You are correct. The state of being monstrous has no interaction with gaining or removing +1/+1 counters. The only thing that can make a creature monstrous is activating its monstrous activated ability, which just happens to add counters. If an enchantment said "Creatures can't have counters placed on them" and you activated Hythonia's Monstrous ability, it would still trigger the "Destroy all non-Gorgon creatures" and she would be considered Monstrous for the rest of the game. The +1/+1 counters are simply a flavor addition to the ability as well as a convenient way to keep track of if a creature is monstrous or not (assuming no other affects putting counters on it or removing them). Let me know if anything else is still unclear.
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It's because lands are boring. Why put a land in the limited rare slots they have for these products when they can put something flashy and exciting?
That doesn't actually make sense because the number of rares in a product is arbitrary. A duel deck could just as easily have 2 Lavaclaw Reaches, 4 Blood Crypts, and a Blackcleave Cliffs rather than a couple Akoum Refuges and a Carnarium. The reason for it is what bone_doc said - unfortunately, if they did things like this, the competitive players would snipe most of the access away from the casual players, and the real market price of the products will skyrocket - as seen in the spectacular failure that was the Commander's Arsenal. A handful of wealthy people got their hands on them and actual commander fanatics like myself don't get the option to purchase the product. Wizards could solve things like this by increasing the supply to meet the demand, but they have a painfully damaging notion that high aftermarket prices (and therefore profit) are more important than access and customer satisfaction - hence why they will not do away with the antiquated Reserve list and why I will never be able to afford to play Legacy.
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Sylvan Library is good for the same reason that Sensei's Divining Top is good. It lets you choose your draws, and in a pinch gets you an extra card (or two, with library). Your life total is a resource just as cards in hand (and card selection/quality) is, and trading resources for other resources is a powerful ability.
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It's absolutely ridiculous to be opposed to something as commonplace and sensible as writing down a hand. Using tools to assist in memory and tracking the game are vital - tokens, dice for counters, paper for tracking both player's life totals - keeping track of storm count and floating mana when it is relevant... All of these things are important for maintaining and understanding a game state. If you think that means I take the game "too seriously" then fine. Don't play against me. Nobody's forcing you into a tournament. I play more to have fun than win, though winning is pretty fun. And I think that knowing how to play around known information is fun. I enjoy crossing cards off of a list as my opponent plays them and trying to guess what they're going to do next.
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My Trade Thread Level 2 Judge (18 October 2013!) GWBUModern Gifts LoamUBWG UWBStandard Esper ControlBWU UWEDH Geist of St CrapUW Proud Cockatrice Regular
The Guardian is Duskdale Wurm with a drawback. Duskdale Wurm is fine but never exactly set the world on fire.
Meanwhile, your opponent can make it much worse than Duskdale Wurm by not attacking unless they absolutely have to, until they draw into an answer for it.
It's not a Moat at all as the OP suggested. It does not restrict your opponent's available decisions in any way.
The one time during the prerelease that I cast the Guardian, my opponent refused to attack for the next four turns, letting me kill him with an Accursed Spirit, because attacking me would have just given me a ohko the following turn.
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My Trade Thread Level 2 Judge (18 October 2013!) GWBUModern Gifts LoamUBWG UWBStandard Esper ControlBWU UWEDH Geist of St CrapUW Proud Cockatrice Regular
That's not a pile at all, it looks quite good. Light on removal but heavy on the big beats. My only question is why you ran encroaching wastes. Really scared of that shimmering grotto in 4-color slivers?
it's finally happened. R&D have virtually removed control as an archetype from standard. 109 decks since DGM came out made top 8. 4 of them were control decks. Three percent. Three ****ing percent of decks from an archetype that should be more like 30+%. This is the same "hurr durr play creature turn creature sideways" ideology that is ruining modern. Thanks, Wizards. You're alienating and edging out any creativity or intelligence from your game. You're appealing to children. You're ruining magic.
PS There are also ZERO combo decks. NONE.
At least there's still EDH.
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That doesn't actually make sense because the number of rares in a product is arbitrary. A duel deck could just as easily have 2 Lavaclaw Reaches, 4 Blood Crypts, and a Blackcleave Cliffs rather than a couple Akoum Refuges and a Carnarium. The reason for it is what bone_doc said - unfortunately, if they did things like this, the competitive players would snipe most of the access away from the casual players, and the real market price of the products will skyrocket - as seen in the spectacular failure that was the Commander's Arsenal. A handful of wealthy people got their hands on them and actual commander fanatics like myself don't get the option to purchase the product. Wizards could solve things like this by increasing the supply to meet the demand, but they have a painfully damaging notion that high aftermarket prices (and therefore profit) are more important than access and customer satisfaction - hence why they will not do away with the antiquated Reserve list and why I will never be able to afford to play Legacy.
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My Trade Thread
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The one time during the prerelease that I cast the Guardian, my opponent refused to attack for the next four turns, letting me kill him with an Accursed Spirit, because attacking me would have just given me a ohko the following turn.
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Yeah, on a Woodborn Behemoth.
Mutavault. I never actually activated the wastes because Advocate of the Beast blows Mutavault into chunks, but still.
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7 Swamp
1 Encroaching Wastes
2 Accursed Spirit [Nobody else had black creatures somehow. Unblocked all night.]
2 Advocate of the Beast [2/3 for 3 is great in this format]
1 Corpse Hauler [I used it once, to get back a cockatrice]
2 Deathgaze Cockatrice [amazing card, got to kill an archangel]
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Festering Newt [destroy target Capashen Knight]
1 Garruk's Horde
1 Guardian of the Ages [pretty good Moat]
1 Manaweft Sliver
1 Rootwalla
1 Sporemound
1 Tenacious Dead
1 Woodborn Behemoth
1 Quag Sickness
1 Verdant Haven
1 Fireshrieker
1 Ring of Three Wishes
1 Hunt the Weak
1 Howl of the Night Pack
thoughts?
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2. Rakdos would be GG Allin.
3. Izzet would be Dr. Steel.
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http://magiccards.info/query?q=city&v=card&s=cname
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More like MILF of Runes, amirite?
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PS There are also ZERO combo decks. NONE.
At least there's still EDH.
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