RC Edmonton<\/a> where LCQs were essentially glorified ODEs. We capped at 16 and used paper brackets, we didn\u2019t have specified round end times, and would allow players to play their opponents as soon as they were ready. The players were told to call a judge as soon as they were eliminated in order to collect their prizes.<\/p>\nI recall having a few issues in Edmonton, initially the judges weren\u2019t signing off consistently on the brackets so it was unclear when prizes were given out. I remedied this by giving clear instructions the morning of. The other issue was that it was hard to tell how many events were out and where they were. Two things were implemented to fix this, first, the brackets were posted to the pairings boards, this both allowed judges to be aware of what was going on, and mitigated the probability that brackets would go missing. Finally, a judge from the deck check team suggested we write the round one table numbers on the brackets so we could easily tell where in the room each event was, this turned out really useful. Another thing I ran back was naming the LCQs after the military alphabet. Since Canada always gets less than 26 LCQs, this works just fine, and greatly increases player\u2019s ability to remember which LCQ they\u2019re in.<\/p>\n
The Perfect Crime<\/i><\/b>
\nThis section has been amended to prevent players from getting ideas. So while I can’t explicitly tell you what the player actually did here, just know that the player was not subtle and that it was very clearly tournament fraud. Like not “oh this might be tournament fraud if I squint a bit” like, it was just, tournament fraud. <\/br><\/br><\/p>\n
One of the judges working registration called me up and said \u201cAP came up and wanted to [commit tournament fraud]\u201d. I gave the registration judge a look and was like \u201cuh-\u201d and before I finished he said \u201ctwo of the higher-ups at Face to Face (hereby referred to as Jon and Bob) said it was ok\u201d. I shrugged and was like \u201cokay, if you\u2019ve already argued with them I guess that\u2019s fine\u201d. I knew the guys at Face to Face weren\u2019t fans of tournament fraud and assumed that any argument I would make had already been made. I shrugged and went back over to the LCQ area where I was told the player would meet me to [commit tournament fraud]. As I was waiting Bob came over to talk to me about how LCQs were going. As this conversation was happening the player came up and [committed tournament fraud]. Bob looked suspiciously from me to the player and said \u201cwhat the heck is this?\u201d I was immediately knocked off balance and said \u201cI was told you had okay\u2019d this?\u201d Bob looked somewhat shocked and said \u201cuhhh what?!\u201d I repeated myself “the judge at registration said you and Jon approved this” Bob groaned and took off towards registration.<\/br><\/br><\/p>\n
Later on I cycled back around to figure out what had happened. While John had approved the uh, [tournament fraud], apparently, he hadn\u2019t really understood what registration was asking. Then when Bob was asked, it was couched with \u201cJohn said this was okay\u201d. Now John was sort of Bob\u2019s boss, so Bob hadn\u2019t really been listening great and was like \u201cokay well if John said it was okay…\u201d. apparently John and Bob had a talk later on and both confirmed that this most certainly wasn\u2019t ok. My problem here was that when the registration person had told me this I should\u2019ve probably just bounced it off Bob again to be sure, even if I thought Bob had already been asked, since the day wasn\u2019t particularly busy or anything. <\/p>\n
Saturday \u2013 Floor Judge <\/b><\/p>\n
Bound To Be Saga Problems<\/i><\/b>
\nAP contols an Urza\u2019s Saga and NAP casts Tishana\u2019s Tidebinder countering the triggered ability that results after the first lore counter is put on it. There won\u2019t be any subsequent effects from this because Urza\u2019s Saga isn\u2019t an artifact, creature or planeswalker. However if it was a creature, it would lose all its abilities and die because it would still be a Saga with more lore counters on it than chapter abilities. (714.4)<\/p>\n
Bind the Eldrazi<\/i><\/b>
\nAP casts Ulamog, Ceaseless Hunger and NAP uses Tishana\u2019s Tidebinder to counter the triggered ability. Will Ulamog have abilities when it resolves? yes. Tishana\u2019s Tidebinder specifically states that it will only block the abilities of a \u201ccreature\u201d. Which means that it won\u2019t apply to creature spells on the stack. (110.4)<\/p>\n
Tidebinder, Layer Physician<\/i><\/b>
