A Match Result Slip is that piece of paper with names and lines on it, which some judge or other tournament personnel will drop on your table (usually within the first 5 minutes of the round). At very small events, they may not be used at all. But if you ever go to a Competitive […]
Category: Tournament Rules
What “continuous construction” means for limited tournaments.
At Regular REL (FNM, most drafts, prerelease parties, etc.), limited tournaments (those using a card pool from sealed product, such as drafts or sealed deck) use a default called “continuous construction.” You can assume this is the case as long as the event is not being run at Competitive REL, you aren’t asked to register […]
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: Announcing Floating Mana
Your mana pool is arguably the most important concept in all of Magic — but most of the time, it’s completely invisible. If I tap four and three s for an , it’s pretty obvious what color of mana each of my Gardens is making, and whether the Vents are making red or blue usually […]
You can’t Burning Wish for exiled cards
When you wish upon a star Makes no difference who you are Anything your heart desires Will come to you But what can you Wish for in Magic? A card like Burning Wish tells you to choose a sorcery card from outside the game. So what’s outside of the game then? When the Wishes were […]
All about Lion’s Eye Diamond (yes, it’s a mana ability, but it has a timing restriction)
So is kind of a weird card. Let’s start things off by looking at its current Gatherer text: Sacrifice Lion’s Eye Diamond, Discard your hand: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only any time you could cast an instant. So the main difference between the printed version […]
Best practices for resolving Show and Tell
Chances are, if you’re reading this, one too many Emrakuls have been beating your face in. (I know mine has been squashed in! Holiday Cube is still fun though!). Most people when playing , put their chosen card face down, and flip them up at the same time. While this is acceptable, today I’m going […]
Shortcut directly to X-mas! (about the X-spell shortcut)
If you’ve ever played Magic Online, sooner or later you’re going to experience the frustration of clicking too rapidly through an X spell, like , and ending up casting it for X=0. Luckily, in the real world we’re a little more forgiving. If you cast an X spell without announcing the value for X, the […]
Feeling of Dread can only stop attackers if cast before the declare attackers step.
A question that I’ve been asked a lot is, “When is the last time I can tap a creature to prevent it from attacking?” So today, let’s use as our example card. When is the last time I can cast the Dread to prevent a creature or creatures from attacking? The last chance you’ll get […]