont-SuckMyCock attitude that it leaves a very unfavorable yet lasting taste in your mouth.

When Azhrei played, he acted as the Elitest member for Paragons and he made sure that everyone knew that the Paragons were better than you. Smmemen now fills that role for MeanDeck. It's sort of a bummer too because other members are really cool like Toad, Z, Carl, etc.

[Saucemaster]

was being serious too. My account of what happened in the SCG 2 picture thread is 100% accurate. How dare you for insinuating otherwise!  

I didn't insinuate anything.  Steve insinuated.

I feel I should point out, though, that you *did* leave out the part about Steve grabbing that gun to defend Hi-Val's honor from your unwelcome advances.  I believe you said something to the effect of "Dougy doug doooooouuuuuggg.  Ohmigodiloveyou Doug.  Come here" (at this point there's a thud as you stumble into a wall) "ouch.  Comehere I'ma tap that ass.  Ohmigod such a nice" (hiccup) "ass" (thud) "ow.  Ohshit you make such pretty pitchers" (I think Josh corrected your pronunciation here).  "Pretty pitchers an' a pretty ass.  I'm pretty.  I'm a pretty pony Doug, you wanna *OUCH* ride me?"

Out of respect for the hospitality of our host, the gentlemanly Josh Reynolds, I wasn't going to say anything, as it may reflect badly on him.  But now, sir, now I cannot avoid it any longer.

[kl0wn]

I was totally going to stay out of this thread because it's a bad idea, until you posted that. I really hope you weren't insinuating that I'd delete your post because I'm on the Team.

Btw, it sound like most of you have problems with INDIVIDUALS not the team.

EDIT: My bad, Bryce. I thought it was common knowledge that I'm basically the only one who can mod here.

They were 1984ed due to inciting of flamewars, which I totally understand. I was predicting it would happen here as well, although this time around I'm going to remain civil so any flames won't be from me freaking out.

And the problems I have are mostly just residual resentment at the original members of the team for ganking my business.

To everyone and everything else:

This was before August 1st, when Desire was officially restricted. Before Westredale's Rector-Tendrils deck came up for discussion. I had many discussions on IRC with Steve about how Tendrils was still good despite only being able to use one Desire, but eventually abandoned discussing it due to lack of interest from him and the other team members and the fact that it was a little clunky without the LED.

Either way, I'm not going to argue about things I have no official records of. Nor am I going to try to argue with the most vocal people in the format; I don't have the time or interest to do so and I'm grossly outnumbered on top of that.

The question "what's yer beef?" was asked and I answered it. Simple. I have absolutely nothing to gain from beating this dead horse anymore. I'm also not one to lie about things, so believe what you want.

And to Smemmen:

Yeah, I asked people if they were interested in Survival-Mask decks. So? I was trying to spark discussion in a field where I actually had experience. Obviously nobody wanted any degenerate combo discussions, so I moved on to something else. And while we're digging up old posts, I may not have access to the old Yahoo group anymore, but maybe you'll remember this little gem:

Kill:
3 Tendrils
4 Hurkyl's Recall
(8)

Protection:
3 Duress
4 FoW
(8)

Search:
4 Brainstorm
4 Impulse
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timewalk
1 Timetwister
1 Frantic Search
1 Windfall
1 Mind's Desire
3 Burning Wish
(18)

3 Helm of Awakening
(3)

7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
2 Candelabra
1 Academy
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
4 Polluted Delta
(23)

Wish Targets:
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Spiral
1 Tendrils
1 Duress

I will also readily admit that the initial list was absolutely horrible.

Furthermore:

I suppose Klown invented Gat and Stax too. LOL.

You're a funny guy. "LOL" is right. Absolutely HILARIOUS. I wish I could make funnies this good. Oh, and while we're stooping to the level of personal insults...nah, I'm not gonna do it. I said I was going to remain civil and I will. But I actually may have had a hand in the invention of GAT if certain gro-playing fools (Leviat) had listened to me and splashed black for Duress and friends and added Fastbond. Thanks for reminding me.

