And welcome to M20 release time! We’re seeing the news now about new policy updates, so we’ll have all that information for you, and some discussion next month!

We have an exciting new project to talk to you about, all about your amazing Magic stories! Go check it out in the project’s section!

A bit of a bonus pretzel reward for those who wrote reviews in the previous year. If you’re one of the diligent and dedicated to providing feedback for other Judges, keep an eye on your in-box for a nice surprise.

As of the writing of this article M20 has just launched, so keep an eye out for the upcoming M20 notes. If you’re playing catch-up like some of us who write for this blog and still haven’t read the notes on Modern Horizons, here is a link to get you back in the race.

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!

Exemplar Wave 17 has been announced, along with a special Vanguard token for everyone that was recognized this wave. Congratulations to everyone that received an exemplar!

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

1. During a Competitive REL event, a player had brought two different standard decks in similar boxes and sleeves. After having lunch and moving the boxes around, the player took out the wrong deck, shuffled without looking, and drew their starting hand. What is the infraction, penalty and fix?

A: This is a Deck Problem, because they presented a deck that doesn’t match their list, nor what they intended to play. It’s a fairly silly mistake, and – once corrected – won’t have much impact on the match, but that doesn’t influence the penalty, nor define the infraction. While there is potential for advantage, it’s extremely unlikely that a player would attempt to Cheat in this manner. And, again, potential for advantage (utterly massive or not) neither defines the infraction, nor influences the penalty. Potential for advantage should influence our investigation; nothing more. Approved by Scott Marshall

2. During an MCQ, AP casts Command the Dreadhorde and asks NAP 'OK?', to which NAP replies 'Sure'. AP starts to choose the creatures and planeswalkers he wants to animate and NAP stops him and calls the judge. NAP says that since AP asks OK? that means AP passes priority and chose no target for Command the Dreadhorde. If you were the judge who took the call what would you do?

A: We would just made AP choose their targets (if any), and let NAP respond if they choose too. Magic tournaments test players ability for superior planning, not pointless technicalities. We don’t allow this kind of angle shooting, and we’re far from the time of infamous tricks such as the Harrow one (‘Player A plays Harrow, sacrifices a land and puts the Harrow into his graveyard. Then he wants to grab his library and search for lands. From a strictly technical point of view it’s too late for that. Because the last thing you do during resolution of the spell is put it in the graveyard, the player has implicitly chosen to search for zero lands.’)

If we want a default choice in case of ambiguous or no communication (such as ‘OK means a spell resolves’ or ‘Not announcing the number of targets means you chose 0 targets’), we would put that in the Shortcut rules in the MTR. There is no such thing for this scenario, so we can’t assume or enforce a default choice, but only make the players clarify what is going on. Approved by the Forum Moderators Cards: Command the Dreadhorde, Harrow

3. During a EMSQ (Competitive REL), AP drew the first four cards of their opening hand from the top of their library and laid them face down in front of them. They then proceeded to draw the remaining three cards but accidentally they drew four cards instead and saw them before realizing their error. What is the infraction, penalty and fix?

A: ‘Dealing’ cards face down onto the table is not ‘Drawing’ cards. The assumption for MPE is that the issue will be discovered when the player looks at their opening hand. Unlike HCE where there can often be separation of sets of cards, MPE will generally operate on the whole hand. In this instance though I would return one of the face down cards back to the library, the cards haven’t been drawn yet. No infraction nor penalty.

Approved by the Forum Moderators

4. AP controls Grand Architect and NAP controls Treasure Nabber. If AP taps an untapped blue artifact creature for Grand Architect ability, will Treasure Nabber's ability trigger?