Ousted Due to Bad Playing

As I'm sure most of us have, I keep finding myself in a frustrating situation at tables lately. That situation being that I get ousted due to someone else, usually a cross-table, making poor decisions.

I don't mind losing when I get outplayed. If my deck doesn't come up right or my predator is all over me and I get ousted, that's fine. However, I seem to have the misfortune of having my grandpredator do absolutely nothing to his prey or similar arrangements.

I know myself well enough to know that if it continues, especially from the same 2-3 players that I will reach a point where I say something to that person and it will most likely not be polite or in good sportsmanship.

Any suggestions on how to deal with this?

Recalibrate your decks and your play to contradict the metagame you have.

If you're getting Nuke-Bled crosstable, then it's time to build a !Ven Teflon Deck with wads of Auspex & Dominate. Just flick/reduce every bleed and block the rest.

If you regularly get GPreds who do nothing, then build decks to utilise the Path of the Salmon (Rush-Fame-Dragonbound-Tensions or Kindred Spirits back-oust your way around).

In the end, don't be a victim to their actions, use their predicted actions to your advantage.

A case in point is one of the players in my playgroup who is always assuming that a player's hand contains the ideal set of cards. It's more-so when he's trying to play something like a KS bleeder or similar. I was playing a Trochomancy Deck, so is a big part of it, but BLOCKING is not a big part. It reduces bleeds (using whassername the Nagaraja with the untap and stare at someone's hand when they lose the edge... mmm that's a golden vamp text) and then blocks the final action if possible. There is not a single intercept reaction in the deck. He didn't take a forward action for around 5 turns, and I will keep playing this deck and letting him fall prey to the idea that = Super-wall. It's to my advantage to let him think he can't bleed be ever if any one of my vampires has or , cause I'll just block it or flick it!

Talk to him. Give him advice. When somebody contradicts your advice (and they will), don't get into an argument. Let the other guy get frustrated and concentrate on calmly and confidently presenting facts that support your case.

Don't talk about some abstract concept like table balance. Talk about how your cross table ally will accomplish his own goals by following your advice.

Only give advice that you would take in his position, otherwise you'll just look untrustworthy. At the same time, only give advice that furthers your goals.

And that is how you govern the unaligned.

There's some merit to that advice and I've used that exact tactic in some situations with success. Other times, particularly with the "I make final tables, don't tell me what to do" kind of attitudes, its like hitting my face on a brick wall.

Often times I find myself "seeing the big picture" and can see exactly how the table is going to fall and can't seem to get anyone to listen to me.

Suoli wrote:

Talk to him. Give him advice.

Hi, I'm one of those bad playing noobs. I recommend this guy's advice.

For me it seems like diplomacy is a very essential part of the game. Due the deck arctypes and random seating the game can be very unbalanced by the start. Drawing cards as resources randomly makes this even more random. If you find yourself in a dire situation of harmfull crosstable play (votes, bouncing, camarilla segregation, etc.) You have to try diplomacy. Reasoning, threatening, begging, flattering, exaggeration, pleading and general bargaining are all useful tools to try to tip the odds for you. VTES is a social game.

Try dealing with your grandprey for favors against threatening grandpred. You can even deal with your prey to get that necessary crosstable rush if you can have one. Keep your word and play on other's weaknesses when possible. If you find yourself in a situation you can't do anything about - take the humour with it. After all - we all play for the entertainment.