Is Chalice Checking Cheating? - MTG Story Time 

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That's a bit sketchy to chalice check like that. Personally I only chalice check when my opponent is on the stretcher because of all the anthrax I lace my sleeves with, that way I know they can't even call a judge.

Chalice checking during an asthma attack is ridiculous. They should have called a judge for slow-play.

I had a fun game in Modern playing Elves against a Chalice player: Chalice normally shuts the deck down really hard, but I had two Cavern of Souls, so I wasn't affected at all. However, my opponent (on Mono-Blue Tron) tried to cast an Expedition Map. When I pointed out his own Chalice trigger, he declared "I'm choosing to miss it", to which I responded he couldn't do that. This had to be escalated to a Judge Call because he just couldn't accept that he couldn't choose to miss his own trigger (like he can if I'm casting a spell and he simply forgets) even with me there reminding him of it.

My opponent: has a heartattack Me: Ponder Chalice Checking

Years ago, at an LGS that ran friday night modern, I had a guy that tried to chalice check me. He intentionally covered the mana cost of the card with his thumb, mumbled the spell name and tried to put it into graveyard before I could respond with my trigger. I called him out on it and told him to put the card face up on the table facing me so i could see its CMC. It really made me sad that someone wanted to behave like this at FNM level.

Record goes to the pre-release player (I was judging) who tried "My opponent didn't declare the excess damage for trample so I assume they assigned 6 damage to the 1/1 and 0 to me"...

I just realized chalice has counters, so removing the counters with "Hex parasite" or increasing it via proliferate is a funny way messing with it.

I was once in a two headed giant tournament and an opponent cast a spell and put it on the table, when I tried to counter it he told me that once a spell hits the table it has resolved...

I remember one time back in INN/RTR standard I was playing at an event that was larger than what I was used to. In one game I cast a Huntmaster of the Fells and signaled to my opponent that I had a triggered ability, to which he acknowledged it resolving. I created the 2/2 and adjusted the dice I was using to track my life total, and passed the turn. We get to combat on his turn, he attacks me and I end up taking some damage and say "ok I go down to X life." He then calls a judge, points to the pad he was tracking life totals on, and says that I was tracking my life total incorrectly because I had not specifically declared my life gain from the Huntmaster trigger on the previous turn. The judge ruled in my favor, because I had resolved the other half of the trigger and my opponent acknowledged it, but that left a bad taste in my mouth. It felt like a blatant attempt at angle shooting, and it worsened my play experience for the remainder of the match.

My own high-water mark for observed cheating was the pre-release opponent who had been angle-shooting for two games, just at the edge of plausible deniability, who ended our match by asking, "I won game one, right?" Reader, he had not one game one, and when I said so he just picked up his cards and playmat and moved on, which was in its way more creepy than if he had tried to argue about it.

Just as annoying to me is when people try to angle shoot on communications. Like chalice checking 5 times, you say "chalice trigger, gets countered; chalice; [points to chalice]" and then finally you just go "hmm" assuming you are on the same page and then they pretend that was acknowledgement of their thing resolving. I had a few cases where at casual events (like side events or fnm) where people clearly understood what you meant but pretended not to for their own gain. Sure you're *supposed* to be unambiguous with your language, but on a long day of casual play you are allowed to abbreviate stuff, right?

I once was spectating a player at an FNM that had a thought knot seer. The opponent killed TKS by blocking and killing it, then didn't draw a card from the death trigger. I pointed it out in the end step when it was evident that nobody else was going to speak up and the player who controlled TKS claimed that he "missed his own trigger" and that the opponent couldn't draw, making it evident that the player was aware of the draw trigger and was angle shooting intentionally. That was a real quick warning from the judge I called over.

