Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Islandhome #15

==ISLANDHOME #15==
June 11th 2008

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

NJ Regionals: How it all went down.
EDH: New rules, including additons to the banned and restricted list!
Interview: Michael A. Bauer, one of four winners of Connecticut's Regionals!
Interview: Brian J. Paskoff, on Becoming a Judge.
Upcoming Events: A bit of details on the Eventide prerelease!

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: Grim Draft @ 7 PM

Saturday: FNC Standard @ 1 PM
Sunday: Casual Magic at Brothers Grim @ 2 PM

==ELDER DRAGON HIGHLANDER==

There's some new rules updates to EDH, with more on the way from what I've heard:
  • Off-color hybrid cards aren't allowed. They never were, but there was discussion on whether they should be - but there won't be any change. You still can't play Vexing Shusher in your red/white EDH deck.
  • Limited Resources is banned, and I'm surprised it wasn't earlier. Just read what it does and think of the havoc it can wreak in multiplayer games!
I'm also working on putting together an Elder Dragon Highlander league with fabulous prizes, so stay tuned to Islandhome for news about that!
==NJ REGIONALS==

Well, the first major tournament of the season is over, and it was a big one. With 225 players in New Jersey, just two players short of being nine rounds, the race for a top 8 spot was even harder than usual, tiebreakers playing a major factor. The event went well; almost TOO well if you ask me, with very few rules calls, major penalties, or anything like that. Although no one from our area made it into the coveted top 4 spots that gave invites to Nationals, in Connecticut, Michael Bauer nabbed himself an invite with his 420.5n deck. So he'll be flying his Reveillark to Chicago in August. Even though Matt Brocking, Mike Evans, Mike Innace, Rob Grippa, The Wurm, The Roach, and The... uh... Jaroslav didn't make it into the finals, we're all still proud of them. Good hustle.

Well, mostly. In last week's newsletter I talked about a few things that were important to remember for major tournaments, and two of the big rules were unfortunately broken. First up, playing a deck you're familiar with. Not surprisingly, the more people practiced with their respective decks, the better they did. Jaroslav has been playing Merfolk for a long time, and made it into the top 16, earning himself half a box. The Roach followed my advice and played his Kithkin deck, dropping out of the tournament but winning three packs of Planar Chaos in a dice-rolling game a dealer had and pulling a Damnation. (If you're not sure what that has to do with playing a deck he was familiar with, I have one word for you: karma. And not the card.) And Mike Evans built his deck in the car ride on the way over, and went 1-5 drop, winning only his first round. So maybe there is something to this "practice" thing!

I also wrote about the importance of not rushing to fill out a decklist. Sadly, I had to give Matt Brocking a Game Loss penalty for filling out his decklist incorrectly when he forgot to list two Garruks. A Game Loss penalty given before the round starts like a Deck/Decklist Mismatch infraction gives means you lose the first game of that match. Since neither player has seen the other's deck, sideboarding isn't allowed, but just like if you lost the first game normally, it's your choice whether to play or draw in the second game. Not being able to sideboard is a pretty big disadvantage; Matt had the tools in his sideboard to beat Reveillark, but unfortunately he couldn't use them and lost the second game as well.

Everyone I talked to had a good time though, so it's all good!

==INTERVIEW: MICHAEL A. BAUER==

Even though he didn't go to NJ Regionals, Mike Bauer travelled all the way to Connecticut for their regionals... and wound up in the top 4 to get an invite to US Nationals! Bauer, a veteran of many stores on the Island, is known for playing his crazy deck ideas built from decklists which must appear in his alphabet soup or something. I talked to him over AIM about his victory in Connecticut.

Q. What deck did you wind up playing?
A.The wild 5 Color Juniper Order Ranger Combo Deck

Q. How much practice did you get with 420.5n before the Big Day?
A. I ran about 4 tournaments for 3 weeks prior. Had two loses to Jim Chianese the first tourney I Played and Two loses to one player in the last tourney I played. The main goal for me was to get the sideboard ready and just make sure I knew every way to combo off.

