==ISLANDHOME #6==
April 9th 2008 ---- $ */*
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
I-Con 27 Post-Game Report: Another year, another successful I-Con. PLUS: My Sailor Moon costume idea for I-Con 28!
Rules Corner: The generically named column answers more of your rules questions and some secret Shadowmoor stuff!
Becoming a Judge: Since I've gotten lots of questions on the topic, I'll give a few tips.
Upcoming Events: Magic's Coming Attractions.
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: Standard & Draft at Brothers Grim @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard at FNC @ 3 PM
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
I-Con 27 Post-Game Report: Another year, another successful I-Con. PLUS: My Sailor Moon costume idea for I-Con 28!
Rules Corner: The generically named column answers more of your rules questions and some secret Shadowmoor stuff!
Becoming a Judge: Since I've gotten lots of questions on the topic, I'll give a few tips.
Upcoming Events: Magic's Coming Attractions.
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: Standard & Draft at Brothers Grim @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard at FNC @ 3 PM
==I-CON 27 POST-GAME REPORT==
Well I-Con is over, and I'm still exhausted! There were two tournaments and at least sixteen drafts over the weekend, and I'm guessing all in all we had attendance somewhere in the range of one hundred to seven thousand players, but I lost count shortly through Saturday. Friday night was huge, with about five drafts before we ran out of product. Saturday was the busiest, with I think six drafts, a 10-proxy Vintage tournament, and a Standard tournament. (Side note: When someone tells you that you're allowed to proxy a Black Lotus in your deck, "No thanks" is only understandable if you have a real one in it already.) Sunday was predictably less crowded, with four drafts scattered throughout the afternoon and a massive free-for-all draft with no prizes at the end just to burn out the rest of the product. Everyone I talked to told me they had a great time, except of course the guys who had the nerve to complain about the prize for a five dollar draft. ;)
Next year I-Con's at the Brentwood campus of Suffolk Community College.
On a personal note, I do have to tell you guys about the craziest draft I've ever been a part of. On Sunday it was so slow that I joined in on a draft to make it eight players. Don't worry, all the events at I-Con were unsanctioned. I got passed a Countryside Crusher and was very happy with making more than my $5 back... until I saw the rest of the cards in the draft. There was a regular Garruk, a regular Liliana Vess, a foil Garruk, a foil Liliana Vess, a foil Chameleon Colossus, a Wanderwine Hub (my second pick pack 2), a foil Doran, and a Sower of Temptation. It was easily the most money I've seen in a draft.
A big thanks (in no order whatsoever) to Chris Nielsen for overseeing the CCG stuff and running back and forth to his car every five minutes to get more product, Dean Duprez for running the huge FNC event in my absence, Showtime for running the Yu Gi Oh events and answering the judge calls that made my head spin when players starting asking me questions about Morphing Jars and Marshmallons, Brothers Grim for supplying the prizes, product, and lands (thankfully only the latter was stolen) for the drafts, and the entire I-Con staff for doing this thing.
Next year I-Con's at the Brentwood campus of Suffolk Community College.
On a personal note, I do have to tell you guys about the craziest draft I've ever been a part of. On Sunday it was so slow that I joined in on a draft to make it eight players. Don't worry, all the events at I-Con were unsanctioned. I got passed a Countryside Crusher and was very happy with making more than my $5 back... until I saw the rest of the cards in the draft. There was a regular Garruk, a regular Liliana Vess, a foil Garruk, a foil Liliana Vess, a foil Chameleon Colossus, a Wanderwine Hub (my second pick pack 2), a foil Doran, and a Sower of Temptation. It was easily the most money I've seen in a draft.
A big thanks (in no order whatsoever) to Chris Nielsen for overseeing the CCG stuff and running back and forth to his car every five minutes to get more product, Dean Duprez for running the huge FNC event in my absence, Showtime for running the Yu Gi Oh events and answering the judge calls that made my head spin when players starting asking me questions about Morphing Jars and Marshmallons, Brothers Grim for supplying the prizes, product, and lands (thankfully only the latter was stolen) for the drafts, and the entire I-Con staff for doing this thing.
==RULES CORNER==
The questions that came up at I-Con's events weren't that hard due to the casual level of the players there, so I'm going to fill in the blanks with some questions I've gotten from other players. Next week when the Shadowmoor rules primer comes out I'll have some questions involving Shadowmoor cards, but it's not usually a good idea to answer rules questions about yet-to-be-released cards because the rules can sometimes change... but pre-existing mechanics don't, so there's two sneaky questions in here that really involve Shadowmoor cards.
