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Rules Q&A » Post: Resolving spells that reveal hand and notes

Resolving spells that reveal hand and notes

June 5, 2013 10:59:53 AM

Stephen Hagan
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy)), Scorekeeper

USA - Central

Resolving spells that reveal hand and notes

At a PTQ Anton casts a Slaughter Games naming Thragtusk, he looks at Nadine's hand and removes a Thragtusk then goes through her hand and library to do the same. After this he places Slaughter Games in the graveyard to signify it has finished resolving. Nadine noting that Slaughter Games is in the graveyard picks up her hand and places it face down in front of her.

When does Anton lose the ability to take notes? If he asks Nadine can he write those down can she say no at this point? What happens is Anton reaches across the table and flips the face down hand over without asking Nadine?

Summary: When resolving a spell that reveals the hand at competitive, how do we signify the person is done taking notes etc? Is the spell going to the graveyard and thus resolved enough? What is the person revealing the hand responsible for?

(This happened at the WMCQ this weekend, no judges got involved, but a player asked me about it over private message yesterday.)

June 5, 2013 11:53:11 AM

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

USA - Northwest

Resolving spells that reveal hand and notes

There aren't really rules about how long you have to take notes, just an implied principle that you don't want it to become Slow Play.

If Anton said “wait, I'm not done yet” and wanted to take a few quick notes, I'd allow that - even though putting the Slaughter Games in the graveyard is the final step in resolution, that's not consistent with how we handle things like Harrow - basically, the Out of Order Sequencing philosophy can serve as our guide, here.

If Anton just reaches over and flips over Nadine's hand “because I wasn't done yet”, then I'd encourage him not to repeat that behavior; either ask nicely, or get a judge involved.

Now, once Anton indicates he's done, then Nadine has no responsibility to help him remember what he just saw; Anton can choose to look at the hand, say “OK, done”, then start taking notes … and if he forgets a card then, too bad for him. The hidden zone is no longer revealed, so it's now Private Information.