This happened at a Comp REL Modern event I was judging today.

At the beginning of the game player A mulliganed. After both players were done resolving mulligans, player A scryed. Satisfied with the resolution of his scry, he says “Go.” Player N then proceeds to draw for his turn. A says he didn't mean to pass his turn and I am called.

How would you rule? What if anything is the fix?

“Go” is an established shortcut in the MTR, so AP has passed their turn to NAP.

No Game Rules Violation or CPV has occurred, so backing up would be a deviation. I think sticking to policy is the best answer here.

I presume that pA said “go” because he wanted to make sure that pN still did his scry (because both did a mulligan, right?), before he would start his turn (by presumably dropping a land). I ran into similar but during Regular, but thought about the implication for Competitive.

I think ruling “go” as shortcut before a game has started is a dangerous precedent. I read the MTR and it does not make the distinction between statements said before a game or to Spectators, but such a distinction could be something to consider.

“Yeah go”, in reply to a spectator who asks if he needs to refill the meter of the car should not be interpreted as a “go”
“Go” (ahead and do your scry, before I start the game up) should also not be considered as a “go”

At least that is my thoughts.

I guess if I would have been there that I would take pA apart, ask him why he said go, if he answers me without blinking “well because I wanted my opponent to scry so that I could start”, I would have probably ruled that there was a communication error, given a warning (for communication) so that it's in the books for pA, but would backup:

“A backup may be considered in cases where a player has clearly acted upon incorrect information provided to him or
her by his or her opponent. The backup should be to the point of the action, not the erroneous communication.”

So I would back-up the draw of pN, not let him scry and the game starts. If pN (most likely) would now argue that he wants to scry I would say that by starting his turn he has shown that he forgot about it and that the new policy regarding scries (also the one at the beginning of the game) presumes he left it on top. The back-up details quoted above also support this!

Edited Niki Lin (Oct. 19, 2015 08:36:46 AM)

Originally posted by Niki Lin:

I presume that pA said “go” because he wanted to make sure that pN still did his scry (because both did a mulligan, right?), before he would start his turn (by presumably dropping a land). I ran into similar but during Regular, but thought about the implication for Competitive.

Scenario states only AP mulliganed.

Originally posted by Niki Lin:

I think ruling “go” as shortcut before a game has started is a dangerous precedent.

If mulligans are complete, aren't we in AP's mainphase 1?

Originally posted by Niki Lin:

“Yeah go”, in reply to a spectator who asks if he needs to refill the meter of the car should not be interpreted as a “go”
“Go” (ahead and do your scry, before I start the game up) should also not be considered as a “go”

You are adding things to the scenario that aren't there, and don't help solve the problem at hand.

Jeff, I do have the feeling both players mulliganed as the original poster said: “After both players were done resolving mulligans”

If indeed only pA (and not pN) mulligans than nothing I said makes sense ;)

Edited Niki Lin (Oct. 19, 2015 09:35:59 AM)

Sorry for not being more clear. In this situation. Only Ap mulliganed.

If that is the case: I agree with Jeff, there is no infraction, a back-up is not considered…

First of all, I think I would have talked to the players. What did A mean with this “Go” statement? It seems weird: A knows N keeps their initial hand, so there's no need to ask them to do something. The only thing I could imagine at the moment is “Alright, I'm ready to play my first turn”, which still seems weird.
Next, why does N think this “Go” means passing the turn? It is not super common in Modern to skip the very first turn. Why didn't such weird play raise questions?
Generally I disagree with “There's no infraction, no reason to back up” stance. Sometimes it makes sense to back up when players miscommunicate. There's an interesting article Kevin wrote on the topic: http://blogs.magicjudges.org/whatsupdocs/2015/09/30/miscommunication-you-need-to-make-a-decision/.

In this situation I can't make a strong decision based on information I have. It looks super weird. I would have made a decision based on what players told me.

Originally posted by Alexey Chernyshov:

why does N think this “Go” means passing the turn? It is not super common in Modern to skip the very first turn. Why didn't such weird play raise questions?

It is (or rather was) super common in Standard for the last two years. Thanks to the Scry lands from Theros block, many games of standard started off with a a scryland, a scry, and a “go”. So much so that people's brains have made a mental shortcut along the lines of “I have now finished my scry, so my turn is over”. I've found myself almost saying “go” at least once after resolving my mulligan scry.

So as far as I can see, nobody has broken any rules. It sucks, but it's an unfortunate side effect of the new rules coming in just as the Scry lands rotate out of Standard.

Originally posted by Mark Mc Govern:

Alexey Chernyshov
why does N think this “Go” means passing the turn? It is not super common in Modern to skip the very first turn. Why didn't such weird play raise questions?

It is (or rather was) super common in Standard for the last two years. Thanks to the Scry lands from Theros block, many games of standard started off with a a scryland, a scry, and a “go”. So much so that people's brains have made a mental shortcut along the lines of “I have now finished my scry, so my turn is over”. I've found myself almost saying “go” at least once after resolving my mulligan scry.

I can see it happening. Well, if it was the case, I agree with “no infraction, no backup” ruling.

Edited Alexey Chernyshov (Oct. 19, 2015 10:49:40 AM)

Magic shouldn't be a “gotcha”. I don't think holding a player to a mis-speak saying go to mean I've completed my scry before starting my turn is appropriate.

A player saying Go thinking they'd get priority at the end of their turn and wanting to backup when their opponent starts un-tapping is a “play” mistake and I would hold them to the shortcut. A player mis-speaking is just that and I wouldn't allow the opponent to get essentially a free turn based upon this.

Originally posted by Mark Brown:

Magic shouldn't be a “gotcha”. I don't think holding a player to a mis-speak saying go to mean I've completed my scry before starting my turn is appropriate.

A player saying Go thinking they'd get priority at the end of their turn and wanting to backup when their opponent starts un-tapping is a “play” mistake and I would hold them to the shortcut. A player mis-speaking is just that and I wouldn't allow the opponent to get essentially a free turn based upon this.

While I most certainly agree that erroneous F6s should not happen like this on turn one, it is hard to fix the mistake. Since there are no infraction it is hard to fix the problem. A card was drawn, so this must be returned to the top of the deck, but the player kept his hand based on the 7 he saw to begin with. Let's say that we are playing Legacy and the player only kept because he had Force + Blue card. If we put one of those pieces back we could greatly disadvantage him for something that was clearly not his fault.

I don't see any infraction here, and the game state has definitely advanced enough such that there would need to be an infraction for us to consider backing up. Saying something accidental is unfortunate, but legal, and the opponent acted on it. I don't think this is significant or exceptional, so we should not deviate.

Beisdes, I'm not sure if we can back up, here (just imagine if AP has a Gitaxian Probe, Thoughtscour, Inquisition of Kozilek, or Thoughtseize in hand - how comfortable are you backing up NAP's draw?).

Varience dictates there will be games of competitive Magic where a player will scry after mulliganing and say “Go” without taking another game action. That players opponent can't tell the difference between this and OP's situation. Unless we want to start expecting players to confirm with their opponents when they pass after not taking a game action, I don't see how we can rule this in any way other than allowing NAP to continue their turn.

I actually would prefer players to confirm, especially when doing nothing turn 1 is not a usual expectation.