I just read again the Infraction Procedure Guide and saw something that catched my eye. I don't if this example for USC: Stalling was there all the time and I just failed to see it or if it in fact is new:

Due to technical issues with opening the pdf of the MIPG I can't just copy-paste it, but the example was about a player intentionally taking mulligans to eat up time on the clock.

I understand how this is considered stalling, but how exactly do you identify this? In my eyes, this is a bit contrary to how judges are identifying the other infractions: They (almost?) never take into account questions of in-game strategy. Are judges really trying to evaluate if that mulligan was a “good mulligan” in terms of winning a game? If not, how do you differentiate honest mulligans from “stall-mulligans”?

As a player, I sometimes had an opponent taking multiple mulligans while time was about to run out, and I never thought about calling a judge because I didn't know there was a rule against taking unreasonable mulligans.

The only “obvious” stall-mulligan I can think of would be going down to 0 cards, because a hand of 1 is almost always better than a hand of 0, but there may be exceptions to the rule, i.e. if the one card in the hand is a card with miracle.

Edited Jasper König (Jan. 6, 2017 09:25:07 AM)

Originally posted by Jasper König:

Due to technical issues with opening the pdf of the MIPG I can't just copy-paste it, but the example was about a player intentionally taking mulligans to eat up time on the clock.

Here it is:

Originally posted by IPG 4.7:

A player intentionally mulligans slowly before the third game in an attempt to make it
harder for his opponent to win in time.

Note that this specifically says mulligans slowly. Slowly is the key word, since Stalling is defined as " player intentionally plays slowly…“, and Slow Play as ”…takes longer than is reasonably required…". Mulliganing to 1 may be Slow Play or Stalling if you do it slowly, otherwise it's just a game action that you're taking at a reasonable pace. Same for pile shuffling, as long as you only do it once.

It's not the decision to mulligan, it's the decision to do it slowly, and the intention of eating time so that your opponent is less likely to win.

I really failed to see the word ‘slowly’. That's what I get for not having the patience to get to my home computer… ;) Thanks!