All this morphing, and so much to learn! Morph will undoubtedly be the most difficult ability for players to grasp since its last appearance years ago. There are many tidbits of fun that involve how to copy morph creatures, managing counters on creatures being morphed, or how turning morph creatures face up actually works. These will all come with time and experience, but there is one thing you must remember when playing with morph cards: ALWAYS REVEAL THEM whenever they change zones and at the end of every game where they are still face down as the game ends. This means if the face down card is countered, destroyed, shuffled away, returned to your hand, put on top of or back in your library from the battlefield, exiled, or the game ends, the card must be revealed to prove that the card was in fact a card with the morph ability. Not doing so in competitive or higher play will result in a Game Loss (for the current game). As you can tell, this matter is taken seriously since the incentive to cheat seems high. However, the rules are in place to ensure the advantage you appear to obtain from cheating with a non-morph card is definitely not worth the risk.

Should your opponent or a judge discover that you have a face down card that does not have morph (and not involving Illusionary Mask or Ixidron), and it’s determined that you did so intentionally to gain advantage, it is considered Cheating and will result in your Disqualification from any tournament it happens in. Odds are they will find out, given that every morphed card has to be revealed at some point.

A DQ for cheating can lead to suspension, preventing you from playing in future events for months, and even getting a Game Loss for not revealing can obviously put a dent in your record for the day. As an opponent, it is important for you to keep the other player honest in this regard. A friendly “so what was it?” will serve your need to verify. So remember – Don’t attempt to play cards face down without morph and ALWAYS REVEAL your morph cards at the end of each game before you clean up to keep your record strong!

And remember, even at FNM (or any other Regular REL event) you must reveal morphs the same way. While forgetting to reveal them as a game ends may not lead to an immediate Game Loss, intentionally casting non-morph cards as face-down creatures will still lead you down the path to Disqualification.

Today’s Tournament Tip written by Daniel Clarke