If Ember Hauler is equipped with Basilisk Collar and then is sacrificed to deal two damage to an opponent, does the controlling player of Ember Hauler gain two life?
Also, if the controlling player chooses to deal the two damage to Serra Angel, will Serra Angel die?
The scry mechanic is returning. Though we don't know if it's becoming "evergreen" or not, or whether any other interesting keywords are accompanying it, previous block-keyword-only "scry" appears on at least one card in M11.
Depends on the match up. If I'm playing U/W control, I usually burn to the face.
If I'm on the play and I drop a mountain, but I don't have Goblin Guide, I usually throw a Bolt or Burst their way just to get the ball rolling. Because once they have control of the game and can counter stuff, it's usually over.
Instant, 2R
Staggershock deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)
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This seems like a must-play for RDW. The question is what do we cut? Quenchable fire? Ball lightning? I haven't had time to play test yet. Anyone know what's good to go?
and apparently there is not one ☺☺☺☺ing place to play magic at all, which baffles me because it is supposed to have everything under the sun. Some places sell them, when I call comic/hobby shops, they are like "what are they? magic cards? oh hmm i think we have those."
So any help i would love
I'm going to second Jim Handley's as well. But really only because there isn't any other place to play. I have been coming out to the Island to play. Don't know if you want to travel that far, but I can give you some locations.
I'm pretty sure Jim Hanley's Universe runs events in midtown, but beyond that, I don't think there are many places with events. As for the outer boroughs, there are probably a couple of places in not-so out-of-the-way locations, but more or less, things died down in Manhattan once Neutral Ground kicked it.
Curious, what happened to Neutral Ground? I just recently got back into MtG after not playing since high school and also discovered it is no longer there. Did it just go bust? Rents were too high? People stopped playing?
Thanks for the input guys! I should probably clarify something though. I'm making these decks for beginning players, so while certain cards are obviously better than others, my friends will not know the difference in the decks I will make (hopefully). For instance, even though Earthquake is definitely better than Hurricane, I might make one deck have significantly more flyers than the other, and fill the green deck with creatures with reach or something to even it out. And if one card is better than another, I might just put it in my friends' decks so that way they can have an edge against me.
As for suggestions of my own... well, M10 is packed full of the sorts of balanced symmetries you're looking for. Wind Drake vs. Centaur Courser, for example.
Yea, I should have thought of this before. Thanks for that. The core sets are probably filled with a bunch of equivalent cards with basic abilities.
Yeah, M10 should have quite a few. Some of the top of my head that are at least close (though some may be same effects in different colors):
Holy Day = Fog
Holy Strength = Unholy Strength
Jump = Kindled Fury
Naturalise = Disenchant
Pacifism = Ice Cage (almost)
Snapping Drake = Razorfoot Griffon (trades 1 power for first strike)
Siege Mastodon = Zombie Goliath (trades 2 toughness for 1 power)
Elvish Beserker = Tundra Wolves (poss.)
Goblin King = Elvish Champion (in their respective tribes)
Mass of Ghouls = Earth Elemental
Thanks! This is exactly what I'm looking for. Even if some of those are the same, I actually miss a lot of cards like them. This way I can have decks that are similar but still use different cards.
I like this idea. Do you plan on introducing more advanced mechanics into the decks as your friends become more comfortable with the rules?
I would agree with Wander by checking out M10 or other core sets for ideas. The "Equivalent" cards don't necessarily need to be costed the same as some color specific abilities require the balance. For example, green creatures are commonly undercosted because that’s what green is all about, playing creatures!
You should post the decks lists if you have time. One of my hobbies is constructing a set of decks that are designed to be balanced against one another, so I'd be curious what you come up with.
Also, post some cards you'd like to see in the decks and we can suggest an appropriate "match" for the other 4 colors, ect.
Sounds good. I'll try to post some decklists when I get home.
Without getting too off topic, they way I've been teaching them how to play is that I make two decks with exactly the same cards. In the beginning I made a mono blue deck, just because it was the color I had a lot of vanilla and flying creatures. I threw in spells like unsummon and paralyzing grasp. I didn't use counterspells or anything too complicated so that I wouldn't confuse them. I explained tapping, mana, and all that. But I told them that a turn comprised of drawing a card, playing spells, attacking if you want to, and then playing more spells. I don't go into too many details about phases, steps, the stack, etc. because I think it would be too overwhelming.