So I haven't exactly had a Chalice check moment per se, but I did run into a very unsportsman-like opponent who soiled my first FNM experience. This was years ago. I was excited to play Modern for the first time at my LGS. I recognized a few of the players there as I had been in many times to play Commander. Everyone knew I was new to Modern and I had no clue what meta decks were, I built mono white Soul Sisters because my friend said he was doing well with it. I got a lucky game one against Scapeshift, and game 2 I got matched up against someone playing blue black fairies so I had a free win there. At this point I'm 2-0 and I'm on top of the world. I sit down for game 3 and realize my opponent was someone who was just hovering over my table watching the majority of my previous game meaning they knew my deck pretty inside and out. I chuckle a bit and point that out to my opponent and probe to see if he would tell me what his deck is "haha I guess you have the advantage since you were just watching my last game. Unless you want to fill me in on what you're playing to make it even?" I would have accepted most answers, but my opponent replies with a very snide "Oh you'll find out soon enough. Don't worry." Not the end of the world. He didn't have to tell me his deck. Well as it turns out he was playing what was at the time the top tier Modern deck. Abzan CoCo with Melira and infinite persist. I'd like to remind you all that at this point I'm an extreme casual who up until this point had only played EDH; CoCo is NOT a commander card and I've never seen it before. Nor had I bothered with any Persist creatures because they didn't seem that great in EDH. I have no fucking clue what any of my opponent's cards do, He's mentioning rules and trigger sequencing and all this shit that I have never even had to deal with, at one point he cast a CoCo in response to one of my Soul Sisters without mentioning it was in response to the cast so I thought I was getting more life than I was and he was getting frustrated. At this point I call the judge over and I'm just like "dude I'm new, I have no clue what's going on and my opponent isn't explaining his cards." The judge, who was just the store owner, was more than happy to sit there for the rest of our match and explain my opponent's cards because he wouldn't, and walk me through the combo that my opponent was doing as he was doing it, and verified with me what my life total should be at; no advice, just verifying boardstate and explaining. I ended up losing that game and that was fine, but the store owner made note of that guy's behavior, and was soon after banned from the store for continued unsportsmanlike behavior and just generally being a dick and short-tempered

I put 20 mana into Chalice during a cedh game while my friend was playing his Kozilek deck. It was the optimal bm.

So an opponent trying to cast spells through a chalice, checking you to see if you miss it, is ofcourse legal, however I've had games were it went in a different direction. First, some time ago, before the pandemic, I played a lot of Merfolk. I had an idea to buy into the deck so I could play it in modern, legacy and eventually vintage (last part never happened). Merfolk play Cavern of souls which, like you said, makes it possible to bypass the Chalices. An opponent I played against kept doing the reverse check, where he would point out my Chalice trigger, even though I cast spells that were uncounterable. Never got me, but that was a bit scummy. The second time however, I was playing against a D&T deck in a local legacy tournament. This was quite some time ago, when I was new to eternal formats and was still borrowing half my deck from local people. The D&T player knew I was new to the format, and since I was playing some kind of Delver deck at the time, Chalice was ofcourse good against me. I accidentally ran a couple of spells into the chalice before understanding what was going on, and from there I lost the game. It was only later that I learned Chalice was symetrical, because my opponent had been playing his own spells through his own chalice without me knowing, having never played against it before. The tournament was already over and I didn't really play against him again, because he moved and stopped coming to our local tournaments, but that was an awful experience to have.

I'll be honest I've never heard of chalice checking before this but now that I've given it a think it definitely seems scummy no matter what the context. It's hard for me to draw a line that says "chalice checking is ok, but not when an opponent is distracted." It's either ok or it isn't

I play yugioh, as well as magic, and its pretty bizarre that mandatory triggers, especially ones that are both sided *could* be ignored because of how complicated the boards happen. In yugioh, if a trigger is mandatory, and either play fails to notice it until later, that could mean the entire game could just be thrown out; because that game would be basically illegal.

I'll never need to worry about Chalice Checking. Not because I'm a good or even semi-competent player, but because I'll never be able to afford them!

Just recently, I sat at a table for baldur's gate draft, most players were on their first draft ever and trying to enjoy it, and then there was a level 2 headjudge, aiming hardcore for the win (yes at a prerelease commander game), it was miserable for everybody, he wasn't nice, wasn't joking or smiling, tried many times to cheat and I had to call him out everytime that I could catch him drawing an extra card, adding an extra treasure, etc... At the end, he broke an agreement we had when we agreed before the game it wasn't allowed, but then he called a judge who said it wasn't strictly an obligation, shortly after he unsurprisingly won, then said good game and smiled while everyone else was already packing their stuff in silence In the end he won a single extra pack, but boy did he make sure everyone was sad and bored, true PoS, which is sad considering most people I meet through MTG are smart and nice...

