This week’s Judge of the week is Juan A. Del Compare. Juan has a been a level 3 judge since 1998 and lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He began playing with Revised and started judging with the Mirage Prerelease. Like many play groups, Juan’s argued with each other over the rules and interactions of cards. The 4th Edition rules made things a bit more confusing to the group, and Juan got fed up with arguing so he decided to become the expert. After that, each time his group had a disagreement, he would quote the rules to prove his point. Hence, he became the default judge. His most memorable judging experience was in Pro Tour Atlanta in 2005. However with such a long judging career he has many others.

Favourite Magic format?
Standard. Others have too many cards to remember what my opponent might be playing.

Favourite Magic Card?
Overrun, back from the days of green Stompy.

What do you do outside of judging?
I run Magic premier events, work for the local distributor, have a family (including two beautiful kids), read comics (mainly Green Lantern and Flash), translate Magic-related stuff, and before Magic completely took over my life, I was working on my PhD in Molecular Biology.

Favourite board / video game?
At the moment, Dominion.

Name one planeswalker that you would want to have while stranded on a desert island.
Chandra Nalaar. She can easily make a fire to cook something 😀

Favourite Magic background story novel?
The Ice Ace trilogy was a grateful surprise. IMHO, one of the best storylines, although I still have to read the Legends cycles. If just one book, I’d be between The Brothers War and The Thran.

What’s your favourite rule or section of a policy document?
IPG 5.4: Bribery. It’s a lot clearer now, but it’s a good source for judge debate now and then, specially discussing particular situations.

Reader Challenge – Two Truths and a Lie
Two of the following are true and one is false! Work it out!

1. I met my first wife in a conference I was giving at a comic store about Robotech (the 80s anime).
2. I did a course on Linux administration, but I still work on Windows every day.
3. I speak more than four languages.

(Highlight the blank space between the brackets to see the answer.)
The false statement is [#3! Juan only speaks three languages: Spanish, English, and Portugese.]