Problems with the judge system

So your grand prey is playing Montano Baltimore Purge, and has put a Baltimore Purge into play.
Your prey is playing weenie dominate.

What is your response?

XZealot wrote: So your grand prey is playing Montano Baltimore Purge, and has put a Baltimore Purge into play.
Your prey is playing weenie dominate.

What is your response?

Ask my grand prey to choose my convert when purge goes off.

Frankly, in this hypothetical situation, I'm more concerned with my predator. Also what I'm playing. I fear a combo purge more than a 1-a-turn purge any day. Give me Montano over Arika, Anne, Vitel, Shuhailah any day. Montano isn't able to 1in3 tables dunk everyone, pop up with renewed vigor on 4 minions and then grave rob and freak drive before eating another 4 minions with vote lock.

Not sure what this situation is, since decks that imbalance tables so much they gotta die first are Table Poison imbued and Nergal Great beast variations. Also sometimes Turbo Arika.

I'm pretty sure Montano has fortitude.

The point being made, I think, is that good play isn't always as simple as bleed prey block predator. I don't see how a judge can reasonably remove player agency from the game. Might as well just play 5 decks by yourself.

Mewcat wrote: I'm pretty sure Montano has fortitude.

The point being made, I think, is that good play isn't always as simple as bleed prey block predator. I don't see how a judge can reasonably remove player agency from the game. Might as well just play 5 decks by yourself.

I'm certain he has it at but can't do the same 3 actions 4 times a turn due to NRA.
Anyway;
You always play the table as best to gain all possible vps. Amy given deck does that based upon what's in it and what is drawn. So, if the outcome is reasonably skewed with a given deck on the table but your ability to win skyrockets without it, that's a viable in game consideration, suck as your grand prey playing a wall deck similar to yours to the point of it impacting your discards for the heads up.
If another deck makes it certain you will get 0 vps with it around, let's say your grand predator is playing table poison Imbued and dropping hoser events that disallow you to have a game at all, so you rally the table against them. Any potential VP is better than 0 in this case.
If you're kindred spirits bleeding your grand prey instead of your prey there should be a reason. If you're rushing every minion your grand predator has into torpor, there must be a reason, like your predator has no minions and they havev 2 pool and you have 1.
Things happen, but I'm not seeing how a player can violate any part of PTW without anyone noticing/being able to raise concerns to judge. Unless they just suck. Hard to fault a new player for almost replacing a WWEF or bums rush immediately, but if I do it, I'm more likely to know better. (Just kidding, I dont play WWEF anymore )

So you agree that it would be hard for a judge to enforce play to win in any likely scenario? Also I don't see how play to win should disallow poor play or high risk high reward plays. Again, just replace the players with robots. 'Play to win' has become the mantra chanted when a player does something you don't like. To me it is comical.

From a judge (and also player) perspective: yes, it's sometimes hard to determine "is there any chance to win here or can player self-oust 'legally'". If I'm asked to judge something like that, I'll let the player explain to me (showing his hand) why, and if I feel their opinion has merit I'll allow it. If not, they either continue playing the best they can or get disqualified. Sure, it's a bit of gray zone (that's why we have human judges, not robots .

Also, going for cross-table oust needs some valid reason. "My deck cannot cope with that deck, it needs to go" is a perfectly valid reason. Again, it's a bit of a gray zone; someone might want to cross-table oust the Imbued just because they don't like them, and also be able to make a valid case that their deck will have serious problems against the Imbued (many decks do).

As for the original post: while I don't personally recall stuff like the OP describes, that doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. If you see something unsportsmanlike or against the rules (even vaguely) in a tournament I'm running, please let me know. And as a player, I'll try to keep my eye out from now on in local games. This sort of stuff has no place in the game.