I actually am a judge!

Hello again ManaNation.com readers! I've just returned from an excruciating trip to Atlanta judging the Georgia National Qualifiers. Yes, I'm currently a Florida resident, but Georgia is a bit light on judges right now, so myself and my good friend Andrew Hall made the trek to Atlanta to help out. It's a 9 or so hour drive from Tampa to Atlanta, hence the excruciating part, not so much the tournament itself.

This week I would like to talk about some rules interactions that have been coming up a lot at tournaments I have been judging recently.

First of all, Rebound spells. Many players have begun placing the rebound spell card on top of their library to remind them to rebound it next turn. This has been discussed a lot on the Judge list, and is a no no.

While it isn't necessary to have your exiled cards in a single pile like the graveyard, you must keep your zones distinct and separate. In fact the rules encourage you to keep exiled cards that may be returned in separate piles to help denote which linked ability the card was exiled by, which means it's ok to put a card exiled by Oblivion Ring or Journey to Nowhere under the enchantment that exiled it, but you still can't put that exiled rebound card on top of your library. It is ok to put a small reminder on top of your library, such as a die or a counter, however a card doesn't count as small, and with multiple effects currently in Standard that keeps the top card of your library revealed, leaving a rebound card on top of your library can lead to confusing situations or opens you up to making mistakes with drawing or milling effects! Likely?

Next up is Oblivion Ring and/or Journey to Nowhere. These cards are very similar in that they are Enchantments that are not Auras, but sort of act like them. Most people play Oblivion Ring as if it were an Aura, i.e. I cast Oblivion Ring targeting Gideon Jura, but that's not exactly how it works. When you cast Oblivion Ring you don't name any targets, you merely cast it. When it resolves, it has a enters the battlefield trigger that requires you to name a target, which is then exiled. It's fairly common practice to place the exiled card under the Oblivion Ring, just like Oblivion Ring was an Aura enchanting the permanent, but it's not.

This distinction can be very important, because it's the triggered ability that targets the permanent to be exiled, not the Oblivion Ring spell itself. A great example of why this is important is Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Emrakul has protection from colored spells. If Oblivion Ring were an Aura then it would not be possible to target Emrakul because Oblivion Ring is white, and therefore a colored spell. As it is, however, it's not the spell Oblivion Ring that targets Emrakul, it's the triggered enter the battlefield ability of Oblivion Ring that targets, so Oblivion Ring will exile an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn quite nicely. Same goes for Journey to Nowehere. Having said that, the triggered enter the battlefield ability of Oblivion Ring and Journey to Nowhere is still a white ability, which means this ability cannot target anything with protection from White, so neither can exile a Malakir Bloodwitch.

Long story short, Oblivion Ring and Journey to Nowhere both exile Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, but cannot exile a Malakir Bloodwitch…

And while we're talking about Enchantments, how about Sovereigns of Lost Alara? This seems to be getting a lot of play lately. The "search your library for an Aura card that could enchant that creature, put it onto the battlefield attached to that creature" ability of Sovereigns of Lost Alara is somewhat unique, in that the Aura card you attach to your creature is not cast, therefore it never targets the creature. What does this mean? You are able to attach an aura to a creature with shroud this way. Should your opponent cast Vines of Vastwood targeting the creature that is about to receive that Aura it won't affect the Sovereigns triggered ability at all. This will not, however, allow you to attach an Aura to a creature with protection from the Aura, whether that be protection from the color of the aura, protection from enchantments, or even protection from everything!

Got a rules question burning you up that none of your buddies can answer? Send me a note at dalelovelace@gmail.com and I'll make sure you know the answer!

So that's my first "judgey" article. These same questions have seemed to come up at every tournament I've judged since Rise hit the streets so I've passed along the answers to save you a bit of grief the next time you battle.

Thanks to everyone who said “Hi, I read your column” at the Georgia Nationals Qualifier last weekend. I was even asked to draw Domo on someone's playmat like I was an artist or something! Apparently there are at least a few people that actually read this, besides my beautiful wife that is! Speaking of my beautiful wife, if you're looking for the pictures she took in Atlanta you can find them here.

What do I have coming up this weekend? Absolutely nothing Magic related. I'll be leaving for Puerto Rico on Friday to spend a nice relaxing week at various places around the island getting ready for Pro Tour San Juan! Starting with 3 days in Rincon for some surfing, then on to Eastern PR for a hike up El Yunque and swimming in the Bio Bay. Until next week this is Dale Lovelace telling you there's more than one way to play!