04. Communication

4. Communication

4.1 Player Communication
Communication between players is essential to the successful play of any game that involves virtual objects or hidden information. While bluffing may be an aspect of games, there need to be clear lines as to what is, and is not, acceptable for players to say or otherwise represent. Officials and highly competitive players should understand the line between bluffing and fraud. This will confirm expectations of both sporting and competitive players during a game.
The philosophy of the DCI is that a player should have an advantage due to better understanding of the rules of a game, greater awareness of the interactions in the current game state, and superior tactical planning. Players are under no obligation to assist their opponents in playing the game. Regardless of anything else, players are expected to treat their opponents politely and with respect. Failure to do so may lead to Unsporting Conduct penalties.
There are three categories of information: free, derived and private.
Free information is so called because all players are entitled access to this information without contamination or omissions made by his or her opponent. If a player is ever unable or unwilling to provide free information to an opponent that has requested it, he or she should call a judge and explain the situation. Free Information includes:
Details of current game actions and past game actions that still affect the game state.
The name of any object in a public zone.
The physical status (tapped/flipped) and current zone of any object.
Player life totals and the game score of the current match.
Derived information is information to which all players are permitted, but opponents are not obliged to assist in determining and may require some skill or calculation to determine. Derived Information includes:
The number of any type of objects present in any game zone.
All characteristics of objects in public zones that are not defined as free information.
Game Rules, Tournament Policy, Oracle content and any other official information pertaining to the current tournament. Cards are considered to have their Oracle text printed on them.
Private information is so called because players have access to this information only if they are able to determine it from the current visual game state or their own record of previous game actions.
Any information that is not free or derived is automatically private information.
The following rules govern player communication:
Players must answer all questions asked of them by a judge completely and honestly, regardless of the type of information requested. Players may request to do so away from the match.
Players may not represent derived or free information incorrectly.
Players must answer completely and honestly any specific questions pertaining to free information.
At Regular REL, all derived information is instead considered free.
Judges are encouraged to help players in determining free information, but must avoid assisting players with derived information about the game state.

4.2 Tournament Shortcuts
A tournament shortcut is an action taken by players to skip parts of the technical play sequence without explicitly announcing them. Tournament shortcuts are essential for the smooth play of a game, as they allow players to play in a clear fashion without getting bogged down in the minutia of the rules. Most tournament shortcuts involve skipping one or more priority passes to the mutual understanding of all players; if a player wishes to demonstrate or use a new tournament shortcut entailing any number of priority passes, he or she must be clear where the game state will end up as part of the request.
A player may interrupt a tournament shortcut by explaining how he or she is deviating from it or at which point in the middle he or she wishes to take an action. If the players are confused by the use of a tournament shortcut, they should be backed up to the beginning of the shortcut and no penalty should be issued (though they should be reminded to play more clearly). A player is not allowed to use a previously undeclared tournament shortcut, or to modify an in-use tournament shortcut without announcing the modification, in order to create ambiguity in the game.
A player may not request priority and take no action with it. If he or she decides they do not wish to do anything, the request is nullified and priority is returned to the player that originally had it.
Certain conventional tournament shortcuts used in Magic are detailed below. If a player wishes to deviate from these, he or she should be explicit about doing so. Note that some of these are exceptions to the policy above in that they do cause non-explicit priority passes.
The statement "Go" (and equivalents such as "Your turn" and "Done") offers to keep passing priority until an opponent has priority in the End Step. Opponents are assumed to be acting then unless they specify otherwise.
A statement such as "I'm ready for combat" or "Declare attackers?" offers to keep passing priority until an opponent has priority in the Beginning of Combat step. Opponents are assumed to be acting then unless they specify otherwise.
Whenever a player adds an object to the stack, he or she is assumed to be passing priority unless he or she explicitly announces that he or she intend to retain it. If he or she adds a group of objects to the stack without explicitly retaining priority and a player wishes to take an action at a point in the middle, the actions should be reversed up to that point.
"No attacks" or similar statements by the active player during combat offers to pass priority until an opponent has priority in the end of combat step.
If a player announces an X spell without specifying the value of X, it is assumed to be for all mana currently available in his or her pool.
If a player plays a spell or ability and announces choices for it that aren’t normally made until resolution, the player must adhere to those choices unless an opponent responds to it. If an opponent inquires about choices made during resolution, that player is assumed to be passing priority and allowing the spell to resolve.
A player is assumed to have paid any cost of 0 unless they announce otherwise.
A player is assumed to have assigned all trample damage possible to the defending player unless stated otherwise.
A spell or ability that targets an object on the stack is assumed to target the legal target closest to the top of the stack unless they specify otherwise.
A Player is assumed to be attacking another player and not any planeswalkers that player may control unless they specify otherwise.
In the Two-Headed Giant format, the player to which combat damage is being assigned is undefined by default. If it is relevant, it is up to the team that knows it may be relevant to ask for clarification or to propose an alternate shortcut.

4.3 Out-of-Order Sequencing
Due to the complexity of accurately representing a game of Magic, it is acceptable for players to engage in a block of actions that, while technically in an incorrect order, arrive at a legal and clearly understood game state once they are complete.
All actions taken must be legal if they were executed in the correct order, and any opponent can ask the player to do the actions in the correct sequence so that they can respond at the appropriate time (at which point players will not be held to any still-pending actions).
Players may not try to use opponent's reactions to some portion of an out-of-order sequence to see if they should modify actions or try to take additional ones. Nor may players use out-of-order sequencing to try to retroactively take an action they missed at the appropriate time. In general, any substantial pause is an indication that all actions have been taken, the sequence is complete and the game has moved to the appropriate point at the end of the sequence.
Examples
1.A player discards a card to pay for Masticore’s upkeep cost before untapping their land.
2.A player resolves Harrow and puts the card into their graveyard, then searches.
3.While resolving Restore Balance, a player discards before sacrificing lands and creatures.
4.A player with two creatures being put into the graveyard due to state-based effects resolves the leaves play trigger on one of them before putting the other creature in the graveyard.
5.A player declares a blocker, and then activates a Treetop Village to block as well.

4.4 Team/Multiplayer Communication
Members of the same team may at all times communicate between one another verbally. This includes during play, during drafting, and during deck construction of Limited tournaments. However, team members that have an opportunity to acquire hidden information (e.g. by speaking to spectators following their own match while a teammate is still playing), are restricted from communicating with teammates for the duration of that match.
Prohibitions against written notes of any kind during drafts apply to team drafts as well.