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Watch: MTG Player Pulls Off A 7-Card Collected Company & Riley Knight Makes The Perfect Response


Wizards of the Coast

At Grand Prix Liverpool 2018, a Magic: The Gathering player was seen casting drawing 7 cards instead of 6 when he cast Collected Company on video during a Team Unified Modern match in Round 14. You can watch the clip below: 

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While it's easy for viewers to raise their pitchforks after seeing this illegal move, commentator Riley Knight handled it professionally and shared a mature response on video. Watch it at the 6:57:54 mark below: 

Watch Grand Prix Liverpool: Day 2 - Team Unified Modern from Magic on www.twitch.tv

"In the previous match, we saw someone cast a Collected Company, looked at the top seven cards of their library, and put two creatures into play," Riley Knight explained. "I saw this and raised it in a way that gave me a little bit of room, essentially, and gave the player benefit of a doubt. I have no idea what was going through that player's head when they cast it, I don't know if it was a mistake, I don't have information other than what I can see on the screen in front of me that's about this big. I don't know what's going through their mind, how distracted they are, I don't know what's going on. My job is to provide balanced coverage of these events from an impartial standpoint with as much objectivity as I can. When I see situations like this occur, it's not my job to jump on their throat and start assembling a crowd of pitchforks and torches. I certainly have done this in the past where I've spoken to people and addressed a situation on camera in a way that injected a personal bias into what has happened". Knight went on to apologize for making such commentaries in the past and brought up the price the coverage team pays for making biased judgments on coverage, saying that's it's "enormously high." 

Well-said, Riley Knight, my favorite MTG commentator. 

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