A Series Of Fortunate Events

It turns out dreams actually can come true.

(Author's Note:    This post was written several days ago, during my flight home from GP Las Vegas.)

I was sitting in my window seat a few minutes ago, during my flight home from Grand Prix Las Vegas when I felt a tear start to well up in my eyes.   Not the most common variety of tears though, which are caused by sadness or sudden pain.   No, this tear was caused by a moment of extreme gratefulness, and pure elation.    In one perfect moment I was just overwhelmed by so many amazing factors in my life converging at once.   Let me explain...



Chapter 1: The Early Years

I grew up as the second child in a single family income.  As I was an 'unexpected surprise' that came along years after my parents had stopped thinking about having more children, there were certain realities we had to deal with.   Like most families, money was always a factor in the background of our lives.   I was lucky to be in a family where we were always well fed and dressed nicely, and I remember enjoying some lavish Christmas mornings with piles of new toys waiting under the tree.   

The trade off for all of the wonderful little perks growing up would have been that my Dad had to work insanely long hours in his job.  As an adult now, I clearly can appreciate the incredible sacrifices that he made for all of us in our youth, although I think I will always go through my life envious of the closer relationship that my brother enjoys with Dad.   

A somewhat unknown fact about me would be that as a child I had extremely poor health for years.   My Mom had to do a lot of extra work all the time, ensuring that I received the required medication cocktails of various pills each day to maintain my fragile condition.   At one point in my childhood I was allergic to almost every food imaginable; from nuts to chocolate, tomatoes to oranges.   Even bread and milk were out of my diet at one point.

Between my poor health, my Dad having to work 60 hour weeks, and Mom watching my medications like a hawk, there was never any opportunities for us to take any vacations as a child.   I have always dreamt of travelling and until recently (relatively speaking), it had always been an impossibility.  I wanted to visit all of the fun places I had seen in movies, to see them with my own eyes.  

This was especially frustrating as I am now a Father myself, and like all parents I want to be able to give my child everything that I couldn't have as a kid.


And then I became a Magic Judge.



Chapter 2:   A Magical Revelation

Magic gave me a great way to bridge the gap that often forms between parents and their children, as they become teenagers.   Suddenly we had something new in common, a game that we both loved and could get excited about.   And on top of that, we also had a whole new group of mutual friends in the gaming community.

Although my Son couldn't come along for this trip to Las Vegas (it's just not a fun place to visit as a minor), it has only been three weeks since we both travelled by train to Montreal for an incredible 5 days of Magic and sight seeing, where we made some memories together as Father and Son that will last us both for a lifetime.

Magic Judging has literally given me the World.   In the past 18 months since I have reached Level 2 I have travelled all over North America.    I have been to Providence, Rhode Island on the eastern seaboard.   I flew to both Orlando, Florida and San Antonio, Texas in the south this past March.    And as I am writing this right now, I am enjoying my return flight from Las Vegas, Nevada.   And those aren't even half of the new cities I have been able to finally visit, thanks to the gift of Magic.   In fact, this flight right now is the tenth one I have been on since October.   That still just blows my mind sometimes.



Chapter 3: The Perfect Song

I was in high school when I Mother Earth reached the peak of it's popularity.   They had become my favorite band during my high school years, and I was devastated when they announced they were breaking up after the end of their tour, back in '97 or '98.  I was still 18, and their last show was going to be ages 19+ at Georgian College, not far from where I lived.   To miss seeing them in person was one of my biggest disappointments.

Until last year.    Fate would bring them together again, and their final show of their tour with Our Lady Peace would be at Casino Rama, where I could finally see them perform 'Another Sunday' in person.   It was close to a spiritual experience for me, seeing a childhood dream of mine become reality after nearly twenty years of waiting.



Chapter 4: The Perfect Moment

I was sitting here, just an hour ago from my perspective, looking out my window as the desert sands of Nevada stretched put into the distance below me.   Memories of Las Vegas and the friends whom I saw there were filling my head when I decided to listen to some music on my phone.  I hit play without looking at the playlist, and the very first notes I heard were the unmistakable beginnings of I Mother Earth playing 'Another Sunday'.    Two dreams of mine coming true collided in perfect synchronicity.   

The sick little 8 year old boy, the one with all the terrible food allergies hiding inside of me called out and asked me to raise a glass of orange juice to to celebrate that perfect moment, and so that is exactly what I did.  And that was when felt a tear coming on, just for a moment as I took it all in and wondered how my life had finally become so wonderful.


