IMPORTANT UPDATE: A revision to this article has been made in light of the Magic 2014 rules update. Please refer to the correction below for the current ruling. At the beginning of each sanctioned match you are to present your deck for shuffling by your opponent. At this time you should also be presenting your […]
Category: Tournament Rules
At Regular REL events, judges can play AND judge.
For several years, judges were not allowed to play in any events that they were also currently working. And this is still true for any event that uses the competitive REL (Grand Prix Trials, Pro Tour Qualifiers, day one of a Grand Prix) or a professional REL (day two of a Grand Prix, Pro Tours, […]
What ‘Failure to Reveal’ is.
Failure to Reveal is a game play error that applies when a game rule or an effect has instructed a player to reveal some information and it is not revealed at the correct time. In most cases this involves revealing a card to prove that the card has specific characteristics. For example, when resolving ‘s […]
Extra Time for Matches
Anytime a judge issues a ruling that lasts more than a minute or two it is policy that the judge should give those players extra time to finish their match. This also applies to the time that players have had to wait for a judge to come to the table. The amount of time given […]
Spectator rules and responsibilities
At Magic tournaments, spectators are expected to be quiet and not interfere in matches or others portions of an event, like drafting and deck construction. However, if at any time a spectator believes that they may have witnesses something illegal happen they are encouraged to bring it to the attention of a judge as soon […]
What to do when your opponent doesn’t show up.
Often at events players intend to drop from the event but don’t actually let tournament officials know. There are often several ways to drop; by writing it on the match result slip, filing out a separate drop slip or just informing the scorekeeper. Not officially dropping from the event leads to players being paired for […]
Game Rule Violations and when to back up a game.
There are a lot of ways that the rules can be violated, and there are a few different infractions that cover Game Play Errors. There are a few specialized infractions to deal with very specific problems, such as Missed Triggers of Drawing Extra Cards. But one Game Play Error is a ‘catch-all’ that applies to […]
What Looking at Extra Cards is.
If you drop a card while shuffling, whether it is your deck or your opponent’s, judges will treat it as if you looked at it. Judges have no way to adequately determine whether you could have seen the card, so they will assume that you did. Even if the judge believes you when you say […]
Constructed vs limited sideboard use
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Part of this article has been corrected due to the Magic 2014 rules update. Please ignore the struck-through portion and refer to the updated information below. In constructed events, you submit a deck that must be at least 60 cards and can be more. However your sideboard must be either zero or 15 […]