Being lazy

I was thinking about a play from the Seattle PTQ and then thought about a play I made in the GP Atlanta Trials on Friday and realized they are very similar. Here's my play from the trial:

With me at 7, he has a Skeletal Kathari, Vithian Stinger, and Court Archers, and I have a Rakeclaw Gargantuan and a Sigiled Paladin. I am at 7, and he attacks. I decide I need to Soul's Fire to not die, so I run it out after his attacks choosing my Rakeclaw to hit his Kathari to make him at least sac a guy. For whatever reason, I did not specify that Exalted was on the stack. I think I thought he was had 8 mana and could cycle Resounding Roar, making my timing irrelevant, but that was not the case. He does have Resounding Roar and I die to lethal damage because I was extremely lazy.

The play I was thinking of from the PTQ involved Jon Loucks making a block, then his opponent asking "Stack damage?" to which Jon does something like ping his attacker that would die to one more damage and as a response the opponent bounces his own guy to what he thinks would save it and leave Jon's blocker dead from combat damage.

... except that damage was not on the stack. Jon had never indicated that he was ready to put damage on the stack, so the opponent asking "Stack damage?" was merely an indication that he was passing priority. From my understanding, a judge was called and ruled in favor of Jon, and the opponent was down a trick and probably also lost tempo if he couldn't play his guy back from spending the mana on the trick.

A couple of spectators called the play immoral, and I'm not talking about some little kids, I'm talking about the best players in Washington. A dick move? Obviously some would think so. I would always be specific about when I'm doing something and probably never try pulling something like that because I don't want to have to get in a fight over it, even if I know I am correct and the judge will rule in my favor.

Could the other player have done something about it? He could have been much more specific about what he was doing. "Stack damage" is so vague. A phrase like "I'm ready to put combat damage on the stack" (my old one) or simply "Pass priority"* (my new favorite) is much better. He could have also clarified when Jon was doing his thing, if he were aware of the ambiguity of just asking "Stack damage?"

Not trying to slam the guy, he is a good player and more accomplished than me. The point of all this is: DON'T BE LAZY! It usually always matters when you do something. If there are triggers, think about if there is any reason you would just want them to resolve. Generally there isn't. There wasn't in my case. Know exactly what phase you're in and make sure you can justify what phase you're in if you're opponent doesn't know, you might trick him and swindle a game if you're lucky (but then he'll might think you are a dick, which many writers have commented on).

For the first time in a while, I'm going to decline drafting at First Pick tonight. Gotta catch up on work. Maybe if I didn't blog so much.

* This weekend I was saying "Pass" during Declare Blockers instead of "Pass priority" and started saying "Pass priority" when an opponent asked if it was his turn and realized the ambiguity in what I was saying. "Pass" is definitely more often used to mean "End my turn". Glad that one didn't bite me, although I bet I could have argued my way out of that.