Chapter 5:  A Brave New World, and a brand new life.

This is the part of this Blog where I am going to talk about another dream of mine that is coming true.   I'll warn you; unless you are in my closest circle of friends, this next part is probably going to come as a shock for some of you.

My incredible girlfriend - whom I absolutely adore, and I have decided that it's time to take control of our own destinies.

The short, yet exciting version of the story is; we bought a store.   More specifically, we bought a commercial building, and we are opening up our very own gaming store / board game cafe in Penetanguishene.   Imagine a place to come with your whole family, and try all sorts of fun new games that everyone can enjoy together.    Or come by yourself and just meet people with similar interests.  

I have talked a lot previously about what the Magic community has given me, in both experiences and in new friends.   I have said many times that when I return home to Midland after a day filled with fun and excitement at a gaming event in Toronto it always felt kind of like I was coming home to Exile.

Which is why I am so pleased and excited to announce our new gaming store, opening this July in beautiful Penetanguishene;  North of Exile Games.  

We are excited to begin building a new and welcoming gaming community here for the Midland and Penetanguishene area.  Our goal is to provide a constantly fun and safe place for everyone to enjoy their favorite games with others.  

Let's make some new dreams come true together.


-JVM

Trains, Near Escapes and Grand Prix Montreal 2017

Hello friends, and welcome back to Exile!  

My recent travels once again took me back to the city I love, and even allowed me to lay my hands on the sacred ground of my heroes!  Come along with me, and we can take a look back together at the fun and diversions to be found at Grand Prix Montreal 2017!

Getting There Is Half The Fun


Grand Prix Montreal is always one of my absolute favorite Magic events of the year, with 2017 becoming my third year in a row of making the pilgrimage for Magic and sight seeing.

Due to necessity, in previous years I had always been the one who ended up driving our travelling group from Exile to Montreal (it's around a 7 hour drive from my area to the city of Poutine and Hockey).  This year we decided to mix things up and took the Go-Train from Barrie to Toronto, and then climbed aboard a VIA Rail train from Toronto to our destination in Montreal.  

It was so much nicer being a passenger and being able to relax and enjoy the commute, and I would absolutely recommend taking a train somewhere to anyone considering it.  Anyone who has flown recently will recognize some familiar conveniences immediately, including AC outlets at your seat to keep your electronics charged, as well as an attendant who occasionally will come along with a cart full of drinks, snacks and light meals for purchase.  The WI-FI was free, and good enough to check your e-mail and Facebook messages during the journey.  The reliability of the connection was pretty spotty at times though, so I wouldn't recommend depending on it to do anything taxing like streaming movies or playing online games.


Having Fun in Montreal

If English is your only language and you've never been to Montreal before, you may be wondering just how welcome you might be made to feel once you get there.  Having been to Montreal multiple times now, I feel like I can safely say that it's probably not nearly as uncomfortable as you might imagine.  

Yes, the signage and menus being only in French may take a little bit to get accustomed to, but the movie theatre we went to had only english language movies playing (there were no badly lip synced, french speaking Guardians of the Galaxy to be found anywhere), and while all the fast food menus in places such as McDonald's and Mucho Burrito may be written in French, the employees taking your order seem more than willing to speak with you in English.  In fact, the customary greeting almost everywhere we went to was "Bonjour, hi!"

Wednesday night in Montreal was movie night, and Thursday would give us an exciting 24 hours in Montreal to freely explore the city and have fun without any Grand Prix sized distractions.  During the day we took advantage of Montreal's Metro (subway) system to explore locations of interest without walking ourselves into exhaustion.  We couldn't go to Montreal this year without taking the opportunity to visit what is likely one of Canada's most well known gaming stores, Face To Face Games Montreal (aka Jeux Face a Face).  In what was certainly a very unexpected revelation to me, as we were preparing to leave the iconic retail location we noticed a surprising neighbour directly across the street from Face To Face: the store behind organizing GP Montreal itself; Game Keeper!    

Face To Face Games, Montreal

A somewhat surprising neighbour, Game Keeper is 

located across the street from Face To Face Games

Once our desire to visit local gaming stores was satiated, it was time to move on to the main attraction of the day, an escape room at A/Maze: Montreal Escape Game.