Q. How does regeneration work exactly?
A. Regeneration is a replacement effect. When a spell or ability that tells you to regenerate a creature (or other permanent) resolves, it sets up a "shield" on the creature that lasts until the end of the turn. Each time the creature would be destroyed, one regeneration shield on it is used up, and instead of being destroyed, the creature is tapped (if it was untapped) and removed from combat. It's a common misconception among new players that "regeneration" means "return a creature that was destroyed this turn from your graveyard to play", which explains the popularity of Herbal Poultice. You ever notice how much new players love that card? I mean it's in all my decks, but....
Q. Dylan attacked with a Wren's Run Vanquisher that had a +1/+1 counter and trample from his Bramblewood Paragon and Evans blocked with a Mulldrifter. When damaged resolved, Evans tried to say that since Dylan didn't assign trample damage to him, all of it was assigned to the creature. What happens?
A. There's shortcut guidelines for this sort of thing in tournament policy. One of the well established shortcuts is that the default for assigning trample damage is that the trampling creature assigns enough combat damage to kill all blockers, and the remainder to the defending player. So there's no way to rules-lawyer yourself out of taking trample damage!
Q. Since Knight of the Holy Nimbus regenerates if it would be destroyed, can it survive a Damnation if my opponent doesn't pay 2?
A. Even though the Knight regenerates if it'd be destroyed, Damnation has the magic word "can't". In Magic, "can't" effects override "can". Something tells me this question will be relevant soon.
Q. My opponent and I both have Reveillarks out. If I play Wrath of God, can I steal whatever he brings back with the Sower of Temptation in my graveyard?
A. Yes, but the answer would be a lot different if it wasn't your turn! There are two triggers at work here - your Reveillark, and your opponent's. Since both of them trigger at the same time, they go on the stack in what's called APNAP order - short for Active Player, Non-Active Player. The active player is always the player whose turn it is. Your trigger will go on the stack first, targeting your Sower of Temptation, and then his goes on the stack on top of it, targeting - for the sake of argument - his Mulldrifter. His trigger will resolve first, bringing the Mulldrifter into play, and the "draw two cards" trigger will go on the stack. Once that resolves, your trigger will resolve, bringing back your Sower, and its trigger will allow you to target the Mulldrifter. Had he been the one to Wrath during his turn, your Sower would come into play before his Mulldrifter did and would have nothing to target.
Q. I control a Bloodbond March and have two Mulldrifters in my graveyard. I play a third Mulldrifter and my opponent says "In response, I'll Cancel it." I say okay, and the Mulldrifter is put into the graveyard. Then I say that the Bloodbond March's trigger resolves and all three Mulldrifters, including the one that just got countered, are brought back, but he says he did it after the trigger resolved! What should we do?
A. Did he say the trigger had already resolved? If not, then unfortunately for him, it didn't, and the Mulldrifter he just countered is going to be back along with its two other flying fish friends. (If you couldn't guess, this question wasn't really about Bloodbond March.)
Q. Oh no! Cheerleading practice ran late and now I'm late for the tournament! Can I still sign up, Judge Paskoff?
A. Whoa, settle down there honey! The TO, at their discretion, can allow someone to enter a tournament any time before round one is over. I'll do it as long as you have a good reason for being late, and don't make a habit of it. If there's a bye and you show up within a reasonable amount of time (within ten minutes), you'll get paired with whoever has the bye. If it's longer than that though or there is no bye, you'll get entered as a late entry. It's sort of like a bye, except you get no points for it, as opposed to a real bye where you get 3 points. It's not a win or a loss, really... though it is more like a loss.
Q. How does regeneration work exactly?
A. Regeneration is a replacement effect. When a spell or ability that tells you to regenerate a creature (or other permanent) resolves, it sets up a "shield" on the creature that lasts until the end of the turn. Each time the creature would be destroyed, one regeneration shield on it is used up, and instead of being destroyed, the creature is tapped (if it was untapped) and removed from combat. It's a common misconception among new players that "regeneration" means "return a creature that was destroyed this turn from your graveyard to play", which explains the popularity of Herbal Poultice. You ever notice how much new players love that card? I mean it's in all my decks, but....
Q. Dylan attacked with a Wren's Run Vanquisher that had a +1/+1 counter and trample from his Bramblewood Paragon and Evans blocked with a Mulldrifter. When damaged resolved, Evans tried to say that since Dylan didn't assign trample damage to him, all of it was assigned to the creature. What happens?
