Legion Events ran a $3k event last Saturday. The format was mixed — an Alara Sealed event in the morning, and a Standard event after lunch. I got to head judge the Standard, which means I got the decklists when we were done. I have the Top 8 lists, the complete field breakdown, and some just plain interesting lists.
Steve Port, head of Legion Events, offered a $3k tournament, and asked players to vote on the format. Alara Sealed won by a hair, so Steve offered Sealed early, and Standard late. I was tagged to HJ the Standard, which started after round 2 of the Sealed ended.
Turnout was a bit lower than we would have wanted, with 77 in the Sealed and 44 in the Standard. A couple of factors conspired against us. First, a few PTQs were within a long day’s drive. Second, Saturday proved to be one of the first really nice days this spring, making being inside a bit less inviting. And of course, some of our locals are travelling around the world, alternating Top 8 appearances in GPs. (Congrats, BK, Sam & Gaudenis!)
Judging the Event
The Sealed event started at 10am, with registration starting at nine. Ingrid and I arrived, per instructions, at “a hunk before nine.” The crew was me, Ingrid, Chris Richter, Steve Port, Bob Baker, and Lindsey as scorekeeper, so we were really overstaffed.
Starting the Sealed was simple, with one exception. Wizards has eliminated the tournament pack, so the Sealed pool was 6 boosters — three Shards and three Conflux. That’s fine — but with the elimination of the tournament pack, we also eliminated the nice cardboard box that the tournament packs come in. That makes collection and redistributing decks trickier. We considered paper bags, but that makes it a lot more likely that some cards might shift and be bent or creased. Rubber bands have downsides, too. (For one, some people really are allergic to latex, and can have bad reactions to contact.) We asked about allergies, then used the bands — two per deck. We had no desire to have rubber bands break, and have a card pool spill across the table. (Or, per Murphy’s Law — two pools spill and get mixed together.)
About the only issue was that some players were unable to finish their decklists in time. Despite several warnings from the head judge, and a generous amount of time for deck construction, we still had a half a dozen players who could not complete their decklists when the clock for deck construction & registration hit zero. They all got game loses for tardiness. That may sound harsh, but it is the right call for three reasons. First — while those players took extra time, seventy-odd other players stood around waiting. Second, those players had a few extra minutes to build their decks — a luxury the other players would probably have liked as well. Finally, not having your decklist done on time is, by definition, being tardy, and the penalty should be applied. Being consistent is important.
I had the same problem in the Standard, with people not quite done with decklists. This was ridiculous, since it was Standard, and because the event was scheduled to start at 1pm but was pushed back to 1:30 to let round 2 of the Sealed finish first.
Judging the Standard
I was basically the only judge in the Standard event. Bob Baker was there, but he was playing. Chris Richter would cover when necessary — e.g. when I was doing a deck check, or in the one case where we had two simultaneous calls.
The calls were a mix. At one end of the event, I had some fairly complex calls — e.g. a player had his Reveillark removed by Path to Exile. He returned Tidehollow Sculler to play, looked at the opponent’s hand and removed a card, then wanted to search out a land. I ruled that this was not just an out of sequence issue – too much had happened. The land fetch form Path is a “may” ability, and the player had already seen his opponent’s hand, so it was too late to back up and do the ability.
A round later, at the other end of the tournament, a player called me over and pointed at Ajani Vengeant. “Neither of us understands how these things work,” he said. “Could you explain it?” It was a 24k, Competitive REL event with a significant cash prize, and neither player understood planeswalkers! Now they do. I explained in detail. It was a rules question, and the players at the lower tables who are playing because they love the game are every bit as important as those who are in contention for the money.
I also got to explain trample and double strike, trample and protection, and handle a bunch of other calls. It was fun!
I only had one call all day that I really wished I hadn’t had. It was in the Top 8, with, if I recall correctly, Vengeant Weenie battling Five-Color Control. Control resolved a Broodmate Dragon, and it looked bad for the Kithkin. However, at end of turn, the RW player hit both the dragon and the token with Path to Exile, and it looked like he had turned the game around again. I moved on to the next match.
