Me and a few other judges were going over this question and came to a similar conclusion . . . however I would like to hear what the rest of you think.

Player A has drawn the the last piece of Exodia and now has all 5 in his hand. However, Player A does not declare the victory and continues the turn as normal just to 'string the opponent along'.

The game continues and Player B declares an attack that would reduce the life points of Player A to zero if it is successful, but now Player A decides to declare the Exodia victory.

In my opinion, I believe that Player A should get a game loss for 'unsportsman-like conduct' since he was technically stalling and also wasting the time of the opponent just for the sake of his ego.

I have also heard arguements leaning towards a warning since it is within the player's right to call the victory at any time they have the 5 pieces in their hand.

Please make this a constructive discussion and support your decision.

Game loss for the player with exodia. cuasing damaged game state and stalling. possible match loss depending on his attitude.

imo

Technically, Player A would've won the moment he got all 5 pieces into hand, assuming it wasn't in the middle of effect resolutions, but the fact that he let the duel continue without revealing that he has all 5 pieces in his hand just to "String the opponent along" is also being unsportsman-like so...I would say that Player B deserves the win because of Player A's conduct of pointless stalling and time wasting. It also wastes everybody else's time who's competing in the tournament, duelists, judges and spectator's alike.

In other situations, I don't see anything wrong with continuing a duel like a stall deck or you CAN attack, but choose not to, but in terms of the Exodia situation, what player A did was just pointless and unnecessary to do considering he already had the duel won. At least in the other situations, the opposing player can find a way to get out of the situation and make the other player regret waiting on them.

To sum it all up, I think player B should win.

I am not a judge, assuming that any one can reply. I think that if a person has to wait to claim an Exodia victory they should claim it on that turn they draw the final limb. If they do not claim it then they forfiet that victory and have to play out that duel. That sounds dumb but if the text were to include the fact that it lozes it's ability of instant win and then becomes null and void. This would make sure that people would claim there exodia victory right away, but the flipside is that how would you know that he/she had all five pieces in there hand to begin with, and they just did not draw the last piece unless if a person is standing there and watching the duel.

The best way to look at this situation is how Fantasyzz put it. Exodia is a condition that is always checking the current event, much like other conditonal wins(FC, Last Turn, drop lps to 0, ect.). If the person failed to claim it at the time the limb was drawn, and waited turns to prolong the event, he/she should be punished. Game Loss, or Match Loss depending on the situation for me.

1 word: Stall. Victor would go to the Player whom attacked. Not declaring you won, when you should of is stupid in the first place, unless your fooling around and being nice.

BTW Who'd be stupid enough to be that dumb?

Player A deserves to LOSE!!! STalling like that is very unsportsman-like and I fail to see his sense of humor in all this. :p

I don't see the issue. Player A can claim the victory whenever they wish. In essence, Player B has failed to beat Player A prior to satisfying Player A's win condition.

As a judge I don't believe we should get involved in strategy or egos. Player A may indeed be a jerk, but that is Player A's perogative. If Player A is name calling, cheating, being disruptive, then those are things we should be focused on as that is the nature of unsportsman like behavior. We are not a police force assigned by upper deck to fix all the wrongs in people and in essence doil out karma.

Here is a similar example. Player A has 8000 life points, and player B has 200. Player A has a sets a ring of Destruction but does not use it upon Player B's draw phase or standby phase to destroy any of the f/u monsters on the field. Should a Game Loss be assigned to Player A for allowing Player B to play the game out some more? I think not. What if Player A is taunting player B? Game Loss - Banned from store? Again, I think not.

Odds are that everyone loses in the game on occasion. Additionally, people have various personalities which either work well with each other or they rub each other the wrong way. TCG are interactive and provide these social opportunities for people can learn to deal and cope with each other in a structured enviornment with established rules and codes of behavior. There is nothing inherently wrong with 'stringing a game out' either for pity's sake or for malicious intent. It is simply part of the game.

