Published on 05/12/2025
Try not to MSBleed in MSP
By Carsten Haese, Nathan Long, and Justin Hovdenes
This Article from: Justin Hovdenes
Cranial Translation
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So the player didn't bleed this much.
On Saturday, I helped with many different events over the course of the day, but my primary responsibilities were to Head Judge an Oversized Legacy Tournament early in the day, and then to Head Judge a "Standard +" event at the end of the day.
On Sunday I was the Deck Checks lead for the Modern 5K event. My team consisted of one other judge and myself.
The main event and the 5k were run at Competitive Rules Enforcement Level and most everything else was run at Regular REL.
The questions and rulings below all happened while I was at these events. Any names of players have been changed, and some of the rulings were done by judges other than myself.
If you have any Magic questions burning at the back of your brain, you can send them to us. We may even use them in a future article. If you have a short question, you can send it to us via our Twitter account at @CranialTweet, and you can send us longer questions at moko@cranialinsertion.com .
Saturday
Magic Regional Championship Standard
Players: 1,365
9 Rounds of Swiss Day 1 (needing a record of 6-3 or better to continue on to day 2)
Day 2: 6 Swiss rounds, then cut to Top 8
$100,000 in prizes spread across top 128 players. Top 2 players get an invitation to the next Pro Tour. Top 128 get invites to next Regional Championship.
Rules Enforcement Level: Competitive on Saturday and Professional on Sunday
Q: Judge, my opponent is bleeding on his cards and the table. What should we do?
A: This happened on the main event. I wasn't on staff for this event, but got nabbed by a player as I walked by. Luckily, the bleeding was quite minor, almost like the player cut himself while shuffling. I checked that the player wasn't in serious danger, then went to get a band aid from the first aid kit at the main stage. After bringing it back to the player, we made sure the area was clean, and then I gave the table an appropriate time extension.
As judges we end up helping with all sorts of things that have nothing to do with cards and/or rulings.
Saturday
Oversized Legacy
Players: 20
5 Rounds of Swiss
Each player that ends the Tournament with 5-0 record gets an Oversized Magic Card. Each player gets 100 Prize Tickets per match win.
Rules Enforcement Level: Regular
Q: Judge, my opponent is playing with many cards in Japanese. I can't read Japanese and neither can my opponent. Are they allowed to play with cards they can't read?
A: The opponent is allowed to play with cards that they and/or their opponents can't read. However, you are allowed to ask a judge for the Oracle text of any card your opponent currently has revealed or even that you suspect they may have. We will give a time extension for any time lost looking up such cards. You will find by art alone you can make your way through most games.
Magic is played internationally, and is produced in many different languages. It would be onerous to expect everyone to learn one written or spoken language to play in Magic tournaments or to expect everyone to use only cards printed in one language.
I've personally watched games of Magic at large events where two players completed a full match without sharing a formal language between them. The only language they shared was that of Magic. It's kinda awesome.
Q: Judge, I just cast Murktide Regent by exiling three instants and/or sorceries from my graveyard. My opponent responded by casting Dress Down. Will my Murktide enter with any +1/+1 counters?
A: It will get no +1/+1 counters. Just before any permanent enters the battlefield, the game takes a nanosecond to check what it will look like on the battlefield before it does enter. In this case the game notices it will have no abilities, and therefore enters with no counters.
Q: Judge, I control Goblin Welder and my only artifact on the battlefield is Grafdigger's Cage. Can I use the Welder to swap the Cage for the Painter's Servant in my graveyard?
A: You may not. This is very similar to the last question. Before Painter's Servant attempts to enter the battlefield, the game "checks" if it can. Grafdigger's Cage says it can't, so it won't. The Cage will still get sacrificed.
Note: This is not an exchange anymore like the original card text says. It's been Oracled to a simultaneous return and sacrifice.
Saturday
Standard +
Players: 19
3 Rounds of Swiss
Each player that ends the Tournament with either 2-0-1 or 3-0 record gets additional Prize Tickets. Each player gets 200 Prize Tickets per match win.
Rules Enforcement Level: Regular
Remember what was Last Known Information,
could prevent a Massacre.
could prevent a Massacre.
A: It will deal 3 damage and the opponent will gain 3 life from this death trigger. Death triggers like this will look back to see what stats the creature had the last time it was on the battlefield. This is called "Last Known Information". The death trigger will resolve after the Hero is in the graveyard, after the +1/+1 counter has ceased to exist, and after the Sheltered has become unattached and placed into the graveyard. But when it died, it had 3 power and lifelink, so it uses that last known information to determine the amount of damage and that this damage is lifelink damage.
Q: Judge, it's currently my opponent's turn, but during my last turn after combat I discarded a card to my Fear of Missing Out's enters trigger. I told my opponent my plan to put a +1/+1 counter on my Marauding Mako, but didn't physically do it as I got distracted by what land to play after the draw. I passed the turn, and the only thing my opponent has done so far is draw. Do I get my +1/+1 counter or did I miss it?
