Welcome back to the Knowledge Pool. This week we have another Bronze scenario, so everyone should send their solutions in to the link below. Enjoy!

Arf and Nance are playing in a PPTQ. They are drawing their opening hands. While dealing out the cards face down, Arf notices one of Nance's cards is sitting next to his (Arf's) foot face down. He immediately calls you to the table and explains that he must have dropped it while shuffling. He had fumbled the cards a bit while shuffling, but he thought he had caught them all. When you pick up the card, it is a Prowling Serpopard, a card in Nance's deck. What do you do?

https://goo.gl/forms/8gNSnVlDI0r9E8Yq1

Note: we know this card isn't legal in any format yet. It made for a nice title and reference to a new card. Until next week, pretend that Amonkhet is actually legal for the format.

Edited Joe Klopchic (April 19, 2017 10:32:20 AM)

Thanks everyone for the responses this week. Unfortunately we had no responders come up with the exact correct solution, but there is a strong reason for that.

Daniel Woolson pointed out the phrase in (the now outdated) Deck/Decklist problem “If a deck is discovered to be missing cards after players have begun drawing opening hands, and the missing cards can be located, issue a Warning and shuffle those cards back into the deck.”

In this case, however, we know why Nance's deck was short a card - Arf dropped the card. We don't issue Deck Problem game losses if the opponent drops a card during shuffling and hands it back short, even though the deck technically had 59 cards for some time. So in this case, there is no infraction for Deck/Decklist Problem or Deck Problem.

Our Answer

Arf receives a warning for Looking at Extra Cards. While Arf probably didn't see the face of the card or gain any additional information, he may have, so it fits the definition for Looking at Extra Cards. Any time a player might have seen the face of a card they weren't entitled to see by their own action, Looking at Extra Cards applies.

Shuffle the extra card into Nance's library and then have the players finish drawing opening hands.

I'm going to leave this thread locked with this answer, but if anyone wants to discuss this, please feel free to start a new thread in the Competitive REL forum and we can discuss.

Edited Joe Klopchic (April 24, 2017 09:55:58 AM)