A. There's shortcut guidelines for this sort of thing in tournament policy. One of the well established shortcuts is that the default for assigning trample damage is that the trampling creature assigns enough combat damage to kill all blockers, and the remainder to the defending player. So there's no way to rules-lawyer yourself out of taking trample damage!
Q. Since Knight of the Holy Nimbus regenerates if it would be destroyed, can it survive a Damnation if my opponent doesn't pay 2?
A. Even though the Knight regenerates if it'd be destroyed, Damnation has the magic word "can't". In Magic, "can't" effects override "can". Something tells me this question will be relevant soon.
Q. My opponent and I both have Reveillarks out. If I play Wrath of God, can I steal whatever he brings back with the Sower of Temptation in my graveyard?
A. Yes, but the answer would be a lot different if it wasn't your turn! There are two triggers at work here - your Reveillark, and your opponent's. Since both of them trigger at the same time, they go on the stack in what's called APNAP order - short for Active Player, Non-Active Player. The active player is always the player whose turn it is. Your trigger will go on the stack first, targeting your Sower of Temptation, and then his goes on the stack on top of it, targeting - for the sake of argument - his Mulldrifter. His trigger will resolve first, bringing the Mulldrifter into play, and the "draw two cards" trigger will go on the stack. Once that resolves, your trigger will resolve, bringing back your Sower, and its trigger will allow you to target the Mulldrifter. Had he been the one to Wrath during his turn, your Sower would come into play before his Mulldrifter did and would have nothing to target.
Q. I control a Bloodbond March and have two Mulldrifters in my graveyard. I play a third Mulldrifter and my opponent says "In response, I'll Cancel it." I say okay, and the Mulldrifter is put into the graveyard. Then I say that the Bloodbond March's trigger resolves and all three Mulldrifters, including the one that just got countered, are brought back, but he says he did it after the trigger resolved! What should we do?
A. Did he say the trigger had already resolved? If not, then unfortunately for him, it didn't, and the Mulldrifter he just countered is going to be back along with its two other flying fish friends. (If you couldn't guess, this question wasn't really about Bloodbond March.)
Q. Oh no! Cheerleading practice ran late and now I'm late for the tournament! Can I still sign up, Judge Paskoff?
A. Whoa, settle down there honey! The TO, at their discretion, can allow someone to enter a tournament any time before round one is over. I'll do it as long as you have a good reason for being late, and don't make a habit of it. If there's a bye and you show up within a reasonable amount of time (within ten minutes), you'll get paired with whoever has the bye. If it's longer than that though or there is no bye, you'll get entered as a late entry. It's sort of like a bye, except you get no points for it, as opposed to a real bye where you get 3 points. It's not a win or a loss, really... though it is more like a loss.
==BECOMING A JUDGE==
I've had a bunch of people come up to me and ask me what it takes to become a judge and how to start the whole process off. Becoming a judge isn't as easy as simply knowing the rules and taking a test, it requires a lot of commitment and dedication, as well as policy knowledge.
The first goal you should work towards is passing the Rules Advisor test on judge.wizards.com/exams.aspx. (You'll need your DCI number and password to login.) Being a Rules Advisor basically means you know the rules well enough that you can reliably answer rules questions. It's not actually a "judge" title, but being a Rules Advisor shows that you know the rules and any level 3 or higher judge (any judge can be a mentor, but only L3 and higher judges can test you) who might test you will take you much more seriously if you've passed the Rules Advisor test. But before you actually take that, you should take some of the practice exams offered on the site, because there's a waiting period to be able to retake the Rules Advisor exam. So start off with the easy exams and once you get confident in those, start taking the hard exams. The Rules Advisor test is somewhere in between those two difficulties.
Eric Smith is the local L3 judge for our area, and if you ever take the L1 exam, he'll most likely be the one giving it to you. He (or any judge you certify under) will want to see you judge at least two big events such as a prerelease or PTQ. Those events are often twelve hour work days with only a short lunch break, and those are the easy events! Just as an example, at GP Philadelphia last month, I was on the floor for a good 16 hours on that Saturday, answering rules questions, watching for infractions, cleaning off tables, putting up pairings, checking decklists, and so on, and it was some of the most fun I've ever had. If that sounds like fun to you, you should see a psychologist and/or take the L1 exam.
