Our series of tips about Judging at Regular REL continues!

As you may remember from our previous articles, the JAR (or Judging At Regular) is the document that we use for Regular Rules Enforcement Level (“Regular REL”) events. The IPG is put aside for these events since they’re more casual and relaxed, with a bigger emphasis on community and fun and learning. As such, they have a more lax rules document. The philosophy of Regular REL is to fix the error without being heavy-handed.

Today, we’re going to discuss what to do if you encounter a player who has “illegal, insufficient, or another player’s cards in his or her deck.” The answer is quite simple: we fix it! Unlike at Competitive REL, we don’t assign a Game Loss penalty to a player who has an illegal deck.

The details of the fix are quite simple. If any of the cards shouldn’t be in the deck (either because they are illegal or they actually belong to another player), remove them. Then, if the deck doesn’t have enough cards (at least 40 cards for Constructed, 60 cards for Limited), add basic lands of the player’s choice to bring the deck up to the minimum number.

If you add cards to the deck during a game in progress, they should be shuffled directly into the library (leaving in place any cards that were manipulated during the game, of course, such as cards put on the bottom from an Augur of Bolas).

Additionally, if the error is discovered during a draw effect, fix the problem before allowing the player to complete the draw.

Again, just to reiterate, a player should never receive a Game Loss for his or her first mistake at a Regular REL event. Game Losses should only be issued if a player makes the same mistake in spite of consistent reminders (such as showing up with a 59-card deck for a Standard FNM three weeks in a row). A player in danger of receiving a Game Loss should always be warned that his next mistake will result in a Game Loss so that he has a chance to correct his behavior.

Today’s Tournament Tip written by Paul Baranay