Plays that Forced Magic: the Gathering Rules Changes (MTG) 

The fact that a judge DQ'd a player for casting a match winning spell slightly wrong in the semi finals of a pro tour is still the craziest story from early magic I've ever heard

The fact that saying the word “combat” used to mean “I’d like to skip an entire step and go to the declare attackers step.” Is batshit insane

The hilarious part of Ceasar's story is that there isn't even the word "Combat" in the Declare Attackers Step, whereas there is in the "Beginning of COMBAT" step

That language barrier issue in the "combat" clip never fails to infuriate me when I see it. Ignoring the fact that he couldn't legally skip the phase as others have pointed out, it's pretty scummy to penalize anyone (let alone an ESL player) for not using flawless terminology. With the Needle example, at least the person named a legal card by mistake. The "declare attackers" step isn't called the "combat" step. However, the phase itself is called combat. So why would saying "combat" not start the combat phase from the first step? In a game as needlessly pedantic as Magic, you'd think weird oversights like that wouldn't happen at a pro tour event.

Gabriel literally shaking while holding the dryad arbor is so indicative of how frustrating that play is

Number 2 really stinks, such an absurd ruling from the judges. I feel bad for Cesar.

the "combat" bit with Cesar got especially hair-pulling because I remember some judges at the time basically saying there was no way to declare that you were going to the START of the combat step, only the DECLARE ATTACKERS which means until the rule change there was officially no way to activate ANY "start of combat" triggers since any attempt to "go to combat" was understood by the rules to mean "go to declare attackers" you'd ALWAYS miss the trigger, but nobody knew that because literally everyone I had ever spoken to understood "go to combat" to mean "go to the START of combat" absolute madness

The Combat ruling still gets my blood boiling. I've seen other judges try to defend this judge's call, but it was from the start a bad policy, and was enforced by a bad judge.

That "combat" one is even more dumb because the judge should've rewound the turn up to the triggered ability. There were legal targets for the ability, so he _had_ to select a target. You can't just skip triggers and be forced to keep playing if you catch it before doing anything else. _Edit: Apparently that's newer rulings than when this took place. Still an unreasonable response, especially with context._

#2 was the scummiest thing, not just from the opponent but from the judges involved. Terrible ruling all around.

The Cesar combat one is still hard to watch. Like Kai said no one has ever used "combat" as that shortcut. Even then Weldfast Engineer is not a "may" trigger so he could always crew in response to the trigger. Fucking shameful.

#2 is like saying "untap" at the start of your turn skips your untap step and goes straight to the draw step. The fact that naming a phase does anything other than go into that phase is a piss in the face of game design.

I lost an important local tournament to that stupid combat ruling. I tried to trigger an ability at beginning of combat and crew in response but the opponent called a judge saying I had missed combat. I specifically said "at the BEGINNING of combat, I'm going to trigger this ability and crew with it on the stack" with emphasis (we had all been talking about the combat ruling before the tournament and the judges made announcements regarding it). The judge ruled that I had missed the combat step and passed to declare attackers because the word "combat" was used. My opponent knew exactly what I was doing and I was very clear with how I was doing it, but the opponent decided to be scum and take advantage of this terrible shortcut policy. Thankfully it's since changed, but I still get mad thinking back on it.

About the #2 entry: 1) If Cesar had said "attackers", I could see that possibly being interpreted as "Let's move straight to the Declare Attackers step", but he said "go to Combat", which is the name of the PHASE. It's not a shortcut. 2) Cesar had a triggered ability that goes on the stack at the Beginning of Combat. While it is true that the rules as I understand them at the time allowed for triggers -- even mandatory ones -- to be skipped entirely if both players failed to remember to add them to the stack. Not only was this not true, but there is another rule that allows the game to be reversed to a previous state/step/phase AS LONG AS nothing has happened that could not be reversed. For example, if I draw a card too quickly, my (beneficial) upkeep triggers won't go off; I can't unsee the card I drew. If Cesar had actually declared some attackers, it would have been too late for his Beginning of Combat step trigger. Since Cesar clearly believed himself to be in the BoC step with his trigger on the stack, that's where the judge should have adjudicated the game state to be in and possibly issue a first-offense warning. To do otherwise would be to unfairly catch a player in a "Gotcha" trap. 3) But most importantly, the one thing I haven't heard anyone address is: What was Cesar SUPPOSED to have said to advance the game from his first Main Phase to the Beginning of Combat step without saying the word 'Combat'??

