MTG Salvation

If there was another card in the graveyard before the Mesa was cracked then your opponent will have the chance to activate Lavamancer's ability. Sacrificing the mesa is a cost of activating the search and so it will be in the graveyard by the time you activate your shackles.

Quote from mrisaiahc

they would not, they would be played in a lot of mono colored decks

Assuming they etb tapped like the dual colored scry lands, they would be strictly worse. There wouldn't be any draw back to having a Temple of Triumph in a mono-white deck in place of a New Benalia even if you don't need red mana for anything. The only notable reason I could think of is if you want more scry lands, or if there's a monetary price difference between them.

That being said, I don't feel like it'd make any big impact on standard because people have been fine using off color scry lands just for the scry (effectively a mono-colored like you're suggesting). It wouldn't be terrible for edh though.

There is a step called beginning of combat that occurs after the first main phase and before the declare attackers step occurs. The quote you have is saying the best time to cast unsummon is during the beginning of combat step because only instants can be cast (so Thraximundar can't be cast) and before attackers are declared.

If the unsummon is cast during the main phase then yes you are able to recast the creature before going to combat.

Your opponent's milling will go straight into exile instead of the graveyard. Since the Eldrazi never hit the graveyard their shuffle effects wont trigger. To note, Undead Alchemist's second ability will never trigger because creature cards won't be going from library to graveyard.

In your situation your opponent will have the ability to bounce your nonland permanents with cyclonic rift before declared blockers. Both players receive priority before changing phases, including going from declare attacks to declare blocks. Also, both players will have to pass priority over an empty stack before changing phases (so they can respond even if a creature without an enter the battlefield effect comes into play).

It's completely un-needed and would probably cause more confusion for new players. If someone casts Horizon Chimera like you've suggested (being an Instant Creature) then a new player may think he can sack his Cursecatcher to counter it, which is not what it's meant to do at all. The change would also create a nightmare for updating all the cards/rules that apply to it.

At my very first prerelease (Gatecrash) I tied for first playing RWB which was pretty exciting for me. My pool did most of the work tbh (Firemane Avenger, Angelic Skirmisher, Foundry Champion, Blind Obedience x2, Spark Trooper) but it was still cool. The thing I really remember from it though is my next to last match my opponent had a Boros Reckoner and I realized how good it was (it was $4 at the time). Biggest regret of not trading for it right then haha.

In constructed I was really proud of my jund scavenge deck I played at the start of the summer. It started out as at 12-0-3 in the first three fnms (my lgs only does promo's for prizes so no reason to play for points really). Even then it won those. After that I had a bad week where I couldn't draw the lands I needed to save my life but it was still fun to play. Especially playing Vexing Devil, them taking 4 damage, then scavenging to attack for an additional 4

Quote from Momentary

But Counsel of the Soratami is a 2 for 1?

Not really. All it does is costs you a card and mana but doesn't do anything to your opponents situation. They still have all the cards in their hands, and permanents in play.

No. The creature that Portent steals doesn't re-enter the battle, it just changes control, so Purphoros doesn't trigger.

The thing with Cockatrice is it allows players to put on counters of one of 3 colors (I guess to help distinguish between +1/+1's, divinity, etc).
Yes +1/+1 counters do represent increasing a creatures P/T but on Cockatrice some people prefer to go ahead and change the P/T so that everyone can understand what they mean. As long as both players know that the change is being applied everything should be fine.

The way trample works is that the attacker must assign at least lethal damage to each blocker before being allowed to assign any damage to the defending player. So the Phantom Nantuko (I'm assuming it's got 2 counters before activation) is declared as a blocker.
Player B must then assign any amount of damage between lethal (3) and the Ravager's strength (15) to the phantom and the rest to the defending player. So at most Player B can trample over for 12 damage, and will gain 15 life minus the amount of damage assigned to the phantom. Because the ravager doesn't deal any damage to the shaman it cannot gain life from whatever is assigned to the creature.

EDIT: Sorry, misread Phantom Nantuko.

EDIT2: Forgot to change the numbers when I updated last.

Yes, tapping does not remove a creature that is already declared as a blocker from combat.

Am I the only one who is wondering where Vaatu is now?

That's really cool then as I'd have never thought about those effects and protection. Thanks for confirming that.

I was watching a twitch stream yesterday and the guy streaming made a comment saying that cards that have the "damage can't be prevented" text can make it so a creature with protection can be damaged by that color source.
The scenario he was in was that he had a Boros Reckoner and his opponent had a Master of Waves and some other stuff, and he had a Skullcrack in hand. Basically he said he could swing with reckoner, have it blocked by the Master, and cast skullcrack in declare blocks before damage to have reckoner be able to deal combat damage to the Master.
Is this right? I know the triggered ability from reckoner still cannot target master, but can a creature with protection be dealt damage when a "can't be prevented effect" is active? The argument he made is that protection works like a prevention effect and so it can be overwritten with certain spells.