Exemplar Wave 5

Another Wave of Exemplar recommendations has come crashing in. Bryan Prillaman has a brief blog with all the details about what happens if you had a recommendation deferred and a list of the impressive team that helps makes this awesome program possible. Now is also a good time to start looking for Judges doing exemplary things as recommendations for Wave 6 are due in under four weeks.

New blogs

A couple new blogs on the Judge scene have sprung up. Nicholas Zitomer seeks to cultivate and explore the best practices in Judging and create a positive environment for everyone at The Elvish Farmer. If you’re looking for some team building exercises or just some interesting games to play with Judges at your next event Adam Cetnerowski brings you Judge Games.

Judge Article and Blog Posts Jun 2016

1. Articles: On Demand Events: Floor Management, Notes and Electronic Devices
2. Bearz Repeating: How To (Not) Write Reviews, Reading List: Summer 2016, Exemplar Wave 5 and Time and Time Again
3. Mystical Tutor: New Lessons
4. Judge Conferences: An Article: The Backbone of a Great Seminar and Changes to Conference Support
5. Battlefield Forge: Judging with Your Spouse: A Tournament Report of Sorts, GP Barcelona and PT Madrid – a Dual Report, Grand Prix Las Vegas 2015, GP Minneapolis – Floor Judge Report and ARG Circuit Series St. Louis Tournament Report (6/12/16) – A Different Look
6. GP Travel Guides; GP Montreal 2016, GP Stockholm 2016, GP Portland 2016 and GP Rimini 2016
7. Judge Games:  Token Hunting
8. Flashcards: Update on Comprehensive Rules and Magic Tournament Rules
9. MTGScorekeeper: GP Charlotte 2016: Saturday (Swiss Sides) and  GP Pittsburgh 2016: Sunday Morning
10. What’s Up, Docs: GP LA Appeals Judge Report and GP Minneapolis Head Judge Report
11. The Feedback Loop: My First Review – Adam Eidelsafy, Rejection Is Feedback, Too, Feedbag #3: Tough Situations and Three Years Gone

In case you would like to discuss an article, visit our Judge forum. Don’t forget to regularly check our Judge blog.

Knowledge Pool Jun 2016

1. A Leap Too Far

If you would like to submit a Knowledge Pool scenario, here’s how to do it.

Judgecast

• JudgeCast #148 – Eternal Masters Release Notes
• JudgeCast #149 – Head Judge Opening Announcements

Happy Anniversary! June 2016

A round of applause for the judges celebrating their anniversaries in June 2016! Featuring Antonio Jose Rodriguez Jimenez from Spain, Hector Fuentes from Mexico, Guillaume Beuzelin from France and Shing Nien Fong from Southeast Asia.

Judge of the Week Jun 2016

• #160 Ken Bearl, L2 from Minnesota
• #161 Jose Tamargo, L2 from Spain
• #162 Oli Bird, L3 from Ireland
• #163 Elias Fajardo, L2 from Venezuela

Impersonating Judges

Falsely representing oneself as a Judge or as a higher level Judge should not be acceptable. It is usually sufficient to speak with these individuals and mention that it is very easy to check their Judge status. Maybe they were not aware that their level has expired. However, if necessary, escalate the issue to the TO, RC or Wizard’s fraud team.

MTG Block and Special Sets Posters

A couple of very neat fan-made posters for hanging in the store or simply sharing with your community. Featuring all the released Magic editions (from Alpha onward) and  other sets including Duels of the Planeswalkers, Commander and From the Vault.

Shoes and Shirts

Not entirely sure which shoes or shirts to wear at a tournament? These discussions should provide all the answers you need. If that’s not enough, feel free to browse this lengthy topic with various shoe experiences.

 

Questions asked in the month of June and an [O]fficial answer, just for you!

[expand title=”1. Ever After returns a red Goblin creature card from the graveyard to the battlefield, where it becomes a red-black Goblin-Zombie. Does this trigger an ability “whenever a black creature enters the battlefield” or “whenever a Zombie enters the battlefield”?”]
A: Yes, it will trigger the ability. This is the old “Arbiter of the Ideal/constellation” issue that was fixed a few years ago.
611.2e If a resolving spell or ability both puts a nontoken permanent onto the battlefield and creates a continuous effect stating that the permanent “is”, that continuous effect applies simultaneously with the permanent entering the battlefield. This characteristic is usually a color or a creature type. If the continuous effect says the permanent “becomes” or “gains”, that effect applies after the permanent is on the battlefield.

