I wish I were joking. This is an actual question I was asked about the upcoming prerelease event (and Oath of the Gatewatch, when the child was even younger!). I get that being a Magic player makes you inherently want to take advantage of small technicalities, but come on.

Being a tournament organizer and a judge can be a tiring, thankless job. Many of us who staff Magic events are not paid in any capacity. Others, who are paid, barely make what they would working minimum wage, despite acting as somewhere between a lawyer and a nanny for 72 hours of a prerelease weekend.

To some, it may not even seem like much to put on a Magic event. Sure, WOTC provides us with materials, but it took your LGS employee an hour (or three, if you're me) to put together the "immersion" materials you'll see this weekend, and your head judge spent an evening pouring over the Shadows Over Innistrad Release Notes article to make sure they'd get everything right.

So, take a second to thank your TO, Head Judge, LGS Employees, and everyone else who put in effort to make the prerelease events this weekend run smoothly, when you see them this weekend. They'll appreciate it!

And hey, we don't object to you buying us a glass of wine or a beer after that last Sunday prerelease event, either. :)

Happy Magic-ing!