The Great Escape (Thursday)

In order to not ruin the experience for anyone else who may follow us, I will not be discussing the puzzles we faced or any specifics of the escape room we entered at A/Maze.  

What I will say, is that we chose to test our luck in their 'Military Facility' scenario, and I was very pleased with the high quality experience they provided us.  Laser beams and virtual reality helmets were only a couple of the many things that would await us inside, and it was clear that A/Maze had put a great expense into ensuring a memorable experience.

   A/Maze Escape Rooms:  5 stars, would recommend to others.


The Great Escape (Friday)

After a pleasant day of playing side events on Friday, we were off to try to re-capture the excitement of the previous evening by once again challenging ourselves with an escape room adventure.  This time we would turn to the experts at Escape Masters Montreal.

Our chosen adventure was their 'Spy Room' scenario, in which you need to find a way to stop a giant time bomb from blowing everyone up while also solving a mystery.

Unfortunately, our experience in this escape room was not satisfactory, and we all left after a little more than 60 minutes feeling like we had been cheated out of our victory.  

Without going into specifics, one of the 'rules' for this particular scenario was that once you have used an item to solve a puzzle, you leave it behind and it won't be needed again.  At one point in our adventure we discovered a hidden lock somewhere and used a key we had found elsewhere to unlock and open the lock.  What we would not be told until after time had run out is that this lock we had discovered is actually broken, and apparently you could pull open the lock box it was attached to with any item.  The fact that the key we had did indeed fit into this 'broken' lock and turn it, would eventually cost us the game, as we had then discarded the key, thinking it was already used.

It's a real shame, as we had solved literally every other puzzle in the room with around 8 minutes to spare, and once we were told that the key was still in play we solved the final puzzle in less than a minute.  So close to victory...

Escape Masters Montreal:  3 stars (out of 5). Would not recommend the 'Spy Room'. 

Draft Till You Drop (Saturday)

While we were walking to our Friday night escape room adventure, I had the misfortune to step off on a broken piece of concrete and roll my left ankle.  Although it didn't hurt very much during the escape room immediately after it happened, I awoke on Saturday morning in a lot of discomfort and was immediately aware that my performance in judging that day would absolutely be affected.  In a lucky turn of events (for me, at least...) I had heard that the main event was slightly over staffed for Saturday, and so I quickly took a buy-out offer of free Magic Drafts all day instead of working.

Another judge whom I had traveled with, Bradley Sinopoli had also taken the buy out for Saturday and so we were on a mission to do as many Amonkhet drafts as possible during the day.   Thanks in large part to my complete lack of skills in drafting, I was able to consistently be eliminated from each draft after only playing one round of Magic, and so I was able to cram a full TEN drafts of Magic into my Saturday at GP Montreal.  

Bradley however, is a jerk who tends to win far more matches of Magic than I, so while he played in fewer events than I, he ended up winning more prize tickets as well.   Jerk.

A 'token' of my appreciation, for your

Level 1 judge and my pal, Bradley.

"And now, your Main Event of the Weekend..." (Sunday)

Sunday was a truly exciting day for me, as I got to do some new things for the first time, which doesn't happen very often once you've worked in a few Grand Prix events as I have.

Being assigned to work Day 2 of a Grand Prix is a bit of a compliment for a judge, as there is a lot on the line for players, including significant amounts of money and the opportunity to gain a small degree of fame in the community.  Day 2 of Grand Prix events are held at Professional REL, which means that this is as serious as any magic tournament can be.  Pro Tours and the World Magic Cup are the only other events that I can think of that also compete at Professional REL.  

Early in the morning our team leader sat down with us and handed out tasks we would need to accomplish throughout the day.  One such task was one that I had always secretly wanted to do in the back of my mind, and so I immediately volunteered for it.  On Day 2 of Grand Prix Montreal, I got to run the official time clock for the main event.

GP Montreal Round clock selfie!

One of the other tasks that was handed out to our team was that we would each be taking turns handling the judge duties for the feature match / coverage area of the event.  After our team meeting had ended, I had told my teammates that I would happily pass on being responsible for watching the coverage matches, as I had never done it before and in my mind I had built it up to be a very intimidating task.  

During any given round of a Grand Prix, there is usually 3 to 4 matches being played in a cordoned off area of the venue, where each match being played is being recorded live and broadcast out to viewers all over the world thanks to modern video streaming capabilities.  These feature matches are usually comprised with some of the game's most popular and recognizable players, and while people at home are watching these matches, there will be one or more judges assigned to stand over these games and observe.  If there is a judge call during a game on stream, we naturally would want someone to be right there to assist immediately.