Since the Ever After continuous effect is set up as the creatures are entering the battlefield, they’ll enter as black zombies (in addition to their normal colors and types), so those abilities would trigger.
Answered by Nathan Long
[/expand]

[expand title=”2. How does the new Hidden card error (HCE) remedy apply to failure to reveal for Keranos, God of Storms? The remedy states the following: “If the error involves one or more cards that were supposed to be revealed, the player reveals the set of cards that contains the unrevealed cards and his or her opponent chooses that many previously-unknown cards. Treat those as the unrevealed cards for any required actions.” Does Keranos’s trigger, part of the static ability that also reveals drawn cards, count as a “required action” to be performed based on the revealed card? Or does the trigger, which can be missed, disappear after the card is drawn, even if we apply this remedy and reveal a card some time later in the turn?”]
A: Not revealing is indeed HCE, so the player shows the hand and the opponent chooses a card to be treated as the one that has to be revealed by Keranos, God of Storms‘ ability. At this point, this would trigger Keranos’ second ability (which can’t have been missed, because a card was never revealed).
So basically, the opponent has the choice of whether allowing the player to draw a card or have 3 damage dealt. This feels a lot like it should be a missed trigger, but Keranos’ wording makes things different.
Answered by Scott Marshall

[/expand]

[expand title=”3. A player has imprinted a Chain Lightning (sorcery) to an Isochron Scepter. You thank the player for bringing it to your attention, and move to the adjacent table. Upon examining the board state, you confirm that the sorcery is indeed imprinted to the scepter and you bring the imprinting to the attention of the players involved in the game. Neither of the players claim they were aware of the mistake, and the game has moved onto turn 6 or 7, maybe even 8. The scepter entered the game on turn 2 and was used twice. How do you fix it?”]
A: This is a GPE – GRV, with no real fix.
It definitely doesn’t fit the additional remedy fix for GPE – GRV because while the start of the category sounds right the whole category is – If an object is in an incorrect zone either due to a required zone change being missed or due to being put into the wrong zone during a zone change

The zone it is in is because a player followed the instructions of a spell/ability and it doesn’t meet that criteria. Expanding more, the additional remedy sections starts by saying – the infraction falls into one of the following categories, and only into that category, perform the fix specified unless a simple backup is possible – so you have to look at the whole category not just the part that fits with what you want to do.

The choice at the time was an illegal one, but as with most GPE – GRVs that aren’t noticed at the time our choice is to perform a simple backup or leave things as they are.

We need to remind both players that it was a mistake both player’s made – and issuing both players with a penalty (GPE-GRV and GPE-FtMGS) reinforces that.
Answered by Scott Marshall
Chain Lightning Isochron Scepter
[/expand]

[expand title=”4. Anne is playing Nathan who is at 3 life. Anne has a Mage-Ring Bully in play. In her first main phase she casts a Divination. Moving to attackers she declare the Bully as an attacker. Nathan asks Anne what the P/T of her Bully is. Anne answers ‘The base P/T is 2/2’. Nathan declares no blocks believing that he will go to 1. Anne argues that Nathan is dead. Was Anne’s response an appropriate one to not have missed the trigger to Nathan’s question?”]
A: While I’m not happy about Anne’s verbal trickery and I’ll confirm that – especially with any language barrier – miscommunication must be considered, the bottom line for me is “Check your assumptions, don’t act on them.” Anne’s response is technically allowed, and so the trigger is not missed.
Nathan’s question could – and probably should – be something more like “for 2?” when Anne attacks. Or “so, I’d take two?” Those are much more likely and much better questions.
To be blunt, this scenario is a bit silly to begin with – players don’t generally ask “what’s the P/T of that?” – except, of course, as in this example, where Nathan is trying to trick Anne with his clever wording, which leads to her trying to trick him with her clever answer. Neither player is playing nice, here.
However, the rules favor Anne, here – as quoted and referenced above, Nathan just has to assume the trigger has been remembered, or call attention to it sooner than he might want to.
Answered by Scott Marshall
Mage-Ring Bully Divination

[/expand]

Judge Center Issues

This month we have a reminder regarding a couple of Judge Center issue for you. Read up on how to enter the subject of an interview-type review, how to verify an active DCI number and what to do in order to fix certain mistakes easily.

 

Find out which Judge Conferences, Grand Prix and SCG Opens have available worldwide staffing positions! You still have time to apply for Grand Prix Atlanta and Grand Prix Providence.

Check out the Grand Prix Solicitations and Selected Staffs for more details on individual tournaments.

Public projects such as Player Surveys, Mystical Tutor, MJM Translation, Judge Achievements, Flash Cards, Conference Guidelines and Policies and others are looking for help.

If you wish to get more out of your Judging experience and give back to the community, sign up to something that interests you!