I think Magic could really learn a lot from Yugioh for scenarios like 9 and 2. In Yugioh, "Rule Sharking" - using rules and policy in an attempt to gain an advantage, instead of to ensure fair and consistent gameplay - is forbidden as unsportsmanlike conduct, and gives the player a minor warning (which can become a major warning with serious consequences if it happens mutliple times). The fact that Magic doesn't have a rule like this is frankly ridiculous.

I forgot how mad the combat made me, it felt so bad faith to say combat means a phase that doesn't contain combat in the name when English was clearly not primary language.

Cesar was robbed straight up. And no I don't feel bad for Nguyen afterwards. If someone had done this to him I would be just as upset. The whole thing was a mess and the judge not ruling in his favor was trash tier. I am glad they changed a lot of this stuff up.

That Wall of Roots thing is the wildest strategy I've heard about in a long time. lol

The Kibler one isn’t that crazy to forget. He was so focused on Baneslayer itself that it slipped his mind that the trigger would still hit something else. Like, “I didn’t put Baneslayer down, so I’m safe.” and stop thinking.

Especially with the "combat" one, I think cheating is somehow actually less scummy than that level of rules lawyering. TIL you can rules lawyer to the point where you are essentially putting words in your opponents mouth, and some judge will happily endorse your degeneracy because sometimes judges just want to feel smart, not do the right thing.

I understand why for competitive play the Arbor Dryad positioning could be problematic, but I do really like the flavor aspect of disguising itself as a land to ambush an unsuspecting attacker.

Imagine having the new archfiend of dross, with 1 counter left. And declaring upkeep as your opponent gleefully accept your defeat. And you call the judge because you said "upkeep" so your not in the "at the beginning of the upkeep phase" any more.

Don't forget the other way to abuse Cavern of Souls before the rule change- casting something your opponent thinks is uncounterable and then casting another spell using the mana you sneakily floated from the Cavern.

The combat thing makes NO sense at all. I was always under the impression (and I played a lot BEFORE AEther Revolt) that asking to move to combat was done so that players who had tricks that might prevent your creatures from attacking had the opportunity to do so before knowing which creatures you choose to attack with. Because rewinding after revealing your attacks is basically access to information you didn't have before.

I mean I don't know Thien Nguyen from Adam, but just from the expressions on his face when he started rules lawyering and as he watched the judge converse with Cesar Segovia, it's obvious he was enjoying having "got" his opponent on a technicality. It's the kind of behaviors I hate the most out of portions of the MtG community. So, I don't have much sympathy for him regarding the backlash. Honestly that's what this whole video is basically about. Slavish adherence to the strictest interpretation of every minute detail of the written rules rises to nearly masturbatory levels for some corners of the community. Instead of asking your opponent to clarify their actions in the event of any uncertainty, their immediate instinct is to rules lawyer their way into advantage on a technicality. It just makes the game less fun to play, less fun to watch, and just less fun to interact with in any capacity.

Still my favourite part of number 9 is at the next PT, Marshal on coverage, going over to LSV's top 8 match to check what he named with pithing needle to be told "grislebrand enraged".

Magic the Gathering, the game where putting the card from your hand onto the battlefield before tapping your lands is a disqualifiable offense, but choosing not to remind your opponent that they missed a trigger is professional etiquette

Number 2 is so frustrating, thein's a scumbag for immediately calling a judge to jump on that ridiculous technicality he happened to know about

Seth, I’ve never commented on your videos. But I really needed to go out of the way and say how well researched and thought out this video was. It was so interesting. Please do more videos like this and not just gameplay videos. You’re doing great work! Glad this popped up on my page.

I love that not only did Andrew Sullivan have that bonkers way of playing, his opponent in the clip has an altered full white border deck. What a strange pairing

The judges are the bad guys in every mtg tournament story I’ve ever heard. Ruling that “go to combat” means you skip your beginning of combat step and all triggers that would happen there is complete nonsense.

The sneaky Dryad Arbor is actually kinda thematically inline with the card itself. Which is a forest you walk through, that is infact animate and not normal trees.

