Hélène Bergeot started her career with Wizards of the Coast in France in December, 1995; afterwards, she spent a few years in the European headquarters based in Belgium and eventually relocated to the Renton office. She is currently the director of organized play and trade marketing.

We have been thoroughly looking into options that will strike the best balance possible between providing the best player experience and maintaining the integrity of our tournaments that have Sealed Pool registration, and have found a procedure that we believe achieves that balance.

Today, we are announcing an update to Sealed Pool registration procedures for Battle for Zendikar block starting with Grand Prix Sydney and Grand Prix Madison. The procedures for opening a Sealed Deck pool for this format are as follows:

Editor’s Note: Sealed Deck registration seating should be randomized with the update to the Sealed Pool procedure.

Each player is distributed six booster packs. The boosters will be marked in a way that distinguishes they came from the tournament organizer for that event.

Players on one side of each table open their boosters (Player A). The player directly across (Player B) observes this. Both players will observe and verify the contents of those boosters. After this process, the opened cards are stacked face down in a single pile and placed near Player B.

Player B will now open their boosters. Player A observes. Both players will observe and verify the contents. After this process, the opened cards are stacked face down in a single pile and placed near Player A.

Player A then registers the contents of Player B's pool, and vice versa.

After registration, each player returns the registered card pool to the player who originally opened the pool.

Players build and record decks as normal.

We want players to have a great tournament experience when competing in the main event of a Grand Prix. Opening up cards that are highly sought after and then having to give them to someone else, or finding an incentive to drop from the tournament you traveled to compete in just so you can keep the cards you opened, goes against that. Therefore, we have worked to find a procedure update that strikes a balance between ensuring the best possible player experience while also maintaining the integrity of the tournament.

This procedure update for Battle for Zendikar block comes as a result of the valuable feedback that you as a community have continued to provide. We are always looking for ways to improve the player experience, and community feedback is an important part of taking the steps necessary to ensure that players have the best time possible within the scope of maintaining tournament integrity. We will be monitoring feedback from this weekend's procedure update and will make changes as they are deemed necessary.