What is the extent of "reveal" in multiplayer?
Asked by ThatIrishSOB 11 years ago
I ran into a situation in a casual multiplayer game (a rather large 9 player match) recently that I was hoping someone could help clarify. A player played Primitive Etchings and when it came time to reveal the first card drawn they very briefly scanned the card from one side to the other. it was done in a way that everyone could see what type of card it was (creature, color) but not long enough for each player to read its name, power, etc.. Some players argued that to reveal means that they get to know all the details of the card, so they either had to be allowed time to inspect the card or the card had to be read off to everyone. After looking up the rules on Reveal, others argued that the rules don't specify and that the card was revealed briefly as per the rules. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
701.13. Reveal 701.13a To reveal a card, show that card to all players for a brief time. If an effect causes a card to be revealed, it remains revealed for as long as necessary to complete the parts of the effect that card is relevant to. If the cost to cast a spell or activate an ability includes revealing a card, the card remains revealed from the time the spell or ability is announced until it the time it leaves the stack. 701.13b Revealing a card doesnt cause it to leave the zone its in.Rhadamanthus says... #2
This is something where the rules leave it up to the players to use common sense to interpret something that's not explicitly defined. The length of "a brief time" will vary according to the number of players in a game and how easy it is for them to tell what the card is by looking at it. The way revealing is intended to work (and the way the rules are interpreted and applied in tournament settings) is that the card stays revealed long enough for everyone to know what it is. In your case, the card wasn't revealed long enough for everyone to know what it was. It's fine for someone to say "hey, hold up a second, I didn't get a good look at that".
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
To reveal a card is to allow all players to know what that card is. In multiplayer matches, this will mean you should either pass the card around the table or read it aloud. Players should know what the revealed card is and what it does. You can't really get by with just flashing it quickly and letting people guess what it was.
June 14, 2013 3:09 p.m.