Gideon’ Up

| JSH

Ariel is playing against Nick at a Standard PPTQ. Ariel controls a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, a Selfless Spirit, and an Archangel Avacyn. Ariel draws her card for the turn and considers her hand for a moment. Eventually she taps her Selfless Spirit and pushes forward her Avacyn. Then she ticks up Gideon and taps it, saying, ”attack with all my creatures, animate Gideon, and attack with him too.” Nick calls for a judge. When you arrive to the table Nick explains, “Ariel tried to animate her Gideon during declare attackers, it can’t attack.” What do you do?

 

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Answer
Players are allowed to perform a block of actions that are technically incorrect as long as those actions end in a legal game state and aren’t used by the player to gain information prematurely. There weren’t any pauses in Ariel’s line, she went directly from her mainphase to attacking with her Gideon without verbalizing some kind of shortcut that would offer priority to Nick

Issue no penalties and inform the players that if Nick has a response to Gideon’s activation he may have Ariel perform her batch of actions in the correct order. OoOS does not deny players a chance to respond, it is simply a way to progress the game in a natural and timely manner. We don’t have to back up the game every time an opponent is confused about OoOS, but if they have a response it is the player’s right to request the actions be done in order.