Just to clarify for people who don't understand. Currently the words "Darksteel Colossus is indestructible." is NOT an ability. It functions exactly like "Dryad Arbor is Green". Currently; Humility or other "lose all ability" effects will not be able to take that away.
This is NOT true.
Quote from Comprehensive Rules »
700.4a Although the text “[This permanent] is indestructible” is an ability, actually being
indestructible is neither an ability nor a characteristic. It’s just something that’s true about a permanent.
The proper interaction between Humility and Darksteel Colossus is Darksteel Colossus does not have any abilities, and thus isn't granted being indestructible.
As for Dryad Arbor, first, it now has a color-indicator and no longer has a characteristic-defining ability.
Also, IF it had a characteristic defining ability, the way layering rules work, color-changing effects are applied before ability-adding/ability-removing effects, thus it would still BE green, but it wouldn't have the ability "[This permanent] is green."
Edit: Nor any other abilities.
While Humility is in play, Dryad Arbor does not have any abilities, you can't tap it for mana, and it's still green.
That video was weird. GSZ costs 4 under Thalia and Qasali gave Geist +1/+1 when attacking. Also Explosives costs 3 with Thalia and he sacd in response to Pithing Needle naming it. What the hell.
He triple-blocked Geist, so all tokens died.
Explosives costs X1 under a Thalia, however, if that payment somehow involves 2 different colors, it will get 2 counters.
In other words, you can pay a total of 2 mana AND get 2 counter on explosives, even when Thalia is on the battlefield.
As for pithing needle, he probably sacced it in response to pithing needle being cast, his opponent just didn't give him the chance to respond before he named something.
I have to admit they commited a lot of game rule violations, though, such as destroying Mirri's Guile with explosives, etc.
Not sure if I'm ready to make a sideboard for this deck, since I'm still working up in my standard and modern decks. But I'm pretty aware of it, I'd like to add 4 Pact of Negation in a future, because, what worries me the most, is a counter to Hypergenesis, the deck wins automatically when I play the genesis, so I don't worry about paying 3UU the next turn, lol.
Well, that would be my first sideboard attempt, don't think is something I need to main up.
The only problem is cascading into Pact of Negation is horrible
Force of Will > Pact of Negation
Also, it can be useful to tap a fetchland in some borderline cases,
1) your opponent taps his Sensei's Divining top(because he wants to miracle Terminus), and only has an untapped Fetchland. Tapping the Fetchland means he either has to fetch now, and shuffle Terminus away, or he can't cast the Terminus, because he won't have the mana to do so.
2) if you tap a fetchland during it's controller's upkeep, your opponent has to either get his land now to have an untapped mana source this turn, or ... well, he doesn't, and saves it up for later. This works especially well in conjunction with Wasteland, as you can waste tapped fetchlands without your opponent being able to fetch in order to fizzle the activation. Or you can just waste the land he fetched for if it was a non-basic.
Notion Thief is even better against Brainstorm than you guys think--if they Brainstormed with 2 or more initial cards in hand besides the Brainstorm, they still have to put 2 cards back, so it's +8 CA (You draw 3, they're denied 3, they put back 2).
Well, not really...they have to put back 2 cards either way, Notion Thief doesn't have an influence on that.
Edit:
You spend 1 card [-1]
You get a creature [+1]
You draw 3 cards [+3]
They skip 3 draws [+3]
Total: +6
Or:
You spend 1 card [-1]
You get a creature [+1]
You draw 3 cards [+3]
Your opponent loses his Brainstorm [+1]
He/She puts 2 cards on top of his/her library [+2]
Total +6
Split Second means Spells and activated abilities that are not mana abilities can't be put on the stack.
Actually, spells and abilities can still be put onto the stack (with Replicate, for instance), you just can't activate/cast them.(unless they are mana abilities)
I don't play legacy but, how does counterbalance counter krosan's grip?
Counterbalance has a triggered ability, which still triggers, even if your opponent casts Krosan Grip(since Krosan Grip doesn't stop abilities from triggering, it only affects spells and activated abilities).
