She's sneaky-great from a Mel standpoint: she technically still follows the "2MM casting cost, 4-mana activated ability" pattern of her twopredecessors, but you'll never actually be playing her or activating her for those same costs.
Sweet card. Not my cup of tea from a gameplay perspective (I'm very much a Timmy, though sadly not of the variety that the actual Timmy card satisfies), but she's perfect for what she is.
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"The true measure of all heroes is not what they achieve, but who they inspire." —Triumph of Gerrard
So this let's you grab any Un-set card since they are banned in constructed, short of un-block or something like that.
Also, grabbing Contract from Below is great. Since you ignore the ante, you just discard and draw 7.
Neither of these should work, I think. Un-set cards aren't banned, they just aren't legal to begin with, and both MaRo and Tabak have said you can't fetch Ante cards.
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Rest in RIP My Signature, I guess. 2015-2016, we hardly knew ye.
Total side note but I like how people are discussing running this over itself.
Well, it has to be said that Kolaghan is clearly better than Kolaghan. Considering what BR decks usually want and how stiff the competition in this guild is, there is no way that I would run Kolaghan over Kolaghan! Kolaghan might make it in as the sixth guild card or so. Kolaghan on the other hand ranks several places below that.
It was so funny to me when they described this as a downgrade to the original Zurgo during the Pax East panel. I was thinking if this is a downgrade, they should really "downgrade" all legendary creatures. Haha.
My deck designing is quite concise at this point:
1. Come up with deck idea
2. Realize this idea is somehow fundamentally similar to another deck I have or that is commonly played in my group
3. Decide I don't want to disassemble one of my existing decks
4. Give up and do nothing
I don't see the point of this new shroud mechanic. It's strictly worse than Hexproof. Threshold is pretty bad too, Delirium is a much better mechanic and probably easier to activate.
Otherwise this card is a pretty neat guy. Dodges removal and grows into a Primal Huntbeast. 3/5
So this let's you grab any Un-set card since they are banned in constructed, short of un-block or something like that.
Also, grabbing Contract from Below is great. Since you ignore the ante, you just discard and draw 7.
Neither of these should work, I think. Un-set cards aren't banned, they just aren't legal to begin with, and both MaRo and Tabak have said you can't fetch Ante cards.
Correct, silver-bordered cards simply aren't legal in Constructed formats because they are not considered "Authorized Game Cards" by the Magic tournament rules. They're not specifically banned, so you can't use Spike to fetch them.
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Lapsed DCI Rules Advisor - Retired from playing but still hanging around
Never thought Spike is a girl.
I should reconsider my life I guess.
I think it was a pretty obvious move, honestly. Wizards is way more keenly aware of representation that they were in 2004, this was the last piece of the cycle, and Spike is the only archetype with a gender-neutral name. Beyond the actual effect, I fully expected this card as-is.
Yeah, this shouldn't be a surprise. I was expecting her to be a woman since this article.
Quote from Mark Rosewater »
I want to talk a little bit about Melvin's name. Recently, I have come to realize that the player psychographics (Timmy, Johnny, and Spike) all having male-gendered names is not ideal for making everyone feel included. If I had to it to do over again, I would have chosen gender-neutral names. The names are a little too engrained in the player vocabulary to change, so I decided to create a companion female version—much like how "John Doe" has "Jane Doe." This would allow people to adapt the psychographics to either gender. Timmy got Tammy, and Johnny got Jenny. Spike is already a nickname—and of the four Spikes I've known in my life, three were female—so I decided Spike was fine left alone. This got me thinking about Vorthos and Melvin. Vorthos is a made-up name, so I decided it didn't have any cultural gendering to it and left it alone. For Melvin, I realized we could just shorten it to "Mel," as Melvin and Melanie both use Mel as a nickname. Since Melvin is probably the least used of all the names, I'm proposing we just shorten it to "Mel." From now on, that's what I'm going to use.
Not how it works. Format-based deckbuilding rules and set exclusions do not constitute being on a banned or restricted list, or else this card would be able to get anything not in standard.
We need a list with all cards this can fetch so one can prepare for the prerelease!
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Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
—Eli Shiffrin, Rules Manager, on a design stacking lifelink instances
So, this is an idea for a 10ish-turn kill combo for limited (more like a turn-18-oh-finally-I-got-the-fourth-swamp-combo), if you are a Johnny using a Spike, Tournament Grinder… I used cards that I could find at home, obviously with black lotus and friends it could be easier
I used 4 dark ritual, a lotus petal, 2 grapeshot, a seething song and Yawgmoth's Will (the only pricey card of the list). They were all banned in extended except for grapeshot, which is banned in pauper, and seething song, which is banned in modern. This implies that you are using a heavily black deck but red is not needed.
