In 2008 there was an article titled "A Framework for Communication" on the mothership about Derived information, and one of the examples seemed off to me: Player A asks "Is Bloodline Shaman [an elf wizard] an elf?", Player B responds "It is a Wizard". The article says this is fine. If Player A asks "How many cards are in your hand?" and Player B answers "These 3 cards are in my hand" with 5 total cards in hand, is that also legal? Can intentionally misleading communication ever be penalized?
First of all, be wary of what you read in older articles about policy. 2008 is ancient history in Magic terms, and a lot of things have changed since then.
Not too much has changed when it comes to derived information, though. The guiding principle here is that you can’t lie about it, but you can also provide partial answers. So saying “It’s a Wizard” when someone asks for the creature type of an Elf Wizard is OK, but saying you have 3 cards in hand when you have 5 cards in hand isn’t.
The most important thing to remember here, though, is that Derived Information is only ever derived information at Competitive/Professional REL. At Regular REL, all derived information is free information and can’t be misrepresented in any way.