Had a few try to do this to me and got salty when caught. Actually had one remove the counter from my chalice when I took a drink. He got thrown out because he didn’t know a judge was behind them watching the match

Yeah I think trying to catch your opponent in a technicality instead of winning with your cards is probably the worst thing you can do in a TCG outside of blatant cheating

I'm here for this channel moving into purely dog costuming content.

I only play at FNM level where the stakes are a bit different. But I can’t imagine feeling good about winning a game because your opponent missed triggers. I tend to remind opponents of things like Mayhem Devil triggers and I hope they do the same for me. I think of it as working together to maintain to the rules and correct state of the game as closely as possible. It’s less likely both of us miss something.

It is kinda shitty to do this, but it's definitely not cheating. And yeah, I've had something *WAY* worse happen to me. I'll explain: It was a commander tournament at a store that just opened up a week before. I enrolled in the tournament($5 entrance fee for the possibility of winning a Lorwyn box, due to location and competition they were desperate for players, I found this out later) there were only 4 of us that entered the tournament, including the son of the store owner. Everything goes fine for 6 or 7 turns(can't remember exactly cause it's been a few years), I'm playing Mikaeus The Unhollowed and have a very favorable board state. One of my opponents, the son of the store owner, is running Sen Triplets. On his turn, he forgets the Sen Triplets trigger and proceeds as normal. It eventually becomes my turn and I draw Cauldren of Souls and play it. At this point I had Kheru Bloodsucker out as well as Mikaeus, and Viscera Seer out as well as a Grave Titan. So I begin my loop to win the game, when the Sen Triplets player decides that, since he missed the trigger, it is okay for him to retroactively use it to steal my Cauldren of Souls, I stop the game and demand a judge comes over(assuming this store has a judge), turns out the only judge is the owner of the store aka the father of the Sen Triplets player and he rules that its totally fair for him to retroactively play my Cauldren of Souls. I picked my shit up and left. I received a permanent ban from the store for my actions, but the plus side is the store closed in about 2 weeks. I found out about the desperation for players due to one of the employees eventually becoming an employee at the lgs I normally visit. This is also how I leaned the whole tournament was probably a scam.

Benefit of the doubt would be maybe he didn't know you were reaching for an inhaler, he just saw you rummaging in your bag for some unknown reason and went for the check. Idk I wasn't there, so I don't know how blatantly obvious it was that you needed an inhaler. And maybe the opponent just didn't put 2 and 2 together on wheezing followed by reaching into a bag.

I had a game in No Ban List Modern in a side event where I was playing a R/G Eldrazi deck against a standard deck with a NBL mana base. Game was going late as they has a bunch of counter spells. I had at some point, put a challice on two. Neither of us had a way to remove it, we had a conversation about it while we were playing. I cast a Warping Wail targetting a creature they had with 1 power, and moved the card directly from my hand to my graveyard without waiting and chuckled a little. We had a judge sitting next to us watching the game as we were the last two playing at the table. My opponent, however didn't get what I was doing and cast Syncopate to counter my Warping Wail, at which point I said "Oh, in response to the chalice trigger? Ok." To which they responded something like, "Oh, right. I guess so." I moved Warping Wail to exile, they put Syncopate in the graveyard, a bit sad that they didn't realize I was throwing the card away intentionally. The judge said to us both after the game, "I've never seen a chalice trigger bait a counterspell before. That's my new favorite chalice play." because to both the judge and I it was obvious that I wasn't intending to resolve the spell. I won the game with a Reality Smasher cast using Cavern of Souls and empowered with Kessig Wolf Run, so it didn't change the result at all, but it was a goofy point in the game.

