Amsterdam, Netherlands
Friday July 17th, 2026 – Sunday July 19th, 2026

Friday – Scheduled Sides

Hulking Sandman
AP controls four lands and Sandman, Shifting Scoundrel. AP's World War Hulk ticks up to chapter three at the beginning of their precombat main phase and then afterwards they play a land, what is Sandman's power? Sandman will be a 9/9. To double a creature's power means to give it +x/+0 where X is it's power at the time the ability resolves, which would be +4. Then when the land enters the battlefield, its Characteristic defining ability will be updated to make it a 5/5, but it will still only get +4/+4 from World War Hulk (CR 701.10b, CR 613.4a)

Ticket Troubles
Prizes always seem to be one of the more difficult things to sort out when you have massive amounts of players. All the loser events tickets (tix) were to be handed out at the start of round 1, then in subsequent rounds winner tix would be handed out, which meant the difference between winner and loser tix. Sounds confusing? Players found it confusing as well. For instance, in a three round event, if the prize distribution was 100 for the loser and 500 for the winner, at the start of round 1 all players would receive 300 tix and then in the middle of the table 400 would be placed (in subsequent rounds this would also happen). This caused a lot of delays in distribution since players didn't immediately understand what was going on. There isn't a great way to fix this, perhaps if the website said "participation tix" and "winning tix" but I understand there might be some sort of marketing psychology behind X tix for a win and X tix for a loss. Anther issue with tix was the fact that players that were dropped from the event before it started could collect any participation product (such as packs for sealed) but wouldn't be given the losing tix. I assume this is to avoid having players sign up for events and collecting tickets later for a large number of events to farm tickets.

Split the Difference
A compounding issue occurs when the initial distribution results in an even prize split each round, but the distribution plan actually turns that into an odd amount. For instance, if it was an event with 100 for the loser and 400 for the winner. This means that only 300 tix are dropped on the table and thus aren't splittable, in this instance the policy was simply to split it as much as possible and eat the difference. This isn't great because it incentives bribery and wagering, however offering the alternate solution (topping up the amount) is also undesirable because not only does it reward players for playing slowly but also encourages them to intentionally draw in future rounds, it also costs the organizer more. Ultimately, the solution is to have a prize structure that doesn't result in problems such as these but when you have so many different formats and combinations of those formats it can be nigh impossible to actually accomplish this and also have a comprehensive prize structure.

Get a Life, or Three
If AP1 gains life in 2HG, is AP2 considered to have gained life? No, life gain (as well as damage and loss of life) happen to players individually. (CR 810.9)

What Does It Mean to Be Alone?
Many cards in Marvel Super Heroes have an "attacks alone" mechanic (it's actually the entire mechanical identity of the White-Black colour pair. Thus you can imagine what the most common question in the 2HG events was. That being said, thankfully the answer to this question hasn't changed since Exalted, and a creature is only attacking alone if it is the only creature declared as an attacker in this combat step. (CR 506.5)

I Have to Shuffle How Many Times?
AP controls Cosi's Trickster and NAP casts From the Ashes, how many +1/+1 counters will be placed on Cosi's Trickster? AP only searches once, regardless of how many lands they are getting. (CR 701.23h)

The Real Mystery is How it Works
Glimpse, the Unthinkable is an interesting card, there was a brief discussion as to whether it can be chosen as an attacker or blocker, however, luckily the rulings clarify that its resistance to being chosen only applies to spells and abilities, and not, in fact other game rules. (Scryfall)

Saturday – Limited Championship Qualifier - EOR

The Source of the Issue
Can AP use mana produced by Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu to activate the cycling ability of a creature card in their hand? Yes. (CR 109.2c)

The Color of Worth
AP controls Spider-Man, To the Rescue, can they equip Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor to it? Yes, Spider-Man is white and not a villain, and is therefore worthy. (CR 700.16)

New Bot, Same as the Old Bot
AP controls Taskmaster, Mercenary Mimic, and copies Aerial Doombot and activates its power-up ability. On their next turn they once again copy the Doombot, can they activate its ability again? Yes. When Taskmaster becomes a copy of the Doombot it is a new instance of the creature and thus a new instance of the ability, and therefore that version of power-up hasn't yet been activated. (CR 707.2)

A Vision of Triggers
AP controls Viv Vision, Teen Synthezoid and two Agents of SHIELD. If AP attacks with Viv Vision, Teen Synthezoid, can AP draw a card? Yes, Her trigger while containing an if, isn't an "intervening if", as it does not appear in the trigger condition. (CR 603.4) The condition for Viv Vision's trigger is only that she attacks, and it goes on the stack regardless of what her power is at that time, then upon resolution it will check her power. At which point, if AP stacks their triggers properly, she will be a 4/4. (CR 608.2h)

Drawn Apart
AP said halfway through their turn that they had not drawn for turn, but NAP was uncertain. A card count at this point in the game was all but impossible. However the previous turn AP had scried and put one on the bottom and Borough Backup on the top of their library. Before they drew it, AP tapped five lands and said "oh I didn't draw", and attempted to cast it from the top of their library. After getting this information, as well as confirming which card had been scryed to the bottom, it was easy enough to rule game rule violation and apply the partial fix of have AP draw now. (IPG 2.5)

Vengeful Damage
AP attacks with Whiplash, Vengeful Engineer which is equipped with Bone Saw. Before his triggered ability resolves, NAP kills it, what happens? Its triggered ability will use last known information, so NAP will lose one life and AP will gain one life. (CR 608.2h)

Sunday – Scheduled Sides

Grand Cluster
There was a 2HG grand melee event, this was a very odd event. At its core it was two concurrent grand melee events, but both players in the 2HG sat across from each other instead of beside each other, and shared a life total, but were otherwise a part of two different grand melee games. I'm not sure why it was run this way instead of like a normal 2HG event where the players are beside each other and are effectively one player. Logistically it was complicated to have the two interlocking circles, and caused a lot of questions from players. My best guess is that this would cause players to die faster and if turns were happening at different times (which they likely would be) then partners could confer over play decisions without negatively impacting the other grand melee). But it meant a lot of other weirdness. Such as the fact that attacking and blocking did not happen together. I think maybe running this as a team grand melee would've been better, since it felt more like isolated games than 2HG.

The Timing of Errors
AP drew an extra card in their opening hand, and was issued a mulligan procedure error, and the fix was to have AP mulligan now. Does NAP need to wait until AP makes their mulligan decision on their new hand before deciding whether or not to keep their own hand? No, they must make the decision now with the knowledge that AP will be mulliganing. (IPG 2.4)

...In Conclusion
I actually had a great time at MC Amsterdam. I got to room with random locals instead of the people I see every week, which meant I got to make some new friends and I had a blast. I also liked the feeling of not being responsible for anything. I was just a floor judge and ergo only the responsibilities of a floor judge rested on my shoulders. Which is primarily answering calls and making players happy, both of which are my favourite parts of the job. While I didn't have a perfect weekend on the floor (no one ever does) I still had a great time and even managed to sneak in some moments to check out some of the puzzles and games offered at Magicon.