My opinion is that it's time to massively expand the RC. Give seats to Josh, Jimmy, DJ, the Prof, etc. and let a larger group of folks weigh in and make the call together. Maybe even include a few folks from Wizards, like Gavin Verhey.
Ignoring the fact that plenty of people already think the Wizards' banlists are a mess, even with their data, this comment has already happened. They *did* expand things and have somewhere around 11 other people on their Commander Advisory Group. With Josh from the Command Zone already being one of them. And they expanded it once after creating it initially. And that group helped achieve the Flash ban and likely weighed in on these two changes as well.
Also, 25% of the current RC (the 4 people you mentioned) does work for Wizards and another is the main Policy "guy" for whenever the IPG is updated. Maybe not as many as you would like, but they already have a Wizards employee on their roster. I don't think adding more people changes their philosophy.
yes but josh in particularly mentioned he was 0% for the golos ban (then again it could be because he had a “good stuff” deck
And that's fine; there is no way anyone could expect to expand things *and* expect things to be unanimous. Now, if everyone but Sheldon was against it, I could see some outrage but one person being against it doesn't really mean much if the other 14 people are for it (I don't know the actual numbers of course but if 4-3 is good enough for the Supreme Court, 14-1 is sure as hell good enough for a card game).
In any case, my comment was simply that the previous poster's request has already been granted. And if they think that adding in someone like Josh is going to eliminate these bans, that is obviously a poor expectation. No one person is ever going to drive decisions which means that adding specific people isn't going to prevent changes like this either (which is obviously proven if Josh couldn't stop this ban). 15 people working together means some one is going to be on the losing side of an argument. It sounds like it was at least Josh this time around.
My opinion is that it's time to massively expand the RC. Give seats to Josh, Jimmy, DJ, the Prof, etc. and let a larger group of folks weigh in and make the call together. Maybe even include a few folks from Wizards, like Gavin Verhey.
Ignoring the fact that plenty of people already think the Wizards' banlists are a mess, even with their data, this comment has already happened. They *did* expand things and have somewhere around 11 other people on their Commander Advisory Group. With Josh from the Command Zone already being one of them. And they expanded it once after creating it initially. And that group helped achieve the Flash ban and likely weighed in on these two changes as well.
Also, 25% of the current RC (the 4 people you mentioned) does work for Wizards and another is the main Policy "guy" for whenever the IPG is updated. Maybe not as many as you would like, but they already have a Wizards employee on their roster. I don't think adding more people changes their philosophy.
If Solemnity is already on the field and Gideon is entering, this would cause Gideon to enter with 0 counters, as mentioned, as well as just die right away. It doesn't wait for the opponent's turn; he will die immediately.
Rule 10 said Commanders were subject to the Legend Rule. It would be the same as if they had rules 87-91 that explained that basic lands tap for colored mana. We don't need a separate rule saying that Commanders are subject to the Legend Rule because they are Legendary which means that the normal rules of Magic already cover it.
Daybound and Nightbound changes the state of the game to Day or Night respectively. This is a quality of the game itself and the change happens in the untap step, not upkeep. And as soon as the game changes, the werewolves transform immediately. There is no trigger and nothing to respond to: they just happen.
If Skithiryx is already in the yard you can activate Scion twice like you said. The first activation resolves and you get Ulamog. Scion becomes an Ulamog and Ulamog's trigger goes onto the stack to shuffle your graveyard into your library. This resolves before the other activation of Scion resolves. Then, when the waiting activation resolves, you can find Skithiryx since it is now in your library. You will put it into your graveyard and Scion becomes Skithiryx. By fragmenting things this way you can get the dragons in your yard back on the next turn to re-use them. You just can's do it all in one turn so there will be some time where the dragons will sit in your graveyard before you use Scion on another turn to get Ulamog.
Basically, you can just activate Scion on your turn to turn it into Skithiryx. On the next turn (your opponent's turn if you want), you can get Ulamog to shuffle it back in. Then repeat the process on your next turn.
You don't really need to "hold" priority. Also, you don't put the card in the graveyard until the ability starts resolving. Which means there isn't a good way to sequence what you are trying to do since if you turn it into a Kozilek first, the trigger goes on the stack before the other ability resolves leaving Skithiryx in the graveyard. If you do Skithiryx first then Kozilek can shuffle it away but then you "only" have a Kozilek.
You would end up needing something else. Something like Wheel of Sun and Moon would work since it does reveal the card and the effect doesn't actually care if it makes it to the yard; just that you searched it up and the game can see what it is.
Also, please don't type what the card's text is, even if it is paraphrased: that is what the card tags are for Having to skim/skip over the card text makes it tough to follow along with the actual question.
