This situation came up at a Limited (JBT Draft) event I was judging at the other day. NAP controls an Eidolon of Rhetoric. AP casts an Aura on one of NAP's creatures, and then casts Feast of Dreams to kill that creature. Neither player remembers the Eidolon is in play. AP passes the turn, NAP draws a card, and it is at this point that you are called as a judge. You watched this sequence of plays happen (you were watching this match in a spectator capacity prior to being asked to rule on this) and you do not believe there was any sort of cheating or trickery involved by either player (you also missed the in-play Eidolon and did not step in to correct AP on his play).

What's the call? This event is being held at Regular REL, so you can't give a GRV/FtMGS in this scenario, but do you back up, and if so, how do you approach it?

If any of it is noteworthy, some additional information which you may want to use in your assessment (I know which pieces of information I used in my ruling, but you may want additional information for your own):

1) NAP was tapped out on AP's turn.
2) AP tapped out to cast the Feast of Dreams.
3) Based on various details of the board state, you are 100% confident that AP would not have cast the Aura if he had remembered the Eidolon in play.
4) Due to personal knowledge of the players involved, I will state that if you were to ask AP or NAP regarding precisely which lands AP tapped to cast Feast of Dreams, neither player would be able to give you an accurate answer.

Edited Lyle Waldman (May 29, 2014 01:04:18 AM)

In the IPG 2.5. Game Play Error - Game Rule Violation, it states under remedies:

If not caught within a reasonable time frame, or backing up is impossible or sufficiently complex that it could affect the course of the game, the judge should leave the game state as it is…

After asking both players which lands were tapped for Feast of Dreams, if neither of them nor I remember, I would not back up the game at all. Also, from Judging at Regular REL:

Fix anything that is currently illegal (e.g. an Aura enchanting an illegal permanent) and continue the game. If the error was caught uickly and rewinding is relatively easy, you may choose to undo all the actions back to the point that the illegal action happened. This can include returning random cards from the hand to the library to undo card draws (though don't shuffle the library if you do this) and reversing various other actions (such as untapping permanents and declaring attackers or blockers). Don't go crazy with this!

Noticing that in IPG 2.5, it says I can get permission from the Head Judge to back up the game, and in Judging at Regular REL it says I may back up the game, I think I would leave every card in the zone it is in and remind both players to be more careful.

Sounds like a simple enough backup for regular rel. Bring the game back to the aura has resolved but before feast is cast.

Point 3) is irrelevant. The fact is that he didn't notice/realise it was in play. Lesson learned. (He'll just have to cast feast another time).

As for which lands to untap, at least one is a swamp, make your best guess as to the other.

A side note - when spectating at regular rel like this, I strongly recommend stepping in when you see the second spell cast, rather than waiting to be called. If you witness an infraction it's best to fix it sooner rather than wait to be called. Imagine what everyone would think if nobody had realised the error until the game was over? “You only one because you forgot the eidolon. And the judge just watched and let it happen! Some judge”. We can't be having players think things like that ;)

Mark's post sums up my position entirely.

We're trying to educate here - you should step in once the illegal action of casting a second spell occurs.

Edited Jack Doyle (May 29, 2014 03:52:22 AM)

Originally posted by Lyle Waldman:

(you also missed the in-play Eidolon and did not step in to correct AP on his play)

While I agree that it's wise to step in when you see something illegal happening, it's quite hard to do so if you missed it. And let's be honest, it's easy to miss something in Magic when you're just a spectator.

But even then, I agree it feels quite easy to back up here, not a lot of decision points have passed since the error.

Originally posted by Lyle Waldman:

This event is being held at Regular REL

Pi Fisher
In the IPG 2.5. Game Play Error - Game Rule Violation, it states under remedies:

If not caught within a reasonable time frame, or backing up is impossible or sufficiently complex that it could affect the course of the game, the judge should leave the game state as it is…

Just to let you know, the IPG is only used to handle violations at competitive REL, not regular REL, so GPE-GRV does not apply in this case.

The judging at regular REL document http://wpn.wizards.com/sites/wpn/files/attachements/Magic_The_Gathering_Judging_at_Regular_REL_PDF1.pdf is the proper guide for this situation.

Edited Eric Paré (May 29, 2014 08:01:25 AM)

I agree with Mark, the backup seems fairly simple to do. As for which
lands to untap, the argument can be made that since neither player can
remember which two lands were tapped for Feast (except that one was a
Swamp, obviously), then it is not relevant which one it is and our best
guess is sufficient for these purposes. If neither player cares which land
you're going to untap, then it doesn't seem to make much difference that we
can't be 100% sure which one it is “supposed” to be.

Normally I'd consider not being able to tell which lands need untapped as an indication of “too complicated to rewind”, it sounds like the players don't really care. So the general principal at Regular of “if the players are happy with the result, then it's a good result” can do its thing.

Something broken happened, and it's not complicated to rewind it in a legal fashion that both players are OK with, so I'd rewind back to just before the actual game error (casting the 2nd spell), not the bad play.

If the opponent offers to let him go back further, I wouldn't object and I'd help make sure that happened cleanly. But I wouldn't make the call that way, or suggest it in any way.

Thanks, guys. At the time I decided not to rewind because each player had already drawn a card (the aura had a cantrip effect on it) and I judged that to be too much to rewind back through. In retrospect, perhaps a rewind was appropriate, since I wouldn't actually have had to rewind back through the aura being cast, just through the Feast of Dreams.

To Mark: As Dustin pointed out, I missed the Eidolon in play when I was spectating the match. Had I noticed it, I would have stepped in immediately, of course (I tend to do this quite regularly at Regular events, and I've gotten some…words, let's say…from people who have wanted their opponents to miss mandatory triggers and so on). I agree with you completely on that, but as Dustin said, it's rather hard to step in when you yourself missed it =D

Edited Lyle Waldman (May 30, 2014 01:49:28 AM)