It came, it went, and conquered. And I watched the whole thing from very close in. The DCI is developing what’s called the Judge/Reporter program. There’s too little space on stage for a Judge and a reporter, so the idea is to combine the roles. There are few people qualified and fewer consistently available. At…
Before I head off to Pro Tour Chicago, I want to wing some rules stuff at you. I’ve been away from rules dissection for a few weeks, so it’s time to get back on track. Before we head in that direction, congrats to Jeremy A. Smith of Warwick, Rhode , who was the first to…
Business before pleasure: I’m awarding two prizes in my "Who the Heck is Dominic Symens?" contest. The first to respond was Dom’s friend Pierre Cools – who also identified what I was really looking for, namely that Meneer Symens finished third at the first World Championships. I’m also going to award a prize to Jeff…
Ferrett keeps getting on me about writing opinion columns instead of Judging ones. (Only ’cause YOU get bored sometimes, Sheldie – ) I swear I’ll do that soon – as soon as I run out of fascinating (*cough*) Judge stuff to talk about. Oh, what the hell. Let’s skip the Judge stuff for a week….
The first thing I need to do this week is tell you I screwed up. Last week, I published in my Grand Prix Dallas report that produces any color of mana save that which the land originally produced. This was an error. PoL creates a simple replacement effect. It replaces "This basic land produces <color>"…
From the onset, this looks suspiciously like a tournament report (funny how titles do that), but I promise all of you rules junkies your weekly fix. That’s the great thing about tournament reports from Judges: it’s all about funky rules situations (plus some random stuff). I jetted to Dallas from San Antonio after spending a…
Now that we’ve covered WHERE you’re going to play, let’s cover WHAT you’re going to play. The Magic tournament environment is separated into basic formats: Constructed and Limited. Constructed includes Type 1, Type 1.5, Extended, Block Constructed and Standard. Limited is made up of Sealed Deck, Booster Draft and Rochester Draft. Each format has its…
Over the past few months that we’ve been together, we’ve covered a good deal of territory on the rules of the game. We also went into a little bit on how to survive your first DCI tournament ordeal. Now we’ll talk about what’s out there besides your local tournament. DCI Premier Events are where you…
A new expansion has arrived, and once again the cries of "Magic is Dead" echo through tournament halls worldwide – through FULL tournament halls worldwide. Record numbers of players turned up for Invasion Prereleases, eclipsing Stronghold’s standard. Meanwhile, I’m inundated with requests for Judge tests. Let me state for the record that Magic is not…
What a week! It started off with notification that I’ve been invited to Head Judge Grand Prix Dallas (thanks to Jeff Donais for the vote of confidence!) and ended with the Prerelease and Grand Prix Dallas Trial Tournament. I was happy with the number of folks that showed up at our Anchorage event, some from…
The tenor of "Final Judgement" has been moderately official and serious lately, so it’s time to lighten up a bit. There aren’t really any official multiplayer rules, and I’m not suggesting that this column should replace them. It’s just that a number of columnists here, notably , David Phifer and , are huge multiplayer fans,…
Our esteemed editor told me that the Shakespeare reference was too easy. Apparently it was. I had a boatload of email waiting for me when I got home on publishing day last week. The first person to identify correctly (Henry V, Exeter to King of France; the direct quote is, "This is his claim, his…
Thanks to all the folks who responded regarding my grammatical shortcomings. Unfortunately, our beloved editor didn’t correct some of my errors (it was mostly piddling stuff, right Anthony?), but he did, as predicted (and as he admitted) (And as I purposely HAD to do, since Sheldon had corrected me before on it in a previous…
Now that I’m a regular here on StarCityCCG, I’ll do my best to hop over to the Rules Questions folder on a regular basis. If you have specific questions, either post them there or drop me an email at [email protected]. I’ll answer as quickly as I can. Today I want to talk about a rules…
First of all, I wager that in this article, our beloved editor will incorrectly modify what he sees as a grammatical error. If he does (I did – Ye Editor), and you’re the first one to figure it out and email me at [email protected], I’ll send you something nice, like some foreign cards (or whatever…