\nAP uses Tishana\u2019s Tidebinder to counter Yawgmoth, Thran Phsyician’s activated ability. NAP controls Agatha\u2019s Soul Cauldron, after Tishana\u2019s Tidebinder resolves they exile another Yawgmoth, Thran Physician from their graveyard, putting a +1\/+1 counter on the still-living Yawgmoth. What happens? The Yawgmoth on the battlefield will not gain all the abilities granted by the Cauldron. Both things apply in the adding and removing abilities layer. However even though the Cauldron was not previously actually granting any abilities, the continuous effect that grants abilities \u201cCreatures you control with +1\/+1 counters on them have all activated abilities of all creature cards exiled with Agatha\u2019s Soul Cauldron.\u201d was still technically active, and has an older timestamp than Tishana\u2019s Tidebinder. (613.7, 613.1f)<\/p>\n
Fish Fight<\/i><\/b>
\nAP casts Tishana\u2019s Tidebinder on NAP\u2019s Tishana\u2019s Tidebinder then afterwards NAP plays aLord of Atlantis. What happens? Because Tishana\u2019s Tidebinder removes abilities in the same layer that Lord adds them it\u2019s determined by Timestamp order. So NAP\u2019s Tidebinder will gain islandwalk and +1\/+1. If however, the Lord of Atlantis had been on the battlefield before AP\u2019s Tidebinder, then it would lose all its abilities. (613.7, 613.1f)<\/p>\n
Not the Tide-Themed Merfolk You Were Expecting<\/i><\/b>
\nAP controls Tide Shaper, which currently has one damage marked on it and is making NAP\u2019s Boseiju, Who Endures into an Island. If NAP plays Blood Moon what happens? Both type-changing effects apply in layer four, neither is dependant on the other, so you\u2019ll simply apply them in timestamp order. (613.1d). Then because NAP no longer controls an Island, Tide Shaper will die.<\/p>\n
Cave-Faring Primeval Titan<\/i><\/b>
\nAP controls Spelunking and uses Primeval Titan to get a Forest, what happens?
\nThe first thing to understand about this interaction is that the last part of Primeval Titan’s ability (the part that causes the land to enter the battlefield tapped) isn’t a replacement effect, it’s just a part of its triggered ability. (notably it doesn’t fit the definition of a replacement effect in 614.1d) So what happens when you get a Forest is you create an event that is “get a Forest, put it into play tapped” at which point the game checks for replacement effects, and finds our friend Spelunking! Which says “nope, let’s make than an Untapped forest.”
\nNow, if we get something like, I dunno, Boros Garrison, things get a little weirder. We still have the same event “get a Boros Garrison, put it into play tapped” but when the game checks for replacement effects, it finds two! Both Spelunking and Boros Garrison’s own “I ETB tapped” ability. In this instance, the controller of the affected object (usually AP) chooses the order those replacement effects apply in. So it could either enter tapped or untapped. (616.1)<\/p>\n
Lucky Breaks<\/i><\/b>
\nAP controls a Gemstone Caverns with a luck counter on it, can NAP cast Break the Ice targeting the Caverns? No. The game only cares about what the ability would produce if it resolved right now. (106.7)<\/p>\n
Silence Sounds a lot like a GRV<\/i><\/b>
\nAP draws a card for their turn, grabs Chromatic Star from the third chapter ability of Urza\u2019s Saga, casts Ancient Stirrings, getting Ulamog, Ceasless Hunger. They cast it, exiling NAP\u2019s Heliod, God of the Sun and Walking Ballista. Then after it resolves and NAP gains a life off Soul Warden. It’s at this point that NAP recalls that they sacrificed their Ranger-Captain of Eos during AP\u2019s upkeep. I paused for a moment, and considered a backup. It actually seemed somewhat reasonable. I issued a GRV to both players and rewound everything, which was fairly straightforward until I got to the Ancient Stirrings. Obviously we return the Ulamog to the Stirrings pile, but do we randomize that pile and put it on top of AP\u2019s library? No! We just shuffle everything back in. There\u2019s no reason AP should know any of those cards and since we know exactly which card AP got, there\u2019s no risk of shuffling a random card from AP\u2019s hand into their library.<\/p>\n
Salty Degen<\/i><\/b>
