JudgeCast

This week, Studio X (the folks who make Magic: The Gathering) announced that they were forming a union with the Communications Workers of America. Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we welcome former GP Head Judge, previous JudgeCast guest, and current member of the Wizards Rules Team Eric Levine to talk about the new union, its goals, and what comes next. We discuss what unionizing means for the...

Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we try to figure out what's what in this tipsy turvy world that our Empowered Jace has created, as we cover all the new mechanics in this set. And...Heartwood Tokens. Also, we Prepared to revisit some returning mechanics, all of which are flashbacks from some of the greatest mechanics of all time. We also ponder Jace's choices in creating this alternate universe,...

Just sit right back, and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful...uh...section of the IPG. Join Bryan, Charles, Marcos, the Professor and Mary Ann as we tackle the parts of Unsporting Conduct not covered in the previous episode. Improperly Determining a Winner, Bribery and Wagering, Stalling, and Cheating are all serious infractions that often get exaggerated and confounded in online discourse ar...

The best part of Magic is The Gathering, the people. However, the people can often be the worst part as well. In tournaments, judges dont just deal with mistakes and miscommunication. We also deal with misbehaving, misanthropes, and miscreants. Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we take a meander through the jerky parts of Unsporting Conduct. We talk about USC-Minor, Major, Aggressive Behavior, an...

Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we trek through the misty mountains to retrieve the release notes for the latest MTG set, The Hobbit. We delve too deep into the newest mechanics of Storied, and Recruit, as well as a new type of counter, the Hone counter. Then we talk about new cards, and they keep coming, like uninvited dwarves to a party. We've got something for everyone, even if you are a Sac...

Whats better than playing Magic side by side with an elf? Playing Magic side by side with a friend. Yes, but what about second friend? Ok, enough of that, its not even the right IP. Join Bryan and Marcos as we talk to the Head Judge of Magic Spotlight Marvel Super Heroes Team Trios event, John Brian McCarthy. Sealed events can be a challenge, but Team Sealed events can be even challenginger. We ta...

Join Bryan and Charles as we discuss Limited RCQs with Sam Philliber. Your LGS has just asked you to run a limited RCQ and you haven't done one before. What should you expect? How do you do a "pool swap"? Do you need any special materials? What's involved in running the top 8? Should I time the draft? With all the tips and tricks in this episode, you will be ready to pull off your RCQ without any...

Join Charles and Marcos as they drag Bryan, kicking and screaming, into a discussion around one of the newer tournament types: CEDH. Love it or hate it, players are willing to pay TOs to be asked 'Did you pay the 1?" for seven hours. As a result, it's a topic that judges should be somewhat aware of before their LGS TO says "I'm having a CEDH tournament in two weeks, are you available?"In this epis...

Join the canny Bryan and the credible Marcos as we discuss the new mechanics and cards from the most recent Magic: The Gathering Set, Marvel Super Heroes. We talk about Power-Up, Teamwork, doubleface cards and what the correct plural of "Spider-man" is. And, we even briefly discuss what to do at your prerelease if you get an influx of players that have never played Magic before and are really just...

Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we take an incredibly deep dive into the concept of Missed Triggers. Triggers are common and often invisible. In this episode we discuss how to recognize when a trigger is missed, what an opponents obligations are when a trigger is missed, and what to do when you are called to a table for that missed trigger. We briefly touch on triggers at regular REL before spe...

Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we talk about the April Rules update. A good chunk of it was housekeeping and clarifications, but we got a subtle rules change to Sagas that can have a big impact on modern and commander. Additionally we found something subtle with paradigm, and finally got to look at the nuts and bolts of how prepare works. SOS Update Bulletin: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/...

Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we Prepare for the upcoming release of Secrets of Strixhaven by going over the release notes! Our witty Repartee will Converge into a new Paradigm... Incrementally of course as we stay mindful of the past by injecting our discussion with Infusions of the past, via Flashbacks and ... Books? Seriously though, we have a LOT of stuff to cover in this set, including a...

