I took a call at a Regular REL event at GP Vancouver that I think I messed up, and I'm curious what others think.

In game 1, a player called me over and said they forgot to desideboard, and their opening hand had two sideboard cards. My brain was stuck on Competitive REL, so I followed the recent downgrade for DDLP - I had the player set their legal cards aside, desideboard the two illegal cards and the rest of their deck, and then continue mulligan choices from their now-five card hand.

At Regular, what would the correct fix have been? I can see several potential fixes and haven't been able to decide what I should have done.

– Set aside the 2 cards, desideboard the deck, have the player draw a card at random and continue mulligan choices from 6

– Set aside the 2 cards, desideboard the deck, have the player draw 2 random cards and continue mulligan choices from a legal 7

– Desidebaord the deck, shuffling in the hand, have them draw a new 6

– Desideboard the deck, shuffling in the hand, have them draw a new 7

– Set aside the 2 cards in hand, replace with 1 or 2 cards at random that are supposed to be in the maindeck. Desideboard the rest of the deck.

– Something else?

Edited Brook Gardner-Durbin (Feb. 23, 2017 11:49:21 PM)

It's regular REL, you do what feel best.

I would just fix the deck and have the players carry on as if they had just started (option 4 on your list).

Originally posted by Norman Ralph:

I would just fix the deck and have the players carry on as if they had just started (option 4 on your list).

What's your argument for shuffling in the legal 5 instead of keeping them and drawing 2 at random?

Yea I'm inclined to keep the contents of the hand minus the SB cards. Then fix the deck and draw up to the correct number of cards.

Originally posted by Brook Gardner-Durbin:

Originally posted by Norman Ralph:

I would just fix the deck and have the players carry on as if they had just started (option 4 on your list).

What's your argument for shuffling in the legal 5 instead of keeping them and drawing 2 at random?

I don't know his, but mine is: I want to rewind the game up until the point everything was okay.

Originally posted by JAR: Common Issues:

Remove any cards that shouldn’t be in the deck, put back any cards that should, then add basic lands of the player’s choice if the deck is below the format's minimum size limit. Any cards that are added to the deck should be shuffled directly into the library. If the error was discovered during a draw effect, have the player complete the draw effect after the deck is fixed and shuffled

Remove the sideboard cards, add the correct cards, and finish drawing up to 7. (I would certainly say drawing your opening hand is a draw effect.)

Originally posted by David Rockwood:

Remove the sideboard cards, add the correct cards, and finish drawing up to 7. (I would certainly say drawing your opening hand is a draw effect.)

+1.

Originally posted by Antonio Zanutto:

I don't know his, but mine is: I want to rewind the game up until the point everything was okay.

I feel it doesn't add much. It is just wasting time shuffling. Just drawing 2 certainly reduces the odds of having the newly added cards but if it is regular and no cheating I am not feeling too bad about just drawing until 7.
If the players want to redraw a full 7, I will let them do it too.

If it's regular REL, then presumably we don't have decklists. Assuming that the deck has the right number of cards, I'd be inclined to just leave the deck and hand as is.

I don't know about the “wasting time shuffling” reasoning. We're shuffling anyway, right? I highly doubt shuffling 55 cards goes faster than 60.

That said, I do think making them keep the five legal cards feels better from the opponent's perspective, as then there's no way for the player to get a “free” mulligan by conveniently forgetting to de-sideboard. I'm not really that concerned about that abuse, but it could look that way to the opponent, and given that the documents don't specify either way, I'm happy to make them keep the five and re-draw two new cards after fixing the sideboarding.

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