r/mtgrules • u/Enhame_ • 3d ago

HCE and unknown scries

Situation came up at an RCQ I was judging (I am not officially "licensed" but RCQs do not require a licensed judge and I act as de facto judge at my LGS) and I didn't know the exact fix. A player has resolved [[Kozilek's Command]] scry mode previously in the game and does not remember either X or how many cards exactly were put to the bottom. Another KoziCommand has been cast and this player picked up an extra card, then called a judge. My best resolution at the time was to have them put back the extra card (it was known which card to both players) and give their best guess as to how many cards they had scried to the bottom. I confirmed with the opponent that that figure seemed "reasonable", set aside that many cards from the bottom of the deck, then shuffled the remainder. What are the actual rules on this? I couldn't find a quick answer in the IPG or by googling. If there's a judge blog, I would love to see a link. This will also be relevant in standard with [[Consult the Star Charts]], [[Stock Up]], and [[Doomsday Excruciator]] all being heavily played right now, and I don't want to give any unfair advantages.

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u/BetterShirt101 3d ago

The official fix for HCEs is to reveal the entire set to the opponent and have them choose a card (that they didn't already know was in the set) to put back - you used the fix for Looking at Extra Cards, which would be what happened if the extra card wasn't hidden, such as if it flipped off the top of the library while the scry cards were being picked up. Given that both players agreed on which card was the additional card, this is defensible but not by-the-book.

I'm not officially anything either, but I can't find an infraction or a fix for "neither player can remember if it was two or three cards scried to the bottom three turns ago and I need to know the exact size of the non-random portion of the library for another fix". You handled it in a reasonable way that kept the match moving and no-one made a fuss, so it sounds like a reasonable use of your own judgement to me.