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You are Head Judge of a Modern RCQ. Alex activates the -3 ability of his Teferi, Time Raveler, targeting Nadine’s 7/7 Orc Army Token. Nadine says Ok, and picks up her Orc Army token. Alex draws his card from Teferi’s ability and Nadine says “Trigger Orcish Bowmasters; I’ll deal one to kill your Teferi". Alex puts Teferi in the graveyard. Alex then resolves Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury and targets Bowmasters with is ability.
A spectator, Jason, shouts out “Wait Nadine you never made your Army token from your Bowmasters!” Nadine says oh thanks and goes to put the token on the battlefield.
Alex calls for you, the Judge, and says Nadine missed her trigger to make the Army token and a spectator was helping her remember to remember it when he cast Phlage.
What do you do?
Edited Matt Muckle (Sept. 2, 2025 09:06:38 PM)
Garth and Dennis have it pretty much spot on. Great job ya'll.
Nadine receives a GRV for not fully resolving Bowmasters trigger. Alex receives FtMGS.
Orcish bowmaster's trigger was acknowledged by dealing the one damage to Teferi. Understandably because they just picked it up, Nadine just forgot to make the Army token. Not too much has happened here so we can back up the Phage, make the army and continue on.
Out spectator friend also hasn't committed a penalty. The information he offered wasn't substantial strategic advice so there is no outside assistance. It is important to have a stern chat with them and remind them the importance of calling a judge when they notice issues. Accidentally saying the wrong thing can really ruin their tournament experience.
Jason committed the infraction Outside Assistance. If they are enrolled in the event, they should be penalized with a Match Loss in their next match. If not, they may be enrolled in the event only for the purpose of tracking the infraction and asked to leave.
Nadine did not miss the trigger - she failed to complete all of its steps. As such, she has committed a Game Rule Violation. I would issue her a warning along with applying the additional fix of having the token created now if doing so would not be too disruptive.
Since this is a GRV and not a missed trigger, Alex has also committed an infraction of Failure to Maintain Game State, and should also be issued a warning.
Nadine has failed to resolve her ability completely, this means that she has committed a Games Rule Violation and should be issued with a Warning, I would then allow a back up of Phalge being cast and allow the ability to resolve properly. Alex for his part in this would get a Failure to Maintain Game State warning.
Jason has not committed any infraction here, if creating the token was a seperate trigger this would be considered outside assitance, however as it's a missed part of an ability that has resolved it isn't classed as offering stratigic advice but pointing out that an error has occured. I would however talk to Jason away from the table and explain that while he didn't technically do anything wrong the correct way to call attention to an error in a game is to ask the players to stop the game and call a judge. This way they are not in danger of potentially offering advice if they might have misunderstood the situation.
Nadine didn't miss her trigger; dealing 1 damage and Amassing Orcs 1 are part of the same trigger. By dealing damage to Teferi she acknowledged the trigger's existence. Failing to create the Orc Army token here is a Game Rule Violation.
There's a possibility that Alex noticed that Nadine didn't make the Orc Army when she was supposed to and kept quiet about it. If this was the case, it would be cheating only if he also knew that he was obligated to point it out—but in light of the way he called for a judge, he seemed to think the error was a missed trigger and thus wasn't obligated to point it out.
After explaining to the players why this isn't a Missed Trigger or Outside Assistance, I'd issue Nadine a Warning for Game Play Error--Game Rule Violation and Alex a Warning for Game Play Error--Failure to Maintain Game State. I'd back up the Phlage trigger and casting of Phlage, have Nadine create the Orc Army token, and have the players continue playing.
Next, I'd pull Jason aside and remind him that while spectating at a Competetive REL event, if he believes the players have made an error, he should ask them to pause and go get a judge. I may ask some questions to get a sense of how familiar he is with the policy for missed triggers; he may have known that this wasn't a missed trigger because Nadine dealt the Bowmaster damage, or he may not have and just been lucky.
Garth and Dennis have it pretty much spot on. Great job ya'll.
Nadine receives a GRV for not fully resolving Bowmasters trigger. Alex receives FtMGS.
Orcish bowmaster's trigger was acknowledged by dealing the one damage to Teferi. Understandably because they just picked it up, Nadine just forgot to make the Army token. Not too much has happened here so we can back up the Phage, make the army and continue on.
Out spectator friend also hasn't committed a penalty. The information he offered wasn't substantial strategic advice so there is no outside assistance. It is important to have a stern chat with them and remind them the importance of calling a judge when they notice issues. Accidentally saying the wrong thing can really ruin their tournament experience.
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