Magic Judge Monthly: August 2017

Dear Judges,

Welcome to the newest edition of MJM.

As always, we have prepared all the relevant topics from last month for you to review and enjoy. A little bit of nationals updates, tips on findings venues in Europe and reminders that exemplar wave 11 is open.

Happy reading!

The MJM team


Magic Judge Monthly 01.12Importantnull

Exemplar Wave 11 Open

Wave 11 has begun!  The deadline for submissions is November 1st, but you are able to submit recommendations at any point until then.

RC Application

Many things have changed in regards to Regional Coordinators, including the selection process. This would normally be news for Level 3 Judges, however, if you’re Level 2 with the Tester qualification you may now apply for the position. If you’re looking for more information on the changes to process, check out this article.  If you’re looking to apply or see the requirements, check out this blog post.

Magic Judge Monthly 01.12Documents

Judge Article and Blog Posts August 2017

  1. Articles: Diversity and inclusion in MTG communities, Card of the Month – Solemnity, On Shields and Feedback, Regional Coordinator Selection Process – Fall 2017 Window Open, Regional Coordinator rotation – Update
  2. Judge Conferences: Updates to Conference Support – August 2017, NH/ME/VT Summer conference 2017 Report
  3. Battlefield Forge: GP Diary: Manila 2017
  4. GP Travel Guides: GP Birmingham 2017
  5. Flashcards: Comp Rules, IPG, MTR Questions, Ability Keyword
  6. What’s Up, Docs: Tournament Error — Tardiness, [O]fficial: Handling Lost Cards and Backing up through a Fetchland
  7. The Feedback Loop: On Shields and Feedback
  8. Knowledge Pool: Nobody Expects a Missed Inquisition, Strictly Surgical Sideboarding, “Meat and eggs. We eat!” – Borborygmos and One Probe, Two Spells, Red Land, Blue Cards
  9. Judgecast: #178 – The JudgeCast Open feat. Matt Williams, #179 – Commander 2017 Run-Down and #180 – Bribery with Eric Levine
  10. Other blogs and streams: Welcome to the Fold, The Elvish Farmer, The Multiverse Project, Judge Booth, EDBlog, Ask a Magic Judge, 

More judge blogs you can find at Blog Portal

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


Magic Judge Monthly 01.12Community

Happy Anniversary August 2017!

Congratulations to our Judge celebrants! This month we are featuring Nate Long, Barry Swan and Paul Baranay.

Judge of the Week August 2017

Play-mtg.eu Venue Search

We would like to share with you a very helpful guide to venues able to host about 500 players and are roughly 1000 m2 in Europe, which tend to require a smaller budget than mainstream ones.


Magic Judge Monthly 01.12Answers

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

1. If I copy a spell which was Overloaded like Mizzium Mortars, the ruling I have is that the copy is going to be overloaded because Overloading is a “choice made when casting it”. But is it not in contradiction with the part saying that “text-changing effects are not copied”, as Overload is a text-changing effect?
Why would it work differently than a copy of a Firespout, where the gatherer rulings specifically says that we don't track to the copy the choice of mana paid for casting the original spell?
A: There’s no contradiction here. As CR706.2 lays out, the text-changing effect applied to the original spell by its Overload ability (Mizzium Mortars) isn’t copied. What is copied, however, is the Overload ability itself, and it’s the copy’s Overload ability that then applies its own text-changing effect to the copy.

The copy gets its own instance of Overload, and that instance of Overload then makes changes to the copy.

Copies of Firespout (and similar) don’t do anything because the copy checks on resolution what mana was spent to cast it, and sees that no mana was spent to cast it at all. When 706.2 talks about choices made when casting the spell, it refers only to the choices laid out in CR601.2b-d–modes, additional and/or alternative costs, value of X, targets, division among targets, and so on. The amount and type of mana that you ended up spending to cast the original spell are not among those choices.

Approved by Callum Milne


2. If I cast Eradicate on my opponent's creature that has been equipped with Spy Kit, will I get to exile all of his non-legendary creature cards from the mentioned zones?
A: Eradicate on a creature equipped with Spy Kit will indeed exile all non-legendary creature cards from the stated zones.

