Ottawa, Canada
Friday May 15th, 2026 - Sunday May 17th, 2026
Friday - ODEs
More Like SLOW-DE's
It's been a while since I've been on ODEs so it was a nice change. Unfortunately it was a rather slow day, so I spend most of my day helping out with registration and scorekeeping. After Nanaimo it was nice to be able to do a little scorekeeping in an environment where there were others around to teach me. Overall I think in this role I kind of drove the people around me nuts with my stir-craziness but I also used my time well to learn a few things from those around me.
Sticky Stealth Attackers
AP attacks with a creature for the turn and a card slides out from under it, evidently having been stuck to it for a while now. What happens? There was a lot of discussion about this, and a few people landed on different things. Overall we settled on looking at extra cards, and shuffling the card back into the library. Similar to if AP had simply revealed a card from the top of their library by accident and it had ended up in the middle of the battlefield. (IPG 2.2)
Not the Last Gift After All
AP casts Superior Spider-Man choosing to copy Bringer of the Last Gift. Will the Bringer come back? Maybe. First, AP selects Bringer for Spider-Man's replacement effect, then Spider-Man's reflexive trigger, triggers. Spider-Man then enters as a Bringer, causing Bringer's enter the battlefield trigger to trigger. Then AP chooses the order they are put onto the stack, with whichever goes on top being the first to resolve. (CR 603.3, CR603.12) If AP has Superior Spider-Man's exile trigger resolve first, Bringer obviously can't come back, but if AP stacks them the other way then it will. Notably this interaction only works because Superior Spider-Man's exile effect is a reflexive trigger and not part of the replacement effect.
The Little Memnite that Lived
NAP casts Flame of Anor, choosing to destroy AP's Memnite and deal five damage to it. Before that resolves, AP activates their Welding Jar, what happens? As Flame of Anor attempts to resolve, its destruction event is replaced by Welding Jar, However afterwards, Memnite is dealt five damage and will die the next time state-based actions are checked. (CR 701.19) Notably, if the spell cast was instead Prismari Command, the result would be the opposite, Memnite would be dealt two damage, then the destroy effect would occur, be replaced and all damage would be removed from Memnite as part of regerenate's replacement effect, and when state-based actions are checked, the Memnite wouldn't die.
Is That Legal?
AP controls a tapped Paradise Druid, casts Refocus choosing to untap it, do they draw a card? Yes. Legality is checked when the spell is put onto the stack, and when it begins to resolve. (CR 608.2b) in this case, the target becomes illegal as the spell is resolving, at which point the game is not continuing to check legality.
Clearcutting
NAP casts The End on AP's Earthbent Forest, what happens? NAP can search AP's library for any number of Forests and exile them. Afterwards the initial Forest will return to the battlefield tapped. (CR 701.66a)
Discordant Harmony
AP controls Mightform Harmonizer and an Earthbent Escape Tunnel. If AP activates the Escape Tunnel on their 2/2 creature, can they also double its power when the Escape Tunnel returns to the battlefield? No, AP will activate the ability, and choose a target, then they will sacrifice their Escape Tunnel to pay for the ability, at which point the Earthbend trigger will go onto the stack and will resolve, resulting in Mightform's trigger going on the stack and resolving, all before Escape Tunnel's Ability. Meaning the creature will no longer have power two or less and won't be a legal target for Escape Tunnel anymore. (CR 701.66)
An Aberrant Mockery
AP controls Insectile Aberration and would like to cast Mockingbird to copy it, what is its mana value? While this has historically gone back and forth, the current rules state that the mana value of the back face of a transforming double-faced card is the same as its front. So AP would need to pay X=0. (CR 202.3b)
Curve Extrapolation
AP controls Berta, Wise Extrapolator and casts Growth Curve, how many mana will AP get? Two, Growth Curve has two instances of putting counters on Berta, so it will trigger twice, even though neither trigger will go onto the stack until the spell has finished resolving. (CR 603.2a)
Saturday – End of Round Team Lead
Round and Round They Go
I was in charge of distributing promos, getting no-shows and collecting waivers, in addition to the normal EOR things. The method for reporting no shows was simple, I wanted to collect all the decklists that hadn't been claimed by players (since the lists were laid out on the table the night before). This would adequately tell us who hadn't shown up to the player meeting. I didn't want to do this before everyone had sat down though, so my initial plan was to assign each of my judges to two rows of waiver collection, or promo distribution, and then have the promo distributors collect the no show lists for their rows afterwards. Unfortunately I didn't give the clearest instructions, and things ended up lagging a lot. My folks were waiting for the HJ to give them the go-ahead to grab waivers and distribute promos, but in reality, we should've started that process probably before the HJ began talking. This meant that judges were still collecting and distributing long after no shows needed to be up at the scorekeeper. I just did a quick run-through of the event myself and collected no show lists when I noticed things going sideways, and since it was a small enough number for me to do quickly.
