As is often the case with humans, I have told people that the following bullets are policy, yet I can't find the forum posts or documents that back up my claims. Have I been using rumors to implement policy? I hope not. Are the following statements True or False? (because I believe they're all true):

1. At Regular REL, a judge should wear a black shirt, black pants, a black belt, black socks, and black shoes, unless he/she has a judge shirt, preferably a regional one.
   
2. At Regular REL, judges can trade cards during and after the tournament, but only while not wearing the above judge attire.
   
3. At Regular REL, judges must go through Basic Lands that players brought with them, before players can use them in their decks.
   
4. At Regular REL, judges should not help players build their decks. Judges should refrain from recommending cards to include or exclude, colors to splash, or Basic Land counts.
   

Hi roger,

Thanks for your input.
I've got a slightly different opinion on several of your points.
Perhaps someone else might give a better answer or correct me.

1) I'm not sure, but I've heard several arguments for not wearing a judge attire if you're also playing in the pre-release. This was mainly to not impose a barrier or have players be afraid to play against you.

2) I've traded cards from the store and from my personal binder during regular events in my judge attire. If this is not allowed, I'd love to know this.

3) I can't find the policy, but I've never checked lands owned by players except when they play without sleeves.
3b) I also check the lands the store has if players wish to play without sleeves. The old lands can have quite a different shade on the back when compared to the fresh cards ;-)

4)

Originally posted by JAR:

Players and judges are encouraged to help one another at appropriate
times, such as during deck construction or between matches.

I'll be glad to help players on my FNM and pre-release with deck construction and/or play advice between rounds.

Edited Alex de Bruijne (Sept. 15, 2016 05:33:14 PM)

Originally posted by Roger Dunn:

At Regular REL, a judge should wear a black shirt, black pants, a black belt, black socks, and black shoes, unless he/she has a judge shirt, preferably a regional one.

There is no official “Judge Uniform Policy”, and certainly not one that applies to store level events. Wear whatever you and your Tournament Organizer agree on - which may vary depending on the type of event, and whether or not you're playing in it. I've seen anything from judge shirts, regional shirts/plain black button downs, store-branded polos or t-shirts, or plain clothes.

Originally posted by Roger Dunn:

At Regular REL, judges can trade cards during and after the tournament, but only while not wearing the above judge attire.

Again, the “rules” here boil down to “be professional while you're representing the judge program/your store”. I wouldn't recommend trading personal cards while in the judge uniform, but ultimately I think the choice is yours, and your employer's. (Specifically, I don't see anything in the Magic Judge Code about this.)

Originally posted by Roger Dunn:

At Regular REL, judges must go through Basic Lands that players brought with them, before players can use them in their decks.

As a matter of policy (MTR 7.2), players may use their own Basic lands in Limited tournaments.

Originally posted by Roger Dunn:

At Regular REL, judges should not help players build their decks. Judges should refrain from recommending cards to include or exclude, colors to splash, or Basic Land counts.

Alex's quote from the JAR seems to apply. I'd be concerned about not appearing impartial, but the JAR seems to allow it. As with calling attention to missed triggers, I'd encourage you to act based on the standards of your play group. You may treat a Prerelease differently than a Grand Prix Trial, for example.

Originally posted by Dan Collins:

Alex's quote from the JAR seems to apply. I'd be concerned about not appearing impartial, but the JAR seems to allow it.

This is a very valid point. I've got a very new player friendly community, so players actually request me to help new players with deck building. But your community might see this differently.

Regular REL events are all about fun, and about catering to your community. Apart from blatant cheating and offensive behaviour, please just make sure your players enjoy themselves.

There is nothing serious or official I have to add to the above posts by Alex and Dan, so instead, let me share some stories.

What I wear (and ask my judges to wear) during Regular REL events varies wildly: at weekday evening events, I just wear whatever I wear that day. During prereleases, I like to make sure that players know how to find us, and judges-in-training to feel official and recognised, so I use the black uniform that we use at GPs. For the Theros prerelease, I used the only outfit that I deemed appropriate for that event:



At one of my prereleases, I had a Deck Doctor. Yes, a guy with a white labcoat and a stethoscope. Walking around and giving players advice during deckbuilding. It was awesome :)

Maybe I refrain from helping players build decks because I believe I'm not a good deck-builder. :D I'm okay, I guess. But it's interesting to think that I've been behaving this way all this time because I thought the above bullets were true.

The reason I asked these questions is because, for the first time ever, I have a chance to mentor a new judge. I have been a judge for 5 years and will be judging my 18th Prerelease. He was concerned about some of the policies that I explained to him, especially about trading cards, so that caused me to question where I'd gotten that information. So he might be happy to hear that he can do the things I told him he shouldn't do.

On Thu, Sep 15, 2016 at 4:44 PM, Dan Collins <
forum-29979-6044@apps.magicjudges.org> wrote:
>
>
> There is no official “Judge Uniform Policy”
>

Technically, there is, unless this document is deprecated and nobody told
me: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/judge-uniform-policy

This is relevant here in a couple ways:
1) The document explicitly mentions that trading in the shirt is a no go.
2) The document also mentions that local event attire is something you
should discuss with individual TOs - there's no program-wide guideline for
exactly what should be worn. (Just stay professional, obviously.)

If that doc is out of date, please, somebody tell me :)

I'm working on updating the Wiki published uniform policy,

ultimately the store/TO is the final say on what is/is not allowed at their events.

Regular REL events, and Prereleases especially, often see a lot of younger and inexperienced players. Both for education and time constraints, I'm a big fan of helping these players with deck construction choices (but not making choices for them). Besides, I've found that making a point of being helpful and available at Regular events does wonders for player-judge relations. As long as it's obvious that you're helping someone learn instead of just boosting your friend's deck, I believe most players would be a fan of this sort of judging.

Edited Yonatan Kamensky (Sept. 21, 2016 04:26:34 PM)

Regarding deck-building advice, do whatever is comfortable for you both in terms of your own knowledge of the cards and your time constraints. At one extreme, you shouldn't sit down and debate the merits of each color. “40 cards, 17-18 lands” is a fine thing to tell people.