Interestingly enough, fate would not allow me to skip this important task for the entire day, as just prior to the beginning of the 15th and final round of swiss my Team Lead came up to me and said that he wanted me to be the coverage judge for the final round.

I'll be honest here, mostly for the benefit of any other judges who might happen to read this blog; I was nervous as I walked past the crowd barrier into the coverage area.  I had butterflies in my stomach again, for the first time in a long time.  It's still easy to feel nervous when taking on a new task for the first time, but I was also confident that all of my previous experience would be more than enough to handle anything that might come up.   

As I had expected, those butterflies subsided fairly quickly once the round officially began, and my years of experience as a floor judge had me actually feeling quite comfortable and enjoying myself by the time the feature matches began shuffling up for their respective game 2's.  

Me, inside the Feature Match area, Round 15 @ GP Montreal 2017

My hand even made a quick cameo on the broadcast stream, when I took a moment to verify that a 'Glimmer of Genius' had been resolved correctly.

Maybe I should get a 'mani/pedi' before my next time judging on camera?

The glorious end of Grand Prix Montreal

You might be reading this right now and thinking to yourself that the life of a Magic Judge is so glamorous, with the prestige of being on camera and working near some of the World's best players and judges.  Don't be fooled.  Immediately after this round ended, my task of Main Event floor judging was complete and I was reassigned to 'event teardown'.  I literally went from schmoozing with the best players in town, to pulling table cloths off and folding them up neatly.  Judging is a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of hard work!  😉  

All in all, I spent 6 days and 5 nights in Montreal this year, with some of my very best friends and I was even able to bring my son along as well.   We had a lot of laughs, we had some thrilling escapes and some near misses as well.  Fast food was eaten, cards were drafted and many great memories were made.

Oh, and before we end this look back at Montreal, I have to send congratulations once again to Chris Lansdell on reaching Magic Judge Level 3 status, it's a big accomplishment which reflects an incredible amount of work.

That's all I have to share with you for this week friends, coming up next for me is Grand Prix Las Vegas in 2 weeks, followed Grand Prix Toronto in July.

Life is pretty amazing these days, and I assure you that things are only going to get even more awesome as we go along. 

Until next time, I'll be here if you need me - on this pathway through exile.

-JVM

The NEW Combat Short - Cut: Are We There Yet?

Hello everyone, and welcome back to exile!  

I must apologize for taking so much time away from my Blog recently, however real life has been keeping me very busy as of late.  My family and I have sold the house we are currently living in, and now we are in preparations to move slightly north of exile from our current home in Midland, On into the neighboring town of Penetanguishene, located on beautiful Georgian Bay.  

In addition to these distractions at home, I am actually currently sitting on a VIA Rail train, en route to Montreal where I will once again be floor judging at Grand Prix Montreal this weekend.

But despite my distractions due to these other obligations, I have nevertheless been itching to talk about several Magic related topics with you, my friends and followers.  On our journey through exile today we will be taking a look at the recent changes to one of our (formerly) most controversial tournament rules; the combat short-cut.

The Old Combat Short-cut: A Dead End

You may recall that in the month of February of this year I had written a lengthy blog post about how the combat short-cut works in real life Magic tournaments.  Due to the tournament rules once again evolving, that old blog post is no longer valid, although I have left it up for those who may still want to get a better understanding of the issues we used to labor under with the old short-cut in place.

Under the old short-cut rules, players often had a really difficult time getting to act with their priority in the Beginning of Combat Step (BoC).  The old short-cut had been designed to ensure that in almost every situation imaginable whenever the Active Player attempted to leave their first main phase, then the next time anyone would get priority would be when the Non-Active Player acted in the BoC step.  The reason that the old short-cut had worked just fine for years was thanks to a distinct lack of abilities or triggers that would happen in the BoC step.  As long as the R&D department at Wizards chose not to use the BoC step for actual game design elements, the old short-cut could continue to basically ignore that step's very existence and the player experience did not suffer. 

This began to become a serious problem for players as some recently printed cards in standard (ie. Weldfast Engineer) had triggers that would specifically occur in the BoC step, and our old short-cut had begun to cause issues with players missing triggers that they hadn't actually forgotten about.   Again, feel free to read my old blog post on this subject if you would like a clear explanation on how this process used to work, and the problems it created.

