In June I talked about a relatively calm update to the rules because we were
taking time to let the trigger rules settle in and see what was working and
what wasn't. I'm happy to announce that we took all that and produced much
more streamlined trigger rules. Lapsing abilities? Gone. No-Visual-Effect?
Gone? The new trigger rules are much, much easier to handle, and we think
that the players will like them, too.

The key that makes it all work is that the penalty you assign is completely
unrelated to the remedy you apply. That's a new thing, but it means 99% of
your missed trigger calls will go like this:

1) Figure out if the missed ability is one that's considered detrimental (no
need to look at the game). If so, issue a Warning
2) Ask the opponent if they would like the triggered ability to go on the stack.
3) Um… Profit?

That's it! There are a few details around the edges, but… well no, there's
really not much else. It's pretty awesome.

Of course, you all know me. That meant I needed to write 2500 words about
the change, which you can find at
http://blogs.magicjudges.org/telliott/2012/09/17/missed-triggers-2/ [blogs.magicjudges.org]

What else do we have for you this time around?

* We've removed the Failure to Reveal infraction. That sounds like a big
thing, but it's really not. The core of that infraction was the concept of
an error the opponent could not verify the legality of, and folding that
into Game Play Errors took only a couple lines. No ruling will change here,
just the documentation.

* With the simplification of the Missed Trigger rules, the main reason for
the concept of turn cycles went away and can be replaced by the much more
intuitive concept of a turn.

* With lots of advance apologies to Brian Schenck, there were enough gaps
now that we've renumbered the whole thing. Section 2 is no longer blank.

* We're allowing for a few cards to be in deckboxes and not considered part
of the sideboard. It's mostly DFC-related cards, though we're also going to
let promo cards handed out as part of the tournament to slide (even though
we still don't recommend it).

* The MTR has a few planeswalker Points clarifications, some actual rules in
a rules document to handle triggers, and a new section talking about dos and
don'ts for video coverage.

* The rules for when documents are published are changing! Now, the
IPG/MTR/banlists will be coming out the Monday after each prerelease,
effective on set release.

* Finally, we're trying something a little different this time. I've written
up a summary of policy changes that players might care about. It's all
posted at
http://blogs.magicjudges.org/telliott/2012/09/19/120920changesforplayers/ [blogs.magicjudges.org] -
feel free to share it with your players!

As always, the changelogs in the documents have all the nitty-gritty
details. And, as always, there's a bunch of people to thank: Abe Corson,
Paweł Kazimierczuk, Tasha Jamison, Jeremie Granat, Bryan Prillaman, David
Lyford-Smith, Jason Ness, Brian Schenck, Eric Shukan, Paul Smith and Kim
Warren. Plus everyone else who sent in ideas and suggestions for trigger
improvements. You all rock! Keep those suggestions coming and have a great
time at your Return to Ravnica prereleases!