Welcome to August’s issue of MJM.  We’re still all waiting to hear more news from Judge Academy, so be watchful for what news comes as we approach the launch!  There’s been a lot of Q and A from various organizations, so please take a look at those!

have a great month!

Judge Article and Blog Posts – June 2019

1. Judge cast: Judgecast #232 Judge Academy Interview with Tim Shields and Nicolette Apraez,  JudgeCast #233 Changes to Organized Play
2. Translated Rules:  Magic Comprehensive Rules – August 23rd, 2019,  Magic Tournament Rules – August 30th, 2019
3. Knowledge pool –  Going Overboard
   German:  Soll ich gehen oder bleiben?, Schrödingers Satyr, verräterische Schildkröte
4. Travel Guides: MF Birmingham 2019
5. Regional Blogs: New articles in:
   The Northwest Passage
   Magic Judge Iberia – Español
   The Judges of Southeast Asia
   Europe – East regional blog
   Jueces Hispanoamericanos
   German Speaking Countries
   USA-North
   Northeast USA Judge Family
   Ελλανοδίκες

More judge blogs can be found at the Judge Blog Portal.

In case you would like to discuss an article, visit our Judge forum. Don’t forget to regularly check our Judge blog.
Do you need a quick rules or policy answer? Ask a Magic Judge!

Judge of the Week

Judge of the week is still on hiatus!

Judge Anniversaries!

A big HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to those judges celebrating in June and July 2019, featuring Markus Dietrich and Stefan Ladstätter! Also, we celebrate the L3 anniversaries of Ivan Petkovic, CJ Crooks, Dustin de Leeuw, Anastacia Tomson, Rafael Dei Svaldi, Carlos Rangon, and Joe Lau!

Welcome to the Fold

A big welcome to the following judges who worked their first MagicFest

MF Chiba

MF Minneapolis

MF Birmingham

MF Las Vegas

Legacy Program Coordinator

Even though Judge Academy is starting on October 1, not all regions are going to be included at launch. The judge program opened up applications for a Legacy Program Coordinator, who will oversee all of the regions not served by the Judge Academy.

Results: Congratulations to Adrian Estoup, who has been selected as the Legacy Program Coordinator!

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

[expand title=”1. AP takes a mulligan. NAP also takes a mulligan. While resolving their mulligan, AP draws seven and quickly bottoms a card. NAP assumes that AP has kept and decides to take a second mulligan. At this point AP vocalizes that they are still thinking about their decision. Is there any infraction?”]

A: Based on what is described, AP didn’t do anything wrong. They mulliganed correctly and pointed out NAP’s mistake when they saw it. NAP made a poor assumption about AP keeping their hand. NAP has made an error based on misunderstanding how mulliganing works.

If NAP’s hand is still separate from their hand, then they would be able to wait until AP makes a decision to decide whether they would mulligan or not. If NAP has already mixed their hand with their library, then they are locked into mulliganing again.

Educate NAP with how the mulligan rules work and encourage them to confirm that AP is keeping before making decisions in the future.

There’s no advantage gained by NAP mulliganing too early, so no penalties are needed here. Just educate, clarify, and move on.

Approved by the Forum Moderators [/expand]

[expand title=”2. AP controls Urza, Lord High Artificer and has a million blue mana in their mana pool. If they want to activate Urza’s third ability a lot of times to search for a specific card, can the player propose a shortcut in which the deck will not be shuffled, but the top card will be exiled each time they wish to activate the ability?”]

Cards: Urza, Lord High Artificer

A: As long as there are no effects that let the players know the position of cards in library, there’s no need to consume time so go ahead and save time!

Approved by Scott Marshall[/expand]

[expand title=”3. In the Release Notes for C19, it says ‘If there are no creature cards in your library as Atla Palani’s last ability resolves, you reveal your library then put it back in a random order’. For cards like Cosi’s Trickster, does this count as ‘shuffling’?”]

Cards: Atla Palani, Nest Tender, Cosi’s Trickster

A: No, it does not count as shuffling. It’s only a shuffle if it says it’s a shuffle – even if you’re putting cards in a random order on the bottom of your (empty) library, it’s still not a shuffle as far as the game is concerned, so the Trickster’s ability will not trigger.

Approved by Nathan Long[/expand]