Most Magic tournaments use a modified-Swiss pairing system. This means that players will be paired with others with a similar record for a specific number of rounds. After these Swiss rounds, all but the top players are often eliminated. These remaining players then play single elimination. The set of players that are not cut is […]
Category: Tournament Rules
Deck checks and how they work.
If you go to enough competitive events you will likely be deck checked at some point. If you haven’t, it’s nothing to worry about. Judges check decks periodically as part of their efforts to make sure that the event is fair. We want to make sure that not only are players not intentionally cheating in […]
Tokens don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to be able to differentiate them.
For several years now, boosters have contained token cards representing the various token creatures that can be made by cards in that expansion. Many are fairly generic and have a name, type, and power and toughness. However, a few others do have more abilities such as flying, regeneration, deathtouch, lifelink and more. You do not […]
What a Hidden Information Violation is.
A Hidden Information Violation is best described as looking at or for information that is normally hidden in a game–in other words, “peeking.” Two examples given in the Infraction Procedure Guide are looking at the cards that a neighbor is choosing while drafting and looking at the cards in an opponent’s deck while shuffling. Intentionally […]
How ‘Play / Draw’ works.
Before the first game in any match, the two players in the game will use a random method to determine who chooses which player will go first. Usually this involves a coin flip or a die roll. If there is ever a dispute over randomly making this determination, call a judge. The player that wins […]
What players must bring to an event.
While there are some expectations regarding behavior and what players are responsible for when playing in a tournament, the list of things they must bring or provide is not that long. The first thing is that players must provide a DCI number if they have one. If they do not have one, they can obtain […]
What ‘Improperly Determining a Winner’ is.
Improperly Determining a Winner is a when a player offers to use or both players actually use some random factor or method to determine the winner of a match. In the Infraction Procedure Guide, it is an unsporting conduct infraction, as suggesting or actually doing this is considered to be harmful to those players that […]
What Opaque sleeves are.
It was briefly mentioned in last week’s tournament rules tip that when using double-faced cards, if you do not want to use checklists and intend to use the actual double-faced cards, you must use opaque sleeve. This bears repeating and further description, as there have been too many instances of players using sleeves that do […]
Double-faced cards tournament rules.
Innistrad introduces double-faced cards to Magic, and with them some difficulty with logistics of playing them, so here’s a quick guide to how to use double-faced cards. The easiest way to play with double-faced card is to use the checklist cards that come in most Innistrad booster packs. If you’re playing unsleeved or with sleeves […]