Nemo and Ahab are playing in the second to last round of a GPT at which you are the only judge. Their game is near its end, with Ahab at 3 life and Nemo at 1. Ahab controls an Invisible Stalker and will be able to attack for the win on his next turn. During his own turn, Nemo is tapping lands in preparation to cast a spell when Moby, a player who is done with his match and is standing behind Ahab, says, “Wow, I didn’t know they made a textless Negate!” Moby then gets a horrified look on his face as he realizes his mistake, but the damage is done. As you assess the situation, you notice that Nemo has only two cards in his hand, Mountain and Demonfire, and that with the information he just gained, Nemo will know to play his land before the Demonfire and win the game.

What infractions have been committed, and by whom? What is the proper penalty for each of those infractions? And finally, how do you rectify the game state now that Moby’s comment has surely altered the outcome?

Judges, feel free to discuss this scenario here!

[expand title=”View Answer”]By revealing hidden information to a player who has sat for his match, Moby has committed Tournament Error – Outside Assistance. He will receive a Match Loss, to be applied to the next round. If Moby is no longer in the tournament, simply record the penalty in the reporting software for record keeping. If Moby was never in the tournament, you will need to add him to the tournament to issue the penalty (and then drop him to avoid accidentally pairing him in later rounds). Additionally, the TO may ask Moby to leave the venue if he no longer has any more rounds to play in this tournament.

Despite some arguments to the contrary, neither Ahab nor Nemo have committed any infractions, because neither solicited the information that Moby unwittingly provided. In addition, we should make no attempt to fix the game state. Nemo is not forced to cast Demonfire before playing the land, since he hadn’t announced the spell, only begun to add mana to his mana pool before beginning to cast it.

While it is an unfortunate situation, it seems that Moby has crippled Ahab in this game.[/expand]