From someone who's been playing for a very long time, "combat" never meant "I want to skip beginning of combat and go straight to declaring attackers". No idea what these judges were talking about.

I think what makes this video really interesting for me is the fact that some of these rulings were within the last 5+ years which is relatively recent still. The mulligans ruling especially stood out the most for me cause I started playing magic in late Sept 2019 when Throne of Eldraine was at the tail end of being released. So it's funny to put that into perspective on just how new some of these rulings are

Another classic moment was at pro tour dragons of tarkir. Patrick Chapin was in the feature match being broadcast and activated an ajani mentor of heroes to look at the top four cards of his library and take a creature, planesalker or aura. He then forgot to reveal the card he selected before putting it into his hand. Judge was called and after much appeal and deliberation it was ruled as a game loss according to the rules at the time. This resulted in a rules change that in a case such as this where you fail to reveal, your opponent is basically allowed to look at your hand and have you discard a card from it as a judge resolution to the issue.(this may have also lead to the rule change that allows the head judge to at their discretion utilize coverage footage when making a ruling since they could have seen that chapin did in fact select a legal target had this been allowed at this event. It was not allowed in magic at one point).

#2 is total BS. If it was me I was going to ask for the legal rule printed saying that, and if they fail to give me, I would Drop the championship in front of live coverage in protest

This combat one is throwing me through an absolute loop. I've played table top since Scourge and events since Kahn's. I have never once assumed the shorthand "combat" or "go to combat" refer to anything other than an attempt to proceed from the main phase into the Begin Combat phase. That is absolute nonsense that it has ever been ruled that that shorthand is to go to declare attacks.

Love these history/non-gameplay videos.

So half of them wasn't "the plays that changed the rules" but "judges poor decisions that changed the rules"

Imagine if nassif flips cruel ultimatum off the top of his library, then taps his lands and gets immediately disqualified.

Bob and Thien are pathetic men. These dudes are so desperate to win, they resorted to scummy rules lawyering. Not only did Bob admit he knew what Bradley meant with the Needle, he never even apologized. Hell, Thien even played the victim when there was backlash from the community. Cesar must have already felt very uncomfortable because of the language barrier and to have everyone in the room against him when he is obviously correct in his terminology must be so frustrating.

i mean, understanding why someone might commit the heresy of lands in front of creatures and seeing it in action, actually looks pretty helpful from a tournament standpoint. It clearly shows how much resources a player has open first, then the cards played are always readable by the opponent from a brief look, rather than having to read upside down. Understand standardising it to the majority though!

Yeah that combat one pissed me off back then. I've been playing for 20 years and I've never once used "combat" to skip beginning of combat. I've always done "Go to combat" - wait - "Declare attackers" when I'm playing competitively

I think the lesson we should take from these is that MTG needs an anti-rule sharking rule like Yugioh. There is literally a rule in Yugioh’s tournament policy that says that attempting to abuse calling a judge over very minor rules infractions is worth a minor warning

No one has ever said "I end main phase one, beginning my beginning of combat step"

I love the history of mtg videos like this

The Wall of Roots exploit lasted like 6 months after the change was implemented in my lgs/playgroup, since we didn't had that much access to the information of changes

Jon Finkle's Worlds Finals Innistrad had his opponent run a 59 card deck which would have disqualified that player. But Finkle advocated to the judge to let him stay and play. Finkle lost and was ok with it. THAT is the level of ethics everyone should aspire to be.

I feel that trigger thing with kibler one time me and my buddy were playing casual. I was running a rakdos vampire tribal and he was running dimir zombies. He had dielgaf captain and a bunch of zombie tokens so I cast mizzium mortar for overload wiping his board. We both forgot his aristocrat ability to ping every time a zombie dies and the game state was fucked.

I love how most of these rule changes screwed over those rules-lawyer technicalities. So many victories were straight-up robbed from people by scumbag rules-lawyering.😤

That combat thing is just infuriating, an international tournament should try to make language barriers less impactful not more.

Wow I've been playing magic for years and I've never heard of the between turns phase. Thanks for digging up that gem.

A lot of these situations really urks me because people who go that hard are looking for any way out of a situation, even if it means being scummy.