You can still activate the -6 ability however. The cost isn't :[+1} + {-6]". The way the rule is written is that, instead, the cost simply becomes [-5]. And Solemnity doesn't prevent you from removing counters which is all [-5] is trying to do.
Unfortunately, you would lose that argument. The controller of the trigger is the controller of the permanent right before it died. Since they controlled it, they also control the trigger. It doesn't matter that you own it, or that it goes to your yard. What matters is who controlled it at the moment it died and that was them.
No. Color identity is determined by colored mana symbols in the mana cost or text, color indicator (as seen on Dryad Arbor), and Characteristic Defining Abilities (as seen on Transguild Courier). Color words do not contribute.
I didn't realize this before, because of the errata on almost with card with it, but a source of damage can deal damage to a creature or planeswalker without having the clause "any target" on it? Huh.
Yeah, most burn cards printed today either don't hit face or don't hit creatures. I think the remainder hit any target. I don't remember anything that hits face and creatures and not planeswalkers printed after the change.
While not technically a burn spell I suppose, the main card that comes to mind is Firesong and Sunspeaker and that is only because they printed it in the set where they also did all the errata.
You seem to understand the situations pretty well and your conclusions appear to be correct. Marauder says to sac "a" creature and sacrificing that creature happens on resolution of Marauder's ability. There is no point where they choose what to sacrifice but then get to take another action before actually sacrificing it. As far as the Marauder is concerned, Hexmage doesn't even exist when they go to sacrificing something for the trigger.
And yes, Evoke works the way you want it to as well. Evoke is making you sacrifice that creature and you are free to sacrifice it before its own trigger resolves. Then, when it does, it sees the creature isn't around anymore so you clearly can't sac it and the game moves on.
So, yes, there is a pretty clear, and significant, difference between those two situations and it looks like you came to the right conclusion on both.
This seems like an odd way to go about things and doesn't even seem to solve the problem you are trying to solve for. For example, my Karador list is currently at $5000+ so well above what the rest of your example tiers are at. But, if we break it down with the rules you have provided we get to ignore Bazaar of Baghdad and Diamond Valley because they don't produce mana so now we are down to $2000 (roughly) so not too bad in terms of your example. And, of course, we get to ignore the next $1300 since those are duals so they are also counted as $0.
Now, I went through and counted fetches as $5 and other lands as $0 based on your criteria. I did count Urborg as $0 because, technically, it falls into the same category as not having an activated ability that taps for mana; it eventually gives itself one but not during deckbuilding. A little bit of a cheat I am sure, but I went with it. I did leave Dryad Arbor at $3 because the spirit (if not the letter) of the rule says it shouldn't be $0.
So, with all of that, my list comes down to $730. Obviously on the high side but since your idea is that this amount is far more indicative of power level than a number, I would be curious to know what you feel $700+ actually means? And whether the exclusion of Bazaar from the price but still being in the deck would change your opinion.
As another example, Ephara is $1700+. Taking out Tundra and the lands (perhaps fudging a bit again with Mystic Gate since it does technically produce 2 mana but only nets 1 since it costs mana) I get that down to just under $1100. So, a fair bit higher than Karador. I don't really know what your "tiers" are meant to be but a $400 difference, in your mind anyway, seems to suggest a pretty substantial difference in power level.
I would of course disagree with that solely because I build all my decks with a set power level in mind. They aren't going to be the same obviously but I don't mean for them to be drastically different. So, again, I would be curious as to what you feel is the main difference between these two decks in terms of power level based on the cost alone?
As a final note, just because I was curious more than anything, doing the same above got me at $547 with Varina and this was mostly due to Mana Crypt and Mana Drain which together are $170. But still, nearly $600. Would you consider Zombie tribal to be close to being on par with Karador? I would since I built them that way but there is a clear limitation of this sort of deck and I think most people wouldn't consider them to be the same. But the assessment puts them pretty close. So, I have a $550 deck, a $730 deck, and a $1100 deck that you know nothing about except for these dollar amounts. Perhaps for you this is plenty to gauge their power level but I don't think that would be good enough for me. Someone throwing in a Mana Drain or even a Mana Crypt into their deck doesn't automatically mean it is high powered. But because it is expensive, it is assumed to be. It makes the deck *more* powerful (to some degree) but doesn't automatically, and objectively, make it "powerful" in its own right.
Any number always includes 0. So if Fury enters and then there are no creatures or planeswalkers you want to damage, you can just choose 0 targets. If you choose at least 1 target though, all 4 damage must be applied. This also means you can't choose more than 4 targets as you need to apply at least 1 damage to each target. But for your situation, you can just choose 0 targets and not damage anything.