However, the Countertop player can't manipulate the top of his library in response to Krosan Grip, making Krosan Grip still a good answer against Counterbalance that will work most of the time.
the problem with library is its early game implications get carried into the late game very quickly.
if you are on the play and have it in your opener, you can draw 2 cards before your opponent has drawn 1. Now, this of course assumes no mulligan, etc, but the power is intense. turn 2 you draw another 2 cards. Youve now drawn 4 cards and they've drawn 1. at this point you can start casting other cantrip-y spells.
If you are on the play, you can't activate Library until your second turn.
It's essentially a one-sided howling mine if you never play more than 2 cards per turn.
I feel the real strength of library in legacy would be its amazing synergy in combo decks like high tide. It allows you to filter through your deck at an alarming rate.
Actually, it isn't that great in high tide, because it isn't an Island, but other combo decks could use it.
Also remember that in legacy you dont have restricted cards. just banned and legal. Imagine how oppressive turn 1 AND turn 2 library play would be. Its not legendary. Midrange decks would be insane if they could stick 2.
Even one should be enough to beat most fair decks if they do not find theirs.
Oh yeah, don't forget they produce no colored mana, so you'd have to skip your first 2 turns if you chose to play Library on Turn 1 and 2
I do believe when you brainstorm with Blood Scrivener out you draw 4 because its a replacment effect not a triggered one.
Drawing cards works like this:
Quote from Comprehensive Rules »
120.2. Cards may only be drawn one at a time. If a player is instructed to draw multiple cards, that
player performs that many individual card draws.
In other words, as soon as you have drawn your first card, your hand isn't empty anymore, so future card draws won't result in drawing an additional card.
(It wouldn't matter if the effect was a triggered ability, you would draw only 4 cards in that case, too).
Why would 2 cards need to be 99% the same for one to be strictly better. That doesn't make any sense. Take another example: you could play any 2-drop in your 2cc creature slot in rug but Tarmogoyf is strictly beter than any of them.
TrevaFTW was trying to say that "strictly better" means the card only has upsides, but no downsides (in comparison to another one). For instance, Lightning Bolt is strictly better than Shock, but not stricly better than Burst Lightning, because Burst Lightning has the "upside" of being able to deal 4.
Please note that he only complains about the use of the word strictly in this contex.
Edit: As for Tarmogoyf, other 2-drops aren't vulnerable to graveyard hate.
The bigger point is, isn't it more logical to bring a deck that maybe has 1 or 2 great matchups and 1 or 2 bad matchups and is relatively even across the board than to bring a deck that has several great matchups but also has quite a few really bad ones?
Unless you know that you're going to be facing the really great matchups as a majority of your matches, isn't it mathematical suicide to bring a deck that has so many highs and lows?
No. In fact, it doesn't matter wether you have mostly even matchups or if you have many good and many bad matchups, all that matters is your chance to win a certain match against the whole field.
In the end, if you have on average a 50% matchup against the field, it won't matter wether you are 80% favored in one, and the underdog with 20% in the other, because you still have a 50% chance to win the match(not knowing who you'll be paired against).
However, it is noteworthy that even if you do not change your MatchWin% against the field, your expected value can be influenced by your opponents' matchups against each other.
For instance, if you are highly favored against a deck that is highly favored against the rest of the field, your chances of playing against this deck increase in case you win(and decrease in case you lose), and so does your chance of winning subsequent rounds, which in turn increases your expected value.
Show and Tell is a two card combo. Tinker is a one card combo.
That's why Tinker is on a completely different level than Show and Tell.
First of all, technically, you still need to sacrifice an artifact for Tinker. Even though this seems to be a marginal downside, it requires you to play at least some otherwise sub-optimal cards in order to always have something to sacrifice(Artifact Lands being the most obvious choice with nearly no drawback).
However, more importantly, most cards you will search for with Tinker can be handled quite easily. With Blightsteel Colossus probably being the game-ender of choice, you'll probably end up losing to a simple Swords to Plowshares, allowing fair decks to interact with you very easily.
Unless they reprint Emrakul as an artifact creature(or I miss a crucial artifact that wins the game on its own and is hard to interact with), Tinker seems a lot less threatening than current Show and Tell decks.