In recent sets more and more (and more, and more) cards began to have interactions occur during the BoC step which has made changing how the Combat Short-Cut works necessary.  And so now that we understand 'why' the short-cut had to change, let's take a moment to look at...

The *New and Improved* Combat Short-cut

When Toby Elliot posted the policy changes for Amonkhet HERE, he listed the goals for a new and improved Combat Short-cut would include the following:

1. It needs to be friendly to non-native English speakers. Having to parse the difference between “I pass priority in Combat” and “I pass priority into Combat” is not something we want in a global game.
2. It needs to prevent players taking advantage of ambiguity to be able to claim that they’re still in their main phase after the non-active player’s action has been resolved.
3. It needs to prevent the active player from forcing the non-active player to act first when they shouldn’t have to (relevant for Mutavault/Cryptic Command scenarios)
4. It needs to accommodate the non-active player having floating mana.
5. It needs to let the active player crew or activate creature-lands at the intuitive time.
6. It shouldn’t be too punitive on missing beginning of combat triggers unless the player really had gone past that point.
7. It needs to reflect that non-active players may want to remove the source of triggers before combat.
8. It needs to avoid “Combat”, “pass”, “declare attacks”, “wait, I want to do something first”
9. It should be short to express and intuitive to understand.

While the Rolling Stones will be happy to tell you "You Can't Always Get What You Want", the new combat short-cut was able to accomplish most of these goals and is certainly an improvement above the old one.  Without any further delays, let's take a look at the new Combat Short-cut!

From Toby's post: 

If the active player passes priority during their first main phase, the non-active player is assumed to be acting in beginning of combat unless they are affecting how or whether a beginning of combat ability triggers. However, if the non-active player takes no action, the active player has priority at the beginning of combat. Beginning of combat triggered abilities (even ones that target) may be announced after any non-active player action has resolved.

That's a lot to process all at once, so let's break this down into bite-sized bits, shall we?

If the active player passes priority during their first main phase, the non-active player is assumed to be acting in beginning of combat unless they are affecting how or whether a beginning of combat ability triggers.

Basically what we get from this part is that once the active player tries to leave their first main phase, if the Non-active player chooses to take any actions, it is assumed that they acting in the BoC step, unless they are trying to stop something that would happen automatically once they are in the BoC.  

The best example for this would be if AP has a Goblin Rabblemaster in play.  If AP says "move to combat" while he has a Goblin Rabblemaster in play, NAP may very well want to destroy the Rabblemaster during the AP's main phase, because once the game enters the BoC step then Rabblemaster's trigger is going to go onto the stack and AP is getting a free 1/1 goblin token.

***Note that if NAP chooses to destroy the Rabblemaster in AP's main phase (in order to prevent the token from being created in BoC), then we are still in the first main phase of AP's turn and AP will get another opportunity to do things at 'sorcery speed' in their main phase before attempting to move to combat again.  This is the trade-off of NAP not allowing the game to progress into the BoC step when AP tried to move there.  There is no way for NAP to prevent the token from being created without keeping the game in the 1st main phase.

If we take the Rabblemaster out of the situation (which is clearly a corner case situation - most cards don't have abilities that happen in BoC) and instead just give AP a 4/4 Angel token with flying, then we will have a different result.

When AP declares "move to combat?", if NAP responds with "in response, doom blade your Angel token" then this action is being taken by NAP in the BoC step, mainly because it is clearly in NAP's benefit to be choosing to act after we have left the active player's main phase.  

***Note that NAP acting in the BoC step is most likely still how things will go in 99% of games being played.  Most of the time, we won't have beginning of combat triggers happening that NAP would need to worry about preventing. 

So all of that seems fairly simple, right?  Most of the time NAP is acting in BoC unless there is a reason that they would want to act earlier.  Everything so far is pretty much unchanged from how the old short-cut used to work, so what's new here?

However, if the non-active player takes no action, the active player has priority at the beginning of combat. Beginning of combat triggered abilities (even ones that target) may be announced after any non-active player action has resolved.

The biggest change from the old short-cut is that the active player now gets a guaranteed priority in the BoC step, where they can put triggers on the stack and cast instant speed spells, with the unusual part being that in a fair amount of situations the AP will be putting those triggers and effects on the stack after something else has already resolved in the BoC step.

That's a lot to process, and it's also somewhat counter intuitive to what we as magic players are used to in tournament play, so allow me to explain a little more.