Q. How different is Regionals compared to a local tournament?
A.
The biggest is simply the sheer number of players and judges. Conneticut had 202 players and I think 8 judges who's main job is keeping everything running smoothly. It definitly wasn't easy for them at times. Also, you need to know your rules and triggers alot more. That stuff won't hurt you at FNC or Grim, but it can at Regionals, especially the higher and further you move along.

Q. Any interesting plays, memorable games, etc. at Regionals?
A.
There were several. It almost seemed like every round had a wierd play. The best had to be in round 8, comboing off against Elves on Turn 5 when I ripped a Juniper off the top after being Thoughtseized the turn before. Also, beating down mono black rouge with their own creatures was fun.

Q. Combo decks have to have a good sideboard to fight off all the hate. What was in your board and how'd it help against your tough matchups?
A. I had 3 Extripate against Lark decks, but never faced it. 2 Crovax and 3 Wispmare against Faeries, but never faced it. Pull from Eternity never got used either. So it left me using Teferi's Moat and a 3rd Pact of Negation alot. Moat had to be my MVP against R/G and Elf decks, especially when they never think about it. And that 3rd Pact I think won me a round or two.

Q. How many points did your rating go up?
A. Honestly, I haven't seen the results on my rating yet as it only got received today, but I was at 1778 before hand, so I wouldn't be surprised to go near 1900.

Q. Nationals is a big event, how are you preparing for battle?
A.
Besides making my deck very, very shiny my main goal is to work on drafting, as I very weak in that area by comparison. With the new set coming out next month, that becomes very difficult at the moment.

Q. Any closing remarks?
A.
Just to everyone you looks to be more in Magic. Always give it a shot, you never know when it will be your day to shine.

Michael Bauer can usually be found at FNC on Saturdays and Brothers Grim on Sundays. Be sure to congradulate him if you see him, and wish him good luck!

==INTERVIEW: BRIAN J. PASKOFF==
(On Becoming a Judge)

Over the past few weeks, as players realized a big tournament season is coming up, many of you have asked me what it takes to become a judge. So I've decided to "interview" myself, because the best way to learn how to do something is to know how someone else did it. Now that big tournaments are just on the horizon and everyone will have the opportunity to interact with the level 3 judge in our area, Eric Smith. If you have any serious interest in becoming a judge in New York, he's the guy to talk to. I'll point him out to anyone who asks (no, he's not the tall judge that usually judges Long Island prereleases, that's Hayden, a L2 judge.) I feel like the best way to teach people what the becoming-a-judge process is like is to talk about my experiences, so without further ado, these are actual questions I've gotten:

Q. How did you get involved in judging?
A. Well I was a judge back in the 4th-5th Edition days. I used to carry around the entire Oracle text with me to tournaments. I wasn't a certified judge or anything, but I was the go-to-guy for rules questions. Today the DCI has a title and test for those kinds of people: Rules Advisors. Being a Rules Advisor means you know the rules well enough to answer most questions that come up between you and your friends when you're playing, even if you're not a certified judge. Eric Smith, or any L3 you want to test under, will be much more likely to take you under their wing if you've passed the Rules Advisor test.

Anyway, so I quit playing Magic for a while and when I got back into it, the rules had changed a lot. I started playing on a Magic Workstation league for a forum I visit, and one of my opponents turned out to be a judge from Canada - Vic Naqvi, who wrote the guest article about EDH last week. He put me in touch with Eric Smith, and Eric interviewed me a little, then got me to work judging my first big tournament at Neutral Ground. As a "Level 0" judge, I basically shadowed other judges and watched how they interacted with players, which is probably the most important part of judging.

