Level Two - Lesson 15

Competitive Policy Guide - Card Manipulation Error

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Hello there!

Welcome back to the level two lessons for the Star Wars™: Unlimited Judge Program!

As always, I’m your host Jonah, and this lesson is going to take a deeper look at the Card Manipulation Error policy and a few other infractions involving errors that specifically involve errors with cards, well, being manipulated. The full list includes Open Card Manipulation Error, Hidden Card Manipulation Error, Mulligan Error and Incorrect Randomization. This includes any errors where players see the faces of cards they shouldn’t - whether by mis-resolving game abilities or dexterity errors.

This is a very tricky corner of policy because, by its very nature, it involves hidden information, and consequently, can be difficult or impossible for the opponent to verify knowledge, which makes remedying these errors challenging.

As always with policy, this is an area that is continually being refined and will grow and evolve as play also continues to evolve. This does make it a bit of a challenge to both learn and teach, so this is likely a lesson that will similarly evolve over time. I want to call out Mulligan Error, as the text as of Secrets of Power has some contradictions within itself and some redundant and confusing language.

Sets of Cards

A lot of this lesson is going to talk about “sets of cards” - it’s not a term defined in the Game Rules, but in the Tournament Regulations - it’s not language that has any meaning for the game, but it helps us enforce policy.

A set of cards is physically distinct. Usually, your hand, resources, and deck would be three separate sets, but if you accidentally drop cards from your hands into your resources, they become a multi-zone set.

If you’re picking up cards to search for Grand Moff Tarkin, those cards are considered a set, distinct from the rest of the deck. If you pick up your Hand (the zone) with your other hand (the body part), they’re still two separate sets, but if the two sets physically touch, they become one set.

An important distinction is that if a card hasn’t been seen and hasn’t had the opportunity to be seen by either player, it’s considered to be a part of its previous set (usually the deck, as cards in the Hand and Resource zone both have been seen by players). This means that if a player hasn’t seen a card that left the physical deck, it’s very likely not an infraction, and can just be returned to the deck.

Incorrect Randomization

We’re going to start with the error that occurs last in the Competitive Policy Guide of these four - Incorrect Randomization. This one is relatively straightforward and occurs when a player randomizes a set of cards in a way that they shouldn’t. Usually, this involves randomizing a deck or portion of a deck.

If a player resolves Darth Vader - Commanding the First Legion’s search effect, and then shuffles the cards away, instead of putting them on the bottom of the deck, they’ve committed Incorrect Randomization. Similarly, if a player absentmindedly cuts or shuffles their opponent’s deck, the same infraction applies.

If there are any cards that have a known location within the deck, this can be very disruptive. A player who saw the game-winning Superlaser Blast in their search who shuffles it back in is now potentially able to draw that card much earlier than they should have been able to. Inversely if a player puts cards to the bottom of their deck because they’re not valuable draws with Inferno Four, and their opponent shuffles, they now are more likely to draw low-value cards that they shouldn’t be drawing.

This isn’t something that can be cleanly addressed, and consequently, the default penalty is a game loss.

However, there are two downgrade clauses available.

The first is if the judge is able to work with the players, using information that was publicly available and can be confirmed by both players to determine what cards were where - for example cards were placed on the bottom of the deck with Restock, then the penalty is a warning. Similarly, if cards from public zones go into the deck, the error is generally correctable after an investigation. Finally, if the entire deck was already in an entirely random order, the game proceeds with a warning.

The second downgrade is if this is the first time the player has received the infraction and called attention to it themselves. This is a set of conditions used throughout the Competitive Policy Guide, to allow some leniency and grace to players who catch their own errors. If this is the case, cards are put back in their proper location as best able, but otherwise left randomized.

Taking a philosophical tangent, while this policy was being developed, there was discussion of utilizing the Hidden Card Manipulation Error fix, instead of issuing a game loss. This was determined to be too damaging to game integrity. The hypothetical remedy, after determining how many cards were at the top and bottom of the deck with both players, would be allowing the opponent of the player who made the error to look through the affected set and choose the appropriate number of cards to put in those locations.

Mulligan Error

Moving up in the document, we encounter Mulligan Errors. Mulligan Errors are aptly named - they occur when a player makes an error in drawing their opening hand or mulliganing.

Drawing too few cards, as long as the game has not yet started, is not an infraction, and the player should be instructed to draw up to the requisite number. Once the game has started, this is treated as an Inaccurate Mandatory Ability.

If excess cards were removed from the deck, but the player has not yet had the opportunity to see the faces of those cards, it is not an infraction, and the excess should be returned to the deck.

