Perspectives

When learning to do something new, I like to learn it right. Sometimes that's easy - read the rules and follow them. However, many things are an art and require actual practice to develop skill in applying those rules correctly and consistently. The Magic judge program includes thousands of individuals all over the world in a wide variety of situations all applying the same set of standards to a diverse set of players. Even judges who are highly skilled often come to different conclusions or have variance in their application of fixes.

Last weekend at Grand Prix Columbus I had the opportunity to serve on a staff of talented judges and witness the art of judging first hand. Let me give you a few examples of the things I saw . . .

Note: Players' names are fictional. Active player is the player whose name begins with an A. The nonactive player's name begins with an N.

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Andrew cast Green Sun's Zenith, searched for a creature and put it onto the battlefield, then passed turn. On his next turn his Sylvan Library trigger resolved and he chose to put two cards back on top of his library. Next he went to declare attackers and noticed the Green Sun's Zenith still sitting on the battlefield. He called a judge who determined that it was accidentally left there instead of being shuffled back into his library. The fix that made sense at that point was to shuffle it back into the random portion of the library (thus not shuffling the 2 cards placed on top by the Sylvan Library). After the call, the judges involved discussed that they could have also opted to move Green Sun's Zenith to the graveyard. While neither is specifically supported by policy, the shuffle fix produces a closer approximation of the actual correct game state.

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While watching a Top 8 match in a Friday afternoon grinder between Al and Ned, Al complains that Ned is playing slowly. I watch Ned who has 2 cards in hand as he flips them back and forth apparently thinking. A quick scan of the game reveals that he has only enough mana available to cast 1 of them. The board state is cluttered, but not necessarily complicated. I note that there are approximately 10 minutes left in the round. After Ned makes his play casting 1 of the creatures I say, "I will need you to play faster." Al plays quickly and on Ned's next turn he once again fiddles with his cards, rearranges his lands, and after I prompt him to play faster finally plays both cards. On Ned's next turn he draws a plains which he looks at, puts down, picks up, puts down, picks up . . . I counted to 15 in my head and then interrupted to give the Slow Play Warning.

While writing on the slip, I overhear the next turn. Al draws for turn then plays a Silvergill Adept revealing a Cursecatcher. He says, "Draw?" and Ned says, "ok." Al draws a card. Next he casts another Silvergill Adept (the card he just drew) again revealing the Cursecatcher. He says, "Draw?" and Ned says, "Ok." Then Ned says, "Ooops he shouldn't have drawn those cards JUDGE!" I look at the game and Ned points to his Spirit of the Labyrinth.

After considering the situation I determined that it should be a GPE-GRV for Al and a GPE-FtMGS for Ned. However I was unsure on whether or not to back up. Al only had 2 cards in hand, the Cursecatcher (known to all) and the card drawn off the last Silvergill Adept. I opted to confer with another judge before proceeding. I let the players know, then I located a nearby L2 and asked him to assist me. He came to the table and spoke to the players walking through the situation. While he was doing that, another judge asked me a question and momentarily distracted me. Then L2 asked me to step away from the table with him. We agreed on the call, but he said that he was not comfortable with the backup either.

He wanted to confer with our L3 team lead so we sought him out. L3 appeared to have his hands full with several issues, but he finished what he was doing and listened as L2 and I explained our situation. L3 then told us that it should be ruled a HCE for Al and still FtMGS for Ned. Using the HCE fix Al would reveal the unknown card from his deck and Ned would select it to be shuffled back into Al's library. He then asked if I was comfortable delivering the ruling and when I said I was he sent me back to the table to handle the situation.

Later that evening at Eric Levine's policy seminar on Hidden Card Errors, I became sure that this was in fact not an HCE. I explained the situation to Eric, who agreed that is should have been a GRV.

The next day I sought out L3 and asked him about it. As we went over the story again the disparity became clear. He did not realize that Ned had confirmed Al's draws. In our haste to explain the situation to him, L2 and I had not articulated that point well and that led to the odd ruling.

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During the main event in a round 4 match, Abe said "Move to cleanup step." Nell said "Ok." Abe had 8 cards in hand, so he discarded a Force of Will. Nell stopped him saying, "Whoa, hang on. Before you discard, activate Stoneforge Mystic and Aether Vial." Abe called for a judge, who ruled that Nell had not agreed to move past his priority in end step. The Head Judge who heard the appeal agreed that saying 'ok' is simply an acknowledgment of the proposal, not an acceptance of it.

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While working the Chris Rush Memorial Sealed side event, our event's L2 took a judge call from the main event. When he returned, I asked him what happened and he told the following story: Starting Game 2 a player presented a 60 card deck to his opponent, but had 16 cards in his sideboard due to the fact that he normally runs 61 in his main board. He noticed before drawing his opening hand and called a judge on himself. At this point L2 asked me if I knew the ruling. I said it's a Game loss, but there is a downgrade to a Warning option. He said that's correct, so he consulted a Head Judge of the main event. In this case, the HJ decided to issue the GL. L2 and I discussed it a bit more and neither of us could understand why the HJ made the decision not to downgrade. Seeing that HJ was nearby and available, I sent L2 over to ask him. The answer: "I probably should have downgraded."

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On Sunday a player in the main event had a Windswept Heath in play. He said, "Fetch" while picking it up and touching it to his graveyard. Then, realizing that he was at 1 life, said, "Oh wait, nevermind." His opponent called a judge. The floor judge ruled that he did in fact fetch and was required to do so and lose the game. Unfortunately, I didn't hear the result of the appeal.


My takeaway from the weekend was that no matter how exact we think the rules are, there will always be situations that require using our judgment - we are judges after all. Being a strong judge doesn't mean never being wrong, it means understanding the rules, applying them to the best of our ability, and being willing to trust ourselves to handle the tough situations as best we can. We each add unique experiences and ideals to the program and those can be seen in the choices and rulings we make. The convergence of those perspectives constitutes the body of judge wisdom we all draw upon.