Ask the Judge 04/01/2005: Feature Friday

Pro Tour Atlanta Head Judge Report

No Fooling, Head Judging Pro Tour Atlanta, my first in the top spot at the top show, was at once one of the most difficult and most rewarding experiences I've ever had. It was a relatively smooth event because of one of the best PT Judge crews ever assembled:

Gijsbert Hoogendijk, Collin Jackson, John Carter, John Shannon, Juan del Compare, Duncan McGregor, Riccardo Tessitori, Adam Cetnerowski, Alfonso Bueno, Scott Marshall, Scott Lelivelt, Lee Sharpe, Kevin Desprez, Thomas Ralph, Doron Singer, Cristiana Dionisio, Frank Wareman, Nick Fang, Paul Morris, Sidney Meilleur, Takeshi Miyasaka, Daniel Wong, Mike Goodman, John Alderfer, Sidney Meilleur, Kevin Dolbeare, Joshua Reynolds, Ingrid Lind-Jahn, Suzy Life, Russell Linnemann, Brian Schenck, and Peter Jahn.

For once, I had a short flight to an event. I got into Atlanta around 2pm and met up with our esteemed editor for some lunch at a sports bar called Jock and Jill's. Afterward, I headed over the site to check out the setup and finish up some administrative stuff. On the way, I noticed I had a voice mail; I guess restaurant was too noisy for me to hear it ring. It was a message from Jaap Brouwer, simply wishing me good luck and offering his support that he knew I'd have a good event. It was the perfect way to start the weekend.

Some of the judges were already there and we hung out for a bit before getting together to resolve a small issue. As most of you know, for Limited PTs, we stamp the product. For the team event, we put together each package in advance to expedite getting it into the players' hands and the event running. Unfortunately, there was a small error in the product distribution: each package had one too many Champions of Kamigawa booster and one too few Betrayers booster. Fortunately, there was enough product; all we had to do was take out the Champions and put in the Betrayers. The judges were great about banding together and getting it done. Many hands making light work, they were done rather quickly.

As the judges arrived Thursday afternoon, so did the gifts, which I have to admit humbled me a bit. My dear friend Riccardo Tessitori and the lovely Cristiana Dionisio brought me 1) the last three cards I need to fill out my Italian Legends set and 2) a kilo of Italian coffee, some of which I'm enjoying as I write this. Juan Del Compare brought a bottle of Argentinian wine for me (and some more to share at Saturday's Judge dinner). Peter and Ingrid Lind-Jahn brought a bottle of white wine from Wisconsin. And although they weren't just for me, Frank Wareman brought stroopwafels from Holland. Yummy! Finally, Captain John Shannon gave me the gift of wearing new judging shoes, not his super-shiny Air Force low quarters.

As is usual for the Pro Tour, we had the high-level judge dinner the night before the event started. This is generally the only opportunity we get over the weekend to get together to discuss top-level issues without one of us getting pulled away for something pressing. Since we were in Atlanta, the only choice was Fogo de Chao. We ran into Ted dining with two of my favorite people on the circuit: Brian David-Marshall, who I fortunately get to see at most every event, and the inimitable Josh Bennett, who I haven't seen in a very long time. I wish I had had more time to hang with them, but there was business to tend to, along with a remarkable meal. It was great to the OMC back in action.

I brought two special bottles of wine with me to celebrate my first PT Head Judging experience. The first, 2001 L'Ecole No. 41 Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla Valley, was given to me by none other than John Grant. The second was a special one from the cellar, 1997 Gustavo Thrace Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, a brilliant Cab that's currently hitting its stride. The meal was fabulous--in fact, too fabulous. I had difficulty saying no to the men in funny pants who kept bringing me meat on swords. Not eating much red meat these days, I suffered for it Friday morning.

We did a Judge team meeting first thing Friday, letting everyone who had arrived late on Thursday get to know the rest of the crew, and simply starting to get into the swing of things. I passed out individual letters to everyone letting them know their assignments for the weekend. As I reported in the edition explaining my prep for the event, I said I was going to generate a letter for all the PT first-timers. That morphed into a customized welcome letter for everyone. The feedback on the personal touch was very positive.

