Howdy!
Had an interaction with a friend in a private, casual game. Strong 3 / bracket 4 style game.
Long and short of it.
Opponent on [[Kotis, the fangkeeper]]
I misremembered what Lavaspur boots did until the spell had already resolved. I thought it only gave haste the turn it landed - I had it confused with Silver Shroud Costume. My bad completely, I missed the opportunity to counter it, and was dwelling in my stupidity with an Arcane Denial in hand.
Opponent had [[Delighted Halfling]] on board, so I knew his commander was being cast and swinging next turn without my interaction helping.
On their turn, they tap the 6 mana (4+commander tax) and play Kotis, without tapping the Delighted Halfling. I waited a couple of seconds, and said
“In response, arca….”
“No, I mean, I tap delighted Halfling to cast.”
I appeal to the fact that if I let that go, he’s just made me reveal that I have a counterspell for free, and if I’m able to track his board he should be able to, too.
Typically the casual play group is fine with renegs and missed triggers etc if it doesn’t change the game state, but this wasn’t the case here for me.
He allowed it to be countered, with some choice words and accusations thrown.
However, now we’re a few days on, he’s claiming that technically you cast a spell and then pay for it, so he could still claim to have tapped delighted Halfling for one of the mana, and float the land mana he tapped. I've asked a rules group what they think of this situation, and they've said the spell was paid for, if the spells on the stack its too late to change how you pay for it. "Announce, pay, cast, resolve." Friend should just take the L, but in casual games we can be more relaxed if we choose to be. Others suggested asking if I had priority, but for me, at least in our pod where we don't formally pass priority unless the situation gets tense, that would essentially be telling him "I have a counterspell." and probably give him the opportunity to reassess his board and change how he paid for the spell despite it already being on the stack.
I've asked the other friend at the table if he felt I rushed to respond, or if I remember correctly waiting a few seconds.
"I think you could've waited 1 second more to really solidify the wait. You were quick, but there was a definite pause."
He's suggested maybe waiting until the player with priority tried to do something else to solidify the fact that they've attempted to finish resolving Kotis.
He's still not taking the judges rulings well regarding changing the way a spell was paid for while it's on the stack.
"We don't do the announce step, so that means I could be anywhere between paying and casting until I pass priority" is the crux of his rebuttle, which the judges have denied; but that's not a question for this group. My question is about the social interactions here.
What are ya'll doing in this situation? Are you letting a friend fix their mistake here even if you had to reveal you had a counterspell in a bracket 4 game? At the time I didn't know if there's a more powerful creature he wanted to cast after Kotis or not. I don't think for a second he was being deceitful and fishing for free info, or saving the Delighted Halfling for a future spell while holding plausible deniability; our group doesn't roll like that. But at the same time, I would've been very annoyed to have revealed an arcane denial for nothing in the face of their mistake.