Basic Guide to Deck Checks

SE Regional Winter Judge ConferenceSuper Games Inc.

Roswell, GA.October 31, 2014

Presented by:Robert Romine

Level 2 – Cookeville, TN.

Why are we here?

Recent changes to the Level 2 requirements state that your certifying judge will assure that you know how to perform a deck check.

Deck checks are a common task performed at Competitive REL events. This seminar will provide insight into the why and hows of performing deck checks

What are Deck Checks

Deck checks are a common task performed at all competitive REL tournaments. It is when a Judge verifies that what the player is playing matches the list they registered. If there are errors the judge works with the player in order to match what the player's intent.

What are Deck Checks

Deck checks have 2 major components− Deck registration

MTR 2.7 describes deck registration as a requirement at Comp REL and above events.

In individual Limited events, players must refrain from communicating with, or revealing hidden information to, any player or spectator until their deck list is handed in.

Decklist registration is the official original composition of each deck and sideboard, once it's been accepted it cannot be altered.

Players have a right to request to view their decklist between matches, and the request should be honored if logistically possible

Decklists are generally not public information, In professional REL single elimination playoffs players are given copies of their opponent's decklist.

What are Deck Checks

Deck checks have 2 major components− Deck Checks

MTR 2.8 describes deck registration as a requirement at Comp REL and above events.

Current recommendation is that 10 percent of all decks are looked at over the course of the event.

If a player has drawn their opening hand, and\or made any mulligan decisions, The contents of the hand are to be preserved unless a game loss is issued due to the deck check

Players cannot sideboard after a deck check, but they can continue to mulligan if they had not completed that process.

So why do we perform deck checks?

TO CATCH CHEATERS OF COURSE!

While this is the obvious goal of everything judges do at events. VERY RARELY is a problem

discovered in a deck check the result of the player cheating. The most common instance where it is

cheating is adding cards to a sealed pool.

TO DETER CHEATERS?

Quite frankly the reason why deck checks don't catch a lot of cheaters is because they know they are running the very high risk of being caught. A

potential cheater sees a floor judge lurking by their table they know that if they are not

presenting a legal deck they could potentially be given a game loss.

TO DETER CHEATERS?Your swooping method plays into your

effectiveness of catching cheaters. Some judges prefer a stealthy approach. The practical upshot of this is that if your target has decided to cheat

you have a better chance of catching them in the act. Other judges prefer to loom over the area of the target. While your target usually will see you coming and opt to keep things clean, any other

potential wrongdoers in the vicinity will also decide to keep things fair, because they might be

your target.

Most of our work ends up catching simple clerical mistakes.

A high percentage of every infraction discovered in a deck check will be the result of a careless error. Errors that range from simply forgetting to write a card down in their sideboard, to forgetting to correctly de-sideboard in between matches. Because the potential for abuse on these infractions is still high, they carry a penalty of game loss.

Most of our work ends up catching simple clerical mistakes.

Recent Policy changes to The Deck\Decklist problem section of the IPG (3.5) has empowered Head Judges to not issue the penalty in certain cases if the players intent is clearly obvious and unambiguous by purely looking at the deck list. Examples of this would be a player wrote down “Temple of B\G” instead to “Temple of Malady”, or they put “Bob” instead of “Dark Confidant”. If the issue requires any lengthy discussion about it's ambiguity then it absolutely isn't.

So what all goes into being on the deck check team and performing deck checks?

List Counting and Verifying Starting as soon as lists are collected during

the player's meeting, a portion of the team will be in charge of counting the lists and verifying you have lists for every player.

You are checking to make sure the main deck and sideboards are legal for the tournament format and that all cards in the decks are also legal for the format.

This process is also where we collect problem lists so that we can target the player to verify infractions.

Collecting Decks You will be assigned a random table by your HJ or you

will be asked to take from a match in between games (this is called a mid-round)

You will wait for both players to present their decks, hopefully after sufficiently randomizing their decks, Be vigilant for both improper shuffling and potential slow play.

When both players present pause the match and inform the players that you will be performing a deck check on their decks, ask them to hand you their deck with their sideboards kept separate.

− If at this time a player asks about extra cards in their sideboard, inform them that they need to remove those from their deck box and store them elsewhere for the event.

Collecting Decks If any mulligan decisions have been made

make note of that, if an opening hand has been kept you are required to maintain the contents of that hand. − If you didn't get to the match before they started

mulligan decisions and a table next to them are still shuffling and this wasn't a targeted check, feel free to grab the other table to avoid issues.

Keep track of the time left in round If the match slip is at the table take that with the

decks, this will help you pull lists and remember which table you're returning to later.

Checking Decks Pull the top 10 or so cards off the top look for a land

spell distribution pattern, if you notice one call over your team lead or head judge. This player could be up to something fishy and might need to be watched.

Sort the cards, typically this is done by Land-Spell then CMC. Then check the presented deck against the player's deck list.

Do a quick thumb through of the deck looking for obvious markings, you do this after a sort because it makes the patterns obvious (Lands have identical marks, all copies of one card seems warped)

Check the sideboard against the deck list.

Checking Decks Make any notes of issues and run them by your

team lead or HJ to get their input. Return the contents of the deck and sideboard

to their deck box if provided and return to the match

The target time for a deck check with no errors is about 6-7 minutes. One common reason for extended deck check times is taking too much time scrutinizing over potential marked cards\sleeves, If it's not obvious from looking at the deck on the table then it's not marked enough to create a real advantage.

Returning Decks Quickly return to the match. If there was no

issues found, hand the decks back to the players, give them an extension that equals the amount of time the check took plus 3 minutes to allow them to re-randomize their decks as you've sorted the deck as a part of the checking process.

Inform the players of the time extension, and remind them to reshuffle carefully because their decks because they are currently sorted.

Returning Decks If a problem was found with a players deck pull them aside to discuss it

privately

− Determine the cause of the issue, if it was a clerical error you correct the list to what the player was intending to play, if it was a failure to de-sideboard you fix the configuration for the player.

Return to the match to issue penalties for any infractions found.

− If there was only a infraction with one player, inform that player's opponent that the player received a game loss and they will be entering game 2, the player with the game loss has play-draw choice for this game, if no game actions were taken players cannot sideboard for this game.

− If both players received game losses, then inform the players that while the penalties are recorded for record keeping purposes, the penalties offset and that they are continuing with game 1 of the match

DEMONSTRATION TIME