Ask a Judge

Get rules answers from real, certified MTG judges 24/7. A ChatGPT prompt generator is also provided as a fast (but fallible) backup.

Talk to a real judge (recommended)

Certified Magic judges and rules experts answer rules and policy questions live at chat.magicjudges.org, with citations from the Comprehensive Rules. This is the authoritative path.

  • It's a community-run channel (not Wizards of the Coast). No login needed — pick any nickname and start typing.
  • If your question references a card, type !CardName first (e.g. !Sol Ring) to have the channel bot post the card text.
  • Be patient — answers usually arrive within a couple of minutes.
  • Stay on topic; no leaked-card discussion.
Open Judge Chat →
First time using IRC? How to use this chat →
  1. Open the chat — the button above loads chat.magicjudges.org/mtgrules, which embeds the Kiwi IRC web client with the channel #magicjudges-rules already selected and a random MTG-themed nickname already filled in (e.g. Sphinx7). No signup, email, or download required.
  2. Click "Start" on the connect screen. You can keep the auto-generated nickname or type a different one. Leave the password field blank — the channel does not require registration.
  3. You're in. You'll see a two-pane layout: a channel/user list on the left, and the chat on the right. Quiet periods are normal — the channel isn't always buzzing.
  4. Ask your question in the text box at the bottom of the chat area and press Enter to send. Keep the whole question in one message ("Can I respond to X with Y?") instead of pinging first — judges prefer to see the full question.
  5. Reference cards cleanly by typing !CardName (e.g. !Sol Ring) on its own line first. The channel bot will paste the card's Oracle text so judges can see exactly what you're asking about. If you arrived here from Card Lookup, the Suggested opening message above already includes this for you.
  6. Wait 1–5 minutes. It's a volunteer channel; answers come with Comprehensive Rules citations. If nobody replies, it's not personal — try again at a different time, or fall back to the ChatGPT helper below for a quick (fallible) second opinion.

Chat won't load? The hosting page occasionally warns "This service may be unavailable due to an upstream outage." Try connecting directly via web.libera.chat/#magicjudges-rules — same channel, no extra gateway.

ChatGPT prompt generator

Build a question prompt you can paste into ChatGPT (free web UI). Useful for casual play and exploration, but not a substitute for a real judge.

ChatGPT can be confidently wrong about MTG rules. Replacement effects, layers, timing, and corner-case interactions are especially error-prone. For tournament play, or anything you can't verify against the Comprehensive Rules, use the judge chat above.
If filled, the card's Oracle text and rulings are fetched and embedded in the prompt.