Hello everyone and welcome to another week of Knowledge Pool under the new IPG released with Oath of the Gatewatch. Here is a link to Toby's blog discussing the changes where you can also find the current version of the IPG:
http://blogs.magicjudges.org/telliott/2016/01/18/ogw-policy-changes/

Now for the SILVER scenario:
Aberforth and Bellatrix are playing in Day 1 of a Modern GP. Before game 1, both players mulligan their first hands and draw their new opening hands. Before deciding whether to keep or mulligan, Aberforth realizes that he has accidentally drawn 7 cards and calls for a judge.

What do you do?

L2 judges please wait until Saturday before posting.

You can find the scenario on the Knowledge Pool blogs here:
http://blogs.magicjudges.org/knowledgepool/?p=2125

This seems like a fairly straightforward application of the new Hidden Card Error. After confirming that Aberforth is supposed to have 6 cards due to the mulligan, I would issue a warning for HCE and instruct Aberforth that he has a choice to make. He can either mulligan to 5 now, or he can reveal his hand and allow Bellatrix to select a card of her (his?) choice from the hand. The selected card would be shuffled back into the library and then Mulligans would proceed from there (He could keep and scry or mull to 5). I would finally warn Aberforth to be more careful in the future.

I would make the choice between mulliganning or the available fix (remove a card) explicitly clear to Aberforth before proceeding (especially early in this IPG iteration when players may not be familiar with their options).

(I have assumed that Aberforth did indeed draw by accident which seems likely given that he called this upon himself.)

Edited Bryan Henning (Jan. 29, 2016 09:57:53 PM)

Yay, more HCE! Assuming no Cheating, we issue Aberforth a Warning for GPE-Hidden Card Error. Inform Aberforth that he will reveal his hand to Bellatrix so she can select a card from it to shuffle back into the library–unless he chooses to mulligan again and go to 5 at this point. (Whether or not this IPG is new, I think that's something we inform the player involved of anyway. It can be easy to forget in the heat of the moment that they have this option.) Continue pregame procedures, and ask Aberforth to be more careful.

Aberforth has committed a game rule violation in the form of the new Hidden Card Error. After confirming with both players the status of the mulligans, I would give Aberforth two choices.

Option A would be if he wants to keep the hand. If so, then he would need to show his hand to Bellatrix for the ‘Thoughtseize’ fix. Bellatrix would get to choose one card to send to Aberforth's library. The library would be shuffled, and Aberforth could then scry 1.

Option B is to allow Aberforth to mulligan again to five. He could then make keep/mullligan decisions from that point.

A GRV-HCE Warning would be issued to Aberforth. I would oversee whichever decision was made by Aberforth, helping to guide players through whichever fix is selected.

Originally posted by Charles Featherer:

Option A would be if he wants to keep the hand. If so, then he would need to show his hand to Bellatrix for the 'Thoughtseize' fix. Bellatrix would get to choose one card to send to Aberforth's library. The library would be shuffled, and Aberforth could then scry 1.

If he chose Option A, and he loses a card, does he have the option of mulliganning? Or did his decision to do the Thoughtseize fix mean he kept his hand?

Not to nitpick, but Aberforth doesn't get to scry 1 until he and Bellatrix have finished mulligan decisions. :)

Edited Chris Wendelboe (Jan. 31, 2016 07:06:14 AM)

If they kept their opening hand and already performed their scry, I don't think you let them mulligan after that– they're not entitled to use that information when making mulligan decisions.

If you can determine that they did not choose to keep their opening hand before the error was noticed, or they chose to keep but have not yet performed the scry, and they let themselves be Thoughtsiezed, there's no issue with letting them keep making mulligan decisions. The second one I'm less certain on, but there seems to be no harm to me in letting them continue to mulligan unless they pass the “point of no return”–that being the scry action.

Originally posted by Matt Cooper:

If they kept their opening hand and already performed their scry, I don't think you let them mulligan after that– they're not entitled to use that information when making mulligan decisions.

