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Knowledge Pool Scenarios » Post: Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

Aug. 15, 2014 01:31:33 PM

Dan Collins
Forum Moderator
Judge (Level 5 (Judge Foundry))

USA - Northeast

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

Originally posted by Pi Fisher:

I agree with John Trout that the HJ will have to decide if this falls under “some infractions that have a higher probability for a player to gain advantage.” I would not feel comfortable giving out more than GPE-GRV Warning to Nissa without doing an investigation and involving the HJ.

For the purposes of Knowledge Pool, assume that you are the HJ and assume no Cheating. What would you need to know in order to give something other than a Warning, and what infraction would that be?

Aug. 15, 2014 05:54:43 PM

Vincent Roscioli
Judge (Uncertified)

USA - Midatlantic

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

Originally posted by Chase Culpon:

Sebastian, to your point–if improperly resolving Xathrid Necromancer's trigger or Fleshmad Steed's trigger caused irreversible damage to the game state, I would give out a GRV.

Does the definition of GPE-GRV depend on the amount of damage done to the game state? That is, should whether or not something is a GRV be dictated by the impact the error has on the game (according to the IPG)?

Aug. 15, 2014 06:26:31 PM

Topher Hickman
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy))

USA - Midatlantic

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

It's important not to lose the forest for the trees. Judges are there to improve the quality of the event. In an imaginary world where there's a judge at every match and issuing penalties for every infraction, we're giving out a LOT of penalties, and being more of a nuisance than an aid. If I'm standing next to a match where an infraction technically occurs, but the players are able to quickly fix it effectively, there's no need for me to step in and “be that guy.”

The world where a player calls a judge for his opponent dropping a zombie token on the board before he's responded to the Xathrid Necromancer trigger or tapped his Fleshmad Steed before the trigger's correctly played just isn't this one. Those players would fix it themselves, because the fix is obvious and there's no damage to the game state.

This scenario is bad feels all around. This is one of those calls that feels awful for the “victim” and for the judge.

Aug. 16, 2014 03:26:56 PM

Alan Peng
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy))

Australia and New Zealand

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

Reading this knowledge tree scenario I am reminded of the exact same situation I came across last year at GP Sydney.

I initially gave the GRV-warning, and leaving the gamestate as is. It was appealed, and the warning was upgraded to a game loss as it turned into an error the opponent cannot verify the legality of.

Aug. 16, 2014 04:37:59 PM

Benjamin Bandelow
Judge (Uncertified)

German-speaking countries

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

Way late here, but without reading much of the posts I'd be going for an investigation for USC - Major (Cheating) and, assuming that I find that Nissa to not have done this intentionally somehow (something that I find myself doubting in this particular scenario, but whatever) and that Ajani was indeed not given any time to respond, I'd give Nissa a GPE - GRV with the associated… upgraded warning into a game loss due to high potential for abuse.

Ajani did nothing wrong and receives no penalties.

Aug. 16, 2014 04:42:40 PM

Chris Nowak
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy))

USA - Midatlantic

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

Originally posted by Benjamin Bandelow:

Way late here, but without reading much of the posts I'd be going for an investigation for USC - Major (Cheating) and, assuming that I find that Nissa to not have done this intentionally somehow (something that I find myself doubting in this particular scenario, but whatever) and that Ajani was indeed not given any time to respond, I'd give Nissa a GPE - GRV with the associated… upgraded warning into a game loss due to high potential for abuse.

Ajani did nothing wrong and receives no penalties.

Do we get to upgrade just for high potential of abuse?

Aug. 17, 2014 01:05:28 AM

Tobias Rolle
Judge (Uncertified)

German-speaking countries

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

Originally posted by Alan Peng:

It was appealed, and the warning was upgraded to a game loss as it turned into an error the opponent cannot verify the legality of.
I'm not a fan of that, to be honest. It's like forcing the Game Loss and trying to find an infraction for it, that doesn't exist.

Aug. 17, 2014 04:15:12 AM

Markus Dietrich
Judge (Level 2 (International Judge Program))

German-speaking countries

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

Originally posted by Alan Peng:

Reading this knowledge tree scenario I am reminded of the exact same situation I came across last year at GP Sydney.