Turn 4: play Spike (of course you had that in your hand!)
Turn 5 (or when you get the 4th swamp): get dark ritual with Spike’s ability (you could start also by paying life, but you’ll need those later maybe)
Turn 6: another dark ritual (you can skip this turn by paying 8 life)
Turn 7: you have BBBB, cast dark ritual x2 to get BBB+BBB+BB
Use Spike’s ability x2 to get dark ritual + dark ritual
Turn 8: same as turn 7 but get lotus petal and seething song with Spike.
Turn 9: here’s when things happen. Let’s say you have 4 swamp, 2 island (or other lands) and at least 3 life.
Get BBBB+UU from your lands
Cast lotus petal, use it to get R, then use UUR to cast seething song.
You now have BBBB+RRRRR, storm counter (SC) 2
Spike’s ability paying BBB+ 2 life --> Yawgmoth’s will
Cast Yawgmoth’s will paying RRB, SC 3, you have RRR
Cast lotus petal from graveyard, use it to get B, then use RRR to cast seething song from GY.
You now have B+RRRRR, SC 5
Cast dark ritual, then cast dark ritual x3 (all from GY) --> BBB+BBB+BBB+RRRRR, SC 9
Spike’s ability x2 paying BBBB --> grapeshot x2
You have B+ RRRRR, you can cast grapeshot x2 for 10+11 life
You can skip some final passages and take demonic tutor for crow storm from your deck, if you want to win as the set intended
Some useful cards you can also get with Spike (which may let you win the match without going through all that stuff): hypnotic specter, umezawa's jitte, skullclamp, bitterblossom, smuggler's copter
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"Masters of the arcane savor a delicious irony.
Their study of deep and complex arcana leads to such a simple end:
the ability to say merely yes or no."
On another note: I'm sure this was unintentional, but I love the fact that paying only life where possible will cost you precisely 20 life for trying to get a 2-card combo. It just seems so appropriate for the black-aligned character to cost you the entirety of your life for finding you your combo.
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"It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes... Three generations of imbeciles are enough."
--Buck v Bell, 1927. This case, regarding the compulsory sterilization of inmates at mental institutions, has -- somehow -- never been overturned. Just a wee PSA for ya.
Never thought Spike is a girl.
I should reconsider my life I guess.
Spike is in all of us, just like Timmy/Tammy and Johnny/Jenny.
The flavor text could very well represent me. You know how I'm always saying "If you lose to the life loss in Necropotence/Phyrexian Arena/Yawgmoth's Bargain, you would've lost anyway." It also applies to Dismember and Channel.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
The wording "has been banned" seems weird. Why not used "is banned"?
My guess is so that you don't necessarily have to be up-to-date on the banlist in all formats - say you want to get, I dunno, Black Vise, for some reason, because you know it was banned in Legacy...then someone points out that Vise had been unbanned, so it wasn't actually a legal target anymore, and now you have to scramble to come up with something else (that you own) that's worth paying that cost for at that moment in time, or else Spike just becomes a dead card.
(There's also the ambiguity of Standard bannings: is Reflector Mage still a valid target, because it was banned in Standard at one point, even though it wouldn't be in Standard anymore anyway? Or, hell, what about Arcbound Ravager? That's something that could have gotten an official silver-bordered ruling, but it's another reason that "has been banned" simplifies things.)
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"The true measure of all heroes is not what they achieve, but who they inspire." —Triumph of Gerrard
The wording "has been banned" seems weird. Why not used "is banned"?
My guess is so that you don't necessarily have to be up-to-date on the banlist in all formats - say you want to get, I dunno, Black Vise, for some reason, because you know it was banned in Legacy...then someone points out that Vise had been unbanned, so it wasn't actually a legal target anymore, and now you have to scramble to come up with something else (that you own) that's worth paying that cost for at that moment in time, or else Spike just becomes a dead card.
(There's also the ambiguity of Standard bannings: is Reflector Mage still a valid target, because it was banned in Standard at one point, even though it wouldn't be in Standard anymore anyway? Or, hell, what about Arcbound Ravager? That's something that could have gotten an official silver-bordered ruling, but it's another reason that "has been banned" simplifies things.)
Basically the card checks for the following: Has the card ever been banned or restricted in a constructed format? If yes, then you may pay to retrieve that card from outside of this game and add it to your hand.
For example: I can retrieve Fastbond, Zuran Orb and Crucible of Worlds from outside the game for 24 life (or less). As all three cards have at some point been restricted or banned in MTG's history. I can't however retrieve specific UN-cards simply because they are not legal instead of being banned/restricted.
