Answering a question from a player in a Tournament

[Pokealjovin]

I've had a situation in a tournament, and I'd like to know how you would deal with the question.

One player called the judge.
That player asked:
- Can I play this card (pointing to Teammates in his hand, the other player doesn't see it), if my Pokémon dies of Poison?

Is it ok to answer "No", or should the judge answer something different?


How do you interact with the players; only if they call you about a situation, or can you "pop-up" in a match when you see a misplay? And obviously, the question I've started with, when a player is asking if a card can be used in a specific situation, like my example earlier?

 

[tutti]

If I recall correctly, you can tell the player if they can play a card right now. Whether they can play a card at some point in the future, you can't tell them, although I believe you can respond with "read the card" or something similar.

You should correct incorrect play as you see it, but leave bad (but valid) plays alone.

 

[FincastlePokemon2]

Another way to think about it is to ask the player "are you going to play that card/do that attack?" Because it is perfectly proper for a judge to comment/rule/respond to active (and actual) game situations. You cannot and should not advise (or answer questions) about things that haven't happened and might or might not happen during a game.

In the case of teammates, the person could "play" the card, and you would correctly rule that the card cannot be played because the Pokemon was knocked out by poison between turns. In this case, the Teammates would return to the hand (it could not be played) and the player would not have used their supporter for the turn.

There are other scenarios where choosing to play/do the thing they are asking about has negative consequences - but again, that is not in our purview - only whether the action is legal or not.

 

[pokeMATHter]

The big concern is the appearance of the player getting play advice from the judge. Not answering the question, until the card in question is put into play is a common response.

Another, less popular option is to reply to the player "I can answer that question, but I have to say the name of the card out loud - revealing to the opponent what the card in question is."

 

[clanfrazier]

I find an easy deflection from revealing the card and/or appearing to give advice is saying this..."Read the card(s) again, then see if you need to ask me the same question." Way more often than not, the player will have that light bulb moment, say nevermind and continue play. Card is kept unexposed, no advice or yes/no answer has been given, player has figured it out for him/herself and will likely remember it going forward. Hopefully, in the example above, the player then re-reads the card, realizes that KO from poison is not KO from damage by an opponents attack, and has their answer.

If it still hasn't been made clear after reading the card(s) in question again, then yeah, any of the above examples work.

 

[LOLZ]

I've had a situation in a tournament, and I'd like to know how you would deal with the question.

One player called the judge.
That player asked:
- Can I play this card (pointing to Teammates in his hand, the other player doesn't see it), if my Pokémon dies of Poison?

Is it ok to answer "No", or should the judge answer something different?


How do you interact with the players; only if they call you about a situation, or can you "pop-up" in a match when you see a misplay? And obviously, the question I've started with, when a player is asking if a card can be used in a specific situation, like my example earlier?

This is my approach:

Judges are present to enforce rules and answer questions for all players in a tournament, within the scope of one match answers to questions should be given to both players so there is no advantage/disadvantage in the form of knowledge gained by either side and to disallude any thought of coaching. If getting a lot of the same questions from many matches talk to your TO or HJ about making an announcement in between rounds to educate the entire tournament about how a card works.

When approaching a table, I try to gage who is about to ask the question. Good clues to figure out who is asking include: who calls for the judge, who looks like they are about to point to a card in hand, facial expression and body position. Approaching the match from the other side of the table from the player who potentially asking is a great way to disallude any thought of coaching. Ideally, the player will be more inclined to ask the question openly even though the card is in their hand. If approaching the player from their side of the table, they might be inclined to ask the question in private.

If a question is asked, both players should clearly hear the question and the answer so they know what cards are involved and how they interact with the rulebook and other cards in play.

Traps to Avoid:

• Approaching from the other side of the table is a good practice, but some players may want to show you cards that that are in their hand to ask their question in private. They may try to get you to come around to the other side of the table. Hold your ground, stay where you are, instruct the player to ask their question and inform them that both players must hear questions and answer given
  
• If asked about multiple cards that are not in play, ask them if it is relevant to this match, if it is not inform the player that you don’t do hypothetical ruling scenarios mid-match and have them ask in-between rounds.
  
• If asked about multiple cards that are not in play, ask them if it is relevant to this match, if it is and the cards are not in play yet (current format example opponent has Zubats in play and questions about Golbat/Crobat are asked), inform them that you cannot answer questions without reading the card first. Odds are if we are at this point, the player wants to know about how certain evolution pokemon that the opponent may have works in a given scenario, as the cards are nowhere in play yet, this is another hypothetical ruling that can wait until between round or until the cards actually come into play. In this case the player might be fishing for some idea of what a card does, they should have playtested better and became better familiar with the cards legal in the given format.

About “misplays”. Note, there are “misplays” and “mistakes”:

“Misplays” are LEGAL plays that are not strategically sound. In this case the “play” is legal, as judges we do nothing… except in the case where the player realizes the play is a mistake and wants to take it back, in this case, our answer is it is up to the opponent.

“Mistakes” are:

• ILLEGAL plays (2nd supporter, playing items when item locked, 2nd energy for turn).
• Forgotten game actions (drawing to start turn, poison, draw prizes for KO etc…).
• Usual screw ups (Hand into deck w/o card effect, drew extra card from deck, drew extra prizes.

If you see a “Mistake”, tell the players to STOP playing, and verify the error before fixing with appropriate fix/penalty, ideally if you see it happen just has it happen, you should be able to fix the gamestate to both players satisfaction without issuing a severe penalty (the exception being hand into deck w/o card effect, you would have to be really fast to stop this).