Welcome to another edition of the Knowledge Pool! This scenario is Bronze, which is aimed primarily at L0s and L1s. Others, please wait to give the intended audience a chance to respond.

You can find the blog post here!

Here is the scenario:

At a Sealed GPT, Naomi taps out to cast Prime Speaker Zegana, draws 6 cards from her triggered ability, then passes the turn. On Allen's turn, he activates Ral Zarek's -7 ability, and takes FIVE (!!) extra turns. During those turns, he draws several cards, casts several spells, destroys several creatures, and attacks multiple times. Just as he's about to pass back to Naomi, he asks “How many cards in your hand?”

Naomi looks at her hand and says “Oh… crap. I've got 8 cards in hand. I must've forgotten to discard when my turn ended.” They call you over. What do you do?

I would go for a GPE - GRV ruling and issue a Warning to Naomi, to whom I ask to choose and discard a card from her hand. At the same time, I would go for a GPE - FtMGS ruling and issue a Warning to Allen, as he had to catch the issue in a reasonable time frame after Naomi passed her last turn.

We can be sure that the issue has not disrupted the game flow nor gained an advantage for Naomi, since she was tapped-out and unable to respond while Allen was happily playing six consecutive turns. There is no need to think about a rollback to be authorized by the HJ, but if I suspect Naomi had forgotten this on purpose, I would investigate.

This is a Game Rule Violation infraction for Naomi and a F2MGS infraction for Allen. Both players get warnings. So much has happened from the time Naomi passed the turn with 8 cards in hand to when the error was noticed so backing up would be impossible without corrupting the game. Fortunately the additional remedies in section 2.5 of the IPG says we're allowed to apply a partial fix to the game by making Naomi choose and discard the extra card in her hand. Remind both players to pay closer attention to the game state, issue a time extension for the investigation, and instruct them to continue playing from the point where the error was caught.

Hi judges! Looks like this one was pretty easy, eh?

Naomi has committed a Game Play Error - Game Rule Violation, for not discarding down to her maximum hand size at the end of her turn. Allen has committed Game Play Error - Failure to Maintain Game State, for not pointing out Naomi's error. Issue them both a Warning, and instruct Naomi to discard a card now.

But it's been five turns! Isn't it too late?

Nope! Unlike other remedies, which specify that it must be within a turn of the error, the partial fix that we should apply here does not have that clause. Under the Additional Remedy section of the Game Rule Violation entry in the IPG: "If a player forgot to discard or return cards from their hand to another zone, that player does so.“ Because there is no specific duration, we apply this fix whenever we catch the mistake, regardless of how long it's been since the mistake occurred.

Great job to Stefano Ferrari and Eric Paré for hitting the key points! Tune in tomorrow for another sweet, sweet Knowledge Pool Scenario!

Edited Josh Stansfield (July 9, 2013 10:48:23 PM)