There are many reasons why I stopped judging, but the ever-evolving rules around triggered abilities that it's possible to "miss" was one of them. I judged what I think was a state championship at a time when there was a Jace whose +1 ability was something like "Whenever a creature attacks you until your next turn, it gets -1/-0 until end of turn". People assumed this worked the same as a static ability that said "Until your next turn, creatures attacking you get -1/-0", but in the era of the ability to miss beneficial triggers, it does not, and you had to declare the trigger as the creature attacks or you don't get it. At least, that was the rule for that tournament. I don't know if the rules team ever changed it to specify that it was only for things that actually moved cards between zones or whatever, as I quit judging soon after that. It was not a fun day for me.

Triggers and checks was what got me to quit competitive magic. Back when pod was a thing, I had an opponent call judge on me when I sac'd a kitchen finks to pod, resolved pod first, when said "persist" -- They said because I missed the trigger, I couldn't persist Finks. I played it that way for 4 rounds of the tournament and was feeling good from my 3-1, so I called judge. The judge came over and said I missed it and to play on. I lost that match because of that single missed trigger and it was a terrible feel bad moment. I get now that the sacrifice was a cost to activate the ability, so it had to resolve first, but these are things that anyone not familiar to competitive magic can ruin an experience. And if it happened at an FNM, screw that guy.

I think it's scummy to try to manipulate your opponent into missing a trigger. It's one thing if they miss it. It's another if you're playing tactical mind games trying to CAUSE them to miss it.

You don't need a costume to make a dachshund look regal! Love those dogs!

My chalice checking story is at GP London's Legacy Challenge. It was the final round before top-cut and my game against a Nic Fit player was deterministic of which one of us makes top 32. I have 2 turn lethal with 2 Reality Smashers so my opponent's gambit is to mutter Top, quickly play Sensei's Divining Top and immediately activate it, I clock them about grab the top 3 and stop them with my Chalice trigger, clearly the Nic Fit player knew the judge would side with them if I didn't stop them exactly then. A turn later, they scoop, and don't say a word as they pack up and leave in a hurry.

Reminds me of the time I went to a tournament as a kid, and my opponent in round 2 started spasming and I realized he's having an epileptic seizure. I immediately called for help, and the organizers made sure an ambulance came and took the guy to the hospital. In all the chaos though, I left my table with all my stuff on it, and when I came back my deck was gone, because somebody used the opportunity to swipe my type2 (that's what we called standard back then) deck and my backpack with my (admittedly rather lackluster) trade binder. I had to drop out of the tournament because I didn't have a deck to compit with, and shortly after I quit MTG for around 10 years, only coming back to it as a young adult.

isn't it possible he just forgot for a moment? I have literally read a card, realized I can't do something, I start thinking hard about something else and completely forget the first thing then end up playing right into the thing I was trying to avoid in the first place. Magic is hard.

Great storytime, I liked it

Chalice checking is the best argument against playing in paper that I've ever heard. Yes, taking advantage of a medical situation is scummy, but when you've set the standard as what the rules allow on the narrowest interpretation then you're setting yourself up for scummy play.

how do we feel about triggered abilities that are world effects like say oath of druids, i feel like its still on the owner of the card?

Wasn’t a chalice check, but I played against a guy at a GP who was playing scapeshift. All of his basics and all of his scapeshifts were in Japanese. I cast thoughtseize, he lays his hand on the table, lands above, targets below. But he puts his scapeshift in with the basic lands, and underneath a forest, so all that is poking out is the first character of the card name. I actually fell for it, selected something else, realized what happened as he was picking up his cards, called a judge, and the judge didn’t ding him. Six years later and I’m still mad at that judge for not calling him on that. He won that game.

the prowess triggers from a 1 drop (mutagenics) mentioned at about 4:20 won me my second match of my last modern FNM, thank Garfield for on cast triggers

jokingly chalice checked a player in a lost game before i scooped. he had a chalice tattoo sleeve up his arm, he did not fail to point to his chalice in play. great guy.

Once during FNM I forgot what my own cards do, where I mistaken "look at the top 3 and put it back in any order" with "look at the top 3 and put one in your hand", and my opponent caught me. I was like, I wasn't trying to cheat, honest.