At the PT, we divide the Judges into four teams: Pairings, Deck Checks, Slips, and Logistics. This being a Team Limited event, the toughest job was that of the Logistics team, which was responsible for distributing the product in a timely fashion, getting land stations set up, and various other tasks which don't seem important, but when left undone drag down the show. Riccardo led an excellent team which went way above and beyond my expectations.

Three builds and six rounds later, we finished slightly ahead of schedule, but nonetheless late in the evening. I passed on several invitations for dinner, and even passed on playing Elder Dragon Highlander. Fellow Professional Judge, former "Ask the Judge" columnist, and my friend since 1963, Gis Hoogendijk, with whom I roomed, Andy Heckt, John Grant and I slipped into the grill for a quick meal. I went to the room; Gis went and played EDH. He later came back and told me he had swept the table in the first game with his Sensei's Divining Top, Future Sight, Helm of Awakening combo letting him draw his deck. He said he didn't last long in the next game.

Saturday looked to be a longer day, since we had five drafts and five rounds. The Logistics team, this time headed by Level 3 candidate Nick Fang, looked to have another busy day. Once again, the team rose to the occasion. I'm happy to report Nick passed his interview and has joined the ranks of Regional Judges, along with Paul Morris, Daniel Wong, and Frank Wareman (and I swear the latter had nothing to do with the stroopwafels). Again, we finished ahead of the schedule, but we still didn't leave the site until about 9:30. We had to hustle to get to the Judge dinner, so I told everyone that we'd do our end-of-day debrief on Sunday morning.

It was obvious to me from the get-go that we had an extremely talented staff of Judges, but it occurred to me on Saturday afternoon just how good they were. I overturned a ruling on appeal, and I realized that it was the first ruling I had overturned all weekend. The player wanted to know if he would still draw a card if he sacrificed Sire of the Storm when he played Devouring Greed. The Judge had ruled that he would, which isn't the case. Sire of the Storm triggers after an Arcane or Spirit spell has been played. A spell isn't played until you're done with all steps of announcement, so when Devouring Greed is considered played, Sire of the Storm is not in play to trigger.

Saturday evening was the judge dinner. Normally, the dinner is at a place within walking distance from the site. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case in Atlanta. We piled into half a dozen cabs, which Andy Heckt had arranged, and headed off to a small family restaurant nearby. The food was reasonable, but the wine list was terrrible. Fortunately, Juan trotted out what he had brought for us, which was much nicer than anything on the list.

A few of the Judges had already finished and passed their exams, while we were still waiting to interview some on Sunday. Andy and I discussed during dessert whether or not to announce those advancements, and agreed to do so there at the dinner. I sat back down, while Andy got up to speak. He said that he was going to announce Judge promotions, and without warning me said "The first promotion is Sheldon to Level 5." The room turned to me, and I, of course, had a mouthful of cannoli. Andy asked me to say a few words, and I did (and kept it to just a few).

Most importantly, I said "At times like these, you'll often hear people say 'I wouldn't be here without the efforts of so-and-so' or somesuch. In this case, it's quite true. I wouldn't be standing up here today without Andy Heckt or Scott Larabee." Andy and Scott were instrumental in providing me all the encouragement and assistance I needed to make the jump from a well-known Regional Judge to the small club of Professional Judges. I can't really thank either of them enough.

Congratulations are also in order for John Shannon, who was promoted to Level 4, International Judge. John has long been valuable member of the program, and deeply involved in the tournament scene. You'll definitely be seeing more and more of him at the Pro Tour, or perhaps a Grand Prix near you.

As I closed my debriefing from Saturday and instructed the Team Leaders to get with their teams, Daniel Wong interrupted with something he wanted to say. On behalf of the Judge staff, he presented me with a copy of Pheldagriff (which most of you know is my EDH General) signed by the entire Judge team. I'll confess to the fact that it choked me up just a little. It was another heartfelt gesture that is the reason I keep judging--the people involve are simply the best. I will play my Pheldagriff proudly.

