With the latest policy update, there’s a major change to the Electronic Device policy for Competitive and Professional REL.

It can be summed up easily: Don’t use them during matches or any other “official” times (drafts, deckbuilds, etc). Taking a brief personal call is OK in an emergency – we realize there are doctors, parents, first responders, and other people who must be able to take phone calls playing – but, otherwise, leave your devices in your pocket until the match is over.

We tried having a policy to define what could be done with devices, but it was out of date with regards to the capabilities of devices almost immediately, and exploitable loopholes kept surfacing. We had the choice of writing a complex and ever-changing policy, or taking the cleaner route of disallowing them entirely during matches. The latter seems like a safer course. Devices may be used freely at Regular REL as long as it is visible to both players; Outside Assistance rules still apply.

A few players have asked about using video cameras to record or stream matches. This is allowed as long as the device is passive, not consulted, and you have permission of the Head Judge and each opponent.

One other clarification that is not a policy change: at the end of extra turns, players are not allowed to flip over the top cards of their decks to do comparisons or see “how things would have worked out” to determine the winner of a match. The rules do not allow players to look at those cards until the game has ended, and, once the game is over, it’s using an outside the game method to determine an outcome.