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I'm playing against an opponent who, for whatever reason, doesn't want to give away more information than they have to. (Perhaps they're trying to limit what is known about their strategy, their decklist, or their tells)

My opponent is one damage off lethal, but any creature will get him there. (Let's say I know he has a Might of the Masses in hand.) He plays a morph creature face down, swings (and casts his might of the Masses) and wins. Can I demand he prove the card had morph? Doing so gives me information in our next round that I shouldn't have, but it also proves that he didn't put just any card face down for {3}

Is the only solution to get a judge involved? What if he already started scooping his cards back into his deck? Should I have asked a judge to verify that the facedown creature had morph before it resolved? If so, it seems unreasonable to call over a judge every time a morph creature is played. In this instance it's clear the creature was crucial in the moment, but in other cases the creature could have been on the field for several turns, and it didn't look so conspicuous when it was played.

2 Answers 2

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Rule 708.9 says this:

If a face-down permanent or a face-down component of a merged permanent moves from the battlefield to any other zone, its owner must reveal it to all players as they move it. If a face-down spell moves from the stack to any zone other than the battlefield, its owner must reveal it to all players as they move it. If a player leaves the game, all face-down permanents, face-down components of merged permanents, and face-down spells owned by that player must be revealed to all players. At the end of each game, all face-down permanents, face-down components of merged permanents, and face-down spells must be revealed to all players.

There is no way for a game to end without one of these things happening to each face down permanent, so every face down permanent must be revealed one way or another by the end of the game.

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    Right, the player at some point will have to prove that the card does have morph, but doesn't do so when playing it. The proof comes at essentially the last opportunity - when the morphed permanent moves zones and stops being a morphed permanent, or when the game ends. Commented Sep 11, 2019 at 19:26
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Failing to reveal a face down creature with Morph at the end of the game is treated as a Game Loss.

Per the MTG Infraction Procedure Guide:

3.2. Game Play Error — Hidden Card Error

Penalty

Warning

Definition

A player commits an error in the game that cannot be corrected by only publicly available information. It is not a Hidden Card Error if the opponent acknowledges the action or controls the continuous effect modifying the game rule that was violated. This infraction only applies when a card whose identity is known to only one player is in a hidden set of cards both beforeand after the error.

(...)

Upgrade

If a face-down card cast using a morph ability is discovered during the game to not have a morph ability, the penalty is a Game Loss. If the player has one or more cards with a morph ability in hand, has not added previously unknown cards to their hand since casting the card found in violation, and has discovered the error themselves, the upgrade does not apply and they may swap the card for a card with the morph ability in hand

This is reinforced by rule 707.9 of the Magic Comprehensive rules.

707.9. If a face-down permanent moves from the battlefield to any other zone, its owner must reveal it to all players as theymove it. If a face-down spell moves from the stack to any zone other than the battlefield, its owner must reveal it to all playersas theymove it. If a player leaves the game, all face-down permanents and spells owned by that player must be revealed to all players. At the end of each game, all face-down permanents and spells must be revealed to all players.

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    That's an old version of the guide, the new version is: media.wpn.wizards.com/attachements/mtg_ipg_12jul19_en.pdf and the section you'd want to reference is 2.3 Game Play Error — Hidden Card Error
    – firedraco
    Commented Sep 11, 2019 at 16:27
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    It seems a little weird to say that the comprehensive rules "reinforce" the IPG. The comprehensive rules are the core rules, and the IPG is about how to enforce the rules.
    – murgatroid99
    Commented Sep 11, 2019 at 16:56
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    Also, keep in mind that the question is tagged with "mtg-regular-rel", and Regular REL is a rules enforcement level the IPG doesn't apply to. Even more so, it doesn't apply to kitchen table Magic (which you didn't claim, but I'll add for completeness's sake). Commented Sep 11, 2019 at 17:07
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    Right, for regular REL, the document that applies is Judging at Regular REL instead of the IPG.
    – murgatroid99
    Commented Sep 11, 2019 at 17:12
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    If they do that accidentally, then they must call a judge, who will give them a Warning and allow them to correct the problem. If they actually did it on purpose, then this is cheating and should result in disqualification, but it's true that they might fool the judge. However, they would still get a Warning for the Hidden Card Error, even though under the circumstances it would not be upgraded to a Game Loss. It seems unlikely that a cheater could get away with such a remarkable “accident” more than once.
    – Thom Smith
    Commented Sep 13, 2019 at 17:26

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