This story makes me think of this one guy I played against who called a judge because I didn't announce the life I gained from my lifelink creature. His reasoning was that I missed a trigger by not saying this, of course the judge was with me on this and nothing came of it more than a boring match.

GP Birmingham I bought a u/w control deck for it missed out on day 2 and played one more causal event and not played legacy since. The deck is still siting in my desk lol

I'll admit, I'll kind-of chalice check (I just remind them before it's missed) in the middle of a priority hold to see where my opponent's focus is. Mostly so I know if I need to remind them of their triggers that benefit me.

I personally sold my copies of Chalice of the Void because I was tired of people angle shooting even at FNM level events. If I play Chalice it's just gonna be on MODO.

Well thanks for the warning about chalice, I'm working on my first legacy deck with chalice of the void in it.

Due to playing control decks frequently, any sort of attempt to cast while a player is otherwise preoccupied is pretty bad manners. 1 too many times have I played a commander game where players skip from End step to next players main step when I had wanted to cast something in the end step. Just don't be that guy. You'll just ruin your reputation in your local community and nobody will play with you. That's when you truly lose at MTG.

This is a weird one. My first modern side event at a GP I cast Remand on someone's Abrupt Decay not realizing that the card said that it can't be countered and then the next untap my opponent called a judge saying that we had resolved those card incorrectly. The judge ended up siding with my opponent and gave me a game loss because I didn't know what my opponents cards did. What do you think? Should I have taken the game loss there?

I think the end of what you said on the story of giving the benefit of the doubt feels fairly correct. You know you were off in a negative space the cursing out your friend and knowing you were off is certainly a good sign. My default post Yuuya and Saito but more so Yuuya as he was one of the best regarded players is to report the concern to the judge so they can have it documented if its a 1 off nothing happens if its a history thats it can get addressed. While that is my default if it was just the player being kinda not pleasant and seemingly angle shooting that wouldnt move me off it, the barking at a friend thats when I would be on the fence.

*He's having a stroke "Bolt that man!"

It doesn't even have a "may" in the counter. It just says to do it. If I l was being mauled by a puma, my opponent should still not be able to cast cards and have them resolve. It is also beyond scummy if you win by doing this. It goes against the spirit of the game.

I’m trying to remember which tournament it was but it was pre-Covid and a judge ruled that it is also the responsibility of the opponent to make sure their opponent is keeping track of their triggers, they penalized that individual with unsportsmanlike conduct. It’s on RU-vid here if I remember correctly so if I can find it I’ll share the link!

Chalice + a way to move counters is a fun thing to do :P

Chalice checking when you're coughing and wheezing? This is not a combat sport where you need to "PROTECT YOURSELF AT ALL TIMES"

As an on and off MUD legacy player since 2012, I have been hit with chalice checks more so than most in my community. When people do this they usually have an over friendly/casual personality until they check your chalice. It definitely gets you down over time at your event. I've done the same thing, in fact, I started typing this before you even got to your mood snaps.

it's not cheating, but it's absolutely scumbag angle shooting

It’s not your job to make sure someone does the checking but if I were playing sportsmanship would dictate I would play a card that would need to be checked nothing I hope that my appointment would forget and I don’t know why I would play it knowing that he did have a Chalice check but I probably would remind them otherwise why even play it. Also I enjoy your your content so much keep it up please you and the professor or so witty at times it’s amazing so thank you for a little bit of joy in my day when I get to watch what you guys do and what you do thank you

as long as it isn't an irreversible action, my casual playgroup pretty much automatically will retroactively correct a missed Chalice trigger. we are testing the decks, amd having fun. the only stakes involved in the game is usually looser has to grab snacks amd drinks from the kitchen. that's where I like chess. You hear of instances all over where ranked players playing are under the weather the opponent will accept a draw.

Stax player complaining about scummy opponent, it made me chuckle

good timing, i just got my chalices in the mail today.

I would never chalice check when someone had a asthma attack; doing it when the opponent has a medical emergency that hampers breathing makes it so difficult for them to reply "alright"

One tournament my friend is in, opp casts some kind of tutor, shuffles his deck, offers the deck for my friend to shuffle. Calls the judge that my friend is illegally shuffling his deck. Judge ruled against my friend because the guy sneakily SLIPPED the tutor back into the deck so it wasn’t in the graveyard!

