Welcome to a fresh, well-preserved week of the Knowledge Pool. This week we have a Bronze scenario, so we have our google form back up and ready to accept your responses.

Arthur and Neil are playing in a Modern PPTQ. At the end of Arthur's turn, Neil taps out to cast Peer Through Depths. Arthur responds with Dispel. Neil responds with Pact of Negation. Arthur thinks for a moment, then casts Spell Pierce.

Neil pauses, says “Ah, nuts…” then puts his spells in his graveyard. Arthur does the same.

Neil untaps and draws for his turn.

Arthur says, “You didn't pay for Pact.”
Neil replies, “You Spell Pierced it.”
“No, I Pierced the Peer Through Depths.”
"Judge!”

What do you do?

Please submit your responses here: https://goo.gl/forms/8gNSnVlDI0r9E8Yq1

Edited Joe Klopchic (Oct. 18, 2017 02:00:25 PM)

Thanks everyone for the responses this week, we got quite a few excellent answers. I'll leave you with Mitchell Nitz's response, as it covers everything I wanted to mention.

Originally posted by Mitchell Nitz:

What happened here is a clear cut case of Tournament Shortcuts as laid out in MTR 4.2: “A player who casts a spell or activates an ability that targets an object on the stack is assumed to target the legal spell closest to the top of the stack unless the player specifies otherwise.”

Since Arthur didn't state he was targeting Peer Through Depths with Spell pierce, he is assumed to be targeting Pact of Negation as per MTR 4.2. Nothing happened that would result in a warning or back-up, educate the players about the Tournament Shortcut and the need to be clear in communicating intended game actions, and have the players continue.