Anita and Norbert are playing in an Standard PTQ. Norbert is down to just 2 life, and Anita is at 5. Nobert has no creatures in play, Anita attacks with her Kalonian Tusker. Norbert taps his three swamps and three forests and casts his textless promo Corrupt, targeting the Tusker. Both players adjust Norbert’s life total, and Anita puts the Tusker into the graveyard.

Anita passes the turn, and for two turns, both players draw only land, and put them into play with no other action. On the third turn, Norbert draws his regular version of Corrupt and reads the card. He notices that Corrupt is a Sorcery and couldn’t have been cast during Anita’s attack step. He realizes his mistake, turns completely pale in abject horror, and calls for a judge.

When you arrive at the table, Norbert says, “Judge, I totally cheated her out of a win – I didn’t realize that Corrupt was a Sorcery until I drew this one!” You believe that his mistake was unintentional. What do you do?

Judges, please feel free to discuss this scenario on Judge Apps!

[expand title=”View Answer”]Norbert has committed a Game Rules Violation, and needs to be issued a warning for doing so. Anita did not point out the error immediately and allowed it to happen, so she needs to be issued a warning for Failure to Maintain Game State.

Please note that it is the head judge’s discretion on whether or not to rewind. In this situation, we feel that it has gone too far to safely back up.[/expand]