The worst thing about number 2 is that there never was a rule that stated the word combat would enter assign attackers phase. They literally made that up on the spot based on the fact that that is how people tend to use the phrase. It would be like me playing a card named guard and a judge saying that I can't play that card because I just used the magic passcode word that assigns defenders so I missed the opportunity to cast guard. It doesn't feel at all like the judges were being impartial there.

I haven't watched your content in a while but this was great! I'm sure glad you dropped the old intro and get straight to the content. Awesome work!

I love the idea of using Stasis to make infinite mana

As soon as you introduced all of these, I knew exactly where you were going. Except for #3. I've never heard of that riot, nor heard the quote from that girl in that commercial. I didn't know why you can tap lands while casting a spell, and I didn't know that changed with the big 6th edition changes. Thanks for that sweet knowledge bomb!

Idk, a lot of these just made me sad and now I’m kinda tearing up. Just like, watching someone get utterly rules lawyered after coming so far. Had to stop the video at the crewing part I feel cheated and I’m not even playing

It's worth noting that the rule change at number 3 will later allow for weird interactions with cards like kci as it let to use the kci ability multiple times at once (as long as you declaring your intend to cast a spell). This allow for cards like scrap trawler and myr retriever to trigger at the same time bringing each other back.

27:30 Nguyen may have felt bad after, but by his demeanor and words during the incident, it was clear he was obsessed with advancing. Sympathy gone

That judge who did DQ the player with the winning spell, reminds me when I was very young and used to go to Fantasy Stores and they always had that 1 old boomer who was always very awkward and apathetic and would even be aggresive towards you for no reason, that judge looked like he came out one of those stores.

So WotC explicitly outlawed a player's efforts to make their boardstate _more_ readily legible to their opponent? I wonder what they would've thought of my summon-sickness placement: I'd play monsters facing upside down (text towards opponent) as a summon sick position with the added benefit of it placing the text towards them for them to read the card, the habit immediately spread to the rest of my playgroup because _it actually denotes summon sickness_ and does it in a helpful way to boot.

The language barrier definitely made the ruling worse but let's be honest here The idea that you can declare you want to go to combat and it takes you anywhere but the phase named "beginning of combat" is absurd.

The mana tapping one is super interesting. I see the reason for it. It proves to the game state that you have the proper mana. I think casting a spell you don't have the mana for, someone responds too it with a card revealing a card from their hand or springing a trap, then you go to tap mana and find out you did not have the right mana. Can't unring that bell, I feel the rule was there for a reason, and its to prevent this stuff.

I saw translation of PT Aether Revolt and I really felt damn pain for Segovia, how unfair it was.

When Vehicles were first spoiled, I remember specifically looking into when you had to Crew them so you could attack and finding that if you say "go to combat" it's already too late. Didn't really think of the implications of that at the time, just remembered not to do it. Good they fixed that because it genuinely made no sense at all.

Aw man, this one was great, like a trip down memory lane. Thanks for ensuring that the oldest players are included in these videos; this could've gone the watchmojo direction and been dry, but your taste is excellent and presentation is killer. Thanks buddy.

I have been playing since just before M10 (2009) was released and the shortcut "going to combat" was never meant to be "declare attacks." it's only that it's the very next thing that happens in most cases because the cases where it matters are more rare.

The combat one should have had the judge removed from staff for telling the player what the player’s intentions were and disregarding the actual steps of the combat phase. That’s not even Rules Advisor level of knowledge. That’s literally in any beginner’s guide. Such a farce.

Wizards was a menace for that updated forest dryad art.

I know my story is way before world tour even existed, but here goes ... At a tournament, I was getting pissed off that every opponent was drawing a card before untapping. It mattered a lot to me, because I had a troll winter orb + icy manipulator deck. So after one opponent insulted me when I reminded him that it's not how the game works, I called over a judge. Over, and over, and over. Every turn. Finally, I insisted that if his lands are tapped during the draw phase, that must mean he tapped them during upkeep ... and therefore he should take mana burn. I'd like to think, that in some small way, I was responsible for the removal of the mana burn rule.

