Hello and welcome back to Academy Blog! Today I want to talk about judge jargon and how we can improve our relationship with it. “Jargon” means “special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand.” A lot of rules- and policy-related terms fall into […]

Welcome back to Academy Blog! Policy Champion Daniel Lee here, and today I’d like to dive into a situation that I faced back at the Hunter Burton Memorial Open last year. I was the Team Lead for Deck Checks. Decklists for this particular event had been mostly submitted online, a more and more common reality […]

Welcome to our first edition of Academy Blog for 2023! One of the more ubiquitous judge stereotypes is that judges love corner cases and unique card effects. Now, obviously, this can’t possibly be true for every judge out there. That said, it does make sense that the group of folks that have dedicated themselves to […]

Serra Paragon{2}{W}{W} Creature – Angel 3/4 Flying Once during each of your turns, you may play a land from your graveyard or cast a permanent spell with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard. If you do, it gains “When this permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, exile it and you […]

Hello and welcome to a brand new Policy-themed blog post! Possibly the most noticeable differences about Competitive REL tournaments are the requirements for decklist submission and deck checks. Today, we’re going to look at the range of activities that can satisfy these requirements and what we should be prioritizing when accomplishing these tasks. Let’s dive […]

Welcome to today’s edition of The Rulebook! We will be looking at one of the most widely misunderstood concepts that judges must learn on their way to Level 2: Dependencies! This is a pretty meaty topic so let’s just dive right into it. Continuous Effects Dependency is a concept that comes up in the interaction […]

Hello and welcome to our August edition of Policy Wonks! Today we’re going to explore one of the lesser-known infractions in the Infraction Procedure Guide, and look into the origin of the common joke surrounding it. Let’s talk about IPG section 3.7, Communication Policy Violation. What It Is First, to talk about CPV, we need […]

is a new card with a brand-new mechanic for tournament Magic. Found in every draft pack of Double Masters 2022 (set code 2X2), it is a nonbasic land with five mana symbols and the text, “As you create your deck, circle two of the colors below.” This is a mechanic reminiscent of the Legacy mechanic […]

Despite the IPG being very exact in its nature, sometimes some ambiguity in the language can lead to misinterpretations. In this case we’ll be taking a look at one of the more common presentations of Deck Problem at Competitive REL events. Here is the relevant text of the IPG: IPG 3.5: Upgrade: While presented to […]

Hello and welcome to our July edition of Policy Wonks! Today we’re going to take a closer look at a strange aspect of tournament policy that is often misunderstood and misapplied. Section 4.3 of the Magic Tournament Rules gives judges a tool to avoid overly penalizing players that participate in play that may not be […]