The Spirit of Play
Communication Over Clicks Encouraged
This league is designed to recreate the table experience. Players are expected to communicate actively via Discord voice chat throughout the match — announcing attacks, declaring blockers, casting spells, and any other game actions verbally, not merely by clicking.
The software is a shared interface. The conversation between players is the real game. When in doubt about an opponent's intent, ask. When your own intent is unclear, say so out loud before acting.
Misclicks & Input Errors
Declared Intent Governs Encouraged
If a player clearly declares an action by voice before or during execution — for example, announcing an attack and then accidentally pressing End Turn — the declared intent takes precedence for the purpose of deciding game outcomes, even if the software did not reflect it.
The deceived action is not enforced by these rules, but good sportsmanship is. Players are encouraged to find creative ways to restore the intended game state within the software's constraints.
Restoring Game State Encouraged
When a misclick occurs and the intended action can be approximated — for instance, allowing an attack to go through unblocked simply to reflect damage that would have occurred — players are encouraged to cooperate in doing so. A few examples:
- Allowing an unblocked attack to reflect declared combat, even if the blocker was available.
- Manually tracking life totals in Discord chat if the software count is wrong due to an error.
- Agreeing out loud to "roll back" a priority pass if the next action hadn't resolved.
Note: None of this is enforced by a judge. It is the spirit of fair play. The software is the final arbiter when players cannot reach agreement — but reaching agreement is always preferred.
Software & Card Implementation Errors
Unimplemented or Misimplemented Cards Rule
Forge does not perfectly implement every Magic card. If a card does not function as printed — incorrect targeting, wrong damage values, missing triggered abilities — both players should first verify the card's oracle text together on a reference site (e.g., Scryfall) during the match.
- If the discrepancy is clear and both players agree on how the card should work, play accordingly, overriding the software if needed by tracking the correct state verbally and in Discord.
- If a known bug caused a decisive, irreversible swing in game state that the card would not have caused, the affected player may request a game restart at the opponent's discretion — this is a courtesy, not a right.
- If players cannot agree, the game state as the software rendered it stands. Note the issue for post-session review.
Disconnections & Crashes
📋 Decision protocol — select the scenario that applies
Match just started — hands drawn, no meaningful game state established.
Create a new match immediately. No life total or board state has value yet. Both players redraw. No further deliberation needed.
Crash occurs post-sideboard (between games in a match).
The player who lost the previous game concedes Game 1 of the new pairing to reflect that they were already behind. The match then continues from that point, post-sideboard, as if it had proceeded normally. Match score carries forward.
Crash mid-game — outcome was already obvious.
If both players agree that one player had an insurmountable advantage, the losing player is encouraged to concede the game in the spirit of good sportsmanship. This is never required, but is strongly valued.
Crash mid-game — an immediate or clear countermove was possible.
If the losing position was clearly about to be answered — a lethal combo on the stack, a topdeck that would have stabilised — both players should discuss the game state honestly. If agreement is reached, the concession or continuation reflects it. A rematch for that single game is preferred if agreement cannot be reached quickly.
Crash mid-game — neither player can agree on the state or outcome.
Rematch the game. No blame, no grudges. The crash is the cause, not either player. Report the crash details in Discord for post-session logging.
Persistent Issues & Escalation
When Problems Repeat Protocol
If crashes, network disconnections, or software errors continue to affect the same pairing after one attempted rematch, the following escalation process applies:
- Step 1 — Players self-troubleshoot. Both players attempt their best effort to resolve the issue independently: restarting Forge, verifying Radmin VPN connectivity, re-checking network settings. This should take no more than 5–10 minutes.
- Step 2 — Pause tournament play. The affected pairing notifies the group in Discord. All other matches continue and complete normally. No match should be held up waiting for the troubled pairing.
- Step 3 — Group troubleshoot. Once all other matches are complete, the full group turns its attention to the problem together. Combined experience often resolves issues that individual effort cannot.
Fallback Systems
When Forge Cannot Be Recovered Protocol
If group troubleshooting fails to resolve the issue and the affected match cannot proceed on Forge, the following fallback options are available in order of preference:
- Fallback A — Alternative Forge version. Attempt to launch a different pre-installed version of Forge. The host maintains multiple versions for this purpose. Deck files should be compatible across recent versions.
- Fallback B — Cockatrice with remote play. Launch the prepared Cockatrice instances set up by the host. Cockatrice has no rules enforcement — both players are responsible for correctly applying all game rules. The match is played on the honour system. The same deck list from Draftmancer is used.
Reaching Fallback B is an unfortunate outcome. It is not a failure of any individual — it is a contingency that exists to ensure the league always has a path to completion. The league finishes. The game goes on.
"We are not playing against bots. We are sharing a game across a wire with a fellow player. Every rule here bends in service of that shared experience — not against it. When in doubt, ask yourself: what would we do if we were sitting at the same table?"
— The Spirit of the Secret Magic League