ASK THE JUDGE 08/19/2005, FEATURE FRIDAY

US Nationals Head Judge Report

Sheldon Menery

While you're reading this, I'm on my way to Massachusetts to Head Judge the North American Challenge. On Sunday, I'm doing a Judge seminar at TJ Collectibles in Milford, MA. If you're a certified Judge and would like to attend, feel free to show (but contact Tom Shea at TJ Collectibles first). Hope to see you there!

What a great week it was. In the span of a week, we had good times, good friends, and a good event. Let me tell you all about it.

The week started on Monday when our own editor, his lovely wife Alena, and Portland's resident Level 3, Seamus Campbell, arrived here at the Estate. We decided to make them a meal in the traditional Italian style--antipasto (which didn't become tradition, save amongst the rich, until the middle of the 20th century), followed by a primo of pasta, and secondo. Dessert isn't really something that follows an Italian meal--but we decided to forgo that tradition since Alena made a wonderful blueberry tart. The antipasto was insalata caprese--fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil cut from the garden, drizzled with vintage extra virgin olive oil. The pasta was in the style called puttanesca--olives, diced tomatoes, and capers over angel hair, which is the only pasta Ted likes. The secondo was a very nice chicken scallopine with lemons and capers, dressed with asparagus.

The wine with the antipasto was a special gift from Star City's own Chris Richter, called Cain Cellars Cain Five 2000. Chris had given it to me on the occasion of making Level 5, and I held it for a special occasion. I figured that Ted and Seamus would appreciate the significance of the bottle. It was nicely done--a sleek and elegant bottle that went perfectly. The second bottle of the night was a huge hit: 2000 Concha y Toro Don Melchor. Huge, rich, and wonderfully integrated, it provided a perfect punctuation to the evening. I subsequently went back to the shop and bought more, since we emptied the cellar of what I had.

Tuesday was a day of just hanging around. After a lunch that featured my new panini press, Ted, Seamus, and I played some Type 4 (which made me wonder what Type 3 is). We drafted from Ted's stack, and then got to the playing. With the unlimited mana each turn, I figured Time Stretch was a good pick. Vedalken Orrery also seemed rather crazy, and I was surprised that I passed it and it go back around to me. In fact, in the second game, Turn 1 Planar Portal, Turn 2 Orrery spelled doom for Ted and Seamus--although they ganged up on me and nearly came back when Seamus played Balancing Act. The only permanent I kept was Aladdin's Ring, since I had Scultping Steel in my hand. It's a fun and wacky format, a pleasant diversion on a rainy afternoon.

Wednesday Ted, Seamus, and I took the four-hour drive to Baltimore, and Alena went back to Charlottesville. We made great time by going the back way via Waldorf, MD (and past the house of Judge/Scorekeeper combo Paul Morris and Cari Foreman), avoiding DC traffic. We made great time and hit the hotel in just over four hours, complete with a stop, at Ted's recommendation, at a donut shop in Richmond. The apple fritters, he claimed, were broken. I hear that term overused so much in Magic I was skeptical. I shall never doubt the mixedknuts again.

Wednesday evening the three of us joined some other staff folks at Camden Yards for an Orioles' game. As I mentioned two weeks ago, Boog's barbecue awaited us. JSS Head Judge Jason Ness was in his seat and munching on the BBQ as we arrived, proclaiming the only reason he was enjoying such a fine meal was my mention of it. Here's to Boog! It was a good ballgame, but it was still extremely hot, even after the sun went down. I hit the showers upon getting back to the hotel room and then met Jason, fellow Canadian Mark Comey, and DCI Policy Manager John Grant for a nightcap in the Orioles' Grille. Mark introduced me to dark-and-dirty, which is dark rum and coke. A nice, freshing quaff. We talked a little judge stuff, and called it a reasonably early night.

Thursday was the day of the Grinders, the last-chance qualifiers for Nationals. Most of what I did was observe other judges, especially those who were schedule for testing, and meet some of the judges that I hadn't met before, like our international imports Francisco Iramain from Puerto Rico and Carlos Ho from Panama, both of whom did a very nice job over the weekend. In fact, when I tried to give him a few extra hours off, Carlos insisted that he stay and work since he came a very long way to learn and share experiences with other judges. We try to bring non-North Americans to US Nationals every year for a little international exposure and crossfeed into the program, and Carlos and Frank did the program proud.

Thursday also saw the launch of Ken Somerville's first foray into wrangling judges for Side Events. Normally, we contract Sides out to the local tournament organizer, US Nationals being an exception. Ken volunteered to come in and be the guy who makes sure that each scheduled Side Event and 8-person booster draft has a judge. It's a daunting, tedious, and draining task, and Ken met it like a champ. By Sunday, he still managed to look mostly fresh, something that not many of us could muster.