What a long walk to get to something that ultimately didn’t matter

My understanding is that game rules were changed where both players are responsible for maintaining board state, is this different? (I want to say introduced 2ish years before lockdown?) I am pretty much a limited player only although would dip my toes into commander if not working all the time.

I had a situation at a PTQ that I feel really bad about. I play very robotically and enunciate everything, steps phases triggers, resolutions, EVERYTHING. I was on dredge, and when I Life from the Loam'D, I accidentally picked it back up with the 3 lands. I realized now that I put the 3 lands on top of it and didn't think, and when my opponent called judge, I didnt dispute it at all. It was my mistake, and I was going to take the loss if it came down to it. I got a warning overall and reverted the game state. I won the match overall, but I feel like my opponent thought I was cheating the whole time, using my robotic play patterns to hide it. It feels bad to be accused of cheating when you really didn't mean to do an illegal play pattern.

I was play mono red prison in legacy for the first time and round 1 I place chalice on one and I forgot about it my opponent cast 3-4 one mana spells that resolved because I forgot about the triggers. It was my first time playing legacy in paper I was nervous it happened. My op told me what happened after the match and I just kicked myself for my mistake I don’t think I’ve ever missed a trigger since a real learning experience.

Did he cast ponder or ponder, enraged?

Ludicrous! Everyone knows the correct sequencing for a Chalice check is after a kick in the balls...

I have a buddy that kinda does stuff like that, he doesnt necessarily play cards when we are distracted but he will just cast stuff and not announce it and leave it on the board even if someone had an answer. He really bothers me but i didnt really know why until now, i dont really play with him anymore.

Late to the party on this one but the scummiest opponent I ever played against was at my LGS for FNM. I think this was like New Phyrexia standard? So a while ago. Anyway, dude had a weird multicolor spells/burn deck that wasn't anything to write home about, Mostly burn spells and card draw and land searching. He burned me out on game 1 and then proceeded to side in 15 spells that all had the words 'shuffle your library' on them. He proceeded to waste the ENTIRE REST OF THE ROUND (still in game 2) by shuffling as slow as possible over and over again. When I called a judge for OBVIOUS slow play I was informed that we had needed an eighth player for the fnm to fire so the guy I was playing against was technically the judge for the evening. Of course he refused to give himself a warning for slow play and successfully ran out the time (and the 5 turns) to 'win' the match 1/0. Needless to say I reported him to wizards and lodged a complaint. And within a year this guy had his judge qualifications revoked. Mainly because he did scummy shit like this all the time. Especially against new players most of whom dropped the game after their first FNM because he was so toxic. That store is under new management now, but damn I still get steamed from that night.

Is the character in the art for Chalice of the Void a known character in mtg lore or just a random?

I feel like chalice checking is scummy in general. and saying okay when your opponent casts a spell to that i don’t have a response but the on board responses should just be evident. If your oppponent is shitty enough to ignore the board state and try to resolve spells then yes they’re scummy.

This was with pokemon but it was similar. I just passed the turn and got called away and the opponent just continued to play alone without me being there which is just a big asshole move even when pokemon doesnt have things like instants that you can play on your opponents turn.

My own angle shooting experience is pretty recent-- my LGS was having a friendly Commander tournament against another store in the area, and I went along partly as our spare (I'd placed 5th in the mini-tournament to decide on our team of 4, which sounds impressive until I also mention there were 5 entries total) and partly to get some games in with anyone else who showed up. Ended up being me and two other guys from Neither store-- one of whom was new to the game, one of whom was Not. like if you've a MtG tattoo (he had a pretty good-sized Vraska on his arm), I'm gonna assume you're familiar enough with the game to be aware that the legend rule does *not* go on the stack and that once a creature resolves, it's a permanent and not a spell. So anyway, I'm playing Izzet Pirates, newbie was playing a mono green prebuilt deck sold by another local store (which had earl of squirrel as a win con, not sure what the deal was there-- I found this out when I Windfalled him and had to explain silver borders), and vraska tat is playing Koma, but with Marit Lage as secret commander. He gets out the Dark Depths and Thespian Stage combo, stages to Dark Depths... And then attempts to transform thespian stage in response to the legend rule, leaving Dark Depths in play AND giving him a marit lage. A couple turns after I explain how that actually works, he attempts to Double Major his marit lage and seems openly suspicious when I explain spell vs. permanent and that it's not a valid target as it's already in play. At that point, I honestly believe that assuming he's trying to get one over on me IS giving him the benefit of the doubt, because the alternative is assuming he's just Profoundly Stupid.

