All tournaments are governed by the all knowing Magic Tournament Rules, no matter what type of tournament you’re in. As long as they are DCI sanctioned, they are bound by the rules laid out there. The 55-page document might be a long one, but if you’re into any type of sanctioned Magic (even FNM is […]
Category: Communication Policy
A spectator’s role at FNM, a PTQ or Grand Prix day 2.
Whether you’re at your local FNM, watching a match because you already finished your match, or you’re at a Grand Prix watching your friend play, it’s not uncommon to see spectators watching matches. So what is expected of a spectator watching a match? First off, you should be a silent observer. You can say some […]
Tournament Tuesday: Life Totals
This is an older ‘change’ than the Missed Trigger update a little while back, but it’s one we haven’t really covered. One of the toughest things for a Judge to figure out is a life total discrepancy; when Player A says he’s at one life total, and Player B insists that he’s at another. In […]
Abilities, Communication Policy, Missed Triggers, Resolving spells and abilities, Tournament Rules, Triggered Abilities
Tournament Tuesday: Changes to the Missed Trigger Policy
Taking a little break from the Return to Ravnica previews, we’ll do our normal Tournament Tuesday tip. NOTE: All of this only matters at Competitive REL and higher—stuff like PTQs and GPTs and GPs—and it won’t go into effect until October 1st. At your local FNM and at the Return to Ravnica prerelease this weekend, you’re […]
New! Each life total change must be verbally announced with the new life totals.
At the start of any game, both players should explain to each other the method that they plan on using to keep track of life totals. Whichever method they choose must be accessible by both players to record life totals consistently. Each life total change should be verbally announced and recorded. If a player notices […]
What is “Private Information” ?
Communication Policy Part 3: What is “Private Information” ? The third type of information laid out by the Magic Tournament Rules is Private Information. (See here and here for the first two posts on communication policy. Private Information is officially anything which is neither free nor derived; more practically, though, it is information to which […]
What is “Derived Information” ?
Communication Policy Part 2: What is “Derived Information” ? The second type of information laid out by the Magic Tournament Rules is Derived Information. Derived Information is information to which all players are entitled access, but might require some degree of skill or calculation in order to determine. If you have to think about or […]
What is “Public Information”?
Communication Policy Part 1: What is “Public Information” ? It is important to make sure you communicate clearly with your opponent during a tournament. First, it makes the game flow much more smoothly and, second, the game is a lot more fun if you don’t have to argue about what happened. The first type of […]