CompREL constructed tournament. Player has registered a 60 card maindeck and a 0 card sideboard. He is picked for a deckcheck. In his box you find the 60-card deck and 15 blank cards in the same color sleeves. When you ask him about it, he says “Between games, I shuffle those 15 cards in then go through and take them out, so my opponent thinks I have a sideboard. Nobody ever asks for me to present my sideboard, but if asked to, I won't lie.”

Any infractions/penalties/fixes?

Can you define blank cards?

Originally posted by George FitzGerald:

Can you define blank cards?

I think it's some clean card, with clean face, or something like that… A card that represents nothing. Or a token.

Edited Vinicius Quaiato (April 24, 2014 05:45:57 AM)

I was referring to the blank, gold-bordered, non-magic-backed extra cards that came with the World Champs decks a few years back. Really, the scenario applies for any type of card that fits correctly in a sleeve and cannot be confused for a tournament legal card.

Edited Daniel Lee (April 24, 2014 05:51:56 AM)

Not legal magic cards, no infraction no penalty. As long as this action is not taking more than a short amount of time, players can do things to “mind game” their opponent.

I don’t think there is an infraction either. I would recommend this player to do exactly the same with basic lands, registering that as his sideboard. Not only is everything legal, but if his opponent asks to present his sideboard he can present the 15 cards.

I'd just like to clarify when an opponent asks to present the sideboard, they do not get to look at the contents. They only get to see how many cards are in the Sideboard. I highly doubt someone is going to ask their opponent to remove the cards from the sleeves to verify the legality of the cards. There is no problem even if they accidentally leave one of the “blank” cards in. At no point are the blanks legal cards. No infraction, No penalty even if they left one in the deck. I might issue a please stop that.

I actually would be a bit worried about a player presenting a fake sideboard, face down, if their opponent asks.

Before each game begins, players must present their sideboard (if any) face down and, if requested, allow their
opponents to count the number of cards in their sideboard. Players are not required to reveal how many cards they
have swapped from their main deck to their sideboard.

If an opponent counts 15 face-down non-cards, they've been given incorrect information. The sideboard isn't 15 cards, it's 0 cards, but my presenting 15 sleeves, the player has represented otherwise.

Doing the same thing with basic lands, per Federico's suggestion, sidesteps any legality issues. However, one shouldn't swap a dummy sideboard for a basic land sideboard after the tournament begins.

The player that asked me about this meant that if asked, he'd admit that he had no sideboard. I'll recommend the basic land strategy, since it accomplishes what he wants without appearing shady. Thanks everyone!

But, it's an infraction present a fake sidebord with no legal cards inside the sleeves? And if is, wich infraction would be?

Originally posted by Cristóbal Vigar Guerrero:

But, it's an infraction present a fake sidebord with no legal cards inside the sleeves? And if is, wich infraction would be?

I think we're quite close to investigation for cheating area if somebody really tries that kind of stuff…

I don't see a reason to issue a Warning for shuffling in a dummy sideboard between games. What game rule is being broken? What tournament rule is being broken that would result in an infraction according to the IPG. However, I would urge the player not to continue doing this. If a player wants to use a dummy sideboard, sleeve up and register 15 basic lands, or get creative and use silly cards.

If the player is presenting an illegal sideboard, it's time to investigate. Ask the player what he/she knows about the rules for sideboards. Why is he/she doing this? Knowledge + attempted advantage = DQ.

The infraction for presenting a sideboard without legal cards in it would fall under D/DLP:

The contents of the presented deck and sideboard do not match the decklist registered.

I think, under the IPG, that would be Lying, why? As i see, a player register no sideboard, after that he grab a bunch of tokens or advertising cards and “use them as sideboard” just to confuse their oponents. When somebody call for a judge to check his “sideboard”, this player is actually lying to his oponent, maybe he isn't taking an advantage, but is lying on hidden information.
So as the IPG says in Tournament Error, Deck/Decklist Problem. 3.9: The contents of the presented deck and sideboard do not match the decklist registered.
The player actually has announced 15 sideboard legal cards for use in this match, but there aren't sideboard cards registered in his Decklist Registration, so i think this should be treated in first instance as a Decklist Problem and can be increased to Lying to a Judge, why?, because in first instance as he present sideboard he's saying, im using this 15 cards as legal sideboard, then to a judge he says, actually i lie to my oponent because i have no sideboard at all.
If someone has more light to ad here, please do it :)

Originally posted by Talin Salway:

I actually would be a bit worried about a player presenting a fake sideboard, face down, if their opponent asks.

The player isn't presenting a sideboard, he's handing his opponent a pile of non-Magic cards. If there's no sideboard to present then not presenting one when asked shouldn't be a problem.

Intentionally mis-representing the number of objects in a zone? While this leads down the DQ path I do not feel that it meets all the requirements of a DQ. But it raises some flags.

what advantage is to be gained by masking whether or not a player sideboards?

There is a small advantage, some will argue. I don't think so.


Is this player aware that what they are doing is considered illegal?

We don't know unless we ask them. Chances are, probably not.


I think after all this discussion I would tell the player to not do that and continue on with the event.