If excess cards were drawn and seen, now we have a problem, but one that is solvable. This should be addressed using the Hidden Card Manipulation Error remedy. If the player has not yet taken a mulligan, they can choose to take their mulligan now. This remedies the error, and doesn’t provide an incentive to draw excess cards - but if the player knows that the hand should be mulliganed after the best card is removed, they can skip that step and save everyone time. Of course, they still receive a warning.

If the error is that the player mulligans when they’re not allowed to - either after already taking a mulligan or if the active player changes their mind after their opponent makes their decision, the penalty is a Game Loss. This is another situation that isn’t reasonable to remedy.

Again, the Hidden Card Manipulation Error remedy was discussed, but the opponent picking the starting hand is effectively a game loss, and incredibly disruptive, and so it was determined to just cut to the chase.

Identifying Information

Now, let's get to the meat and potatoes of this lesson - we’ve talked a lot about the Hidden Card Manipulation Error remedy, so let’s start to look at Open and Hidden Card Manipulation Errors.

With any Card Manipulation Error, there are two key components to how you handle the situation.

The first is determining which cards a player incorrectly manipulated. Manipulation, in this case, can refer to a variety of things

There are many other situations where cards can accidentally move between hidden zones or be looked at when they should remain hidden.

Sometimes it will be easy to identify which card is the problematic one. For dexterity errors, you’ll frequently see a single face-up card, or a card that both players can agree doesn’t belong in play.

However, sometimes a dexterity error can result in less clarity, for example, if a card is face down and among poorly organized resources.

If the opponent of the player can clearly identify which card is the problematic card, it is an Open Card Manipulation Error, and we can use that information in the fix.

An example of this happening is a player attacking with R2-D2 - Full of Solutions, and picking up the top card of their deck, then calling a judge and saying that they thought it was R2-D2 - Ignoring Protocol.

The card that they have accessed has not been mingled with any other zone, and while the active player is the only one who can confirm any attributes of the card, the non-active player can confirm that it is the same physical card.

Similarly, there are some cases where a card is flipped over, where the opponent can easily and clearly identify a specific card as the erroneous card.

Damaging Information

However, once the active player has manipulated the erroneous card into a set of other hidden cards, it becomes much more difficult to remedy. For example, if an extra card is accidentally added to the resources, and it’s clear that the player has not manipulated the card, we can remedy the situation with that card.

However, once the player moves cards around - even if they’re trying to clarify the situation to their opponent - if the cards remain hidden, it becomes much more probable that the opponent can no longer identify the erroneous card specifically.

Similarly, if a card gets shuffled into the deck or added to the hand while a player is holding those cards, it can be difficult for the opponent to confirm the identity of the card, because the player could very easily move cards around. These fall under Hidden Card Manipulation Errors.

It is important to ask the opponent if they are able to identify the card that needs to be addressed. We don’t ask the player who committed the error, because, while we don’t assume that a player is malicious, allowing them to make that decision makes it so that the error can result in a significant advantage for malicious players. Mitigating that advantage disincentivizes players from making errors.

Open Card Manipulation Error Remedy

The remedy for Open Card Manipulation Errors is relatively simple - we take the erroneous card and put it back where it belongs.

Hidden Card Manipulation Error Remedy

Hidden Card Manipulation Errors take a bit more work to remedy. If you’re unable to identify which card or cards are the ones that must be remedied easily, there are a few more steps we can take.

First, we can ask to see both players’ notes. If a player played Spark of Rebellion and wrote down their opponent’s hand, we can use that information to preserve some of the cards that are still in that player’s hand, as we can know that they are supposed to be there. However, when utilizing this information, it’s important to account for the fact that players are allowed to resource cards, and that information is private.

If the opponent says “I know they have an Alliance X-Wing and a Battlefield Marine,” and you indicate that only one card can be preserved, that gives the opponent information that they didn’t necessarily have - now they know that one of those cards has been resourced. However, a minor advantage for the player who did not commit the error is an acceptable outcome of the remedy, as long as it results in a more natural fix.

However, even ruling out cards this way, there is still likely a chance that there are unknown cards, and it’s important to remove the excess cards and return them to the proper zone.

The process for remedying Hidden Card Manipulation Errors, while it does mitigate any potential advantage for the infracting player does grant a minor advantage to their opponent, and does reveal information, which has a lasting impact on the game, and pushes it further from a natural game state. Consequently, this is a fix that should be applied with care, and it is important more so than many other remedies to make sure that the players understand the fix.

After explaining the fix to both players, have the player lay the affected zone face up on the table, and have the opponent select a card by strategic choice. This method removes the card that the most invested player (the opponent) believes is the most impactful. This has the upside of mitigating any potential advantage the player could have gained from accessing the card. The player’s opponent will pick the best card in the player’s hand to remove. If the player who committed the error needed one specific card to win, and just drew that card, they definitely won’t be gaining an advantage after this fix. However, if the player authentically and legally had that card, but had been waiting to play it until they had enough resources or for better strategic timing, this fix can result in a very non-organic outcome.

