Beyond “Your Opinion” the alter has to meet the MTR requirements. Which means some heavy alters, for example that paint all the borders, will not be a judgment call. They are not permitted unless you have a means to *know* the card is the actual card and a real card.

Andy hit the nail on the head. This is the process I follow when examining alters:

Step 1: Does this alter meet the MTR requirements? (name, cmc, strategic info, offensive, preserve artwork)
STOP IF IT DOESN'T
Step 2: Can an average player be expected to recognize this when seeing this card? (Think resolving Memoricide
STOP IF IT DOESN'T
Step 3: If this is a judgement call, make sure you consider the ramifications of future events where this player will seek to play this card.
Step 4: Explain to the player “I'm going to allow this at this event; be sure you always check with the Head Judge before you play in other events.”

Edited to reflect Scott's Step 4

Edited Jeff S Higgins (Feb. 4, 2015 03:29:16 PM)

Let me add to Jeff's great list:
Step 4: tell the player "I'm going to allow this at this event; be sure you always check with the Head Judge before you play in other events."

d:^D

And I will reinforce that before you make any exception or ‘be nice’ you understand the difficulty you are placing on other judge to enforce the rules if you deviate.

So don’t.

Andy


From: Scott Marshall
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2015 10:27 AM
To: Heckt, Andy
Subject: Re: Altered Cards (Tournament Operations)


Let me add to Jeff's great list:
Step 4: tell the player “I'm going to allow this at this event; be sure you always check with the Head Judge before you play in other events.”

d:^D

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so what happens if step1 fails? My picture as example..

If at any point you fail a step the card is not legal.

Well thanks for clearing this up.

> so what happens if step1 fails? My picture as example..
>
>
You don't get to use that card. Replace it with another copy. Or don't put it in your deck to begin with.
As a player it's your responsibility to ensure your cards are legal.
If you can't afford to replace it, don't get it altered.

-Bryan

FYI – for those of you who have repoire with persons who do alters, maybe you should educate them on the MTR part (in addition to educating players who want to play with them; so they can make better decisions).

Andy

From: Sandro Carlucci
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2015 10:59 AM
To: Heckt, Andy
Subject: Re: Altered Cards (Tournament Operations)


so what happens if step1 fails? My picture as example..

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I know I am not a huge fan of art all the way to the borders. The full to the borders tends to cause problems for 1 you can't tell if the card is a legal card as you may not really know if it once had a white or black border.

Second there are times you can tell that its an altered card in sleeves. This happened to my PTQ the past weekend where we caught an alter in a sleeve that we could tell approximate location in the deck. Luckily they were able to replace the card easily but it can still caused a problem.

Please Please Please don't mess with the borders if at all possible and they are altered the player now has yet another thing to watch to ensure they are not marked.

We also have something else to look at while watching magic and doing deck checks.

This does not mean go hunting problems but be aware this exists and it can be a problem.

Thank you
-Ryan

Several prominent alterists are aware of the MTR standards. At least one of them is even a Level 1 Judge (Lindsay Burley). I recall that Eric Klug, whose most fantastic alters will definitely fail the MTR test, actually had a copy of the MTR section on display at his booth and told players that most of his stuff was kitchen table/ Cube only.

On the subject of art to the borders - please don't ban a card because it _might_ be marked in a deck, any more that you would ban a foil because it _might_ be marked in a deck. Check cards in the deck and see whether or not they are _actually_ marked. As for whether it is a white or black bordered card originally, it's clearly not silver bordered and I recommend checking the back for gold borders.

Even without art to the borders you will want to check it in a deck to ensure that it's not marked due to thickness anyway.