IE777 · 2026-10-28

IE777: A Hand-Size Limit Needs a Checkpoint

“The hand contains thirteen cards” can describe a settled state without describing every instant of a turn.

Editorial note: This is a conditional card-rule teaching example, not a verified description of the named platform.

“The hand contains thirteen cards” can describe a settled state without describing every instant of a turn. For an IE777 teaching example, define a process that begins with 13, draws one card to reach 14, and discards one to return to 13.

Two different constraints

If thirteen is the required count after the discard, the temporary fourteen-card state is permitted by this process. If thirteen is an absolute maximum at every instant, the same process conflicts with that limit. These statements cannot both govern the example unchanged.

Read the qualifier

Phrases such as “at the end of the turn”, “before declaration” and “at all times” identify different checkpoints. Omitting them from a summary can turn a valid intermediate state into an apparent violation.

An accurate explanation records the phase alongside the count. Fourteen cards before the required discard and fourteen after the turn ends are different observations. The lesson is about when a constraint applies; it does not establish IE777’s hand size or prescribe how a real app resolves an excess-card state.