T.12 - Timing Conflicts


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T.12.Ruling.1- The timing rules are explicit about who can announce something and when they can announce it, but following all the rules strictly can be nearly impossible given the need to play a game smoothly and quickly. Thus, conflicts can happen. [D'Angelo 1998/02/03]

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T.12.Ruling.2- "I'm done" always means "I'm done unless you do something else". If the player does something, then you continue as if you never said you were done. Anything legal at that time is still legal. [bethmo 1994/08/01] Be careful about the use of this phrase since it is often unclear if you are yielding priority with a stack of spells, done with the main phase, or done with your turn.

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T.12.Ruling.3- If the current player skips on to a new phase when the opponent wanted to announce something, or a player announces multiple spells/abilities at one time without allowing a chance to make a legal response, or the opponent announces something when the current player was going to do so, then you should back up the game and continue from the point where the goof-up occurred. Players are not bound to follow the same set of actions they did after that time. You should stop the game as soon as possible by jumping in with a "Wait! I want to do something". Letting something pass without saying "Wait" is quiet agreement with what they did. [D'Angelo 1998/02/03]

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T.12.Ruling.4- If the opponent announces something without first getting the current player to say (or otherwise indicate) they are not doing something, this is technically an illegal move and should be taken back. The most common way to deal with this, however, is for the current player to get the choice of saying that they want to do something and force the other player to take back their action, or to let the opponent's action stand and announce whether or not they want to respond. This is pretty much equivalent in the outcome to taking it back and then having the current player say "I'm not doing anything, go ahead and play that again." [D'Angelo 1997/02/12]

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T.12.Ruling.5- You cannot make someone back up because you forgot to do something, even if it is something you "usually do". They may allow you to in friendly play if they want but they are not bound to do so, and are in fact not allowed to do so during tournaments. [D'Angelo 1998/02/03]

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T.12.Ruling.6- If a player starts to do something, then realizes it is not legal, they must take back the entire action. This includes any costs paid, mana abilities used to get mana for the cost, and triggers that might have happened along the way. For spells, it also puts the spell card back in the player's hand. [CompRules 1999/04/23]

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Note- Strictly speaking you have to notify your opponent at every point what you are doing with things like "I'm done responding, do you want to add anything to it before a spell or ability resolves", and "I'm done with the xxxx phase, do you want to do anything". This is very annoying and breaks up game play, but if you are having problems with a given player, fall back on this until you learn to deal with each other. [D'Angelo 1998/02/03]

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