My name is Charles Chatham. I am a Level 1 Judge based out of Omaha, NE. I’m starting with a bi-weeklyish blog post based on interesting judge calls. The focus of these post are twofold. One, come up with the correct ruling. Two, practice rewinds to see if you can rewind time to help you with making the right ruling.
Some of these will have easy fixes but hard to walk back and vice versa. The goal of your responses should be to both of these two points. So give me your best rewind of the game…and the ruling you would issue.
Like I said, some of these will be caught in the wild and some will be fabricated. When the key is posted it will reflect where these cases came from and the information available.
I am open to any interesting judge calls fabricated or out there in nature. Just submit them to me at charles1883@gmail.com and include a picture, narrative, and outcome.
So without further ado, here is one slow and over the plate.
Judge!
You are called over to a game between what looks like Scapeshift and Burn. The scapeshift player has just played Scapeshift and dealt the Burn player 18 damage. There is a life total discrepancy. The Scapeshift player had the Burn player at 17, but the Burn player says he’s still at 20.
Scroll down for the Key
Key
Turn 1:
Burn:
Sacrifice Wooded Foothills finding Sacred Foundry coming into play untapped
Cast Goblin Guide
Attack with Goblin Guide revealing Cryptic Command
(17,18)
Scapeshift:
Forest
Suspend Search for Tomorrow
(17,18)
Turn 2:
Burn:
Play Mountain
Cast Lightning Helix targeting player
Attack with Goblin Guide revealing Kolagon’s Command
(20, 13)
Scapeshift:
Removes Counter from suspended Search for Tomorrow
Plays Forrest
Cast Sacura Tribe Elder
(20, 13)
Turn 3:
Burn:
Cast Lava Spike
Suspend Rift Bolt
Attack with Goblin Guide reviling Farseek, blocked by Sacura Tribe Elder, Edler is sacrificed before combat damage finding Island
(20, 10)
Scapeshift:
Counter is removed from Search from Tomorrow and is cast finding Island.
(20, 10)
Turn 4:
Burn:
Removes counter from Rift Bolt and cast Rift Bolt targeting player.
Cast Eidalon of the Great Revel, which is countered by cryptic command which also bounces Goblin Guide
(20, 7)
Scapeshift:
Plays plains
(20, 7)
Turn 5:
Burn:
Cast Goblin Guide which is remanded twice.
Scapeshift
Plays Misty Rainforest sacrifices and find Breeding Pool entering untapped.
Cast Scapeshift sacrificing Plains, Island, Steam Vents, Breeding Pool, Forest, Island, and Island.
Finding six mountains and a Valacut causing six triggers amounting in 18 damage.
(2, 4)
I’ll bite.
What modes were chosen for Cryptic Command? Did it counter anything? What about the Remands? What did Lightning Helix target? How did Eidolon of the Great Revel hit the graveyard (if not answered by the other questions)?
What seems central to figuring out the discrepancy here is simply whether or not Lightning Helix resolved, which is the only source of +3 life for the Burn player. Given that the only way Eidolon could’ve hit the graveyard was Cryptic, it seems most clear that Cryptic countered the Eidolon. Remand Helix bounce Eidolon to put the player up to 8 cards in hand is possible, but then there should be a corresponding 2 damage to the Burn player from their own Eidolon trigger. Will come back to this later, as there is a confusing point on this.
If the Lightning Helix mistakenly went to the graveyard instead of back to hand from Remand, that could account for the discrepancy, but does not explain why the Scapeshift player has 3 life total changes that are 3 life a piece. One might point to the possibility of Fetch + Shock, but the Scapeshift player has only one fetch land in their graveyard and both players agree that there was a discrete life total change from 7 to 6 according to the life pads. No other effect this game would’ve caused a loss of 1 life exactly for the Scapeshift player.
The Scapeshift player lost 2 life at three discrete points. Only two of these could have been from shock lands, so this points to some effect making them lose 2 life at another point OR from not shocking. Goblin Guide on the table early is one possible explanation, and could have been the bounce target for Cryptic if so. Eidolon Triggers is another possibility. What happened the first few turns of the game seems very relevant to reconstructing this portion and determining if everything aligns with the story. Also helps zero in on what happened with Lightning Helix.
I didn’t think anyone would get to the possibility of GG being bounced. 🙂