Dallas, Texas | Modern
Time: Friday June 28 – Sunday June 30
Players: 1257 Winner: Austin Bursavich

Friday – PM Sides Lead


A Triggering Card
I watched an interesting call, Massacre Girl entered the battlefield, a bunch of creatures died, including Rekindling Phoenix, and the player wanted to know if the -1/-1 from Rekindling Phoenix dieing would kill the elemental token for the phoenix, the judge answered that the token would live. This is unfortunately, not correct as the triggers would go on the stack in AP/NAP order (The controller of Massacre Girl was in his precombat main phase.) I didn't totally know what to do and asked if it had been an important ruling, the judge answered “well yeah, it kind of decided the match, the Rekindling Phoenix attacked for lethal the turn after,” I felt like it was important that the players know the correct resolution of this interaction, as both cards are fairly prolific in standard, and asked the judge if he'd like me to talk to the players on his behalf. He said he'd rather take care of it himself, and so I left it at that.

A Trip to Dairy Queen
One of my judges let me know that on his event a player let the FJ of his event know that he had not received a promo. The HJ was the one handing out promos, so the FJ let passed the player off to the HJ. The HJ recalled that he'd handed out promos to all the players in his event, and didn't recall any absent players. He asked the player if he had received a promo or not, and the player insisted he did not, the judge then asked the player's first round opponent whether this player had received a promo and the first round opponent replied with “Yeah, he got a Forest and tried to trade it to me for my Plains.” When we pulled the player aside and let them know we had talked to the opponent the player immediately backtracked and said he now remembered the interaction. This entire situation was extremely suspicious. The way it appeared to me, was that the player was dissatisfied with his promo and wanted a different one, when trading didn't work he tried asking for another one. When he was discovered was revealed he decided to bail on the story. I authorized the DQ but it did disturb me a little because I usually just believe when players tell me they didn't get a promo, but perhaps I should be a little more careful in next time.

Saturday – MCQ FJ


Dispersal of a Ruling
I got a call on the MCQ where a player was using Bolas's Citadel to cast Discovery // Dispersal, and wanted to know how much life he had to pay. I initially ruled that he had to pay 7, as that was the CMC of the card. The player seemed concerned and mentioned that it didn't work this way on Modo, and while this isn't really a good argument, players are always entitled to a second opinion, so I got the HJ for an appeal. The HJ investigated the situation and overturned, letting me know that with Bolas's Citadel you put the card on the stack and determine costs, then you pay costs, which is the point when you pay life, and at that point the spell is on the stack and it's only the CMC of the side you're actually playing.

Taking a Hostage Taker Hostage
Another interesting call I had was that if AP casts Hostage Taker and then NAP takes control of it, can NAP cast the creature under Hostage Taker? The answer is no, because while they do control the Hostage Taker they didn't control the trigger that allows the player to cast the spell under it.

Shuffle Me into Your Library Face Up
On the MCQ I saw a player place God-Eternal Kefnet in his library face up. This isn't really ok at Comp REL (Though I do recall doing this at FNM with Approach of the Second Sun). I thought about stepping in, but decided that it wasn't a problem if both players were okay with it. I feel like it's very similar to a player playing with their hand revealed after a Thoughtsieze effect.

Sunday – PM Sides Lead


Freedom from Spreadsheets
I worked with an AM lead I don't usually work with, which was very different as they didn't use the traditional online spreadsheet. I personally really like the online spreadsheet as it allows me to easily visually ascertain when events are ending and what's currently going on and where gaps are. With just the text layout I found it very hard to have a good feel for what was going on in the area, and it necessitated me doing more rounds to keep in touch with my judges. I'm glad I got to experience something new, but I won't be abandoning the system I'm used to any time soon.

Maximize Utility
Near the very end of the evening, almost all the teardown was complete and there were only two active events, a modern in R2 and the final round of a sealed. I decided to release my entire staff as I didn't want to keep 5 judges for a 1 judge job. The legacy ended pretty early, but if it hadn't there would've been 3 events going for a while, which felt like something I would want 2 judges for. It's a little awkward because I can't keep just one person from late shift, though realistically I'd only need one person. When I'm on Friday or Saturday I usually ask when people are on in the morning and if I want to do a staggered release I get people out that have earlier shifts, mostly as an excuse so people don't complain about inequality.

Stop the Teardown!
I'm very task oriented so as soon as the hall started clearing out I wanted to get judges taking away tablecloths, unfortunately though, as the PM show manager mentioned to me, it's probably not great to give players the impression that they are getting kicked out, especially when they are still playing in a sanctioned event. Another new thing was that with the advent of coverage we weren't supposed to tear down anything behind the coverage cameras because the movement and noise can be disruptive. Unfortunately I didn't communicate that well to my judges and one ambitious member of my team ended up tearing down the entire section behind coverage, they luckily didn't seem to mind that much though.

...In Conclusion
MF Dallas was a challenge for a number of reasons and while I on average enjoyed the event, I definitely think I could've performed better. I'm still getting used to what it means to be PM sides lead, keeping people happy and energetic as well as working with the AM lead is always a challenge because it means adapting to different leadership styles. As always I'm really grateful that I was brought along for MF Dallas and am looking forward to my next show.