To the Magic judge community, especially the members of Judge Academy, Wizards of the Coast will not be renewing its sponsorship agreement with Judge Academy. This means that we will no longer be under contract with Wizards to provide services to the Magic Judge Program after October 13. I do not have specific information about […]
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Academy Blog: Ghosts and the Modern Era of EOR
Hey, remember that “Logistics Champion” title? Let’s talk about event logistics then! I’ve recently worked on several larger competitive events, and I’ve noticed that there are two areas that have the potential for evolution. End-of-Round and Deck Checks. I want to start by saying that these are both ideas that I haven’t had the opportunity […]
Judge Academy Merchandise Kit Information – Edgar Markov
Hello Magic Judges! Information about the much-anticipated Edgar Markov merchandise kit is now finally available for public release! Let’s get into it. What Comes In The Kit? Merchandise 1x Ammonite Anti-Theft Backpack (Red/Black 2020-Exclusive) 4x Exclusive Transparent PVC Vampire Tokens (Steve Argyle Original Art) 1x Edgar Markov Card Binder (4-Card Pages) 1x Edgar Markov Playmat […]
Academy Blog: What Dark Souls Taught Me About Judging
This is gonna be one of the goofier ones (Samma apologizes for letting me have free rein*). A friend of mine recently (okay, like, a year and a half ago) has started to “encourage” (peer pressure) me into playing Dark Souls (and Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne and Sekiro and Demon Souls and Elden Ring). […]
News and Updates: Spring 2023
Hello Judges! What an amazing start to the year. Membership renewals held steady while even more new judges continue to be brought into the fold. Our ever-growing judge community is something really very special. As the weather slowly gets warmer and we start to see more events sprout up, we are reminded of how incredible […]
I Promise This Isn’t About Warcraft
Here I go, finding ways to write about my hyperfixations again… …do you like World of Warcraft and/or longform video essays about niche topics? Earlier this year documentarian Dan Olson published a video essay titled Why It’s Rude to Suck at Warcraft. It is a deep dive talking about various social constructs in the context […]
Academy Blog: Judge Jargon
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 […]
Academy Blog: Reliable
So, not too long ago, at least on the scale with which I have articles published, I wrote about the concept of adequacy and being evaluated as such. Beyond adequate, we have a whole slew of terms to describe judges who perform well: rock stars, exceptional, fantastic, and more. But there are two terms that […]
Academy Blog: What I Learned About Magic: The Gathering While Watching Monster Trucks Do Sick Flips
It is Saturday night. You and your friends have taken your seats at your local stadium. The brisk winter wind chills your hands as they hold your comically large can of overpriced beer. You are surrounded by the smell of curly fries and methane. The air is filled with a cacophony of combustion engines and […]
Academy Blog: Ambiguous Card Names
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 […]