Magic the Gathering Appreciation Station

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mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

There is absolutely no reason to crew a vehicle in your Beginning of Combat step; it is strictly worse.

Crewed in main phase: either they remove it or it gets crewed. If it gets removed, you can still make sorcery-speed plays. "Combat?".

Crewed in beginning of combat phase: either they remove it or it gets crewed. If it gets removed, you can only make instant-speed plays.

In both situations it makes absolutely no difference to your opponent; they caan only play at instant speed. If you absolutely have to be a special snowflake and do it in a stupid as gently caress fashion, say "beginning of combat, crew my doodad". That modifies the shortcut.

Folks have explained the why pretty well, but further philosophy on this is at http://blogs.magicjudges.org/telliott/2016/10/18/do-not-pass-go/

Seriously though just do it in your main phase

# ¿ Feb 4, 2017 02:48

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 03:56

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

akulanization posted:

When someone goes, "Combat?" And I respond, "Sure. No Effects." And they say, "Wait, I have triggers and effects; you don't even have priority." And my response is to call a judge and explain that there is a very specific convention for how priority for one step in the turn order works and I've trapped you with it then I'm the rear end in a top hat.

If they have triggers, those triggers can absolutely be on the stack despite you saying sure. Good example of this is desecration demon; you say sure, they say "demon trigger", that demon trigger is on the stack and you can sac a dude to tap it down. Triggers aren't missed until they absolutely have to be (in this case, when they've declared attackers)

They don't get effects, no. At FNM, I'm coming to your table, teaching them the communication policy (combat means beginning of combat with priority passed) and putting it back in beginning of combat. I can do that because it's regular rel and it's for learning.

If it's a PPTQ and competitive rel, you bet your rear end we're in declare attackers. In every head judge speech I do I explain that competitive rel means we expect you to know how both the cards and the game works. This includes knowing shortcuts.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2017 03:06

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

The beginning of combat step exists for triggers and the non active player to do stuff. It's a pain in the arse to get rid of.

"Beginning of combat" is functionally identical to "combat". If you want to do things in your beginning of combat step you must state what it is. "Beginning of combat crew my vehicle" does exactly that.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2017 03:14

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

moush posted:

How viable of a deck is Skred Red right now? I've been looking into it but it seems heavily meta dependent.

I've also been looking at Dredge but I'm unsure if the recent bans hit it too hard.

It won a GP and has promptly done absolutely gently caress all

# ¿ Feb 8, 2017 15:42

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

A quick reminder that judges are not in a court of law and treat it as such; our rough rule of thumb for issuing Cheating is "more sure than not" rather than incontrovertible proof.

Sure, this means we sometimes DQ folks making honest mistakes, but :shrug:

# ¿ Feb 9, 2017 10:24

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Sickening posted:

They were also super easy for ANY lgs to put together because you didn't need a L2. L2's have quite a cartel going on at the moment.

Yeah I mean we're just raking it in hand over fist working like 10 hours for a �65 box :rolleyes:

# ¿ Feb 10, 2017 10:09

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

The Sexual Shiite posted:

How can you call it work? You're getting free poo poo to hang out and bs with a group of people who share the same hobbies that you do and talk about something you love! Why, you should be paying the store and WOTC to get to do this!, and they're giving you free poo poo for it!

this is what wizards actually believes

It's more like what TOs actually believe.

If there's any cartel between judges, it's to educate folks into rejecting the mindset you mention. It can be a really big pull to want to help the community and put on events, but your labour and time are worth money.

But yeah, it may be a legal quagmire but it sure as poo poo is work. I pay tax on that poo poo.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2017 14:03

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Some Numbers posted:

I saw two guys collude at a prere, where they waited to get the results of another match to ensure that they could safely ID.

