What can you do if a Judge is WRONG? - MTG Rules

Great information, and very important to know for all players because, as you said, judges are human and humans make mistakes. Also, thanks for the shoutout

It's kinda funny to me that the head judge has so much power that they can technically at the start of the event say that all Island tap for Red(of course no judge would ever do that, but the possibility is still there).

During the Streets of New Capenna prerelease I had a pretty sweet Jetmir tokens deck. My opponent cast Unexpected Detour and said that he got to choose to put my Jetmir to the bottom. I knew from similar rulings on similar cards that I got to pick to put it on top or bottom, but the judge incorrectly sided with my opponent. Still won the game (lost the match) but it was annoying. After the match before the next round I pulled up the ruling on a similar card on gatherer to show the judge. He apologized and explained how he was thinking of a ruling on a similar card that was worded just differently enough to make a difference. So all three of us learned more about the rules that day.

Imagine being one move away from winning that cash but then the judge says "nope" even though you re right.

Wasn't in MTG, but actually, in a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament, I went to I had this happen to me. I made a play that went for game and TLDR I activated a card that needs a specific creature in play to cast. My opponent responded with enemy controller, and I explained that it didn't matter as it just needed to be there for activation and no resolution. Guy disagrees, judge is called and makes the incorrect ruling, but thankfully, back then, there was an official website with almost the exact interaction that I could reference and direct the judge to. After he took a minute to study it, he came back making the correct ruling and even gave me a free pack for proving him wrong.

I still remember I was at the MoM prerelease and was about to win the 3rd and final match, which would have me in 1st for the whole event. I was 1-1 and made a misplay accidentally giving my opponent another turn when I could have just ended the game with Chandra, but I was at 18 life so it was alright. But then my opponent played City On Fire and attacked me with a 7/7 with trample. I blocked with 3 toughness, and I said "Ok, I take 12", but my opponent and the judge (Formerly official years ago but worked at the store) said that "the creature would deal 7 damage to the 3 toughness creature, triple to 21, and then hit me for 18. Despite my arguing about how that's not how City on Fire or trample works, I had to take the loss and came in second. I'm still a bit salty about that but yeah, that's my experience in this kind of situation.

i wish i was told this information back when i was learning how to play the commander format while also doing commander tournaments (with prizes on the line, as basically the only way i could play the game with other people). The judge at the time, would purposely tell me bad rulings and disadvantage me and i had no idea how i could go about dealing with the corrupt judge who was specifically targeting me at the time. Thankfully, some of the other players there gained some sympathy for me and were also annoyed at my mistreatment. One of my favorite interactions is when i'd have to stand behind someone who smelt of sewage. i informed the judge, then later, got into a seemingly casual conversation about smelling offensive and the judge would mention to let him know if someone smells bad, but in a way to imply my friend and i had never informed him properly of someone else's terrible odor. it really felt like there was nothing i could do except hope the LGS changed the judge, or just stop going to the LGS. Eventually, the judge person was changed. i felt like that judge would excuse others bad behavior and odor but happily punish me. i'll never forget two games in particular, had to call him over to explain how Archfiend of Ifnir works, while my opponents continued after to ignore the judges rulings and explanation of how Archfiend of Ifnir works. The other game oh you should had seen his face, i was playing a weird "mill" deck that while one of the ways it can win is by milling out the opponents decks, it can win through milling itself. And if it wasn't for the other players yelling at him to "let me cook" as the opponent in my game gave the judge as much opportunity as possible to "disqualify me" i then milled myself and presented a win condition. My opponents in disbelief after milling myself X amount of cards (which thankfully was one at a time) i was going through the cards in my now graveyard to see how i can win that game. i know this turned into a wall of text, this was if nothing else therapeutic for me to type. if you read the whole thing, thank you for your time. This comment existing helps get this "off my chest."

During the SOI prerelease, I was 0-3 going into the last round. I got paired up with another relatively new player who was also 0-3. He played Arlin Kord, the flip planeswalker. He proceeded to do the following: create a wolf, flip, deal 3 damage to my creature, flip, wolf, flip, 3 damage, flip, wolf, flip, 3 damage, put Arlin kord into graveyard. Following the relatively meaningless match, we were both so amazed by the power of that planeswalker that we couldn’t help but talk to our more experienced peers about it. Needless to say, we learned that that was indeed not how Arlin kord works. One guy said .. “4 mana to create 3 wolves and deal 9 damage across 3 targets… at no point did either of you think that was oddly too powerful?” Perhaps we should have called a judge. But that match truly was meaningless. And we both had fun.

