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I attended the Innistrad Prerelease last night. My first Sealed deck ever. I started playing MTG about a week ago, but I read a lot about it and I'm pretty familiar with the rules. I used to play MTG before, but very casually and that was 12 years ago.
The Pre-release was a blast and I was very pleased with my performance, but I had a couple of forgettable moments with sore losers, and one particular situation where a more experienced player who was being pretty impatient with me. This is how it went down.
Him: "I declare combat" Me: "Hmm...I will tap Creature A with my Avacynian Priest...oookaaay...then I will play Village Bell-Ringer to untap my creatures and use my Avacynian Priest again to tap Creature B" Him: "You can't do that. Creature B is already attacking. He can't be tapped." Me: "Yes I can. I'm doing all of this as you've declared your combat step but before you've declared your attackers." Him: "When you use the word 'Okay', you are signifying to me that you're finished and not taking any further actions." Me: "I say 'Okay' a lot. That's just how I talk when I'm concentrating." Him: "Well, that's not how Magic is played. 'Okay' means 'I'm finished'." Me: "Really?" Him: "Yes. You should know the rules before entering a tournament." Me: "Look, I'm sorry, man. I seriously didn't realize that. I'm pretty new to this game. I am familiar with the rules but not the semantics." (He already knew I was new to the game. I mentioned it to him when we were shuffling up.) Him: "*Sigh.* I'll let it go this time, but next time I'm calling for a judge."
He is probably 100% correct when it comes to the ruling, but...
1) In this particular circumstance, the fact that I knew which attackers were coming was inconsequential to which creature I wanted to tap with my Avacynian Priest. My intention was obvious and my decision wasn't swayed by knowing which creatures he's using to attack. He knew this. He was just trying to be difficult with me. Maybe he was frustrated that I won Game 1.
2) This is a pre-release, not a PTQ, not the Super Bowl. I was under the impression that pre-releases were closer to the "fun" end of the spectrum than the "competitive" end. Arguing semantics when it clearly does not matter is not anyone's idea of fun.
3) I am a rookie attending his first tournament in over a decade. I'm a complete stranger looking to have a fun time. He is a regular. Everyone knows him there. He should be a role model. I'm a pretty self-sufficient guy but IMO he should try to be more supportive to new players. I hope he doesn't behave that way towards other newbies.
He ended up winning the match (very, very close), but it kinda left a sour taste in my mouth when it comes to the type of people I'm likely to run into at a CCG tournament. I recently got a few friends into MTG and they were interested in coming to a pre-release tomorrow. However, they don't know the rules as well as I do. So, if I'm getting chewed out by the regulars for being a newbie, I doubt they'd have a positive experience and they'll probably ruin somebody else's fun too.
I enjoyed playing in the tournament and I definitely I leveled up skill-wise and knowledge-wise. I'm gonna try not to let this one bad experience ruin my fun or my view of competitive CCG players, but if most players are like this, I think I'm gonna steer clear of public tournaments altogether. If you're anything like this guy, please try to lighten up a little. To a new player, a little bit of patience goes a long way.
He was being rude and a sore loser. There are no "magic" words to signify that you pass priority. When you say "okay" in the middle of a sentence like that it is absolutely clear that it doesn't signify anything. If he'd called a judge on that, I'd say the judge should probably warn him for a frivolous judge call or such.
You meet people like that in any competitive environment, and even a lot of non-competitive ones. Don't let it get to you.
Me: oookaaay...then I will play Village Bell-Ringer to untap my creatures and use my Avacynian Priest again to tap Creature B" Him: "You can't do that. Creature B is already attacking. He can't be tapped."
From reading this I'm not getting a clear picture of what happened. Could be one of two things:
1) If he reaches for Creature B to tap it after you say "OK" and you do nothing to stop him and then he taps it to attack and only then do you announce the Bell Ringer then a miscommunication has taken place and you should definitely call a judge. (Calling a judge isn't something which should only happen when Very Bad Things have happened as it would be during a Bridge tournament, for example. Calling a judge is routine in Magic and if you're not sure then do it.)
2) If nothing else happened besides what you documented then no, creature B is not already attacking because it has not been declared as an attacker. Your opponent could maybe try to argue that you have passed priority and he is thinking, but at a prerelease I would consider that poor sportsmanship.
In either case it doesn't sound like your opponent handled this well. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. Nice play, though!
