Judging with Phil

Takebacks have been the subject of much discussion since they were implemented right before DLC Milwaukee. Here’s a hint, they will still be allowed at DLC Richmond as well. So let’s go ahead and talk about them and what they are meant to accomplish.

The first thing we should all realize is that other TCGs such as Magic: The Gathering have had takeback policies in place for a while now and these policies are meant for players to play the game at its highest level instead of being entrapped by a minor mistake. And I do mean minor. One thing players think happens with takebacks is that we allow players to rewind entire turns or fix huge play mistakes. We don’t. Here’s exactly what a take back covers:

• The very last turn action that was done (a single quest, a single challenge, an inked card, playing a character or action, moving a character to a location, etc).
• Must be immediately called before anything else is done
• No new information could have been gained (more on this later)
• Only allowed by a judge

The very last turn action that was done

This is a simple concept. If you’ve already inked for turn, even if you kept the card face up, and then you did a bunch of stuff, like questing, challenging, playing cards, this would not qualify as a take back. Even if no new information was gained, it wasn’t the very last thing done. We want to ensure that players are playing fairly and making decisions correctly. Takebacks are meant to rewind only the last thing done to ensure fairness and to decisive gameplay.

Must be immediately called

Takebacks should also be called immediately. Obviously this goes hand in hand with the above. If you make a mistake and want to take it back, it needs to be immediately called!

No new information could have been gained

New information includes things such as drawing cards or seeing cards. For example, if you play an Ursula – Deceiver, and see your opponent’s hand, you can’t take that back to play something else! That wouldn’t be fair, you know what cards they have now! Even if you couldn’t discard a song, you have new information. However, if you try to challenge a character and another character has Bodyguard – either on the card or granted by some ability/effect – that isn’t “new” information and would not count against a potential takeback.

However there are other things that could be new information as well. For example trying to play a card to see what your opponent’s reaction is would be new information you’ve gained.

Only allowed by a judge

Remember, judges (lore guides) are the arbiters of the game. They are the ones who will authorize the takeback. But if the above is true and you want to allow your opponent to take back the ink they just put down in favor for another card, it won’t upset us. Just remember that lore guides are here to assist you and that if at any point in time you feel uncomfortable with a takeback (or really anything at all) you should call for a judge.

One of the biggest things I heard about when judging DLC Milwaukee were players off to the side conversing about a takeback that happened and how they just let it happen when they were unsure about it. While I hope the above helps clear up takebacks, just remember that takebacks should generally only be allowed with the authority of a lore guide/judge.

Why Takebacks?

This is a question that gets asked a lot. We don’t want to lock players into a mistake. Mistakes happen and should be allowed to happen at times. Catching the mistake, immediately recognizing them, and rewinding that mistake allows for higher levels of gameplay instead of expecting players to never make mistakes. How many times have you played a friendly game of Lorcana and did something and immediately regretted it? Inked the wrong card? Challenged instead of quested? And then you limit yourself by saying “Oh I don’t want to take that back because I need to play better.” Doing so doesn’t really help anybody. We want the game to be played at its highest level and be played by making the most optimal plays possible. Not allowing yourself some grace or a takeback like that denies you that possibility and doing so at a high level of play such as a DLC does the same.