“Pfft, Marco, how is this an actual question? You watch matches by focusing your eyeballs at them, of course!”

Well, dear reader, while doing that you are definitely looking at a match (or sometimes staring at it), but are you actually watching it? And if not, how do you do that? And most importantly, how do you do hit the sweet spot between “Cardboard Figure” and “Magic Online Alert Message” (and of course, altogether avoiding getting into the Coach's shoes)?
Whether you're just getting started or you're have been doing this for years and have come full circle on all the possible techniques, I feel that this subject is one of the practical things that would benefit additional time in the discussion spotlight. Maybe this way you will find a new perspective while going to your usual PPTQ routine!

Greetings,
Marco

The first thing I do when I start watching is I try to predict potential ways that players will commit a GRV and force me to intervene. The most usual is cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, but recently I correctly anticipated the interaction between Erdwal Illuminator and Confront the Unknown (target only gets +1/+1).

Aside from that, there are a lot of fun questions you can ask yourself while you are watching.
“What's the craziest thing either player could do”
“I wonder why that player did that”
“One player appears to be losing pretty badly, I wonder what sequences of draws+plays would allow that player to recover”
"How bad would it be for one of the players if their opponent played Emrakul, the Promised End“

I once heard someone in Wizards R&D talking about coming up with a specific mechanic by watching magic and asking himself ”That player appears to be losing pretty badly, I wonder what abilities could added to their cards that would allow them to recover“. (I believe this inspired the mechanic ”flashback"). You could try that.

Edited Aaron Henner (Oct. 10, 2016 03:07:50 AM)

First thing I check when I walk up to the table: do the life pads match? If they don't, I stop the match and figure it out. I repeat this each time any life total changes.

I try to wrap my head around all of the static abilities that are affecting the game state. Thalia is a good example. Try to keep those kinds of abilities in mind, because they're easy to miss.

Here's a story: at Worlds this year, I was watching a match and the active player, partway through a pretty long turn, turned to me and asked “judge, have I played a land yet this turn?” Unfortunately, I wasn't sure. So now I try to be more sure of that when I watch matches. :-)

Finally, each time a mana payment is made, I make sure it actually maps correctly to the cost of the spell or ability.

Watching a match really well is actually super hard. I'm still trying to improve that skill, and I've been judging for 12 years… :-)

Hi Marco, actually, this is a very valid question. As others have mentioned, when I stop by a table, I first try to check whether life totals match and there is nothing illegal (illegal enchanting…) or unclear (various tokens - ask the player what these are supposed to represent and find those in your pocket). A good idea is also to ask what is the current match score (i.e. which player would be more likely to try some Stalling tricks).

Once familiar with the match in progress, I try to follow the game by rules perspective. Ideally, any game play error should be caught before it can cause any major problem that cannot be easily fixed. Check that correct mana is spent, a player delved enough cards, illegal blocks are not accepted, a player does not draw extra cards…

If it is a Standard tournament soon after the Standard rotation, it may also be a good thing to check players' hands for any illegal cards (it may look funny, but it has actually happened :-)).

A very important thing is to somehow keep track whether players played their land for the turn. Just because it is so common question from them. I usually use my pinkies to do that.

I think there used to be a great article on the topic on Kevin Desprez' blog. I suggest to read that.

Edited Milan Majerčík (Oct. 10, 2016 10:11:31 AM)

For reference :
http://blogs.magicjudges.org/whatsupdocs/2015/04/28/efficiently-watching-magic/

Envoyé de mon iPhone

Le 10 oct. 2016 à 10:08, Milan Majercík <forum-30567-3cd4@apps.magicjudges.org<mailto:forum-30567-3cd4@apps.magicjudges.org>> a écrit :


Hi Marco, actually, this is a very valid question. As others have mentioned, when I stop by a table, I first try to check whether life totals match and there is nothing illegal (illegal enchanting…) or unclear (various tokens - ask the player what these are supposed to represent and find those in your pocket). A good idea is also to ask what is the current match score (i.e. which player would be more likely to try some Stalling tricks).

Once familiar with the match in progress, I try to follow the game by rules perspective. Ideally, any game play error should be caught before it can cause any major problem that cannot be easily fixed. Check that correct mana is spent, a player delved enough cards, illegal blocks are not accepted, a player does not draw extra cards…

A very important thing is to somehow keep track whether players played their land for the turn. Just because it is so common question from them. I usually use my pinkies to do that.

I think there used to be a great article on the topic on Kevin Desprez' blog. I suggest to read that.

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I slowly walk the isles and focus on one side at a time, moving through quickly enough that I can cover a lot of ground but slowly enough that I can tell what's going on. But I also watch faces as well as games, people will try to make eye contact with you if they are unsure of something, have a question, or feel like they might want to call a judge. If I see something like that I'll linger at that table, out of sight of their opponent if possible, and just see what happens. If they don't call on me, or if there doesn't seem to be need to step in, I'll move on.

What a great topic. I was just discussing this with my floor judges at this weekend's PPTQ, and I wish this thread had been on my radar beforehand.

I have tied my match watching into my personal goals of being more aware of Slow Play violations and Communication Policy violations. The first thing I do is determine which player is the active player; there are so many bits of body language that typically point to this even if the player is in contemplation mode, so if it takes me more than a few seconds to do so, I'm already considering slow play.

Once I decide which player is active, I determine which step they are in. I will typically watch the game until at least one full turn cycle has passed, monitoring both players' play style, speed, and habits, and the general flow of the turn between players, especially focusing on whether one player or the other is a time hog. I listen to questions such as “Cards in hand?” and assessments of power and toughness, and make a mental note of their accuracy.

I will add to my toolbelt the use of pinkies to mark land drops (great idea) and the notion of predicting mistakes that would be easy to make. I look forward to hearing other judges' tricks!