Hurst, Texas
Friday March 14th, 2025 – Sunday March 16th, 2025
Friday – Ian Jasheway 5k Sealed Open HJ
Worldly Knowledge
AP controls March of the World Ooze and crews Lumbering World Wagon, what is its power and toughness? Its a 6/6. When determining the power and toughness of a creature we apply Characteristic-Defining Abilities first, then apply other effects afterwards. (CR 613.4a, 613.4b)
Most Days I’m Shufflin’
AP activates the ability of Floodpits Drowner, targeting one of NAP’s creatures, but before it resolves they return it to their hand with This Town Ain’t Big Enough. Will AP have to shuffle their library? Yes, even if AP is shuffling “nothing” into their library, they still shuffle the library. (CR 701.20c)
Silent Meals
AP controls Ygra, Eater of All and Hushbringer. If Hushbringer dies, will Ygra get two +1/+1 counters? No, because dies triggers look back in time, it will take a look at the game state before Hushbringer died, at which point it will suppress Ygra’s trigger. (CR 603.10a)
Saturday – Main Event – Floor Judge
A Chilling Conclusion
AP casts Free the Fae and reveals three lands and a Creeping Chill, do they have to take the Creeping Chill? Yes, they can only fail to find in a private zone, if a card with the specified quality is in a public zone, they are required to take it.
Relics of the Dawn
AP controls Ketramose, the New Dawn and activates the second ability of Relic of Progenitus, how many times will Ketramos trigger? Two. Once when the ability is activated, due to AP exiling the Relic as a cost, and the second time when the ability resolves.
No Gates on My Turf!
AP plays a Gruul Guildgate, then realizes that they actually meant to be playing Gruul Turfs instead. They realized this as they were in the middle of playing a Gruul Guildgate for the turn. I ruled deck – problem – warning, and had them replace the cards now with Gruul Turfs. (IPG 3.5)
I See All
AP is controlling NAP with Emrakul, the Promised End. They activate NAP’s Mishra’s Bauble to look at the top card of NAP’s deck, and wondered whether NAP would also be able to see the card. Yes, AP doesn’t become NAP, they merely instruct NAP on what to do and NAP does it, but NAP still sees everything that happens (they’re like a prisoner in their own body!). (CR 720.4)
Flash From the Past
AP casts Snapcaster Mage and targets Wear//Tear with its ability, can AP cast Wear//Tear for its fuse cost? No, Fuse only functions from AP’s hand. (CR 702.34a, 702.102a) In the graveyard, the flashback cost of Wear//Tear is {1}{R}{W}, however this gets re-evaluated when it goes onto the stack. (CR 702.1b) If AP chooses to cast Wear, the flashback cost will be {1}{R}.
A Narsty Situation
NAP controls Narset, Parter of Veils and AP casts Lorien Revealed and picks up three cards. NAP notices, and tells AP shouldn’t be drawing any cards. I ruled LEC and shuffled the cards back into AP’s library. (IPG 2.2) It might be tempting to rule GRV or even double GRV here, but if the violation is covered by other game play errors, then it can’t be classified as a game rule violation. (IPG 2.5)
Changing Weather
AP casts Extripate on NAP’s Storm Crow. They find three copies and hand NAP’s library back to them after shuffling. NAP begins shuffling at which point AP looks down and realizes they only got three copies, and ask if they can go back into the library and exile the fourth copy. I think this is pretty squarely within reversing decisions, as NAP didn’t say or do anything to indicate AP had forgotten a copy. (MTR 4.8)
Broken Temple
Can AP activate Worldbreaker’s ability using two mana from Eldrazi Temple? No, Eldrazi temple only taps for activated abilities of Colorless Eldrazi, which means Eldrazi on the battlefield. If it were applicable to all activated abilities of Eldrazi in all zones it would say “Colorless Eldrazi cards”. (CR109.2)
Defy the Gods
NAP controls Sveylun, of Sea and Sky and two Lord of Atlantis’. If AP casts Blasphemous Act, what happens? Thirteen damage will be dealt to all creatures, causing all the Lords to die, then after that happens, and the game checks state-based actions again, it will see that Sveylun has lethal damage marked on it, and is no longer indestructible, and it will die at that point. (CR 702.12b)
A Field of Nettles
NAP controls a Germ token equipped with a Nettlecyst and a Lavaspur Boots. AP activates their Teferi, Time Raveler and gestures at the pile of equipment with the Germ on top. AP claims to have pointed explicitly at the Nettlecyst and said “Nettlecyst” NAP can’t corroborate this. NAP then says “it has ward” assuming that AP was targeting the Germ token. AP doesn’t draw a card from Teferi, shrugs and passes the turn, then asks to read the Lavaspur Boots. Once AP realizes that the Lavaspur Boots don’t grant ward to Nettlecyst, they call a judge and explain that they were targeting Nettlecyst, not the Germ token. They say this was the case due to the fact that if they bounce the Germ token, NAP could simply equip the Nettlecyst to their Stoneforge Mystic and attack AP for somewhere in the neighbourhood of four damage. Whereas if they bounce the Nettlecyst, all NAP can do on their turn is activate Stoneforge to play Nettlecyst and pass, as long as they don’t draw a land. It seemed like AP had made a mistake and was trying to change their mind. I ruled that AP had targeted the Germ token and was upheld on the appeal.
Sunday – Main Event – Floor Judge
Glory of the Guildpact
AP controls Leyline of the Guildpact and is playing Arena of Glory, does it enter untapped? No. When assessing which replacement effects apply to an object as it enters the battlefield, we consider what the object would look like on the battlefield, but also pretend that the object isn’t actually on the battlefield, meaning it won’t see itself as a mountain to satisfy its own requirement. (CR 614.12)
A Delayed Dash
AP casts Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer for its Dash cost, but forgets to return it to their hand at the end of the turn. This is a missed trigger – warning for AP, and because this is a delayed zone change trigger, we simply resolve it now. (IPG 2.1)
Token Butler
AP was playing a game and had a spectator handing them tokens while they were playing, is this okay? At first I felt it was probably fine, but another judge mentioned to me that this could easily become outside assistance. If AP was going to forget a token creation trigger, but their helpful spectator remembered for them and handed them a token, we all agree that would be problematic. I think in a perfect world where the spectator only hands AP tokens after they’ve demonstrably remembered their triggers, this would be fine, but I think in this world the spectator is going to slip up eventually.
…In Conclusion
This was my first HBMO event. Flying from Canada to Texas isn’t exactly economical, so it’s not an event I can usually make work. However, chaining it off SCG Charlotte made it significantly more affordable. HBMO is a different kind of event-it’s a charity event for suicide awareness, which means judges don’t get paid (beyond a small travel stipend that rarely covers flights). Many of the headlining events are named after community members who are no longer with us, and before some events begin, people share memories of them. This creates a uniquely somber atmosphere. The experience was a bit odd, but I’m glad I went. It’s a reminder that many people find their way to Magic because they struggle to fit in elsewhere. Lately, it feels like we’ve forgotten that at its core, this game is a community of misfits who bond over a shared love of the game. When you sit across from someone at a tournament or work alongside them on a judge team, it doesn’t matter where you’re from, who you are, or what you look like—the only thing that matters is that you’re both here for the same reason.