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I also occasionally say "Please tell me when it's the start of your attack step" when I have a tap creature onboard. It prevents a lot of these kinds of issues.
He was being rude and a sore loser. There are no "magic" words to signify that you pass priority. When you say "okay" in the middle of a sentence like that it is absolutely clear that it doesn't signify anything. If he'd called a judge on that, I'd say the judge should probably warn him for a frivolous judge call or such.
You meet people like that in any competitive environment, and even a lot of non-competitive ones. Don't let it get to you.
This. Don't let douchbags like that ruin your experience. I doubt the judge would've agreed with him anyways if the situation was properly explained. Don't let sore losers and jerks intimidate you.
Being a jerk is not the same thing as cheating. Even cast in the worst possible light, the guy wasn't cheating, although no judge would rule in his favor at a prerelease. At a PT, a judge might rule in his favor, because if his opponent were trying to gain extra info by deliberately miscommunicating, that could be unfair, but it would depend a lot on the judge's read of the situation.
The guy was definitely frustrated if he gave away information about what he was going to attack with that was used against him because of a miscommunication. Saying stuff like oooookaaaaay is going to result in murky situations like that, and it's understandable that it ticked the guy off, especially if he's used to a higher level of play. But he definitely shouldn't have tried to make a big deal out of it at a prerelease; that's just asking to get made fun of.
Wit's End is the PERFECT answer to your opponent's Monomania however.
Just hold on to your Wit's End when they Monomania, so you can Wit's End them on your next turn!!!
I think this is fairly reminiscent of the "Jace Battles" we have seen in past standards.. My guess is we will soon witness the great Monomania-Wit's End battles.
Your opponent was a cheaty d-bag and a sore loser for you making a nice play that hurt him. There's no magical word that indicates you're done making decisions or playing anything.
Only advice I would give besides not falling for that again would be saying that you were done and/or asking if he was declaring any attackers once you were done with your actions.
--Jed
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L5R or MTG, if it's got Samurai, Knights or Soldiers, it's all good as far as I'm concerned.
kind of like the guy who pumped his attacker because I put a hand on my untapped flier and thought I was blocking. some players will try to get an edge no matter how because either they know their deck is bad or they feel like you're the better Mt:G player.
never base your victories on the back of your opponents making mistakes. that is the mark of a bad magic player.
Being a jerk is not the same thing as cheating. Even cast in the worst possible light, the guy wasn't cheating, although no judge would rule in his favor at a prerelease. At a PT, a judge might rule in his favor, because if his opponent were trying to gain extra info by deliberately miscommunicating, that could be unfair, but it would depend a lot on the judge's read of the situation.
At a PT or any level of play the judge would no reason to rule in favor of the OP's opponent. We have this scenario..
Player A cast vendilion clique
Player B reveal his hand
Player A wants to target himself...
The problem here is Player B assumed Player A wanted to target him. Player B is clearly the reason for the problem.
Now look at the OP scenario
Player A Tap you guy in before attackers. Okay... Okay here could mean. Okay? Asking for confirmation, does player B has any responses? Or it could mean Okay, i'm done with effects before attacks. Personally i find the question form much more likely to be true. Instead of asking what was ment Player B assumed the latter. The problem here is again with Player B's assumption, not vagueness of Player A's statement/question.
Also, if the guy is expecting a "high level of play". He should really expect it out of himself also and not assume things.
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Calling someone a Commie is flaming and must be stopped, but turning the word Conservative into a loaded pejorative and using it over and over again is perfectly acceptable.
Hes a cheater. What he should have done is declared attackers and asked "any response". Then you have your chance to tap down his guys. He was trying to rush you, next time call a judge over because im sure they would side with you on this.
So I've seen a bunch of people's early evaluations of M13 limited, and the apparent consensus is that blue is the set's worst colors. I have only played three events, mind you, but I consider myself a bit of a core set limited guru, and while I think it's a bit early to say that blue is the set's best color, I think it's significant;y more in the conversation than people are giving it credit for.
As I've posted elsewhere, Archaeomancer is my pick for the set's best common.
Hes a cheater. What he should have done is declared attackers and asked "any response". Then you have your chance to tap down his guys. He was trying to rush you, next time call a judge over because im sure they would side with you on this.
No, that's not how it works at all. Once he declares his attackers it is too late to tap any of the creatures he wishes to have attacking.
