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ASK THE JUDGE 04/08/2005: Feature Friday
The Sky Is Not Falling
First things first. Pro Tour Atlanta made it abundantly clear that the Elder Dragon Highlander format is here to stay. The Judges are going crazy over it. People wandering by when we're playing proclaim they're taking it home to their local groups. Can EDH as a sanctioned format be far behind? Well, no, actually, but you can't blame a brother for trying.
Since the discussion I had with Gis (as mentioned last week), we agreed to ban three more cards: Biorhythm, Upheaval, and Sway of the Stars. These three cards led to players being forced to play multiple counterspells. If one of these spells actually resolved, it was generally game over. I've said before that I've never lost an EDH game in which I resolved Upheaval. My deck started becoming all about the Upheaval, and that's a little boring. I'd rather bring some player interaction and more interesting deck design into things. Here are the updated lists:
Banned List: Ancestral Recall, Balance, Black Lotus, Biorhythm, Library of Alexandria, Moxen, Panoptic Mirror, Time Walk, Upheaval, Sway of the Stars, Worldgorger Dragon
Watch List: Beacon of Immortality, Crucible of Worlds
Restriction List: The Wishes and Ring of Ma'Ruf may only be used to get cards that have been RFG'd in the current game.
We'll be playing again at Pro Tour Philadelphia. If you'd like to play and reserve a General, email me. Here is the list of already-reserved Generals
Crosis (Ingrid Jahn)
Dromar (Paul Morris)
Lord of Tresserhorn (Scott Larabee)
Nicol Bolas (Peter Jahn)
Pheldagriff (me--the new and improved version that the gang in Atlanta gave me)
Sliver Queen (Scott Marshall)
Sol'Kanar, Swamp King (Duncan McGregor)
Treva (Cari Foreman)
Anyway, onto weightier issues. Noah Weil and Terry Soh notwithstanding, the sky is not falling on judges. There is no epidemic of disrespect towards Judges; we generally enjoy a great deal of respect from players. Sure, there's the odd malcontent, that guy who just wants to be miserable all the time and carries that baggage with him, but that's about a sorry individual, not the judge in question or judges as a whole. And as much as I hate to admit it, there are a few poor judges in the program. We're weeding them out, or better yet, training them to be better, as quickly as we can.
The reason that people think that there's some problem with the way that judges are respected or perceived is that the only time you hear about a judge is when he's made a mistake or a player *thinks* a judge has made a mistake. No one posts that a judge got it right (unless it's in response to someone saying he got it wrong). If a judge does his or her job perfectly, then there's no story to tell--and that's the way we like it.
You're not hearing about the thousands of correct decisions judges make every week; you hear about the one they may have gotten wrong--and note the "may." Countless times have players carped in forums about getting screwed over by judges only to then find out the judge was correct. The bottom line is that what you see in public forums grossly misrepresents how judges are doing their jobs and how players perceive them.
The DCI Judge Program is in the best shape it's ever been (as you've heard me say previously, through no small efforts by Judge Coordinator Andy Heckt and the fact that it's not 1999 any more). The judges are more dedicated to judging and more well-versed in the rules and tournament structure than at any time in the past. We still have minor tweaks to make, but I like where we are, and I like where we're going.
See you next week.
