4.3. Tournament Error — Slow Play
Definition
Players who take longer than is
reasonably required to complete game actions are engaging in Slow Play. If a
judge believes a player is intentionally playing slowly to take advantage of a
time limit, the infraction is Cheating — Stalling.
Examples
A. A player repeatedly reviews his opponent’s graveyard without any
significant change in game state.
B. A player spends time writing down the contents of an opponent's deck
while resolving Thought Hemorrhage.
C. After 3 minutes into a round at a Pro Tour™ Qualifier, a player has
not completed his shuffling.
D. A player gets up from his seat to look at standings, or goes to the
bathroom without permission of an official.
Philosophy
All players have the responsibility to
play quickly enough so that their opponents are not at a significant
disadvantage because of the time limit. A player may be playing slowly without
realizing it. A comment of “I need you to play faster” is often appropriate and
all that is needed. Further slow play should be penalized.
Additional Remedy
An extra turn is awarded for each
player, to be applied if the match exceeds the time limit. If multiple players
on each side are playing the same game (such as in Two-Headed Giant) only one
extra turn is awarded per team. This turn extension occurs before any
end-of-match procedure can begin and after any time extensions that may have
been issued.
No extra turns are awarded if the
match is already in extra turns, though the Warning still applies.
If Slow Play has significantly
affected the result of the match, the Head Judge may upgrade the penalty.
6. Cheating
This section deals with infractions
that occur as the intended result of an action taken by a player. In some
cases, it doesn’t matter if advantage was gained, only that the potential for
advantage exists. The philosophy for all these infractions is the same – they
are unwelcome behavior that undermines the integrity of the tournament.
6.1. Cheating — Stalling
Definition
A player intentionally plays slowly in
order to take advantage of the time limit. If the slow play is not intentional,
please refer to Tournament Error — Slow Play instead.
Example
A. A player has two lands in his hand, no options available to
significantly affect the game, and spends excessive time "thinking"
about what to do to eat up time on the clock.
B. A player is ahead in games and significantly slows down his pace of
play so the opponent has little chance to catch up.
C. A player playing slowly appeals a warning in an attempt to gain
advantage by having more time to make a decision.
D. A player intentionally exceeds the pregame time limit before the
third game in an attempt to make it harder for his opponent to win in time.
E. A player losing a game starts slowing down the pace of play in an
attempt to run out the clock.