JudgeCast #355 – Get Me Release Notes of Spider-Man!

Thwip! Is your Peter-tingle tingling? Join Bryan and Marcos as we web-sling across the JudgeCast-verse and bring back former host CJ Shrader for a stroll down his least favorite of all episode types, the Release Notes episode. We spend nearly 90 minutes talking about mechanics and interactions to get you ready for prerelease weekend, while we weave a web of non-sequiturs and references to 10 year old episodes. If you want to know how Spider-ham works, go listen somewhere else, but if you want to understand some of the details of web-slinging or transforming modal double-faced cards, listen up. With great power comes great content. Release Notes: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/spider-man-release-notes

Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we talk entries in the comprehensive rules, and not just any rule entries. These rule entries support a single unique Magic Card, and there are more of them than you might think. Sure, you might realize that Shahrazad requires unique rules, but did you realize that Zack Fair also does? Did you even know there was a card named Zack Fair? Although I can't say we fully researched this ourselves. This episode was made possible by the Scryfall tagger project, where folks can tag individual cards based on whatever criteria they want. Scryfall tags are maintained by a community of dedicated fans, and we appreciate their efforts, as it served as a starting point for this episode.If you have ever read a CR entry and wondered just when and where this rule is used, then this might be the episode for you. https://tagger.scryfall.com/tags/card/unique-cr-reference

Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we talk about Commander. But guys, we already know about Commander, there are a billion podcasts and YouTube series focusing on Commander. What do you provide that's new?Well, while we do discuss the rules, its not the focus of the episode. Instead we talk about how to foster Commander at your store, things to consider if you want to run a commander event, and even how to seat players in a 4 person pod when your software will only match folks for 1v1. We discuss pitfalls of trying to run a "Bracket 3 Tournament", and what would happen if you do a bracket 4 tournament. We also talk about cEDH Competitive Rules enforcement tournaments. Come for the tournament logistics, stay for Bryan's rant about proxies.

Judges, I'm not a Renton serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd post a job application if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we go over something so small from the outside that caught the Magic Judge Community by surprise: A Hasbro job posting for a Magic Judge Program Manager. We speculate on motivation while we discuss our hopes and fears and work through some anger issues in real time. Will this lead to a renaissance of MTG Judging? Will this be a mutually beneficial relationship, or is it blatant attempt by WotC to seize control? Will the community they abandoned welcome them back as liberators, or will they be ignored? We spend an hour discussing these questions before settling on: "We don't know". Join us in our uncertainty. Hasbro Job Posting: https://jobs.hasbro.com/job/Renton-Manager%2C-Magic-Judge-Program-Wash/1309319400/

Join Bryan, Charles, Marcos and possibly Zorak and Moltar as we discuss the newest MTG set, Edge of Eternities. We discuss the new station mechanic, as well as warp, void, landers, and so many other terms you might think we were talking about a Protoss rush.We go over specific cards and interactions you might run into at your prerelease.

Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we celebrate our 350th episode by doing...literally nothing special. We discuss one of the least understood and least celebratory aspects of Magic; Loops. We talk about how to recognize a loop and what to do when you have dueling loops. Then we circle back and talk about the loop boogie-men, the Four Horsemen, and why its not really a loop, and how anything that requires a TI-85 is probably a bad idea.

The Ghost train is pulling out of the station. Join Bryan, Charles, Marcos (and Biggs and Wedge in spirit) as they give you the Pheonix Down low on the newest magitek in the latest MTG set, Final Fantasy. We summon up the changes to the saga rules and the new Tiered mechanic. We cover enough individual cards to chocobo a horse, threading the gold needle between complex cards, and interactions you might be asked at your local Golden Saucer. If you are looking for rules nerd banter and a little bit of 8-bit theater, we are the right folks for the job.

In this episode, Bryan, Charles, and Marcos are joined by Pastimes' Meg Baum to talk about the "other side of staffing". We have talked in the past about how to apply for events as well as tips and tricks to help you get staffed, but this is the first time we have talked about what it takes to make an event staff. And while we have done staffing for "ballroom sized events", we have never had to staff with as many applications or roles to fill as a MagicCon. Meg pulls back the curtain and lets us know many of the considerations that need to be made when constructing a staff of hundreds.

MTG Judge Conferences are an amazing resource when it comes to learning and growing as a Judge. However, conferences need presenters and creating a presentation can be daunting if you have never done it before. Topics can range from layers or state-based actions, to more complex topics like Hidden Card error or competing replacement enter effects, or all the way up to investigation workshops. But the journey of a thousand presentations begins with a single google doc. Join Bryan, Charles, and Marcos as we talk about how to figure out what you want to present on, how to start a draft and plan for your audience, and finally tips and tricks to present effectively.

In this episode of JudgeCast, Bryan, Charles, and Marcos talk about upgrades. Those little paragraphs or sentences at the bottom of your favorite entries in the Magic Infraction Procedure Guide. Upgrades are when a certain series of events happen, and the penalty an MTG Judge would normally assign gets bumped up one or two steps.In this episode we talk about all the upgrades, even the FOUR hidden in the JAR. If you are looking to run RCQs or staff larger MTG events, this is one to check out.