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Asking people to remove quotes in their signatures is tyranny! If I can't say something just because someone's feelings are hurt then no one would ever be able to say anything! Political correctness is stupid.
Right or wrong, your opponent didn't handle it well.
I think that you probably were in the right, but it's hard for us to figure out what actually happened.
It seems like you probably were a bit vague about what you were doing, but fundamentally, your play made sense. Your opponent likely tried to take advantage of the fact that you seemed a bit uncertain, and tried to just bully you.
Even if he was right - that's no way to treat another player. At an event like a prerelease, everyone knows a lot of casual and younger players will come out. On days like this, it's really up to everyone in the community to at least try to be civil.
You never passed priority at any instance. even if you passed priority to him by saying "ok?" you still regain priority once the spell resolved.
this is what happened in the situation described.
-Tap creature A is on the stack
-You say "...oookaaay..." indicating that you pass priority
-They say nothing, or something to indicate that it is in fact ok.
-The spell resolves, and he gains priority (because he is the active player), he passed priority by indicating that he still just wants to move to declare attackers.
-You then flash in temple bell ringer. he has no response, so same song and dance of passing priority after it resolves and you untap your priest, you then use the priests ability to tap another creature.
-at this point, as long as he passes priority after the ability resolves, and you pass priority after, it then moves to declare attackers step.
So the fact that you said "ok" has no baring on the matter. you did in fact pass priority, but only when waiting for the ability on the stack to resolve. you still retain priority after the ability resolved and he passed it back to you.
I get this crap all the time too. like i was playing against a guy today (kinda a douche bag) who i know knows all the rules and was playing for a long time, but he tried to convince me that reassembling skeleton entered the graveyard aver using regenerate. I've played with thrun enough to know he's full of it, but some experienced players try and prey on less experienced players thinking they aren't familiar enough with the game, or don't have enough confidence to challenge what they say.
i would still really like to hear how people handle Solar Flare i have been surprise intercourse with that for a while now what is your gameplan and what do you sideboard in and out?
I get this crap all the time too. like i was playing against a guy today (kinda a douche bag) who i know knows all the rules and was playing for a long time, but he tried to convince me that reassembling skeleton entered the graveyard aver using regenerate. I've played with thrun enough to know he's full of it
Avoid saying okay too much for really, a prerelease is a casual event as indicated but a mere 1x multiplier on the planeswalker points. I would say he was just trying to take advantage of the fact that he may have an edge there.
At a PT or any level of play the judge would no reason to rule in favor of the OP's opponent. We have this scenario..
Player A cast vendilion clique
Player B reveal his hand
Player A wants to target himself...
The problem here is Player B assumed Player A wanted to target him. Player B is clearly the reason for the problem.
.
.
.
Also, if the guy is expecting a "high level of play". He should really expect it out of himself also and not assume things.
If this had been a PT, this situation wouldn't have come up because the guy wouldn't have tried to declare attackers if there was any doubt about the OP being done with his response - it could only lead to disadvantage to try. I'm not trying to say that the guy is a PT-level player; he clearly isn't.
The guy made a mistake in revealing information about what he was attacking with. Presumably he felt like he wouldn't have revealed that information if his opponent had communicated better, and he was looking for a way to justify/get out of his mistake, which he may have been justified in doing, if his opponent's miscommunication was deliberate (and at a high level of play, it could have been). "Okay" really is code for passing priority at high level events, and if that was the reason why he tried to send in his guys, then at a PT level, he should absolutely have called a judge - neither player is going to be able to impartial about a situation like that.
Someone up above made the point that the OP would have had an opportunity to make his play even he did pass priority, after his first ability resolved, and that's fine. But that's exactly the reason why judges are there, and there is no problem whatsoever with calling a judge about the miscommunication, only to be shown that it doesn't make a difference to the play. I'm not trying to say that the guy is a good player - when I said he might be used to a high level of play, I meant higher level events, not higher level skill. I'm also not trying to say that the guy was right to stir up a fuss about the OP saying "okay" - merely that by doing so, he was not cheating.
The only mistake the guy made was in trying to argue his case without calling a judge. That amounts to bullying, and wasn't at all in the spirit of a prerelease. But it was certainly not cheating.
Wit's End is the PERFECT answer to your opponent's Monomania however.
