Alice is playing in a Standard Grand Prix event. She has a Thassa, God of the Sea and a dozen assorted lands in play. She begins her turn by Scrying for Thassa’s beginning of upkeep ability. When she goes to her deck, a 2nd card is stuck to the top card. Alice looks and realizes that she has 2 cards and immediately calls for a judge. You arrive at the table. Alice and her opponent state that the cards are still in the same order as she immediately put the cards face down on the table, and also explain that Thassa was played on Turn 3. How do you handle this situation?

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

[expand title=”View Answer”]The MIPG tells us that Alice has committed Looking at Extra Cards. She has seen an extra card that she should not know the identity of, but has not drawn the extra card. The Additional Remedy section tells us that we need to shuffle the randomized portion of the deck. This means that as a judge, we must survey the field to determine if there are any cards that could have manipulated the deck in some way and ask the players the same. In this game we have a Thassa that has been in play for multiple turns. This far into the game, it is also likely that the players will not know exactly how many times Alice has put a card on the bottom of her library with Thassa. We can ask the players and try to get a consensus on how many cards were put on the bottom. While we want to get to the right number, it doesn’t have to be exactly right. If X cards were put on bottom, that leaves N random cards above them. If we happen to leave X+1 and shuffle N-1, the end result will still be N random cards above the X Scryed cards. Also, kudos to Eric Paré for the suggestion of asking Alice away from the table if she remembers the first card put on the bottom. You should also ask if they put more than one copy on the bottom to make sure we’re going to the right spot if you can use this method.

Set the top card aside since this is the card that Alice was supposed to be able to see and set aside the number of cards from the bottom that you and the players have agreed on. With the remaining deck, shuffle the deck then place the cards set aside in their appropriate positions on the top and bottom of the deck. Alice can then proceed with her Scry and continue the game. Alice receives a Warning for Looking at Extra Cards.[/expand]