Welcome back to the Knowledge Pool everyone. This week we have yet another Silver scenario. As always, L2s should wait until friday to enter the fray.

During a deck check at a Modern PPTQ, you notice that Percy has an extra card in one of the sleeves of his sideboard. The sideboard contains two copies of Surgical Extraction, and the extra card is a third copy of Surgical Extraction. It is faced backwards behind another sideboard card. Other than that, his deck is legal. You return to the table and pull Percy aside, where he explains that he was given his 15th sideboard card last minute, and had nowhere else to put the card he was removing. He also mentions that during the pregame procedure, he showed his sideboard to his opponent and pointed out the doubled cards, even informing and showing his opponent that the reversed card is Surgical Extraction. Percy's opponent, Olivia, confirms the story. What do you do?

Edited Joe Klopchic (Aug. 9, 2017 01:20:55 PM)

At first this appears to be a IPG 3.5 Tournament Error - Deck Problem that results in a warning.

However, a quick review of the annotated IPG lead to this gem, “Players that present their sideboard by removing it from their deck box and identifying it to the opponent at the start of the match should not receive this penalty, even if there are other cards remaining in the deck box that don’t fit one of the above exceptions. Players should be encouraged to get into this habit.”

I don't fully see how this follows from the policy as written since the written policy seems to only allow for 3 exceptions.

Having said that, we have no penalty. Encourage the player to continue to present the sideboard to all opponents in all matches.

I agree with Mark that this is not a Deck Problem because Percy identified his sideboard to Olivia before the start of the game (and specifically excluded the reversed third copy of Surgical Extraction).

We need to consider whether this would be a TE- Marked Cards, but the IPG states that “Differently-marked sleeves in the sideboard are not illegal unless they are put into the deck without being changed.”

So I agree with Mark that there is no infraction and no penalty, but I would advise Percy to find a different place to store this card. I would remind him that he needs to ensure that he does not play any games with the sleeved double card in his deck, and if he swaps the card sleeve into his deck during sideboarding, he would be facing a penalty for Marked Cards.

It's pretty frustrating that the AIPG tries to introduce totally new policy here. If presenting your sideboard is actually intended to get you out of this, the IPG should say so. As the IPG is currently written, this is clearly a Deck Problem.

Philosophically, I'm not sure why presenting your sideboard ought to absolve you of this. Even if you do so game 1, it would still be very easy to side in all three Extractions in game 2, and simply not call attention to it in the same way. The temptation to do this is even stronger in this case, since the player knows they almost certainly won't get deck-checked twice in the same round.

Edited Jake Eakle (Aug. 9, 2017 01:06:55 PM)

One of the sleeves has two cards in it - which is a third copy of Surgical Extraction.

To me this is warning for TE - Marked Cards. The MTR states that all cards must be sleeved in an identical manner. These are not. The sleeves should also be checked for opacity to ensure Percy wasn't attempting to get an edge by looking at what the card was through the back of his sleeve.

I don't see this as a TE - Deck Problem because the card was not in it's own sleeve.

To be clear, we mean that Percy presented his sideboard, showed Olivia that it was 15 cards, and pointed out that one of the sleeves had an extra card and that that card wasn't part of the sideboard. Percy didn't reveal the contents of his sideboard.

This process is common in Japan, and I imagine elsewhere.

Edited Joe Klopchic (Aug. 9, 2017 02:26:08 PM)

Originally posted by Bryon Boyes:

One of the sleeves has two cards in it

Oh, is that what the scenario means? I read it as meaning “he has 16 sleeved cards in a group, 15 of which are the sideboard, and one of which is the extra Surgical, facing backwards.” But looking at it in light of your post, you're clearly right.

However, I don't think it can be Marked Cards:

Originally posted by IPG 3.8:

This infraction applies only to cards in a player’s deck. Differently-marked sleeves in the sideboard are not illegal unless they are put into the deck without being changed.

This does invalidate my argument regarding the ease of cheating, though – since Percy would have to very obviously remove Extraction and the other card from the sleeve, reverse Extraction, and re-sleeve it. However, it also invalidates Mark's reasoning about the quote from the AIPG, which only mentions "other cards remaining in the deck box.“

Therefore, I am even more convinced that it's a Deck Problem. Very literally, ”there are extra cards stored with the sideboard that could conceivably be played in the player’s deck", which do not match any of the three exceptions, and which are not left behind in the deck box after the sideboard is presented.

Edited Joe Klopchic (Aug. 9, 2017 02:29:23 PM)

If this was discovered during a Deck Check by a Judge, and since the IPG is in use due to the Competitive nature of a PPTQ, shouldn't the presented ‘deck-box’ of cards contain only tokens, cards in the deck, sideboard cards and any tournament promo cards?

This seems like it would be an infraction under IPG 3.5 Tournament Error - Deck Problem. I feel like even though they informed their opponent of the extra card hidden in the sleeve, we are trying to discourage the behavior of having other cards in a ‘deck-box’ so that nothing can be misconstrued as Cheating (such as a case much like this one we're discussing). Would a penalty of a Warning be given, and the player asked to find another place to put their extra copy of Surgical Extraction?

This does feel like a Deck Problem to me. A card is stored with the sideboard which could conceivably be played in his deck, and it does not fit one of the exceptions.

If the card had been in his deckbox, but the player presented his sideboard separately (and kept his sideboard out of his deckbox for the duration of the match), I would rule that the extra card is not actually being stored with the sideboard, and thus no infraction.

It does feel a bit harsh, and the potential for cheating is low, since Olivia can ask to see the extra card at any time, but keeping an extra card with the sideboard like this is extremely unwise, and players should not be encouraged to do so. I can't find anything in the IPG to suggest that I can rule anything other than a Deck Problem. I would ask Percy to find another place to store the card, as even if he presented his sideboard separately this round, I have no idea if he did it in previous rounds, or might do it in future rounds.

If I felt there was anything shifty going on, I might find his previous opponents and ask about Percy's pre-game statements, and sideboarding.

There needs to be a “Like” button.

Originally posted by Jake Eakle:

Originally posted by IPG 3.8:This infraction applies only to cards in a player’s deck. Differently-marked sleeves in the sideboard are not illegal unless they are put into the deck without being changed.

Missed that!

Thanks everyone for the participation this week.

Mark pointed out a good line of analysis from the AIPG, that players who explicitly state what their sideboard is are somewhat safe from a penalty here.

While Percy does have an extra card with his sideboard, which would normally be a Deck Problem, this is legal. The MTR requires players to present their sideboard, since this isn't always done, we default to “whatever else is in the deck box.” By pointing out exactly which cards are his sideboard, Percy avoids a penalty here.

Thank Percy for following an obscure rule, and make sure he understands the consequences should he fail to present his sideboard. Even if he is going to explicitly point out his sideboard each match, he should still remove the extra card from the sleeve, leave it in his box and keep his sideboard outside of the box, to avoid confusion.

P.S. - not presenting your sideboard is not an infraction, and reminding players that it is expected is not a bad idea.