\nAP is playing Amulet Titan and NAP is playing Scam. This is a bad matchup for AP. NAP does scam things in game one and wrecks AP. At the end of the game he says something like \u201cmaybe if you were better you\u2019d have won\u201d. Game two Scam gets an early Blood Moon which seals the game for them. In an adjacent match an Amulet Titan player is going off against Burn and the Scam players says something to the effect of \u201cif you were better at the game, you\u2019d be doing that\u201d. As well as a few other comments that all basically amount to \u201cskill issue\u201d. Overall none of this is…. horrible but it IS kinda mean and unpleasant. I found out when the Amulet Titan player came over to talk to me, mentioning that this had happened and how it was unpleasant. I contemplated USC-minor and went to speak to the player. As expected the player didn\u2019t realize that this kind of trash talking was probably not okay against a total stranger. They were remorseful and offered to apologize to the other player. Afterwards the HJ came off break and I told them about the situation. They asked me \u201cif this player does this again, is it a problem?\u201d I nodded and agreed it would be. Then they said \u201cwell I think if that\u2019s the case, then it should\u2019ve been USC-minor!\u201d<\/p>\n
Enter Oblivion<\/i><\/b>
\nAP casts Oblivion from Consign\/\/Oblivion from their hand, NAP casts Quick Study and then cycles a card before both players notice the issue. This wasn\u2019t my call, but excluding fetchlands or anything like that, I\u2019m not entirely opposed to the backup here. The other interesting part of this, is if you don\u2019t back up, you also wouldn’t exile Consign\/\/Oblivion (702.127a)! Which means more Oblivions for AP! I\u2019m super not a fan of this. What the judge on the call did was not rewind, but exile the card from the graveyard. I… think the backup here is just better.<\/p>\n
Sunday \u2013 RC Floor Judge <\/b><\/p>\n
Counter-Confusion<\/i><\/b>
\nNAP called me over and let me know that one of AP\u2019s cards was counterfeit. I took a look, and indeed it was! I looped the HJ in immediately since I knew there would likely be an investigation and a bunch of other stuff would need to happen, potentially a game loss for DLP (if the player couldn’t find replacements). The HJ asked a bunch of questions while I figured out what was and wasn\u2019t counterfeit. I grabbed the players deck while searching for counterfeits and NAP immediately mentioned that maybe he should step away while I searched since it was possible he could gain info on AP\u2019s hand if he saw some of the counterfeits come out of the deck. Oops… yeah that was dumb on my part. So I walked away with some of AP\u2019s stuff. Me and the HJ miscommunicated in that I thought he was going to bother me as soon as he was done answering questions, and he thought I was going to tag him as soon as I was done finding counterfeits. So both of us just spun our wheels a bit before he approached me. At the end, we determined the player had 7 counterfeit cards, four Cavalier of Thorns, two Boseiju, Who Endures and one The Chain Veil. The HJ then went to confer with the AJ about the investigation, I asked the HJ whether I could let the player start finding replacements and if I should tell them what the potential outcomes would be, but the HJ told me to sit tight.<\/p>\n
After a few more moments he gave me leave to talk to AP. I let AP know that it would be a game loss if he couldn\u2019t replace the cards, and a warning if he could. AP immediately said he wouldn\u2019t be buying Boseijus so I shrugged and scooped up both player\u2019s boards to clean up the game state a bit. The HJ asked me to \u201chelp AP\u201d which I agreed to do, however I wasn’t entirely sure how to help AP buy cards, and instead noted that no one was there watching both players stuff, and figured it would be better if I just stayed with the stuff. Then the player came back and let us all know that they\u2019d found some Boseijus to borrow. uh. Oops. I guess I shouldn\u2019t have cleaned up their stuff. I issued the game loss, which in retrospect, shouldn\u2019t have been a game loss.<\/p>\n
Overall, this call was a mess. I was slightly blindsided because I\u2019d never really dealt with counterfeits in the middle of a game before, and in the process of bringing in the HJ I think a bunch of small communication errors happened which resulted in a bunch of lost time. The biggest issue was cleaning up the player\u2019s games before we had confirmed which cards were being replaced and which weren\u2019t. I think the second biggest issue wasn\u2019t telling the player that it was either a game loss (DLP) or a warning (DP) depending on whether they could find the cards, or a DQ if the judges thought they were cheating. And giving the player that time while the judges were conferring to look for replacements\/call friends etc.<\/p>\n
Cut to the Appeal<\/i><\/b>
\nBoth players present, AP accidentally reveals some cards from their library due to some fumbling. NAP takes their deck back and changes their sideboarding decisions. AP calls a judge and after much ado, there ends up being no infraction. Then NAP doesn\u2019t cut AP\u2019s deck after presentation, and AP calls a judge and appeals, saying that NAP has to shuffle his deck by policy. The first judge call is actually really interesting. Regardless of whether there\u2019s a warning or not, there isn\u2019t really a fix that can be applied.<\/p>\n