[Azhrei]

I would just like to say that I am insulted by the comparisons between Smmenen and me. He is Counterspell. I am Mana Drain. He is Equipoise. I am Balance.

The Paragons of Vintage were the ONLY team around for a long while. Most of the stuff we did was self-satirizing, but not many picked up on that. Oh well.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how things turned out. It was SliverKing, Thorme, Triple S,  me, and others not on this board who got Vintage off the ground in Virginia years ago by showing up every month to a local store-- then Josh and I ran a T1 event at a StarCity event and put up the prizes ourselves. We had enough people show that Pete ran his own the next year, and the next, and now look at what we've got. Oscar brought T1 to regular column status. If you don't like the Paragons, that's your choice and I can't fault you for it-- we weren't always likable and I was most vocal at a time in my life where circumstances outside of gaming were making me a very angry and sometimes unpleasant person. By the time I got that straightened out, I confess that it was far too amusing to tweak people to let it go entirely.

Plus some of you are really just whiny bitches who are more hypersensitive than an all-female drama club on a synchonized menstrual cycle.

However, the Paragons of Vintage and their friends helped make Vintage what it is today in terms of popularity. We didn't do it alone, but we were on the ground floor and a cornerstone. I can't tell you how much promotion of our format went on that no one ever saw or knew about.  We're less Paragons and more the Forefathers.

Of course, I'm sure that some of you will say I'm only touting my own horn, but whatever. I haven't played in a long time, I sold my cards, and I have other things I spend my time on.  If the memory of me fades entirely, so be it. Remember that without the Paragons and their efforts, you might not have 80+ person tournaments to go to here. We weren't alone in it, but we were there.

You can also partially blame us for the skyrocketing price of the Power Nine. Neener neener neener!

[Smmenen]

I think the problem in general is that people feel betrayed when they see members of MeanDeck "basking in the glory" for having similar thoughts or ideas as unsaid person.

TheManaDrain is huge and while many threads stray from the path, the idea behind TMD is a collective effort to discuss the very best decks. As a result, many ideas get discussed for most decks, if only for a brief moment. Unfortunately, what usually happens is that 95% of the people get immediately shot down and called idiots (in many more words) and the idea is tossed out.

Things would be okay if it stopped there but then a month later that same person will read a post, or an article, that says something to the effect "MeanDeck came up with this idea, we're awesome, go us."

*** About 30 minutes have passed ***

You know. I really think it's just the flaunting part as Matt said. MeanDeck is a group with a lot of very GOOD players, they will undoubtedly do well at tournaments with almost any deck. I have a lot of respect for most members of MeanDeck and some of them are actually really cool and great people to hang out with. It's just that a few other members have such a InYourFace-YouSuckWeDont-SuckMyCock attitude that it leaves a very unfavorable yet lasting taste in your mouth.

When Azhrei played, he acted as the Elitest member for Paragons and he made sure that everyone knew that the Paragons were better than you. Smmemen now fills that role for MeanDeck. It's sort of a bummer too because other members are really cool like Toad, Z, Carl, etc.

In all seriousness, I'm actually dissapointed that my personality comes accross that way.  Not that I'll intentionally change it or anything, because I'm not going to be who I'm not - but I'll tell you this much: aside from actual trashtalking threads or humor, I never say that someone sucks.

I was one of the few people on IRC who actually never insulted other people behind their backs while many, many people did the same.  I rarely actually badmotth a person for their skill or talent and when I do say something bad about someone, it's usually becuase of something they have personally done to me.  I try to keep things as impersonal as possible and belittle arguments, not people.

I would hope that people who meet me would realize that I have no venom for anyone.  I like to think of myself as better than that.  Which distinctly sets me aside from Darren .  I don't beleive that saying that our team is sweet is the same as insulting other people.  Just becuase you may read me as having a big ego doesn't mean that I'm really an asshole or a jerk.  The two aren't intertwined.

[Dante]

I thought this was going to be a funny thread that might make me laugh, man was I wrong...what a waste of 10 minutes of my life.

