Good morning Judges,

Yesterday I HJ'd a PPTQ with 43 players. During Round 3 a player spoke to me away from the table and noted that his opponent had some warped foils, especially his lands. He was also doing some actions that to the player seemed odd, but I could not finger as a serious problem. Addressing his concerns I put a judge around the table and targeted their table for a mid-round Deck Check.

Upon inspection I discovered that he did have a significant amount of foils in his deck. A lot of these foils were warped to the point myself or my Floor Judge could cut to a foil with a high percentage. This was not just lands, but included non-land and neither set had 100% coverage of foil/non-foil. I brought the player over, and after investigating I decided that there was no intent to cheat, but told him that the cards still needed to be replaced.

Apparently the player was a regular at the store I was working at. And the store tried to help replace the cards (there were about 15 that I wanted replaced). Some of the cards were harder to replace because of their local scarcity, such as a playset of Siege Rhinos. This therefore took an unusually long time to replace.

Officially I gave him Marked Cards w/o a Pattern, which was a Warning and gave them a 30 minute extension. Knowing I had a situation to delay the tournament, I made an announcement to the rest of the players that I would be starting Round 4 no later than 3pm, at least 40 minutes later. There was no reason to have the players wait around for this one match if they didn't need to.

Because of the number of cards, even though there was no clear pattern, should I have upgraded it to a Game Loss, allowed him to replace the cards before next round, and present to me to keep the tournament flowing? In hindsight this sounds like what I probably should have done. I will say the players appreciated the “lunch break” and the final rounds of Swiss completed without incident.

Thanks for your input,
-Kyle Evans

Originally posted by Kyle Evans:

Because of the number of cards, even though there was no clear pattern, should I have upgraded it to a Game Loss,

The IPG allows the HJ to upgrade to a Game Loss “if he or she believes that a player noticing the pattern of markings would clearly compromise the integrity of the game”. I wouldn't upgrade just because there were a lot of cards that need replacing.

The IPG doesn't specify exactly when the player has to replace the cards. Typically if it's a case of well worn sleeves I'll ask the player to change them after the match. I think that's common practice. Since you didn't GL for a pattern, that means the deck should be ok to finish playing the round, and ask them to change the cards when they're finished the round.

Basically, if they're fine, finish the round then change. If they're not fine then Game Loss and change now. That's my view.

If you can consistently cut to a quarter of the deck that doesn't
necessarily feel random to me and weather the player states he realized it
or not it seems to create an advantage especially if as you said this was a
playset of rhinos.
On Jun 22, 2015 9:25 AM, “Mark Mc Govern” <

Originally posted by Mark Mc Govern:

I didn't think about that. I did read the IPG on the entry while I was waiting for the Mid-Round to happen just to make sure of my paths. Most of the time I've done Marked Cards it was either sleeves in horrible repair that needed to be replaced immediately, or a card or two that was easy enough to replace now. Thanks for the input.

Maxwell Molinari

I thought about this as well. All of his foils were not warped, and it was not as if his only foils are 4 Siege Rhinos or 4 Resto Angels. There were several other foils within the lands and non-lands. In my opinion, that's not a pattern

Originally posted by Kyle Evans:

a 30 minute extension

I'm glad players liked the lunch break, but this is excessive. In general, you can use Tardiness policy as a guideline for how long you should feel comfortable extending a match because a player has to do something other than play Magic. I.E., the player gets 10 minutes of “acceptable” extension due to not being at the table and playing Magic when he really should be. Beyond that point, he doesn't get to play this round. (Also, let the player know this when you start the timer, not 8 minutes into it.)

Originally posted by Mark Mc Govern:

The IPG allows the HJ to upgrade to a Game Loss “if he or she believes that a player noticing the pattern of markings would clearly compromise the integrity of the game”. I wouldn't upgrade just because there were a lot of cards that need replacing.

Well said, Mark.

If you aren't concerned about the integrity of the game - i.e., you aren't going to upgrade - then let them finish the match, and instruct them to correct the problem(s) before the next round. Then, if it takes them a long time to correct the problems, you simply enforce Tardiness, as usual, at the start of the next round.

If that player approached me as parings were being posted, and said “hey, I'm almost done, I may need a couple extra minutes”, then I'd consider giving a short extension, instead of a Tardiness Game Loss. In general, though, he needs to be in his seat, ready to start the next match, at the start of the round (or the 3-minute mark, if you're using the alternative time limits).

d:^D