Magic Judge Monthly: October 2017

Dear Judges,

Welcome to the newest edition of MJM.

After a long time, we have Sugar on Top back! We’ll only say it is in the spirit of the new edition. Also, we will be recruiting soon, so if you fancy a go at writing, please drop us a line. In the meantime, enjoy the overview of October’s topics and see you soon.

Happy reading!

The MJM team

Content Table
Important
Documents
Community
Questions & [O]fficial Answers
Policy
Projects & Jobs

Exams in JudgeApps!

JudgeApps is now the place to visit if you want to take practice exams. All the pieces are in place to add more tests, but time is needed to create the content. If you’d like to help, read the announcement article and then head over and try a couple of exams. After each exam is a form for your feedback.

Program Coordinator Update

A new Program Coordinator is in. He has some plans for the future of the PC role and details as to how that will affect the program. Check out the announcement here.

Learning Sphere

No this isn’t a spoiler for a new card. The Learning Sphere is where Judge knowledge is gathered and directed back out into the Judge community. The goal is to provide easy access to the large amount of knowledge scattered around the interwebs. This combines more than 30 projects. If you’re looking to start improving knowledge in a certain area, start with this.

Judge Article and Blog Posts October 2017

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.

Happy Anniversary October 2017!

A big round of applause for all Judges celebrating their “birthdays” in October! Featured this month are Judges Justin Hovdenes and Enrique Manuel Guzman Mosqueda.

Judge of the Week October 2017

#229 Joe Klopchic Level 2, from Seattle, Washington, United States
#230 Angela Aliff Level 1, from Roanoke, Virginia, United States
#231 Phillip Painter Level 2, from Fremont, California, United States

Disruptive Players and/or Behavior

Do you have disruptive players or behavior at your event? Or would you like to learn a technique to encourage better behavior? You can do that here.

L1 Candidates Learning Materials and MtG Slang

We would like to provide you with an excellent page containing all the links you need for the Road to Level 1, projects or otherwise for everybody’s convenience.

Another really useful page for those interested is the List of Magic Slang. It would indeed be worth to take a look at it as it contains the most commonly used slang and abbreviations.

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

1.If you bring back a Vizier of Many Faces with Scarab God from graveyard, what is it?

A: If The Scarab God‘s ability is used on Vizier of Many Faces and that token copies, The Scarab God, the token is a 5/5 blue-and-black non-Zombie. This is for the same reason that a Vizier of Many Faces that you cast from your hand (and copied the God) would be a 5/5 blue-and-black non-Zombie: Vizier’s copy effect overwrites its “normal” characteristics. To go a bit more in depth, as the Scarab God’s ability resolves, it wants to create a token-Vizier that looks like this:

Vizier of Many Faces – {2}{U}{U}
(Black) Creature – Zombie
You may have Vizier of Many Faces enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except if Vizier of Many Faces was embalmed, the token has no mana cost, it’s white, and it’s a Zombie in addition to its other types.
Embalm {3}{U}{U}
4/4
However, before you can put that creature onto the battlefield, there’s a relevant ability to apply: its copy effect. You choose to copy The Scarab God, and that overwrites the above-described characteristics with the ones it’s copying from The Scarab God, so it now looks like this:

The Scarab God – {3}{U}{B}
Legendary Creature – God
At the beginning of your upkeep, each opponent loses X life and you scry X, where X is the number of Zombies you control.
{2}{U}{B}: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Create a token that’s a copy of it, except it’s a 4/4 black Zombie.
When The Scarab God dies, return it to its owner’s hand at the beginning of the next end step.
5/5
As you can see, the token is not a Zombie and is a 5/5 because that’s the characteristics it copied from the Scarab God–the “normal” characteristics were overwritten when you applied the copy effect.

Approved by Callum Milne.

2. My opponent controls a Leonin Arbiter. They Ghost Quarter one of my land, and I do not pay 2. Can I still choose to shuffle my library?

A: No. While Leonin Arbiter is in effect, it’s not possible for you to search your library, and when a resolving spell or ability asks you to make a choice, you cannot choose an option that’s illegal or impossible. (CR 608.2d). When Ghost Quarter‘s ability resolves, it gives you a choice: {search your library} or {do nothing}. That first option is impossible thanks to the Arbiter, so therefore, your only legal option is to do nothing.

Approved by Callum Milne.

3. Let's say I control a Metallic Mimic & an Arcane Adaptation and I named Merfolk for both. I play a non-Merfolk creature. What happens? Now, I know this creature will enter into the battlefield as a Merfolk and get an extra +1/+1 counter from the Mimic, due to recent change with Ixalan's release. My question is probably weird but I would like to know if before this change, this creature would have also entered the battlefield with this counter?

A: It used to be that when we looked ahead to how it would look on the battlefield,we ignored effects that already existed and would apply to the object on the battlefield; now we consider those effects. Before the rules change, that means we wouldn’t take into account the effect of the Arcane Adaptation when looking ahead to see what it would look like on the battlefield, even though it’s affecting the creature on the stack (hence why things were weird with interactions like Conspiracy and Bramblewood Paragon: it was a Warrior on the stack, and it’s a Warrior on the battlefield, but due to the way the rules worked before, when looking ahead, we wouldn’t take the effect of Conspiracy into account, and the creature wouldn’t enter with a +1/+1 counter).
But, as a reminder: this is not how the rules work now. Now, it will enter with the counter, since we take into account the effect of the Adaptation when looking ahead.

Approved by Nathan Long.

Cards: Metallic Mimic

4. This match has just started. Abel plays a Polluted Delta, cracks it, verbalized he was getting a Hallowed fountain to cast Serum visions, then resolves Serum visions. Afterwards he realizes he never got his land from fetching. JUDGE!!!!! How would one resolve this issue?

A: There are two reasonable options, to back up or to apply the partial fix of having the player find the fountain (without moving the scried cards) and placing it on the battlefield.
In either case, some investigation is recommended to determine the best solution, as well as asking players to play more carefully. At comp REL don’t forget the GRV penalty.

Approved by Scott Marshall.

Cards: Polluted Delta; Hallowed fountain; Serum visions

5. If Scarab God dies on my opponent's turn, and I acknowledge the trigger (or forget to), do I get the Scarab God back when I remember during my own upkeep? Is there a difference if I forgot to mention the trigger at all?

A: The first trigger “When the Scarab God dies” does nothing other than create a delayed trigger, so it resolves automatically, regardless of whether you mention it or not.
It is possible to miss the second trigger, but then the fix is to resolve it when it is noticed.

Approved by Scott Marshall.

Discrepant IPG Penalties in WER

Currently WER does not include all penalties that could be issued, and therefore the most appropriate action when issuing one which is not included, is to choose the one it replaced and note in the details the appropriate new penalty.

Running Charity Events

If you are interested to help out in the running of a charity event at your local game store, we have plenty of tips for a successful event!

RPTQ and GP Day 2 Cut-off Updates

There is a new set of updates available for Grand Prix Events in 2018 relating to the promos, schedules as well as the Day 2 cut.v

Find out which Judge Conferences, Grand Prix and SCG Opens have available worldwide staffing positions! You still have time to apply for Grand Prix Lyon 2018 and the USA Southwest Winter Judge Conference

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!