Man this is the exact perfect video for me. So juicy and I enjoyed every. Second. Thanks Seth

We always used to play with our lands on top, back then, 25 years ago. But boy am I glad that I never played a bigger tournament, remembering all that phases and trigger shenanigans on top of what all the cards your opponent plays do, and still thinking strategically would've killed me (or make me riot :)

I really loved this trip down memory lane. Magic historian stuff is nice.

That Ceasar "combat" mess is a disaster. The judge shuold take a break. The opponent is slimy as well

The thing is: Being a good sportsman beats rules. I want to win on same terms as my enemy and if I loose because I remind my enemy he forgot something, means that my word can be valued, I am honorable and a good person. And at the time I judged I also paused a game when I was unsure what was played and let me explain the steps so I can be sure that the rules are correctly used (that was Yu Gi Oh though) because players tend to play very, very quick. That means that there were a ton of cheaters that hoped you missed something. Not with me. And I lost particular interesting MTG matches because I told my opponent that they need to use specific triggers. What's the point if you win but you know you lost anyway if your opponent hadn't forgotten something maybe due to stress or anything. If you rely on your wins 'no matter what', shows that you are more egoistic than anything else... Sad... I saw so many people turn away from MTG because of rules lawyers, cheaters and outright unsportsmanship. Stay crunchy.

great video!! i would love to see a video about the history of mulligans

Rules lawyering and angle shooting are two of the things I despise most in Magic. Also this does not happen often but opponents asking intentional misleading questions about the board state or your intended play is highly frustrating.

the "combat" one drives me crazy. the judges knew his intent. to still make the call that he skipped the beginning of combat is ridiculous.

I love the wrong name example simply because Yu-Gi-Oh has basically always had that current Magic ruling. It's probably because no one's going to remember the full name of a card like Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X "Bureido". It might actually be less restrictive in Yu-Gi-Oh, since you could just say something like "the lv 8 Karakuri" to designate the card.

Reminds me of all the times I got rules lawyered or straight up cheated in competitive play. As much as I love paper magic, competitive play is probably better of online exclusively.

The Aether Revolt ruling was really the tournament organizers problem rather than a problem with the game. Like saying that "combat" is "declare attackers" rather than beginning combat is incredibly moronic. The game rules themselves don't need to cover implied signalling between players to this extent. If there was confusion they should ask for clarity. It also still makes no sense that you can actively ignore abilities on your own cards if it would benefit you.

I love these history videos- these are the best. The mulligan rules used to be straight murder - you could lose before you even played a turn. I can’t tell you how many times we just agreed to reshuffle and start fresh as I had no chance of playing let alone winning.

LSV is also why Oblivion Ring type effects now specify until the enchantment leaves the battlefield

At RC Sydney 2022 we had a 45 minute time extension based around the combat ruling. Best part it was Greasefang vs Rakdos Mid.

First story has a Yugioh equivalent. We have many "Black Luster Soldier" retrains. Black Luster Soldier Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Evening Twilight and a couple more too. A player used a Spell/Trap and declared Black Luster Solider to prevent it from being played in the Duel, but at the time only "Envoy of the Beginning' had any relevance to someone trying to actually win . Opponent played Envoy and everyone cheered. I didn't witness this because I took this from a YugiTuber's video where he read fan submissions. It's important to actually declare the full card name. Someone could have been running either version for fun or filler, or just as a discard for a specific purpose.

The Kibler one reminds me of the current Yu-Gi-Oh rule which is that both players are responsible for keeping a legal game state and that if a mandatory effect is missed both players get a PE Minor depending on the scale. I think helps because it stops angle shooting and things of the like

I heard about a guy playing g/w/b junk in old extended. He was borrowing the deck and wasn't familiar with all the cards. He had a game under control, but needed a finisher fast. He tried to Demonic Consult and wanted to get a "Hunted Wumpass"-a 6/6 for G3. He couldn't remember the name and said "Humpuss Wumpass" and his opponent called the judge. Judge said he needed to name an actual card, and even though both the judge and opponent knew the card he wanted, they wouldn't tell him. He had to Consult for a Cursed Scroll instead and couldn't close out the game in time.