That's impressively lovely. I had a similar issue at a 4k I was judging (which at least is worth being a crappy dude at, I guess). Both of them had their decks in their bags 1 minute into the round and I walked up and told them both to start playing or get slow play. 3 minutes in they're still sat there like lemons so they get their SP warning and tell them if they don't start immediately I'm giving them both Game Losses. I also go off policy a little bit (unsanctioned event so whatever) and tell them I'd be giving them those Game Losses in the top 8.

Snap ID, everyone's happy.

Mezzanon posted:

Also I have been doing this for years so please tell me I'm not breaking any rules by offering the split like that.

That'd be fine for like 95% of judges. Bribery policy is a bit open to interpretation but most judges are fine with "Split?" "Yes" "Great. I scoop."

If you have any doubts, please talk to a judge away from the table to clarify if saying that would constitute bribery or not in their eyes.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2017 10:54

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Jabor posted:

Incidentally, I'd be inclined to DQ for stalling if someone's intentionally playing slowly to gain an advantage in the tournament.

Stalling explicitly mentions taking advantage of the time limit, which they're not doing. It needs rewriting to include these scenarios, if you ask me.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2017 11:58

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Fuzzy Mammal posted:

Speaking of, one of their recent Glassdoors is pretty heartbreaking

I hope it's not Jackie

Honestly considering quitting judging having read that. I can't justify giving my spare time to help a company like that.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2017 10:26

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Few pages back, but the Ad Nauseam scoop judge ruled absolutely correctly. The player trying to scum a victory hasn't done anything wrong by the rules; not sporting behaviour isn't necessarily Unsporting Behaviour. It sure as poo poo isn't Cheating (you have to be doing something wrong for it to be Cheating, and this isn't).

It feels bad as gently caress but under current policy at the very most you'd give USC Minor (Warning) if the scumbag was being too demanding. Policy should probably change, but folks should lay off the loving judge.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2017 12:31

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

80s James Hetfield posted:

Shouldn't there be Modern Masters 2017 spoilers soon?

Probably next Monday

# ¿ Feb 20, 2017 15:13

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Fingers McLongDong posted:

So I couldn't attend modern night at one of the stores last night and I woke up to this in our group chat:

"12 people and (TO) decided that it was too late for 4 rounds at 9:15pm after 3 rounds. He also cut to top 6, with 1st getting 25 and 2nd getting 15, the rest 5. Unannounced, as we were all waiting for round 4, I went up to check. He used the excuse that someone had to get up at 6am, which I later found out was one of the players who was 1/2, and would have stayed to play another round anyways.

He also said that future tournaments with 4 rounds will probably be cut to only 3 regardless of players unless it would have been 5 rounds."

This store is the largest and nicest one in the area, but also has the highest prices on singles. They've also had a rep over the last few years for doing sketchy business stuff. I don't like going to this store anyway and usually go to another store for modern on a different day but still went about once a month to get some modern time in, probably won't anymore.

I mean, it's that guy's prerogative :shrug:

we always cap at 4 rounds for constructed events regardless of attendance because staff need to get home, but that's well known and doesn't change mid-tournament.

We have had to change the number of rounds mid-tournament once before because we got it wrong, and caught an amount of poo poo for it but no real lasting negative effects.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 12:07

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

I'm kind of surprised it's making a comeback given how good Fatal Push is

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 16:36

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Sickening posted:

It also plays it. It also runs 8 hand disruption spells so it gets to remove your removal before it plays its threats. It does have a rough matchup against traditional jund/junk though. The good news is that the rest of the field has a great jund/junk matchup and the decks see less play.

I'm not complaining, I've moved to BUG midrange recently because getting 8 effective copies of Fatal Push is really, really good (and I still want to play Goyf)

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 16:43

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Walked posted:

Mind sharing your list? I've also been working BUG Midrange and enjoying it; curious what others are running.

Can't access it right now but am pretty much running this list, with a couple of substitutions.

How about you?

