At the risk of being flamed into oblivion, my favorite card is Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Now let me explain...
There's plenty of hate around Jace, both in terms of $$$ and power. Still though, I think it represents something we don't see as much of anymore, and something that I think people enjoy.
I like that Wizards decided to just go a little crazy and say "You know what? Screw it, we're going to blow it up and create the most powerful planeswalker the game has seen and probably will ever see. Three abilities? Pfft, give it four! Make ALL of them awesome!"
I feel like Wizards is afraid to create crazy cards anymore. How often do people look at some new powerful card and think "man, it's like they ran to the 1 yard line, stopped, and then said 'good enough!'" I like that they went crazy even if it meant banning the card in multiple formats. I like that they decided to make it the poster child of Magic in terms of artwork and power. I like that they revealed it a puzzle piece at a time, letting fans salivate over the abilities. "OMG, is that Brainstorm on a stick?" "Holy crap, he can unsummon too?!"
I think it meant something to the game in general, no matter how broken it was. It said that Wizards could still go a little nuts. It proved that the game could still be broken, resulting in the first Standard ban in a long time.
Love it or hate it, I feel like Jace, the Mind Sculptor is the first card printed in a long time that had the same notoriety and fame as the cards in the Power Nine.
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- The Greendale Human Being
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Apr 3, 2013
The Greendale Human Being posted a message on The Stack, Ability Resolution, and Checking ConditionsPosted in: The Greendale Human Being BlogQuote from SpikexNow, there is something which happened to me at a tourney which I dont understand. My opponent was playing restoration midrange and I was playing R/G Tron. I play Karn Liberated, knowing I have priority over his direct damage, I exile his only source of red mana - a Steam Vents. He "responds" by playing Lightning Bolt on my Karn - I told him I had priority, and he was confused so I called the judge. The judge said that my opponent could, indeed, add the bolt to the stack though it wouldnt resolve before Karn's ablity of exiling the Steam Vents did(the judge added that my opponent could also tap for red, float R, then bolt Karn when his ability had resolved. This I didnt appreciate becuase the judge isnt supposed to tell my oppenent his plays). This is what confuses me: If the bolt resolves before Karn' ability does, yet the cost of loyalty counters on Karn goes down to 3 because his ability is payed for wouldnt the bolt resolve first, since it was added second to the stack, Karn is at 3, hit for 3 then dies before his ability could resolve(since the targets have been altered as you descirbe in this entry)? This would mean that direct damage can kill planeswalkers before their prioritarian ability can even resolve making the whole rule about planeswlakers having priority completely moot and useless. In my opinion, the judge was wrong here, and my opponent couldnt cast lightning bolt, except by floating the R, the playing the bolt after the land was exiled. What are your thoughts on this?
The judge was indeed wrong and doesn't understand how the stack works.
In the situation you mentioned, your opponent can tap land targeting and add red, or even float it for that phase (remember mana empties between phases). At that point, Karn's ability has been added to the stack. If your opponent elects to cast a bolt, the bolt is on top of the stack (last in first out).
At that point, Bolt resolves first, killing Karn. However, that doesn't remove Karn's ability from the stack. All targets for the ability are still legal (the Steam Vents) and so the ability resolves because checking on resolution passes. The target hasn't been altered at all; it was and still is the Steam Vents. Karn doesn't need to be present for the ability to resolve.
Your opponent can keep that red mana floating until that phase ends. Once you enter either combat or the end phase it's gone though.
