As a player with years of tournament experience, I can give you some advice on how to get ready for a tourney – and how to avoid game losses for stupid mistakes. As a judge, I have to wonder why I keep giving out game losses for these same things. Jeez, people – this stuff isn’t hard. Winning a tournament is tough enough, don’t shoot yourself in the foot at the start.
First, get to the tourney on time. Then get to your rounds on time. There is no reason to be late and no reason not to have your desk registration in by the deadline. Look, I know people want to sleep late and don’t want to waste time waiting, but we judges get to the site an hour or more before the players – and we don’t like to wait, either.
The best Tournament Organizer I know posts times for registration and if you are late, you don’t play. His tourneys also end at a reasonable time. Sure, the odd person does not get to play, but the hundred or so there on time do not have to sit around waiting, either.
As for the start of the next round, rounds can start as soon as the results of the previous rounds have been entered. We try to do that quickly, and get the pairings up fast. I know players want to fill the time between rounds with 5Color games – I do it myself – but once the pairings are up, quit those games and get to the table. If you are late, the penalty is a game loss, then match loss. The head judge may set a grace period (e.g. game loss after 3 minutes, match after 10 minutes), but high level events give game losses immediately.
The simple rule is "Don’t push it." Just get to your seat on time.
Another piece of advice: when you get your pairings, write the table number and name of your scoresheet. Then, when you sit down, ask your opponent their name. If it doesn’t sound like what you were expecting, check the table number. The penalty for playing the wrong opponent is usually minor, but you are also likely to get penalized for tardiness, and that will cost you a game or match.
I mentioned scoresheets. Use one. Most TOs hand out score pads, and often pens as well. Use them. The rules require you to have something to use to record life totals – doing it in your head is never acceptable in a tournament. Score pads are also much better than dice or counters. In any dispute between players, the rules themselves recommend that judges trust the written life totals, not dice. For one thing, bumping the table will never change a written life total.
The rules also require you to bring something to use as counters. Little pieces of paper torn off the score pad are not acceptable alternatives. Here in Wisconsin, it’s ragweed season. People with hay fever are sneezing. I hate watching someone sneeze, and having all the little counters leave the play area. Judges never like ruling on calls that come down to players failing to agree on reality like how many counters are on which card.
In casual games, if my opponent looks away, I have blown just hard enough to blow the counters off my opponent’s the cards. It was a pretty feeble joke, but if I can do it casually, someone might try it as a cheat. Just use something solid for tokens. Glass beads are cheap – especially if you buy them from decorating or plant stores. Coins are simple, easy – and you should have some. I have seen poker chips, dog treats, nails, bottle caps – even live ammunition. I don’t recommend the last option, but everything else is fine. Just bring something.
For Constructed tournaments, if at all possible, print out your decklist in advance. Even if you expect to change a few cards at the last moment, print out the decklist, then make changes. Printed decklists save time, and are less likely to be wrong. Decklist errors are always bad. In the past, having an invalid decklist would get you disqualified. Nowadays, it gets you a game loss. It still isn’t worth it.
As a last step before turning in your decklist, count the cards. Then trade decklists with your friends and count theirs – and double check that there’s a name on the decklist. The stupidest penalty you can get is to screw up your decklist, but every tournament, we get people that throw away a games because they didn’t register lands, or decided to play anonymously.
Look, qualifying is hard enough without starting a game down.
Next, know what your cards do. Not just want they say, know the current wording and how they operate. If you screw that up, you are courting a penalty for misrepresentation. I know people play netdecks but if you spend the time to comb the intraweb thingie for the newest tech, you should take the extra five minutes to pull down the current oracle wording of the cards you are going to play. StarCity’s card database is fast and easy – you have no excuse. Expect no sympathy from me when you screw up. As my uncle says, "you can find sympathy in the dictionary, right between sh*t and suicide."
One more piece of advice – before each match, pile shuffle your cards and make sure you still have the right number. Then check your sideboard. The cards in the sideboard should be sideboard cards – if they are not, and you preset your deck at the beginning of a match, it’s a game loss. Also, before you present your deck to your opponent, make sure it is thoroughly shuffled. However, do most of this shuffling before the match starts. Something people don’t seem to realize is that the rules give you a maximum of three minutes to sideboard and shuffle up and that also applies to the start of a game. I have often seen people shuffling their decks and talking or watching neighbors play, well past the three minute mark. Technically, that’s a penalty, but we try not to be d*cks about it. I do give cautions, however and players better listen. If I have to warn them repeatedly, I will penalize, starting with game losses. Wasting five minutes at the start of a round can be an advantage if facing control decks. That’s unfair, and should be penalized.
Just shuffle up and present your deck quickly. There’s no legitimate reason not to do so.
Incidentally, judges are cracking down on slow play. It is something that has been discussed a lot on the judge listserve, and something that head judges have talked about in the judges meeting at the start of every major tournament I have been involved in. Slow play is not acceptable at any time, including once extra turns have started. You can still get called for slow play in the extra rounds and slow play calls do escalate into game and match loses. I hate doing it, but I also hate watching people play slowly when the whole tournament is waiting on them.
A final note on notes. I would have expected that everyone would know this, but you cannot use outside notes during a match. You can take notes during the match, but you cannot bring in notes written beforehand. I thought this was common knowledge, but at one major tournament, someone pulled out a legal pad with complete sideboarding instructions for every archetype. Instant penalty. No outside notes.
Tomorrow: Sleeves and deckchecks.