I wasn't playing/judging in original Innistrad but I understand it became common practice to reveal DFCs during a draft due to trying to prevent players waiting to see what others are picking first.

I also realize that this was far less of a problem for Origins as there were only 5 DFCs.

Since SOI has many DFCs again (up to 3 per pack), is it recommended to get people to reveal them first?

It feels to me like it's a good idea but I don't think this is part of the MTR. Does it make any difference if it's Regular, Competitive etc?

MTR doesn't make any difference between REL because it applies tor ALL REL.
This is already covered by MTR at section 7.7:

Players may not reveal the front face of their card selections or the contents of their current packs to other participants in the draft and must make a reasonable effort to keep that information from the sight of other players. Players are not permitted to reveal hidden information of any kind to other participants in the draft regarding their own picks or what they want others to pick. (Exception: This does not apply to double-faced cards, both faces of which may be revealed at any time during a draft.)

We used to ask players to show the DFC when they opened each booster before their first pick for that booster.

Thanks. I saw that section of the MTR but know that even though it says ‘may be revealed’ a lot of times people were told to reveal.

I know MTR applies to all REL but seeing as the MTR doesn't tell people to do this, I wondered if there was actually any difference. Do more competitive players not want to reveal their DFCs for example?

What I remember from Innistrad is that competitive players spent about 10
seconds looking at other players' DFC and then didn't ask any more about
them.

I've found this topic about similar concerns when Magic Origins was released
http://apps.magicjudges.org/forum/topic/19772/

I guess I am confused you pointed out the MTR and some of the comments on this link you posted imply you don't reveal all the DFC as they are opened people can seemthem when you draft them until you put your next pick on top. But then other comments say that at Grand prix and other comp events you have people show them to the table when each pack is opened. So which one do we do and is it diffrent for Reg Rel and Comp Rel. I just know with SOI this will come up a lot and want to have all my facts straight.

I also want to point out I am a new level one judge so sorry for all the follow up I just don't want to mess up.

Edited Michael Hinkle (April 8, 2016 07:44:36 AM)

Originally posted by Michael Hinkle:

I guess I am confused you pointed out the MTR and some of the comments on this link you posted imply you don't reveal all the DFC as they are opened people can seemthem when you draft them until you put your next pick on top. But then other comments say that at Grand prix and other comp events you have people show them to the table when each pack is opened. So which one do we do and is it diffrent for Reg Rel and Comp Rel. I just know with SOI this will come up a lot and want to have all my facts straight.

I also want to point out I am a new level one judge so sorry for all the follow up I just don't want to mess up.

You're welcome Michael! Scott Marshall provided a, probably, O fficial answer in that thread. Although all the answers in that thread from L3+ are very similar, all of them say players must reveal DFC.
I'm not an o fficial source, so my statements are less reliable, but in this case I'm just pointing out some previous answer xD

An “O”fficial answer on this would be very welcome, because as far as I can see we have a clear:

Documents: You can reveal if you like, you're not required to.
L3+ Judges: We always make people reveal at the start of the pack.

And these statements contradict each other.

It would be very useful to have a definitive answer on this (or an updated document), otherwise players at PPTQs and similar are going to get different draft experiences, which is going to lead to some bad feelings from the more “competitive” types.

Edited James Winward-Stuart (April 8, 2016 09:41:01 AM)

We discussed this in IRC a few times since the prerelease, but I'll add my take on the issue here as well.

The MTR gives us considerable room on how to handle this.
- In my opinion, announcing each DFC pick is going too far, may slow the process of the draft and may be annoying to some players. It is also against the “idea” of a draft, the general goal and process of it.
- Announcing when the packs are first opened could also present you with a significant delay in the process. There would be more than one DFCs in a single pack. Players may want more than just a few seconds to view them at the beginning of each opening of a pack.
- Since these DFCs are not supposed to be hidden, I instructed players to draft as they would normally do, except they should not specially attempt to hide DFCs.

I don't believe players should be allowed to specially hide DFC picks, because it could give way to other “shady” moves. We wouldn't want to give players doorways to do some tricky business there.
I've seen the argument in the older thread linked that the earlier practice gave way to players look around more during drafting, to potentially spot other players' DFC picks. This is normal, however it may generate more unintentional spotting other, normally hidden cards.
DFCs in draft is basically a “complication” to the procedure and MTR gives us the “freedom” of handling it in a way we think it would be least problematic to players and judges alike. I think either holding them up at cracking the packs or at least drafting them “non-hidden” is the way to go.

Edited Zoltán Tóth-Bajnóczi (April 8, 2016 10:24:43 AM)

For an untimed draft I prefer players to both take a moment to show all the DFCs after opening a new pack and to verbally announce each time they're drafting one. This reduces the need for players to look left and right during the draft which is something we should discourage as much as possible.

With three GPs coming up (next weekend!), this is a hot topic right now among those judges who Head Judge GPs. We're reviewing what I did the first time - Innistrad, at GP San Diego, five years (!) back; hopefully, we'll address the many concerns.

Until we're ready to publish that, any posts on this thread remain speculation or personal preference, and thus more likely to confuse than to help. I'll unlock this thread again once I've got an updated “O” to share.

d:^D