L1s are arguably the most important judges in the program. While you may not do a lot of big Competitive REL events, you are the ones that run local FNMs and Pre-releases. When players think of judges, they think of you since you interact with players so frequently.
Since you’re so important to the community, it’s important that you’re awesome. Here is a collection of resources to make you even more awesome.
Become a Judge:
-Many of these resources require an account on JudgeApps. Find out how to get one!
Rules:
-Your first stop for rules questions should be the 24/7 live rules chat. It’s full of great people who answer questions day and night.
-If you’ve fallen prey to Facebook, you should consider joining the MTG Judge Study Group. There, rules (and some policy) questions are asked to L0s and L1s. It serves as great practice for how you would actually take a call at your local FNM.
-Do you like neat rules interactions? Check out Cranial Insertion, a weekly rules blog run by some of the best rules gurus in the judge community.
-Speaking of rules tip blogs, how about the Rules Tip Blog? You’ll come across many of these interactions during all of the events that you’ll be running, so it’d be useful to pop over there every once in a while. Sometimes, our resident bearz even makes an appearance.
-If you’re the type that loves digging through the Comprehensive Rules itself, Yawgatog maintains an excellent hyperlinked version where you can easily lose yourself in the dark corners of the room. Let me know if you find Eli.
-Preparing for a test? See what’s on the Level 1 and Level 2 written exams as told by the test manager, Brian Schenck.
-Finally, once you’re done dropping knowledge on yourself, why not test what you’ve learned by taking a practice exam in the Judge Center?
Policy:
-The single best place to find tricky policy situations is on the Knowledge Pool. Every week, a question from the deep, dark depths of a pool of judges’ collective mind emerges to make the community scratch their heads. There is always something to learn about either specific situations or policy as a whole on that blog.
-L3 Kevin Desprez has started up a new blog called What’s Up, Docs? It delves into the philosophy behind policy and can really help you understand why we do the things the way we do.
-If you feel like a policy master, and just want to catch up on the latest changes, head over to L3 Toby Elliot‘s blog, Policy Perspectives.
Community:
-The best way to keep in contact with the larger judge community and to also apply for awesome events is to make sure you have an account on JudgeApps. There are lots of discussions on the forums and even fun projects you can check out and help.
-Looking for more information about JudgeApps? Have a look at our Introductory Guide to JudgeApps!
-You should already be familiar with Judge Center by now. This is where you go to take practice exams, enter reviews, and do lots of officially judge-y stuff. Make sure you upload a picture!
General development:
-Bored at work and want to listen to witty banter while learning lots of neat things? JudgeCast is perfect for you!
-Writing your first application to an event can be quite the daunting task. Nicholas Sabin helps ease your worries and gives lots of good pointers in his ‘Killer App’ video.
-Sometimes judges just want to tell us about lots of neat ways to improve judging in general. Judge Articles are frequently posted that cover quite a large variety of topics.