My EOR duties, however, went a bit better. For my team members I had them alternate who was point person for EOR, I had one of them do the odd rounds and one of them do the even rounds. I also had that same person report to the stage for pairings and scorekeeper assistance at the beginning of their EOR round. This ended up with a bit of an uneven distribution, since our break would steal a round from someone but otherwise it was great because it was incredibly simple for them to remember whether it was a "tasks" round for them.
Eloquently Impotent
AP casts Abigale, Eloquent First-Year and chooses AP's Earthbent Forest, will the Forest return to the battlefield when it dies? Yes, as part of the Earthbend trigger resolving it sets up a delayed trigger for when the land dies or is put into exile, this isn't an ability on the land and is unaffected by Abigale. (CR 701.66a)
A Deep Mockery
NAP controls a Superior Spider-Man that's a copy of Oildeep Gearhulk. AP casts Mockingbird with X=3 attempting to copy the Superior Spider-Man and then subsequently copy something else. Unfortunately, AP won't get a copy of Superior Spider-Man, they will get whatever it's a copy of. This was a little odd since it was a lucky coincidence that Oildeep Gearhulk was also mana value 4. That meant nothing illegal had happened and AP now had a copy of Oildeep Gearhulk. If Oildeep Gearhulk's mana value was greater than four, then AP would be issued a game rule violation, and the game would be rewound to the point of the illegal choice (not the entire casting of Mockingbird, notably.) and they'd be asked to select a legal creature to copy, or select none if there were no legal options. (IPG 2.5)
Sunday – Limited Championship Qualifier Top 16 HJ
A Sickening Realization
AP casts Homesickness targeting themselves and one of NAP's creatures. If that creature dies before Homesickness resolves, can NAP cast Return the Favor's second mode to have Homesickness target themselves? No. Homesickness is still a spell with two targets on the stack, even if one of them has become illegal. (CR 115.1a) If AP had chosen to cast Homesickness only targeting themselves, then NAP could cast Return the Favor on it.
A Reckoning of Sorts
AP casts Moment of Reckoning choosing to return their Archaeomancer from the graveyard to the battlefield. Can the Archaeomancer target Moment of Reckoning with its triggered ability? Yes. Archaeomancer is returned to the battlefield and its ability triggers, but it won't be put onto the stack until Moment of Reckoning is finished resolving, at which point it will be in the graveyard, and a valid target for Archaeomancer's ability. (CR 603.2)
If Only...
AP controls Bogwater Lumaret and casts Poisoner's Apprentice, will its ability trigger? Yes, the if clause in Poisoner's Apprentice's ability is not part of the trigger condition, so the trigger goes on the stack regardless of whether AP has gained life this turn, and only checks upon resolution whether they have and determines at that point whether to apply -4/-4 to the targeted creature. (CR 603.4)
Pleasure in Preparation
I was the top 16 HJ, but not the HJ for the rest of the LCT. One of the biggest issues is that I didn't communicate well with the HJ until right before the pass-off. My floor judge noticed this and compiled a helpful checklist of items I should've gone over with the HJ earlier in the day.
- Where is the product?
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What is the prizing?
- If it's promos where are the promos?
- If it's store credit/cash do we have player's relevant payment info?
- If there's a trophy where are the trophies?
- Where are we seating players for draft?
- What are standings going into top 16?
- How do I turn those standings into my seating arrangement/bracket?
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Is the draft called?
- Who is calling it?
- Do they have a written preamble/explanation for players?
- Does this draft have special rules? (i.e. double-faced cards)
- How are we seating players for registration?
- How much time should be allotted for registration/deck-building?
- How are we seating players for deckbuilding?
- Where are basic lands for players to use?
- How do players get those lands without walking around and seeing each others lists?
- How are matches seated?
- Do we need to do or say anything to players after they are eliminated?