If you are allowed to use Spike, Tournament Grinder in EDH then your deck construction should have a lot of mana-fixing cards like Chromatic Lantern or even Undiscovered Paradise. As while you can't include cards with specific colors in the deck, you can however pull cards from outside the game and add them to your hand. Such as being able to fetch and play Worldfire even though its banned and Spike is mono-black.
Can someone clarify this for me. From the reply it sounds like the cards aren't unusable since Ante doesn't "exist", or in other words the cards are still tutorable but will do nothing. For example, Darkpact does basically nothing in a game that isn't being played for Ante. But regardless of that, Ante cards are still banned in Vintage. The Vintage B&R list actually names Ante cards in it. So since they are banned from a format, you can still tutor for them.
Also, the Comp. Rules still talk about Ante cards. Unless I am misunderstanding something, Ante still exists.
407.1. Earlier versions of the Magic rules included an ante rule as a way of playing “for keeps.” Playing Magic games for ante is now considered an optional variation on the game, and it’s allowed only where it’s not forbidden by law or by other rules. Playing for ante is strictly forbidden under the Magic: The Gathering Tournament Rules (WPN.Wizards.com/en/resources/rules-documents).
Can someone clarify this for me. From the reply it sounds like the cards aren't unusable since Ante doesn't "exist", or in other words the cards are still tutorable but will do nothing. For example, Darkpact does basically nothing in a game that isn't being played for Ante. But regardless of that, Ante cards are still banned in Vintage. The Vintage B&R list actually names Ante cards in it. So since they are banned from a format, you can still tutor for them.
Also, the Comp. Rules still talk about Ante cards. Unless I am misunderstanding something, Ante still exists.
407.1. Earlier versions of the Magic rules included an ante rule as a way of playing “for keeps.” Playing Magic games for ante is now considered an optional variation on the game, and it’s allowed only where it’s not forbidden by law or by other rules. Playing for ante is strictly forbidden under the Magic: The Gathering Tournament Rules (WPN.Wizards.com/en/resources/rules-documents).
Its optional, like UN-cards. Its forbidden but its not banned/restricted. If you and your friend(s) enable Ante for instance in your kitchen table games, none of the Ante cards are banned/restricted and so Spike can't fetch those cards.
If this was your EDH general, what's the most broken thing you could do? You could have him/her out on turn 2 and get any 4 cards. What do you get? (I guess this assumes you're playing EDH with sideboard rules.)
Sweet card. Not my cup of tea from a gameplay perspective (I'm very much a Timmy, though sadly not of the variety that the actual Timmy card satisfies), but she's perfect for what she is.
Also, grabbing Contract from Below is great. Since you ignore the ante, you just discard and draw 7.
BUWGRChilds PlayGRWUB
BUWGR Highlander GRWUB
UBSquee's Shapeshifting PetBU
BW Multiplayer Control WB
RG Changeling GR
UR Mana FlareRU
UMerfolkU
B MBMC B
Neither of these should work, I think. Un-set cards aren't banned, they just aren't legal to begin with, and both MaRo and Tabak have said you can't fetch Ante cards.
Correct, silver-bordered cards simply aren't legal in Constructed formats because they are not considered "Authorized Game Cards" by the Magic tournament rules. They're not specifically banned, so you can't use Spike to fetch them.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
Oh I know. Just wishful thinking.
The Deep Ones
Cyborg Huey's Bosh, Iron Golem Deck
Cyborg Huey's Rosheen Meander Deck
BUGThe Dunwich Horror and Other Lovecraftian TalesBUG
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
—Eli Shiffrin, Rules Manager, on a design stacking lifelink instances
Does that mean this card can get, say, Ancestral Vision? After all, it has been banned in a Constructed format, though it isn't currently.
Yes, that's exactly what that means. According to MaRo, Kird Ape is tutorable.
I used 4 dark ritual, a lotus petal, 2 grapeshot, a seething song and Yawgmoth's Will (the only pricey card of the list). They were all banned in extended except for grapeshot, which is banned in pauper, and seething song, which is banned in modern. This implies that you are using a heavily black deck but red is not needed.
Turn 4: play Spike (of course you had that in your hand!)
Turn 5 (or when you get the 4th swamp): get dark ritual with Spike’s ability (you could start also by paying life, but you’ll need those later maybe)
Turn 6: another dark ritual (you can skip this turn by paying 8 life)
Turn 7: you have BBBB, cast dark ritual x2 to get BBB+BBB+BB
Use Spike’s ability x2 to get dark ritual + dark ritual
Turn 8: same as turn 7 but get lotus petal and seething song with Spike.
