Ruling TCG - Judge Ball Ruling

[Jimmy315]

Hello Everyone,

I have a question regarding how many times a player has to "mulligan" during a TCG match before a judge issues a "Judge Ball"? I read on other forums that it's left up to the discretion of the judge, but those answers were from 2011. Has the ruling changed since?

If it is still left up to the discretion of the judge, that seems a little unfair doesn't it? What if one judge decides that 3 mulligans is it, and another decided on 8?

Why hasn't Pokemon issued a direct rule for this?

 

[bbninjas]

Moved from the TCG Help & Advice as the OP is asking a question on rulings that should be answered by a Professor. ~bbninjas

 

[Asclepius24]

As it stands now, when to issue a Judge Ball is left to the discretion of the judge.

There isn't one set number of mulligans before a Judge Ball is issued because it has less to do with any specific number of mulligans and more to do with keeping things fair and fun for players. In theory there's nothing wrong with a player taking 50 mulligans if we had unlimited time, but we run timed rounds and want to make sure that matches are decided by gameplay and not other factors.

When left to discretion, the call can consider factors like age of the players, level of the event, and previous issues that day like attempts to manipulate game time and other forms of gamesmanship.

I understand that it can be challenging to not have hard-and-fast guidelines for everything . It can be for us too! I do believe in this case it's better off this way. Most of our penalty guidelines are just that - guidelines - and allow experienced judges to make calls to best promote a fun and fair environment for players.

 

[My Little Keldeo]

To add to this, part of the logic is that Judge Balls occur so infrequently that each scenario when it does occur is wildly different. I have only ever seen a Judge Ball issued once during my three years of competitive play, and it was at a local tournament (actually it was a Prerelease and the player has only one Basic Pokemon in his deck). I'm not going to get into statistic here, but remember that that average deck generally contains between eight and twelve Basic Pokemon, with some decks having more and others slightly less (yes, there are many exceptions in the game's history, from Base Set to today, but they only make up a small portion). That in mind, it's very likely that if a player doesn't have a Basic Pokemon in their starting hand, they will after a couple of mulligans. Here's an article on probability in the Pokemon TCG if you'd like to take a look at some actual numbers. It's from 2013, but the logic still applies.

Assuming a deck is well-shuffled and randomized, a player should get a Basic Pokemon either in their opening hand, or only mulligan a couple of times. Yes, it's possible that a player might have to mulligan several times before finally getting a Basic Pokemon, and this is where we consider issuing a Judge Ball to ensure the match can be played out in a timely manner. It won't happen until after most players have set up and the staff have announced that the round has started.

Like Asclepius24 said, tournament staff will take several things into account when considering a Judge Ball. These factors can be highly situational or based on a player's actions during previous rounds. Having the "wiggle room" and not being forced to go by a hard number lets us make educated decisions in a situation that hardly ever occurs by chance alone (I'm not accusing anyone of cheating in any sense, but things can happen unintentionally). As stated above, our goal is to promote a fun and fair environment for everyone, not to make people suffer.