Ok, went to my first PCQ this weekend, in Portland. And it might be the only one I will be able to attend for quite some time. And I got hosed.

3 and 2 was good enough for a spot in top 8, and I did not get that. Losing does not normally bother me, but losing to a cheesy rule exploitation certainly does. The first round of the tourney i played a Doom deck, and the player was feigning ignorance about the system. I didn't toally buy it, but I also did't pay too much attention to the time of the matches either.

In our first game, it seemed that play was slow, but the pace picked up near the end. it was a close one, and I lost it. But the whole time my opponent kept reminding me how he 'borrowed' his deck from his friend. Any time there was a question, he would reply that his 'friend' left him notes on how to play the deck, and that move is legal... like Bringing in the 4 drop Doom, flipping a plot in the resource row, and then flipping it immediately back down.

Now, as soon as this came up, I knew what I thought was faked ignorance was indeed an act. But the sad part is, it was then too late. The second game played even slower than the first, and time was called in our game. I had 39 endurance to his 28, but was told that if I could not get him below zero on THAT turn, and win completely, h would take the match since he won the first game.

Well, he profusely apologized as 2 Mystical Paralysis came up on that turn, one of them he used Faces of Doom for, and denied me the chance to do that much damage. No third game. I lost the match even thought I was winning on endurance in game 2.

Well, I warned a few freinds that he would stall, but they did not play him in the 5 rounds of swiss. End result? He went undefeated, and I think only one of his matched went to a game 3, because he lost the first game, then played the second to a quck win to stall the 3rd. No single round did he finish all 3 games, and on 4 of them he had time called in gam 2. In my game i was clearly winning, and it screwed me.

Now, i don't know I like that ruling. If someone is winning the second game of the round at time, then maybe they should gt the win and force it to 3 rounds of a match. Another loss was a sudden death, and I chose to take initiative, and with both of us playing 3 drop Quicksilver. Defender clearly wins this match-up, but at least it was a close one.

So to all out there, be warned. I may have missed my only chance at qualifying this entire year, and it was to a rulng exploit that suckered me in early. Even with the ruling of 1 minute per individual play, that can be drawn out for each Faces of Doom, and then Mystical Paralysis, to take a full 5 legal minutes.

I should have had a 3 turn game 3 against that doom deck, and i certainly had the faster deck in the early turns before he had the threshold to pay for his stalling cards. I woudl have had that match, and placed in top 8.

So be warned.

How many times have I posted that if you suspect your opponent to be stalling or if you know they are playing too slow, that you call a judge immediately.

You lost the 1st round because you screwed yourself by not calling a judge.

Your fault.

what gde said, you always call a judge

Yeah. In the sealed tourney, I had two guys in different rounds that had "just learned the game", but played a lot of other card games. I was trying to be nice, but looking back, I should have called the judges over too.

There is no need for exhaustive mental analysis over whether to attack with Ant-Man on turn one or not. Either do it or don't.

If your opponent is taking too long, call a judge. Your opponent can learn the game when they're off your clock.

Just a little more advice from your ole Uncle Jer.

True the Bullseye should have called a judge ... I even mentioned it to him after the match and then told all our friends to do the same. However when you are in the midst of a game you are not always aware of the time. (unless you do like a player did and set a watch to it, but that would make me even more suspicious of stalling) Not too mention some people like to give the benifit of the doubt when it come to players just needing time to think about thier next move. Seriously people 1 hour should be plenty of time to play a 2 of 3 match .. even if you are playing doom control.

Joey

He plays the 4 drop Dr. Doom. In response to the recruitment he flips a plot twist up and it resolves. Then Dr. Doom comes into play and he flips the plot twist back down. This is completely legal. I'm not sure if you were saying it's not legal or just using that as an example to prove that the guy did know how to play really well.

In a big tournament if your opponent is stalling then call the judge early so they can know to check in and keep the slow player moving. The only other option would be to talk to the slow player and get them to speed up on your own. Sometimes people just don't realize how long they are taking and need to be prodded every now and then.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience though. Hopefully you can make it out to some more tournaments in the future and have a better time.

I just want to point out that I suggest this at PCQ's and higher.

Small C-value local tournaments are a TOTALLY different beast.

Odds are at those tournaments you know the people and know who can play at a regular pace and those that just take extra time because they need to.

Certainly I have only myself to blame. But going in i was not aware of the time really. And it is a mistake many can (and will) make, so thats why I posted this simple reminder/warning.

I WOULD like to see a consensus on this ruling however. i think it is pretty bogus and exploitable. Even with legal turn times, a player can stretch each of their moves into upwards of 6 or more minutes. Add that up for a moment and think about how easy it is to stall this game legally. If someone is winning on endurance in game 2, and they have already passed turn 3, the game needs to be called on endurance, and then 3 rounds of a game 3 should be played if neccessary.

As it is right now, it unduly favors stalling decks.

If I'm sounding rude, I don't mean to.

If you learn to call the judge as soon as it's appropriate, you won't have any problems due to time.

Also, if you call the judge and it takes a couple minutes to get him there, ask for a 3 minute time extension. Good judges will usually honor that request.

If your opponent is taking a minute to make every decision then he/she is stalling, this is not legal. You should really keep an eye on the clock during a game, check it after the 1st game, if you're well over 20 minutes then you should really think about trying to speed up play.

As for timing out the 2nd game, and playing a 3rd one. This doesn't seem very fair. If you and your opponent can only finish 1 game then that game should decide the winner. 2 games that don't finish aren't very representative of anything.