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.

The Cool Kids Club

I drafted today in Redmond and went 4-0 with a pretty good RGB deck that I thought was pretty bad because I had to play a 5-5-5 manabase with a Jund Panorama, Grixis Panorama, and a Obelisk of Jund. Thought for sure I would lose a match to color screw, but I managed to get lucky a couple times on two land hands, and I did elect to draw whenever given the choice. It also helped that I had 2 Sprouting Thranax and 2 Jund Charms.

In Round 2 I play against a newer player who comes with his young son every week. He has a pretty good Bant deck with double Rhox War Monk and double Oblivion Ring. Game 1 I get blown out pretty badly when he runs out both his Oblivion Rings on my fat and I can't deal with his Rockcaster Platoon, but he likes to talk out all of his plays and his thinking and asks for a lot of clarifications which really really slows the play down, and spends time kidding around with some plays and mannerisms. Game 2 I win past a Rhox War Monk, but again takes a very long time with the same talking through plays and clarifying. I set up an attack where he's at 7 and tapped out and facing lethal damage no matter how he blocks.

Him: "Okay." Just kind of sits there.
Me: "... go to game 3?"
Him: "Well wait, can I stall it out and try to get a draw?"
Me: "That wouldn't be cool."

In game 3, he keeps kidding around (to him, all in good nature) about his comment and how it isn't "cool", so I'm getting pretty upset, but I keep concentrating on the game because I want it to finish. After the TO Jeff walks by and explains that stalling is a serious offense (cheating, in fact, according to the Penalty Guidelines) and he makes another comment about "not being cool" and making fun of it all, I flat out tell him as calmly as I can "Look, it wasn't funny" and he gets the picture that I was upset from the course of events. The match goes to extra turns and thanks to a good draw I am able to win on the fifth and final turn. I was pretty upset it came to that because of his pace of play, obviously not maliciously trying to take advantage and only trying to understand what was going on, but in no way fast enough to finish three games in 50 minutes, and especially since I've tried really hard to speed up my play and stop getting unintentional draws. He did apologize for making too much fun out of it all, presumably after talking more with Jeff about what was happening.

I know exactly why he plays the way he does and thinks out loud basic situations and tries to clarify everything he can: because he is a new player and wants to get better. Fair enough. If this were at a PTQ and in the winner's bracket, I would absolutely call a judge over for stalling. But this was a regular weekend draft, and I know for a fact there was no malicious intent behind this, and I do care about not being a prick to the people I play with every week. That being said, since prizes are determined by record and not place, a draw would have affected what I get, which might have been 2 packs or something seemingly insignificant which is half a draft in credit, but imagine this scenario.

Me: (takes a $6.50 bill from you and rips it up) "Oh, it's just money, you have enough of it and you'll get more next week, lighten up!"

Yeah, it's not a lot of money, but I don't think too many of you wouldn't at least give a "What the f!@$", if not physically hurt me.

More importantly, I expect, and I think all of us expect, a certain level of seriousness and focus when you play in a sanctioned event. It really sounds silly on the outside looking in because it's just Magic cards, but there are other avenues to enjoy the game that don't take as much time and money if the experience of tournament Magic didn't matter to me. I'm more than happy to play anyone who wants to play between rounds of a draft and give advice, but inside an actual match is a little inappropriate, especially when it bogs down the game as much as it did in this case. I'm strongly of the opinion that matches in Limited go to time because people are either not being aggressive enough or they are playing too slow.

So that's off my chest. The rest of the draft was uneventful. Round 1 I played against a regular who's pretty good in 3, but threw away game 2 when I misexecuted a plan I had just from carelessness. Round 3 I blew out a regular, and Round 4 I beat a relatively new tournament player.

A little more States testing coming this week, mostly checking out sideboarding strategies and finding cards to borrow. I like the Red deck because it has edges against Faeries and Five-Color Control, but it scoops it hard to Kithkin. I tried Kithkin and it's good against Faeries, tears up the red deck, but literally cannot beat Five-Color, so I'm considering both decks.