In our previous example where NAP decided to cast Doom Blade targeting the active player's Angel token, we have established now that NAP is casting Doom Blade during the BoC step, because that's what is in NAP's best interest.  Thanks to our new combat short-cut, AP gets a chance after the Doom Blade spell has resolved to put any BoC triggers on the stack, even though a spell (Doom Blade) has already resolved in Beginning of Combat. 

You're likely wondering "how are things going to play out in everyday games of Magic now?".   Let's take a quick look!

With no BoC effects/triggers:

AP: Move to combat?
NAP: Sure.
AP: Declare attackers?
NAP: Sounds good. 

This will be the most common scenario, and is pretty close to how most players naturally talk during games of Magic.

When AP has BoC triggers to announce:

AP: Move to Combat?
NAP: Sure.
AP: Weldfast Engineer trigger happens, targetting my 3/3 beast.
NAP:  Okay
AP: Declare attackers?
NAP: Sure.

Pretty simple, right?   

Let's add a removal spell into NAP's hand and see what the best line of play is:

AP: Move to Combat?
NAP: Sure.
AP: Weldfast Engineer trigger happens, targetting my 3/3 beast.
NAP:  In response, Doom Blade your 3/3 beast.
AP: Darn.  Declare attackers?
NAP: Sure.

Note that in situations where AP is going to be placing a trigger on the stack, it's often going to be strategically better for NAP to wait and see what targets AP chooses for their triggers before NAP uses their removal. 

The End Of The Line...

Hopefully this look at the new and improved combat short-cut will help players have a clearer understanding of the changes that the recent updates to policy have brought us.  Until next time, I'll be here for any Magic related questions you may have, walking along this pathway through Exile. 

-JVM

Southern Magic - Two Grand Prix in two weeks

Hello dear readers, and welcome back to my Path to Exile!  

Thank you to the awesome people behind the online 

judgelife comic strip for this excellent image.

It's taken me longer than I would have liked to write another blog post for all of you, but there is a good reason for my recent delays - I've been quite busy during the past couple weeks travelling across the continent to participate in Grand Prix events in both Orlando, Florida and San Antonio, Texas! 

This week I'll be offering you a look at what it was like travelling from the cold northern lands of Ontario, to sunny Florida to work as a floor judge at GP Orlando.  After that we will take a look at my trip to San Antonio, Texas, where I was joined by fellow Level 2 judge Seth Black and my good pal Ed Dowling to participate in the first ever Team Modern Unified Grand Prix.

The Road So Far...

Years ago, when I was first pursuing my goal of getting certified as a brand new Level 1 judge, I had some lofty dreams for myself.  I wasn't sure if it would ever even happen, but I imagined someday sitting aboard an airplane and flying far away to spend a weekend judging a prestigious Magic event in some beautiful, warm location.  The one location that I hoped to someday travel to, more than any other, was Orlando, Florida.  

I had been to Orlando only once before in my life, for a short vacation to visit Disney World back in 2006.   Tragically, I had become extremely sick due to heat stroke on the third day of my vacation back then, and so I had only gotten to enjoy two days of fun and adventure, before being confined to a hotel room for the rest of the week. 

You can only imagine how thrilled I was when I saw that Star City Games was going to be hosting a Grand Prix in Orlando this year.  When I received the e-mail confirming that I had been selected to be on staff for it, it was finally time to make some judge dreams come true.

Next Stop: Grand Prix Orlando

The flight from Toronto to Orlando is under 3 hours

Once you are accepted to work at a Grand Prix, the tournament organizers begin sending you tons of relevant information including what shifts you will be working, which teams and/or tasks you are assigned to and who your team leaders will be.  Another piece of information you receive is who will be the judge manager during the event, which is relevant as this is the first person you want to speak to and check in with when you arrive.  

In the case of GP Orlando, the person in charge was the highly esteemed Riki Hayashi, a former Level 4 judge (our judge levels formerly went from 1 to 5, we now use a 3 level system with 3 being the highest attainable).  I am a huge fan of Riki's, as I know he has made significant contributions to our judging community and he is one of our most recognizable judges world wide.  I *may* have had a bit of a judging fandom moment when he recognized/remembered me without me having to introduce myself at the start of the weekend.

I feel like now would be a good time for us to take a little peek at the venue for GP Orlando, the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC).

