Mana Bullying Question
Hello,
I’m fairly new to cEDH (only playing in a local pod for the last two ish years, so I know 3-6 decks pretty well and we play at a bracket 5 level; but I don’t know the metas or all the normal) and played a $20 buy-in small event at my lgs for store credit on Saturday. It was supposed to be 4 pods but only 3 fired. We were playing for points and told we had to 1. Follow the ban list and 2. Engage in sportsmanship like behavior (no mana bullying, colluding, etc.)
Seat 1 taps out to cast a culling ritual; I have a rhystic, orcish bowmaster and 2 rocks but this severely hits player 4. Player 4 had something like 8 treasures, rog out and with the mana I thought they would likely win next turn; player 1 was on a low mulligan, 3 had gone all in on an etali that got countered.
So, I’m in seat 2 with a force of negation. Seat 1 casts a culling ritual (destroy all non-land permanents with cmc 2 or less and make that much black/green mana) that will hurt me, but massively set back player 4. Player 4 asks if anyone has any counters and I say no (cause I’m a liar 😁 and it’s not known info). I pass priority because unless i don’t think I’m gonna be able to push and don’t want to pitch a card to preserve 4s win.
4 sacrifices their treasures for mana and says they’ll sacrifice rog to their Phyrexian tower to deny more of seat 1’s mana if I “promise not to win on my turn.” I agree (can’t win on my turn and he’s setting himself to nothing) “so long as his mana fizzles, can’t get me to agree and then cast an ad nauseum or something.” He shows me his hand, nothing I’m worried about. We make the deal, P4 sacrifices his commander and says that “culling ritual resolves.” I say wait I wanna respond, P4 says that I can’t cause I passed priority and no spells were cast. P1 and P3 say you can and ask what I’m trying to do, I attempt to counter the culling ritual.
P4 said I can’t do that, I said I didn’t have a counter and passed priority, we argue and P4 calls a judge. Judge says that I can by the rules, but that mana bullying is banned for the event so I have to pass priority. I said it’s not mana bullying to my understanding.
I didn’t force a player to act on the threat of them losing the game or make an agreement forcing them to pass priority. I didn’t tell players the content of my hand. And I made an agreement I wouldn’t win on my turn (not pursuant to countering or responding to culling ritual) if a player sacrificed their commander. From my perspective, I received priority on a spell I wanted to resolve (I can make back value with rhystic), then received priority on the same spell when it would only hurt me (Just my rocks and orcish now breaking as well as shutting down P1s mana generation) so I countered it.
Judge let us finish the game with my counter in tact (won 2 turns later) but at the conclusion said that they would explain the situation to the owner on Wednesday who would decide whether I get the credit or if it’s divided back among players in our pod. I don’t want to cause problems, I really like the store, but I don’t think it’s mana bullying and if there’s money on the line I don’t want to give up unless I’m genuinely in the wrong.
If you have any advice or if I’m in the wrong please let me know. I plan to show this thread as my explanation to the owner tomorrow regardless and if I’m in the wrong I’ll cede the amount that would be split to me to the other players (if the consensus is that I violated the rules). I don’t wanna cause issues in the cEDH community and just genuinely wanna know if I cheated. I appreciate any help!
Edit 1:
Hi, I’d like to first thank everyone for the advice and rulings in regards to priority passing. I’m gonna post another update on what happens if anyone is still interested but I would like to address the comments on lying in cEDH.
Lying in Casual: I play pauper, EDH, limited and some cEDH. When it comes to casual pauper or EDH, I do think it’s scummy to lie in casual.
Lying in limited/tEDH: When it comes to money on the line I care a lot more about information I’m giving out. If a player makes an agreement with me for information I’ll be honest (Ex: player 1 agrees to do X if I reveal my hand or say honestly whether I have a win in my hand). I feel no obligation to disclose hidden information for free though and I think this comes up a lot with players giving away info when they don’t need to (Ex: Player A has an orims chant [target player can’t cast spells this turn] and asks if anyone has a counterspell, players B and C say no, if you are vague with information or say yes, you are gonna be the target and lose.) If I’m playing for money/store credit, maybe I’m in the wrong, but I feel no obligation to disclose anything if there’s no agreement or perceived benefit.
Many players have been saying be vague which I definitely see the benefit for in maintaining positive relationships. But, I constantly see other players giving out information for free or politicking in a way that I feel punishes honesty. So, I’m interested in your guys’ opinions, how do you handle disclosing information (not in a casual edh game, like tEDH/cEDH/limited where you’re playing for something)?