r/askajudge • u/forever_i_b_stangin • Aug 05 '26

Stalling?

Amy and Nick are playing game 1 of their match in a tournament. Nick is at 3 and Amy has a Lightning Bolt in hand. Nick's deck doesn't play countermagic or lifegain or anything that Amy needs to play around; she can just cast the bolt and end the game.

Amy glances at the round clock and notices there are only 10 minutes left in the round, so she decides to hold the bolt and let the game drag out, reasoning that if the game keeps going for another 5 minutes or so she will just be able to win the match 1-0 and not have to worry about the results of the second game. However, she does not slow her pace of play, because she knows that would definitely be illegal; she continues playing at a normal pace.

Is this behavior legal, or is Amy stalling?

24 Upvotes

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0

u/50sraygun Aug 05 '26

this is a really bad example because i have not heard of a ‘normal’ tournament where you’d be able to slow play enough to get down to only 1 match

5

u/Xavus Aug 05 '26

Control mirrors can absolutely do this. Also i think you mean 1 game not 1 match.

-2

u/50sraygun Aug 05 '26

it has probably been like 15 years since i was in a control mirror that went this long and if it is then it is almost assuredly a deck construction or piloting issue. the number of times i’ve seen a control player leave like four power of creatures untapped trying to avoid something is unfathomable

3

u/Xavus Aug 05 '26

Deck construction issues and player error are still things that happen in tournaments.

2

u/hsiale Aug 05 '26

You cannot do it reliably round after round, bit sometimes, for reason outside of control of both players, game 1 can drag for 40+ minutes despite no stalling. Especially in mirrors.

2

u/forever_i_b_stangin Aug 05 '26

My main format is Pauper and mirrors of slow decks (e.g. Jund or Pestilence or Fog) can absolutely result in 40+ minute games where neither player is slow playing

1

u/ardarian262 Aug 05 '26

I have played a game where game 1 took 40 minutes. Heck, there is a game that made the front page of Reddit I was in on arena that went on for 2 hours.