Academy Blog: Optimizing Team Introductions
Games Are Bad Okay, let me put that into some context: Many games or cute icebreakers during team meeting introductions or as part of a team-building activity frequently fail to achieve their objectives. Sometimes they can even be counterproductive to your larger goals. (Note: This isn’t a blanket statement – there are plenty of times […]
Academy Blog: Let’s Check Some Decks
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 […]
September 2022 Judge Academy News and Updates
Happy September everyone! The revamped conference sponsorship application and information page are now live. We appreciate everyone’s questions and feedback regarding the new conference processes, and we will keep making improvements as we go. While we’re on the topic of conferences, the 2022 End of Year Celebration conference sponsorship application is now up on the […]
Community Corner: End of Year Celebration Conferences
For the first few years of my judging career, one of my favorite events was the USA-North end of year celebration/conference. Judges would gather in different areas throughout the region with each of those ‘hubs’ connecting to each other through online video chat. The events were a great way to mark the end of the […]
The Rulebook: It Depends
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 […]
Strategy Schmategy – The Basics of Triaging
Let’s start with a story. You’re the head judge (and the only judge) at an RCQ at your local store. It’s not massive: you started with twenty-nine players, and a few have dropped. It’s the final round, and you haven’t deck-checked either of the players at table two, so you’re headed that way when the […]
Our Shiny New Conference System! (Summer 2022 Update)
Here at Judge Academy we have recently launched a new and improved conference sponsorship application and organization system, along with some important updates to how we handle conferences applications internally. Let’s walk through what has changed together. Since taking over the conference system at the start of the year, I have been continually amazed and […]
Policy Wonks: It’s Never CPV (Except When It Is)
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 […]
August 2022 Judge Academy News and Updates
Hey, all! August News and Updates are below! July sure flew by! The Judge Academy team has been working hard on updating out-of-date educational content as well as reorganizing the conference application system for faster turnaround time on approvals and sponsorship package mailing. More on that in a bit! Samma will be traveling this week, […]
Policy Clarification: Cryptic Spires
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 […]