Thanks for posting this. I've had this, uh, 'discussion' with a number of shops that had proposed to launch Pauper nights and I try to ask them "MTGO rules or actual-paper printed rarity", they go "Whatever, if it was ever a common it's good unless it's on the banlist, if it was bad it'd be on the banned list", I explain "Hymn and Sinkhole aren't on the MTGO banned list because they're not MTGO commons..." "Whatever, man. We'll see how it plays out." Yeah, I already know how this plays out.
I don't want to bring a deck with Hymns and get in arguments with the faction that thinks they're illegal in paper pauper (not on the MTGO pauper valids list). I don't want to bring a deck with Chainer's Edicts and get in arguments with the faction that thinks they're illegal in paper pauper (never printed as paper commons). I don't want to bring a deck that resists using either flavor of corner case and then face decks all evening that didn't hold themselves to the same deckbuilding restrictions. I want a show-runner who gives a damn enough to make it clear to all players what the cardpool is; ideally, I want the organization that handles all the other formats (including the online version of Pauper) to actually give a damn enough to codify a ruleset for paper pauper. But for some reason they never do.
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- thatmarkguy
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Oh, I made the same mistake. Barbed Wire indeed would not be suicide, it would be a win. Not that you want a win, but it is one.
Your post made me rethink things:
I believe my unobstructed win is a little less than 1310. I need 600 mana to upkeep the Naked Singularity 20 times (just long enough to let my 1/1 Broodstar swing 20 times). But I can pay 20 of that 600 mana with Teferi's Isle (2 mana every second turn for 20 turns). So I need to bank 580 counters on my land plus the 16 it takes to cast the Singularity then the Broodstar (Affinity!). So I can start playing from the turn after 596 counters, which takes me 1193 turns. I think I win on 1215.
But more importantly for you, because I stupidly played Adventurers' Guildhouse rather than a stuck-in-hand unplayable like Evermind, I can zero my handcount by playing out all my permanents... no Island and no cards in hand means you can't hurt me, and because I have to play out my permanents before I have a means to keep them around I can't hurt you, and we draw 2-2.
(edit) Oh, Reito Lantern can force me to get cards back into my hand (oh Broodstar, you'll never leave me)! I never noticed you could use it on other players. OK, I see the 6-0 now.
6 | 2 2 6 0 6 6 2 6 0 0 6 2 6 0 2 X 6 6 2
4: Pretty sure I lose 0-6 on 4 but my brain is bending to try to discern just how many turns that takes if 4 plays Upwelling. I definitely am in position to cast and upkeep Broodstar sooner because of Upwelling, but I also need to account for the fact that as soon as I cast Broodstar, 4 can cast Phobian Phantasm - well short of early enough to be able to attack with it 7 times, but plenty early to be a blocker for Broodstar, which would mean I'd need to delay my casting of Broodstar to not only be able to attack 20 times but also be able to wait out a potential Phobian Phantasm spending several turns as a blocking threat. I don't think this forced delay actually buys 4's deck enough time to get in range of being able to cast the Phantasm with enough mana to be able to upkeep it, but I haven't done full math on that to be sure if and when.
5: If you play Desecration Elemental fast I'd play my Naked Singularity and we draw. You can hold Desecration Elemental until I cast Broodstar then you'd be able to cast it and win. So I'd just never cast Broodstar. Also a draw. You playing Barbed Wire is suicide so you don't.
I don't think any of the other cases had contentious interactions worth explaining but if you see a wrong number, please tell.
In my deck's case, running Darksteel Relic instead of Adventurers' Guildhouse would have turned my 1200 turn clock into an under 50 turn clock.
Heh. The funny part is that once I drop my Naked Singularity you can't even get B from your Leechridden Swamp anymore.
The helpful math/logic for others who have similar races to self-destruction: If I only need to connect with my Broodstar once (as I need to v Heinsun), I can do it on turn 35. To have Broodstar swing for even a single point of damage, I need to have 19 mana available (5 for Naked Singularity, 3 to be able to upkeep it once, and 11 for the affinitized Broodstar). At best my deck can get to that point... swinging on turn 35. I play Isle on 1, Pools on 2, Pools gets a counter on 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33. That's 16 counters. I remove all 16 of them to cast Singularity and then Broodstar on 34, and then on 35 I can upkeep the singularity with the basic mana ability of the Pools and the now-phased-in Isle (dammit, once again Veldt would have bought me more turns). So I can swing with Broodstar for a single point, at best, turn 35.
