Penalty – Game Loss

Definition

The decklist is illegal or doesn’t match what the player is playing.

Examples

1. A player in a Standard tournament lists Field of the Dead (a banned card) on their decklist.
2. A player has a 56-card decklist. Their actual deck contains 60 cards, with four Dispels not listed.
3. A player lists ‘Sarkhan’ in a format with both Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker and Sarkhan Unbroken.
4. A player plays Anticipate in Game 1 of the match with zero listed in the Main Deck
5. In game one of a match, A player has Grafdigger’s Cage in their deck, but only has one registered in their sideboard.

Philosophy

Decklists are used to ensure that decks are not altered in the course of a tournament. Judges and other tournament officials should be vigilant about reminding players before the tournament begins of the importance of submitting a legal decklist and playing with a legal deck. A player normally receives a Game Loss if their decklist is altered after tournament play has begun. Penalties for decklist errors discovered outside the context of the match and its procedures are issued at the start of the next match.

Ambiguous or unclear names on a decklist may allow a player to manipulate the contents of their deck up until the point at which they are discovered. Truncated names of storyline characters on decklists (Planeswalker and other legendary permanents) are acceptable as long as they are the only representation of that character in the format and are treated as referring to that card, even if other cards begin with the same name.

The Head Judge may choose to not issue this penalty if they believe that what the player wrote on their decklist is obvious and unambiguous, even if not entirely accurate.

If there is suspicion that a player has intentionally modified a deck to be different from their submitted decklist to gain an advantage, the infraction should be viewed as Unsporting Conduct – Cheating.

Companions affect what the player intended to play and may produce a situation in which the deck and decklist match but violate the restriction on the intended companion. In these situations, it is acceptable to alter the deck and sideboard configuration to meet the restriction.

Additional Remedy

If the decklist contains illegal cards, remove them. If the decklist is being adjusted to allow for an intended companion, the player exchanges cards between the deck and sideboard until the restriction is met.

Assuming the list is Legal, if there is a Deck issue, alter the deck to match the decklist the player submitted. If the player is unable to create the deck that was submitted, the cards unavailable to the player, they should choose to add any combination of cards named Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest to reach the minimum deck size. Alter the decklist to reflect this.

If the deck contains too few cards, the player chooses to add any combination of cards named Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain or Forest to reach the minimum number. Alter the decklist to reflect this. These changes may be reverted without penalty if the player is subsequently able to locate identical replacements to legal original cards.