Judge's Den: Forcing Priority

This topic will be a little different than normal in that I can't actually give you a black and white answer to it. If you remember the first Judge's Den article posted here on Wizardden.com some of this will be a recap. Magic the Gathering has some rules that can be a sore spot for judges when we are asked to a table to rule on a situation. This particular rule boils down to the biggest problem in every TCG; communication. Here is that rule from the Tournament Rules:

• A statement such as "I'm ready for combat" or "Declare attackers?" offers to keep passing priority until an opponent has priority in the beginning of combat step. Opponents are assumed to be acting then unless they specify otherwise.

This is an example under the section on shortcuts. If you take a moment to recall the situation with Goblin Rabblemaster covered in a previous article, we can modify that situation slightly to create an entirely different outcome. Lets replace the phrase "move to combat" with "move to attacks" thereby purposing a shortcut to the declare attackers step. In this altered scenario the opponent's only response is "Hero's Downfall" targeting the Rabblemaster. If we strictly adhere to the rules on shortcuts we are to assume that spell was cast immediately prior to declaring attackers since he did not state otherwise. This means the goblin token has already been created and will presumably attack. Whisperwood Elemental creates the same situation when a player says "go" there by purposing a shortcut through the end step and on to their opponents turn granting them a manifest creature.

In essence these phrasings will trap opponents who don't say the right thing into accepting moving past some number of phases and any corresponding triggers. An argument can even be made for missing any triggers within the shortcut basically allowing players to modify the course of the game through sly wording.

All this sounds pretty bad doesn't it? Not to worry though, noble judges ride against what we call "gotcha magic" where you trick your opponent into something by a sleight of words or superior rules knowledge. This is where the judge's greatest tool when making a call comes in; the investigation. A simple question of "what happened here" can tell us everything we need to know. However this also opens a door for you to make the same mistake again. If you say that you moved to combat and tried to kill the creature well too bad, you're in combat and the token has been made. So be clear, "My opponent said move to attackers and I stopped him before the goblin trigger (or whatever trigger/action you're trying to avoid) with this spell (or whatever action you want to take)." Making your intent clear to the judge is the best thing you can do to preserve the game itself.

At the end of the day we are all here to play a game of Magic the Gathering. We may not have the same knowledge of the comprehensive rules text, silver tongues, or even speak the same language. We do all however know how to play the game and what it is we are trying to accomplish with each of our plays. It is up to the players to communicate as clearly as possible with their opponent, and when that doesn't work, with the judge so at the end of the day we can do what we all came here to do, play magic. This has been Ariel with Wizardden.com, thank you for reading.