It certainly does seem like a translation error or perhaps a copy/paste error of some sort since Sandfall Cell/Zelle does say or/oder so maybe some confusion on the translators part. In either case, the English text is always the "right" text. While that isn't all that helpful for someone reading the German card, the effect is meant to make you sac as much of those permanent types as you can.
In any case, my comment was simply that the previous poster's request has already been granted. And if they think that adding in someone like Josh is going to eliminate these bans, that is obviously a poor expectation. No one person is ever going to drive decisions which means that adding specific people isn't going to prevent changes like this either (which is obviously proven if Josh couldn't stop this ban). 15 people working together means some one is going to be on the losing side of an argument. It sounds like it was at least Josh this time around.
Ignoring the fact that plenty of people already think the Wizards' banlists are a mess, even with their data, this comment has already happened. They *did* expand things and have somewhere around 11 other people on their Commander Advisory Group. With Josh from the Command Zone already being one of them. And they expanded it once after creating it initially. And that group helped achieve the Flash ban and likely weighed in on these two changes as well.
Also, 25% of the current RC (the 4 people you mentioned) does work for Wizards and another is the main Policy "guy" for whenever the IPG is updated. Maybe not as many as you would like, but they already have a Wizards employee on their roster. I don't think adding more people changes their philosophy.
Otherwise, the rest of your comment is correct.
Basically, you can just activate Scion on your turn to turn it into Skithiryx. On the next turn (your opponent's turn if you want), you can get Ulamog to shuffle it back in. Then repeat the process on your next turn.
You would end up needing something else. Something like Wheel of Sun and Moon would work since it does reveal the card and the effect doesn't actually care if it makes it to the yard; just that you searched it up and the game can see what it is.
Also, please don't type what the card's text is, even if it is paraphrased: that is what the card tags are for
And yes, Evoke works the way you want it to as well. Evoke is making you sacrifice that creature and you are free to sacrifice it before its own trigger resolves. Then, when it does, it sees the creature isn't around anymore so you clearly can't sac it and the game moves on.
So, yes, there is a pretty clear, and significant, difference between those two situations and it looks like you came to the right conclusion on both.
Now, I went through and counted fetches as $5 and other lands as $0 based on your criteria. I did count Urborg as $0 because, technically, it falls into the same category as not having an activated ability that taps for mana; it eventually gives itself one but not during deckbuilding. A little bit of a cheat I am sure, but I went with it. I did leave Dryad Arbor at $3 because the spirit (if not the letter) of the rule says it shouldn't be $0.
So, with all of that, my list comes down to $730. Obviously on the high side but since your idea is that this amount is far more indicative of power level than a number, I would be curious to know what you feel $700+ actually means? And whether the exclusion of Bazaar from the price but still being in the deck would change your opinion.
As another example, Ephara is $1700+. Taking out Tundra and the lands (perhaps fudging a bit again with Mystic Gate since it does technically produce 2 mana but only nets 1 since it costs mana) I get that down to just under $1100. So, a fair bit higher than Karador. I don't really know what your "tiers" are meant to be but a $400 difference, in your mind anyway, seems to suggest a pretty substantial difference in power level.
I would of course disagree with that solely because I build all my decks with a set power level in mind. They aren't going to be the same obviously but I don't mean for them to be drastically different. So, again, I would be curious as to what you feel is the main difference between these two decks in terms of power level based on the cost alone?
As a final note, just because I was curious more than anything, doing the same above got me at $547 with Varina and this was mostly due to Mana Crypt and Mana Drain which together are $170. But still, nearly $600. Would you consider Zombie tribal to be close to being on par with Karador? I would since I built them that way but there is a clear limitation of this sort of deck and I think most people wouldn't consider them to be the same. But the assessment puts them pretty close. So, I have a $550 deck, a $730 deck, and a $1100 deck that you know nothing about except for these dollar amounts. Perhaps for you this is plenty to gauge their power level but I don't think that would be good enough for me. Someone throwing in a Mana Drain or even a Mana Crypt into their deck doesn't automatically mean it is high powered. But because it is expensive, it is assumed to be. It makes the deck *more* powerful (to some degree) but doesn't automatically, and objectively, make it "powerful" in its own right.
Any number always includes 0. So if Fury enters and then there are no creatures or planeswalkers you want to damage, you can just choose 0 targets. If you choose at least 1 target though, all 4 damage must be applied. This also means you can't choose more than 4 targets as you need to apply at least 1 damage to each target. But for your situation, you can just choose 0 targets and not damage anything.