Non-English cards: How do you explain to your opponent?

[Star|Scream]

What is the usual way to "officially" explain to your opponent what a non-english card is/does? Is it wise to have a printout with the official wording on it?

In casual games can you just slip that paper into the sleeve along with the non-english?

[Jander78]

What is the usual way to "officially" explain to your opponent what a non-english card is/does? Is it wise to have a printout with the official wording on it?

In casual games can you just slip that paper into the sleeve along with the non-english?
The best way is to explain to them what card it is by name, and what it does (hopefully the exact oracle text). If they recognize it and / or are familiar enough with it, all should be good. If not, then a judge should be called to get the exact text. This is why I don't play with non-English cards.

In a casual game, do what you want. I'd probably just have the english version or a proxy on hand if there is confusion.

[CorpT]

There is only one way: call a judge.

In casual, I'll usually just get the Oracle from a website on my phone.

[hyc8028]

99% of the time I ll just get the oracle wording from magiccard info and show it to my opponent. That is an advantage we can use if we own a smartphone. Call for a judge also work, but they would probably do the same thing anyway.

[luma]

Yeah, except having a printout / using your smartphone to look up oracle wordings is technically outside assistance, and can earn you a match loss in a Competetive REL tournament.

[majikal]

It's not your responsibility to explain your card text to your opponent. If they ask what the card is, give them the name only. If they ask what it does, have a judge give them the oracle text.

[Shugyosha]

It's not your responsibility to explain your card text to your opponent. If they ask what the card is, give them the name only. If they ask what it does, have a judge give them the oracle text.

This should be considered "the jerks way" however.

If my opponent asks me and not a judge he seems to trust me to know exactly what the card does and I'd be happy to explain it to him/her. In high level tournaments I usually end the sentence with "but you can also call a judge for the correct wording if you like".

[Pastorofmuppets]

There is only one way: call a judge.

What if we played a deck like Ichorid with a few odd card choices (~10 or so) that's really good G1, then constantly have to call a judge for your cards that nobody knowsand waste time until you win 1-0 or something?
Don't let Saito see that post, guys.

[CorpT]

This should be considered "the jerks way" however.

If my opponent asks me and not a judge he seems to trust me to know exactly what the card does and I'd be happy to explain it to him/her. In high level tournaments I usually end the sentence with "but you can also call a judge for the correct wording if you like".

Not really. If you try to explain the card and get it wrong; things get ugly. Two turns later when that mistake matters, it's far too late to backup and fix things. Maybe he would have countered it if he knew the full card text. Maybe he would have bolted it last turn. If your opponent asks you what it is, call a judge.

This all assumes that this is at a real event. If you're playing a local 8 man tournament for packs, sure, you can tell him. If you're playing for a real prize, call a judge.


What if we played a deck like Ichorid with a few odd card choices (~10 or so) that's really good G1, then constantly have to call a judge for your cards that nobody knowsand waste time until you win 1-0 or something?
Don't let Saito see that post, guys.

You're worried about losing to someone who needs the card text for 10 cards?

[cdr]

Per the rules, any Oracle text has to come from a judge. Getting on the internet while you're playing a match seems like a bad idea anyway.

Your opponent is responsible for informing himself about what cards do. Oracle text is derived information - whatever you answer has to be correct, but it doesn't have to be complete, and you can tell him to figure it out himself or call a judge.

[freakish777]

This should be considered "the jerks way" however.

No, it's shouldn't. Ever.

There is nothing "jerky" about the answer: "I think you should call a judge and get the Oracle text from him/her, since whatever I say has to be accurate, and I don't want a warning for attempting to deceive you in case I misremember the exact Oracle text. We should ask for a time extension too when he/she comes over, and possibly that they stay nearby since this isn't the only foreign card I'm playing with."

Why would you ever have hard feelings for an opponent that tells you, "I think you should call a judge" for any matter? They're trying to ensure a game played completely within the rules (and in this particular case that they gain no advantage by having foreign cards).


"The jerks way" would actually be to tell the opponent something accurate but incomplete (like for instance that the card has flying while it's on the stack) in an attempt to get them to mentally assign a different valuation of the card than if they knew the full text. Bear in mind, this is completely within the rules (as cdr just pointed out).

[Meekrab]

"The jerks way" would actually be to tell the opponent something accurate but incomplete (like for instance that the card has flying while it's on the stack) in an attempt to get them to mentally assign a different valuation of the card than if they knew the full text. Bear in mind, this is completely within the rules (as cdr just pointed out).
Except no cards exist that have flying while on the stack that don't have flying while they're in play, so I'm pretty sure you'd still run afoul of any rules about misleading your opponent.

Pretty much your opponent should just call a judge for every foreign card you play until you learn to not be a douche and play with cards people can read. Granted, in Europe it's a slightly different story, because of the large number of different languages spoken, but in the US and Canada at least I can't think of any reason to purposely use foreign cards. Especially if you're going to cry when people shuffle them because 'they're valuable.'

[cdr]

What freakish777 means is that if your opponent asks "What does [your japanese] Inkwell Leviathan do?", you can answer "It has islandwalk and shroud."

[freakish777]

I meant, for instance, you're playing Vendilion Clique, it's on the stack, and your opponent asks what it does, and you neglect to mention it has flying because they have a Tarmogoyf out that you know they'd try to block with if they let it resolve under the impression that the answer you gave was complete.


but in the US and Canada at least I can't think of any reason to purposely use foreign cards. Especially if you're going to cry when people shuffle them because 'they're valuable.'

