This is something that I saw at FNM. I didn't say anything at the time because I was pretty sure it was legal, but I'm wondering what you're supposed to do at Competitive (or how much the players are allowed to do) since it seems like a situation that could easily come up.

Ajani is at 6 life with a bunch of ground creatures. Nissa controls a Goblin Rabblemaster and a Goblin token from the Rabblemaster. Ajani casts Lightning Strike on the Rabblemaster, tapping a Battlefield Forge for the red mana and visibly recording the life total change on his life pad. He then passes the turn.

Nissa untaps and draws Butcher of the Horde, casting it. She then spends a few seconds thinking out loud about “I don't think I can even attack here, you have a bunch of cards in hand so I'm pretty sure you just untap and kill me”. Ajani realizes that Nissa didn't record the life total change from the Battlefield Forge earlier and her life pad still says “6” on it.

1. At what point is Ajani supposed to say “No, I'm actually at 5 life?” I would think that as long as Nissa doesn't say the words “You're at six”, Ajani isn't obligated to correct her. But I'm unsure about this; Nissa clearly has the game state wrong.

2. Does the fact that Ajani didn't verbally say “I take one from my land” change anything? I never really verbalize these things, but I make it clear that I'm taking damage by tapping the land, writing down the life total change, then casting the spell.

I see nothing wrong here. No rules have been violated and it's the responsibility of each player to maintain the game state. As life totals are free information all Nissa must ask is what his life total is. At that point if ajani says he's at 6 he has cheated and should be given USC-cheating and be disqualified.

Edit: Scott Marshall knows all

Edited Walker Metyko (Dec. 13, 2014 05:27:41 PM)

A couple relevant lines from MTR 2.14:

A change in a player’s life total should be accompanied by a verbal announcement by that player of the new life total.
If a player notices a discrepancy in a recorded or announced life total, he or she is expected to point it out as soon as the discrepancy is noticed.

So, Ajani noticed a life total discrepancy; this must be pointed out as soon as it's noticed. And Ajani - like so many players - failed to comply with the first of those two sentences. It is a rule, and it's been broken; however, it's a Tournament Rule, not a Game Rule. So, is it an infraction?

Unlike Game Rules, which have the general, catch-all category of Game Play Error - Game Rule Violation, there isn't a Tournament Error - Other. And none of the specific Tournament Error infractions match this (look closely at Communication Policy Violation, and the four rules points in MTR 4.1, it's not a CPV). So, no infraction… however!

If you believe Ajani knew about the life total discrepancy, then this could be Unsporting Conduct - Cheating. It certainly meets the first two of the three criteria:

• A rule was broken, and the player didn't call attention to it;
  
• Ajani would clearly gain advantage from this;
  
• is Ajani aware that this is illegal?
  

That third one is tricky, and certainly not something we can resolve here, in this forum; it's something you have to decide, based on your investigation. It's plausible that Ajani honestly believes it's OK to allow that life total discrepancy, or at least that it's not his/her duty to point it out - hey, Nissa made the mistake, it must be Nissa's responsibility … right? (No, but you might believe that's what Ajani was thinking.)

A misconception that I want to clear up: you do NOT have to “prove” Ajani was Cheating. You (as Head Judge) only have to decide that you believe that's what happened. You'll feel better about it if you can explain to others how you “knew” it was Cheating; however, you only have to convince yourself that you're doing the right thing. (I mention this because a recent post, in another thread, said something like “good luck ever proving that”…)

d:^D

Thank you for your answer :)

I do think its weird that there are cases where a tournament rule is broken but there's no way to assign a penalty for it. Are there any other instances of this in the rulebooks?

If I'm watching this happen as a judge, and I don't believe it to be cheating (A believes you don't have to update opponent for instance), how do you recommend correcting it? Or do we? It feels very much like a situation that would be on the line of coaching.

Do we just step up and ask about the life discrepancy on their pads? Since, as Scott says, there's no technical infraction to issue, is there a different way to approach it (or not)?

Originally posted by Henry Cao:

I do think its weird that there are cases where a tournament rule is broken but there's no way to assign a penalty for it. Are there any other instances of this in the rulebooks?

Lots!

As Scott noted, while we have GRV to cover all “left over” CR violations, here is nothing to cover “left over” MTR violations. Some examples of things that thus have no penalty are violating the electronic device policy, failing to present one's sideboard (violated all the time), and indeed not having knowledge of the MTR.

But there doesn't need to be a penalty to handle these situations; you can just ask players to do/not do whatever it is. And if the keep doing the wrong thing, your request means that their noncompliance is now USC-Minor.

As James pointed out, there are so many potential violations of the MTR and
many of them are so minor and easy to correct with a simple instruction
that there's really no reason to have a codified catch-all infraction. For
instance, did you know that not bringing a pen with you to a tournament is
technically a violation of MTR 1.10 if you have no other life-keeping
method? How many warnings do you imagine you'd be giving out on a regular
basis if there was a catch-all infraction that covered MTR 1.10?

Certainly this is a Cheating investigation situation, but the conclusion of
that is basically up to you, as Scott said.

Originally posted by Jason Lauborough:

If I'm watching this happen as a judge, and I don't believe it to be cheating (A believes you don't have to update opponent for instance), how do you recommend correcting it? Or do we? It feels very much like a situation that would be on the line of coaching.

Do we just step up and ask about the life discrepancy on their pads? Since, as Scott says, there's no technical infraction to issue, is there a different way to approach it (or not)?

Just step in, ask nicely for the discrepancy (to be sure that you are adjusting the correct amount of life) and remember them that they should announce verbaly any change in life totals :-)