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 16:49

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Rather than getting rid of the rule, it'd be better to change how countering on resolution works by doing as much as possible when there are 0 legal targets. A good example is the Awaken spell - if you remove the land still draw the cards, you just don't get a creature land any more.

This is just me throwing it out there though, there really could be some problematic cases out there.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2017 17:43

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

akulanization posted:

I hope you are interpreting the post correctly and I'm wrong, I read the third paragraph as a strong statement that using the word "Combat" takes you to declare attackers even if that would not be normal procedure.

Yes, you absolutely did interpret my post incorrectly and Jabor's interpretation is right: I didn't rule on the Toolcraft Exemplar funtime. It's also not the first time you've misinterpreted that post :shrug:

Everyone just needs to stop having huge ego boners for doing stuff in beginning of combat (and WotC needs to stop printing cards that do stuff at the start of combat)

akulanization posted:

I think the punishment for making a bad play should be constrained to the actual consequences of the route the player chooses to take. Like that dude totally messed up by trying to be too cute, but it seemed like poor sportsmanship from his opponent to call a judge to further punish the play by moving the game to declaring attackers when that clearly wasn't his opponent's intent.

The consequences of choosing to go to combat is that you're proposing you're in the beginning of combat step with your opponent holding priority. It's loving Professional REL, you're entirely expected to know how Tournament Shortcuts work

# ¿ Feb 24, 2017 13:33

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Cactrot posted:

Don't we usually see an initial drop, followed by a later spike and then a stabilization higher than the initial price?

Exactly. You can already pick up Tarns for �30 LP on MKM, these are dropping to ~$30 max. They'll then fairly rapidly make it back up to $50-60

# ¿ Feb 27, 2017 17:25

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

ThePeavstenator posted:

Voice reprint would be good and make Dragon's Maze boosters worth less than nothing.

It seems like a pretty obvious inclusion but when's that stopped them

# ¿ Feb 28, 2017 15:55

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

mcmagic posted:

Another good reprint. This set is good.

Note that this makes Rest in Peace impossible

# ¿ Feb 28, 2017 16:25

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

sit on my Facebook posted:

Boooooo

Why up-rare this thing wizards

Why

Because it should've been a mythic to begin with

# ¿ Feb 28, 2017 17:21

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

AlternateNu posted:

So what are we looking at as far as price jumps after MM3? (Based on known reprints)

Inkmoth Nexus? Rest In Peace? Mox Opal? Noble Hierarch?

Inkmoth is the next WMCQ promo. If Hierarch isn't there it may go to the moon.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 15:31

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Everybody was doublepostin'

Not quite sure why this was upshifted, other than price

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 15:47

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

InterrupterJones posted:

Ok, now just Tarmogoyf and Ancestral Visions and we can all go to sleep until March 17th.

Visions is a no-go due to numbering

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 16:36

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Mikujin posted:

This is correct. Tournament policy was revised some time ago (I want to say around MM2 release?) such that if you are in a limited event, you can choose to withdraw at any moment with the packs/cards currently in your possession. That means if you crack the fabled Goyf/Foil Goyf pack you can choose to leave with that entire pack plus your unopened pack. Alternatively, should the dude next to you pass you those cards, you can leave with your new pack of rad cards, plus your previously selected card, plus unopened packs, etc.

The same goes for sealed events. This change was in part what also prompted the "you open your sealed pooled to register, then other people verify the pool" policy - when I open a money pool for someone else, so I choose to walk away with those cards in my possession and drop rather than get a shittier valued pool, which leaves you with feelbads for not getting the sick value pool. Now we always open our own pools first so you can only be jealous and/or feel bad about the garbage you opened.

This is absolutely spot on. Ignoring how this works is a very quick way to lose your WPN status and, in the case of trying to get some kid done for theft, a quick way to piss off the police.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2017 12:18

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

GoutPatrol posted:

To be a downer, there are some holes in MM3. Very little so far has been spoiled for major decks like Affinity, Burn, Merfolk, or Tron, and the price of those decks could get stupid(er) because of this.

small edit: I'm also surprised Bobs haven't gone up since almost everything else for Jund got reprinted.

