You’re called over by a spectator Sonia. She tells you that Ali activated his Sensei’s Divining Top‘s second ability during his main phase, and asked Ned, “Draw a card?” and Ned answered, “Yeah, no effects.” Ali resolved the ability, including drawing a card. However, Ned controls a Spirit of the Labyrinth, so Ali should only have put the Top on top of his deck.
The players confirm that this is what happened, and you’re confident that both of them simply forgot the Spirit was in play. What do you do?
Judges, feel free to discuss this scenario on Judge Apps!
[expand title=Answer] We have here a Game Play Error – Game Rule Violation. This looks like a Hidden Card Error but Ali has confirmed his draw with Ned and therefore has gotten “permission” to do so and therefore this can’t be HCE anymore.
You may consider backing up, or leaving the game state as is.
If you want to back up, you should set aside Sensei’s Divining Top, put a random card from Ali’s hand to the top of his library, and then put the Top on top of it.
Ned also gets a warning for Game Play Error – Failure to Maintain Game State[/expand]