As we played more and more games, I introduced more rules. For instance, I explained to them how the "attacking phase" was really "Attacking -> Defending -> Figure out damage." I also began to use more cards with abilities like Haste, Vigilance, and First Strike. The next step I think is going to be explaining the stack and how instant and sorceries work.
I know a lot of people disagree with this method of teaching the game, but I think the game is more complicated than we admit to ourselves, and it can be understandably overwhelming for new players. If I post about this it'll probably warrant its own thread.
It's a gimmick. Plain and simple. Wizards creates artificial scarcity so that people will purchase more of their product. It's just business; just like how they sort cards into rarities. Some people absolutely adore them, some people don't care about them at all. I have a few friends that have about 30 foil cards of each basic land that they use for their tournament decks. I don't bother actively collecting them, and if I ever get a foil rare or mythic I usually try to trade or sell it.
That said, if I crack a foil common or something equally cheap that I use in my decks, I'll throw it in. You have to admit they look pretty cool and you can't really blame people who want them. If money wasn't an issue, I'd try to get complete foil decks. But for now they don't add anything to my deck besides making it look pretty.
Hey all. I've recently been teaching my friends how to play magic, so what I have been doing is making decks with relatively simple spells that are on the same power level (like Unsummon or Giant Growth) and vanilla creatures (like Silvercoat Lion or Runeclaw Bear). I've also been making decks with exactly the same cards so that I know each deck is equal. But everyone knows mirror matches get boring after a while, especially if they don't utilize more advanced mechanics. So what I'm looking for are cards of different colors that utilize different mechanics and flavors, but are still balanced.
Now, there are some non-vanilla creatures that are obviously equal. Suntail Hawk and Zephyr Sprite are examples of this. These are cards I can easily find in Gatherer or Magiccards.info. I also know that sets often release "cycles" of cards for each color (The Quests, Expeditions, and Ascensions in Zendikar. The Demon's Horn, Dragon's Claw, etc. artifacts). What I'm now looking for are cards that aren't identical in ability and P/T (if it's a creature), but are balanced against each other.
For instance, I would argue that Elvish Visionary and Sparkmage Apprentice are equivalent. Both are 2 CMC. Both are 1/1. Both provide you with a "bonus" when they enter the battlefield. Similarly, I would say that Raging Goblin and Llanowar Elves are equal. Both are one drops, both give you an early game advantage, both are 1/1.
I can not stress the importance of Unstable Footing. Jacerator is running rampant in my meta, so I sideboard 4 of them. Against white weenie at FNM last week, it worked like a charm against Kor Firewalker.
I'm inclined to agree with this. With white weenie, you're almost guaranteed to pay Stone Idol Trap for 3 or 4 early in the game, which is very doable AND you get to attack with it. If it's later in the game, you'll be paying less and might prove to be a good last ditch effort.
Yea, I forgot about the trap...but... seems like a far shot. How are you going to get it out against UW control decks that side in Firewalker and don't use anything else but BSA and Sphinx?
A fair point. I have more white weenies running around in my town than UW control, but I would guess that we're going to be seeing more of them in the future. But I'm thinking with control decks, if you haven't won or aren't close to winning by the time BSA or Sphinx comes out, you're probably going to lose anyway. Also, with control you will probably be able to get a lot of land out by the time you want to cast it anyway.
If I lightning bolt my opponent's craw wurm during his upkeep, is his worm effectively a 6/1 until the end of that phase or the end of his turn? When is the damage "removed" (is that the correct word?) from the wurm?
Similarly on my turn, if I attack with raging goblin and he blocks with his craw wurm, could I earthquake for three damage during my second main phase and kill his craw wurm?
Also, if anyone has links to the rulings for exactly how damage works on creatures I would appreciate it! Thank in advance.
1) Don't edit in questions after everyone's answered your first one, just post in the thread with the other question.
I posted it and then immediately edited it to ask my second question. It was literally done five minutes apart at most. I'm sorry if people replied before I got a chance to change it. There were no replies at the time of my edit so I didn't think it was a problem.
Also, if the controlling player chooses to deal the two damage to Serra Angel, will Serra Angel die?
edit: In reference to this:
If I'm on the play and I drop a mountain, but I don't have Goblin Guide, I usually throw a Bolt or Burst their way just to get the ball rolling. Because once they have control of the game and can counter stuff, it's usually over.
Instant, 2R
Staggershock deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)
-------
This seems like a must-play for RDW. The question is what do we cut? Quenchable fire? Ball lightning? I haven't had time to play test yet. Anyone know what's good to go?