I am sort of new to Magic, and I just recently built this deck. I've never played it in a tournaments before, but I plan on taking it to FNM, so I was wondering if anyone had any pointers on how I could improve it.
Let me start with some general criticism:
Usually, people try to build their decks as consistent and streamlined as possible, thus they contain multiples of the same card, rather than one-ofs(there are multiple exceptions, just for the record, such as tutor targets).
Looking at your own list, you will notice you are playing a lot of one-ofs for no practical reason, probably due to card-availability.
If you are aiming to build a (at least somewhat) competitive deck, you will have to acquire certain new cards and change your deck to a more streamlined version.
This may cost some time, effort, and money, however, you do not have to play the most expensive cards just to be competitive, but obviously, saving money on cards will make the deck weaker.
As for the deck itself, you are probably going into the direction of a :symu::symr: Delver/Tempo deck with a relatively small creature suit consisting of cards like Dever of Secrets, Goblin Guide and Snapcaster Mage, minimal disruption(Mana Leak, Remand) and burn to finish the job(Lightning Bolt, others.).
There is even a subforum about :symu:x Tempo decks, however, there does not seem to be whole lot of information about UR(without a third color) tempo.
I suggest opening a thread there asking for help, and, in case money is a concern, stating your budget limit.
Also, one last word on Burn:
If you want to burn out your opponent, Lightning Bolt is probably where you want to start, and there are various better options than Shock or Pillar of Flame.
Edit:
Also, certain cards in your deck are simply too expensive, such as the dragons or Epic Experiment, and will probably hang around in your hand doing nothing.
Actually, it is July 13th
(and July 24th for Magic Online)
Source
This is NOT true.
The proper interaction between Humility and Darksteel Colossus is Darksteel Colossus does not have any abilities, and thus isn't granted being indestructible.
As for Dryad Arbor, first, it now has a color-indicator and no longer has a characteristic-defining ability.
Also, IF it had a characteristic defining ability, the way layering rules work, color-changing effects are applied before ability-adding/ability-removing effects, thus it would still BE green, but it wouldn't have the ability "[This permanent] is green."
Edit: Nor any other abilities.
While Humility is in play, Dryad Arbor does not have any abilities, you can't tap it for mana, and it's still green.
Edit: Not quick enough
He triple-blocked Geist, so all tokens died.
Explosives costs X1 under a Thalia, however, if that payment somehow involves 2 different colors, it will get 2 counters.
In other words, you can pay a total of 2 mana AND get 2 counter on explosives, even when Thalia is on the battlefield.
As for pithing needle, he probably sacced it in response to pithing needle being cast, his opponent just didn't give him the chance to respond before he named something.
I have to admit they commited a lot of game rule violations, though, such as destroying Mirri's Guile with explosives, etc.
The only problem is cascading into Pact of Negation is horrible
Force of Will > Pact of Negation
1) your opponent taps his Sensei's Divining top(because he wants to miracle Terminus), and only has an untapped Fetchland. Tapping the Fetchland means he either has to fetch now, and shuffle Terminus away, or he can't cast the Terminus, because he won't have the mana to do so.
2) if you tap a fetchland during it's controller's upkeep, your opponent has to either get his land now to have an untapped mana source this turn, or ... well, he doesn't, and saves it up for later. This works especially well in conjunction with Wasteland, as you can waste tapped fetchlands without your opponent being able to fetch in order to fizzle the activation. Or you can just waste the land he fetched for if it was a non-basic.
Well, not really...they have to put back 2 cards either way, Notion Thief doesn't have an influence on that.
Edit:
You spend 1 card [-1]
You get a creature [+1]
You draw 3 cards [+3]
They skip 3 draws [+3]
Total: +6
Or:
You spend 1 card [-1]
You get a creature [+1]
You draw 3 cards [+3]
Your opponent loses his Brainstorm [+1]
He/She puts 2 cards on top of his/her library [+2]
Total +6
Actually, spells and abilities can still be put onto the stack (with Replicate, for instance), you just can't activate/cast them.(unless they are mana abilities)
(Don't tell me you can't trigger Replicate, Djinn Illuminatus)
Counterbalance has a triggered ability, which still triggers, even if your opponent casts Krosan Grip(since Krosan Grip doesn't stop abilities from triggering, it only affects spells and activated abilities).
