Ask the Judge, 09/23/2005: Feature Friday

Joining the Guilds

It is my firm opinion that Prereleases are (or should be) as much fun as organized Magic gets. With the Ravnica: City of Guilds prereleases just hours away, I'd like to share a few thoughts on new mechanics and rules issues, as well as some tips for having a good time at your event.

First, prereleases in general. Everyone seems to be doing primers these days, and a good chunk of you are veterans anyway, so we'll skip deckbuilding tips for now. Read your blisterguy, your BDM, and you're in better hands than mine, likely. My tips are about having the best Prerelease you can:

• Have fun. If you aren't concentrating, first and foremost, on enjoying the feeling of cracking new and unfamiliar cards, and playing friendly games with strangers... you're missing out. Prereleases aren't about taking home a trunkful of prizes; they're for letting your chin fall off your face when the 9-year old across from you plays the first Darksteel Colossus you've ever seen—hardcast, on turn 20. Don't sweat your opens, or your mana ratios. Sit down, be nice to the player across the table, and help people who seem confused.
  I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't enjoy winning at a prerelease. But Magic is a game of skill and chance, and there's no better time to embrace that than at a prerelease. Aside from cheating (adding cards to your sealed deck, for instance. Not that any of you would do such a thing), the penalty that bugs me the most at a Prerelease is Unsporting Conduct. There's just no call for it.
• Write your name on your sideboard container. It's a sad fact of life: at every single prerelease, someone will leave their tournament pack box, containing their sideboard, at the table when they finish their match. Another player will find it. Occasionally, these cards will get returned to us. Other times they will wind up in someone else's trade binder. If you take 10 seconds at the beginning of the day to write your name on the outside or inside of that box, chances of a successful reunion go up dramatically.
• Take time to eat. Even if you're planning on getting lunch at a nearby restaurant, bring a snack and some water. If you're at an event all day, and you don't know when exactly you'll be getting a meal, you can dramatically increase your Magic-stamina by making sure your glucose levels remain relatively stable. This also means not binging on candy and soda. As I make a point of telling all of my judges, adequate hydration is essential to keeping a clear head through a long day of hard thought. Obviously, a day at a prerelease isn't like playing TurboLand in the Pro Tour, but how much fun can you have when you're trying to decide whether to tap your mana accurately or take a nap?
• Take in the sights. Today, take a few minutes to find the web page for your tournament organizer. Are there any artists appearing? Find those cards you want signed and set them aside now. Any other special events? Play a format you've never tried: booster drafting, perhaps, or that whacky new Two-Headed Giant format. It's a team format where you actually play with your teammate! I think it's going to be a lot of fun, and very sucessful—traditional 3-person team limited is challenging, but not very fun or rewarding for casual players. 2HG has the potential to be the team format that everyone can get behind.

Ravnica seems to be one of the more heavily scrutinized new sets of recent times, so I'm sure many of you are familiar with the new mechanics. I'll highlight a couple quick points worth remembering when you're at the tables tomorrow:

• The new dual lands are not basic lands. They do, however, have basic land types. What this means is that Wood Elves can fetch Overgrown Tomb, since it is a Forest, but Sakura Tribe Elder doesn't even notice it's there, since the supertype "Basic" isn't found on the type line.
• Dredge is not a triggered ability. It can't be responded to. As soon as a draw would happen (any draw), the player gets to choose if they'd rather Dredge instead. Presuming, of course, that they have enough cards in their library to pay the Dredge cost.
• The targeting rules have changed. It used to be that a spell or ability had to have different objects for each of its targets. Now, independant instances of targeting can target the same object. So Seeds of Strenth (text: Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.) can target a creature once, twice, or three times. However, Hex (text: Destroy six target creatures.) can't be played unless you have six different creatures to target.

(The following section is a late addition which didn't cross my mind until a few hours after the site update. I've been meaning to write a longer article on the subject, but this will serve for now. - Seamus)

Be careful with prize splits. Many players seem to have a hard time understanding what is allowed when negotiating a prize split with an opponent. It's an unfortunate reality that people get penalties as severe as DQs without realizing that they were even on shaky ground. My two-second advice in a nutshell: ask for help from a judge before you do anything. At a prerelease, where the prize distribution will tend to be flat, opportunities for shenanigans are rare—the most common being when a player with a borderline prize-winning record is paired down against a player pretty much eliminated from prizes—but the rules are the rules: offering or accepting a match result in exchange for anything is cheating. Players will often feel that they are simply finding a win-win situation for both sides, but think of it like this: if we collectively win an extra 10 packs if I win the match, and we decide to split those 10 packs with your concession, I've just bribed you to the tune of 5 packs. It happens to be 5 packs I don't have yet, but that's immaterial. Believe me when I say that it is never fun to DQ someone, particularly at a casual event, but it does and will happen. With a little care it need not happen to you.

That's all I've got for now. Be sure to send all your Ravnica rules questions to Chris Richter, and have a great time at this weekend's prerelease. Cheers!