I was having a discussion with a couple of players and a judge regarding a situation that happened at FNM which led to a hypothetical situation in further discussion. I was hoping for clarification.

Situation 1:
Nathan controls Burning Earth. Aurelius controls two non-basic lands, a Nyx-Fleece Ram, and a mana guy. Aurelius taps his two lands and his mana guy to cast a spell. Nathan says he has no response. We move to the next turn, Nathan plays a land and passes. On his upkeep, Aurelius announces the Ram trigger and clarifies life totals. At this point, Nathan noticed that he didn't write down or announce the two points of damage from BE that Aurelius should have taken. Does Aurelius have to take the damage now? I said yes, since nothing major happened since.

Situation 2: Adam plays and activates the +1 ability of Jace, Architect of Thought. On her turn Nautica, activates and attacks with Mutavault. Adam activates his own Muta and blocks. Nautica says, “Trade.” Adam then points out the Jace trigger and says only her Muta dies. If Adam knowingly waited to point out his trigger until damage, did he cheat?

Any information you share would be great. Thank you!

Situation 1: This outcome is fine, since Regular REL trigger rules give the judge the latitude to decide how to handle it. If your store is more about fun and learning, resolving the trigger now seems fine, as long as no substantial decisions have been made based on the trigger being missed. If your store's atmosphere is more competitive, then it would also be ok to rule that the triggers were missed and just continue the game.

Situation 2: It is explicitly allowed that a player only needs to acknowledge a non-visible trigger when it becomes relevant to the visible game state. It is not possible for this to be cheating at any REL. It may be more “sporting” to mention it earlier, but that is certainly not required, and in this particular case it wouldn't even make a difference to any of the attack decisions because the trigger only happens after attacks are declared.

Thank you. I really appreciate such a quick reply. The players at this store tend to be newer players, so education is the most important thing. Between that and the fact that I was Aurelius, allowing the trigger to happen seemed best. Thank you again.