However, the Countertop player can't manipulate the top of his library in response to Krosan Grip, making Krosan Grip still a good answer against Counterbalance that will work most of the time.
If you are on the play, you can't activate Library until your second turn.
It's essentially a one-sided howling mine if you never play more than 2 cards per turn.
Actually, it isn't that great in high tide, because it isn't an Island, but other combo decks could use it.
Even one should be enough to beat most fair decks if they do not find theirs.
Oh yeah, don't forget they produce no colored mana, so you'd have to skip your first 2 turns if you chose to play Library on Turn 1 and 2
Drawing cards works like this:
In other words, as soon as you have drawn your first card, your hand isn't empty anymore, so future card draws won't result in drawing an additional card.
(It wouldn't matter if the effect was a triggered ability, you would draw only 4 cards in that case, too).
TrevaFTW was trying to say that "strictly better" means the card only has upsides, but no downsides (in comparison to another one). For instance, Lightning Bolt is strictly better than Shock, but not stricly better than Burst Lightning, because Burst Lightning has the "upside" of being able to deal 4.
Please note that he only complains about the use of the word strictly in this contex.
Edit: As for Tarmogoyf, other 2-drops aren't vulnerable to graveyard hate.
No. In fact, it doesn't matter wether you have mostly even matchups or if you have many good and many bad matchups, all that matters is your chance to win a certain match against the whole field.
In the end, if you have on average a 50% matchup against the field, it won't matter wether you are 80% favored in one, and the underdog with 20% in the other, because you still have a 50% chance to win the match(not knowing who you'll be paired against).
However, it is noteworthy that even if you do not change your MatchWin% against the field, your expected value can be influenced by your opponents' matchups against each other.
For instance, if you are highly favored against a deck that is highly favored against the rest of the field, your chances of playing against this deck increase in case you win(and decrease in case you lose), and so does your chance of winning subsequent rounds, which in turn increases your expected value.
First of all, technically, you still need to sacrifice an artifact for Tinker. Even though this seems to be a marginal downside, it requires you to play at least some otherwise sub-optimal cards in order to always have something to sacrifice(Artifact Lands being the most obvious choice with nearly no drawback).
However, more importantly, most cards you will search for with Tinker can be handled quite easily. With Blightsteel Colossus probably being the game-ender of choice, you'll probably end up losing to a simple Swords to Plowshares, allowing fair decks to interact with you very easily.
Unless they reprint Emrakul as an artifact creature(or I miss a crucial artifact that wins the game on its own and is hard to interact with), Tinker seems a lot less threatening than current Show and Tell decks.
Let me start with some general criticism:
Usually, people try to build their decks as consistent and streamlined as possible, thus they contain multiples of the same card, rather than one-ofs(there are multiple exceptions, just for the record, such as tutor targets).
Looking at your own list, you will notice you are playing a lot of one-ofs for no practical reason, probably due to card-availability.
If you are aiming to build a (at least somewhat) competitive deck, you will have to acquire certain new cards and change your deck to a more streamlined version.
This may cost some time, effort, and money, however, you do not have to play the most expensive cards just to be competitive, but obviously, saving money on cards will make the deck weaker.
As for the deck itself, you are probably going into the direction of a :symu::symr: Delver/Tempo deck with a relatively small creature suit consisting of cards like Dever of Secrets, Goblin Guide and Snapcaster Mage, minimal disruption(Mana Leak, Remand) and burn to finish the job(Lightning Bolt, others.).
There is even a subforum about :symu:x Tempo decks, however, there does not seem to be whole lot of information about UR(without a third color) tempo.
I suggest opening a thread there asking for help, and, in case money is a concern, stating your budget limit.
Also, one last word on Burn:
If you want to burn out your opponent, Lightning Bolt is probably where you want to start, and there are various better options than Shock or Pillar of Flame.
Edit:
Also, certain cards in your deck are simply too expensive, such as the dragons or Epic Experiment, and will probably hang around in your hand doing nothing.
They can make lots of tokens during your end step, so they will stay until the beginning of the next End Step, aka until their end of turn.