Joshua Feingold, Level 3,\u00a0Virginia, United States<\/p><\/div>Editor’s Note: This tournament report is the back story for the knowledge pool scenario – Absent Guide – SILVER<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n This tournament report focuses on one specific event that occurred during a PTQ I headed judged on 1 November 2014. In particular, there was an investigation that led to a short extension and no infraction that very easily could never have begun or incorrectly resulted in an infraction being assigned at several points. This report will discuss why and how each step was taken and lessons learned along the way. Late in Round 2 of the event, a player approaches me and hands me a card that he found sitting on a table. It\u2019s an Embodiment of Spring<\/a> in a black sleeve. The event has 74 players, and there are probably 20-25 players in the room with sleeves approximately matching this one. I decide to make an announcement at the start of round 3 that I have this card, in hopes that the player realizes it\u2019s missing and comes to me to get it. Between breaks and deck checks, I don\u2019t have time to hunt this guy down, so this is the most logistically feasible approach to getting this card back to its owner.<\/p>\n I make the announcement while starting round 3. Nobody comes up. The card goes into my shirt pocket while I deal with the rest of the event.<\/p>\n Cut to round 5. About 6 minutes into the round, I\u2019m walking by an ongoing match. I notice one player has black sleeves and has forests and islands in play. At this point, I put the odds that this guy is the owner of the card at about 15%. Lots of people have these sleeves and play those colors. So I duck in and check his match slip for his name. Importantly, I do not stop the match. I don\u2019t know if anything is wrong. If I\u2019m going down the wrong path, I don\u2019t want to tilt players and issue an extension for no reason.<\/p>\n I find the player\u2019s deck list. It contains an Embodiment of Spring<\/a>. I go back to the table. I check the player\u2019s hand and battlefield. I tell the players I need to check something, but they can keep playing. I look through the player’s deck, and there is no Embodiment of Spring in there. I pull the card of out my pocket and do a double check that the sleeve matches. Things are looking pretty grim for this guy, so I stop the match. I show him the card. He looks baffled. I tell him about how I\u2019ve had it since round 2. Does he remember playing a copy of this card since then? He doesn\u2019t. Does he think this is probably his card? He does. I have him double check that there isn\u2019t a copy of this card in his deck that I\u2019ve missed. There isn\u2019t. I\u2019m getting ready to give this guy his D\/DLP Game Loss.<\/p>\n Then I stop myself and ask another question. \u201cThis is game 1, right?\u201d Actually, no, it\u2019s game 2. Apparently game 1 was done in well under 5 minutes. This deck doesn\u2019t have to match the one on his list. And the IPG tells us to issue on penalty if sideboard cards are missing. And Well, I guess he dodged that bullet. But wait\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cDid you realize that card was missing?\u201d He had no idea. \u201cThen the deck you\u2019re playing right now is missing a card? So, you\u2019re playing a 39 card deck right now?\u201d Actually, he registered a 41 card deck. So he thought he was still playing 41, but he\u2019s actually playing 40. Making sure he keeps his hand and battlefield separate from his library, we do a quick count and confirm that there are, in fact, 40 cards in his presented deck. There sure are.<\/p>\n So we know these things: he has played three game-ones where his deck did not match his list; those games are all over; we don\u2019t issue D\/DLP infractions for games that are over; he is currently playing a legal 40-card deck. So, we have no infraction here. Through this bizarre confluence of events, I found the player with the missing card, I returned the card to him during a game about 7 minutes into the round, the first game of his match had finished within 5 minutes so I didn\u2019t catch him when the card was required to be in his deck, and due to a slightly unconventional deck building choice his current deck is actually legal.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, merry Christmas.\u201d There is nothing to be done here but return the card to his sideboard, have him shuffle his library because I had him look through it, give a 5-minute extension, and have the players play on.<\/p>\n So, what are the takeaways?<\/p>\n This was quite an interesting experience for me as a judge, and I had lots of questions from spectators afterwards. It\u2019s one of the more unique investigations I\u2019ve been a part of. I hope seeing the thought process and near-misses that made up this investigation will help you quickly and cleanly resolve your own odd future situations.<\/p>\n This report is\u00a0originally\u00a0posted on\u00a0JudgeApps Tournament Reports sub-forum.\u00a0Please feel free to leave your comments and feedback here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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