A couple of minutes later, I made had checked all the other matches and was back. The Kithkin player had Ajani Vengeant in play, with 7 counters. However, the control player had two Broodmates in play, was entering attack phase. The opponent was running out of flying tokens one turn too early, but something else was wrong. I could not see another Broodmate in the RFG zone, or even the graveyard. I had to ask “Where’s the other Broodmate?”, and got the answer I did not want. “What — it’s there” said the control player, pointing to the in play dragon. “I got it back with Cruel Ultimatum.”
Well, crap.
That doesn’t work. Path to Exile removes creatures from the game, and it was too late to fix that. If the player had put it in the graveyard instead, the error had been made at least five minutes and — just counting lands in play — a minimum of five turns ago. Even if the error was simply fetching an RFG creature with the Cruel Ultimatum, too much had happened (sacrificed creatures, blocks, combat, the opponent’s entire turn, etc.) to allow me to back up the game. The resolution — warning for game play error game rules violation to the control player, and warning for failure to maintain game state to the opponent — didn’t seem all that fair.
The players asked me to make up some “fix” to balance the game. Sorry, judging does not work that way. All I could say was that the penalty, and the proper resolution, was to apply the warnings and leave the game as it was.
The penalty does not seem to be a perfect fit for the infraction. That is going to happen — one size penalty does not perfectly fit all the possible infractions out there. Some fits may feel worse than others.
Still what are the alternatives? Have each judge create their own “solution” for each individual infraction? That way lies madness. The solutions would depend, in every case, on each individual judge’s understanding of the game state and the likely effect that the mistake could have on the game. Would the penalty have differed if the RFGed creature put into the graveyard had been a Mulldrifter, or Plumeveil? Should it? We have all had some experience with judges making their own decisions on how severe a penalty is (remember Procedural Error Minor & Major?), and that option has a lot of problems. After a lot of work and a lot of study and testing, we now have a far more uniform Penalty Guidelines, and far more consistent rulings and judging. No matter where you play Magic, you can realistically expect the same rulings and outcomes.
I once wrote an article about how we were more like referees than courtroom judges. Our job is to handle the infractions and assess the penalties, not dispense justice. While it would be nice if we could perfectly fix the game state and make things “unhappen,” the game is so complex that there is no truly consistent way to be sure we can do this. Thus, we don’t try to fix things and make them go away; we correct as much as we can, assign penalties, and move on.
This particular case does not seem “fair.” If the control player had not been able to play the RFGed dragon, Ajani probably would have ‘geddoned his board, and he probably would have lost the match. Probably. However, the responsibility for ensuring that errors like this don’t happen belongs to both players. His opponent did not see the error. I didn’t either, for that matter. Nonetheless…
The penalty and upgrade path for Game Play Errors is clearly stated in the Penalty Guidelines. The first infraction earns a warning. So does the second infraction. The third earns a game loss. The fourth earns a match loss.
This was the player’s first infraction.
I would also note that this is exactly the converse of what happened with Brian Kowal in the semifinals at GP: Chicago. In that case, he made a third error, and the penalty was a game loss. That also “felt wrong” — he was winning, and the penalty cost him Top 4. Last Saturday, the player was winning because of the error, and he didn’t get a game loss. In both cases, the severity of the penalty was based on the accumulation of errors over the event — BK had three, the $3k player had one. In each case, that was the infraction, and that was the appropriate penalty.
The point is that no single set of rules will feel perfect in every real world case. The current system feels correct more often than not, and in more situations than anything else a lot of very smart people spending a lot of time and effort on the issue have been able to devise.
This also points out the importance of calling a judge when you see a serious error. Now I don’t think that this player was cheating — he just made a mistake. It was the end of a long day of Magic, he was in the Top 8 and he was examining his opponent’s options, and when his creature was offed, he put it in the graveyard. Just a mistake. I also have no reason to think he had made this mistake before in the tournament. I had not given him a warning, had not seen him make the mistake, nor had I heard he or his opponents commenting on it. But let’s, just for discussion, assume he had made that mistake earlier, and that his opponent had called me. At that point, I would have issued the first warning. It is possible that the player might have played more carefully thereafter, and not made the mistake in the Top 8. It is also a lot more likely that I would have watched where the dragon went, after being Exiled. At the least, we could have fixed the problem before it messed up the game state.
Had he been called on that mistake earlier, the odds of having to write this section would have been a lot lower.
So, when in doubt, call a judge.
Enough about judging — on to decklists. First, the Top 8. Part of being the head judge involves typing up the decklists. What I type, I can copy and paste.
