Request for Information from Project leads

If you’re leading a project or program that serves goals associated with the Judge Program, please complete this survey. If you’re not a project or program lead, please remind your lead that they need to do this. You may be doing something awesome and the Program Coordinator doesn’t know about it. This is a great way to inform them of how you benefit the Judge Program.

Level 2 in the NNWO

What does it take to be a Level 2 Judge in the “New New World Order”? The blog will reveal all the details for advancement. A handy bookmark for aspiring Level 1 Judges or for higher level Judges to refer their candidates to. Maintenance requirements are also listed, so that if you are Level 2, you’re not scrambling to complete these objectives when renewal time comes.

Exemplar Wave 7 Open

Time again to recognize amazing Judges. This wave closes on November 1st. Even though that feels far off into the future it creeps up very fast, so keep an eye out for Judges going above and beyond in their activities. You can check out the official announcement and if you’re interested in seeing some exemplary exemplar recommendations, check out the highlights from Wave 5.

 

Judge Article and Blog Posts August 2016

1. Articles: Tournament report: PPTQ Honolulu – Battlezone, The Europe – East summer conference: a report, GP Montreal – How to Start a Limited GP and Grounding Techniques for Event Anxiety
2. Bearz Repeating: Pro Tour Sydney: Day -1, Pro Tour Sydney: Day 0 and Skipping this week
3. Judge Conferences: The 10 Steps to Take Towards a Bad PowerPoint Presentation
4. Battlefield Forge:  New Hampshire’s First Triple PPTQ Day, SCG Open Series Worcester – July 9th 2016 and Modern PPTQ Dublin – Albany, New York (7th August 2016)
5. Judge Games:  Time is a line…
6. What’s Up, Docs: GP Pittsburgh Support Judge report and Running a Super Sunday Series Top8 Draft
7. The Feedback Loop: My First Review – George Gavrilita, Taking Selfies – Part One, Feedbag #5: TO Trouble, Steet Smarts: Feedback and the 4-Minute Mile and Say Anything.
8. New translation updates: translated JARs
9. Other blogs: The Elvish Farmer and Just a Little WordPress Judge Blog

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

Knowledge Pool August 2016

1. Cry, Cry, Cry
2. Dark Coffeedant

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

Judgecast

• JudgeCast #153 – Answering Letterrrrs
• JudgeCast #154 – Conspiracy: Take the Release Notes

 

Happy Anniversary! August 2016

So maybe August isn’t just another month before September if you’ve got a pal to congratulate whose name appears on this month’s anniversaries. Go check it out and read up on features on Max Schroeder, Brian Schenck and Damian Hiller while you’re at it. Let’s all send those toasts where they are due!

Judge of the Week August 2016

• #168 Tasha Jamison Level 3 from Portland, USA
• #169 Edwin Zhang Level 3 from China
• #170 Gerard Trpin Level 2 from France
• #171 Rick Salamin Level 2 from Essex, USA
• #172 Evan Cherry Houston, USA

Official Rulings

Some very important talk has been happening on Nathaniel Lawrence’s thread regarding a way to consolidate Official Rulings. Learn a thing or two about it.

Assisting Players with Poor Judge Interactions

If you aren’t sure what to tell a player who has things to raise about the behavior of a certain judge, head over to this thread (started by John Rowe). Essentially, it would lead one to share this link to a very nifty form for feedback.

 

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

[expand title=”1. The release notes for Leovold, Emissary of Trest indicates that If you and a permanent you control each become the target of the same spell or ability an opponent controls, Leovold’s ability will trigger twice. Is it also the case if two permanents you control become the target of the same spell or ability an opponent controls?”]
A: Yes, you get two triggers. Two permanents were targeted by an opponent’s spell or ability, so Leovold, Emissary of Trest will trigger two times. It doesn’t matter that the same spell or ability is targeting multiple times, what matters is that multiple permanents of yours were targeted by a spell or ability controlled by an opponent.
Answered by Nathan Long.
[/expand]

[expand title=”2. Can you cast a fused split card like Flesh//Blood if your opponent has Brisela, Voice of Nightmares?”]
A: Yes, you’ll be able to cast the card fused. 708.2b will likely be modified in the future, but the check to make sure you can cast it happens as part of announcing the spell (after you’ve chosen to cast it fused or not), and by that point, its converted mana cost is greater than 3 and not stopped by Brisela.
Flesh // Blood
Brisela, Voice of Nightmares
Answered by Nathan Long.

[/expand]

[expand title=”3. Nikol is a owner of exiled Blightsteel Colossus. Artur cast a Talent of the Telepath targeting Nikol. On a resolution of Talent of the Telepath Artur cast Processor Assault targeting some 2/2 bear and as additional cost he puts Blightsteel Colossus in Nikol’s graveyard. Nikol want shuffle Colossus into her library. But six cards are still revealed due Talent of the Telepath.
Will be revealed cards shuffled in library?”]
A: Yes, since you shuffled your library, you lose track of the cards that were revealed by the Talent and you won’t be able to cast another one of the spells. If you wanted to cast two spells, you should have cast the other spell first, then the Assault.
Blightsteel Colossus
Talent of the Telepath
Processor Assault
Answered by Nathan Long.

[/expand]

[expand title=”4. I’ve seen this ruling numerous times during my time as a judge, and I feel like we don’t all fix it consistently. The situation

A player is drawing for turn, and two cards stick together. The cards don’t touch their hand but they see both cards. When you get to the table, they have kept the two cards separated in a nice little pile. Both players will tell you the top card is the one they “should” have drawn.

By a strict policy reading, I think the solution here is to shuffle both cards into the library. I rarely see it handled like that, where instead I see that top card put into the hand and the other card shuffled away. Which is correct?”]
A: The “known card” applies to the fact that we know the card on top was, in fact, on top. That’s an unusual circumstance – it’s more common to decide that we can’t be sure which was which.
The player was going to draw that top card, so the integrity of the game is preserved best by having him or her draw that card, not a random card.
Answered by Scott Marshall.
[/expand]

[expand title=”5. In the middle of game 1, a player draws a card and realizes it’s a card from his sideboard. He is the honest one, and calls a judge immediately. The card is kept separately from other cards in hand. It is clear both for the judge and his opponent that it was a mistake and a player has no intention to cheat or abuse the mistake. Of course you can image how the situation finished – HJ came and penalized the guy with game loss. Isn’t there any way to downgrade this? “]
A: A warning downgrade option for DDLP here could eventually lead to a player thinking: “Oh, look, I drew that sideboard card … hmmm, not very good in this matchup, guess I’d better call a Judge right away…” – there are (some very good) reasons we didn’t extend the “grace period” beyond the point of “taking any game actions”.

I agree, completely, with the “feel bad” aspect of this – but the player can verify this before presenting the deck, and has the responsibility to ensure the deck is legal before presenting. I really don’t want to relieve them of that responsibility.
Answered by Scott Marshall

[/expand]

 

Running WER on Multiple Computers

If you have two or more computers and want to sync information between them with regard to events history and local players database, here is how you can do it.

WER and Dropping players

What does the term “drop” in MTR 2.10 technically mean? Does it imply that a player is removed from the tournament and will not take up a place in the final standings, or does it mean a player will not be paired in future rounds. Let’s find out!

2017 Events Calendar Updates

We would like to give you a heads up that the calendar has been updated with all events in 2017.

 
Find out which Judge Conferences, Grand Prix and SCG Opens have available worldwide staffing positions! You still have time to apply for 2016 SE Asia Judge Conference and the Middle East 2016 Judge Conference

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!