Many players are unsure about how the combat shortcut works; when they tried to tap an attacker before their opponent swung, the opponent said, “You can’t tap it, I already attacked.” Whether that’s true or not depends on what was said before that. There is a default tournament shortcut that says, “A statement such as […]
Category: Tournament Rules
If you cast a spell illegally, the game rewinds to just before you started casting it.
The process of casting a spell consists of a series of steps that need to be followed in order. If at any point during this process a player is unable to perform one of these actions, the whole casting process is illegal and the game returns to the moment before that spell started to be […]
The importance of proper shuffling.
Before the start of a game, it is very important to properly and sufficiently randomize (shuffle) your deck. To “randomize” means to shuffle the deck so that no player could have any knowledge about the approximate position of any particular card or the relative position of any group of cards. Usually, several mash shuffles is […]
Don’t get in trouble for drawing extra cards. Keep your hand separate from the cards you’re looking at with Ponder.
When you cast , you look at the top 3 cards of your library, and you have the option of manipulating the order in which you would draw them. With that said, keep in mind that the cards you’re looking at are still a part of your library. Make sure that the cards in your […]
Don’t offer advice to someone during a game.
For events run at competitive or professional rules enforcement level, giving someone advice in a match is covered in the Magic Infraction Procedure Guide. It falls under the category ‘Tournament Error – Outside Assistance’ and the associated penalty is a match loss. This match loss is given to the player that either sought advice from […]
When arranging a prize split or concession, it is best to call a judge for help.
The tournament tip last week was about offering prizes or other things in exchange for a result of a game or match, and how that will lead to a disqualification. It was mentioned that there is one exception: you can split prizes in the last round of a single elimination portion of an event. These […]
Don’t offer anything in exchange for a concession or a draw.
Last week, the tournament tip explained how rolling a die to determine a game or match winner is not allowed. Just as you should not randomly determine a winner, you also should not offer anything to an opponent to connive them into conceding to you. Also, you should never accept an offer like this. If […]
When in doubt, call a judge.
Over the next few weeks, we are going to cover what may seem like very basic ideas and tips for tournament Magic. The judge program has been working on a short list, or as short as we can make it, of things that all new players should know. Many of these things are areas that […]
All versions of a card are legal as long as a card with that English name appears in a legal set.
There are several different official sanctionable constructed formats in Magic. These formats are defined by which sets are legal to use when building decks. Because some cards appear in more than one set, it is legal to use a card from a previous set as long as the card was also printed in a current […]