I have a friend who used to play a ton of Modern UB Mill. One FNM (I think it was for the stores 10y anniversary) I was playing down the table from him and I notice his opponent, clearly tilted after game 1, leave to talk to the store clerk. They talk for a bit, then the opp comes back and they finish siding. We later learn from the clerk that he asked for some basics, clearly intending to pull from the draft rule "you have unlimited basics in your side" to increase his deck size vs mill. "Can I get some basics" has been a meme in the group since.

I had a fun one in a SCG event. Was playing quest for the holy relic in the standard format at the time. My opponent here was on o e of the blue green ramp variants. I casted a Kor skyfisher with a quest on 3 in play.. my opponent asked what I was picking up. To this I motioned to grab a card on instinct and stopped to say "before that" and went to change the counters on quest. Of course they stopped me, and said we could call a judge. While miffed I declined and moved on proceeding to take this game one as they only set me back by maybe a turn. Karma did it's work for me here though as they I game 3 took a while on choosing the frost titan trigger. He chose wrong leaving my mirran crusader untapped and his only blocker as an avenger of zendikar. I get to slam a sandbagged Darksteel axe on my following turn killing him from 8 with that same crusader.

Chalice checking is not cheating, but taking advantage of your sick opponent is

I think knowingly playing into Chalice without any benefit besides hoping they don't notice should be considered unsportsmanlike conduct.

Back around M14 standard. I was at a standard GP, my opponent was on aetherling + Sphinxs rev. In play I have the owl that’s counter instant or sorcery unless they pay 1. So my opponent goes “cast sphinxs rev” doesn’t say anything or tap any lands, I say “ok” then he taps all his mana not leaving the 1 open to play around my owl. So I try to respond to him tapping, but a judge stepped in and said I can’t because I already said “ok” when he announced the spell. It felt super scummy i dropped the tournament right there.

Yeah, the timing is a bit scummy. Overall checking your opponent to make sure that they know their own deck, through making sure they remember triggers or forcing them to prove to you that they kill you with their combo, is important. I've always felt that deck knowledge is very important and you wont get better if you have some games you lose because you forgot a trigger or two, it's part of learning to play this game.

I had the candelabra of Twanos and I was using it correctly but one of my opponents kept saying that I had an infinite combo because I simply had the urzatron. I explained to him that while I could pay × and tap it then untap my lands then retap them it wouldn't go any further than one cycle. He was emphatic that I could simply pay × and untap my lands but I could only do in in cycle and it didn't require me to tap the candelabra. I was nice enough to point out that it was something that is known as a mono artifact. Those don't exist anymore in the game itself and when they did they were under the rules text of only once per turn or tap me as part of my costs.

Omg more on the dog outfits!

I definitely wait to play cards until my opponents aren't paying attention but that's on for my un-set deck that has cards that you can sneak in...

My favourite silly cheating thing is a player casting Elspeth back in the day and immediately trying to use her -8 ability to make everything Indestructible for the game. I said "you cant do that, she doesn't have that many counters" So he replied "sure I can, the counters can go negative because of damage, so I can also spend them into negative" I just scooped and went about my day

I remember when obzedat/whip of erebos was im standard back when theros released. Some big tourny ruled that obzedat could exile himself even tho the whip said thay if the card would leave the battlefield (this exiling itself), then it is exiled instead (meaning the whip triggers to exile it changing which effect/card exiled it). That deck was a top tier deck because of that ruling even tho my lgs called wizards of the coast MULTIPLE times for a rules check and every single time they responded with 'yes. Whip would exile him and he wouldnt return BUT because it was ruled the other way around at (big tourny). We have to go by that ruling'