After running around the site for about 12 hours Thursday, I got together with Andy Heckt, John Carter, Collin Jackson, and Jason Ness for the high-level dinner. We went to the highly-recommended restaurant Charleston (www.charlestonrestaurant.com) for four courses of some of the most ridiculous food you'll ever eat. One of the appetizer courses, half a grilled cheese sandwich with summer truffles and haricots verts, completely floored Collin. We were discussing shuffling or something, and noticed he looking particularly forlorn. When I asked him what was wrong, Collin simply moaned "My grilled cheese sandwich...is gone!"

I was overly pleased with the seared foie gras and quail eggs as an appetizer, but the dish that impressed me most was Chef Wolf's local barbecued rabbit, which Jason was kind enough to share with me. It was both delicate and spicy at the same time. For wine, we had a bottle of '01 Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and '02 Clarendon Hills Old Vines Grenache "Hickinbotham" Vineyard. Both were crowd-pleasers.

We spent most of the evening discussing judge promotions and the direction of the program over the next year. We talked about the new solution to the penalty of Looking at Extra Cards, on which Andy will have an official announcement soon.

After the dinner, I met back up with Scott Larabee and the gang for the only round of EDH that I played all weekend. Scott is particularly proud that he's actually built a Lord of Tresserhorn deck of his own instead of borrowing mine. Jeff Vondruska borrowed my Marrow-Gnawer deck, Peter Jahn piloted the Starke of Rath deck he's been threatening to build, and we were off to the races. Things hashed back and forth for a little while, with Scott knocking around Jeff pretty well. Shortly after I Tooth and Nailed in Pristine Angel and Serra Angel (which Peter was holding off with Mogg Maniac), Scott killed Jeff, then attempted to play Platinum Angel. I countered with Overwhelming Intellect. In the seven cards I drew I found the only way for my deck to go infinite (without stealing someone else's Bringer of the Black Dawn): both Isochron Scepter and Mystical Tutor. On my turn, with 10 mana in play and a land in my hand, I played the Scepter, Imprinted the Tutor, and asked them if they wanted to concede. They looked at me until I dropped the land, activated Scepter, put Beacon of Tomorrows on top, then used Scroll Rack to put it in my hand. No one had any counter magic, so we were quickly done (with Peter confirming I wouldn't be stupid enough to attack into Mogg Maniac).

Friday started my main event in earnest. I invited the three team leaders for the day, James Do Hung Lee, Tony Mayer, and Matt Villamaino to breakfast. I figured that we could talk business at a casual pace, giving them the opportunity to have more time to brief their teams. The three are experienced judges, so I didn't have to get too far into the weeds on details. I simply gave them a few thresholds (like Matt's team having deck checks done in 7 minutes), and a few other instructions, then asked for some feedback on how we were going to run the day.

When briefing the teams, I talked about slow play, reminding everyone that when players are in the five extra turns, they're still responsible for playing at an appropriate pace. I reminded everyone that US Nationals is busier than a Pro Tour, since we have a second main event--the JSS Championship. At a Pro Tour, Sunday is a more relaxed day, with only a few judges involved in the Top 8, and everyone else engaged in seminars. This wouldn't be the case for our Sunday, as a full compliment of Judges would be required for JSS Day Two.

For this show, we tried an experiment regarding Judge Certification. With John Grant functioning as Tournament Manager for the JSS, the person doing certs would also man John's traditional post at the DCI booth. Scott Lelivelt, Shawn Doherty, and Michael "Elf" Feuell stood in for John, and each reported the effort successful.

I also took aside some of the more experienced Judges, such as Lee McLain, Shawn D., and Elf, and asked them to do a little focused mentoring on some folks who were Level 3 candidates at this show or in the near future. I really like the idea of formally making folks feel like they're being taken care of within the program instead of wondering where they stand or just leaving them on the outside. The one-on-one discussions either covered what the candidates might face during the testing process, or gave them guidance going forward toward an eventual promotion opportunity.

Friday was also good because my wife Gretchyn showed up during the afternoon. She was taking the opportunity--since we both grew up in Baltimore--to visit some relatives. She had taken the train Friday morning, and did some shopping in the downtown area while waiting for me to get done. Friday evening we drove out to the 'burbs to have dinner with her dad at an upscale Italian place called Liberatore's. The veal was good but nothing special, but the company was pretty good.

The only real bump in the road on Saturday was a player deciding that he needed to bring outside notes to his matches. He had a notebook with complete lists of what to sideboard against his opponents. When he pulled out the book after the first game of a match, his opponent rightly called a judge. When the player asked me to show him where in the rules it says he can't do that, I pointed him to the Universal Tournament Rules, section 28. To his credit, although he was disappointed, he didn't get upset with me, accepting his penalty graciously.

