Announcement about the Future of New Set Digests

The first piece of advice I give to judges I mentor is often “Don’t be afraid to ask for help.” Today, I am taking my own advice.

If you’re reading this here on my blog, you’re probably familiar with the New Set Digests that I publish with every new release. Since Journey into Nyx, these have been extremely popular and valuable source of information for judges who want to stay up to date on all the changes that accompany a new set. These articles started as a short collection of anticipated rules interactions that I presented to the judges of my hometown. Over the past three years, they have grown enormously in scale and scope to become what they are today.

Unfortunately, my vision for these articles outpaced what I could sustainably produce. I am sorry to say that the quality of these articles has suffered as a result. If I’m being brutally honest with myself, I haven’t been satisfied with any of the New Set Digests I’ve published for about the last year. My goal for New Set Digests is to be comprehensive resources of all the changes in the new set: important interactions involving new and recently unbanned cards; overviews of new mechanics and returning mechanics that haven’t been used in a while; and changes to the CR, IPG, and MTR. Producing such an article requires an enormous investment in time and energy, and with each passing set, I’ve fallen shorter and shorter.

And so I’m asking for your help. I’m looking for 3-4 judges to work with me come up with ideas for questions, write answers and explanations, check for errors and omissions, and generally keep New Set Digests up to the high level that the judge program deserves.

If you feel like this project would be a good fit for you, please e-mail JudgingFtW@gmail.com. No prior experience is needed because frankly, writing questions really isn’t all that difficult. That said, if I’ve never worked with you before, a short introduction would be helpful for me. What exactly will project members be doing? I will have a Google Doc which everyone will be able to edit. Whenever you have a few minutes to spare, just pull up that document and develop some of the questions. It’s that simple. Because of the highly modular nature of these articles, it’s not necessary to grind through anything or commit hours of contiguous time. Like Wikipedia, the knowledge base can be built a little at a time. I will make final selections on Monday, January 8. If you don’t want to be a writer, but still would like to help, you can submit questions to the same e-mail listed above.

Thank you so much to all of my readers! Running Judging For the Win is no fun without all of you. The support and appreciation I have received has been overwhelming. This is what motivates me to keep writing and inspires me to produce the highest quality content of which I am capable. Thank you all, and may you achieve all your goals in the new year!

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