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Competitive REL » Post: Outside Assistance and the 'brief set of notes'

Outside Assistance and the 'brief set of notes'

April 21, 2019 06:18:54 AM [Original Post]

Leonardo da Luz
Judge (Level 3 (International Judge Program))

Brazil

Outside Assistance and the 'brief set of notes'

Hello everyone!

I have an interesting scenario that came to me IRL on MagicFest São Paulo that I would like to discuss. Here are the details:

On a Last Chance Trials, I passed by a player that was about to start their second game and saw a bunch of words in their notes. I asked them to see those notes, and they gave me while I instructed them to keep playing. This player was playing modern Humans, and those notes contained the usual “sideboard plan” with a few extras, example:

Hardened Scales:
+4 ‘some card’
-4 ‘some other card’
Name: Arcbound Ravager / Inkmoth Nexus

The point here is: we all know it is common and acceptable to write down the ‘cards to add and cards to remove’ as a reminder for each match up. But, as far as what card should be named to Meddling Mage (in this particular case), can this be considered strategical advice obtained from an external source? The main point in IPG that makes me think about this is under OA:

“Tournaments test the skill of a player, not their ability to follow external advice or directions. Any strategy advice, play advice, or construction advice from an external source is considered outside assistance.”

I described my thoughts to another Level 2 and a Level 3 on site to be sure if we are dealing with some kind of OA, and they both agree that this could definitely be OA, and then I delivered the infraction. The player agreed, but also asked: “What is the difference between the sideboard plan and those kind of notes?”. My point was that the sideboard plan is mostly used as a reminder, and if you wrote information that is giving you strategic advice about your opponent's deck before matches, you are not particularly using your own experience in Magic to play the game.

This first came to my mind since I learned from another judge in another event that information about your opponent's deck can easily be considered OA when present in your notes. This other case was that the player had not only information about what they were siding in and out, but also what their opponent could be siding in and out in each match up.

Nonetheless, I still came back home and thought about the situation, where I searched for some similar cases and also discussed with our fellow judges to see if we are in the same line of thought. So here we are now, what are your thoughts about those situations and what do we consider viable to have in your brief set of notes?

April 21, 2019 09:04:36 AM [Marked as Accepted Answer]

Aaron Henner
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy))

USA - Pacific Northwest

Outside Assistance and the 'brief set of notes'

In short: Not OA

Originally posted by MTR 2.11:

Players are allowed to take written notes during a match and may refer to those notes while that match is in
progress. At the beginning of a match, each player’s note sheet must be empty and must remain visible throughout
the match. Players do not have to explain or reveal notes to other players. Judges may ask to see a player’s notes
and/or request that the player explain their notes.

Players may not refer to other notes, including notes from previous matches, during games.

Between games, players may refer to a brief set of notes made before the match. They are not required to reveal
these notes to their opponents. These notes must be removed from the play area before the beginning of the next
game. Excessive quantities of notes (more than a sheet or two) are not allowed and may be penalized as slow
play.

While it is common for players to have ‘sideboarding notes’, that isn't how the MTR describes it. The MTR mentions no restrictions on the types of notes allowed between games. The only restriction is based on physical restrictions of time and space (players can't spend 30 minutes leafing through 500 pages of notes, as that would damage the tournament).

This is all, of course, for between games. During a game if a player referred to those notes, then yes that would be OA. It would also be OA if the notes were just ‘what did I sideboard in/out’.

Edited Aaron Henner (April 21, 2019 09:04:55 AM)

April 21, 2019 09:14:37 AM

Milan Majerčík
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy)), Scorekeeper

Europe - Central

Outside Assistance and the 'brief set of notes'

As Aaron pointed out, any notes which were made before the game begun, most be removed from the play area. Strategic notes and sideboard guides all fall into the definition.

So, if the players play a game while one of them has a paper available with

Originally posted by Leonardo da Luz:

Hardened Scales:
+4 ‘some card’
-4 ‘some other card’
Name: Arcbound Ravager / Inkmoth Nexus

, it is a clear outside assistance (in my opinion).

That is why players should start each game with a clean lifepad.

M.

April 21, 2019 09:48:56 AM

Aaron Henner
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy))

USA - Pacific Northwest

Outside Assistance and the 'brief set of notes'

Originally posted by Leonardo da Luz:

passed by a player that was about to start their second game

There is some ambiguity here of exactly when this was discovered. Sideboarding? Post-sideboarding, shuffling? Post-presentation of their decks? I was making an assumption that it was prior to presentation. And regardless: my main point is that the answer of OA vs not-OA isn't affected at all by whether the notes were just +cards/-cards, or if the notes were +cards/-cards/what-to-name-with-pithing-needle.

Edited Aaron Henner (April 21, 2019 09:49:54 AM)

April 21, 2019 10:49:52 AM

Scott Marshall
Forum Moderator
Judge (Level 4 (Judge Foundry)), Hall of Fame

USA - Southwest

Outside Assistance and the 'brief set of notes'

I marked Aaron's initial answer as the accepted answer; he's correct about the content of the notes being irrelevant, it's when the notes are used by the player that matters.

So, as Aaron noted, if the player is looking at the notes between games, it's fine; if it's during a game, that'd be Outside Assistance.

d:^D

April 21, 2019 11:51:32 AM

John Brian McCarthy
Forum Moderator
Judge (Level 5 (Judge Foundry))

USA - Midatlantic

Outside Assistance and the 'brief set of notes'

Originally posted by Milan Majerčík:

That is why players should start each game with a clean lifepad.

Milan, it's important to note that the MTR requires players to begin each match with a clean life pad, not each game. I wouldn't see any problem with a player, after consulting sideboard notes, writing down “Name inkmoth” on a pad as a reminder for game 2.

April 21, 2019 01:26:49 PM

Leonardo da Luz
Judge (Level 3 (International Judge Program))

Brazil

Outside Assistance and the 'brief set of notes'

Cool, that makes things very clear. So, we all agree that we don't care what's written in their notes made before matches, only when it was used, right?
To be more clear, the player was looking at those notes while sideboarding, therefore in between games. There was no infraction of space and time. I should've make it more clear when writting the scenario, sorry for that. :P

April 21, 2019 04:20:05 PM

Brook Gardner-Durbin
Judge (Level 5 (Judge Foundry))

USA - Great Lakes

Outside Assistance and the 'brief set of notes'

Leonardo, that's right - it doesn't matter what the notes are. “Sideboard in 3 Bolt out 3 Goyf” is the same as “Name Bolt with Meddling Mage.”

This is because one of the IPG definitions of OA is “During a game, refers to notes (other than Oracle™ pages) made before the official beginning of the current match” – note it does not say “refers to notes about how to sideboard” or “refers to notes about (any other specific thing).”

If we started allowing notes of one kind but disallowing notes of some other kind, players might start trying to make their notes look like something else, and trying to sort that out would be a big headache.

Also, it's worth mentioning here that if this was not between games, if it was during an active game, the penalty would not be the usual Match Loss for OA - there is a downgrade that says
Originally posted by IPG:

“Downgrade: If the information acquired is information that the player would have access to between games, the penalty is a Game Loss.”
The player would be allowed to look at their notes between games, so looking at them during a game is not a match loss.

Edited Brook Gardner-Durbin (April 21, 2019 04:25:02 PM)

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