~Mr. Sinister

For me it would totally depend on the conduct and attitude and the situation. If he was playing some new person that needed the experience I can see playing it out. If he wanted to see if he could actually win without using Exodia, but if it is for ego and if it delays the tournament or this person bad mouths or has a negative attitude I could see declaring the vitor to player B. Tough decision.

the condition of Exodia, is when you have all the pieces, you declare the victory. Unfortunately, if he waited till player b attacked, then he really should wait till the after the damage step is complete. just my opinion. He squandered the chance to use Exodia, and to wait till player b attacks, and can wipe out his life points, is unsportsman-like conduct to me. Now, if he drew the piece using a search effect, and then called it as the opponent was impatiently attacking again, different story. Just my opinion.

ok, let's look at the Penalty Guidelines.

most Procedural Errors are noted as "unintentional". this is an INTENTIONAL violation which moves the penalty into the Unsporting Conduct section:

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P-29 Unsporting Conduct Penalties

This group of penalties deals with inappropriate behavior that a player may exhibit during a tournament. This group of penalties covers intentional infractions. It’s important to allow players to have fun and enjoy themselves, but that need must be balanced with the need to protect others against truly offensive behavior that will jeopardize their tournament activity. This is one area where judges must use their common sense to determine when to allow natural behavior to occur and when to step in and moderate a situation.

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anyone playing Exodia knows... i repeat KNOWS... that as soon as you have the pieces in your hand you declare a Game Win (heck, ask ANY 8 year old if you wait until later to declare)... yes yes, taking into account being in the middle of an effect (i.e., Graceful Charity) blah blah blah...

now another aspect of this is what duel is this. is this the FIRST or SECOND. why? because if the player is stalling in an effort to have duel 2 an incomplete duel, then it ALSO moves into another section...

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P-18 Procedural Error–Slow Play (Penalty: Warning)

This penalty is appropriate when a player unintentionally causes a minor delay of the game. Players are responsible for playing at an efficient pace regardless of the complexity of the situation in the game or the number of decisions that have to be made.

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but wait... this says "unintentionally".

in this case, the judge could increase the level of the Penalty into a Game Loss for INTENTIONALLY not declaring the win.

i wouldn't make it a Match Loss penalty, but would keep my eye out for the player the rest of the day, and if he does it again, THEN i would hit him with a Match Loss.

the penalties are set up to warn UNINTENTIONAL behavior. when things move into the INTENTIONAL category then upgrading penalties is necessary.

now, you could award the present duel a win for the Exodia player, then access the Game Loss to the following duel or the duel in the next Match. the Exodia player did technically win, but after getting all 5 pieces in his hand, he messed with the other player and that could be stalling between duels since he's not allowing the opponent to come back.

would have a lot to do with the players ages, experience, the round, etc.

tricky call, except for the Game Loss which is pretty straightforward. how you access it would be depending on the situation.

Now THAT was an answer. WOW. where did those rules come from? I like it.

They are all available in the policy documents available at www.ude.com/op

To me it's pretty simple Player A is stalling. IMO it doesn't matter if it's for bragging rights or strategy, it's still illegal. I would assume that if this was the first duel then for sure Player A is stalling. Playing an Exodia deck can be very time consuming, so what better way to Guarantee a Match win then by prolonging your first victory as long as possible to reduce the time remaining for your opponent to beat you the next game? I would say Match Loss for sure, depending on attitude/excuse DQ.

sorry for the long winded statement, but this is what goes on in a Head Judge's mind as he sorts things out to access a penalty like this.

it is NOT an easy task, as someone is not going to like the result. so the HJ must make sure that he's looked at all the information, then, if needed, sit down with the policy paperwork and make the best decision for the situation.

i have been doing Premier Events for UDE for the past year, and have been doing gaming stuff for almost 20 years now. player temperments are the toughest to deal with when accessing penalties.

all of the documents that i pulled from at on the UDE website:

http://www.upperdeckentertainment.com/op/policy/

the rest you just have to extrapolate (kind of like we do with card rulings) ...