ONLINE RESOURCES FOR MTG JUDGING
THE ROAD TO LEVEL 1
for judges and candidates!
— JUDGING AT REGULAR (JAR) is the document that provides the philosophy for judging at regular rules enforcement level. It contains recommendations for handling various situations you could encounter at regular events.
ACQUIRE A SOLID KNOWLEDGE BASE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS Indispensable if you want to have correct and up-to-date knowledge of the rules. English version
The Comprehensive Rules (CR) are the final authority on Magic: The Gathering. They describe the inner working of the game, the mechanics, the zones, the turn structure...
OFFICIAL RESOURCES The [O]fficial Resources website has all official resources you might need: certification info, official documents, judge level prerequisites, ...
LINKS
Comprehensive rules : http://blogs.magicjudges.org/translatedrules/ Annotated IPG : http://blogs.magicjudges.org/rules/ipg/#annotated-ipg Annotated MTR : http://blogs.magicjudges.org/rules/mtr/#annotated-mtr Judge Classes : http://wiki.magicjudges.org/en/w/Judge_Classes [O]fficial resources : http://blogs.magicjudges.org/o/
FIND A MENTOR
It is important to have someone to share their skills, knowledge and contacts with you. They can help you to set goals and works on your weakness. Regional Coordinators can help you to find someone !
DO ONLINE TEST
It’s free and gives you answers with explanation from the Comprehensive Rules.
JUDGE REGULAR EVENT As a new candidate, you are encouraged to work with Magic retailers to organize and run local Regular REL events. It is also good to stay in contact with your community by helping them!
PASS AN EXAM With the help of your mentor, find a Level 2 judge to prepare and conduct the L1 exam with sucess!
Judge Booth : http://booth.magicjudges.org Wiki : http://wiki.magicjudges.org Cranial Insertion : http://www.cranialinsertion.com/ Judge Apps : http://apps.magicjudges.org/ Contacts : http://blogs.magicjudges.org/o/spheres/regional-coordinators/
— THE MAGIC TOURNAMENT RULES (MTR) defines the procedures for running Magic tournaments in general and in various official formats like individual, team or two-headed giant. There is also an annotated version. — THE MAGIC JUDGE CODE OF CONDUCT is a valuable reminder of our expected behavior when donning the black shirt and representing the values of the Judge Program. — FINALLY, EVERY SET HAS ITS OWN FAQ (the expansion set release notes) explaining the set’s mechanics and highlighting cards that could create complicated situations. This document is especially useful when you are preparing to judge a pre-release.
ALTERNATIVE LEARNING The following resources offer a reorganization of the Comprehensive Rules in easy to grasp lessons. Judge Classes : these documents reorganize the essential parts of the Comprehensive Rules in 8 lessons, optimized for a weekly interval. The Judge Classes, unfortunately the same as many things on the Wiki, are massively out of date. We recommend to use Mystical Tutor. Mystical Tutor : this platform presents a reorganisation of the Comprehensive Rules through video lessons and dynamic presentations. From time to time, live sessions with certified judges are being held. The Judge Candidate Textbook is an Italian initiative that offers a reorganization of the Comprehensive Rules similar to the Judge Classes, but illustrated and regularly updated. It’s available here.
Judge center : http://judge.wizards.com/
Blog Portal : http://blogs.magicjudges.org/blog-portal/
— THE INFRACTION PROCEDURE GUIDE (IPG) defines the infractions and their associated penalties that are applicable at competitive and professional tournaments. Knowledge of this document is important when you want to judge at these rules enforcement levels and is required to become a Level 2 judge. There is also an annotated version .
VOILA! YOU ARE A JUDGE
JOIN THE COMMUNITY Integrating oneself in the judge community is an important aspect of your life as a judge. It’s often through the community that you will receive different judging opportunities. Remember that the best way to improve as a judge is by working with and generally being around other judges.
JUDGEAPPS JudgeApps hosts the international judge forum, applications for large evens, an overview of all judge community projects and exemplar recognitions. Once you have access to the platform, make sure to explore it as there is an enormous number of projects you can participate in and the forum is very active.
FACEBOOK GROUPS Most judge regions have one or more facebook groups, the activity on which varies from region to region. Make sure to ask other judges in your region (or your Regional Coordinator) where to find it. We are over 6817 judges in the world! (13/01/2016)
MAINTAINING YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND CURIOSITY
TESTING YOUR KNOWLEDGE JUDGE CENTER
THE WIKI The Wiki is a goldmine of information. It offers official documents, study methods and general information concerning judging. You can also find the documents on the [O]fficial Resources website. There are metagame overviews with frequently asked questions for various formats: Modern , Legacy and Vintage.
MAGIC JUDGES BLOG A large number of blogs is hosted and presented at the blog portal. The Knowledge Pool, Magic Rules Tips, What’s Up, Docs? Something for everyone!
CRANIAL INSERTION The Cranial Insertion offers a weekly influx of rules questions and answers with a healthy dose of humor.
JUDGECAST The Judgecast is a biweekly podcast by judges, for judges. Often funny, it’s a very valuable source of judging information.
The Judge Center : To access the Judge Center, you need to create a Wizards Account , if you don’t already have one. If you have activated your DCI card, you already have an account! The Judge Center provides access to multiple applications: you can search for judges, read and write reviews … but what interests us most here is the “exams” section. The Judge Center offers various exams that you can generate for yourself. Here you can test your knowledge to become Level 1 by generating an Easy Practice. Once you are familiar with the rules and the exam structure, don’t hesitate to try the Rules Advisor exam. It’s not required to test for Level 1 but it offers a nice middle ground between uncertified and Level 1. As a Rules Advisor, players at your FNM or other Regular REL events will consider you as a reference in absence of a certified judge. If you are a certified judge on the road to Level 2, the Policy Practice is a valuable tool to validate your knowledge of the IPG and might be required before being accepted to judge a Competitive REL event. Finally, the Hard Practice is instrumental in studying for your Level 2 certification. Note that some questions are tougher that what you can expect to see at a real Level 2 exam, so don’t despair if you fail one. In general, the exams offer 12 questions that are to be answered within 30 minutes. In the end, you receive the results and a detailed explanation of each answer for later review.
INTERACTIVE JUDGE BOOTH Contrary to the Judge Center, the Judge Booth doesn’t offer multiple choice questions. You are presented a situation and it’s up to you to come up with a solution before being offered the answer.
KNOWLEDGE POOL
IMPORTANT CONTACTS The Regional Coordinators are responsible for judges in their region. They fulfill different roles like coach, mediator, etc. Should any serious problem occur in your judge career, this is the first person to speak to.
Judge Candidate Information Leaflet & booklet Gang translated by Julie Bouchonville Jonas Drieghe
The Knowledge Pool offers short scenarios of different levels which can also be found at the Judge Forums. These scenarios are examples of situations you could frequently encounter at tournaments and focus on understanding and applying policy as defined in the IPG and the MTR. These scenarios are mainly for L1 judges who want to judge at Competitive REL and higher level judges.