Just hold on to your Wit's End when they Monomania, so you can Wit's End them on your next turn!!!
I think this is fairly reminiscent of the "Jace Battles" we have seen in past standards.. My guess is we will soon witness the great Monomania-Wit's End battles.
No, that's not how it works at all. Once he declares his attackers it is too late to tap any of the creatures he wishes to have attacking.
508. Declare Attackers Step
508.1. First, the active player declares attackers. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. To declare attackers, the active player follows the steps below, in order. If at any point during the declaration of attackers, the active player is unable to comply with any of the steps listed below, the
declaration is illegal; the game returns to the moment before the declaration (see rule 716, “Handling Illegal Actions”).
508.1a The active player chooses which creatures that he or she controls, if any, will attack. The chosen creatures must be untapped, and each one must either have haste or have been controlled by the active player continuously since the turn began.
508.1f The active player taps the chosen creatures. Tapping a creature when it’s declared as an attacker isn’t a cost; attacking simply causes creatures to become tapped.
That's right from the rulebook, dont tell me im wrong when im not jackass.
So I've seen a bunch of people's early evaluations of M13 limited, and the apparent consensus is that blue is the set's worst colors. I have only played three events, mind you, but I consider myself a bit of a core set limited guru, and while I think it's a bit early to say that blue is the set's best color, I think it's significant;y more in the conversation than people are giving it credit for.
As I've posted elsewhere, Archaeomancer is my pick for the set's best common.
I believe the main point here is his intent - I seriously doubt he would try the same thing against an experienced player. Saying "Okay" is not the universally accepted priority-passing clause that he claims it is and this leads me to believe he was merely trying to take advantage of the new player.
Also, this:
Calling a judge is never going to be considered rules-lawyering. Calling a judge is like the opposite of rules-lawyering. If you want to enforce a rule that your opponent doesn't think is relevant for whatever reason, calling a judge is what you do, every time, no matter how frivolous it might seem, and it is never going to be rules-lawyering.
Granted, that's not what the opponent in this case did. He tried to enforce a rule without calling a judge, and if he had continued to push, even after a judge was called and disagreed with him, then that might have been cause for a warning for unsporting conduct. But he dropped it before it got to that point, so it's irrelevant. But "frivolous" judge calls aren't a thing, and you can't get a warning for doing it.
Wit's End is the PERFECT answer to your opponent's Monomania however.
Just hold on to your Wit's End when they Monomania, so you can Wit's End them on your next turn!!!
I think this is fairly reminiscent of the "Jace Battles" we have seen in past standards.. My guess is we will soon witness the great Monomania-Wit's End battles.
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I attended the Innistrad Prerelease last night. My first Sealed deck ever. I started playing MTG about a week ago, but I read a lot about it and I'm pretty familiar with the rules. I used to play MTG before, but very casually and that was 12 years ago.
The Pre-release was a blast and I was very pleased with my performance, but I had a couple of forgettable moments with sore losers, and one particular situation where a more experienced player who was being pretty impatient with me. This is how it went down.
Him: "I declare combat"
Me: "Hmm...I will tap Creature A with my Avacynian Priest...oookaaay...then I will play Village Bell-Ringer to untap my creatures and use my Avacynian Priest again to tap Creature B"
Him: "You can't do that. Creature B is already attacking. He can't be tapped."
Me: "Yes I can. I'm doing all of this as you've declared your combat step but before you've declared your attackers."
Him: "When you use the word 'Okay', you are signifying to me that you're finished and not taking any further actions."
Me: "I say 'Okay' a lot. That's just how I talk when I'm concentrating."
Him: "Well, that's not how Magic is played. 'Okay' means 'I'm finished'."
Me: "Really?"
Him: "Yes. You should know the rules before entering a tournament."
Me: "Look, I'm sorry, man. I seriously didn't realize that. I'm pretty new to this game. I am familiar with the rules but not the semantics." (He already knew I was new to the game. I mentioned it to him when we were shuffling up.)
Him: "*Sigh.* I'll let it go this time, but next time I'm calling for a judge."
He is probably 100% correct when it comes to the ruling, but...
1) In this particular circumstance, the fact that I knew which attackers were coming was inconsequential to which creature I wanted to tap with my Avacynian Priest. My intention was obvious and my decision wasn't swayed by knowing which creatures he's using to attack. He knew this. He was just trying to be difficult with me. Maybe he was frustrated that I won Game 1.
