Hi guys! It is time for our next installment of Knowledge Pool. Our scenario today is Silver level, so L2+ judges should please wait until Saturday to give their thoughts.

The blog post for this scenario is here.

So, here we go!

You are the only judge at a Standard PPTQ. You get called over to a match. On the board, Andrew has a Zurgo Bellstriker and Nadine has two face down creatures. Andrew has just attacked with his Zurgo Bellstriker and Nadine was thinking about blocking. While looking at her morphs, Nadine noticed that the one she played last turn is in fact a Whisperwood Elemental. She is the one who called you over. She is really apologetic about the situation and she shows you that she has a Deathmist Raptor in hand, which she thought she had played as a morph. The Raptor is the only morph-card in her hand. You ask the players when the morph was played, and they agree it was at the end of Nadine’s last turn. You believe it was an honest mistake and rule out Cheating. What is your ruling?

From the IPG, 2.5–Game Rule Violation:

If a face-down card cast using a morph ability is discovered during the game to not have a morph ability, the penalty is a Game Loss. If the player has a card with a morph ability in hand, has not added cards to his or her hand since casting the card found in violation, and has discovered the error themselves, the upgrade does not apply and the card may be swapped for the one in hand.

Double-check to make sure that Nadine has not added any cards to her hand since she played the morph. If she hasn't, then the upgrade for failing to reveal/illegally playing a morph doesn't apply here, since Nadine discovered the error and has the Raptor in hand. Issue Nadine a GPE-Game Rule Violation and a Warning. Nadine may swap the face-down for the Raptor. Since there was no way for Andrew to have possibly “allowed” Nadine to commit the GRV (since the face-down's identity is hidden information), he receives no penalty. Remind Nadine to play more carefully.

If Nadine has added cards to her hand since playing the morph for whatever crazy reason, the upgrade still applies–all three conditions must be fulfilled for the upgrade to not occur. Issue her the GPE-GRV and the Game Loss. Remind Nadine to play more carefully.

Nadine has played a non-morph card as a morph, which the game rules do not allow her to do. She has committed a Game Play Error - Game Rule Violation. Andrew had no way of knowing whether Nadine's actions were legal, so he has not committed Failure to Maintain Game State.

This is the sort of error that used to fall under the “Errors an opponent cannot verify the legality of” upgrade. That upgrade has now been narrowed to just deal specifically with face-down non-morph cards, exactly the situation at hand. The same upgrade also allows for a specific exception - the controlling player discovered the error, before adding more cards to their hand, and they have a morph card in hand.

So, fortunately for Nadine, we don't need to upgrade to a Game Loss here. Confirm that since the end of her turn and attacks beginning, she hasn't drawn any cards, then swap the Deathmist Raptor for the Whisperwood Elemental, and continue the game. She'll receive a warning.

Hey guys and thanks for participating. Like you have already stated, as the Raptor is the only morph-card in hand, it is pretty clear what Nadine's intent was. It has been less then a turn since the morph was cast, and if Nadine has not drawn a card after casting the morph, we can swap the Whisperwood for the Raptor. Good catch on the need to make sure this is the case. The penalty is indeed a Game Rule Violation - Warning for Nadine and no penalty for Andrew.
Thanks for playing! Please come back for our next installment of Knowledge Pool.