I was playing in the 4th and last round of the Khans sealed release event with a 2-1 record hoping to get another win to qualify for prize. My opponent was friendly and played only at the very casual level from the small talk we had while shuffling. When I presented my deck to cut, he took half the deck but instead of placing it on the other half, he looked at the bottom card and it was my Zurgo Helmsmasher, a pretty tell sign of what colors I was playing. I told him he couldn't do that and he said that he would always do this in casual games to determine who goes first.
Game 1 was an easy win as he got stuck on 2 lands and I curved out. On to game 2, he mulligans his first hand while I keep mine. I start watching him pick cards off the top of his library one by one expecting him to draw 7 cards. He picks up the 7th card to his hand and I tell him he mulled to 6. He says sorry and puts it back on top. After a moment looking at his hand, he asks if I want him to bottom the card and I wave it off.
TLDR: What's exactly the judge rulings for this kind of behavior and repeated offenses at FNM or other casual tournaments? I don't think my opponent did this maliciously and I let it slide.
FNM is run at Regular REL. The focus is on education and fun. This is a lot of casual player's first experience to sanctioned tournament Magic. As such, we don't want to scare them off by enforcing penalties for honest mistakes
Something like either of those would warrant an explanation of why it's not ok and an instruction not to do it again. Repeated offensives can earn Game Losses.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Level 2 Magic Judge
Cards do what they say they do. No more. No less.
Looking at cards in the opponent's deck warrants a warning the first time, and a game loss if it persists. At the FNM level it's not a major crime, but it is a behavior that has potential for abuse.
As for drawing 7 cards after you mulled (or drawing 6 on the mulligan to 5, for that matter), the standard procedure at an FNM is that the judge randomly selects a card from their hand and that player shuffles the card into their library, then mulligans continue as normal.
I had a similar scenario happen to me but it unfolded slightly differently. At a Sunday afternoon sealed constructed tournament my round 1 went as can be expected with a mull resulting in a 6 card draw. Two rounds later I had someone ask me before we started "Are we doing friendly mulligan or no?". Next round we started playing without establishing the "friendly mulligan rule" but on his first game, first hand, he mulligans to a full 7 cards then asks "oh friendly mulligan, right?".
Come to find out, that is standard fare for this gaming shop. I was just surprised that out of the 4 different people I played there were so many different approaches to the subject of mulligans.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Game 1 was an easy win as he got stuck on 2 lands and I curved out. On to game 2, he mulligans his first hand while I keep mine. I start watching him pick cards off the top of his library one by one expecting him to draw 7 cards. He picks up the 7th card to his hand and I tell him he mulled to 6. He says sorry and puts it back on top. After a moment looking at his hand, he asks if I want him to bottom the card and I wave it off.
TLDR: What's exactly the judge rulings for this kind of behavior and repeated offenses at FNM or other casual tournaments? I don't think my opponent did this maliciously and I let it slide.
Credit to Heroes of the Plane Studios for the Avatar & Miraculous Recovery for the Banner.
My 540 Card Cube (WIP)
Something like either of those would warrant an explanation of why it's not ok and an instruction not to do it again. Repeated offensives can earn Game Losses.
Cards do what they say they do. No more. No less.
As for drawing 7 cards after you mulled (or drawing 6 on the mulligan to 5, for that matter), the standard procedure at an FNM is that the judge randomly selects a card from their hand and that player shuffles the card into their library, then mulligans continue as normal.
Come to find out, that is standard fare for this gaming shop. I was just surprised that out of the 4 different people I played there were so many different approaches to the subject of mulligans.