This was the view just outside of the main entrance to the hall for GP Orlando

A look from the far end of the hall for GP Orlando, on Friday during sides.

The hall would be much more packed during the Main event on Saturday!

The Feature Match coverage area, as it was still being prepared for use.

Players with far more skill than I would be seated here later in the weekend.

Let me start off by saying that Star City Games is an excellent Tournament Organizer to work for.  I was fortunate that SCG was able to accommodate every request I had for them.  I asked to work Friday and Saturday, and those were the days I was on staff.  I asked for a mid-day shift on Friday, as I flew into Orlando late on Thursday night, and they assigned me to that shift.  It makes for an excellent experience for me, when the staff at SCG is constantly so well organized.   

It felt so good to wear this!  😏

Friday was a fun day of judging for me, as all of the side events for the day were being run at Regular REL - think FNM style rules enforcement.   People were having fun and playing Magic.  I had an interesting call come up, which I will discuss at the end of this post, in my 'From The Sideboard' feature.   

At 3:30pm on Friday I was assigned to be the Head Judge of a scheduled Modern Format Grand Prix Trial.   Participants would play 4 rounds of swiss, after which we would invite any undefeated players to play in one final match where the winner would receive 2 byes for Saturday's Main Event - GP Orlando.   

My event had 50+ players in it, which meant that hypothetically we could have had 3 undefeated players after 4 rounds of swiss.  If that would have happened (it did not, thanks to intentional draws), 1 player would have received a bye and automatically gained the prize of 2 byes in the main, while the other 2 would battle it out.  My event ended around 7:45pm, and one of the Level 3 judges directing us kindly let me know that I could call it a day early, and I would get to return to my hotel an hour ahead of schedule.   That's a pretty awesome day of judging.

On Saturday I was assigned to my absolute favorite team to work while at a Grand Prix, the pairings team.   I love doing pairings because it gives me the opportunity to spend most of my time walking the event floor and taking actual judge calls.  Speaking to players and answering their questions is always so satisfying for me, it gives me the chance to interact with people directly and help ensure that they have a good experience at the event.

In what I feel must have been an inside joke, my team lead for the day was none other than Kingston Ontario's own, Level 3 judge Jason Wong.  With a staff of 60+ judges, they managed to put two Canadian judges who are both named Jason on the same team.  I found it amusing, and assumed my new role as 'Jason: the sequel' for the day.  We made jokes that if anything should happen to J-Wong during the event, his replacement (me) could just assume responsibility and no one would be the wiser.

Saturday was fun for me, with most judge calls being simple questions of the 'how does this ability work' variety.   The big pay off for me was I got to pick Jason's Level 3 brain throughout the day, and I enjoyed the opportunity to see how he looks at things in the judge program differently from how I may have been looking at them.  

I've been in a few of these now, it's always a joy to be on staff with such talented people!

Once my shift on Saturday had finished, I was free to enjoy 48 hours in Orlando with my spouse.   What's a couple to do in Orlando?   Theme parks, of course!

A Day At Disney World

Cinderella's Castle

Ride a train around the Magic Kingdom

Okay, look.  I know it's weird, but I was Knighted by staff 

and had to protect Princess Belle for a short duration.

A Day At Universal Studios

Outside of the Amazing Spider-Man ride.

Probably my favorite ride ever.  10/10

Took a stroll past Jurassic Park

The Harry Potter ride was intense, and amazing!

Hogwart's Castle is real.  It's also huge.  Didn't you know?

After a very fun filled 48 hours of rides and delicious meals in Orlando, I was on a plane and returning home to the familiar surroundings of my life on my Path To Exile.

...

...

...

Wait, you didn't already forget about the other Grand Prix I just went to, did you?   Well now settle down pawdner, and let me tell you all about what it was like to fly down to the sun and warmth (and rain and Tornado warnings!) of beautiful San Antonio, Texas!

It was around 5 hours in the skies, flying from Toronto 

to San Antonio, via layover in Houston.

Grey skies greeted us as we landed in Texas.

I may be known to love playing Storm in Modern, but this was not what I was expecting!

The weather may have been unnerving for a while, but fortunately Texas is a place where the weather doesn't hold a grudge for long.  Within a few hours the weather alerts had passed, and we were once again enjoying sunny skies and a beautiful dry heat that won't be found in our region of Canada likely until July.

