Deck Issue

Penalty: Warning

Definitions and Philosophy: When a player’s Main Deck, Material Deck, or sideboard contents do not match with a registered decklist submitted at an event.

When an event requires a submitted decklist, the list indicates the intention of what the player wishes to play in the event. Players are expected to conform their decks to that list and any deviations might detract from the integrity of the event formats. Issues in the decks that a player owns might be commonly found for a variety of reasons, including accidental inclusion of cards from an opponents deck, mixing of Main Deck and Material deck cards, or forgetting to undo any sideboarding that took place within a match before the next one.

This infraction excludes any proxied cards mandated for use by a Judge as well as any cards that are reasonably separate from a player’s Main Deck, Material Deck, and Sideboards.

Players should maintain good organization of cards being used in a given tournament to avoid accidental mixing of non-tournament cards that might lead to a deck issue. Players are expected to observe and watch for potential deck errors before any advantage or disadvantage can result. A Game Loss penalty is a justifiable upgrade to deter any abuse in these respects.

If there is a concern for an intentionally made deck issue that confers an advantage to the offending player, cheating should be investigated with the proper penalty as Cheating as opposed to just a deck issue.

Corrective Procedure: Missing cards should be located among the decks and any game zones that the card might be in. Those cards are then revealed to an opponent who then may choose which of those cards replaces each of the incorrect cards. If cards are simply missing or found in absence, the missing cards are instead revealed and shuffled into the random portion of their appropriate decks.

If it is not the first game and missing cards are found within the sideboard, the missing cards are revealed and placed in their appropriate decks. If cards are added to the Main Deck, the Main Deck is first shuffled and then, for each card added, a random card is removed and placed into the Sideboard. If cards are to be added to the Material Deck, the player may first set aside and reveal any champion cards from among the Material Deck, shuffle the remaining non-revealed cards after the missing cards have been added, and remove a card at random from those cards for each card added.

If the Material Deck constraints are violated due to a deck issue caused by multiple Divine Relics, the player reveals all cards in the Material Deck with the Divine Relic keyword and an opponent chooses which from among them is kept while the others are replaced.

Extra or missing cards found belonging to another player require the penalty to be applied to both players.

Upgrading: If an invalid number of cards is determined during pre-game shuffling or in a deck check, or if a sideboard has too many cards, the penalty is upgraded to a Game Loss.

If a deck issue is identified with more copies of a card in a Main Deck or Material Deck than would be allowed by deckbuilding constraints after a game has started, and one of the cards has been drawn, played, or entered any zone apart from the Main or Material Decks, the penalty is upgraded to a Game Loss. Otherwise, corrective procedures are sufficient.

Examples:

• A player presents a deck for shuffling containing fewer cards than the minimum required for a format.

• In the first game of a match, a player has a card that is listed as a Sideboard card on their submitted decklist but no copies listed in the Main Deck.