Because Italian Legends is 25% less expensive than English Legends due to being printed more, and your deck needs Moat for some reason (or more likely Tabernacle).

And now you know. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pele5vptVgc)

[Deadweight]

Exactly. You can't call me a douche for playing with Italian Chains of Mephistopheles that my friend handed down to me.

[Meekrab]

I could call you a douche for playing with Chains of Mephistopheles no matter what language it was printed in. ;)

[thulnanth]

I could call you a douche for playing with Chains of Mephistopheles no matter what language it was printed in. ;)

That may just be the single funniest thing I've read on this site all year :laugh:

Take it easy,
Jared

[Shugyosha]

Not really. If you try to explain the card and get it wrong; things get ugly. Two turns later when that mistake matters, it's far too late to backup and fix things. Maybe he would have countered it if he knew the full card text. Maybe he would have bolted it last turn. If your opponent asks you what it is, call a judge.

So we are assuming that we are playing with foreign cards so complicated that we can't explain them. How can you play a card you can't explain.

Would you really call a judge for cards like Preordain or Moat? As it came up I explained Vendilion Clique over and over again and never had a problem with it even when prizes are on the line. If you play a card in your deck you have to know what it does exactly so its not hard to explain it at all unless it is one of the few complicated old cards.

I regularly ask my opponents about specific aspects of their foreign cards just to check if a creature has a specific ability and so on and never had problems with it either. If you are not sure if a japanese Trygon Predator has flying or not would you call a judge for it?



You're worried about losing to someone who needs the card text for 10 cards?

You should always consider the possibility to lose a game even if your opponent seems to be bad.

[majikal]

So we are assuming that we are playing with foreign cards so complicated that we can't explain them. How can you play a card you can't explain.

Would you really call a judge for cards like Preordain or Moat? As it came up I explained Vendilion Clique over and over again and never had a problem with it even when prizes are on the line. If you play a card in your deck you have to know what it does exactly so its not hard to explain it at all unless it is one of the few complicated old cards.

I regularly ask my opponents about specific aspects of their foreign cards just to check if a creature has a specific ability and so on and never had problems with it either. If you are not sure if a japanese Trygon Predator has flying or not would you call a judge for it?



You should always consider the possibility to lose a game even if your opponent seems to be bad.
You're missing the point. It's not your job to babysit your opponent. If you feel kind enough to explain word for word the oracle text of your cards, then by all means do it, but a good opponent will just call a judge, because the number one rule of competition is to never trust your opponent to give you information that will benefit you. As has been said previously, the information they give you need only be correct, not complete, and it is always best to assume this is so in every situation.

[BrassMan]

To reiterate what's already been said. When I, personally, am in a tournament situation and an opponent asks me, I'll tell them what the card does (without any intentional misdirection), but tell them they should call the judge to confirm (they usually opt not to.) However, as was mentioned, it's explicitly within the rules to give incredibly misleading information about a card - and therefore it's generally "the correct play" to do so.

As the player with foreign cards, I wouldn't sweat it. Say what you're comfortable with, as long as you don't specifically make a false statement about the card - you're in the clear, and never be afraid to call a judge, or tell your opponent to call a judge.

As the player playing against foreign cards, it's far more important to know what to do. The steps are as follows:

A) Get your act together, why the hell don't you know what that card does?
B) Call a judge and ask. Just do it, your opponent is under no obligation, ethical or judicial, to tell you what the card does. They have the motive and opportunity to feed you bad information legally. Even in the case of an accommodating player, not everyone knows what their own cards do (this applies to a non-trivial amount of players).

[SlopeeJ]

quit arguing about it and call a judge =) It's always the right answer

[freakish777]

If you are not sure if a japanese Trygon Predator has flying or not would you call a judge for it?

Yes. People need to stop trying to associate a stigma with people who want to call judges to ensure the game is played correctly.

Seriously, cut it out.

The entire reason we hear as many sob stories as we do about players feeling like they got hustled by some dick is because of this stigma that wanting to call a judge somehow makes you a bad player, a jerk, a rules-lawyer, or whatever else. The majority of players who call a judge during their match are none of these things.

[Shawn]

I'm in the process of making my legacy deck non-English, and the past few tournaments I've been at I've had a third of the maindeck in non English languages. If they ask, I tell them what it does, then say I won't be offended if they ask the judge for an oracle. I haven't had any problems so far.

If you are unsure of what a card does, ask a judge. Also, on some things it's much easier to just call a judge to explain things like Humility, as your opponents are more likely to believe him or her.

[Shugyosha]

Yes. People need to stop trying to associate a stigma with people who want to call judges to ensure the game is played correctly.

Seriously, cut it out.

I have nothing against judge calls, it just has been my observation that it is not necessary to call a judge most of the time (unless complicated cards of course) and the issue will resolve faster without calling a judge. I don't help my opponent by giving him cues how to handle a card I just explain it.


The entire reason we hear as many sob stories as we do about players feeling like they got hustled by some dick is because of this stigma that wanting to call a judge somehow makes you a bad player, a jerk, a rules-lawyer, or whatever else. The majority of players who call a judge during their match are none of these things.

The sob stories you are talking about are not about questions about card texts but about some rules questions. If I want to know how Tabernacle and Tanglewire will be stacked during my upkeep I will call the judge because it is not a simple matter of reciting a (portion of the) card text. Rules questions are an entirely different matter.