A simliar situation is true for abilities when creatures enter the battlefield. Say you play Vendilion Clique on your main phase. Clique's ETB ability goes on the stack. Your opponent may Bolt the Clique in response to the ability, but even with Clique gone the ability still resolves. -
May 28, 2011
The Greendale Human Being posted a message on Pyromancer Ascension: Post-Banning/M12.If you've already cast a Volt Charge, if you have a PA on the field it would get a counter on the second Volt Charge and then a second when it resolves from the proliferate.Posted in: Terrapin Guts Blog
Staggershock and Volt Charge make for an active Ascension on their second cast. -
Mar 3, 2011
The Greendale Human Being posted a message on Tezzerator 2.0Does Throne of Geth make sense in the Jace/Tezz/Koth variant?Posted in: NeoItems Blog
I'm thinking it can provide some extra backing in the form of:
- It can get Jace out of bolt/slag range if you brainstormed with him when he hit the field
- It can get Koth out of Galvanic Blast range if he's only at 4
- It can get Koth's ultimate to fire the second turn he's out
- It can get Tezz's ultimate to fire earlier/fire without losing him earlier (could be good if you need the life)
- It can pump the chalice
- It can be a 5/5 beater for Tezz
I think it *might* be worth using over the Opal since it can pump the chalice and keep Sphere of the Suns around longer. Contagion Clasp could also be good, but I think it's too slow for the aggro approach. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Honestly I'd rather they just not errata all of these cards and errata hexproof somehow, since it sounds like Leyline of Sanctity causes a lot of the headaches. I'm sure there are many holes in my argument, but it almost seems like if you had a way of indicating that the replacement effect takes precedence over hexproof then you'd only have to worry about this problem on a handful of cards instead of thousands.
My meta has Affinity, Infect (!!!) and Eldrazi Tron as fairly consistent threats at my LGS and I'm wondering if it could help out as it:
- Shuts down infect
- Prevents Chalice, Ballista and Ratchet Bomb from doing things in ETron
- Obviously hoses Affinity's greediest strategies
I actually want to try this as tech for Ad Naus, definitely sideboard and potentially main board. It's a deck that loves to scry, and there are enough cmc 2 or less threads in Modern right now that I think the ability will trigger plenty often.
Where the **** is Uncle Istvan
Some major love for blue.
You always had:
RiP: gets the job done but can be a deal draw and costs 2, symmetrical
Crypt: cheap, targets, but doesn't net you a card. Asymmetrical
Relic: chips away, draws a card, but you always have to leave 1 open, symmetrical
Totem: scrys so it draws half a card and doesn't require 1 open, symmetrical
Now we just need an artifact that costs 0 to cast, 1 to exile all and scrys on exile just to confuse things more.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/the-rumor-mill/781313-full-spoiler-up?page=2#c42
Why they couldn't have put this in C17 astounds me.
Literally only $21 because the C17 designers all have parents who are cousins that also don't know which reprints should have been included.
It was $5 this morning before the decklists were spoiled. How do I know? I tried to buy some and they sold out as I was going through checkout.
I wanted to get them for a group of people who are just starting to get into Magic because I thought tribal would be fun, but these just feel clunky to me.
I really want them to take the mana bases more seriously with these products. The Dragons deck boggles the mind; 18 basics and 15 ETBT lands seems terrible in a 5 color deck. Why they couldn't reprint Reflecting Pool, Ancient Ziggurat, City of Brass, or Mana Confluence? Even a lightweight Cavern for these decks that didn't have the anti-counter ability would have gone a long way.
Part of me thinks a Jund shell would help because you can run Grove of the Burnwillows to help keep your opponent at the life total you want. Grove is also surprisingly effective against Shadow decks.
Oh wow, how did I not know this card existed?
it apostrophe s
it is controller discards a card.
If you're going to produce a fake, at least get the ******* grammar right.
It do, the caveat being that creature removal is ubiquitous and enchantment removal can be fringe. For certain decks this is more or less a hard lock.
Supreme Will 2U
Uncommon
Instant
Choose one:
Counter unless controller pays 3
Look at the top 4, choose one, rest on the bottom.
Basically Leak or Impulse on 1 card for 1 more.
I plan on trying it as a one of at the very least and going down to 3 Unlife since Unlife is so bad in multiples.
Being able to put 3 cards on the bottom makes Spoils less dangerous of a gamble as well.
Thoughts? I feel like it would be crazy to not at least try it. I might actually do 2 of them and cut to 2 Spoils.
You're totally right, every small LGS should write their own distributed transaction system that can synchronize inventory across multiple third parties that have mixed modes of item reservation in real time under heavy load.
Crystal Commerce is the biggest game in town when it comes to this. Also, how many resources do you legitimately expect stores to expend to hedge against ban announcements? Like anyone saw the Hulk unban coming.
It's not poor business practice, it's a small store with limited resources using the major player in the market for their logistics.