We had a lot of great answers on this month's topic - thanks to everyone who participated. Before we dive into other folks answers' here's our team's:
“When Jace flips, he's actually going into exile, then we're putting the planeswalker version onto the battlefield under his original owner's control. So, no, you won't be able to use him as a planeswalker.”
Juan did a solid job of explaining the distinction between the Origins Planeswalkers and previous double-faced cards, Erik gave the most succinct answer that we liked, and Nathan identified a key aspect of the question that might cause confusion: the timing on the control change.
Darcy brought up a point about strategic advice - while this can be a concern, we think that the player's not asking whether he should do it, just what will happen if he does. Explaining how an ability will resolve, in terms the player understands, sits right at the nexus of customer service and tournament integrity - we want players to ask us what will happen if they do a thing, instead of just guessing, only to commit an infraction.
We also had a number of judges suggest that the player read the card more carefully or use the phrase “as the card says”. While this is often a way for players to answer their own questions, we don't want to make them feel dumb. A good way to teach them to read cards in a helpful manner is to point at the text of the card while explaining the answer - this shows players that they could find it without obscure rules knowledge, but in a little more subtle way.
Once again, thanks to everyone who participated. We'll be back in September with another scenario designed to help judges provide better answers. In the meantime, if you'd like to join the Personal Tutor team, or if you encounter a player question that you think would be interesting, please
contact Josh Feingold.