If the player was the one who identified the issue and it’s their first time committing the infraction, instead of this fix where the set is revealed and a card selected by the opponent, instead have the set placed face-down and have the opponent select a card at random. We want to give the players some grace, but we don’t want to create scenarios where the fix doesn’t actually address the advantage gained. If it’s not the first time or if the opponent is the one who recognized the issue, the full process should be utilized. The downside of this fix is that it doesn’t always negate the advantage. For example, if the player should have four cards in hand, but now has five, taking a card at random only has a 20% chance of selecting the erroneous card. If the player needed that specific card to win or to take a significant advantage, it is very possible that the outcome of the game changes because of this remedy.

Addressing the Issue

Once you’ve identified the erroneous card, whether it was a simple process where there is certainty which card was manipulated, or there is uncertainty, we need to fix the issue. This applies to both Open and Hidden Card Manipulation Errors.

If the error involved a card erroneously leaving the hand, the fix is simple. Return that card to the player's hand and then proceed.

If the error involved a card leaving the resource zone, you must reconstruct how many resources were ready and exhausted. Check with both players about which cards were played this round and which abilities were activated. Because players can freely swap which resources are ready and which are exhausted, as long as they keep quantities consistent, you don’t need to have the status of the specific card accurate, just the counts. Once you have that information, return the card to the resource zone in the correct state.

Returning Cards to the Deck

If the error involved a card leaving the deck, you must reconstruct which cards were known within the deck. For example, if a player had resolved Darth Vader - Commanding the First Legion once and put eight cards on the bottom of the deck, those cards are in a known location. While the specific order within those eight cards should be random, it’s important to preserve that information. Similarly, if the card was a known card from the top of the deck (for example, because the player had resolved R2-D2 - Ignoring Protocol), that card is preserved. If the card was known, it is returned to that location.

If the card was unknown, it is shuffled into the unknown portion of the deck. Asking players if they know the location of any cards in their deck is key to these remedies - take a moment to go through each player’s in-play cards and discard piles, and ask how relevant abilities were resolved. This can sometimes get tricky - if a player is playing Yoda - Sensing Darkness, and is unsure how many times they’ve activated his ability, or how many times they’ve put a card on the bottom of their deck, do your best to work with them through previous turns to reconstruct the information as best you can. You can also ask the opponent to step away from the table, so the player can talk about their strategic decisions more freely - they might be able to say “last turn I needed a Takedown, so I definitely activated Yoda, and the card was garbage so I put it on the bottom” - that’s not something that they would want to say in front of their opponent, but helps you resolve this situation.

However, you’re not always going to have full information about the order of the deck - and that’s okay. This is where your judgment comes in again. If the deck still has a lot of cards in it, shuffling a card that should be on the bottom of the deck into the rest of the deck is more disruptive than leaving one random card near the bottom of the deck. However, if the unknown portion of the deck is very small, leaving a card that should be randomized can be slightly disruptive - however, these disruptions are very minor, and being off by one or maybe two isn’t significant.

Investigating and Wrapping Up

Players adding cards to their hand or resources, or taking cards from their resources that they had played early, can result in a significant advantage. It is always important to investigate players when you have a potential concern. This investigation should occur even if the player called the error on themselves.

Of course, we’re going to talk about investigations in depth in future lessons, but you can quickly look at the cards that they accessed or have in their hand now. If they have multiple answers, the likelihood of malicious behavior drops dramatically - they already had an out before the error.

With these errors, particularly when cards are being revealed, you want to take the remedy in multiple steps - you want to explain the process to the players but not have them take action - if they start to shuffle cards into a deck or reveal cards, and then realize they want to appeal or they misunderstood you, it’s hard to undo those things.

Then, after you’ve explained it to both players and gotten their acknowledgement, go over it one more time and have them perform the fix. They should be the ones manipulating the cards, not you. It’s important to stick around to make sure they do it properly and you can catch them if they’re going to go off the rails.

Card Manipulation Error does come with a warning, but it’s nothing to worry about unless players make a habit out of it.

With our next lesson, we’ll be stepping out of Gameplay Disruptions, where players make mistakes per the comprehensive rules, and switch to Tournament Disruptions, which are errors in Tournament Regulations. We’ll be starting with decks and decklist policies, errors and remedies, and following it up with the next lesson covering deck checks and marked cards. If you’re watching this on YouTube, and you want more level two lessons in your feed, go ahead and subscribe. Join us on twitch.tv/swu_judges for live broadcasts covering the content of these lessons as they are released, and join the Star Wars: Unlimited Judge Program Discord to join the community in discussion of this and much, much more.

As always, good luck, and have fun.

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