Check out the Battlebond 2HG release notes in Policy, and head to the bottom for a Sweet surprise! Don’t forget to find out who our Exemplar Vanguard is, and take a look at the Wave 12 token image!

Welcome to your May issue for all your judge news! We Aim High to bring you all the content you may have missed, as well as a Thrilling Encore !

JudgeApps Notifications updates

Some tweaks were made to how notifications work on JudgeApps and how the Grand Prix forums are structured. Dan Collins published a forum post and a blog post were you can read more about these changes!

Exemplar 13 update

Have you ever wondered how the Exemplar Program selects its Token- for the Vanguard judge? You can read about the full process here as well as why Tomasz Ludkiewicz was selected to be the Vanguard for Wave 13!

Conference Support Update

Are you attending a conference in the near future and do you want to know what are you getting in those sweet packs of foils? Wait no more! You can find here which cards are in those conference support packs.

Judge Articles and Blog Posts from May 2018

More judge blogs can be found at the Judge Blog Portal.

In case you would like to discuss an article, visit our Judge forum. Don’t forget to regularly check our Judge blog

Do you need a quick rules or policy answer? Ask a Magic Judge!

Judge Anniversaries

Congratulations to all of our May 2018 “birthdays” , featuring a massive total of SIX judges this month! You really don’t want to miss this feature, with such fabulous judges as Niko Skartvedt and Ivan Petkovic

Judge of the Week — May 2018

255: Graham Schofield , L2 from Toronto, Canada

256: Exemplar Wave 12 Features (Part 1)!

257: Tomáš Joska , L2 from Prague, Czech Republic

258: Exemplar Wave 12 Features (Part 2)!

259: Exemplar Vanguard Tomasz Ludkiewicz , L2 from Elbląg, Poland

Welcome to the Fold

A big welcome to the following judges who worked their first GP in 2018!

GP Dallas-Fort Worth

GP Beijing

GP Birmingham

GP Toronto #2

GP DC



Road to Level 3

An article was written on the assessment of gender bias in the pathways to Level 3 certification. Read on what they found, and how it may affect the program or yourself if you want to pursue Level 3.

Exemplar Program

Wave 13 has announced its Vanguard! Tomasz Ludkiewicz, who you can read about in Judge of the Week, will be featured on the next judge token!

Wave 12 tokens! Check out the image of the new token for wave 12 exemplar nominations. You can expect yours this wave!

Questions asked in the Month of May and an [O]fficial answer, just for you!

1. AP casts Doomsday, and during the resolution he chooses three cards from their library, and two cards from their Graveyard. Does NAP get to know the identity of any of the cards chosen? If so, is AP responsible for communicating that information, or does NAP have to figure it out?

A: “NAP is not entitled to know how many cards AP chose from one zone or the other. They may be able to determine that information on their own by looking at the very large number of cards that are now face-up in exile and figuring out if something that they know was in a specific zone is missing, or by watching the physical actions AP was performing during the search, but AP has no obligation to tell them, nor to assist in figuring it out.” Approved by Callum Milne

Cards: Doomsday

2. AP controls a Tarmogoyf and NAP flashes in a Merfolk Trickster. Will Tarmogoyf die?

A: Tarmogoyf will be a 0/1 and survive! “Tarmogoyf has a characteristic-defining ability that defines its power and toughness. (“Tarmogoyf’s power is equal to the number of card types among cards in all graveyards and its toughness is equal to that number plus 1.”) It also has a printed power and toughness. (* /1+*) Normally, Tarmogoyf’s CDA overrides its printed power and toughness. However, if Merfolk Trickster has removed that ability, we are left to determine Tarmogoyf’s power and toughness the same way we determine those values for any other creature: by looking at what’s printed in its power/toughness box. For Tarmogoyf, what’s printed there is “* / 1+*”. Since * does not have a numerical value, we use 0 instead, just as we do for any other number that can’t be determined. Therefore, Tarmogoyf’s power and toughness is “0 / 1+0”, also known as 0/1. So why is Tarmogoyf a 0/1 under the effects of a Merfolk Trickster? For the same reason a Dauntless Bodyguard would be a 2/1, or a Pardic Wanderer would be a 5/5: that’s what’s printed on the card.” Approved by Callum Milne Cards: Tarmogoyf; Merfolk Trickster

3. AP controls a Metallic Mimic, that named Snake as it entered, and casts Winding Constrictor. With how many counters will this Snake enters the battlefield?

A: “The ability of a Winding Constrictor entering the battlefield in this situation will not apply to the Constrictor itself, and therefore Winding Constrictor should only receive one counter. 614.12 is explicitly defining the set of replacement effects that modify how a permanent enters the battlefield, and it does so by listing two basic classes of such replacements: replacements from that permanent that affect only that permanent, and replacements from sources other than that permanent. The rest of 614.12 is then a bunch of further detail about how to determine which replacements from within these basic classes should be applied, but none of that detail matters here, because we already know enough to know that Winding Constrictor’s ability should not be applied, because it does not fall into either of these basic classes.” Approved by Callum Milne Cards: Metallic Mimic; Winding Constrictor

4. A player controls Multani, Yavimaya’s Avatar on the battlefield. Can this player activate Multani’s ability?

A: The answer to this question is covered by rule 112.6k: “an ability whose cost or effect specifies that it moves the object it’s on out of a particular zone functions only in that zone, unless that ability’s trigger condition, or a previous part of that ability’s cost or effect, specifies that the object is put into that zone. The same is true if the effect of that ability creates a delayed triggered ability whose effect moves the object out of a particular zone. Example: Reassembling Skeleton says “{1}{B}: Return Reassembling Skeleton from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.” A player may activate this ability only if Reassembling Skeleton is in their graveyard.” So, a player can only activate Multani’s ability whenever she’s on that player’s graveyard. Approved by Nathan Long Cards: Multani, Yavimaya’s Avatar

Investigations in What’s Up, Docs?

For this month we would like to share with you an interesting article on how to detect, identify and prevent lying. A must-read for all aspiring investigators!

Two Headed Giant Release Notes: Battlebond

The new Two Headed Giant Release Notes for Battlebond are out now. Check them out! (Editor’s note: Official set release notes were published in June!)

Knowledge Pool

The two latest scenarios in the Knowledge Pool are Team Bonding Exercise and All Aboard!

Judging for the Win

Make sure that you check out the Dominaria New Set Digest outlining rules, policy and lots of other changes to go with it. If you are trying to keep up with everything, the article has everything you’ll need all in one place.

Find out which Judge Conferences, Grand Prix and SCG Opens have available worldwide staffing positions! You still have some time to apply for GP Detroit, GP Hong Kong, GP Stockholm, SCG Open Philadelphia and SCG Open Indianapolis!

Check out the Grand Prix Solicitations and Select Staffs for more details on individual tournaments and to know if there are some last minute solicitations you can apply to!

Public Projects such as GP Travelguides and Random Situation Generator are looking for awesome judges who can help! If you wish to get more out of your Judging experience and give back to the community, sign up for something that interests you!

Sugar on Top!

Check out the cake from GP Birmingham! That’s really sweet!