Hi,

I’m a level 1 judge & also a store owner.

During a Modern FNM, the Player A has a Chalice of the Void with 1 charge counter then he attempted to cast Expedition Map, he put it in the battlefield then his opponent pointed the chalice, I was sitting beside opponent & said that the Map will be countered. Player A then said “It’s a legal move if opponent doesn’t react.” He attempted to gain advantage. I could understand if he forgot about the chalice but he didn’t & tried to defend himself.

He also does “mana weaving”, I heard this from the other players & I saw it myself when we were paired.

Not sure if this is related but he also borrow cards from players & never return them. He also sold the borrowed cards. I got like 4 players who reported me this. He has a bad reputation with this even before he started mtg (he played yugioh before).

What do I do with this player?

If the player believes he is allowed to ignore his own Chalice, then Regular REL tells us to educate him. Same if he believes he is allowed to mana weave without adequately shuffling.

(He is not allowed to ignore his own Chalice - he can cast spells, but he can't actually resolve those spells, or try to deceive his opponent into thinking that the spells are going to resolve.)

If the player is aware that these actions are illegal, and does them anyway, intending to gain an advantage, the player should be Disqualified by the Head Judge (or Tournament Organizer if there is no HJ), and the disqualification should be reported to https://apps.magicjudges.org/investigations/

Borrowing cards and not returning them is a legal matter, not a judge issue.

Chalice: If he doesn't know that it's his trigger, which might be reasonable if he thinks that the opponent must see it, it's not cheating until you tell him and he does it again as cheating needs the intent to gain an (perceived) advantage and the knowledge that something is against the rules.

Mana Weaving: At regular REL I just talk to people doing it. I ask why they do it, what they expect to gain from it and then tell them that it's cheating if they don't shuffle enough to offset any order they brought into their deck by “mana weave” or that it's slow play as it takes time with no effect (if the properly randomize).

Borrowing and never returning. To me that sounds like an euphemism for stealing and theft is a serious issue. If they steal during an event, they need to be DQed, if they steal regularly outside of events, I'd ban them from my store, but I'm no store owner, but I think it's more valuable to provide a safe location for players than to have the money from that single guy.

Ok, thanks for the quick reply.

Originally posted by Christian Gienger:

To me that sounds like an euphemism for stealing and theft is a serious issue.

While that's a true statement, it's important to distinguish between Unsporting Conduct - Theft of Tournament Materials, and a theft that happens to occur during or in connection with a tournament.

This example is the latter - what I'll call an “incidental theft”. Since this player is borrowing cards that they aren't returning, they're violating common decency (and most likely, local law?) - but even though those cards might be used in a tournament, it's not Tournament Materials. While the IPG is more specific in that definition than what we do for Regular REL, the concept still holds.

And here's the key part of the concept: some things are outside of a Judge's jurisdiction. We educate and enforce the rules of the game, not the rules of society.

As a store owner, you have the right to ban anyone you want from your store. I've heard players insist that Wizards requires you to let them play in your events - that's simply not true. Wizards wants to help you sell Magic cards, they don't want to tell you how to run your business. Even if you're hosting an RPTQ, and a player you banned is qualified to play in that RPTQ, you do not have to let them in your store.

As others have noted, you can't ignore your own triggers - but you might not know that, the first time. The Chalice situation you described might not be Cheating … the first time.

Mana weaving itself is not illegal, unless it's accomplished via multiple pile “shuffles” (not really shuffles). The rules only allow one pile shuffle per game, per player. Anything beyond that, we educate and instruct them not to repeat the action.
Failing to shuffle thoroughly and effectively after mana weaving is an infraction in the IPG, and an unwanted behavior at Regular REL. Mana weaving followed by a couple half-hearted insert shuffles, then present the deck? Educate the player - and, at Comp/Pro REL, Warning for Tournament Error - Insufficient Shuffling. It's important to assess and record that infraction, as a repeat that same day will result in an upgrade to Game Loss.

d:^D