When Sea Gate Oracle enters the battlefield player A looks at the top two cards of his library. He then puts one of them in his hand and the other in the bottom of his library. Player N calls a judge because of Torpor Orb.
What do you do?
[expand title=”View Answer”]
Now some explanations on misconceptions we’ve noticed during the discussion:
- Is activating an ability of an unexisting permanent (for example Sensei’s Divining Top) a Game Rule Violation?
No, this is an example on the MIPG for Looking Extra Cards.
- Is activating an ability that is restricted (Jace Beleren + Pithing Needle) a Game Rule Violation?
Yes, assuming you took the loyalty counter from Jace and didn’t just draw, this is a clear example of Game Rule Violation.
- Is resolving an unexisting trigger (Howling Mine not anymore in play) a Game Rule Violation?
This is a Game Play Error that happens to fit better under Drawing Extra Cards.
- Is resolving an Enters the Battlefield trigger that is restricted to happen (Torpor Orb) a Game Rule Violation?
Same as above it is a Game Play Error, and we look at the actions taken because of the trigger, identifying what happens because of those actions to categorize the Game Play Error.
Say the creature is an Acidic Slime => Game Rule Violation
Say the creature is a Wall of Omens => Drawing Extra Cards
Say the creature is a Sage Owl => Looking Extra Cards
Say the creature is a Sea Gate Oracle => well… this is trickier!
The problem here is we have a single trigger, this means it’s a single atomic action to resolve the ability. One effect, even though there’s two sentences. It is true that in practical application it often requires a number of distinct physical actions – pick up two, look at them, set them down/aside/in one hand, look at cards in hand, think, then finish resolution. But according to game rules, it’s all one effect.
Some may argue there was a Game Play Error – Looking Extra Cards before, but this is not the case, there is only one ability and all of its instructions are resolved at once. Note that even if you follow that line of thought both errors come from the same effect, they have a common root cause, so we’d apply the more severe infraction.
What matters here is that independently on what else happens there is a Game Play Error that directly causes a card to be drawn: this is Drawing Extra Cards.
At Competitive/Professional this means the game would end, because the appropriate penalty is Game Loss.
At Regular there may be different solutions to fix this rather complex scenario. We should find the best procedure to have the game continue, but we can’t say there is only way to rule since there might be a few appropriate ways to handle this situation and, although it’s not my desire to start another discussion here, I would like to describe one possible way: shuffle the randomized portion of the deck so the card at the bottom is in a random position, then take one card at random from the player’s hand and put it on top of the library.
[/expand]