Here they are, in order of the final standings after the conclusion of the Swiss. In the finals, Justin Meyer and Chris Orsinski split. My dogs, who had been stuck indoors for the whole day at that point, thank them.
Rob Thatcher — Boat Brew
4 Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
4 Rugged Prairie
4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Plains
3 Mountain
4 Ajani Vengeant
4 Spectral Procession
4 Mind Stone
3 Path to Exile
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Fulminator Mage
4 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Reveillark
3 Ranger of Eos
2 Mogg Fanatic
1 Flamekin Harbinger
1 Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
Sideboard
2 Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Stillmoon Cavalier
3 Banefire
4 Wrath of God
1 Wispmare
Chris Orsinski — BW Tokens
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Fetid Heath
4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Glorious Anthem
4 Spectral Procession
4 Bitterblossom
3 Ajani Goldmane
3 Terror
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
3 Murderous Redcap
2 Knight of the White Orchid
2 Knight of Meadowgrain
Sideboard
2 Stillmoon Cavalier
3 Puppeteer Clique
2 Celestial Purge
1 Ajani Goldmane
3 Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
2 Head Games
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Tyler Passow – Faeries
3 Underground River
3 Sunken Ruins
4 Secluded Glen
1 Faerie Conclave
4 Mutavault
1 Reflecting Pool
5 Island
3 Swamp
2 Sower of Temptation
3 Scion of Oona
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Cryptic Command
4 Bitterblossom
3 Broken Ambitions
2 Jace Beleren
3 Agony Warp
3 Peppersmoke
2 Thoughtseize
2 Terror
Sideboard
2 Countersquall
2 Thoughtseize
3 Infest
1 Peppersmoke
2 Flashfreeze
1 Remove Soul
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Sower of Temptation
Justin Meyer – Doran
4 Murmuring Bosk
4 Ancient Ziggurat
3 Treetop Village
2 Brushland
2 Yavimaya Coast
1 Caves of Kolios
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Adarkar Wastes
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Rhox War Monk
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Gaddock Teeg
2 Kitchen Finks
3 Nameless Inversion
2 Path to Exile
1 Loxodon Warhammer
Sideboard
3 Guttural Response
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Path to Exile
4 Scattershot Archers
2 Terror
Neil Milligan — BW Tokens
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Fetid Heath
4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Reflecting Pool
2 Mutavault
2 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Glorious Anthem
4 Spectral Procession
4 Bitterblossom
4 Terror
3 Ajani Goldmane
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Marsh Flitter
Sideboard
3 Stillmoon Cavalier
2 Puppeteer Clique
1 Ajani Goldmane
3 Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
2 Head Games
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Path to Exile
Alex Muhich — R/W Kithkin
4 Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
4 Rugged Prairie
2 Rustic Clachan
4 Windbrisk Heights
10 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Figure Of Destiny
4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
4 Knight Of Meadowgrain
4 Wizened Cenn
3 Glorious Anthem
4 Path To Exile
4 Ajani Vengeant
4 Spectral Procession
Sideboard:
3 Burrenton Forge-tender
2 Ranger Of Eos
4 Reveillark
3 Elspeth, Knight-errant
3 Banefire
Kyle Ripp — Boat Brew
4 Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
4 Rugged Prairie
4 Windbrisk Heights
3 Reflecting Pool
4 Plains
4 Mountain
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Murderous Redcap
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Reveillark
1 Flamekin Harbinger
1 Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
Sideboard
4 Galepowder Mage
4 Celestial Purge
4 Guttural Response
1 Banefire
1 Reveillark
1 Path to Exile
Derek Munden — Five-Color Control
4 Sunken Ruins
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Vivid Creek
3 Vivid Meadow
3 Vivid Marsh
2 Cascade Bluffs
2 Exotic Orchard
1 Mystic Gate
1 Vivid Crag
2 Island
1 Celestial Purge
1 Terror
4 Volcanic Fallout
2 Pithing Needle
4 Broken Ambitions
2 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Cryptic Command
4 Esper Charm
1 Liliana Vess
3 Mulldrifter
3 Plumeveil
3 Wall of Reverence
2 Broodmate Dragon
Sideboard
1 Remove Soul
2 Infest
2 Negate
1 Scourglass
1 Celestial Purge
4 Scepter of Fugue
2 Wydwen, the Biting Gale
1 Wrath of God
Results after Swiss
First through Eighth — see above.
