JudgeCast

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...

Thwip! Is your Peter-tingle tingling? Join Bryan and Marcos as we web-sling across the JudgeCast-verse and bring back former host CJ Shrader for a stroll down his least favorite of all episode types, the Release Notes episode. We spend nearly 90 minutes talking about mechanics and interactions to get you ready for prerelease weekend, while we weave a web of non-sequiturs and references to 10 year...

Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we talk entries in the comprehensive rules, and not just any rule entries. These rule entries support a single unique Magic Card, and there are more of them than you might think. Sure, you might realize that Shahrazad requires unique rules, but did you realize that Zack Fair also does? Did you even know there was a card named Zack Fair? Although I can't say we fu...

Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we talk about Commander. But guys, we already know about Commander, there are a billion podcasts and YouTube series focusing on Commander. What do you provide that's new? Well, while we do discuss the rules, its not the focus of the episode. Instead we talk about how to foster Commander at your store, things to consider if you want to run a commander event, and e...

Judges, I'm not a Renton serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd post a job application if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago. Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we go over something so small from the outside that caught the Magic Judge Community by surprise: A Hasbro job posting for a Magic Judge Program Manager. We speculate on m...

Join Bryan, Charles, Marcos and possibly Zorak and Moltar as we discuss the newest MTG set, Edge of Eternities. We discuss the new station mechanic, as well as warp, void, landers, and so many other terms you might think we were talking about a Protoss rush. We go over specific cards and interactions you might run into at your prerelease.

Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we celebrate our 350th episode by doing...literally nothing special. We discuss one of the least understood and least celebratory aspects of Magic; Loops. We talk about how to recognize a loop and what to do when you have dueling loops. Then we circle back and talk about the loop boogie-men, the Four Horsemen, and why its not really a loop, and how anything that...

The Ghost train is pulling out of the station. Join Bryan, Charles, Marcos (and Biggs and Wedge in spirit) as they give you the Pheonix Down low on the newest magitek in the latest MTG set, Final Fantasy. We summon up the changes to the saga rules and the new Tiered mechanic. We cover enough individual cards to chocobo a horse, threading the gold needle between complex cards, and interactions you...