I printed out and put all the big rules documents in a binder and read them cover to cover, over and over. (I don't recommend doing that until you're familiar enough with the rules, otherwise you could go into what the experts call "too much stuff for your brain to digest" shock.) Then I got in touch with Eli Shiffrin (L2 from Arizona), one of the writers of Cranial Insertion, the weekly rules article on mtgsalvation.com which I learned a lot from. He quickly taught me a lot of the harder-to-understand rules. The first rule of becoming a judge is to find yourself a mentor who can help you understand the tough stuff - I was lucky enough to have two early on.
After that, Eric gave me the L1 test at my next tournament, which I passed. Normally Eric likes to see people judge at more events before testing, but at the time I was planning to move to North Carolina.
The chatroom #mtgjudge on the EFNet IRC server is very helpful. There's lots of judges in there who answer rules questions and discuss policy, rules, and so on. It can be good just to go on there to idle and listen to what people are discussing. You can get there through any IRC program, or web interfaces are available at http://webchat.xs4all.nl/ and http://chat.efnet.org/. You can also ask rules questions in there too.

Q. What's judging a big tournament like?
A. Well, the first rule of judging is to expect a lot of work! The usual day of a big event starts by waking up when it's still dark out and heading to the venue. Then there's a judge meeting - the head judge tells all his judgelings the goals and expectations for that day. At bigger events where there's a large judge staff, this is where team assignments are handed out. Usually there's paper (handing out/sometimes collecting match slips, putting up/taking down pairings and standings), logistics (cleaning up after players, setting up chairs, tables, and table numbers), and deck check (counting and checking decklists). All judges go out on the floor to judge after doing what they need to. The first round of "medium" size tournaments such as PTQs are tough because almost everyone is on deck check due to the small number of judges available. Actually, even at large events, people not on deck check team will be helping out counting decklists.

So from there on every round's the same thing - new pairings go up, deck check teams check decks, etc. There aren't as many rules questions as you might think - most of them are simple to answer and can be answered with a simple yes or no, with a bit of explanation if necessary. The hardest judge calls come from player disputes, kind of "he said, she said" kind of things where both players have their own view of what happened.
You have to figure each round is about an hour (50 minutes on the clock plus ~10 minutes for new pairings, getting players seated, fixing problems, etc.), and add onto that total about an hour or two for problem solving, starting everything up, and cleaning up after the event.

Q. What are the basic things you need to know to become a judge?
A. There's some fundemental rules you need to know, such as the phases of a turn, steps to playing a spell or ability, state-based effects, and the hardest to understand: layers. But being a judge isn't just about rules knowledge; there's lots of policy stuff you need to know and keep up to date with, since policy changes rapidly while the rules of the game really only get added to with every new set.
You also need a healthy supply of good judgment and common sense. You might know that a Mirrorweave targeting an animated Mutavault will turn all other creatures into unanimated Mutavaults because copy effects only copy printed characteristics as modified by other copy effects, but what do you do if a player suddenly discovers they've shuffled tokens into their library when they draw one? There's no written rules for those kinds of things, so you have to use your judgment. You could even say that the first rule of judging is to have good judgment! (HAH!)

You'll also need to know that your play skills will rapidly degrade once you become a judge. Why this happens is one of the greatest mysteries known to man.
Q. Are you ever wrong?
A. Of course! Judges aren't perfect, and even high level judges get answers wrong now and again. At my first big tournament, a card interaction was ruled incorrectly by the head judge for day one, then ruled correctly day two after he did some further research. It takes a long time to figure out how to learn from your mistakes instead of beating yourself up over them. The first rule of judging is that you will make mistakes.

Q. What do you get for judging?
A. When you consider the huge amount of hours a big tournament takes, not much, but the no one should become a judge just for the pay. With that out of the way, judges usually get at least a box for each day of a major event. At GPs and above, we get judge foils from Wizards, which are alternate-art, foil versions of popular rare cards such as Sol Ring, Grim Lavamancer, Yawgmoth's Will, etc. At local events like FNMs, most judges I've talked to get a little bit of store credit and/or cash and/or product; but the number one rule of judging is to that you're not doing it for the money, fame, or women (or men).
Q. Sounds good! So how do I get started?
A. Well I'm always available for mentoring anyone who's serious about wanting to become a judge. The way I learned was both Vic and Eli asking me random rules/policy questions, so reading starcitygames.com's and mtgsalvation.com's rules articles and trying to answer those questions yourself without looking at the answers is a good start. Taking some practice exams on exams.wizards.com is great if you want to test your rules knowledge too. Watching judges at tournaments is the best way to learn policy stuff and how to interact with players.

