Hey guys sorry that I didn’t post last week, but with my
semester winding down I've got a lot of things going on. Originally I was
planning on writing about how to pick a deck to play that fits into your local
meta game, but after several bad experiences at my past couple FNMs I thought
of a better topic for old and new players alike. As the title suggests I’ll be
talking about player etiquette, covering a few major topics on the subject
attitude, asking, and knowing.
In my opinion one of the most important things of player
etiquette is a good attitude. Everybody at your LGS have come to whatever event
you’re at to play some magic and have fun. And the easiest way to ensure that you
have a good time is to maintain a good attitude. Whenever Friday comes around
and I’m getting ready for an FNM I’m leaving all my troubles at the door and
start to relax because FNM is how I like to end my week. As soon as I arrive at
my LGS I’m either listening to some of my favorite music or I’m talking to some
friends at the shop while we watch casual matches going on. So by the time
matches start I’ve already calmed down and have settled in for some fun no
matter what happened during the week. Also make sure that no matter what you
keep calm. Too many times I’ve seen several people I play with lose their cool
over something as simple as not playing a certain land, flooding out, or not
drawing land at all. While I agree that these situations can be very
frustrating I try to keep downplaying it and maintain my cool. If you let these
situations get to you, you are liable to make more mistakes that can lead to a
loss even though you had a chance of winning. Also your opponent, as stated
earlier, is there to have fun and you just raging over small issues are going
to ruin your opponent’s time as well.
While the next topic is a minor thing I think for some
players it is very important, that being to ask before you mess with anything
your opponent controls. Now to me it’s not a big deal if you ask to see a card
that you are unfamiliar with, but please don’t just grab it off the table
especially if it has some form of counter on it. I’ve also had an opponent try
to grab my graveyard, which was right next to me across the table, and I told
him he couldn’t have it. However, had he asked before trying to grab it I would
have gladly let him see it. So to me it’s not a big deal, but if someone has
expensive foils of a card and you’re just grabbing it up off the table you
better think twice about whether or not your hand will be still attached when
that card touches the table again. Also along the lines of asking is calling
for a judge. While it may be daunting at first to play at a big tournament or
even an FNM, don’t let the environment keep you from getting critical
information. If there is an effect you are unsure of ask you opponent first for
clarification and if a problem still persists call for a judge. They are there
for a reason and receive some form of compensation for their time to make sure
everything runs smoothly and nobody is being cheated out of a chance of doing
well. I ask questions frequently just so I have clarity on issues even if they
only happen once in a million, such as how do blockers work with a double cast
revenge of the hunted on two different creatures. Another good example is at
the recent ptq I asked a judge if I could wear my sunglasses during my Top 8
matches. Now while it does sound ridiculous I had a good reason for it, my
vision tends to split when it gets really late and was compounded by wearing my
contacts for 14 hours straight and the sunglasses helped keep my vision
focused. The judge said it was fine as long as they weren’t giving me extra
information. Thanks to this clarification I was able to play through the Top 8
rounds unhindered by my double vision problems and I placed second.
Finally probably the biggest topic of all is knowing.
Knowing what, you might ask. Well there are two things that I think every
player should know, knowing your deck and knowing when to concede. The first is
very simple, even if you’re playing a deck you’re familiar with that just has a
couple changes run it through a couple test games with some friends before any
event you go to. Nothing is worse than asking clarification from your opponent
on what your cards do or ask your opponent for help in making plays. While most
players won’t cheat you some will and other will get really perturbed. My play
testing friend had an opponent a couple weeks ago that had no idea what her
deck did and had me sideboard for her, it was and FNM so it was cool. This is
pretty ridiculous if you ask me especially when she had sideboard cards that
were perfect for the match up, and when she played a slaughter games my friend,
whom she was playing against, had to tell her which card to pick. Once her
boyfriend showed up he just kept encouraging her, which good on him for giving
her encouragement, but when she’s playing against Esper Control she needs to
stop slow rolling because she doesn’t know what her cards do and keeping my
friend from winning. Please people know what your cards do and what to do in
certain match ups. Sure using something like slaughter games for some players
is a pretty big choice, but when you are playing tribal vampires and use slaughter
games against an Esper player you should know to pick either Sphinx’s Revelation or
something like Supreme Verdict. Another thing all players should know is when
to concede. Going back to the Esper
Control example, but with a different opponent, you need to realize that if you
keep getting board wiped between Sphinx’s Revelations and being milled out you
should probably just scoop your cards up and shuffle for the next game. Several
players keep playing looking for outs that aren’t there anymore. Now I’m all
for playing out a turn or two to see what happens, but once you get in a lock
so bad maybe it’s time to just move on instead of wasting everybody’s time so a
game three can actually happen instead of the game ending in a draw. Too many
players keep going and trying to win an impossible game two instead of just
going into game three with ~20 minutes left, but they insist on loosing with
only 5 minutes left on the clock and no time for either of you to win. In my
own playing experience I had a terrible occurrence similar to this. I was
playing Craig Wescoe’s first Boros list and had just hit 3 tril life off of
Boros Reckoner, this was before it was infinite, in the first round of Top 8 at
my FNM. Having done this earlier that evening and my opponent then instantly
scooped, but this guy just sat there giving me this look of, “Can I go now”?
Now you might think yeah ok makes sense since he must be on a mill plan, he
wasn’t. My opponent was playing RUG agro/midrange with Domri Rade, Niv-Mizzet,
Gruul Ragebeast, and some other stuff. Being a creature list he wasn’t going
to get me to zero before he decked himself, especially after he had already
drawn extra cards and continued to play farseeks. After about ten minutes I
convinced him that he wasn’t going to win and had to deal over 27 billion points
of damage each turn to win, having to concede made both him and me very mad. Me
because he wasted both of our time and him because I made him give up or just
because I hit that sweet combo. In game three I just rolled him in a bit of
poetic justice. After that match I just gave my Top 4 opponent the win because
at that point I was just fed up with the night and wanted to just sleep.
So I’ll finally get off my soap box for the time being, but
please take this advice to heart and everybody will have a great time. Since I
went a couple weeks without a post, I’m planning on posting again Friday evening
about my mono-green list that I just finished 2nd with at the Theros
PTQ last week in Lubbock.
Talk to you guys later,
Zack
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