#ptaer

[magicjudge]

Snoots win! Snoots Win!!

Gremlins just won Pro Tour Aether Revolt!

[the-burnished-hart]

There are six Mardu Vehicles decks in the ProTour Top 8.

The other two are Jund Energy Aggro and something else, probably Black-Green Constrictor/Delirium.

[magicjudge]

JqlGirl - Twitch

Hosting the stream for Pro Tour Aether Revolt

Hey all, We all know that twitch chat can be a bit of a cesspit, so I’m hosting the stream on my own channel. So, if you want to watch the last 3½ rounds of the day, but in a different chat (with me!), stop on by.

[magicjudge]

My take on a discussion point from the Pro Tour Aether Revolt stream.

[magicjudge]

Why is the current policy regarding "combat" the way it is? It's very obvious that it implies that it means that you want to do something in the beginning of combat step; if you wanted to declare attackers, you'd say so.

Under the current shortcut policy in section 4.2 of the Magic Tournament rules, any statement such as “go to combat” or “declare attackers?” from the active player is an offer to pass priority until their opponent had priority in the beginning of combat step. Any response is assumed to be happening at that time unless the opponent says otherwise.

The current interpretation of this shortcut is that a player can in no way move to a place where they have priority in their own beginning of combat step without announcing what’s happening there (either a trigger, spell, or ability) or without a good reason otherwise (as discussed below).  It doesn’t matter if they say say “combat” or “attackers” or “pass in my main phase”.

For context on how this shortcut developed and the current philosophy behind its application and enforcement, please read the two articles linked in this sentence. They’re written by senior judges with much more experience and thought put into this than me.

But to summarize the reasons for why this is the case, I’ll steal the two underlying philosophies laid out in Toby’s article:

With very few exceptions, the non-active player doesn't want to act in active player's main phase.

With very few exceptions, the burden is on the active player is to act first.

Note that those points say very few exceptions, not no exceptions. 

Exceptions to #1 include wanting to kill a creature such as a Goblin Rabblemaster before it triggers in the beginning of combat step. 

Exceptions to #2 include situations where the nonactive player has mana floating or can’t do anything past the main phase, such as if there’s a Basandra on the battlefield. In these cases, the active player has a good reason to move the game to the beginning of combat step with them having priority.

I don’t want to steal too much thunder from the excellent articles here, so if you have any further questions, please read those first before coming back to me with more questions.

Do I think the shortcut is perfect right now? No, but it’s better than any alternative I’ve seen suggested and I’ve seen plenty of alternatives suggested.

[magicjudge]

So I was watching the Pro Tour and saw Ben Rubin pile shuffle Martin Juza's deck and present it as his cut. Isn't there a problem with pile shuffling in general in tournaments?

Pile counting isn’t shuffling, but a player can pile count a deck once each game to verify the number of cards in it. This is fine.

[the-burnished-hart]

The ProTour has started!

[mtggoldfish]

Pro Tour Aether Revolt Top 8 Decklists

The Top 8 decklists from Pro Tour Aether Revolt.