The easiest way of winning a pro tour is to conspire with all of the judges, you could basically play by your rules at that point

I was in a commander tournament at my local shop playing Sharuum the Hegemon infinite combo. I had phyrexian metaphorph on the board as a copy of Sharuum, and had disciple of the vault in play. Demonstrated the combo loop, asked if anyone had interaction and said good game, but all three of the older and more experienced opponents said the ETB effect would not be able to target itself. I was 19 and home from college, so not a regular at this point. I disagreed and the shop owner who acted as judge agreed with them after light googling. I know it was generally low stakes, but it UPSET me since it shot down the point of my entire deck. I went home and spent 3 hours researching rules and writing out a response before realizing it wasn't worth having a tantrum about. Thinking about it still still mildly infuriates me though and it is a reason I have on my list for wanting to learn to be a proper judge. lol

At my LGS one time, the judge told me that my Rest In Peace didn’t exile itself when it was destroyed. It ended up not matter in that match, but I didn’t argue and pulled up the ruling after the match for him. He and many of the players were very surprised and learned something new.

In my first tournament ever, back in the 90s, I was fighting for a top 8 spot (just a local tournament, not in the US).. I won game 1, game 2 I was about to win, opponent was with low life, and I had a karma, and he had several swamps — he'd lose the game on his upkeep. Then opponent floated all his mana and cast a Kaervek's spite. I said okay, that's a play to avoid death by karma. I was about to note me losing 5 life when he said "wait — in response, I cast another Kaervek's spite). I was at 8 life, so I'd lose the game. Of course, I argued that he couldn't respond with the 2nd spite, because he'd have to discard to pay for the 1st one. Judge was called, and he initially was ruling in my favour. Then my opponent talked with the judge (I don't know what he argued). Judge ruled in my opponent's favour. I ended up losing game 3 and was out of the top 8. That hurt. I knew I was right, but not a lot I could do. Funny thing is, I ended up pairing against the judge, who was playing a pre-release (Weatheelight, I have the promo card to this day), and won the game, which was very satisfying. I wish I had said : well, that's karma", but I'll be honest, I only thought of that after the moment was gone lol

The thing to remember about situations like this is that judges are human. No matter how skilled they are, they will make mistakes especially in something as complicated as magic. As frustrating as it is a calm, reasonable discussion about the situation is what will most likely resolve it correctly. An angry confrontation will make it harder for the judge to themselves stay reasonable and objectively review possible mistakes. That's true of all competitive events really, but it's really hard to remember that in the moment when something you're so emotionally invested in could go south due to a possible error.

Imagine you play a deck that relies on an extremely niche interaction and another game at the same event happens to have that interaction and the head judge making a mistake in the ruling which you would have been able to properly defend if you were there. But because that ruling applies to all the event you're now told that your deck isn't functional for this event.

I remember a similar situation happening to a friend while playing in Standard, when Hostage Taker was still legal. He cast Hostage Taker to exile an opponent's creature and then cast it from exile. However, his opponent destroyed the pirate and claimed that, by doing so, their creature returned under their control. They called a judge to resolve the situation, and the judge ruled in favor of the opponent. According to the rules, when my friend cast the creature, it was considered a new object, so the judge made a mistake. This cost him the game, and these types of situations tend to occur more frequently in prerelease events. That's why I usually keep the set mechanics rules handy for those events, although for constructed events, this is not always an option.

Had an opponent call the judge in one of my pre-release events. I THINK it was Ixalan or Rivals of Ixalan, not positive. I don't remember the exact cards involved, but I was attacking with something with trample, I think any player damage would have triggered something. They double-blocked with something of theirs that would have been bad for me if it died. I proceeded to order their creatures with the one I didn't want to die second to take damage, then assigned ALL the damage from my trample creature to the first-in-line blocker. They thought I had to assign damage down the row, so to speak, and the judge agreed. Sorry for the very vague info, it was many years ago, and I only really remember the situation as a whole, not the finer details.

"This is exactly what happened to Yuta Takahashi-" Me: Ha, Faerie Mastermind got printed, so I know how this- "...in the Outlaws of Thunder Junction Pro Tour". Me: 😮

Had everyone at mh3 pre-release tell me I couldn't pay the madness cost when discarding a card at my end step for having 8 cards in hand. I lost the game and then was told after that they double checked and you can...

Once lost a game due to bad headjudge call. He ruled clearly wrong that my Duress could be misdirected on myself even though only opponents are legal targets to that spell. I dropped due to this crap from a 100€ entry type one event in Germany. I was pissed as hell and I still get mad, when I remember that incident

I've been the victim of this. It was a low-stakes local tournament, but I was still massively cheated out of my rightful 1st place victory. I was playing an early variation of the life half of Cephalid LIfe combo. The era was somewhere around 6th Edition (fine, I'm old, sue me). Prior to the tournament, I wisely emailed WOTC rules department to confirm my combo worked. I printed out the email. The judge was so wildly incompetent, that he was using the original mulligan rule (only if you have no lands in hand and have to reveal your hand). He also seemed completely ignorant of how The Stack worked (The Stack was new back then). Dumb Judge rejected my email printout claiming I could have faked it, refused to let me show him the original email ("no using the store computer", smartphones weren't a thing yet), and I'm pretty sure he refused to refund my entry for some BS reason. I had to demand that I be allowed to rebuild my deck with what I had on hand. I managed to barely cobble together a coherent strat from some spare cards floating around in my junk box. I can't remember how well I finished.