Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sometimes a store will hold proxy tournaments for certain formats, but not for the standard format, and they can't be officially sanctioned events. There was a big deal about it recently with relation to counterfeiting. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/proxies-po...
I don't play any card games, but what's honestly the big deal? Is the game about card-collecting skills, or deck-building and play strategy? It's hard to argue the latter and ban people for not having an original version of a card. I guess I don't really "get it", or I had way too much fun playing ridiculous mods (where it was fair because everyone had equally ridiculous stuff) for games (Mr. Pants Excessive Overkill…
Magic the Gathering is good.
Because.