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Name:<\/strong>\u00a0Nicolette Marisol Apraez<\/a>\nLevel:<\/strong> 3
\nLocation:<\/strong> Atlanta, GA, USA
\nJudge start date:<\/strong> 9\/1\/13
\nWhy did you become a judge?<\/strong> I was at a prerelease when I drew a game I should have won. As soon as we finished our extra turns, my opponent and the judge explained the interaction that I was missing. (I don’t remember the interaction exactly, but I think it had to do with encoding Ciphers onto a Keyrune, I either didn’t realize I could encode more than one thing on a creature, or I didn’t realize that the card was still encoded after my keyrune stopped being a creature.) Not only did I want to know more cool rules so that I could be a better player, but I also wanted to help others the way that judge helped me!
\nFavorite card:<\/strong> Aggressive combo-y cards like Ghor-Clan Rampager<\/a> and Temur Battle Rage<\/a>.
\nLeast favorite card:<\/strong> Blue cards that don’t let me do what I want.
\nFavorite format:<\/strong> Drafting whatever the current draft set is!
\nCommander General:<\/strong>\u00a0Athreos, God of Passage<\/a> and Marath, Will of the Wild<\/a>
\nFavorite non-Magic Game:<\/strong> Hearthstone or Ticket to Ride
\nRandom fact about yourself:<\/strong> Since I certified in 2013, I have spent over half of all my weekends working events.<\/p>\n
<\/u>One of the things you are known for is trying to better organize on-demand events. What are some secrets for running ODEs well? How did you get involved in Magic in the first place?<\/strong> How has being a judge influenced your non-Magic life?<\/strong> What is your favorite non-judging moment that happened with other judges? What was your path to L3 like?<\/strong> What has been your favorite Magic event that you\u2019ve judged?
\n<\/strong>To me, it\u2019s really abut communication. At this point, I’ve tried dry-erase maps, Excel sheets, binder pages of lands, no map at all, electronic mapping, Post-Its, and several other methods. They can all succeed so long as there is effective communication between the registration people sending judges off to their event, and the judges launching the events. My advice is to find something that works for you and do it, but always keep an eye on progress in the other options, because there will undoubtedly be best-practices or new advancements that you can adapt to fit your style.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/files\/2017\/05\/16174551_1609428242404989_1023070022635184554_n-300x200.jpg\")
What do you enjoy about being in administrative roles at large events?
\n<\/strong>I am a project manager by trade, so scorekeeping and other admin roles tend to click for me. The data-entry of scorekeeping can get boring, but I challenge myself to get all the slips entered, double-check my work, time my round turnovers, and other things that help me improve. I also think spending time as a scorekeeper has made me a better judge, as I am able to better communicate with a scorekeeper, understand workflow and bottlenecks in the process, and figure out what I need their help with, and what I can do to help them.<\/p>\n
\nWhen I was in high school, my friends and I would have LAN parties (where we’d bring our computers and set up in someone’s basement for a night of gaming). Eventually your eyes got tired of staring at a computer screen, and so a couple of the people there would bring their Magic decks with them, and so I learned in between games.<\/p>\n
\nWhen Jess Dunks<\/a><\/span><\/span> and I were deciding where to move (in addition to Jess finding a school he liked down here), we judged so often that finding a city with an airport hub become a mandatory stipulation. When we bought our new house a year later, distance to the airport was almost as important as making sure it had the right number of bedrooms! But.. since I travel so often, there are definitely projects and chores around the house that tend to go half-finished if I get back in town from an event Monday night and leave again Thursday morning for the next event.<\/p>\n
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What is one tip you have for other judges?<\/strong>
\nStep One: Figure out what you want to do in the program. Step Two: Ask yourself why you want to do that thing. If the reason is just to check a box or because you feel like you are supposed to, stop where you are and repeat Step One. And then once you decide, contact people who can help you. If there are people already doing the thing you want to do, reach out to them. If there\u2019s no one doing the thing you want to do, talk to your RC or mentor, and work with them to find out where to go from there.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Judging has given me some of my best friends, and because of that I\u2019ve had so many amazing memories with other judges. Almost all event after-parties have great memories attached to them. I\u2019ve spent time traveling around Europe, Sydney, and Japan in between different events. We had Matt Williams<\/a><\/span><\/span>, aka Billy Willy, over to our apartment for New Year\u2019s during our first year in Atlanta, and played an epic game of Zombicide. And then there\u2019s always Barcelona, where myself and almost all the US Regional Coordinators got stuck coming back from the 2015 World Magic Cup, and ended up at a hotel for a few nights where we met a number of characters, including a 70-year old ex-cat burglar.<\/p>\n
\nI was hoping to test and Panel at GP Minneapolis the Head Judge was the only one where with the Panel Lead Cert, which wouldn’t have worked. And then I went to PT Dublin as a host. I was an Event Host at the Pro Tours and World Magic Cup from 2015 until PT Dublin in February when I passed my panel). When Toby Elliot<\/a><\/span><\/span> asked where I was in the L3 process I told him about Minneapolis and he suggested that there were plenty of L3s to do it there in Ireland. I was sick so taking an exam would have been a bad idea, but who I am as a person and judge was not going to change between when I was sick and better, so we decided to at least get my panel out of the way. Having policy discussions with Abe and Toby, who were the two L3s on my panel, was a little crazy due to their different stances on Policy. I passed, but since it was a little out of the ordinary to panel before taking the exam and I hadn’t actually been promoted or anything, we didn’t make any real public statement, but we did celebrate at the Staff Party for the PT! By the time I took my exam at SCG Atlanta, Nashville and Kyoto apps were already closed, so Albuquerque is the first one that I’ll be able to apply for as a judge. (Fingers Crossed!).<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I love going to foreign events. It lets me travel, meet new judges, learn new cultures and customs, try new foods, and every time I work an event in another country I feel like I\u2019ve grown as a judge and a person.<\/p>\n
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What was the toughest Magic event that you\u2019ve judged, and how did you deal with it?