Unfortunately, Heinsun's deck takes somewhat more than 35 turns to kill me.
(Edit: actually, I do get there faster than 35 v Heinsun because of Upwelling not letting me waste my unused Teferi's Isle mana)
I think it's closer to double that. I was under the impression the old Broodstar - Naked Singularity - Sand Silos deck was upwards of 650 turns. Using the duo of the phasing Teferi's Isle and the requires-payment-to-put-a-counter Calciform Pools to replace Sand Silos (and Adventurers' Guildhouse doesn't have a mana ability), I believe it should take twice as long to charge up the storage land with the ~615 counters it'd need to be able to cast both permanents and be in position to pay off the 20 turns of cumulative upkeep. Sure, the Isle can actually contribute to paying the CI costs too (2 mana every second turn means it contributes 20 mana over the course of the lifetime of the Broodstar) - but that only reduces the need for counters by 20, still putting the deck in the 1200 range. (Now realizing that a simple Veldt was probably slightly more inefficient - I had forgotten to account for the TI's being more useful after the Singularity lands)
You should correct the spelling of Adventurers' Guiildhouse in the OP (apostrophe after S), to mkae autocard work. (I had it right in my submission!) The card does nothing here, but people really need to know it does nothing.
The answer isn't a flat 'yes' (which implies that is the only possible outcome), it's a 'yes if that's the way you want it'. If your 4/4 is blocked by 2 2/2s, you could choose to deal 2 damage to the first creature in blocking order and 2 to the other. Or you can choose to deal 3 damage to the first creature and 1 to the other. Or 4 to the first creature and 0 to the other. Only if you choose the first of these three options (which you usually will unless there's a reason you don't want the second creature to take damage and/or die), will both creatures die.
Exiling enchantments was more prevalent in THS block because that block had fifteen indestructible enchantment sometimes-creatures (the Gods). Even still they didn't shy away from white enchantment destroy in the block (Mortal Obstinacy, Leonin Iconoclast, Dawn to Dusk).
People actually opening the packs and never seeing any token other than Manifest Token, thus invalidating the thought that 4 different tokens could account for 4 of the 40 cards.
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/whims-fate-reforged-part-2-2015-01-05
Breaks down exactly what has been stated here: by design, every clan was going to get either one ability in Khans and Fate and a different ability in Dragons, or one ability in Khans and a different ability in Fate and Dragons. Sultai (and Jeskai and Temur) got its ability in Khans and Fate; they will get a different ability in Dragons. Mardu and Abzan switched from Raid and Outlast to Dash and Bolster - they will continue to use Dash and Bolster (and not Raid nor Outlast) in Dragons.
This thread is assuming play in the officially-supported draft format of FRF-KTK-KTK, correct? The weakness of green in the pre-re, when FRF accounted for more than two thirds of your cardpool, doesn't necessarily translate into consideration for draft, where it will account for precisely one third of your cardpool.
Which IMHO makes it seem a little odd that LSV gave Aven Skirmisher a zero.
I don't think it's a good playable, more like a borderline 23rd card, but IMHO it's not a zero.
I opened my first ever Mythic-Mythic pack from one of my KTK pre-release prize packs. It was Pearl Lake Ancient and foil Ugin's Nexus. At the time, they were the two least valuable Mythics in KTK (PLA took a jump shortly thereafter though has long since settled back down to dollar-mythic status).
Not quite as impressive as the Theros draft where the guy drafting before me cracked a god-god pack and had to pass me Purphoros to keep his foil Erebos.
It may not be the best common in sealed this weekend, but I could definitely see it being the best FRF common in FRF-KTK-KTK draft.
The lists we've seen so far have it skewed pretty heavily towards ktk cards. The rare is FRF, but of the other 15 cards, it looks like 11 to 13 of them are KTK (counting the lifelands as KTK cards, can't tell from the list if they're the FRF printing or the KTK printings).