A: As a judge, this sort of question can go a few different ways. It depends on what the opponent agrees happened, and whether I trust the story the player is telling. In this specific case, the opponent said he was unsure if the Mako player made mention of their trigger. After discussing with both players, I felt the Mako player did say it and the trigger was never missed. They just didn't increase the number of counters on their Mako, but the opponent had not heard the Mako player announce the trigger or had forgotten, so I had the Mako player put the +1/+1 counter on their creature.
Note: As this was a Regular Rules Enforcement Tournament, if the Mako player had forgotten the trigger in the first place, we would likely still give them the counter as this wouldn't be too disruptive.
Q: My opponent controls Authority of the Consuls and I'm casting Overlord of the Balemurk for its impending cost. Will it enter the battlefield tapped or untapped? Will my opponent gain 1 life?
A: So this may seem counterintuitive, but they gain no life and the Balemurk enters tapped. This has been described several times in this article, but just before a permanent enters the battlefield, the game checks how the permanent will look on the battlefield before it actually gets there. The game sees it will be a creature cast with impending, but won't see any time counters. Without time counters it's a creature, so the replacement effect on Authority will put it onto the battlefield tapped, but as an enchantment, not as a creature. The opponent will not gain 1 life.
Q: Judge, my opponent controls Ugin, Eye of the Storms and just cast a card for its disguise cost. Does this trigger Ugin's second ability? Does it matter if the hidden side of the disguised card is colorless or has one or more colors?
A: It will trigger Ugin's second ability. It doesn't matter what the stats of the hidden side of the card are. While on the stack and/or on the battlefield, a disguised card is a 2/2 colorless creature with ward
.Saturday
Mystery Booster 2 Sealed
Players: 66
3 Rounds of Swiss
Each player that ends the Tournament with either 2-0-1 or 3-0 record gets additional Prize Tickets. Each player gets 200 Prize Tickets per match win.
Rules Enforcement Level: Regular
Q: Judge, my opponent attacked me with both Angel of Light and Circuit Mender. I block the Mender with Balduvian Warlord. Can I now use the Warlord's ability to move the Warlord from blocking the Mender to blocking the Angel of Light?
A: You can! When you choose blockers as the declare blockers step begins, you can usually only choose a flyer or reach creature to block an attacking flyer. However, with an ability like Balduvian Warlord has, you can let any blocking creature block any creature no matter what evasion ability the attacker has. This could be used to make a creature with "this creature can't be blocked" be blocked by any creature that is already blocking another creature.
Sunday
RCQ 5k Modern
Players: 264
9 Rounds of Swiss, then cut to Top 8
$5,000 in prizes spread across top 16 players. Top 8 players get an invitation to the next Regional Championship.
Rules Enforcement Level: Competitive
Q: Judge, I've been trying to submit my deck through Melee.gg for this tournament, but it keeps saying the deck is invalid. I have Kaheera, the Orphanguard as my companion and it says my Mystic Gates are invalid for this deck. What do I do to fix this?
A: There is nothing to fix, this is a known issue where Melee.gg thinks that some lands (like Mystic Gate) are creatures lacking the appropriate creature type to be in a Kaheera deck. Submit the deck as invalid, this will not be an issue for you in this tournament.
Q: Judge, my opponent currently controls the Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar which transformed from Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student last turn. What is her mana value?
A: Her mana value is 1. The mana value of the back side of a transforming double faced card is the same as its front side.
Note: Modal double faced cards use the current face for their mana value.
Q: Judge, my opponent is attacking with Monastery Swiftspear, after I declare no blocks they cast Lightning Bolt targeting me. If I respond with casting Dress Down will this prevent the Swiftspear from getting +1/+1 from its prowess ability?
A: The prowess trigger it gets from this Lightning Bolt exists independent from Swiftspear having prowess. It will still get this +1/+1. The opponent could even respond to you casting Dress Down several more times, giving more prowess triggers that will grow the Swiftspear. However, once the Dress Down is on the battlefield (and all triggers that triggered before Dress Down was cast have resolved), the Swiftspear can get no larger through its original prowess ability.
Q: Judge, I control Orcish Bowmasters and my opponent controls Guide of Souls. My opponent has just cast Seasoned Pyromancer. They will discard two cards to its triggered ability, then draw two cards. Can I use the triggers from my Orcish Bowmasters to kill the Guide of Souls before the opponent gets any Elemental tokens, therefore preventing the opponent from gaining any energy counters and the little amount of life?
A: Sadly, your Orcs are too slow. Seasoned Pyromancer has one large triggered ability and one activated ability. The large triggered ability will discard two cards, draw two cards, and make between zero and two Elemental tokens before you put any Bowmaster triggers on the stack. You can still use the Bowmasters to kill the Guide of Souls, but the opponent will still gain between 0 and 2 life and the same amount of energy.
