Communication Policy Violation

Penalty: Warning

Definitions and Philosophy: A player violates the player communication/information policies and guidelines outlined in the Tournament Rules and Regulations document, which results in the opponent making a decision, taking a player action, or not taking an action based on wrong information.

As mentioned in the Tournament Rules and Regulations document, players are responsible for maintaining a clear Game State, and players should answer all questions regarding publicly available information (i.e., Status and Public Information) as honestly as possible. Giving wrong information, even if accidentally, can result in an undue strategic advantage that would harm the integrity of a match. This does include instances where a player states whether they are going first or second during sideboarding and then changes their decision after decks are presented.

If a player is suspected of intentionally misinforming their opponent for strategic advantage, a Cheating penalty should be considered.

Corrective Procedure: If a judge determines that an action was taken or not taken (i.e., there was a chance to take an action that was not opted for), the Game State may be reverted to before that decision was made with information correctly accounted for. In the case of a miscommunication of first versus second to play after sideboarding procedures, judges should offer players a chance to redo their sideboards with the most recent declaration of first versus second taken as the intended decision.

Examples:

• A player is asked how many cards are left in their Main Deck and they reply “17” when they had 15, having miscounted, and the opponent activates Sink Oblivion targeting that player as a result.

• The losing player after a game states that they will go second as they are sideboarding but changes their decision and states they will instead play first as the decks are presented for a final cut/shuffle. Players should be offered a chance to redo sideboarding with the losing player dedicated to playing first, in this case.

• A player asks an opponent for their Influence, and they reply with "seven" when they have six, leading the player to believe they can activate Gloamspire, Black Market's ability, without benefiting their opponent.

Many times, errors in this category can be seen as a subset of Failure to Maintain Gamestate violations. Communication Policy Violations specifically cover communicated information, especially in contexts where the gamestate is being maintained sufficiently well by both players. Players and judges are encouraged to verify any verbalized or otherwise communicated information to avoid communication violations.