You’re the Head Judge of a Standard PPTQ and notice a match where Albert has a Walking Ballista in play with no counters on it. You inspect the match and see no other toughness pumping effect keeping it in play, so you step in and ask what’s going on. Albert quickly realizes his error, picks up a die and sets it on Walking Ballista, showing 1 counter. Albert explains that he has cast Walking Ballista for 1 in each game of this match, and had forgotten the counter when he did so a couple of turns ago. Albert’s opponent, Nikki, agrees that it should have one counter.
What do you do?
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If the players are playing in a way that is clear to both players, but might cause confusion to an external observer, judges are encouraged to request that the players make the situation clear, but not assess an infraction or issue any penalty
There is no infraction. Both players knew and understood what was being represented, and now that there is a die on the Walking Ballista, we don’t need to do anything else.
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