I have a question regarding situations where you declare something verbally (eg. spell targets or end of turn), and then literally less than a second later you correct yourself. For instance, I had this situation during a casual Pauper tournament: i had 2 random green creatures and 2 Forests, my opp had a Prophetic prism and 2 artifact lands - a Darksteel citadel (which is indestructible) and a Seat of the synod. During my turn i tap 2 forests and my 2 creatures, show gleeful sabotage from hand and say "gleeful sabotage your lands-OH CRAP NOPE SABOTAGE SEAT AND PRISM", where "-" is a time period of probably around 0.5-1.5 seconds. He jokingly mocked my mistake for a short while but ultimately let me "retarget" the spell. My question is: What would happen if somebody actually seriously pursued this matter with a judge? What would the ruling be? This being regular REL.
I also had a very similar situation in a PPTQ the other day. It was a control mirror, like turn 25. I draw my card for the turn, and say "your turn-OH NO WAIT DIDN'T PLAY A LAND, LAND (i try to put a land onto the battlefield), NOW YOUR TURN". My opponent said that I passed the turn already and that it's too late, and I didn't argue because I had like 15 lands on the battlefield anyway and didn't want to waste time on a judge call. And again, the question - what would have been the outcome of this judge call? This being competetive REL.
Looking forward to replies.
Note that in your first example with Gleeful Sabotage, you have declared an incomplete shortcut (in this case, you didn't say which target you will choose with Gleeful Sabotage and which target you will choose for its copy) (C.R. 720.2a requires you to specify "a sequence of game choices" called for in the shortcut; compare Gleeful Sabotage with Rack and Ruin, where there would be no ambiguity with respect to "your lands" in this scenario), so that technically speaking, you could reverse that action under C.R. 721.1.
On the other hand, in your second example, saying "Your turn" in that tournament is a shortcut to have the nonactive player act in the end step (for details, see the second bullet point of M.T.R. 4.2; C.R. 720.2a), so that if your opponent accepts it, the game moves to the end step (C.R. 720.2b-c), so that you can't now change your mind.
In general, in a sanctioned tournament, whether you can "take back" a given action is largely a matter of communication and context (see also M.T.R. 4.1). During a sanctioned tournament, if you have any doubt on whether a particular game action is "final" or "confirmed", you should ask a judge for a ruling (M.T.R. 1.7, 1.8). See also this thread.
EDIT (Oct. 17, 2018): Edited to conform to rule changes with Guilds of Ravnica.
EDIT (Jan. 3, 2019): Struck out more text.
EDIT (Jun. 20, 2019): Some rules were renumbered with Dominaria.
Specific situations are always hard to judge afterwards, without having been there and been able to talk to both players. In general, if you correct yourself immediately and there's no (reasonable) chance that you were able to read your opponent's reaction before trying to change your mind, there should be no issues with letting you change your announcement.
So, "gonowaitI'llplayalandfirstthen go" should generally be fine. "Gleeful Sabotage your lands" - "Ok, haha, Citadel is indestructible" - "Oh crap, in that case Sabotage Seat and Prism" is obviously not going to work. Anything in between these two extremes, the judge will need to assess the situation and make a determination on which side of the fence the situation falls.
In addition to the above, "waste time with a Judge call" shouldn't be a reason to not call a Judge. Just ask for a time extension (if they don't give one by default) and you don't lose any time.
As GoblinBasar said, as a Judge if it's within the same reasonable breath I'd allow it. If your opponent says or does anything (like begins to untap lands after you're finished talking) you won't get to play that land.
A new section in the Magic: The Gathering Tournament Rules, about reversing game decisions, has been added with Guilds of Ravnica.
In a sanctioned tournament, a player is "not usually allowed to take back an action that has been communicated to their opponent, either verbally or physically" (M.T.R. 4.8). An exception is if a judge decides with certainty that a player "has not gained any information since taking [an unintended] action" and decides to "allow that player to change their mind" (M.T.R. 4.8). See also an article by K. Desprez explaining M.T.R. 4.8.
I also had a very similar situation in a PPTQ the other day. It was a control mirror, like turn 25. I draw my card for the turn, and say "your turn-OH NO WAIT DIDN'T PLAY A LAND, LAND (i try to put a land onto the battlefield), NOW YOUR TURN". My opponent said that I passed the turn already and that it's too late, and I didn't argue because I had like 15 lands on the battlefield anyway and didn't want to waste time on a judge call. And again, the question - what would have been the outcome of this judge call? This being competetive REL.
Looking forward to replies.
On the other hand, in your second example, saying "Your turn" in that tournament is a shortcut to have the nonactive player act in the end step (for details, see the second bullet point of M.T.R. 4.2; C.R. 720.2a), so that if your opponent accepts it, the game moves to the end step (C.R. 720.2b-c)
, so that you can't now change your mind.In general, in a sanctioned tournament, whether you can "take back" a given action is largely a matter of communication and context (see also M.T.R. 4.1). During a sanctioned tournament, if you have any doubt on whether a particular game action is "final" or "confirmed", you should ask a judge for a ruling (M.T.R. 1.7, 1.8).See also this thread.EDIT (Oct. 17, 2018): Edited to conform to rule changes with Guilds of Ravnica.
EDIT (Jan. 3, 2019): Struck out more text.
EDIT (Jun. 20, 2019): Some rules were renumbered with Dominaria.
So, "gonowaitI'llplayalandfirstthen go" should generally be fine. "Gleeful Sabotage your lands" - "Ok, haha, Citadel is indestructible" - "Oh crap, in that case Sabotage Seat and Prism" is obviously not going to work. Anything in between these two extremes, the judge will need to assess the situation and make a determination on which side of the fence the situation falls.
As GoblinBasar said, as a Judge if it's within the same reasonable breath I'd allow it. If your opponent says or does anything (like begins to untap lands after you're finished talking) you won't get to play that land.
In a sanctioned tournament, a player is "not usually allowed to take back an action that has been communicated to their opponent, either verbally or physically" (M.T.R. 4.8). An exception is if a judge decides with certainty that a player "has not gained any information since taking [an unintended] action" and decides to "allow that player to change their mind" (M.T.R. 4.8). See also an article by K. Desprez explaining M.T.R. 4.8.