Grand Prix San Antonio was destined to be memorable, in large part due to the fact that it would be the first ever Team Unified Modern Grand Prix.  Our team would bring decks of Tron Eldrazi, Mardu Burn, and my personal deck of choice - 4 color Super Friends.

I'm going to skip the build up for this discussion, and get right to the point.  I was dead weight for my team at this event.  Although I absolutely love my deck, for every single game I played I was always either one land short of comboing off, or one turn too late.   I ended up losing most of my matches due to my inability to overcome some minor disruption from my opponents.   As a team we sadly dropped from the event after 4 rounds without a victory.  But while our main event may not have been the glorious achievement we had hoped for, we still managed to find lots of fun and adventure during our trip to the heart of Texas.

 On Saturday evening our team decided to venture out into the touristy area of San Antonio, and we had a blast.  We took a walk through the hallowed grounds of the Alamo, and I can assure you that it was a powerful feeling to stand inside the Cathedral where so many Texans died fighting for their independence. 

The grounds of the Alamo, a truly impressive site to visit.

My favorite part of Saturday night would be the three of us doing a 4D Hall of Mirrors maze.  The first time through the maze would be pretty fun, with each of us taking turns leading.   But once we had completed the maze, the staff gave us each these crazy 3D glasses and had us go back through it a second time, while we could hardly see anything in front of us.  It was so trippy and extremely fun.

Mirror Maze Team Selfie!

Sunday was filled with side events for my team mates, while I was happy to do some shopping from vendors and just observe.  Sadly, Seth had to get back to Canada early on Sunday afternoon, but that would leave my buddy Ed and I with another full day in Texas to take in the sights and have some fun.

Haunted Mansions, Wax Museums, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and some 4D rides would be how we would pass our time in Texas, and I of course would have to buy the one thing that I feel you need to bring home with you when you visit Texas...

Went to Texas, bought the hat!

It's a genuine Stetson leather hat, 

in case you were wondering.

Tourist Fun in Texas

Haunted Mansion time!

Me and Dave, chilling at the Wax Museum

Texas, where even the pens

 come shaped as guns.

Have you ever wished your breakfast could be shaped like

a gun?   In Texas, they can make that happen.

It was a truly incredible experience to be able to travel across the continent not once, but twice in two weeks to be a part of some of the biggest Magic tournaments in the world.  I am consistently amazed by the ways that my life has changed thanks to this fun little card game that we all love.  

Until next time, I'll be here waiting for you, on this Path to Exile.

JVM

Scenario 1:

You are judging a Grand Prix Trial, Modern format,  and it is at Regular REL.  A player calls you over to their match, during Game 1 of Round 1.

NAP:  "Judge, my opponent is playing a card, Innocent Blood, that is not legal in Modern!  

AP: "I thought this was a Modern Masters card, but it looks like it was actually printed in Eternal Masters.  My Mistake."

After checking online you confirm that Innocent Blood is not legal in Modern.  

What do you do to fix the situation?  

Assuming no cheating, what is the penalty?  

Scenario 2:

AP has an Wayward Giant equipped with a Slayer's Cleaver.  NAP is at 60 life, and has a Felidar Sovereign and a Blisterpod in play.   Neither player has any other cards in hand.  What happens when AP declares Wayward Giant as an attacker?  What, if any, blocks will NAP have to declare?

I will add the answers to these scenarios in a few days!

*Update*  And here they are!

Scenario 1 Answer:

When someone has cards in their deck that are illegal for play in the tournament, we replace each illegal card with a basic land of that player's choice.  In this case, if a player had 4 copies of Innocent Blood in their deck, we would offer them any 4 basic lands of their choice.  Note that we do not offer them snow-covered basics, nor wastes, as stores cannot reasonably be expected to always have them available and we want players to receive the same fix consistently wherever they are.

Scenario 2 Answer:

The relevant rule of thumb to keep in mind in this scenario is that we always try to satisfy the maximum amount of rules restrictions possible.  In this case, we have two relevant restrictions that are active at the same time;

a) the Slayer's Cleaver states that the equipped creature must be blocked by an Eldrazi if possible

b) the Wayward Giant has the Menace keyword ability, which states that it cannot be blocked by only one creature

Since there is an Eldrazi creature in play that is capable of blocking, it must be declared as a blocker.

Since the Wayward Giant has Menace, it cannot be blocked by only one creature,  hence, the Felidar Sovereign will also be required to be declared as a blocker in order to satisfy the maximum amount of restrictions that can be satisfied.