Abra: “Ok, turn over, go ahead.”

Naomi draws a card immediately (had nothing to untap).

Abra: “Uhh wait I might want to do something on your upkeep”

Naomi: “Err.. but I already drew a card?”

Abra: “Yea I know but you drew immediately.. you didn't give me any opportunity to do something”


How to resolve? Thanks

Does Abra want to do something at the upkeep or is it just a “maybe sometime in the future of the match”?

My understanding is Naomi wants to shortcut through the turn to her draw step. If Abra wants to do something in the upkeep step of the current round i'm likely willing to give him the chance by rewinding the card draw (put a random card back on the top of the library), Abra gets priority at the upkeep step and can take his action. The game then normaly goes on.

If Abra doesnt have any action to perform? A little education should be enough here - players shouldn't be forced to explicit announce every priority pass. If Abra wants to do something, he can easily interrupt the shortcut by saying something like “OK, turn over, go ahead. In your upkeep…” or something else that shows to Naomi that he wants to do an action in the upkeep step.

In this situation I think Abra didn't think immediately that he had something he wanted to do when he said “turn over, go ahead” but then as Naomi drew her card he realized he wanted to use his Wasteland to get rid of a land on Naomi's upkeep.

Edited Jeff Jeakins (July 27, 2014 08:29:31 AM)

Originally posted by Jeff Jeakins:

How to resolve? Thanks

The following thread from the Competitive forum may be worth reading…

http://apps.magicjudges.org/forum/topic/10828/

…and while we wouldn't apply infractions/penalties to Regular REL, there are a couple of important takeaways…

(1) We want to allow players to take shortcuts whenever it is possible and helps the game progress efficiently and quickly.
(2) We don't want players to play so quickly that they can “cutoff” their opponents and otherwise interfere with a response.
(3) Interrupting a shortcut is something we can accomplish as a judge, though each situation might be handled a little differently.

…and this situation isn't that difficult. As Rene points out, we want to make sure that Abra wants to do something in the upkeep and isn't trying to “Gotcha!” Naomi. We can backup to the point where Abra would be able to do something before Naomi draws for the turn. And, most importantly, we can educate the players to slow down a little bit and to communicate a little more and otherwise confirm card draws. Educating the players on this point ensures that while the players can play efficiently, they do ensure they can resolve a spell or perform some game action while giving their opponent a chance to do something.