Whispers of the Muse, buyback edition

Following the positive reactions that surrounded the first Whispers of the Muse article, here’s time for a new dive into the depths of the L4+ mailing-list!
Just like last time, this article is not meant to be a comprehensive summary of our discussions, since some of it cannot currently safely be shared.

Most of the discussions that have happened recently gravitated around the latest MIPG, therefore this edition is fairly light. For more information about the changes in the last MIPG, check out Toby’s article!

Program discussions

Policy seminars at GPs

Some of you have correctly pointed out in the recent months that policies have been evolving quite a bit in the past year and that such a large amount of change, unless it is accompanied by a thorough philosophy explanation, can only lead to confuse judges and harm consistency.

For the L4+s who participated in crafting the said changes, they instinctively make sense. However, for the broader audience, they may likely be more blurred. That’s why, under the supervision of Alfonso Bueno (Logistics) and myself (Content), a new project has started early 2016:

Whenever possible, an L4+ judge will present at GPs a series of short seminars, written by L4+ judges. They aim at improving judges’ knowledge, leading to an increase of the judges’ experience, which indirectly turns into a better player experience. Here are some details:

The set of seminars will (as much as possible) remain the same for a period of 6 months, so that judges do not need to attend it more than once each semester.
If we aim at presenting these seminars at every GP, we know that it sometimes will not be logistically possible.
We believe the optimal moment for these seminars is Friday evening, once the early shift is finished. The exact moment will be decided by the presenter, who will communicate about the specifics on the Event forum.
We do not want judges on shift to attend these seminars. While you are on shift, you are working an event you need to remain available for what is a judge’s #1 priority: The event!
These seminars will NOT be supported with foils. Attendance happens on a volunteer basis for those who would like to improve as judges.

Policy discussions

Update to card in a wrong zone

As it has been reflected in the last MIPG update, the partial fix named “card in a wrong zone” has a slightly larger scope. Now, it also affects permanents who should have moved but failed to do so.

This means that, if the game conditions permit it, it is now supported to directly send a creature that should have died to the graveyard without performing a full backup.

Tournament error penalties also reset each day (just like Game Play Errors)

Quite a while ago, we added to the IPG a clause stating that the penalties for Game Play Errors were to reset each day. We realized that, if it was our intent that this also affects Tournament Errors, this was not clearly reflected. This has been changed in the last MIPG.

Failing to resolve a trigger can be a GRV.

If a player announces a trigger by clearly stating what the trigger does, then failing to resolve it falls under GRV and not Missed Trigger.

Example: AP attacks with Wingmate Roc and says, pointing at the Roc: “Trigger, gain 3 life.” He then fails to record the life change, and his opponent as well.

Since the trigger was explicitly announced and there is no ambiguity as to which trigger it was, this is a GRV. Therefore, if it is still time to backup, do so. Otherwise, leave the game state as it is.

This is different from a player who would have had multiple triggered abilities trigger, accompanying them with a non-specific “Triggers”. In this latter case, this doesn’t count as demonstration of awareness of the triggered abilities since the player has not proven (s)he is aware of each and every of the triggers.

Summary:

If the trigger is uniquely identifiable and it failed to resolve, treat as GRV.
If there is ambiguity as to what triggered and it failed to resolve, treat as MT.