If you can determine that they did not choose to keep their opening hand before the error was noticed, or they chose to keep but have not yet performed the scry, and they let themselves be Thoughtsiezed, there's no issue with letting them keep making mulligan decisions. The second one I'm less certain on, but there seems to be no harm to me in letting them continue to mulligan unless they pass the “point of no return”–that being the scry action.

My point is that neither player should be performing their “free” scry until both players have completed mulligan decisions. Bellatrix, in the situation described, certainly has not (and Aberforth is still in the process of, due to his infraction).

This looks to be a case of Hidden Card Error (formerly Improper Drawing at Start of Game). The options available to fix this are to:
A) Have Aberforth reveal his seven-card hand to Bellatrix. Bellatrix chooses a card to be put back/shuffled into the random portion of the deck. Aberforth then can choose to take a mulligan on this six-card hand if he desires.
B) Inform Aberforth that he can go and mulligan down to five without revealing his hand (the former fix on IDaSoG, if my memory serves, minus the portion about revealing).

I'd also just stick around to make sure that should Aberforth opt to mulligan to five under either fix, that Bellatrix then makes a keep/mulligan choice on their hand before Aberforth decides on his new five. (I'm operating under the impression that Aberforth is on the play.)

Matt brings up an interesting question. If Aberforth had decided to keep his mulliganed hand, and scryed. Before he noticed the 7 cards and called for the judge, does that affect how the fix is applied?

I assume that this is LEC (though won't result in an additional warning as it was related to the proceeding error) and that we will randomize the deck (or inform Aberforth that his deck will be randomized regardless of which fix he chooses) so that the knowledge of his scry doesn't affect his decision. The decision to scry is still a pregame action right?

Am I missing anything here?

Before reading other responses:

Aberforth was supposed to draw only 6 cards, but instead has 7. This used to be called “Improper drawing at start of game”, but with the most recent IPG update, it's been rolled into “Hidden Card Error” (In fact, it's a given example). Aberforth will receive a warning. Bellatrix has not committed an infraction.

For a fix, Aberforth will reveal his hand to Bellatrix, who will select one card to shuffle from hand into Aberfoth's library. After this is complete, Aberforth may choose to keep his hand of 6, or they may choose to mulligan to 5. If Aberforth feels strongly about not revealing the contents of their hand, they may choose to mulligan to 5 directly. They also have the option of conceding the game, but realistically, they will not choose this.

After reading other responses:

Seems to be a consensus on the basic fix. I actually had to double-check the IPG before writing out my response, I remembered that Aberforth had the option to concede, I forgot they also had the option to mulligan when in pre-game procedures.

There's some open questions about how the post-mulligan Scry might wrinkle the situation. Since it wasn't covered in the scenario, I'm assuming neither player has scry'd, though it's an important question to remember to ask when investigating pregame procedure problems.

Originally posted by Karl Weisling:

Before game 1, both players mulligan their first hands and draw their new opening hands. Before deciding whether to keep or mulligan, Aberforth realizes that he has accidentally drawn 7 cards and calls for a judge.

Underline mine. They haven't yet decided to keep, so in the given scenario the scryings have not yet been performed. I brought up the decision tree branch where they did perform scry actions already because I thought it relevant to the discussion. I have no issue moving this branch elsewhere if it's determined that it's off-topic enough; it might be a long enough discussion on its own that it'll detract from this thread's topic.

As many people have correctly noted, Aberforth has committed Hidden Card Error and the penalty is a Warning. There is no longer an infraction called Improper Draw at Start of Game because it was combined into the new infraction Hidden Card Error. When delivering you ruling, be sure to instruct the players not to reveal their hands until you have finished explaining your ruling and what the two possible fixes will be. You could say something like: “Aberforth, you will have two options. First, you can mulligan directly to 5. After that, Bellatrix will decide on her 6 card hand and you will continue the mulligan process from there. The other option is to reveal these 7 cards to Bellatrix, and they pick one to be shuffled into your deck. Then you may choose to mulligan your modified 6 card hand and the process continues from there. Either way, you will still be receiving a Warning for Hidden Card Error.”


Thank you everyone for your contributions and we'll see you next time!