I'll expand. If you're playing land, Rit, Necro draw X end of turn, discard down to 7 then you start turn 2 with 1 ritual in your yard, 7 cards in hand, and it's probably gonna be a bit difficult to make Past in Flames or Cabal Ritual (or Ill-Gotten Gains, thought that's much less popular now) worth playing, especially with Lion's Eye Diamond also exiling any leftovers if you need to pop that for Infernal Tutor.
However, I'm a bigger fan of TES than ANT, which doesn't usually need it's graveyard. If you have more rituals opening hand you can just run them out but there's the risk of the opponent actually just having Force and blowing you out if you can't Force back. I'm thinking Necro would probably be better in the Grind storm decks, that would just go off 2 or three times with mini-tendrils, especially since you can run Force in a build like that and turn life into cards.
Necropotence is a bit of a nonbo with Past in Flames since everything you discard gets exiled. Still, I find it hard to believe that T1 Necro draw 7+ wouldb't let you sculpt a winning hand for T2 right there.
Here's what you're missing though: In the Magic Tournament Rules (MTR) it is explicitly stated that you cannot run a sanctioned MTG event with proxies. If the events aren't sanctioned, then it makes it awkward to even use judges, and even if judges are willing to still participate, the Infraction Prcedure Guide and even the MTR don't apply. This means we can't report warnings, Game losses, DQ'able offenses to the DCI. Even worse, WotC probably shuts out SCG from being a licensed seller for MtG, meaning they can't get Booster Boxes, duel decks, etc. issuing proxies basically destroys competitive legacy almost immediately.
Now, if you keep a stock of real cards that are rented out, that's a stock of cards you can't sell and risk getting damaged. Additionally, I know the many areas don't have as robust legacy scenes, I play sanctioned legacy twice a week, more when there's a bigger tournament on the weekends.
I've had a lot of success with Tidehollow Sculler, but I also have a fair amount of combo in my meta. Still, drawing more discard after turn 5ish isn't that great against a lot of decks, and a 2/2 is still just fine with a SoFaI or Jitte in hand. Obviously mirrislegend hasn't had the same experience, so I'd suggest playing with and without it and go with whichever you prefer.
Casual events I'm pretty sure are actually just one point total, regardless of rounds. Even with those, I'd have to look at the wording again but proxies might still be illegal in those as well. As to SCG issuing special SCG tournament proxies, that seems like a great way for them to get a cease and desist letter from WotC at the very least.
You can't issue proxies and have a sanctioned tournament, so SCG can't realistically do that ever, and even locally it's a little awkward to charge for a tournament and charge for proxies but have a purely casual event.
Alternate casting cost abilities like the one Qasali Ambusher has never take additional costs into account. You'll still have to pay the commander tax if this is your commander.
I'm not sure that that Pithing Needle play in game 2 of the finals was executed correctly.
I didn't see the games, but Thomas is a friend of mine. He said that his thought process was just to go on the S&T plan, and that was why he named Liliana. Didn't pay off.
Anytime a card changes zones it's treated as a new object. When you sacrificed the Newt the second time Gift lost track of it and when you Grim Return Gift sees a new Newt, not the one it was attached to before.
So both abilities trigger on your end step. You have to choose both what order they are going on the stack AND choose targets at this time. Since you have to choose the Image as a target then, the Image ability will trigger, then wait for you to finish stacking your current abilities before it goes on the stack on top of them.
In this scenario your opponent gets the Image and you can't stop it.
It's important to be clear with judges as to where you thought you were in the turn, especially when the judge wasn't watching the game. As far as activating Mutavault goes, 'Beginning of combat' is the step just before 'declare attackers'. That is when the demon triggers and also your last chance to activate your mutavaults and still swing with them.
From your post, it appears that no one there was entirely clear on this. I'd talk to the judge privately if possible, people make mistakes but there's no need to make a scene. Most judges appreciate the feedback, we're all trying to do our best.
You could at least run Thrun. Like tescrin said, you could try going the Stompy route with Chalice, Trinisphere, Chrome Mox, & Elvish Spirit Guide. If you really wanted to force the devotion, Bow of Nylea seems less than terrible with Delver being popular and lifegain never being a bad effect to have around.
Untapping your lands is a clear sign that you're aware of the trigger, and your out of order sequencing doesn't change that. Your opponent does have to discard a card, but they are not in danger of a cheating infraction for hoping you missed the trigger and not discarding immediately.
However, I'm a bigger fan of TES than ANT, which doesn't usually need it's graveyard. If you have more rituals opening hand you can just run them out but there's the risk of the opponent actually just having Force and blowing you out if you can't Force back. I'm thinking Necro would probably be better in the Grind storm decks, that would just go off 2 or three times with mini-tendrils, especially since you can run Force in a build like that and turn life into cards.
Now, if you keep a stock of real cards that are rented out, that's a stock of cards you can't sell and risk getting damaged. Additionally, I know the many areas don't have as robust legacy scenes, I play sanctioned legacy twice a week, more when there's a bigger tournament on the weekends.
This is definitely about Dominguez and the brainstorm, regardless of how it ends up being ruled.
I didn't see the games, but Thomas is a friend of mine. He said that his thought process was just to go on the S&T plan, and that was why he named Liliana. Didn't pay off.
In this scenario your opponent gets the Image and you can't stop it.
From your post, it appears that no one there was entirely clear on this. I'd talk to the judge privately if possible, people make mistakes but there's no need to make a scene. Most judges appreciate the feedback, we're all trying to do our best.