2) This is a pre-release, not a PTQ, not the Super Bowl. I was under the impression that pre-releases were closer to the "fun" end of the spectrum than the "competitive" end. Arguing semantics when it clearly does not matter is not anyone's idea of fun.
3) I am a rookie attending his first tournament in over a decade. I'm a complete stranger looking to have a fun time. He is a regular. Everyone knows him there. He should be a role model. I'm a pretty self-sufficient guy but IMO he should try to be more supportive to new players. I hope he doesn't behave that way towards other newbies.
He ended up winning the match (very, very close), but it kinda left a sour taste in my mouth when it comes to the type of people I'm likely to run into at a CCG tournament. I recently got a few friends into MTG and they were interested in coming to a pre-release tomorrow. However, they don't know the rules as well as I do. So, if I'm getting chewed out by the regulars for being a newbie, I doubt they'd have a positive experience and they'll probably ruin somebody else's fun too.
I enjoyed playing in the tournament and I definitely I leveled up skill-wise and knowledge-wise. I'm gonna try not to let this one bad experience ruin my fun or my view of competitive CCG players, but if most players are like this, I think I'm gonna steer clear of public tournaments altogether. If you're anything like this guy, please try to lighten up a little. To a new player, a little bit of patience goes a long way.
You meet people like that in any competitive environment, and even a lot of non-competitive ones. Don't let it get to you.
From reading this I'm not getting a clear picture of what happened. Could be one of two things:
1) If he reaches for Creature B to tap it after you say "OK" and you do nothing to stop him and then he taps it to attack and only then do you announce the Bell Ringer then a miscommunication has taken place and you should definitely call a judge. (Calling a judge isn't something which should only happen when Very Bad Things have happened as it would be during a Bridge tournament, for example. Calling a judge is routine in Magic and if you're not sure then do it.)
2) If nothing else happened besides what you documented then no, creature B is not already attacking because it has not been declared as an attacker. Your opponent could maybe try to argue that you have passed priority and he is thinking, but at a prerelease I would consider that poor sportsmanship.
In either case it doesn't sound like your opponent handled this well. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. Nice play, though!
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Or you could get in the habit of saying something like one second, I'm thinking, etc. My personal favorite: hrmmm.
This. Don't let douchbags like that ruin your experience. I doubt the judge would've agreed with him anyways if the situation was properly explained. Don't let sore losers and jerks intimidate you.
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The guy was definitely frustrated if he gave away information about what he was going to attack with that was used against him because of a miscommunication. Saying stuff like oooookaaaaay is going to result in murky situations like that, and it's understandable that it ticked the guy off, especially if he's used to a higher level of play. But he definitely shouldn't have tried to make a big deal out of it at a prerelease; that's just asking to get made fun of.
Only advice I would give besides not falling for that again would be saying that you were done and/or asking if he was declaring any attackers once you were done with your actions.
--Jed
L5R or MTG, if it's got Samurai, Knights or Soldiers, it's all good as far as I'm concerned.
never base your victories on the back of your opponents making mistakes. that is the mark of a bad magic player.
At a PT or any level of play the judge would no reason to rule in favor of the OP's opponent. We have this scenario..
Player A cast vendilion clique
Player B reveal his hand
Player A wants to target himself...
The problem here is Player B assumed Player A wanted to target him. Player B is clearly the reason for the problem.
Now look at the OP scenario
Player A Tap you guy in before attackers. Okay... Okay here could mean. Okay? Asking for confirmation, does player B has any responses? Or it could mean Okay, i'm done with effects before attacks. Personally i find the question form much more likely to be true. Instead of asking what was ment Player B assumed the latter. The problem here is again with Player B's assumption, not vagueness of Player A's statement/question.
Also, if the guy is expecting a "high level of play". He should really expect it out of himself also and not assume things.
Flame infraction. - Blinking Spirit
Calling someone a Commie is flaming and must be stopped, but turning the word Conservative into a loaded pejorative and using it over and over again is perfectly acceptable.
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No, that's not how it works at all. Once he declares his attackers it is too late to tap any of the creatures he wishes to have attacking.
I think that you probably were in the right, but it's hard for us to figure out what actually happened.
