How not to play Magic: the Gathering

When you are in a competitive level event, there are ways to play the correctly so that you win the game, and there are ways to play that you win and you opponents don't get to have fun.  What I mean is, sure you know how to play the game, but not to be a great big bully about what you are doing.  There was an instance like this that just happened at the Grand Prix that I had attended to this past weekend.

During day one, a friend of mine was playing and he was doing everything correctly with short cuts and communicating with his opponent.  But his opponent was being such bad player by criticizing him by saying in a arrogant voice, "Enter Combat Phase, Enter Combat Step, In Response I do this!" Also, his opponent went, "You need to hurry up, COME ON!".  The opponent proceeded to call, "JUDGE, my opponent is slow playing!" This put my friend on a serious tilt and could not concentrate during his whole entire match.  This player was then frowned upon by the rest of the players because of this and backed up my friend in this situation, because they knew how the game should be played.

Any player, new or pro, should know that this is not how to play the game.  Sure communication is key and we just can't show off that you know what are the steps or try to make the game go in your favor.  If you want to do that, then stick with MTGO and not show your face in a store or event.  All of the attendees came to Cincinnati for a reason, to play magic with our friends and have a great time.  People like my friend's opponent should be take this seriously.

My ending statement is this. Just play and respect your opponent just as you would like to be played against and be respected in the same fashion. The golden rule of playing Magic: the Gathering is to have fun, and I stand by this infinity times, even greater than 100%.