I had a situation where I defeated a supposed friend in a game of pioneer. I left right after the match since it was the last round. And he reported the match as a draw. I would have been in 4th place and revived some credit, but he screwed my record and left me empty handed. Not something worth confronting, but he’s lost my trust and any positive regard I had for him.

i play mono g tron in modern at fnm and this happens every single time i play lol. i think the trouble is, is that I do tend to miss triggers or forget about things like my own trinisphere taxing me etc which is linked to me having adhd. Some opponents do purposefully take advantage of it, some dont and theyre kind, but the ones that do take it to the extreme, even just during a practice game before FNM has even started. Things like casting a ragavan for its dash when chalice is on one, or tapping a fetchland for mana when they have no fetchable targets, evoking a solitude when a torpor orb is out; just small things that they do to see what slips by me cus they know i forget sometimes. Its extremely tiring tbh, but we'll see who's really having fun when i rock up with prison tron next week : )

Whenever I play against a Chalice deck, I almost always end up playing a spell into it; not because I'm Chalice checking, I'm just that dumb, lol!

your opponent sounds like WASTE OF DNA

eh honestly I think that the game working differently because a player "forgets" feels quite a bit like the whole reason that manual dexterity cards are banned. Though as you said it is unlikely to affect 99% of my games since I don't play competitively I don't like it as a concept even. In an ideal world both players should keep track of the game state and remind each other when something would be able to trigger. But then you run into a hard to enforce thing maybe just give both players a warning for failure to maintain game state and attempt to rectify the situation but again that is way more hands on than should be necessary.

I had an opponent cough in my face at a gp and the judge told me he couldn’t ask the guy to not do a bodily function. The fifth time of saying stop I scooped and went back to the hotel

while playing a feature match vs Sullivan, Patrick I think, Magic Fest Niagara Falls feature match, I hit a chalice on 1 t1 with my cloudpost deck. he lightning fast went plains, aether vial, go.... I missed it. eventually he got me in a close one, then beat me game 3 in turns. I'm not a pro and never knew about this technique, but it cost me my feature match. next round I got crushed by dark depths god draws that my deck really can't beat.

Hello British man!

My experience wasn’t any specific action, more of an overall experience. I had met up with a friend at the LGS for a few rounds of Commander. After he left, played against a random guy who had introduced himself while my friend and I were playing. I was still new to the format, playing with an untuned deck. This guy had a Markov Eminence deck. He played like he was going for the title. He was clearly in the lead, yet he didn’t hesitate to repeatedly devastate everything from board state to my land base. Mind you, this was a random & casual game. Dissuaded me from playing with strangers for a while.

Turns out tarring and feathering angle shooters to send a message is indeed "based" and "praxis".

Back when I was a young teenager when I just first got into magic, I was at an FNM against this opponent that would cut my deck but would look at the card as he's cutting. Me being a young dimwit, didn't think this was against the rules because I was new at the game and I didn't challenge him. He would cut the deck, angle the visible card towards himself and if he didn't like what he saw, that's where he would cut.

That is terrible behavior. Unfortunately, people try that garbage all the time in tournaments. People have tried to get me to miss triggers while distracted, too. With me it involved cards like Aether Vial or Gods Willing in my hand that my opponent knew I had.

Not the same thing, but I tutored in a game once (demonic tutor) and my opponent asks me what I grabbed. I reply that I don’t have to tell them. Demonic tutor lets me not reveal what I fetched. They say “I know, but what did you fetch” I hate when people try to trip you up over everything

I was once playing jund into chalice and my opponent put chalice on 2 then tried to cast chalice on one called judge and he countered his own chalice and I could remove the one on 2 always remember ordering

Reminds me of a guy who comes to every FNM at my LGC. He gets visibly angry and growls when he has to mulligan and groans and rolls his eyes whenever you counter a spell or remove one of his big threats. It's fine to run into an opponent like this every once in a while but he does it every single week, every single game, no one wants to be matched up with him because he doesn't talk, doesn't banter, just sits there silently and growls, scowls and groans and it's just not a fun experience.