In a throwback to the olden days, we decided to sequester the Top 4. This was possible by the way the hall was set up; there was a giant air wall that bisected the hall and sectioned off what had been the Feature Match area. The good part of this was that the folks watching the matches on the coverage could see the players' hands, but the players were so far away that they couldn't hear the crowd's reaction to what their opponents drew. It made for more interesting coverage.

There was a single, but significant issue in the Semifinals. Nicolas Bornarel of Les Baltringues de Lupidia had in play Gutwrencher Oni. On his turn, he had two cards in his hand. He forgot to discard to the Oni during upkeep, and drew his card. The table judge ruled that he had to discard a card at random, which M. Bornarel thought was unduly harsh; the opponent didn't believe that to be the correct penalty, so we had the unusual situation of both players appealing. To the credit of both players, they were extremely sportsmanlike during the entire discussion, especially Andrew Pacifico for arguing in his opponent's favor against the random discard.

First of all, many players and even Judges asked why Game Loss isn't the appropriate penalty in this situtation. Although forgetting Upkeep effects like Braids, Cabal Minion, or Masticore may have resulted in game losses in days gone by, the current Penalty Guidelines clearly state that the baseline penalty for this is Warning. Game Loss is far too harsh. We don't want games decided on technical errors. If we have reason to believe a player is attempting to abuse this, then we have a different set of penalties to enforce--namely, those on Cheating. This certainly was not the case.

The situation was made rather easy to adjudicate by the fact that M. Bornarel's hand contained two Swamps and a creature. Although the camera didn't catch his draw, it was obvious that he had drawn the creature that turn. The prior few turns he had played nothing out of his hand. In fact, on the turn in question, he didn't have to untap because he hadn't tapped anything on the previous turn. I allowed him to chose what to discard, because it was obvious that even had the creature been in his hand, which it wasn't (so making him risk discarding it by forcing a random discard was senseless), he would have discarded one of his two Swamps.

Again, this situation was relatively easy to recreate and correct. Through a little detective work, we clearly determined the card he drew, and removed it from the pool of potential discards. Had it been more complicated, such as him having a full hand, and us having no way of recreating the draw step with any certainty, I would have upheld the random discard. It might seem unfair that the player runs the risk of discarding what he drew that turn, but the random discard would be the closest to repairing to the correct game state--and, after all, it was the player's own mistake that led to the corrupted state. In no way is this game state so corrupted, however, as to issue a game loss penalty.

There was a lunch for the players and event staff between the Semis and Finals. Event management, led by Witney Williams, was gracious enough to invite all the Judges to attend the lunch (which isn't normally the case; it's generally reserved for only the Judges working the Top 8). Witney continues to demonstrate that she really cares about us. On Friday evening, knowing that we still had many hours to go, Witney had pizza brought in for the Judges--well beyond the call. There were many vocal (if somewhat muted by chewing) thanks to her for that.

After the Finals were done, I had some paperwork and whatnot to do in the hall. Several Judges were kind enough to invite me to dinner. The most difficult to turn down was Suzy Life's invitation to go back to Fogo. Remembering the beating I took from Fogo on Thursday, I decided to just stay on site. Gis and I had dinner in the hotel restaurant, and I had a surprisingly good prime rib. I'm generally not a prime rib fan and don't see what all the fuss is about, but this was remarkably good. We then fetched our EDH decks and headed back to the hall to wait for the rest of the gang to show; apparently, a large contingent went with Suzy to Fogo. Gis and I played four excellent games of one-on-one EDH, to include the titanic final game that took over three hours. Early on, it saw Gis Spelljack my Beacon of Immortality--while he had Mirari in play! I had to whittle him down from 400+ life. We got to a point where I had about 8 cards left in my library, and he was tapped out. I played Time Stretch, and on the first extra turn played Beacon of Tomorrows. I then demonstrated I could draw the rest of my library that turn, so he scooped. We decided on the spot to ban Panoptic Mirror in the format. It's just WAY too good.

It was an outstanding event, and one I'll remember for a long time. The players were extremely well-behaved, the Judges were top notch. Although I got precious little sleep, I had a marvelous time, and I can't wait to Head Judge another Pro Tour. Thanks to Gis and Collin Jackson for the tips, and again thanks to the ridiculously good Judge staff for making my job so much easier.

See you next week.