Saturday we were back at it full tilt. I decided against another breakfast with the new team leaders, opting to give them the extra hour's worth of sleep. It's fortunate that I did, because I mistakenly set my alarm for PM instead of AM. Fortunately, I woke up in enough time (thanks to the light peeking through the curtains) to get showered and to the site well ahead of schedule.

The day went rather well, with only one noteworthy issue. Time was called in a match where two players were tied at 1, and one of them had just finished the fourth extra turn. His opponent said "It's a draw, then." As the first player began scooping up his cards, the opponent said "but let's see what I would have drawn," and looked at the top three cards of his library (Seizan, Perverter of Truth was in play). He then realized he had an answer that could win the game and wanted to go back. The floor judge told him that he had already agreed to the draw, which I upheld. The call was made rather easy by the fact that the opponent had his cards off the table, but I likely wouldn't have overturned it anyway. The player's statement and intent were clear; that he didn't realize that he could have won was his own fault.

I did get into a discussion with some Judges over the issue of a "damaged" or "irreparable" game state. There are too many Judges who think that just because the game is a mess someone deserves a game loss. This is most of the time not the case, especially considering that both players are responsible for maintaining the integrity of the game state. Even if a player has gained an advantage from an error, such as a creature that should have gone to the graveyard but didn't, the baseline penalty is Warning--and I'm likely to Warn both players (this is, of course, assuming there's no evidence of shadiness going on, which opens different doors).

Saturday evening we held the now-traditional Game of the Year, starring Dr. Richard Garfield, who squared off in a revamped format against recent Hall of Fame inductee Darwin Kastle. I always enjoy doing this bit, and this year was the best ever. The giant playmat, three foot tall cards, and audience involvement made it loads of fun. If there's a single reason to come spectate at US Nats, it's Game of the Year.

After GotY, Gretchyn and I got together with our friends Thom and Jeff and fellow Judge Nick Fang for a quick bite at Phillips in the Inner Harbor. Thom (elflad on Live Journal) is a long-time friend--actually more like the brother I never had. He and Jeff live in the suburbs of DC, so they took the short drive up to have a day in Baltimore and then join us for dinner. Phillips' crab cakes were slightly disappointing, but still filled the empty spot. We had dreams of hanging out a little more, perhaps for a second Hurricane or Appletini, but everyone was dragging, so we called it a night.

Sunday proved to be what most Pro Tour Sundays are like: long periods of quiet interrupted by a few deafening moments. You've no doubt read the coverage of the Finals already, so I won't repeat anything. Kudos to Seamus who picked up on Antonino's question and confusion. By that point, we had already had a slow play issue in the quarterfinals, so I wanted to reiterate that even in untimed rounds, players must play at an appropriate pace. The level of the event isn't particularly important, nor is the complexity of the situation. Because he was confused--even after a clear explanation--Ant was just taking too long. Under normal circumstances, such as if I were simply floating on the match, I would have let the table judge make the call. Since I was there right on the table, it was appropriate for me to issue the warning.

The event culminated at the Judge Dinner at Sabatino's in Little Italy. The meal was great, the service superb, and the conversation grand. I was surrounded by Mark Comey, Jason Ness, and Andy and Ingrid Heckt. I had actually positioned myself near Jason for a specific reason (other than just enjoying his company). I knew that his promotion to Level 4 was coming--and he didn't.

Traditionally, the last part of Andy's speech is reserved for announcing promotions, and this was no exception. As Andy was in the middle of his notes, I began unwrapping a cigar (Hoya de Monterrey Excalibur, if you care), and knowing Jason likes the stogies (he even has his own humidor), let him take a whiff. Pleased with the aroma, he handed it back. As Andy began announcing the promotions to Level 3 (Ingrid Lind-Jahn, Evan Blake, and Rashad Miller, all extremely well-deserved), I kept my eyes on Jason. He was quiet and a little pensive. I knew he was a little down on himself because of a relatively minor mistake during the JSS, which he thought may knock him off the Level 4 track. After Andy announced the three new Level 3's, he quickly said "And the DCI's newest Level 4 Judge, Jason Ness." Jason stared at me in disbelief, then at Andy, and then around the room. He said something like "OMG. You got me." I handed him back the cigar, and he was all smiles.

We took the opportunity to enjoy the smoke (there was enough of it to share) and a glass of whisky (Macallan, IIRC) standing outside the restaurant--the manager being kind enough to let us take our glasses outside. There's something about a good cigar that makes a single malt even better--sweeter, if you will. Jason was on cloud nine the entire time. His promotion is well-deserved, and I know he'll continue to distinguish himself in the program.

So ends the long tale of my 2005 US Nationals. It was a strong event. I want to again thank everyone for overcoming the challenges that presented themselves over the weekend, and doing so with the best attitudes imaginable. I'm already looking forward to US Nats 2006.

See you next week.