Sportsmanship in Magic

For today’s article I will be briefly talking about sportsmanship when playing Magic the Gathering. It seems to be a hotly contested issue whether or not you offer the handshake when winning a game of magic or if you are a total jerk for doing so.

I lean on the side of offering the handshake win or lose. I love the competitive spirit of magic and winning is a pretty big deal to me. That being said if I lose a game I still want to shake my opponent's hand because winning a game a Magic can be hard and it is a big deal, who am I to take that feeling away from my opponent?

There are definitely exceptions to this though. If an opponent is visibly upset over the match then I will not offer the handshake and instead may say something like “thank you for the games.” The other thing I am big on is saying “good game” after the match . Again I avoid this in situations such as the upset opponent or if my opponent is mana screwed and didn’t really have the opportunity to play a real game of magic.

I think one of the worst things somebody can do is if a player says “good game” and their opponent who lost responded with “no it wasn’t.” This is just incredibly bad form, as I said earlier winning a game of Magic is HUGE, it feels great and who are you to diminish that feeling. I think that it is appropriate to say good game or offer the handshake in most situations but there are always exceptions and it is mostly about your opponent's reactions.