Originally posted by Chris Nowak:

It may be my newbishness to judging and to the Legacy format as well, but when there's that much room for squishiness and when the words all have very well defined meanings within magic, I default to “follow the written rules”. Unless I can pretty clearly tell if one player is trying to shark another.

<legacyplayerhat> I agree with this, to an extent. “Fish” is, indeed, a commonly used slang for Merfolk, which most Legacy players are used to. That said, it's also a very legal creature type to name with Cavern. If AP called “Fish”, meaning the slang for “Merfolk”, AP had better be darned sure NAP is willing to play along. If NAP plays along, I'm not going to step in and say “Hey guys, Fish means Fish”. Likewise, if this is game 2 and in game 1 AP also called “Fish” and NAP played along and now NAP is trying to “gotcha” AP into a losing situation, that's also not kosher.

What is kosher, however, is that some people weren't born playing Legacy and don't know that “Fish” means “Merfolk”. If NAP is one of these players (or is trying to “gotcha” AP into a bad play; I think the distinction is not entirely black-and-white, so I'm willing to accept either case), I'm willing to accept his claim that AP should be more clear in their plays, because, really, that's why we have Communication Policy.

In summary: If AP calls “Fish” and NAP plays along, that's fine. If it causes a problem, the onus is on AP to follow communication policy properly. </legacyplayerhat>

Originally posted by Scott Marshall:

I was waiting to see if someone would present a compelling argument for allowing Ahmed to change from a legal choice to the choice he meant - and no one's offered one.

Well, it's been a week now, and still the prevailing tone of this discussion is that Ahmed made a legal choice, and it sticks. (Loved that “fish sticks” you snuck in there, Evan!)

And, this is no longer a general discussion - I suspect a LOT of judges have already clicked on the “ignore this plzKthx” link - but a chat between a few people. In short, it's time we put a wrapper on this. (And it HAS to be a newspaper wrapper, on these fish & chats… OK, sorry, not nearly as clever as Evan Cherry…)

Anyway, here's my opinion: he said “Fish”, it's a legal choice; that Cavern of Souls is set to “Fish”. It's not too much to ask of players, in my opinion, that they own their choices. Ahmed has the wonderful opportunity to learn two valuable lessons: first, that using slang is not clear communication, and second that “fish” really is a valid creature type … but not the one he really wanted.

Thanks for all the input, everyone - I am not among the legion of “ignorePLZ” clickers. I read every post!

d:^D