9. Boat Brew
10. Boat Brew
11. Five-Color Control
12. Five-Color Control
13. Swans
14. “Draw Burn” (decklist below)
15. Reveillark Control
16. Dark Bant
17. Troll Hammer
18. “J-Will” — BW Tokens (with Progenitus?)
19. “The Blessing” (decklist below)
20. Blightning Aggro
21. Naya Brew
22. Dark Bant
23. Five-Color Control
24. Boat Brew
25. RW Kithkin
26. Star-Spangled Backlash (Painter’s Servant control)
27. Nyxathid Control
28. Faeries
29. Planeswalker Control
30. B/W Tokens
31. Dark Bant
32. Faeries
33. Jund Tokens
34. Mistbind Control
35. Millfolk Aggro (Merfolk with Drowner of Secrets)
36. Planeswalker Control
37. Dark Bant
38. RW Aggro
39. Blightning Aggro
40. Stoic Angel Control
41. Merfolk
42. B/W Tokens
43. Five-Color Control
44. Blightning Aggro
The netdecks were out in force. Adrian did a comparison of the Top 8 here to the Top 8 in Kyoto in his article earlier this week. Pretty close. If you are going to play at the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open in Indianapolis, the netdecks are probably a pretty good place to start, at least to define the metagame. The netdecks were tested heavily before the event, and they got tested again. Note the Boat Brew results: 5, 8, 9, 10, 24. Not too shabby.
Since I have all the decklists, I could look for decklists that are just a card or two off the list, then analyze those changes in detail. One problem, though — I haven’t played enough Standard with Conflux to know what I’m talking about. At best, I can note the really strange one. The 18th place list really is a classic BW Tokens deck with two copies of Progenitus maindeck. I suspect that the opponent would get a real shock when that came out from under a Windbrisk Heights — but that seems like the only way to get the card into play.
Hmmm.
Here are a couple of other interesting decklists.
Stephen Cullen — Draw Burn — finished 14th
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Graven Cairns
4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Auntie’s Hovel
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Bloodhall Ooze
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Kederekt Parasite
4 Tarfire
4 Incinerate
4 Underworld Dreams
4 Spiteful Visions
3 Terror
1 Howling Mine
He likes homebrews, and this deck was in contention until the second to last round, when his opponent had three straight Esper Charms to keep from dying to Underworld Dreams.
This might be fun to try online.
Mark Elgar — Troll Hammer
4 Brushland
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Exotic Orchard
3 Treetop Village
6 Plains
5 Forest
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Troll Ascetic
3 Thornling
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Wall of Reverence
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Path to Exile
3 Martial Coup
3 Snakeform
2 Mobilization
I’m not sure how he beats Faeries, or whether 22 lands are enough for Martial Coup, but the idea might be worth pursuing. I do like Snakeform. Casting it on an opponent’s 1/6 Wall in response to his Volcanic Fallout is good times.
Here’s another interesting build. This one had Martial Coup in the sideboard — but it has 23 lands plus Rampant Growth and card drawing, so it should get enough mana to make it work.
Ian Ellis — The Blessing
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Vivid Grove
3 Wooded Bastion
2 Flooded Grove
2 Treetop Village
4 Forest
2 Plains
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Mulldrifter
3 Battlegrace Angel
2 Cloudthresher
1 Farhaven Elf
4 Rampant Growth
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Wrath of God
3 Makeshift Mannequin
3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
One final decklist. Bob Baker, my fellow judge in the morning, played this in the afternoon. He got some ridiculous mana screws and floods, and finished in the high mediocre, but he swears it works.
Planeswalker Control
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Vivid Grove
4 Vivid Creek
2 Vivid Marsh
2 Vivid Crag
3 Mystic Gate
2 Sunken Ruins
1 Flooded Grove
1 Exotic Orchard
2 Island
4 Ajani Vengeant
4 Jace Beleren
3 Garruk WIldspeaker
1 Liliana Vess
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Cryptic Command
4 Esper Charm
4 Wrath of God
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Terror
2 Condemn
1 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Broodmate Dragon
Hopefully, these should give you some idea. If you are near Indianapolis, play in the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open. The $5ks are great tournaments, and a lot of fun even if you don’t win.
And even better if you do.
PRJ
See you in Indy!