Event Report: Magic: The Gathering at Origins Game Fair by Pastimes.

Event Report: Magic: The Gathering at Origins Game Fair by Pastimes.

    My two days floor judging this event was really a lot of fun. Having been to Orgins before with Star City Games, this is a remarkably different experience with several small events firing instead of one or two large events. That being said Pastimes provided an awesome array of scheduled side events that I would have been excited to play in – and was equally excited to judge. The event has a lot of growth potential, and I'm looking forward to going back to origins in some capacity in the future.

    I return to my local scene invigorated and excited about magic. Something both remarkable and important with the recent format fatigue setting into the standard environment. I legitimately want to run some of the events I saw (and saw on the schedule) in my own local gaming store. Things like..
    Sealed Draft – Open 3 packs, draft 3 packs: End up with a busted draft deck.
    Draft-a-thon – Draft, play 3 rounds; Draft, Play 3 rounds; Cut to top 8 and Draft a third time, playing 3 rounds.
    Chaos drafts – A draft containing irregular and often unpredictable product.
    Chase-the-Planes – A limited event where a global effect, AKA: Chaos magic, applies to each round of the event.
    It also occurs to me that the recent Archenemy boxed set would make a great 4-player event using either the provided decks as a preconstructed experience, or in a form of limited. We may have to chalk this one up to a missed opportunity since it just released.

    Most of the two days I was there was standard judge fare. Pushing in chairs, picking up trash, straightening table-rows and fixing tablecloths is actually a important part of maintaining a smooth event transition. There were up to three events running simultaneously at any given time – Sealed deck, draft, modern, commander. General floor coverage and knowing that event A was competitive REL but all the others were regular REL was important. As one of the few Lv2 judges present I was also 'on tap' for other judges to clarify rulings or appeals if necessary.

    As most of these events go, I took notes on interesting rules questions. Some of these I saw personally, others were brought to my attention by other members of the judge staff. For the sake of discussion, assume all the scenarios occurred at Regular REL.

Rebound
    A untaps, goes to cast a Prey's Vengeance (G; Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn; Rebound) from exile, animates an Inkmoth Nexus, and points the spell at it. In this case the Staff were questioning if the Rebound spell could be cast since the intended target, Inkmoth Nexus, was not a creature at the start of the upkeep.
    Rebound is a complex ability. The first time the spell is cast it creates a replacement effect that sends it to the exile zone. It also creates a delayed triggered ability that resolves during that player's next upkeep. So there is a triggered ability on the stack that A can respond to, animating the Inkmoth Nexus in time for it to be targeted by the spell.
    I also pointed out to the staff the possibility that we could be looking at Out of Order sequencing (MTR 4.3). Which allows “for players to engage in a block of actions that, while technically in an incorrect order, arrive at a legal and clearly understood game state once they are complete.” The staff decided that this play was effectively Out of Order Sequencing after reviewing that policy, so A did get their pump spell as they intended.

Dark Depths Trigger   
    A untaps, draws, and plays Thespian's Stage “T: add C; 2, T: Thespian's Stage becomes a copy of target land and gains this ability.” They then activate the Thespian's stage's ability targeting their own Dark Depths. The ability resolves, and they put into the graveyard the original Dark Depths due to the legend rule. Then the Thespian's Stage copy of Dark Depths triggers “When Dark Depths has no ice counters on it, sacrifice it. If you do, create a legendary 20/20 black Avatar creature token with flying and indestructible named Marit Lage.” It is at this point that N responds with stifle targeting this trigger. A agrees, but then indicates that the Trigger should resolve a second time – Which N does not believe is so.
    The Dark Depths Trigger is a state trigger. State triggers are unique in that if the game state that causes them remains true, they will trigger again if removed from the stack (CR 603.8). So A is correct, their Dark Depths trigger will fire again, and presuming no responses from N – they will get their Marit Lage Token.
    As a quick strategic aside, N could have played Stifle targeting the activated ability of Thespian's Stage, which would probably bought them at least a turn.

Humble
    A casts Humble Targeting their opponent's Twisted Abomination (5B; 5/3; B: Regenerate). Humble reads “Until end of turn, target creature loses all abilities and has base power and toughness 0/1.” These players are in the middle of combat, and the Twisted Abomination is blocking a creature with at least 3 power. N calls you over and wants to know if they pay B to activate Regeneration, what will happen in the Combat Damage Step?
    First thing's first. It is certainly legal to activate the Regeneration ability at this time, since Humble is still on the stack and the Twisted Abomination does not lose it's abilities until that spell resolves. Secondly, the resolution of that ability creates a replacement effect, namely the regeneration 'shield'. IE: The next time this creature would be destroyed instead tap it, remove it from combat, and remove all damage marked on it. Humble does not interact with this replacement effect. The end result being that Twisted Abomination will be a 0/1, but will regenerate if dealt lethal damage in combat.

Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and Madness
    N activates Jace's ability at the end of A's turn. “T: Draw a card, then discard a card. If there are five or more cards in your graveyard, exile Jace, then return him to the battlefield transformed under his owner's control.” they discard an Alchemist's Greeting (Sorcery; 4R; 4 Damage to target creature; Madness 1R). They intend to pay madness to cast this spell and want to know if Jace will transform?
    This interaction was explicitly covered when we got new madness cards in standard back in Shadows over Innistrad. However it all goes down based on the exact way Madness works (CR 702.34). When such a card is discarded, it goes to the exile zone instead of the graveyard, and waits for the madness trigger to resolve before it goes to the graveyard (not cast), or stack (cast). The point is that it's definitely not there during the resolution of Jace's Activated ability, so there is no transformation.

Multiple Attackers AND multiple blockers
    A attacks with two vanilla 2/2s and N has a vanilla 2/2 and a Truehart Duelist (1W; 2/2; May block an additional creature each combat; Embalm 2W). Needless to say there was some confusion for both the players and some staff on exactly how this combat could play out given that Multiple blockers can be assigned to a single attacker, and Truehart Duelist can be assigned to both attackers.
    This all boils down to damage assignment order. As part of the turn based action of declaring blockers, the attacking player has to put all the blockers in front of their creatures into an order. IE: This first, that second, etc. The defending player does the same for each of their blockers that are blocking multiple attackers.
    The thing is this damage assignment order does not determine the sequence of damage, since all combat damage is simultaneous. It does however determine which creatures might die since you have to assign lethal damage to creature #1 first. It's also important to note that while the combat damage order is determined when blockers are declared, the actual assignment of damage does not occur until the combat damage step. This allows damage prevention effects, or more likely pump spells to create interesting results.
    See CR 509.2; 509.3; 510.1c; 510.1d;
   
Draft Issues
    In pack 2 of a draft a player calls judge during the draft portion. The draft is suspended. P3 informs the judge that there is an unaccounted for card on the table between himself and the player proceeding them in the draft. They are unsure if it should be in their pick pile, with the pack they just selected from, or possibly with the pack that is being passed to them now. How do we proceed?
    I felt this was probably the most important situation that arose during the day. The solution I saw implemented by the Head Judge of that event was quick and effective. They had the player that called them re-count the cards in their draft pile, as well as the two packs adjacent to them. Quite simply the pack they were about to pass had N cards in it, the pack they were about to receive also had N cards in it, but their pile of picks was 1 card short. So the extra card was added to that player's draft picks.
    The reason I believe that this is important is because drafts happen a lot in magic, every weekend even. But there's no official policy on how to fix a broken draft. How to fix a broken draft is actually fairly complex because the procedure and algorithm of how a draft plays out is itself complex. Also a large number of things can happen in a draft that would cause it to be broken.
    I would like to encourage the judge community to talk more publicly about how their drafts broke, and what was done to fix them. I myself and going to be on the lookout for broken drafts and fixes in the future. I don't expect an official policy to form, as I say it's probably too complex of an issue. However, it would be nice to have a written 'toolbox' of draft fixes so that we can better educate store staff and judges who often have to perform these fixes.

WPN events July,Aug

WPN July Events
    Magic: The Gathering
Commander: We have a regular tuesday night meet-up for fans of the commander format. Grab your favorite stack of 100, or 5 of them, and come check us out. Casual atmosphere, welcome new faces.
    Tuesdays: 4,11,18,25; 5-9pm

Open house: An open invitation to all magic players to come check out the store, learn about the standard format, and participate in a FREE standard constructed event.
    Saturday 1; 2-4= Demo and learn-to-play; 5pm FREE standard event.

Standard Showdown: $5 standard constructed event geared towards casual play. Promotional items available to participants.
    Sundays: 2,9,23; 12noon-5pm

Friday Night Magic: $7 Standard constructed. Promotional items available to some participants.
    Friday, 21; 5:30-9pm.

Friday Night Magic – Modern: $10 Modern Format. Promotional items available to all participants.
    Friday 7, 5:30-9pm.

Hour of Devestation Prerelease: Please note information below, as times have changed. Each event offers $30 sealed deck, with random door prizes.
    Saturday 8, 2pm reg; 3-8pm
    Saturday 8, 4pm reg; 5-9pm
    Sunday 9, 11:30am reg; 12:15-5pm; 2-headed giant.

WPN August Events
    Magic: The Gathering
Commander: We have a regular tuesday night meet-up for fans of the commander format. Grab your favorite stack of 100, or 5 of them, and come check us out. Casual atmosphere, welcome new faces.
    Tuesdays: 1,8,15,22,29; 5-9pm

Standard Showdown: $5 standard constructed event geared towards casual play. Promotional items available to participants.
    Sundays: 13,20,27; 12:30-5pm

Friday Night Magic: Our weekly tournament series for Magic the Gathering. All events run Fridays 5:30-9pm
    4th: Standard $7 – Constructed using Battle for Zendikar to current set.
    11th: Chaos Draft $12 – Limited draft using VERY special packs.
    18th: Draft $16 – Most recent draft format. Amonkhet/Hour of Devistation.
    25th: Modern $10 – A constructed format for more experienced and longer term magic players. Goes back to 8th edition core set/mirrodin.

Magic Game Day: $10 Standard constructed. All participants get promotional card. Top 8 get foil promo card, 1st place gets champion playmat.