Hello and happy new year to all of you.
This situation came out during last FNM, played Caladesh draft, which I was attended as a player.
It is 8 player pod (I am not sitting at it); players are about to finish drafting booster #2. Adam explains that he had picked cards on two different piles; at a certain moment the player on his right took one of those piles thinking that they were for him to continue drafting, picked a card and past the rest to the next player who repeated the process and so the rest of the players. Adam has just 15 cards (he is missing13) while other players have from 29 to 30 cards (have from 1 to 2 extra); some players have already opened their 3rd booster but luckily haven´t pick a card yet.

This being a complicated thing to fix, I start educating players while I figure what could be a good / the best solution.
1st I ask players to put cards from the 3rd booster if opened (or the booster itself if not) on the table in front of them where they would not be mixed with picked cards. I ask them to leave cards to be selected from boosters #2 where they would not be mixed with others.
2nd I explain them how important it is to be patient and not open boosters till everybody has finished picking cards from the previous one. I also let them know that each player have some time to look at chosen cards before opening the next booster.
3rd I explain them how important it is to keep all the chosen cards on a single pile to avoid this problems.
4th I explain them that being patient and waiting till every player has picked a card before passing cards set on their hand is a good thing to do.

At this moment I have a solution so I explain it to the players before proceeding. I want to be sure that everybody understands it (I don´t speak the local language :-German- so we talk in English) and that every one is OK with what I propose.
1st All remaining cards to be picked from boosters #2 are for Adam. These are four cards all together.
2nd The other players will pass random cards to Adam, equal to the number of extra cards they have. Before doing this, they will set aside the first pick from both booster #1 and #2; I don´t think it would be fair any player loosing an expensive and/or good card randomly. I let players see what are the random cards to be past to Adam.
Adam claims that this way he will probably not get cards that he selected back, specially his first picks and suggests another solution: to pick two cards from each set while drafting boosters #3. I don´t think that involving in the solution cards not involved in the problem is a good idea and I explain so; players agree. I explain Adam that I can´t find a solution that would make happy everybody; also I believe that he is the main responsible of the problem because he didn´t keep cards on a single pile and if someone has to be less happy with my solution it should not be a player without responsibility. Adam agrees.
All players understand my proposition and accept it so we proceed. Players continue drafting and finally I go back to my pod.

Wow, this was long, I hope that not too much. Has something similar ever happened to you? Would you proceed the same way or would you have a different approach and/or solution? I am looking forward to read from you.
Thanks a lot.
Javier.

Edited Javier Martin Arjona (Jan. 1, 2017 05:18:50 PM)

Originally posted by Javier Martin Arjona:

2nd The other players will pass random cards to Adam, equal to the number of extra cards they have. Before doing this, they will set aside the first pick from both booster #1 and #2; I don´t think it would be fair any player loosing an expensive and/or good card randomly. I let players see what are the random cards to be past to Adam.

This seems very messy. If a player picked a build-around card and randomly passes it, that could disrupt his or her whole strategy. Beyond that, essentially giving this player random cards doesn't really make him or her whole - he or she will have as much difficulty as if he or she just added an unopened pack.

There's no solution that doesn't disrupt anyone, here. Either you disrupt everyone's experience or you disrupt one player's tournament. Given those options, I would have everyone just keep their cards and continue the draft as is.

I suspect the player who is short cards won't be wild about that solution, and the TO might want to offer some amount of refund, which is up to him or her. But let's remember that the player did this to him- or herself. The MTR instructs players to put their cards in a single pile, and even after not doing that, the player could have prevented it by not putting his or her picks near where he or she was passing.

I agree with your recommendations that people draft more carefully - they don't need to all draft at once, but they should pay some attention to what's going on around them to prevent this sort of thing.

I agree that this situation could have been avoided. At drafts I instruct my players to keep cards drafted in one pile and discourage players from passing more than one pack at a time. Players have a responsibility to not be careless. I also don't like the suggestion that the TO should be expected to compensate the player(s) at fault. If they choose to do so fine but I don't think it should be expected. I understand that at least one player will be unhappy with this but hopefully he and others will learn from the experience. As I say as I am also a TO and I might choose to compensate the player but that would be up to me depending on the circumstances. Don't forget any compensation would not fix this draft regardless as would only be used for customer service reasons.

Sent from my iPhone

On 2 Jan 2017, at 04:00, John Brian McCarthy <forum-32466-5d79@apps.magicjudges.org<mailto:forum-32466-5d79@apps.magicjudges.org>> wrote:


Javier Martin Arjona
2nd The other players will pass random cards to Adam, equal to the number of extra cards they have. Before doing this, they will set aside the first pick from both booster #1 and #2; I don?t think it would be fair any player loosing an expensive and/or good card randomly. I let players see what are the random cards to be past to Adam.

This seems very messy. If a player picked a build-around card and randomly passes it, that could disrupt his or her whole strategy. Beyond that, essentially giving this player random cards doesn't really make him or her whole - he or she will have as much difficulty as if he or she just added an unopened pack.

There's no solution that doesn't disrupt anyone, here. Either you disrupt everyone's experience or you disrupt one player's tournament. Given those options, I would have everyone just keep their cards and continue the draft as is.

I suspect the player who is short cards won't be wild about that solution, and the TO might want to offer some amount of refund, which is up to him or her. But let's remember that the player did this to him- or herself. The MTR instructs players to put their cards in a single pile, and even after not doing that, the player could have prevented it by not putting his or her picks near where he or she was passing.

I agree with your recommendations that people draft more carefully - they don't need to all draft at once, but they should pay some attention to what's going on around them to prevent this sort of thing.


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Javier, I feel like our heart is in the right place. You tried very hard to make things right and remedy the situation, and you did an excellent job in explaining to the players why things went wrong and taking steps to educate them.

However, I feel like your solution was over-thought. I echo the thoughts of my fellow judges here when I say that the other players' drafts should not have been disrupted (any more than already was). I also don't feel that the TO should be responsible for any sort of rebate or discount.

As John mentioned, the player being given random cards is no better off than with an unopened pack.

As such, my fix would have been to leave everything as is, and inform the offending player that they made a grave error in not keeping their picks in one clear, face-down pile away from passed packs. I would offer them the choice to purchase an addition pack and add it to their pool without drafting, at their own cost (as the mistake was theirs).