There's a lot of options at 2 mana and you don't always put Bob in it depending on the meta

# ¿ Mar 3, 2017 16:46

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Madmarker posted:

I'm confused, is there some weird banning I'm unaware of?

No, it looks like Crystal Commerce has gone down, which powers a whole heap of MTG stores. As a result, supply has collapsed.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2017 16:18

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Sickening posted:

Fun fact, you can actually send cards to WOTC to have them checked out.

No, wotc has talked about fakes very little for obvious reasons.

We did this when we found fakes in our community (combined with an investigation into the person they were found on)

# ¿ Mar 8, 2017 17:32

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Sickening posted:

"Where did you get these fakes son?"

"I traded for them. I guess got ripped off."

Investigation foiled again!

It really didn't take very long to find out where someone who suddenly appeared with all the modern money cards but can't afford a bus fare to FNM got them, especially when they're an idiot and bragged to all their mates.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2017 17:37

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

The Shortest Path posted:

What exactly are you """investigating""" about a dude playing Magic the Gathering?

Unless he was trying to pass them off as real to sell them, in which case gently caress that guy.

Yeah, he was passing them off as real in trades and to dealers.

Sickening posted:

He is a judge and he feels he needs to defend WOTC's ip because

gently caress yourself, I don't give a toss about WOTC's IP, but I do give a poo poo about dickheads trying to run scams in the community

# ¿ Mar 9, 2017 10:32

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

suicidesteve posted:

Whatever you say, The Man! Whatever you say.

Yeah, I don't really get folks who have an axe to grind with judges :shrug:

# ¿ Mar 9, 2017 11:53

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Sickening posted:

If someone is attempting to pass off fakes in trades and deals with dealers you notify the police and let them do the investigation ya know, since it's fraud.

This may come as a surprise, but the police don't care very much about fake cards for a children's card game

# ¿ Mar 9, 2017 15:10

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

GPchat: I hope we don't see repeats of what happened at GP London, where CFB refused to engage with the UK's Regional Coordinator at all and a whole bunch of judges told them to do one.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2017 18:02

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

mehall posted:

Wasn't London SCG or am I thinking of the wrong year?

DoctorOozy posted:

I though London was SCG I remember because of the awesome listing website that ment I didn't have to scrum down with unwashed nerds every round.

Wasn't the last uk CFB the last Liverpool sealed? The last Manchester one was those mindgames dudes I think.

London 2015 was SCG and it was great. London 2016 was CFB and it wasn't.

Liverpool under CFB was also great, but was a joint venture with Cascade and it's become readily apparent that Cascade were most of the good at that one.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2017 10:08

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

DangerDongs posted:

We looked at GP Utrecht and then completely ignored our two other Grand Prix with the worst top 8s. We also confirmed that players like to be forced out of decks that have game strategies that don't revolve around keeping mana open for the fear of losing to any board state on turn 4 or running decks that lack red or black.

They happened literally 2 days ago, there's no way they were ever going to factor them into this B&R.

Guardian will go next B&R unless there's a big meta shift post-Amonkhet

# ¿ Mar 13, 2017 16:02

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

The only good Standard formats in recent memory were around Khans/Fate (DTK hosed stuff up some and Origins/BFZ were death) and INN-RTR.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2017 00:07

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

It's the relative complexity and depth, but that's a fairly boring answer

# ¿ Mar 17, 2017 16:42

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

Hell, there are plenty of casual folks wanting to get into modern. I hope this set helps them!

# ¿ Mar 17, 2017 17:40

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 03:56

mfcrocker: Jan 31, 2004; Hot Rope Guy

I absolutely agree it was a judge deck. This rule change is a good idea and horrifically boring. It wasn't even particularly busted, but oh well.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2017 00:37

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