In order to judge a tournament as a level 0, you'll have to contact the head judge of that event ahead of time and ask; don't just show up, because they'll probably say no. It's hard to dedicate resources to training a new judge on the fly like that, after all.

Being a judge is a lot of fun, and a lot of fun work. If you think you're up for it, I'm always ready to help out!

==RULES CORNER==

Q. If I see something illegal in a game I'm watching, can I call a judge?
A. Yes, please do! In fact, it's one of your responsibilities as a spectator to tell a judge about any illegal things you see. Don't stop or interfere with the game, just find the nearest judge and tell them what's up. At Regionals I had two instances of a spectator coming up to me and telling me about a problem. One turned out to be nothing, just the spectator's concern that the players didn't know Crovax was pumping some Soldier tokens (they did), but one turned out to be serious - two players not realizing one of them had animated a Treetop Village and activated a Pendelhaven with Magus of the Moon in play. Section 14 of the Universal Tournament Rules actually says: "Spectators and members of the press who believe they have observed rules violations should inform a judge, but must not interfere with the match."

Q. My opponent plays an Eternal Witness and chooses to return a Damnation from his graveyard to his hand. In response, I play Memory Plunder, targeting the Damnation and playing it. Once everything resolves, does he get the Damnation back?
A. Damnation has changed zones; from the graveyard, to the stack, and back to the graveyard upon resolution. So, it's a new object and Eternal Witness's triggered ability has lost track of it and won't be able to bring it back.

Q. My Dusk Urchins blocks a Sickle Ripper that has eight +1/+1 counters on it, making it a 10/9 with wither. How many cards do I draw?
A. Assuming the Urchins had no -1/-1 counters on it before it blocked, you'll draw eleven cards - one from the counter it gets when it blocked, and ten more from the counters it had on it when it died. All the counters from wither damage go on at the same time, so it can actually have way more -1/-1 counters on it than its toughness would seem to "allow".

Q. Can I put a Pact of Negation on top of my library to remind myself to pay it next turn?
A. You're allowed to put something on top of your library to remind you to pay for something during your upkeep (doesn't need to be a Pact), but it has to be smaller than your library, and it can't be a card. Putting the card you're reminding yourself about on top of your library is doubly-wrong, because a resolved spell belongs in your graveyard, not on top of your library.

Have a rules question you want answered? Send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

==THE ISLANDHOME BLOG==

One of the things I wanted to do was have an archive of past issues online so I could refer people back to them as well as let new readers peruse old issues to see what all the fuss is about. So I've archived all the old issues on the blogosphere at islandhomemtg.blogspot.com. Go and relive all the past moments of glory!

==UPCOMING EVENTS==


June 7th - August 31st: PTQ Season for PT Berlin
The next PTQ season starts this summer, and it's going to be Lorwyn Block Constructed! Lorwyn block will consist of Lorwyn, Morningtide, and Shadowmoor. Eventide won't be available during the beginning of the PTQ season, but will be legal before it ends.

July 12th-13th: Eventide Prerelease
I'll be head judging the prerelease on Long Island again, so come see what all the fuss with enemy-colored hybrids is about! Also, Gray Matter will be holding Two-Headed Giant events instead of Team Sealed!

PTQs in our general area this season:
  • 6/21 - Philadelphia, PA
  • 6/28 - Edison, NJ
  • 8/9 - Philadelphia, PA
  • 8/16 - New York, NY
  • 8/30 - Edison, NJ
  • 8/30 - Hartford, CT
  • 8/31 - Rochester, NY
==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==

Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com

Friendly Neighborhood Comics
3 Grant Avenue, Suite 2
Islip, NY 11751
Phone: 470-7984

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!
-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY

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