Every December, I publish a special article sure to fill all the Melvins of the world with holiday cheer: The No Mercy! rules challenge. All year long, I collect the hardest rules questions I can find into the most merciless article I can write. And I need your help! If you have a difficult, counterintuitive, or downright strange rules interaction, I want to hear it! Send questions and answers to judgingftw@gmail.com for a chance at the eternal glory of having your question judged the best. To help you get into the proper holiday spirit, here’s a link to last year’s article.
Contest rules:
- We are looking for interesting, stimulating, and difficult questions, answerable only by detailed knowledge of the CR. On the other hand, the difficulty should come from needing knowledge of obscure rules, precise wordings, and subtle interactions, not gratuitous complexity. To this end, each question may reference only three cards. Basic lands, creatures with no abilities, and creatures whose only ability is a single evergreen keyword are not counted towards this limit (Reference CR 702.2 through 702.20 for a list of evergreen keywords).
- The question must have a correct answer which can be determined from the Comprehensive Rules alone.
- Due to their increased complexity and reduced penetration, questions concerning any multiplayer or casual variant (except two-headed giant) will not be eligible.
- Each person may submit any number of entries. It’s possible I may not be able to use every question submitted to me. If you have favorites, I will take your preferences into account when making those decisions. Otherwise, I’ll just pick for you.
- Submissions must be submitted (preferably by email or JudgeApps message) before Christmas (December 25th).
- Submissions may be edited for content. This may be done to make two similar submissions more distinct or to make a submission more straightforward and easier to parse.
- Each year, I will promote one question as the best, based on the criteria of originality, creativity, and difficulty. Really excellent questions may be considered even if they break one or more of these rules as long as they stay within the proper spirit.