Actually, it was worth it for this:

Plus some of you are really just whiny bitches who are more hypersensitive than an all-female drama club on a synchonized menstrual cycle.

That made me laugh and I couldn't agree more.

I can't believe that:

1. Anyone really cares if Meandeck toots their own horn.  Results speak louder than words.
2. Anyone on Meandeck actually cares about what anyone else says or thinks.

I thought this was a site dedicated to Type 1 strategy and making some friends who share our dorky habit, silly me.

Bill

[jpmeyer]

Maybe it's just me, but I tend to think that most teams make versions of most decks simultaneously.  That's the main reason why I'll attach "Meandeck" to the names of decks that we work on.  I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt because cards like Mindslaver and Forbidden Orchard look so obvious.

[Methuselahn]

Oh jeez, another thread about Meandeck.  Really, this thread should never have been started.  

I'm sure Meandeckers are nice enough IRL, but online, it's easy to come off as an asshole, and some members on the team don't seem to consider this or care.

Edit: best work ever on pg 2 PTW  :)

[Kerz]

I actually love meandeck. I'd sex up any and all of the members, sans Carl (that would be incest, seeing how he is my son).

[Eastman]

Maybe it's just me, but I tend to think that most teams make versions of most decks simultaneously.  That's the main reason why I'll attach "Meandeck" to the names of decks that we work on.  I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt because cards like Mindslaver and Forbidden Orchard look so obvious.

He's right about that, we have been working on very similar oath and doomsday lists, for instance. I like the way meandeck uses that name, it's straightforward.

[Smmenen]

I think the problem in general is that people feel betrayed when they see members of MeanDeck "basking in the glory" for having similar thoughts or ideas as unsaid person.

TheManaDrain is huge and while many threads stray from the path, the idea behind TMD is a collective effort to discuss the very best decks. As a result, many ideas get discussed for most decks, if only for a brief moment. Unfortunately, what usually happens is that 95% of the people get immediately shot down and called idiots (in many more words) and the idea is tossed out.

Things would be okay if it stopped there but then a month later that same person will read a post, or an article, that says something to the effect "MeanDeck came up with this idea, we're awesome, go us."

*** About 30 minutes have passed ***

You know. I really think it's just the flaunting part as Matt said. MeanDeck is a group with a lot of very GOOD players, they will undoubtedly do well at tournaments with almost any deck. I have a lot of respect for most members of MeanDeck and some of them are actually really cool and great people to hang out with. It's just that a few other members have such a InYourFace-YouSuckWeDont-SuckMyCock attitude that it leaves a very unfavorable yet lasting taste in your mouth.

When Azhrei played, he acted as the Elitest member for Paragons and he made sure that everyone knew that the Paragons were better than you. Smmemen now fills that role for MeanDeck. It's sort of a bummer too because other members are really cool like Toad, Z, Carl, etc.

In all seriousness, I'm actually dissapointed that my personality comes accross that way.  Not that I'll intentionally change it or anything, because I'm not going to be who I'm not - but I'll tell you this much: aside from actual trashtalking threads or humor, I never say that someone sucks.

I was one of the few people on IRC who actually never insulted other people behind their backs while many, many people did the same.  I rarely actually badmotth a person for their skill or talent and when I do say something bad about someone, it's usually becuase of something they have personally done to me.  I try to keep things as impersonal as possible and belittle arguments, not people.

I would hope that people who meet me would realize that I have no venom for anyone.  I like to think of myself as better than that.  Which distinctly sets me aside from Darren .  I don't beleive that saying that our team is sweet is the same as insulting other people.  Just becuase you may read me as having a big ego doesn't mean that I'm really an asshole or a jerk.  The two aren't intertwined.

[MuzzonoAmi]

I realize that, and agree with it. Unfortunately, it seems that to do so requires something of an ego. I'll be the first to admit that I likely talk a better game than I play, but that doesn't shut me up, because I buy into my own hype. Unfortunately, alot of people don't, and so get even angrier at your success and (percieved) arrogance.