Welcome back to the Knowledge Pool once again, this week we have a Bronze level scenario, so judges who have judged more than a couple Competitive REL events should wait until after their FNM before they reply.

You're the Head Judge of a Standard PPTQ. While verifying that you have all the lists, you notice that Percy's list has “2x Ajani” on it. You go to Percy's match and notice that he has one Ajani Unyielding in his graveyard, and another in his hand. What do you do?

I believe that although Ajani Unyielding is the Ajani printed in the set, since there is also Ajani, Valiant Protector in the standard legal duel decks then it would be a D/DLP. I've come to this conclusion after consulting with the IPG. The IPG says that truncation of major storyline characters is fine, as long as it's the only character with the name in the format. So while Ajani is a major character, there are two standard legal Ajanis.

Not to mention, Oath of Ajani.. but otherwise, I concur with Peter above - this would be a D/DLP. The problem is, that ambiguous name usage is specifically identified as a place where a person could take advantage (aka cheat), so I would probably ask the player to step away from the table and ask them to confirm which Ajanis are supposed to be listed on the decklist. If they confirm the ones we saw, and we investigate and otherwise rule out cheating, then I would advise the player that it's a D/DLP and advise that the game loss penalty would be issued at the beginning of the next round, as this was not found during an actual deck check but during review of deck lists.

Edited Bernie Hoelschen (Jan. 28, 2017 07:21:48 AM)

This is covered by TE - D/DLP. The penalty is a game loss. The decklist should be altered to reflect the actual content of the deck.

Edited Michiel Van den Bussche (Jan. 29, 2017 04:32:12 AM)

Thanks for everyone participating in this week's scenario. Peter Calomeris was first to chime in identifying a key piece of information: there is more than one Ajani in standard!

Although players are allowed to truncate names of Legendary or Planeswalker characters, they can only do so if there is only one instance of that character in the format they are playing. Ajani, however, shows up twice in Standard: once as Ajani Unyielding, and once as Ajani, Valiant Protector in the Planeswalker Deck. Therefore, Percy has committed a Deck / Decklist Problem, and receives a Game Loss.

Because this decklist error was not discovered during a deck check, the penalty should not be applied until the beginning of the next round. Wait until Percy's match is finished, then explain the penalty, and update his decklist to match his deck, being sure to check for any other errors as well. The penalty will be enforced at the start of Percy's next match.