We hope everyone had Happy Holidays and wish an excellent ending to the year. 2026 is looking to be a year of change, and the contributions of Judges will help ensure opportunities to excel.
Look on JudgeApps here to read about all the incredible achievements and contributions your peers have made at home, at events, online, or in their community. While there, you can also read use the search tool to see all the awesome things your fellow judges are doing: at home, at events, online, or in their community. The search tool will also allow you to read recognitions from the previous waves under the legacy program.
The Token
The art direction for this waves token was selected by Khailyn Schaefer who was selected as the Wave 2 Vanguard for their recognition received from PJ Wynn Moonsetter. For the token, they wanted a monk token, and Ken Meyer Jr delivered this dynamic piece.
This art is provided to Judge Foundry members, and non-commercial reproduction is allowed.
You can download a high resolution version of the token art here: http://blogs.magicjudges.org/exemplar/files/2025/12/JF_Exemplar_Front_Wave_2_reduced.png
Moving Forward
Our initial “Charter” for Exemplar was two exploratory waves. While Exemplar has not been widely adopted by Judge Foundry members, the recognitions received have been meaningful, and we feel is worth continuing. There is currently a motivation crisis within the judge community. Showing folks that we see what they are doing and providing encouragement is more important than ever before.
We will be announcing the opening of Wave 3 soon, however there are a few changes we are wanting to make, and are looking to get all agreements in place before we open the next wave, so that everyone has the full information from the start.
That’s all for now, until next time, stay awesome.