I’m on board with this as well. Ask your opponent to play faster, if they don’t you can call a judge over to ensure that no slow play is occurring. Play faster yourself, an opponent playing slow gives you plenty of time to plan out your entire next turn based on a variety of plays on their parts / draws on your own part.

Because that guy’s breakers sucked and the only way he had a chance of getting Top 8 was if both of the people above him knocked themselves out of contention, something that wouldn’t happen if either Player A or Player B won their match. That guy didn’t have a prize snatched out of his hands, he just didn’t benefit from an extremely rare scenario where both people who would make Top 8 over him both didn’t get Top 8 because they eliminated each other.

That guy didn’t miss out on Top 8 because “some loser scooped”, though. In most cases, someone will win and someone will lose that matchup. Draws are rare in that case. This person didn’t lose out on Top 8 because someone scooped, they lost out on Top 8 because their record and breakers weren’t good enough and they wouldn’t have gotten Top 8 if that match had concluded with one of those people with better breakers winning, something that happens more often than not. If you’re relying on the people above you to draw and knock both people out of contention, you didn’t really have a shot.

Wow, cutthroat… But also I agree 100%

I’m not concerned with the EV of the combination of both players. I’m not concerned with paying it forward. I am here to win games of Magic, and if we cannot finish a best-of-three series with a decisive winner or loser, then the match is a draw.

I understand why this is different at the Pro level (a level I will never attain), where there is a significant amount of repeat matchups and a much better understanding of the game theory / EV behind these situations.

Below that pro level, however, you’re still engaging in a meta-game that I have no patience for. You don’t want to draw? Play faster. You can’t play faster? Practice more with your deck. Can’t practice more? Play faster and lose because I put in the work to be better than you.

Also, people need to get way better about calling Slow Play on opponents. I try to balance between reminding them to play at a faster pace, and avoiding breaking their train of thought. Sure, I could be cutthroat and try to distract them, but my goal is to get them to play faster, not worse. I’d rather them hurry to the right decision than slowly deliberate themselves into a blunder.

I personally would not concede due to this fact and it baffles me why it seems to be OK to screw someone who isn’t directly in front of you but frowned upon to play the game to the best of your ability to determine the true outcome of the tournament.

It’s not a case of “why should I if I don’t get anything out of it” for everyone, some of us care a great deal about integrity and how our actions can affect encompassing situations rather than just the ones in front of our faces.

Pretty much. Its just the outside looking in.

Some times they’ll agree flat out, sometimes they’ll ask how we should decide. I usually say something along the lines of, ‘We can be gentlemen about it, and agree based on board state, or if there is a clear winner on the following turn. I’ll even show you my hand at the end of Turn 5.’ Even if they don’t agree right away, at least the thought is in their head.

And yes, I realize my opponent could lie, and say that we’ll decide a winner, and then not scoop to my on-board lethal, and there’s nothing I can do to ensure that they keep their promise. But you know what? That hasn’t happened in years. I’ve scooped up many draws this way, and had many scooped to me.

I’ve found that starting the process early, and being honest and friendly about it has served me quite well.

Bingo. That is a great observation, but I think a portion of it stems from people who haven’t been in Top 8 contention not knowing the moves, also.