#5- the "Between Turns Phase". I'm an old fart who played in an "Extended" format PTQ the one weekend "Wall of Boom" was legal. It was ridiculous; and players were actively trying to figure out other ways to abuse the "between turns" step, so it's a good thing they changed the rules immediately. Another way "outside of turn" effects were abused was in the summer of 1999 with the "White Lighning" deck. This was a mono-white aggro deck with 4 copies of the card "Waylay". Waylay cost 2W, was an Instant, and read as follows: "Put three Knight tokens into play. Treat these tokens as 2/2 white creatures. Remove them from the game at the end of the turn." The tokens didn't have haste, so unless you had a card that gave creatures haste, the only way to use this card was on defense. Well....that was when Waylay was printed in 1998. In Spring 1999 came the new core set "Sixth Edition" and with it an overhaul of the rules. One of the changes was that basically everything "stacked"...including "at end of turn" triggers. So you can see where this is going. Let your opponent's "end of turn" trigger check go on the stack, in response, play Waylay, check resolves everything that was there when the check started...which does not include your three brand-spanking new Knights. Suddenly, for the low, low cost of 3 mana (and even better, used during your opponent's end step), you've got 6 (or 9 with a Crusade or Glorious Anthem- the Knights were white creatures) power worth of new creatures ready to wreak havoc on your opponent's face for one turn. The funny thing is, if you know your Magic history, the Waylay trick wasn't even in the top dozen utterly broken things you could do in Standard Magic in 1999. Even cheating 6 power worth of Knights into play to bash along with your other creatures on turn 4 couldn't stand up to combo decks that could kill you on turn 3. In Standard. That was....a wild time.

Combat shenanigans always makes me think back to kitchen table magic games with friends, with them just retreating attacking creatures after finding out it would put them at a disadvantage.

You missed a few major ones : abeyance which turned out to prevent mana sources activation, forcing wizards to issue the new ruling for mana sources (the one that allowed the wall of boom deck 😅). And also the "yawgmoth's will dark ritual infinite mana" attempt from Emmanuel Vernay for constructed at a french championship, another attempt at using the new mana source rule created after abeyance (it was ruled as not working by the head judge but created a heated debate, as the current wording of rules for mana sources at the time definitely allowed it to work, as the dark ritual was still in the graveyard and not yet out of game when the mana source effect is activated, allowing to cast it again infinitely as nothing could prevent mana sources ativation to be declared at any time) which led to some additional rulings to make it not work.

22:47 Wow! This has actually resolved a longstanding frustration of mine, as almost the exact same thing happened to me during a Kaladesh GP. Always wondered if that ruling was correct, since it was so contrary to everyone’s intuition. Guess it was at the time!

This video reminds me of a time when I was about 13 years old or so and just getting into tournament magic. My magic budget was the $10-$20 my mother would give me to go do the tournament, so it was hard to be competitive at all at the time. It was when M10 had came out but before Zendikar came out. I was, for the first time in my life doing well in a tournament running a mono green stomp deck. For reporting round results we had slips that we had to fill out and both players had to sign. At my local game store there was a group of folks trying to make a pro team and when it was announced that I had made top 4, for the first time ever, two of them came up to the owner and told him they had made a mistake on their round slip, and because of 'tie breakers' and the judge going along with it, put me at like 5th or 6th place. I'm pretty sure I went into the back room and cried, never placing in a tournament again until I became an adult and had my own money. Felt real bad.

The Cavern one is interesting because it then allowed some different scummy plays where the Cavern player doesn't have to say they've used the Cavern to cast the spell at all so the counterspell player has to be vigilant to check which lands were tapped for each creature spell. I remember it being pretty annoying in Standard where the spells cost more mana, having to check the pile of lands my opponent had just tapped to see which ones they'd used over and over. Can be pretty easy to tap 4+ lands and have the Cavern at the bottom barely visible if visible at all.

Man, that combat announcement is such a major feel bad moment.

9:49 I had a case like this but the creature that they were trying to counter had no generic mana so I could not call generic mana. Another time was an artifact deck where I summoned a 1 cost artifact creature using generic mana. Both of these interactions made for fun rules lawyering when they tried rules lawyering me.

#2 always makes my blood boil

I cant believe you didnt talk about "Abeyance and Waylay" both PT plays caused rule changes. I was also at the PTLA when Justice started the riot, and will never forget it

Rules lawyers that blatantly ignore intent deserve a punch in the face.

This is a great video and a trip down memory lane.