There are two things that are certain in the world; Death and Taxes. No. Not the deck. In this episode Bryan, Charles, and Marcos are joined by Former Judge and current Tax Attorney Patrick Evans. Here we talk about the extremely important topic of taxes as it pertains to judging. Whether you work FNM and the occasional RCQ, or are a weekend road warrior, or even visit the US for an event, Uncle S...

A shortcut is a way to get one or more things done quicker, and if you have ever tried to play a technically precise game of Magic, you will know there's a lot of things that can be done quicker. Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we go over the tournament shortcuts found in the Magic Tournament Rules. These shortcuts are the default behavior in many situations that may arise in a game of Magic, a...

Cowabunga Judges! It's another release notes episode, and Bryan, Charles, and Marcos are here to cover new cards, rules interactions, and perhaps sneak in a pop culture reference or two while they're at it. Keep an eye out for those Mutagen canisters though before they disappear. Um... Alliance. Okay, that should do it. Stay tuned to the end for a special news bulletin from Charles regarding tourn...

Join Bryan and Charles as we return to policy episodes and talk about Game Rule Violations (GRVs) from the Magic Infraction Procedure Guide.  Magic is a complex game, and there are many things that players can do to cause problems in the game.  As Tournament officials we need to know how to recognize and, if possible, fix the situation.  However, how can you fix a mistake that happened 3 turns ago...

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”As a player who is used to casual commander pods and the occasional Wednesday night draft, you might be curious about other events, and look to try something different. Maybe your store's RCQ, maybe traveling to a nearby SCG CON. Eithe...

Just like the plane of Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, our release notes episode is also divided in 2, as Bryan couldn't join us for this episode. Having said that, Charles and Marcos run through Lorwyn, attempting to evoke some emotions (and seriously force some segue puns) for one of our favorite Magic planes! Join us as we travel the vivid landscape, avoiding the blight on the paths, and behold our kindred...

In this episode Bryan, Charles, and Marcos do NOT tackle complex rules interactions, or deep dive into tournament operations. Instead we each choose one or two smaller topics, ones not worth a full show, and instead talk about those. Will it be coherent? Probably not. Will it be entertaining? Definitely not! Will it be over an hour? Absolutely.

In this episode Bryan, Charles, and Marcos are joined by Brandon Welch, the Head Judge of the recent Regional Championship in Vegas to talk about a topic many HJs care a lot about: "End of Round". This episode goes deep into the tournament logistics of reducing people's least favorite part of the tournament: Waiting for the next round to begin. Turns out a lot more goes into making sure the next r...

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we talk about attending your first big event. Maybe its a MagicCon, or an SCGCon, or a Regional Championship, or maybe, your first large event isn't even Magic related. Judges new to these events hav...

Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we discuss cards and mechanics from the latest MTG Set, Avatar the Last Airbender. We go over important topics like how 'How does Earthbend work', 'Is Firebending a mana ability', 'How Waterbending works with additional costs' and 'Is a platypus bear more or less weird than a badgermole?'.Hopefully you are as excited for this set as we are.

The interaction of Continuous effects, commonly known as the Layers, were first immortalized in the forth century when the monk Evagrius Ponticus increased forms of continuous effects from 6 to 7. Since then they have been part of our shared zeitgeist. We sing about Seven Layers a 'laying at Christmas. We go on rides at Disney based on Snow White and the Seven Layers. The White Stipes write songs...

In our JudgeFoundry L1 Essentials videos we go over items that candidates need to know for their L1 exams. However, at the beginning of each episode we say that we go into topics deeper on our podcast. In this episode of JudgeCast, join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we take a topic we just covered in our L1 Essentials video and go over the rules in more detail, and cover rules that were left out o...

The L1 certification process is relatively straightforward. Mix up some rules, sift in a light dusting of policy, bake for a couple of prereleases weekend at 70% of 25 questions on an exam, and BAM you're now an L1. But as a new L1, you might be wondering, now what? Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we discuss a list of things new L1s often ask after they pass their exam, or should ask, but don't...