It's the last swiss round of a Standard GPT.

Anthony was matched up against Nelson. On Anthony's turn 3, he attacked with his Seeker of the Way with Nelson had no creatures on board. Nelson acknowledged 2 damage, and Anthony passed the turn.

As Nelson was writing up his life total on the score pad, he accidentally waved his hand when he put down his pen.

Anthony read this action as “Nelson passed his turn”.

Then Anthony untapped his Seeker, drew the card for his supposed turn, and attacked Nelson with Seeker again.

At this time Nelson was wondering why he was attacked again before he could even play anything on his turn, and soon after he realized that Anthony had misunderstood the game state. Both player called judge.

After your investigation, you found out that besides the “wave of hand”, both player didn't communicate about the game state at all. Anthony admitted that it's Nelson's wave of hand lead him into thinking that Nelson had passed his turn. He didn't even pay attention on whether Nelson drew for his turn. Nelson confirmed that he was not passing anything as he was just putting down his pen and confused by Anthony's line of play after that.

You also know the two players in person, who play against each other a lot, and have no intent of gaining undue advantage from this incident. Assume no Cheating is involved.

What's the infraction, and what's the fix (if any)?

Edited Hao Du (Feb. 9, 2015 01:35:51 AM)

No infraction. This is a communication failure (not a Communication Policy Violation). Backup to the start of Nelson's turn (untap the Seeker, put a random card from Antony's hand on the top of the library, tap the lands that Anthony untapped).

I agree with Florian, but I would keep the Seeker tapped as it attacked last turn ;)

I disagree. Anthony drew a card with no valid game reason for doing so. There was no immediately prior GRV or CPV (as Florian stated, this is a failure of communication which falls outside the criteria for CPV). Finally, the card draw was in no way confirmed by Nelson. Game Play Error - Drawing Extra Cards for Anthony, penalty of a Game Loss (barring the usual exception if the card was uniquely identifiable).

You should reiterate to Anthony that he should take greater care in determining whether his opponent has in fact passed the turn, and that verbal communication is always better than nonverbal in this regard.

EDIT: My mistake! I forgot that before drawing, Anthony untapped his creature, which is an immediately prior GRV. This therefore falls outside of Drawing Extra Cards, as Nelson could have intervened to prevent the draw when he saw Anthony untaping for no reason. The correct infraction is therefore GRV for Anthony, penalty of a Warning, and as head judge I would authorise a rewind to the beginning of Nelson's turn.

Edited Robert Hinrichsen (Feb. 9, 2015 06:07:02 AM)

I'm in the “oops, rewind and commuicate better please” camp if nothing else it promotes good communication rather than encouraging wavey hand and mumbling that means nothing but looks like passing the turn.

But for those that also say there was no GRV, was Anthony meant to untap the Seeker?

So, the original scenario says;
“Then Anthony untapped his Seeker, drew the card for his supposed turn, and attacked Nelson with Seeker again. ”

Just food for thought for all those saying DEC.