WoTC obviously doesn't directly set prices, but they do set supply. If mythics were printed in even distribution as rares, prices would go down.
I'm not trying to be argumentative, as I'm actually curious, but where has this been proven? If this is true, I'm just wondering how that works.
I'm going to second Jim Handley's as well. But really only because there isn't any other place to play. I have been coming out to the Island to play. Don't know if you want to travel that far, but I can give you some locations.
Curious, what happened to Neutral Ground? I just recently got back into MtG after not playing since high school and also discovered it is no longer there. Did it just go bust? Rents were too high? People stopped playing?
Yea, I should have thought of this before. Thanks for that. The core sets are probably filled with a bunch of equivalent cards with basic abilities.
Thanks! This is exactly what I'm looking for. Even if some of those are the same, I actually miss a lot of cards like them. This way I can have decks that are similar but still use different cards.
Sounds good. I'll try to post some decklists when I get home.
Without getting too off topic, they way I've been teaching them how to play is that I make two decks with exactly the same cards. In the beginning I made a mono blue deck, just because it was the color I had a lot of vanilla and flying creatures. I threw in spells like unsummon and paralyzing grasp. I didn't use counterspells or anything too complicated so that I wouldn't confuse them. I explained tapping, mana, and all that. But I told them that a turn comprised of drawing a card, playing spells, attacking if you want to, and then playing more spells. I don't go into too many details about phases, steps, the stack, etc. because I think it would be too overwhelming.
As we played more and more games, I introduced more rules. For instance, I explained to them how the "attacking phase" was really "Attacking -> Defending -> Figure out damage." I also began to use more cards with abilities like Haste, Vigilance, and First Strike. The next step I think is going to be explaining the stack and how instant and sorceries work.
I know a lot of people disagree with this method of teaching the game, but I think the game is more complicated than we admit to ourselves, and it can be understandably overwhelming for new players. If I post about this it'll probably warrant its own thread.
That said, if I crack a foil common or something equally cheap that I use in my decks, I'll throw it in. You have to admit they look pretty cool and you can't really blame people who want them. If money wasn't an issue, I'd try to get complete foil decks. But for now they don't add anything to my deck besides making it look pretty.
Now, there are some non-vanilla creatures that are obviously equal. Suntail Hawk and Zephyr Sprite are examples of this. These are cards I can easily find in Gatherer or Magiccards.info. I also know that sets often release "cycles" of cards for each color (The Quests, Expeditions, and Ascensions in Zendikar. The Demon's Horn, Dragon's Claw, etc. artifacts). What I'm now looking for are cards that aren't identical in ability and P/T (if it's a creature), but are balanced against each other.
For instance, I would argue that Elvish Visionary and Sparkmage Apprentice are equivalent. Both are 2 CMC. Both are 1/1. Both provide you with a "bonus" when they enter the battlefield. Similarly, I would say that Raging Goblin and Llanowar Elves are equal. Both are one drops, both give you an early game advantage, both are 1/1.
I'm willing to hear any suggestions. Other equivalent cards I've come up with:
Rushwood Dryad - Cliff Threader
Scythe Tiger - Jackal Familiar
Hurricane - Earthquake
Black Knight - White Knight
Memory Lapse - Lapse of Certainty
I know some of them are stretching, and that it's impossible for any two cards to be truly "balanced" but I would love to hear your opinions/ideas.
I wonder why they just didn't keep it like Figure of Destiny?
I'm inclined to agree with this. With white weenie, you're almost guaranteed to pay Stone Idol Trap for 3 or 4 early in the game, which is very doable AND you get to attack with it. If it's later in the game, you'll be paying less and might prove to be a good last ditch effort.
A fair point. I have more white weenies running around in my town than UW control, but I would guess that we're going to be seeing more of them in the future. But I'm thinking with control decks, if you haven't won or aren't close to winning by the time BSA or Sphinx comes out, you're probably going to lose anyway. Also, with control you will probably be able to get a lot of land out by the time you want to cast it anyway.
Similarly on my turn, if I attack with raging goblin and he blocks with his craw wurm, could I earthquake for three damage during my second main phase and kill his craw wurm?
Also, if anyone has links to the rulings for exactly how damage works on creatures I would appreciate it! Thank in advance.
I posted it and then immediately edited it to ask my second question. It was literally done five minutes apart at most. I'm sorry if people replied before I got a chance to change it. There were no replies at the time of my edit so I didn't think it was a problem.