I initially gave the GRV-warning, and leaving the gamestate as is. It was appealed, and the warning was upgraded to a game loss as it turned into an error the opponent cannot verify the legality of.

I'm really curious about this. Until now I thought the upgrade mentioned in the IPG is for everything that was Failure to Reveal before and is only applicable if there is any hidden information in a position were it is not clearly identifiable. This does not seem to be the case here, because Emrakul enters the graveyard which is a open zone. Or was ‘Nissa’ to fast for ‘Ajani’ to even notice the Emrakul in that scenario?

Aug. 17, 2014 04:02:13 PM

Alan Peng
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy))

Australia and New Zealand

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

I can't quite remember what the exact details were, but I'd assume it would have been hard to verify the number/types of cards that should have been in the graveyard before shuffling them in.

Additionally, this may create a situation where a player can quickly start shuffling their cards in and only get off with a warning (obligatory following an investigation, etc.), which has a higher potential for abuse. My opinion.

Aug. 17, 2014 06:22:47 PM

Thomas Ludwig
Judge (Uncertified)

German-speaking countries

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

Upgrading the Warning here feels wrong. The penalties in the IPG are set to match the given mistake.

The mistake was resolving a Trigger w/o the Opponent passing priority. If there was no cheating involved, this should result in a warning.

Ajani´s Crypt Incursion in Hand has nothing to do with the Emrakul Trigger being resolved too fast, if you believe so, DQ Nissa for cheating.

Would you upgrade the penalty if Ajani just had a brainstorm and wanted to dig for an answer?

Aug. 17, 2014 07:05:43 PM

Chris Lansdell
Judge (Uncertified), Scorekeeper

Canada

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

Remember that at any event, the HJ is the final word on any ruling and has the authority to supersede any official document. I saw it at GP Boston, and the situation Alan describes sounds like a similar thing: a place that policy doesn't touch. I see no policy support for an upgrade based on the situation presented, however.

Aug. 17, 2014 07:48:50 PM

Topher Hickman
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy))

USA - Midatlantic

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

Do you see policy support if Ajani never actually sees the Eldrazi before the shuffle?

Aug. 17, 2014 08:23:00 PM

John Trout
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Foundry))

USA - South

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

Originally posted by Christopher Hickman:

Do you see policy support if Ajani never actually sees the Eldrazi before the shuffle?
That would clearly be failure to reveal part of GRV: “An error that an opponent can’t verify the legality of should have its penalty upgraded. These errors involve misplaying hidden information, such as the morph ability or failing to reveal a card to prove that a choice made was a legal one. ” But this one seems to fall into an IPG gray zone since the card was seen but was resolved before the opponent could respond.

Aug. 18, 2014 04:48:04 AM

Graham Theobalds
Judge (Uncertified)

United Kingdom, Ireland, and South Africa

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

On 18/08/2014 00:23, Thomas Ludwig wrote:
>
> Upgrading the Warning here feels wrong. The penalties in the IPG are
> set to match the given mistake.
>
> The mistake was resolving a Trigger w/o the Opponent passing priority.
> If there was no cheating involved, this should result in a warning.
>
> Ajani´s Crypt Incursion in Hand has nothing to do with the Emrakul
> Trigger being resolved too fast, if you believe so, DQ Nissa for cheating.
>
> Would you upgrade the penalty if Ajani just had a brainstorm and
> wanted to dig for an answer?
>
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After further thought on the matter I think you are right after all how
long does it take Ajani to say STOP. Obviously if he did and Nissa
ignored him that would be a different story. Investigate rule out
cheating issue a GRV warning to Nissa and explain to Nissa to be more
careful in future. Much as we feel an upgrade might be appropriate the
IPG does not appear to support that.


Graham

Aug. 18, 2014 09:54:42 AM

Todd Bussey
Judge (Uncertified)

Canada

Emrakul, the Situation Torn - SILVER

What if Ajani says “Why did you just shuffle your library into your graveyard?” and Nissa responds “because you milled an Emrakul” and Ajani says “I didn't see it”

Can we upgrade to game loss there?