Unfortunate Bodily Functions<\/i><\/b>
\nAP called me to go to the bathroom, I sat down and offered to watch his stuff, as we had sufficient staff to do that. I began idly flipping through his deck to see what he was playing and noticed that he was playing DFCs in semi-transparent sleeves. It felt… really lame to game loss them after I\u2019d been called over to watch for a bathroom break, but, well it also felt lame to let them keep playing with semi-transparent sleeves. I roped the HJ in on it and he agreed on the game loss. We informed the player. I got pulled into another call as the HJ was explaining the game loss and so I took care of that. Then when I returned I heard something like \u201cso there\u2019s no game loss because another judge told you those sleeves were okay, and just change them after the match.\u201d I kinda, freaked out for a moment. Imagine how awkward it would be for the opponent if they had to play against someone who was just told they had semi-transparent sleeves. Awkward. I had a feeling this was done to save time. I ran to my bag, grabbed the DFC tokens I always carry on me and brought them back. The HJ liked the idea and had the player swap out the cards now. I think, personally, even considering the time, it would\u2019ve been better to have the player resleeve before playing any more magic. I also found the judge that approved the sleeves and spoke to them later on.<\/p>\n
The Eye of the Tyrant<\/i><\/b>
\nAP activates Hive of the Eye Tyrant and NAP says \u201cin the beginning of combat, Go for the Throat\u201d. AP says \u201chold on, I had some more stuff I wanted to do in my precombat main phase\u201d. I personally, would probably rewind the kill spell, NAP is at a little bit of a disadvantage, but they shouldn\u2019t have been so speedy. The judge on the call decided to not back up and rule that we were in the precombat main phase and that\u2019s when NAP had cast their spell.<\/p>\n
Old Fox, New Tricks<\/i><\/b>
\nRecently I have been somewhat low on the use of Purple Fox for events, since most events just don\u2019t really need it. Anything under 100 players makes using it feel like a gratuitous waste of time. However, one piece of functionality that I discovered this past weekend that I do really like was the fact that it shows you a players penalty history whenever you enter a penalty in for them. One person had a previous deck problem warning on Day 1, which I found interesting and brought to the HJ for investigative purposes. We ended up doing very little digging, and nothing came of it, but I was still grateful that the information was there.<\/p>\n
…In Conclusion<\/i><\/b>
\nI had a really good time at RC Toronto. I think there\u2019s something to be said for not being in leadership roles all the time. Saturday was a blast. I didn\u2019t have to do any tasks, I just got to answer judge calls and mentor a judgeling, it was great! I think while I do still want to shoot for advancement, I think being in leadership roles at every event is just a lot. I think I function best when I\u2019m on a team in a support role. I\u2019m good at picking up the pieces but not building the house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Toronto, Canada Time: Friday November 24th \u2013 Sunday November 26th 2023 Friday \u2013 LCQ Lead My Lead is So Sick I was field promoted to LCQ lead a day before the event began, because the person that was supposed to be doing it got Covid. We decided to use a spin-off of the system I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":473,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"language":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/tobireports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/tobireports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/tobireports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/tobireports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/473"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/tobireports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/tobireports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/tobireports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/tobireports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/tobireports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/tobireports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/tobireports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}