Snap Judgments #2
Welcome back to Snap Judgments, an intermittent column devoted to those smaller judging subjects that aren't quite enough to warrant a full article, but that are still worth discussing. Interspersed, you'll find a number of polls and questions that we'd appreciate the answers to—please post your answers to the forums or mail them to mtgjudge@gmail.com.

Finding Answers
Poll #1: Where do you usually go for answers when you don't know how a particular rules interaction works?

Poll #2: On average, once you've gotten that answer, how confident are you that it is correct?

Memorization vs. Derivation
Suppose that somebody asks you a rules question that relates to how certain cards interact with each other. To take a relatively common example these days, there's an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and a Blood Moon in play. What happens to the lands in play? Furthermore, assume that you know the answer to this question.

Think for a moment, not about the answer, but about how it is that you know. Since you already know the answer, you're probably just remembering the answer you have stored away in your brain, but how did that answer get there in the first place, and how do you know that it's the right answer?

Generally speaking, there are two different ways in which you can become aware of and come to "know" an answer. One is through memorization—maybe you saw the answer somewhere, or you heard it from somebody else, or perhaps you saw what happened with those cards on Magic Online. So when the situation comes up again, you recall the answer that you found before. The other is through derivation—either you yourself or the source that you find has worked through the interaction through the comprehensive rules and arrived at an answer based on the game's rules.

While either of these is certainly better than not knowing the answer at all, there are several reasons why derivation is preferable to memorization and represents a more useful form of rules understanding. Learning interactions by memorization is subject to all of the usual foibles of human memory—things can be forgotten or misremembered. And while this is also true of memorizing the core principles, the sheer number of card interactions means that learning rules by memorization just requires a lot more to be remembered. Knowing how cards interact only based on memorizing the results makes it difficult to handle previously unseen situations as they come up. And if you have the wrong answer, or the answer has changed due to errata or a rules change, this isn't reflected in the ruling that you previously memorized.

Contrast that to knowing the way something works based on the rules. While committing the comprehensive rules to memory seems like a daunting task, in the long run, it is a much smaller set of data to remember than the near infinite number of possible card interactions and rules questions that can exist. Once you know them and can use them to derive answers, you're no longer bound to the sets of interactions that you've seen in the past, you can figure out what happens when new questions arise with high confidence. You can evaluate what you hear from others and determine whether their answers make sense or not. And as the rules change and adapt, your understanding of the issues you've seen in the past will change along with them, effectively for free.

This is not to say that memorization isn't a good thing to be able to do, or a good first step. Memorizing some of the trickiest answers (hopefully along with how you can arrive at those answers) can serve as a good reference point in deriving further answers. But memory for specific answers can only take you so far. If you find yourself maxing out, consider making the paradigm switch.

Game Day
Tomorrow is Magic Game Day, celebrating the release of Tenth Edition. Like Prereleases, one of the foci of the event is to draw new players into the tournament scene and to get them interested in organized play.

Something that can be challenging for experienced judges and players alike at events of this nature is working with new players. It's easy to settle into a pattern of only working with people experienced with tournaments, and having new players that don't know about and don't follow those usual patterns can feel strange. A natural instinct in dealing with this is to focus on your comfort zone, the regulars that you know. At the extreme, it's not uncommon for people to be impatient, or brusque with new players who don't know things that should be "obvious".

While this is a natural tendency, it's important to fight it—it's to everyone's benefit for the organized play program to grow stronger, and for new people to become interested in playing. Remember what it was like when you were new and things were unfamiliar, and do your best to help those who are new now. For judges, try taking an extra moment to help inform them of the basics of tournament procedure, and remember to be just a little bit more patient when they ask you fundamental questions. Players, be courteous and friendly to play against. Help nudge them in the right direction if they look lost or confused (though, of course, not with respect to actual play), and help welcome them into the fold. Enjoy Magic Game Day! And equally importantly, help somebody new to enjoy it as well.

Online
Poll #3: Do you play on Magic Online, and if so, are you aware of any known issues where it handles a card interaction incorrectly?

Poll #4: How predisposed are you to assuming that Magic Online is correct? What does it take to convince you that something there works incorrectly?

Rules Advising
Whether you're interested in judging or not, one thing that is worth the time for any active Magic player to do is to become a Rules Advisor, by taking and passing the Rules Advisor exam on the DCI Judge Center. Besides being a great way to benchmark how well you understand the rules and what areas you might want to brush up on, it gets you access to a very useful resource—the Magic rules mailing list.

