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Competitive REL » Post: Abnormal product

Abnormal product

March 2, 2018 09:09:27 AM

Tomas Joska
Judge (Level 2 (International Judge Program)), Tournament Organizer

Europe - Central

Abnormal product

(this new topic collects feedback and arising questions from our local Czech forum)

Q1: Why is the abnormal product (further AP) not better/more accurate described in the MTR section? Imo there might be a short paragraph about:
  • booster with incorrect rarity distribution
    booster with too many/too few cards
    booster with cards from other sets
    booster with duplicates
    booster with damaged cards
    (hopefully I didn't miss anything else)
and about appropriate remedy.
Q2: When TO (HJ) labels the booster to be AP with “replace with a new one” remedy, what is the next step? Exchange the AP with a new one OR the player keeps the AP and gets a new one? Is there any “official policy” or is it only up to the specific TO? The TO may then ask the distributor for a refund for the AP, when he/she still has it, right?
Thanks!

March 7, 2018 07:37:45 AM

Scott Marshall
Forum Moderator
Judge (Level 4 (Judge Foundry)), Hall of Fame

USA - Southwest

Abnormal product

Originally posted by MTR 7.4:

Neither Wizards of the Coast nor the Tournament Organizer guarantee any specific distribution of card rarities or frequency in a particular booster pack or tournament pack. If a player receives an unconventional distribution of rarities or frequencies in a particular booster pack or tournament pack, he or she must call a judge. The final decision to replace or allow the atypical product is at the discretion of the Head Judge and the Tournament Organizer.

The HJ and TO typically collaborate on this decision; the TO will determine the options for replacing defective product, and the HJ will advise on the potential disruption for the event. Since there are many variables, policy can't describe all possible remedies. Some that I've seen:
* a specific card can be replaced by a proxy (e.g., one card is warped)
* the entire booster should be replaced (all rares, no rares, otherwise unsuitable for drafting and/or playing)
* all cards must be sleeved (because of smudges on the backs, or light crimping)
(Note that we have had to sleeve an entire booster before continuing a draft in similar cases)

The decision to allow the player to keep the defective booster is purely a business decision for the TO. If they choose to allow that, I'd consider holding the product until the completion of the event, so the player won't be tempted to add cards to their pool, and so their opponents won't suspect that.

d:^D