It seems like you probably were a bit vague about what you were doing, but fundamentally, your play made sense. Your opponent likely tried to take advantage of the fact that you seemed a bit uncertain, and tried to just bully you.
Even if he was right - that's no way to treat another player. At an event like a prerelease, everyone knows a lot of casual and younger players will come out. On days like this, it's really up to everyone in the community to at least try to be civil.
*DCI Rules Advisor*
this is what happened in the situation described.
-Tap creature A is on the stack
-You say "...oookaaay..." indicating that you pass priority
-They say nothing, or something to indicate that it is in fact ok.
-The spell resolves, and he gains priority (because he is the active player), he passed priority by indicating that he still just wants to move to declare attackers.
-You then flash in temple bell ringer. he has no response, so same song and dance of passing priority after it resolves and you untap your priest, you then use the priests ability to tap another creature.
-at this point, as long as he passes priority after the ability resolves, and you pass priority after, it then moves to declare attackers step.
So the fact that you said "ok" has no baring on the matter. you did in fact pass priority, but only when waiting for the ability on the stack to resolve. you still retain priority after the ability resolved and he passed it back to you.
I get this crap all the time too. like i was playing against a guy today (kinda a douche bag) who i know knows all the rules and was playing for a long time, but he tried to convince me that reassembling skeleton entered the graveyard aver using regenerate. I've played with thrun enough to know he's full of it, but some experienced players try and prey on less experienced players thinking they aren't familiar enough with the game, or don't have enough confidence to challenge what they say.
LOL
Tell that guy to play a game on MODO.
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...Reassembling Skeleton does enter the graveyard. It's not a regeneration shield.
reassembling skeleton
uhh, regenerate?
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If this had been a PT, this situation wouldn't have come up because the guy wouldn't have tried to declare attackers if there was any doubt about the OP being done with his response - it could only lead to disadvantage to try. I'm not trying to say that the guy is a PT-level player; he clearly isn't.
The guy made a mistake in revealing information about what he was attacking with. Presumably he felt like he wouldn't have revealed that information if his opponent had communicated better, and he was looking for a way to justify/get out of his mistake, which he may have been justified in doing, if his opponent's miscommunication was deliberate (and at a high level of play, it could have been). "Okay" really is code for passing priority at high level events, and if that was the reason why he tried to send in his guys, then at a PT level, he should absolutely have called a judge - neither player is going to be able to impartial about a situation like that.
Someone up above made the point that the OP would have had an opportunity to make his play even he did pass priority, after his first ability resolved, and that's fine. But that's exactly the reason why judges are there, and there is no problem whatsoever with calling a judge about the miscommunication, only to be shown that it doesn't make a difference to the play. I'm not trying to say that the guy is a good player - when I said he might be used to a high level of play, I meant higher level events, not higher level skill. I'm also not trying to say that the guy was right to stir up a fuss about the OP saying "okay" - merely that by doing so, he was not cheating.
The only mistake the guy made was in trying to argue his case without calling a judge. That amounts to bullying, and wasn't at all in the spirit of a prerelease. But it was certainly not cheating.
508. Declare Attackers Step
508.1. First, the active player declares attackers. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. To declare attackers, the active player follows the steps below, in order. If at any point during the declaration of attackers, the active player is unable to comply with any of the steps listed below, the
declaration is illegal; the game returns to the moment before the declaration (see rule 716, “Handling Illegal Actions”).
508.1a The active player chooses which creatures that he or she controls, if any, will attack. The chosen creatures must be untapped, and each one must either have haste or have been controlled by the active player continuously since the turn began.
508.1f The active player taps the chosen creatures. Tapping a creature when it’s declared as an attacker isn’t a cost; attacking simply causes creatures to become tapped.
That's right from the rulebook, dont tell me im wrong when im not jackass.
Calling a judge is never going to be considered rules-lawyering. Calling a judge is like the opposite of rules-lawyering. If you want to enforce a rule that your opponent doesn't think is relevant for whatever reason, calling a judge is what you do, every time, no matter how frivolous it might seem, and it is never going to be rules-lawyering.
Granted, that's not what the opponent in this case did. He tried to enforce a rule without calling a judge, and if he had continued to push, even after a judge was called and disagreed with him, then that might have been cause for a warning for unsporting conduct. But he dropped it before it got to that point, so it's irrelevant. But "frivolous" judge calls aren't a thing, and you can't get a warning for doing it.