On that list, you can ask any rules-related questions that have you stumped and get back an answer from one of Wizards of the Coast's NetReps, who are skilled at both the rules and how to explain them, and are able to produce official answers to any questions you might throw at them. This is useful not only for judges, but also for players looking to stay up to date on the rules and to make sure that they're playing things correctly.

The list, however, has many members and there are some basic rules that are important to keeping things under control:

• For all members of the list, searchable archives are available. Before you ask any rules questions, do a quick search for the archives to see if the question has already been asked. This helps you, since it means you might get your answer quicker, and helps keep traffic on the list under control.
• While anybody is free to ask rules questions on the list, only certain peoplei—the NetReps—should answer them. This prevents excess list traffic, and makes sure that questions are answered correctly. Gavin Duggan is currently the NetRep for the Magic rules list, though Scott Marshall, Lee Sharpe, Jeff Jordan, and others will occasionally chime in as well. Even if you're sure you know the answer, and even if there is a delay in a question getting answered, you should never answer a question on the list. This feels frivolous, but not having this rule would make the list unmanageable quickly.

For more details, see the full list rules. While they may seem a little overboard if you're new to the list, as you become a regular, you'll be glad that they're in place.

Blog
Poll #5: Were you aware that there was a Judges' Blog in the Pro Tour: San Diego coverage?

Poll #6: Did you read it, and if so, did you enjoy it? Do you have any feedback or suggestions?

Five More Things
While some of these don't apply to small local events, here are five more ways to make your larger events feel more professional:

1. Use table numbers. While the fancy, color, laminated cards used at Professional events can be expensive, even having access to something to stand up printed index cards in will make things much clearer and look more professional.
2. Don't sit while working the floor. Note that this doesn't mean that you shouldn't sit, or take care of yourself, but do so while on break or behind the scenes.
3. Always address the players respectfully. Leading with, "How can I help you?" or, "Yes, Sir/Ma'am?" can get your player interactions off to a great start.
4. Print prizes out and have them posted next to the standings so that they're available for viewing rather than forcing players to ask.
5. Have printed copies of the various documents that might prove useful (the comprehensive rules, penalty guidelines, etc…) on hand so that you can look things up quickly.

Translation
In the forums from last month's Feature Friday, lathspel brought up an interesting question. "Wouldn't it be very frustrating as a player, to have a judge attempt to answer your question via gestures and pointing, when you know that there is a judge who speaks your language at the next table over?"

Frankly, sure—the potential for some frustration exists. This is mitigated by a few factors, however. If the judge answering the call is handling it right, they should still ensure that the answer is handled professionally, correctly, and expediently. It is the case that there are a lot of cases that really can be handled with much communication beyond common game terms and pointing at various game objects, and in these cases, there isn't much time lost to any language issues, so frustration should be at a minimum.  And if it isn't the case that an issue can be handled swiftly in this manner, then you absolutely should call over a translating judge to make sure that things aren't unnecessarily delayed. This should also reduce the possible annoyance due to language barriers.

All of that said, does the potential for some frustration exist above and beyond what there would be with a native language speaker? Certainly—that can't be helped. The important thing to remember is, ease of communication isn't the sole goal involved in handling a judge call. Among the many other goals involved, fairness and impartiality are primary, and this is one of the tradeoffs that are necessary to ensure those principles.

Results
Poll #7: Are you interested in hearing summaries of the results of the polls in these columns and what we learn from them?

Wrapping Up
That's all for this month's edition of Snap Judgments. Remember that we'd appreciate your responses to any of the poll questions that you care to comment on—either post them to the forums or mail them to mtgjudge@gmail.com. Also, if you have any questions or topic ideas for the next time this feature recurs feel free to post or mail those as well.

Thanks to Karen Degi for her thoughtful feedback, suggestions, and her vigilant removal, extraction, and reduction of repetitive redundancy.

Next week: Johanna Virtanen, freshly back from her trek to Pro Tour: San Diego, with her monthly Magic musings.

Next month: One of the most visible and common functions of a judge is to watch the floor, answering rules questions from players as those questions come up during a match. Since the match is in progress, the answers necessarily can affect the way that match unfolds. While it's important to address these questions to make sure that interactions play out correctly and no game rules are violated, it's also the case that these questions can violate the impartiality so important to effective judging. How do we walk that tightrope, and where is the line between informing and coaching?

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Nicholas J. Fang
DCI Certified Level 3 Judge—Redmond, WA
mtgjudge@gmail.com
Agbaar and Ag|Work on EFnet's #mtgjudge