Apparently, some people believe I have no sense of humor.

Whether I’m funny or not is a matter for debate. But people figure that I’m Azorius and the Azorius have no sense of humor. That makes them 0-for-2 in that sentence alone.

The general skepticism that I could be joking actually makes me a good person to do April Fools, because enough people will blindly believe everything I say, no matter how insane it might be. And my sense of humor is deadpan enough that you have to be at least a little on your guard. Especially on April 1, 2010:

A reminder that the new IPG goes live today, and also an additional change that obviously can’t wait until the July update.

Wizards’ R&D is very excited about the upcoming release of Rise of the Eldrazi (internal slogan: “This game’s just getting started, Timmy”). Because of this, they want to ensure that the cards in the set are played for optimum awesomeness and have asked us to modify policy to enable this.

As a result, Outside Assistance infractions should be waived when they involve cards from the Rise of the Eldrazi set. Magic is a social game, and it doesn’t get much more social than encouraging someone to charge in with a giant monster at the right time. Please note that this is *only* for play advice and situations involving Rise cards; older sets are still covered by the standard Outside Assistance rules.

Thanks for your attention to this, and, in the immortal words of John Carter, “Keep it Fun.”

I shipped that one out (with permission!) figuring that there was no way anyone would actually believe this. Let’s set aside the fact that the policy would be a nightmare to implement. You’d think people would at least have wondered about that internal slogan. And then there’s my misquoting Carter’s ubiquitous signoff. But no, lots and lots of people contacted me concerned about how this was going to work in practice. At least one L4 judge wanted to know why I hadn’t given that group a heads-up first.

To celebrate the third anniversary of this particular message, I got permission from one of the victims to share an IRC dialogue we enjoyed then. They were one of many concerned, and are, today, a highly-respected L3+ judge, so we obviously didn’t hold it against them too badly. Consider this a cautionary lesson that I am not above the occasional well-placed troll.

innocent: so, toby, about you guys removing outside assistance from magic...
innocent: as I'm in digest form, I can't see if there are any followups to the OA announcement
innocent: but I just want to let you know that it confuses the heck out of me
innocent: and that some specifics would be nice
innocent: something on the order of "for prerelease, release, and regular REL, OA when involved with strictly RoE cards is not a problem"
innocent: as I can't believe the intent was to allow OA during drafts at PTSJ
telliott: why not?
innocent: you think that a pro wants his opponent's buddies to come over and tell him how to play his game?
innocent: when there's money on the line?
telliott: sure, why not?
telliott: they're swinging with 10/10s
innocent: I don't know that you've convinced me that this is a good idea
telliott: I'd say you're pretty easy to convince
innocent: I agree
innocent: but I'm still not convinced
innocent: I can see how this makes things more timmy friendly
innocent: but a lot of people won't care about being timmy friendly
telliott: and we have 364 days a year for them!
innocent: so is this only for the prerelease, then?
telliott: no, I'm pretty sure this is only for today
innocent: okay, now I'm confused
innocent: I am as easily confused as I am convinced, it seems
telliott: indeed, let's see how confused you are
telliott: what day of the week is it?
innocent: thursday
telliott: and what's the date?
innocent: oh you sob
telliott: \o/