Hello all!

At yesterday's pre-release, I encountered an interesting situation I wanted to share.

Azmodan has just cast Anticipate, and touches the three cards from Anticipate to the rest of his hand. His opponent, Nazeebo, calls a judge. When you get to the table, Azmodan has three cards in his right hand, and the rest of his hand (of cards) in his left hand.

How do you proceed? What fix would you apply here? Assume there's no foul play.

(I'm omitting/simplifying many details about this situation. If there's information you want to know that would impact your ruling, feel free to explain what questions you would ask, and what you would do based on the different answers.)

It's Regular REL, and a prerelease to boot. Explain to Azmodan how he should be more careful, and why. No penalties, no fix, not even a frowny face when giving the explanation. Unless Nazeebo is being rude/awkward, that seems all.

In REL regular,

when the cards tuched the cards in hand you (as judge) can not identify the cards which are added - so you only can draw back the spell with 3 random cards from his/her actual hand….

in Comp. REL,

In my oppinion it will be a Drawin extra cards/GL becaus you not realy can fix it save….

i`m looking forward for the right answere =)

I'm in James' camp here. It's a pre-release. If it touched so barely that the only information is “they touched” (as opposed to “they overlapped” or something similar), then I think it's clear which cards are which. Education is the key here.

I would probably take the temperament of the players into account in determining how to respond, but assuming all other things equal, I'd go with James Winward-Stuart's response and explain to A how to avoid such situations in the future.

“Hey, Azmodan. You should be careful not to put the cards you're looking at with Anticipate together with the other cards in your hand. Your opponents could think you're trying to secretly switch cards between what's already in your hand and the other three you're looking at.”

“It's a good practice to put the cards in your hand down when you're looking at cards that are from the top of your library. You're always allowed to take a look at your hand again if it can help you decide what to keep with Anticipate but be careful that you don't let the cards from your library touch the cards from your hand.”

“Are all those three card in your right hand the ones from Anticipate? They are? Okay, good. Keep on playing, guys? And good luck.”

(Edit: Between Azmodan answering my question and me saying ‘Keep on playing guys…’, I would wait at the table until Azmodan finished resolving his Anticipate. After he does, I would nod my head and smile to show he played the card properly and then I would continue saying the rest of my sentence and leave the table.)

Edited Eric Paré (March 23, 2015 09:07:59 PM)

Originally posted by Alexandra Yang:

I would probably take the temperament of the players into account in determining how to respond

This seems dangerous to me, as it sends a signal to the players: be loud and rude and you will get the judge on your side! Or am I misinterpreting your post?

I love how carefully Eric Paré explains not only the solution, but also how to prevent those errors in the future. That's the kind of customer service I like to deliver, especially at prereleases!