'Grey Areas' at FNM

Recently at FNM, I encountered a situation in which I found myself at a crossroads of social allowances and official MTG rules. On turn two, my opponent played an artist-signed Sword of War and Peace. I followed with a foil Sword of War and Peace of my own. I joked that mine did more damage because it was shiny. He responded by saying that not only was his signed by the artist, but was even more special. He then slid the card out of the sleeve, and showed me the back of the card: it was white, with a pen sketch on it. The card was an artist proof he picked up at the last GP he attended. I wasn't sure how to react, so I said nothing. He slid the card back into the sleeve, untapped, equipped it to his birds, and the game continued from there.

The issue here is the use of an artist proof card at FNM. Because the card does not have an official MTG back, it is not legal for tournament use. Plain and simple, with no room for interpretation at all. At a PT, GP, or even PTQ, I wouldn't hesitate to call a judge. However, at FNM, even though it's still technically against the rules, do you call your opponent out on it?

Nobody wants to be 'that guy.' You don't want to rules lawyer a 12 year old because she accidentally stacked her Hero of Bladehold triggers wrong, even though she knew the eventual outcome worked (both tokens receiving the battle cry bonus.) However, if a player is blatantly cheating by knowingly drawing extra cards, you are for sure going to call him out on it, alerting everyone else in the room, and especially the TO/judge. The issue, however, is where does it become socially - not technically - acceptable to enforce certain rules?

This particular FNM I was playing at is pretty laid back. The store owner runs the shop because he loves comics, not because he wants to run a thriving MTG business. The players are quite casual, with maybe 10% of the entire 25-40 people on any given Friday having played in a PTQ before. My opponent in question was a 40-something dad who brings his 14 year old son. The dad plays for fun, and it's evident in his play (as well as the play of many people in the room). Drawing before upkeep, mostly ignoring changing of priority, and so forth. Basically the rules knowledge and adherence of a player that recently made the jump from the kitchen table to the local FNM scene. He is a friendly guy that everyone enjoys chatting with. He isn't that one jerk in every store that you would love to nail to the wall for any rules infraction you can. A casual dad who just wants to play a few games of Magic every Friday night with his son - is it worth risking making him, and potentially other players at the store, really upset because you told him that he can't play that one card? Maybe you inform him of the rules, and he just goes 'oh man I had no idea, I'll take it out right now' and there is no fuss. That isn't guaranteed though, and if the public opinion about it's acceptability is against you, you're going to look like a dick.

What I find myself considering is the 'slippery slope' concept. One artist proof SoWaP in a 75 card standard deck isn't an atrocious violation. But what about two cards? Five? 40? What if it's not an artist proof, but a basic land with a picture of SoWaP printed out and glued to the front? How about sharpie on a draft common? The tricky part here is identifying the line. You probably aren't letting someone sit down across from you with a 75-card UW Delver deck that is entirely proxied. Somewhere you have to decide how many cards is acceptable and how many isn't. Without any sort of official proxy ruling posted by the store, what is your guideline? At what point do you decide 'ok, I'm going to say something to this guy.'

Then there is the cost of the card as a factor. At the time of my writing, SoWaP is $25-$30 on TCGPlayer. Three weeks ago, I'm pretty sure it was over $30, and at some point, the card was over $40. That isn't chump change. I wanted to run four Bonfire of the Damned this past Friday, but I didn't, because I only owned three. So I played three. I didn't want to spend the money on the card, so I don't get to play with it. That's part of playing Magic competitively, at any level - it costs money to compete and own these things. We all know it, and we (mostly) accept it as part of the cost of admission. But what if it's a really cheap card? If someone shows up with four checklist cards but only three Delvers, and the store is out of that common, are you really going to give the guy a hard time for running all four checklist cards? The card is $0.05. At that point the player isn't missing the card due to financial concerns, or even general card availability (some cards are just difficult to find, even if they're cheap. Next time at FNM, see how many people can trade you a playset of Daze.) By accident he only grabbed three Delvers on the way out the door, and the store doesn't happen to have any left in stock. If you try to tell him he can only play with three checklist cards, both he and the store owner are going to tell you to buzz off. So, just like quantity of proxies, what is an acceptable social dollar amount to proxy at FNM? If you proxy 20 commons in your deck and their grand total value is $6, is that better or worse than the guy with the single artist proof SoWaP?

I genuinely am still not sure how to feel about this. I don't want to be a jackass, I really don't. This is a guy who just wants to play some Magic on a Friday night with his son. He isn't crushing the event - I don't think he has ever received a payout at FNM. Yes, technically what he is doing is against the rules - but in this atmosphere, does it matter? What would you do in this situation?