I was kind of a Deck Boss.
A: We actually have two main options here. Deck Problem with a Warning or Decklist Problem with a Game Loss. These have two very different outcomes for the player, but how do we decide which is which? The most important factor is intent. Which did the player intend to play? You really just have to ask the player what they intended. I wouldn't let the player know the difference in penalty since that may encourage them to lie to you to get the lesser penalty. We caught this error in round 5, meaning the player had played 4 full rounds with the deck having Scalding Tarns. If he had intended to play with Wooded Foothills and no Tarns, he should have called it out by now. After talking with him, he made it clear he intended to play with the Tarns. I would have issued a Game Loss and corrected the list to match his deck.
At this point my fellow judge said to the player, "You can avoid the penalty if you can quickly replace the Tarns with Foothills". With an out presented to the player, I didn't want to force the Game Loss, so we gave him up to ten minutes to find and replace the lands. (He owned the lands in the room, they were with another player.) He got the cards and we gave the table a 17 minute time extension: 3 for shuffling, 9 for the time of deck check, and 5 for finding the missing cards.
After the deck check was complete I talked with my fellow judge about what happened, and what went wrong. We should not have given the player the option to swap lands to avoid the penalty, but giving the player the hope and then tearing it away seemed worse. This isn't a huge mistake, I myself made the same mistake last year while judging a NRG Tournament in Minneapolis.
Q: During another Deck Check in this tournament we grabbed a table that was about to start game 2 of their round. This is called a mid-round deck check. Yes, we do this. During the check, we noticed one player had a 59 card main board and a 16 card sideboard, while the decklist had 60 card main and 15 card sideboard. It appeared the player had moved out 9 blue cards from the main board and moved in 8 black cards from the sideboard. After some questioning the player, it became clear the player made a simple math error and moved out too many cards. What is the infraction, penalty, and fix?
A: The infraction is Deck Problem, the penalty is Game Loss, and with a game loss the fix is to remind the player that if there is a game 3 to make sure their main deck has at least 60 cards after sideboarding.
Now you might think, isn't Deck Problem usually a Warning, not a Game Loss? Well, you would be correct, however the first upgrade under Deck Problem is exactly this issue. The philosophy behind the upgrade is if we only gave a Warning when a deck is smaller than the required size and not called out by the owner of the deck, players could intentionally abuse the rule and regularly play smaller decks to gain an advantage, since fewer cards makes it more likely to find the most powerful cards.
Q: Judge, I control a Chalice of the Void with one charge counter on it. My opponent is currently attacking with Slickshot Show-Off. After I declare no blocks, the opponent casts Violent Urge (they currently have Delirium), they then hold priority and cast Consign to Memory replicating it once, targeting the Chalice trigger with both copies. How much damage do I take?
A: You would take 12 damage. The Chalice will trigger twice this turn, first to try to counter Violent Urge and then a second time to counter the original Consign to Memory. It will not trigger to counter the copy of Consign to Memory as the copy was not cast. Slickshot will get +2/+0 for the opponent casting Violent Urge, then will get +2/+0 for the opponent casting the original copy of Consign to Memory (even though that spell will get countered). Slickshot does not get a bonus for the copy of Consign to Memory as the copy was not cast, then Slickshot will get +1/+0 and double strike for Violent Urge resolving. This makes Slickshot a 6/2 double striker, meaning it deals two groups of 6 damage for a total of 12 damage.
Q: Judge, I control Samwise Gamgee and Sylvan Safekeeper. My opponent casts Static Prison targeting my Samwise. I respond with giving Sam shroud by sacrificing a land to Safekeeper. My opponent knows that my Sam is safe, but we disagree about whether or not he still gets his two energy from the Static Prison trigger. Does he still get the energy?
A: The opponent does not get any energy. The only target the static triggered ability had is no longer legal. When an ability loses all of its targets, the whole ability fails to resolve.
Q: Judge, I just cracked my Scalding Tarn to find the Thundering Falls in my library. The problem is, it's not in my deck, and while looking around I found it in my deck box. So I think I presented a 59 card deck at the start of this round. How do we fix this?
A: After a little research, we find the player did start with a 59 card deck, a 15 card sideboard, and the Thundering Falls by itself in the deck box. The penalty is a Warning. The fix here is to shuffle that card into the library where it should have been this whole time. However, as this error was discovered during the resolution of an ability, the opponent gets to choose if we do so right now or after the Tarn's ability resolves.
In this case, the opponent chose to have it shuffled it in before the Tarn resolved.
So that was Minneapolis. We had a ton of players, quite a few judges, and I really enjoyed myself, both helping with events and being in the Twin Cities. Not sure when my next big event is, but if you see me around don't be afraid to say hello.
- Justin Hovdenes AKA Hovey
Level 2 Magic Judge
Rapid City, SD
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