lol I was saying always announce phases, at the very least it will annoy your opponent (unless they do it to) into making a mistake or it will give you a sound argument during a rulings dispute! I'm judging a regionals this weekend and I wish all duelists did this... so much easier... a friend of mine thats playing im gonna make him announce all his phases... just so that he gets in the habit of doing it.

hehe, I like the idea of annoying your opponent that way, I actually bought Spectrum sleeves today for the express purpose of distracting people xD

spectrum??? what are those? are they the really annoying ones with the sheen pattern on the back which are marked?

Yeah, they're Yu-Gi-Oh sized Ultra Pro ones that change colors depending how the light hits them. They're also the brightest orange I could find xD

Gentlemen, feel free to carry your conversation over to MSN or any other messaging system

Waldo has a very important point here. While the call by the judge would have been incorrect based on the turn player announcing their phases and there obviously being only one legal target on the field for Nobleman of Crossout (along with it being required to name the target at activation) if the turn player went directly from drawing their card to activation of Nobleman of Crossout then there is a legitimate gripe.

This is a good example of why, even though it may often times seem monotonous and even at times annoying, it's important to announce the phases of a game. If the opposing player hadn't been given a chance to activate a set S/T then there is a verifiable argument here. Do yourself a favor (as well as the judges a favor) and announce your phases to avoid such confussion.


What Waldo is saying here expands on why being a judge is much more than just knowing rulings and mechanics. (Obviously these are the cornerstone of judging though) If you're judging the vast majority of rulings and mechanics should be pretty well embeded into you. One of the key elements in becoming a good judge though is the ability to assess a situation and look beyond the card rulings and as stated above read between the lines. To do this a judge has to stop, think for a moment about the possible scenario surrounding the immediate question. It would be easy to assume all play was correct to this point.....but was it? Has this person been trying to get game wins based on technicalities all day? Does the opponent even have a set MST or Dust Tornado or are they just making a huff to disrupt the game? How old are the players and what level of experience do they have? All these questions and more may go into the thought process of a judge's mind as he/she determines what ELSE happened before the were called over....and such thing can greatly change the way a judge may make the ruling.

It's easy to take a situation at face value. Quite often times though, that would result in an incorrect ruling.