There's a lot of good resources on the web for rules info, some of the best being Cranial Insertion on mtgsalvation.com, Ask the Judge on starcitygames.com, and of course *cough* the Islandhome newsletter's rules column, but keep in mind older columns may be out of date as the rules of Magic are constantly changing. Once you pass the Rules Advisor exam, you'll be added to the [O]fficial rules mailing list for the DCI, MTGRULES-L. (By the way one of the authors of Cranial Insertion, Eli Shiffrin, was one of my best mentors when preparing for my L1 and is instrumental in helping me prepare for my L2 exam.)
Policy is a little harder to study, since you're not always using it when playing Magic. The best way to study these is to read the guidelines on your own, then watch how judges at your local events handle things.
The Comprehensive Rules, the big book of Magic rules, is available here, and the Penalty Guidelines, Magic Floor Rules, and Universal Floor Rules, all of which are on the L1 exam, are located at the DCI Document Center.
If anyone is really looking to become a judge, feel free to talk to me about it! While I can't give you the test to certify you, I can help mentor you and keep you on the right track.
The first goal you should work towards is passing the Rules Advisor test on judge.wizards.com/exams.aspx. (You'll need your DCI number and password to login.) Being a Rules Advisor basically means you know the rules well enough that you can reliably answer rules questions. It's not actually a "judge" title, but being a Rules Advisor shows that you know the rules and any level 3 or higher judge (any judge can be a mentor, but only L3 and higher judges can test you) who might test you will take you much more seriously if you've passed the Rules Advisor test. But before you actually take that, you should take some of the practice exams offered on the site, because there's a waiting period to be able to retake the Rules Advisor exam. So start off with the easy exams and once you get confident in those, start taking the hard exams. The Rules Advisor test is somewhere in between those two difficulties.
Eric Smith is the local L3 judge for our area, and if you ever take the L1 exam, he'll most likely be the one giving it to you. He (or any judge you certify under) will want to see you judge at least two big events such as a prerelease or PTQ. Those events are often twelve hour work days with only a short lunch break, and those are the easy events! Just as an example, at GP Philadelphia last month, I was on the floor for a good 16 hours on that Saturday, answering rules questions, watching for infractions, cleaning off tables, putting up pairings, checking decklists, and so on, and it was some of the most fun I've ever had. If that sounds like fun to you, you should see a psychologist and/or take the L1 exam.
There's a lot of good resources on the web for rules info, some of the best being Cranial Insertion on mtgsalvation.com, Ask the Judge on starcitygames.com, and of course *cough* the Islandhome newsletter's rules column, but keep in mind older columns may be out of date as the rules of Magic are constantly changing. Once you pass the Rules Advisor exam, you'll be added to the [O]fficial rules mailing list for the DCI, MTGRULES-L. (By the way one of the authors of Cranial Insertion, Eli Shiffrin, was one of my best mentors when preparing for my L1 and is instrumental in helping me prepare for my L2 exam.)
Policy is a little harder to study, since you're not always using it when playing Magic. The best way to study these is to read the guidelines on your own, then watch how judges at your local events handle things.
The Comprehensive Rules, the big book of Magic rules, is available here, and the Penalty Guidelines, Magic Floor Rules, and Universal Floor Rules, all of which are on the L1 exam, are located at the DCI Document Center.
If anyone is really looking to become a judge, feel free to talk to me about it! While I can't give you the test to certify you, I can help mentor you and keep you on the right track.
==UPCOMING EVENTS==
April 19th-20th: Shadowmoor PrereleaseLong Island and New York City prereleases will be held on Saturday the 19th, and New York City on the 20th. Read The Rumor Mill forum on MTGSalvation.com as we get closer to the release date for up to date information. I'll be head judging the Long Island prerelease and more than likely judging the Sunday prerelease in the city.
Summer 2008: PTQ Season for 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, and I'm not sure if it'll be released in time for the end of it. I don't have a date yet on the official start of the PTQ season, but I should know relatively soon. To help prepare for it, I'm going to try to sanction some Block Constructed tournaments after Shadowmoor is released.
************************
Friday and Saturday are gonna be huge! It'll be nice to judge at my local hangouts again.
By the way, I'm trying to expand Islandhome to get out to more people, so if you know anyone who wants the newsletter, tell them to send me their email!
Friday and Saturday are gonna be huge! It'll be nice to judge at my local hangouts again.
By the way, I'm trying to expand Islandhome to get out to more people, so if you know anyone who wants the newsletter, tell them to send me their email!
-Brian Paskoff
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