Adam attacks Nena who does not block. Nena crosses her life total out and writes 16 beneath it. She then crosses out the 16 and writes 12.
Adam passes turn to Nena who enters combat and then realizes that Adam has himself marked at 20 life.
What is the infraction, penalty, and additional fix?
View Answer
Some very important facts here:
- Adam is not aware of the existence of the trigger (has missed it), and the trigger is lapsing, as both effects are defined under lapsing triggers.
- Nena would have needed to call a judge in the same portion of the turn (another effect of lapsing triggers!).
- Both players should be announcing their life total changes (as per MTR 2.13).
Solution:
What has happened here is really a missed trigger. Adam is unaware of the existence of the trigger and Nena does not call attention to it. She has the option to call a judge if she wants the trigger put on the stack, however once a judge has been called (in this instance) we are outside of the turn portion where the trigger can be put on the stack.
Currently the life totals are incorrect and need to be fixed to the correct life totals (as the trigger has not actually resolved).
Remember that this is not a Player Communication Violation. Neither Adam or Nena have unintentionally violated the player communication section of the magic tournament rules. It is very tempting to call what seems to be a communication issue a PCV but that infraction is reserved for very specific purposes. In addition, we should remind players that they need to be verbalizing life total changes. With that being a new rule we should educate promptly!