My Magic career essentially \u2018began\u2019 when my friends and I started attending prereleases in Albuquerque, NM, run by Sunmesa Events. Quite a few times, Glenn Godard would give a speech during his events that he called \u201cThe Stuff Speech\u201d, and that\u2019s what today\u2019s article is about. Basically what it boils down to is how easy it is for me to make your stuff, MY stuff. Theft at MTG events isn’t rampant, especially thanks to helpful TOs going to great lengths to keep your stuff YOURS, but you can do a lot of good towards that goal with just a little bit of effort.<\/p>\n
The biggest tip I can give you is: Only bring what you need. I\u2019m a judge, and I play EDH almost exclusively. I have decks full of foils, full of foreign cards and neat things. I have a lot of unique and somewhat expensive things that I\u2019m very proud of, but I know that when I\u2019m headed to judge a prerelease, I shouldn’t bring all of that stuff with me. Why not? Because I don\u2019t need it! It\u2019s going to spend the whole day sitting behind a counter, or in my car, and I\u2019ll be too busy to watch it. It\u2019s just way too easy for my stuff to become someone else\u2019s stuff that way, so I don\u2019t bring what I don\u2019t need. I leave all my nice decks at home, and only bring along my dice, my deckbox for the sealed event on Sunday, and sleeves.<\/p>\n
The next best thing you can do is to make sure you keep track of the stuff you DID bring with you at all times. Keep it near you, keep it in your sight. When you\u2019re playing a game, keep your bag underneath your chair, and slide your leg through the straps. Periodically check on it to make sure nothing\u2019s missing. If you\u2019re going to leave your bag at a table while you go buy some sleeves from the vendors, make sure your friends are there, and make sure that they KNOW you left your stuff. Ask them to watch it! Better yet, take it with you. Your backpack on your back will tend to stay yours; your backpack laying unattended at a table can easily become someone else’s, and it’ll be your word against theirs on who owns what.<\/p>\n
Which brings me to my third tip: name tags. Write your name and DCI\/phone number on a label, and stick it inside your deckboxes, and on the inside page of your binder. Not only will that help clear up \u201cWho does this belong to?\u201d pretty quickly, it can also help honest guys who find your stuff laying around make sure it gets back to you. \u201cHey, who lost a black binder full of foils and duals?\u201d isn’t going to help me get your stuff back to you, since lots of people might claim it’s theirs. But if you write your name and DCI\/phone number on that binder, I can just call for you specifically to come to the judge’s area and give you your things back (after a stern reminder to be careful not to leave your things unattended!).<\/p>\n
So, bullet points: Only bring what you absolutely need for the event; leave your other stuff where it\u2019s safe [whether that be at home, locked in your trunk, or in your hotel room]. Keep your stuff with you, because otherwise it can easily become someone else\u2019s stuff. Put identifying tags or cards in your binders and boxes, so that you can prove that the stuff belongs to you if points one and two don\u2019t help. Remember, most Magic players are good and honest people, but all it takes is one jerk in a room of 2000 good people to ruin your day. Make sure your stuff doesn’t become his stuff.<\/p>\n
Today’s Tournament Tip written by Trevor Nunez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My Magic career essentially \u2018began\u2019 when my friends and I started attending prereleases in Albuquerque, NM, run by Sunmesa Events. Quite a few times, Glenn Godard would give a speech during his events that he called \u201cThe Stuff Speech\u201d, and that\u2019s what today\u2019s article is about. Basically what it boils down to is how easy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"language":[1196],"class_list":["post-3270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tournamentrules","language-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3270"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4601,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3270\/revisions\/4601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3270"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=3270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}