Your definition counterfeit is incorrect. A counterfeit is something designed to fool an observer into thinking it’s something else. It has nothing to do with ownership of some other card.
If you can clock his cards from across the table as not being made by WotC then they are probably not counterfeits.
It’s your store so do what you wish but don’t lean on WotC’s policy to justify it. Overall this seems quite petty.
Maybe petty, maybe not. I don’t care about counterfeit or proxy rules, I stopped playing MtG around Kamigawa. The way I understand it is that the now banned player was just printing out whatever cards he wanted just so he could win while everyone else bought them and had the actual physical copies of at least most of their cards.
So basically that person was a cheapskate who wanted to always win but didn’t want to put in any money or work. It might be petty but if there’s some sort of prize, then to me that person was at worst cheating, and at best being underhanded just to win. Either way, I wouldn’t want them in a tournament that I’m playing in.
Say for arguments sake the player in question went out and bought all the best cards instead. (Let's say they won the lottery or something) What changes? In my view, the problem remains. The problem being is this players attitude is counter productive to the play experience people want out of commander.
Mr. "I want a deck that always wins" needs to find another format or adjust his attitude, regardless of how he came into possession of his cards.
I agree that the attitude is counter productive, as I said, I wouldn’t want to play against that person. However, I cannot speak to the game type. As I said in my first post, I stopped playing MtG over 20 years ago. I have no idea what Commander is or how to play it.
I just wouldn’t want someone who isn’t playing in the spirit of the game around and on top of that, if I was the store owner, I wouldn’t want people in my shop like that.
As to your point about winning the lottery and buy the cards, I would be fine with that, MtG was always pay to win when I played.
I fundamentally disagree that Magic is or ever has been pay to win. It's pay to compete. If you can't buy they best cards, you are at a disadvantage, but you still need game knowledge to win.
Yes, you need knowledge. But knowledge being equal, on average, someone playing with a $1,000 deck will beat someone with a $100 deck.
And budget being equal the more knowledgeable player wins.
Why should we be okay with decks of children's playing cards costing $1000?
Luck is a pretty big factor as well. In my opinion it’s much easier to gain more knowledge than it is to have more money so money is always going to be the biggest factor.
You shouldn’t be okay with it. It’s one of the many reasons I stopped playing.
Fair enough.
I think it's kind of rediculous that WOTC charges so much for basically what amounts to some laminated paper. The game is cool and well developed, but I stopped playing because the people who win are largely the ones who have the money to buy the cards they want in their deck. I can't afford to do that. As a small shop owner, that's not anything you decided to do, but it's just a dynamic that I consider kind of classist. I don't personally have any ethical problems with people printing out cards. I do think it's shady to bring them to a shop that exists to sell those cards though. So there is a lot to consider here. You have to stay in business too and there is a defined economy around how this game works. Anybody is free to develop their own open source version of the game where the cards are encouraged to be printed out. Maybe try explaining some of these things to him. If he is somebody that can't be reasoned with the ban is warranted. If you can reason with them, then maybe the ban could be lifted.
I would avoid going to your store if you act like this.
I think you're justified,
For all the nay sayers out here, think of going to your local mechanic and bringing all your own filters tools oils and expecting to use their hoist.
Or wanting to compete in LOL or COD and not buying the game and just using a pirated version.
Do what you want in your home,
@nocturne You'd discussed it earlier, so he knew what he was doing.
Your first ban I'd be more borderline on, shitting yourself in public is usually not intentional.
The shitting was not a one time thing, it was the source of his smell. He was constantly doing it, just that time it was enough to ruin a chair.
@nocturne And sorry for some of the BS replies you are getting. Not everyone understands how tough WotC's position on this can be and staying in the organised player program is pretty important to stores.
If this guy's only infraction was fake cards, I would have just told him to come back when he has a real deck. But it was not, he was a toxic player and a jerk to most people. No one enjoyed playing in his pod and people would leave when he showed up.
I understand not being able to allow proxies at official events, but your attitude towards printing cards seems to go further than that. I refuse to give WotC my money. My pod has printed every card we play with. We aren't "counterfeiting," as none of our cards are even trying to pass as official. We proxy most of our cards with thematic art and designs completely divorced from the official MTG frames and art. Our LGS allows anyone to play with whatever cards they want outside of official events, as long as everyone at the table agrees. Proxies do not only exist as stand-ins for cards you own. The MTG community uses that word to mean any non-official replacement card. Fun should not be gatekept behind artificially inflated prices and draconian business practices.
Was this Two-Headed Giant night a DCI-sanctioned event?
No, because DCI went away fully in '22. But it was an official WOTC Play event, the system that replaced DCI.
Out of curiosity, I assume official WOTC play events mandate authentic cards the same way?
Yes. The software we use to record events changed, and DCI numbers went away replaced with Wizards accounts. Everything else is largely the same.
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