Failure to Maintain Gamestate

Penalty: Warning

Infraction Sub-classification: Minor

Definitions and Philosophy: When a player allows other players in the game to make a Gameplay Error and does not indicate this to the other players.

If the player is determined to be doing this intentionally, a Cheating infraction under Unsporting Conduct should be considered.

A player should not be penalized a Failure to Maintain infraction for failing to track or remind opponents of triggers. As mentioned in the previous section, triggers are assumed not to be missed by default and players should play with the assumption that any trigger is acknowledged in the game, even if the source's controller fails to obviously do so or indicate it.

Players are never obligated to help their opponents win or become aware of strategic information. The same applies to triggers; if a player provides evidence that they did not acknowledge a trigger, a missed trigger infraction should be considered, but their opponent should not be penalized by FTM. In theory, both players will remind their opponents of "disadvantageous" from their perspective or remember "advantageous" triggers from their own perspective.

Corrective Procedure: Judges, with the assistance of players, should ascertain the steps taken to reach the erroneous Game State and should reverse each action taken to reach a correct Game State, if feasible (see here and here). Some reversible actions may require separate corrective procedures for each action.

Upgrading: This penalty may be upgraded from a warning to an issued Game Loss after a player repeatedly fails to maintain the Game State (3 or more times), but it should not be upgraded more than this.

Examples:

• A player did not notice that Warrior’s Longsword had dealt an extra point of damage after the opponent’s champion leveled up from a Warrior to an Assassin champion

• A player does not maintain their board and unintentionally misrepresents how many buff counters there are on an ally, causing a mistakenly informed attack from either them or their opponent

• A player fails to stop their opponent from drawing a fourth card while a Tithe Proclamation is in play, leading to an extra card being drawn.

Tip: In the third scenario, while the corrective procedures should deal with the extra card drawn, the correct infraction penalty is Failure to Maintain since this mistake led to subsequent violations.

VARIABLE ENFORCEMENT: Failure to Maintain Game State should be met with more leniency at events below the Regional and Store Championship levels. In these situations, it is suggested that this penalty is not to be upgraded to a game loss except for severe and irreparable game states that advantage the infracting player.