“With the same name as” means the same thing as “that shares a name with”–the distinction between the two is purely grammatical. The “with the same” wording is used for comparisons where each card is (usually) expected to only have one such value to be compared, such as name, controller, converted mana cost, and so on, while the “shares” wording is used for comparisons where it’s expected that cards may have multiple such values to be compared, such as color or creature type.

Approved by Callum Milne


3. If Grafdigger's Cage is on the battlefield, and I manifest the top card of my Library (with Soul Summons, or similar), while we know it doesn't enter the battlefield, what is the status of the card in the library?
A: If you attempt to manifest the top card of your library while Grafdigger’s Cage is on the battlefield, nothing happens. At all. The top card of your library is completely unaffected in any way by the attempt to manifest it.

Approved by Callum Milne


4. As the opponent is presented with a deck, what is he or she allowed to do in order to check if it's correct or not?
A: Players can, do, and maybe should count their opponent’s deck when presented; the new limit on pile counts doesn’t prevent that. In fact, the philosophy of the relaxed penalties re: deck problems stands firmly on this foundational idea, that you have this one opportunity to verify the deck; if you abdicate that responsibility, you’re accepting the legality of the deck.

Approved by Scott Marshall.


5. AP after thinking in the Main Phase says: ‘Cycle. Draw.’ However, NAP hears ‘Cycle. Go.’ so he untaps and draws a card at which point AP calls a judge. The IPG penalties don’t come to a good penalty to allow a back-up. What do you do?
A: There isn’t a good penalty for this miscommunication. This is a miscommunication between players, it happens and is not covered by the IPG. We rewind up to the point the problem happened and tell them to please communicate better.
For those stuck on “must be a GRV, starting your turn in the middle of AP’s turn”, I’ll remind that you’re looking past the root cause here – a miscommunication. (And I think we’re all clear that this is not a Communication Policy Violation!). As Jeremie, and his article, have shown us, we deal with these misunderstandings as best we can, but that doesn’t mean we’ll always have infractions.
For more considerations here, read this article!

Approved by Scott Marshall.


6. AP attacks with a 4/4. NAP blocks with a 3/3 and a 1/1. NAP asks which creature AP wants to deal damage first and AP answers the 3/3. They both agree to go to damage, AP puts the 4/4 in his graveyard and NAP puts the 3/3 in the graveyard, leaving the 1/1 on the battlefield. AP passes turn. Do you intervene? If yes, based on what? If no, what do you do if at the next turn AP says “wait, your 1/1 died !”?
A: If you intervene, you do so based on your assumption that AP intended what YOU would have done, in that same scenario. That’s a strategy-based decision, and you can’t know that they’re aware of a (probably) superior line of play – and thus, can’t step in to tell them what that would be. Let them make mistakes, as long as they aren’t an infraction.

If we see something odd, it’s a red flag that maybe we should look a bit closer, or at least watch to see what develops. However, if nothing is illegal, we don’t intervene.

Approved by Scott Marshall.



Magic Judge Monthly 01.12Policy

Nationals Updates

Stamped Product for Nationals– Do you need to prepare stamped product for the booster draft portion of the event? Wizards are not providing stamped product and do not recommend that anyone try to stamp their product. Read on for more info.

Qualifying for Nationals – If there are players who are not listed among those qualified for Nationals but should be, now is the time for them to act and change the country in which they are listed.

Potential Bribery Scenarios

You hear the phrase “We’ll talk about the prize later.” while you are judging at a competitive REL event. Join the interesting discussion regarding how to handle this.

Number of Rounds (per MTR)

A required correction has been spotted in Appendix E of the MTR where it states that in Premier Events if there are 8 teams, the event shall be run on 3 single-elimination rounds. It also states that if there are between 4 and 7 teams, the event shall be run on 2 single-elimination rounds. It should be 5-8 in the first case and just 4 in the second. Relevant thread here.

Google Calendar 2018 Update

The premier event calendar has been updated, click here for the ID required to synchronize it with your personal calendar.


Magic Judge Monthly 01.12Project

Find out which Judge Conferences, Grand Prix and SCG Opens have available worldwide staffing positions! You still have time to apply for Grand Prix Oklahoma City 2017 and the Conferência Nacional 2017 – Rio de Janeiro.

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

Public projects 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!