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I'm pretty sure that's an American reference - I'll offer up a prize to whoever posts up where that comes from in the forums.

In any case. I was having a read of Joe's article, and it made me remember a topic that I had planned to write an article about for a while, then forgot about. As I usually do.

An illustration:

I was playing at a pre-release once. My opponent was fairly young - I'd say 13 or 14. He was obviously new to the game. It may have been his first tournament. We sat down and he was looking through his deck, manipulating the order of his cards and such. After a bit, he must have decided that it was good enough, as he proceeded to put his deck in front of him, draw seven cards, and look at me with the "ready?" look. I obviously was not. I wanted to be polite, so I suggested that we might like to cut/shuffle each other's decks before we play. He wasn't pleased, but gave me his deck. I shuffled it a bit and cut it. He was now looking distressed. We started the game. He drew his seven, and his not-so-brilliant poker face told me that his hand was less than optimal.

Then he looked at the top three cards of his deck, smiled, and put them back.

Then he again looked at me with the "ready?" look. Heh.

I pointed out to my opponent that he really can't be looking at the top cards of his library. He suggested that was how he and his friends always play. I countered that as we are in a tournament, you can't really be doing such things. He was once again looking distressed.

The rest of the match preceded in much the same fashion. Some of the things you might have heard: (were you watching the games)

"Sorry, you can't play a Sorcery during my turn."
"Uhh, you actually need 2 Blue mana for that and you only have one."
"Yes, I know that is how you and your friends play, but..."
"Hmm, you can only draw one card per turn there, mate"
"Yes, I know that is how you and your friends play..."

I somehow managed to still win the match. This was perhaps facilitated by his brilliant Turn 3 Price of Progress, Turn 4 Simplify play (I had no enchantments). If you didn't play during that format, it's essentially like playing Necrogen Spellbomb and then activating it, targeting yourself, and paying a couple of extra mana for kicks. It also didn't hurt that he was apparently playing every card he received in his starter/boosters.

The point I guess I'm getting at here, is where do you draw the line? Where do you finally cry foul, or call a judge? How often do you let things slip - things that are illegal 'by the book', but are generally overlooked in low-level tournament play?

You're playing in your weekly draft. You play someone you know well. They play a spell. You nod, and it resolves. They look at their hand, say "oops!" untap a mana, tap one of a different colour, and play another spell - one which they would not have had the right colour mana for if they had kept their mana tapped from the last spell.

So now what? It's a silly little mistake. It happens all the time, and rarely do I see anyone really that concerned over it - to the point where if someone did say, "sorry, you can't take that back," the person who was about to change his mana would end up offended.

Illustration the second:

I was playing in a tournament a long time ago. It was the finals and I was playing a pretty aggressive deck against a control deck. In game 3, I was beating my opponent down, but he was starting to stabilise. In what could have been the final turn, I swung in for more damage than he had life left. He looked it over, said, "Yep" and scooped his lands up into a pile.

It was at this point, that I chose, for some very odd reason, to mention to my opponent that he had a Zuran Orb in play (for those of you who don't know, Zuran Orb is an old broken card from Ice Age - a Zero casting cost artifact that says - Sacrifice a Land: Gain 2 Life).

He looks at it. He looks at me. He looks at the lands that he has scooped up in his hand. He looks at me. He says, "oh... so... I'll sac 2 lands?"

I inwardly curse. A lot. I look at the lands scooped up in his hand. I look at him. I look at the lands scooped up in his hand. I say, "sure". Of course, I lose the game. And the Mox Pearl that was the first place prize.

So it goes.

That's obviously extreme, but the point to consider is where does the "nice, friendly" aspect of magic become superseded by the hard-fast rules?

What about when you're in a draft and a few people start to have wandering eyes?

What about when someone cracks their first draft pack and goes, "woo hoo - hammer!"?

Do you call them on it? Do you call a judge?

I'm going to pick on a few people I draft with now - just as an example. During my regular drafts there are a couple of guys that are good friends that come together and therefore end up on the same draft list and in the same drafts. During the draft they essentially team draft, and without any blatant statements like "I'm red", they will say something like "Stick to the plan, or I'm not sticking to the plan." They finish the draft and go off and build their decks together. As a whole, our drafts are fairly casual - there is always some small amount of table talk and wandering eyes.

So the question is - is this ok? It's obviously not strictly within the "rules" but the effect on the draft as a whole is pretty minimal.

If it's not ok, then what would you do about it? Honestly. It's easy to say, "well I'd call a judge, of course" if you aren't in the situation. Usually it's not so easy. I witnessed a guy throw away a match win at nationals because he was too intimidated by his opponent to call a judge over ("Do you really want to win that way?" for those in the know)

One final illustration. I'm sure you get the idea by now, but I have some morbid fascination in telling stories in which I am the victim of my own stupidity.

Another pre-release - this time Onslaught block - Legions I believe. I'm again playing a relatively new opponent. I have won the first game, and seem to have a better deck so I'm quite confident. It's the second game, and I feel like I have him under control. We've been trading some small beats, and I've killed a morphed creature. He chucks it in his graveyard and we then realise that it isn't a morph. He's genuinely surprised and shows me the card in his hand that he had "thought" he had played down as a morph.

Then comes that look. You're undoubtedly familiar with it. It's that half-questioning, half-pleading look that says their life is in your hands, but please be gentle. Like that scared puppy that knows they have done something wrong but would really really love you forever if you just... let it slide...

I look at my hand and the board. I think to myself that I don't want to be a bastard. I reckon that I'll win anyway. I sigh. I say, "Don't worry about it." So we continue the game. Two turns later he pulls Insurrection off the top with just enough power on the board to win the game. Game 3 and Insurrection takes it again. So I lose a match that I could have won by default if I hadn't let it slide.

So there you have it. Well you have nothing really, as I didn't really conclude anything. It's more of a little bit of something to make you think about how you act and react to situations like this. It's something to consider when you undoubtedly find yourself in the situation where you have to choose to be lenient or to be harsh.

So do I regret letting my opponents take back those plays? Yes! Would I regret it still if I had managed to win those matches? Good question... probably not. I probably just regret losing.

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