Tournaments might seem intimidating. I mean, you’ve got to record your matches on slips of paper, all these people in black are handing out penalties, everything seems so official. But it doesn’t mean we don’t want you to have fun! We also most certainly don’t expect you to remember what exactly each and every card […]
Category: Tournament Rules
Tournament Tuesday: Head Judges and Proxy Cards
So I’m sure plenty of you are familiar with proxy cards, or just ‘proxies’. For those of you who aren’t, they’re basically a stand-in for a card you might not have; they’re very commonly used in playtesting, where someone will just scribble “THRAGTUSK” in sharpie over a janky draft common, or a spare Plains, and […]
Understanding Out-of-Order Sequencing
Magic is a complex game. With over 12,000 unique cards and a hefty set of Comprehensive Rules, it’s not reasonable to expect players to have complete mastery over the precise rules behind every action they’re taking in the game. As a result, tournament Magic has codified a policy known as Out-of-Order Sequencing (OoOS for short). […]
Not all game errors are cheating (in fact, very few actually are).
Whether you’re at your local FNM or playing on the Pro Tour, mistakes will happen. And while there are a few people who might try to take advantage of mistakes by cheating, it’s unlikely that the average mistake is the result of trying to cheat. There are a couple reasons why a mistake might happen. […]
How naming choices too early for creatures with targeted triggers or copy effects works.
“My Clone targets your Huntmaster.” “I’ll play Wolfir Silverheart soulbonding the token.” “Exile all your creatures with my Angel of Serenity.” Statements like this, technically speaking, aren’t correct. When you cast a creature spell, it doesn’t have a target, even if it has an ability that would require you to make a choice as it […]
You can’t show or tell your draft picks during a draft, ever.
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 […]
Tournament Tuesday: Zone-Change Triggers
As we covered last week, there’s been a few changes in the Missed Trigger policy recently. Today we’re gonna cover one that’s had a little confusion even among judges: Zone-change triggers. First, I’ll start off with a link to Toby Elliot’s article about what the trigger changes mean for players, because you guys are players, […]
Tournament Tuesday: Triggers at Regular REL
As some of you may know, there was recently a little bit of an update to the Missed Trigger rules. Nothing so far-reaching as the last few; mainly, the new rules exist to clear up exactly WHEN a trigger is considered missed, because there were some that were kind of weird with the MT rules […]
Tournament Tuesday: Beginning the Game
So it’s your first FNM. You’re all ready to go, with your Dimir milling deck. Pairings are posted, and you sit down at your table. But now what do you do, before you start your first game? The first thing you want to do is pull out your deck and start shuffling. This can also […]