Turn 9: here’s when things happen. Let’s say you have 4 swamp, 2 island (or other lands) and at least 3 life.
Get BBBB+UU from your lands
Cast lotus petal, use it to get R, then use UUR to cast seething song.
You now have BBBB+RRRRR, storm counter (SC) 2
Spike’s ability paying BBB+ 2 life --> Yawgmoth’s will
Cast Yawgmoth’s will paying RRB, SC 3, you have RRR
Cast lotus petal from graveyard, use it to get B, then use RRR to cast seething song from GY.
You now have B+RRRRR, SC 5
Cast dark ritual, then cast dark ritual x3 (all from GY) --> BBB+BBB+BBB+RRRRR, SC 9
Spike’s ability x2 paying BBBB --> grapeshot x2
You have B+ RRRRR, you can cast grapeshot x2 for 10+11 life
You can skip some final passages and take demonic tutor for crow storm from your deck, if you want to win as the set intended
Some useful cards you can also get with Spike (which may let you win the match without going through all that stuff): hypnotic specter, umezawa's jitte, skullclamp, bitterblossom, smuggler's copter
Their study of deep and complex arcana leads to such a simple end:
the ability to say merely yes or no."
https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Banned_and_restricted_cards/Timeline
A fun fact from that page that I'd forgot...everything Legend was restricted for a little over a year, prior to the release of Ice Age.
On another note: I'm sure this was unintentional, but I love the fact that paying only life where possible will cost you precisely 20 life for trying to get a 2-card combo. It just seems so appropriate for the black-aligned character to cost you the entirety of your life for finding you your combo.
--Buck v Bell, 1927. This case, regarding the compulsory sterilization of inmates at mental institutions, has -- somehow -- never been overturned. Just a wee PSA for ya.
You may add Cursed Scroll (is banned in Tempest block) plus every legendary card from Legends (they were once restricted) to the list.
Spike is in all of us, just like Timmy/Tammy and Johnny/Jenny.
The flavor text could very well represent me. You know how I'm always saying "If you lose to the life loss in Necropotence/Phyrexian Arena/Yawgmoth's Bargain, you would've lost anyway." It also applies to Dismember and Channel.
On phasing:
You can replace Painter's Servant and Emrakul with Worldfire. When you add Worldfire's 9 Mana to Spike's 1 Power, Berserk makes it exactly 20.
The
Necromancer (or Noob)
Cat.
Don't ask, I don't know why ether...
Custom Set
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hu9uNBSUt92PwGhvexYlwFvsh6_SJBlEEIUV3H9_XyU/edit?usp=sharing
(There's also the ambiguity of Standard bannings: is Reflector Mage still a valid target, because it was banned in Standard at one point, even though it wouldn't be in Standard anymore anyway? Or, hell, what about Arcbound Ravager? That's something that could have gotten an official silver-bordered ruling, but it's another reason that "has been banned" simplifies things.)
For example: I can retrieve Fastbond, Zuran Orb and Crucible of Worlds from outside the game for 24 life (or less). As all three cards have at some point been restricted or banned in MTG's history. I can't however retrieve specific UN-cards simply because they are not legal instead of being banned/restricted.
If you are allowed to use Spike, Tournament Grinder in EDH then your deck construction should have a lot of mana-fixing cards like Chromatic Lantern or even Undiscovered Paradise. As while you can't include cards with specific colors in the deck, you can however pull cards from outside the game and add them to your hand. Such as being able to fetch and play Worldfire even though its banned and Spike is mono-black.
Can someone clarify this for me. From the reply it sounds like the cards aren't unusable since Ante doesn't "exist", or in other words the cards are still tutorable but will do nothing. For example, Darkpact does basically nothing in a game that isn't being played for Ante. But regardless of that, Ante cards are still banned in Vintage. The Vintage B&R list actually names Ante cards in it. So since they are banned from a format, you can still tutor for them.
Also, the Comp. Rules still talk about Ante cards. Unless I am misunderstanding something, Ante still exists.
BUWGRChilds PlayGRWUB
BUWGR Highlander GRWUB
UBSquee's Shapeshifting PetBU
BW Multiplayer Control WB
RG Changeling GR
UR Mana FlareRU
UMerfolkU
B MBMC B
Or are they just a nobo anyways?
Like the Ante cards, they are named under the Vintage B&R list.
BUWGRChilds PlayGRWUB
BUWGR Highlander GRWUB
UBSquee's Shapeshifting PetBU
BW Multiplayer Control WB
RG Changeling GR
UR Mana FlareRU
UMerfolkU
B MBMC B