Legends of the Force

Policy Update

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Hello there!

Welcome to the Legends of the Force policy update lesson! Today we’re going to go over both the Tournament Regulations and Master Event Document, covering what has changed, and what that means for the game!

We’re just going to go through these in order, and then tie things together as it makes sense to do so. Most of the updates in these documents are clarifications or refinements.

Tournament Regulations

Competitive Limited

The first change we hit in the tournament regulations is a pretty big one - draft and sealed play is expanded to competitive tier events, and with that, a lot of policy outlining how events should be run.

One of the more visible elements is precise timings for competitive tier draft, based on the number of cards remaining in the pack. Furthermore, there’s clarification that players can look at their drafted pool between picks at casual tier, but can only look at their pool between completed packs at competitive tier, and again for a regulated amount of time.

Do not use the competitive tier timings for a casual tier event. Furthermore, if you’re running only a single competitive tier draft, you may not need to use the regimented timings. Called drafts, where the time limits are announced, are intended primarily for coordinating multiple competitive drafts simultaneously, to help reduce issues and keep players aligned.

Both draft and sealed play also note that players may only use common bases from the opened set, but may use any common base from that set.

Deck Contents

This rule formalizes the clarification that has been enforced at major championship qualifiers stating that all cards in a deckbox are considered to be part of the sideboard, with a few exceptions.

Players can also present their sideboard facedown at the beginning of the match, to ensure that all remaining cards in their deckbox are not considered part of the sideboard, as long as the sideboard remains outside of the deckbox.

There’s also some refinements and clarifications - players only need to bring one deck list and all cards should be uniquely identifiable by looking at the deck list. The Tournament Regulations recommend subtitle or set and card number.

Note Taking

Tracking base damage on pen and paper is officially endorsed as a method of tracking damage, in addition to tracking on the base.

Sleeves

The pre-existing rule that sleeves must be wholly opaque has been replaced saying that the sleeves must ensure that the deck is not marked. Entirely transparent sleeves will likely not meet this requirement, but partially translucent sleeves likely will.

Determining Initiative

Extensive language regarding specific methods of randomly determining which player goes first has been reduced to the more succinct “players agree upon a method to randomly choose a player.”

This means that the restrictions on what type of dice or coins used have been removed, as long as both players are okay with the method utilized.

Furthermore, in top cut single elimination rounds, the player with the higher seed (higher final standing after swiss rounds) determines who starts with the initiative for game one of each match that they play, instead of it being randomly determined.

Private Knowledge

Players are no longer prohibited from revealing private information. Furthermore, information about draft elements have been added.

Game Knowledge

This is a new category of information added to the rules, indicating that players are entitled to this information and their opponent does not have to help them acquire this knowledge, but can’t lie or prevent the player from finding out.

This information includes the attributes of cards not in play that were not previously revealed - this can include cards that are not in either player’s deck. Furthermore, information from official documents and tournament information falls under this category.

Deck Checks

This section has been revised to include more guidance on timing for deck checks, indicating more precisely when judges can and should pick up decks for deck checks, how much time extension to issue and target numbers for an event.

This updated information is in line with the level two lessons on deck checks.

Judge Proxies

This section has a small revision to indicate that judge proxies can only be issued for cards that have been damaged or lost during the course of the event - and should not be used for situations where a player simply did not have the cards at the beginning of the event.

Master Event Document

Judges

An early policy clarification has been formalized - the language restricting judge calls has been removed. Judges are able to answer calls about any interactions, even if the cards are not in play or pertain to cards that are within public knowledge. Judges should continue to refrain from providing strategic advice when giving answers to any questions.

Spectators

The spectators' responsibilities section has been adjusted slightly. Rather than leaving the match to find a judge if they believe they see an error, spectators should call for a judge, but not inform the players of anything beyond that they believe they saw an error. It is frequent that the players themselves then identify the error and sometimes begin to take steps to remedy it before the judge arrives, which is an acceptable outcome.

However, the spectator should refrain from making specific comments so as not to accidentally provide outside assistance.

Game Loss

Under game loss we have another clarification that has been formalized. If both players in a match would receive a game loss at the same time, the game losses are recorded but do not impact the match score, and players continue to play their full match.

Card Manipulation Error

For Card Manipulation Error, the whole section is blue, but that’s because it’s been moved from tournament disruptions to gameplay disruptions. The contents of this section are otherwise unchanged.

Decklist Errors

This section has revised guidance on remedying decklist errors.

If a player does not have enough cards in their deck to meet the minimum deck size for the format, cards are added at random from the player’s sideboard to reach the minimum. These changes are recorded on the decklist. This error still results in a game loss being issued. If the player had a legal decklist and is able to find the cards that they did not have, they can inform a judge to update their list by returning cards to their sideboard, either partially or fully.

Once cards have been removed from the sideboard as part of this fix, the player is not allowed to add new cards to the sideboard - so they’ll be playing the rest of the event with reduced options.

Minor Unsporting Conduct

This section has a small revision for Outside Assistance.

Players and spectators who actively seek or distribute information (without knowing it is prohibited) should receive a game loss, as opposed to a severe penalty for this infraction. If the spectator is between matches, the game loss applies to their next match. If a player receives information without prompting, they should receive a tracking penalty, but no penalty points.

Furthermore, if a player violates the electronic device policy, but does not access strategic information should be issued a tracking penalty instead of a game loss for the first infraction. They should be educated on the electronic device policy, and informed that if they repeat the infraction, they will receive a game loss.

And that’s it! Thanks so much for joining us, and I encourage you to take the Legends of the Force mastery quiz after you’ve looked at the rules updates. This quiz is not required, but it’s a good way to make sure you’re up to date with the new rules and mechanics! You can find more details about mastery quizzes on nexus.cascadegames.com/exams/mastery

Until next time, good luck and have fun!