Judge Poll

Some background for those unfamiliar but might find this interesting anyway: The basic timing system in Magic is that when a player has “priority”, they can choose to (a) take an action, or (b) pass. If both players pass in a row, then (a) if there’s something on the stack (waiting to resolve), the top item on the stack resolves and active player get priority again, or (b) if there’s nothing on the stack, the current phase or step ends and the game moves on to the next phase. Usually, this formal description of timing is shortcutted quickly by the players, and most actual players wouldn’t be able to describe the details of how this timing system works.

The definition of “Cheating — Fraud” in the DCI Penalty Guidelines is “A player intentionally misrepresents rules, procedures, personal information, game state or any other relevant tournament information in an attempt to gain advantage.” Examples of this include intentionally lying, such as lying to a judge about what happened in a game, or lying to an opponent about one’s life total. (Bluffing about hidden information, like “You know I just have a Counterspell ready in my hand if you play that,” is fine; lying about public information, like “Sure, I take 5 damage,” when you know that you’re supposed to be taking 6 damage, is cheating.)

The poll question being asked in the DCI Judge Center:

Adam is in his Second main phase, has priority, nothing is waiting to resolve, but has taken no actions for 15 seconds while reviewing the board. Billy asks: “Can I play a Lightning Bolt now?”. Adam says “Sure”. Billy says: “Good. You passed priority. I choose not to play a Bolt. This phase is now over. Do you want to play anything during End of Turn?”. The judge should…
(a) …back up the game only at Regular REL (local store events like Friday Night Magic).
(b) …back up the game at any REL (including more competitive events like Pro Tour Qualifiers and Grand Prix events).
(c) …do nothing, this is legal.
(d) …disqualify Billy for fraud.
(e) …award an Unsporting Conduct warning to Billy and back up the game.

I was just curious if anybody here had any thoughts.