Not a bad article, at least as an introduction to multiplayer strategy. I knew almost all of these principles, but there are lots of people in my multiplayer playgroup who don't, and I might link them to it.
The Demonic Tutor issue is an interesting one... A playgroup that allows such things as playing multiples of that card is, in my opinion, one that should be maintaining a clear house B&R list, or else why couldn't someone play a deck with 4x Sol Ring, 4x Mana Vault and 4X Tolarian Academy ? Because it's less fair than 4x Demonic ? That's very arguable. As someone else already pointed out, being able to go fetch the very best card in your deck for the current game state for only two mana is broken, period. It's not about combos at all.
Because stuff like that is always arguable, such a B&R list would be something hard for all players in the group to agree upon, and could make the inclusion of new players difficult, if they don't wish to abide by those rules. That is why most groups use the Vintage restricted list : it represents the authority of WotC, thus spawning less arguments, and it is something most players know pretty well, at least for the most proeminent cards in it, which smoothens the addition of new people. The best thing to do might be to start off with that list and make tweaks, such as the very popular "Kokusho is banned". Those tweaks could include unrestrictions, but it would be something harder to implement than banning additional cards, as restricted cards are perceived by players to be restricted for good reason.
I'll add my voice to say this was a great read. Most of this I knew, but seeing those facts regrouped in a timeline and enligthened by your wise and truthful perspective was quite interesting and informative.
When that new kid opens Black Knight and says, "Wow, cool!" And that shopkeeper says "Big whoop," that veteran player in the corner is going to say to the shopkeeper, "Are you nuts?"
Black Knight and White Knight were both great iconic creatures when I started the game back in Revised. They will still be iconic, I think, and their flavor/mechanics relationship is easy to, in the words of MaRo, grok. It's exactly the kind of thing you want for new players.
As for the playability of said cards, Black Knight is solid. His brother, Hand of Cruelty, saw play in Standard, and with Path to Exile, Rhox War Monk, and Wall of Reverance seeing play, Black Knight is going to be totally playable.
QFT. If Goblin Outlander is the new key card for Blightning decks due to the omnipresence of white removal and creatures, then Black Knight, who is better for the same CMC, will assuredly see play, at least in that deck. Like many red players, I mourned the loss of Blood Knight, the planeshifted Black Knight (who also saw quite a lot of play in RDW, to further strenghten your point), especially when White became a dominating color with Shards. Getting to play the original will be great in BR beatdown, at least for as long as White owns that much. Playing both him and Outlander is far from excluded IMO in the current metagame : white decks are the main ennemy of the BR deck, and those 2-drops are almost too great of an help.
Wait, why does our protagonist get to draw cards too?
While it didn't explicitly say it, the last sentence of the answer kinda implied that our protagonist would choose to copy Chains of Plasma again, targeting his Swans, which he sure can do since he is the controller of the birds when the Chains of Plasma copy controlled by the opponent resolves.
Q: I cast a Mind's Desire off a Mind's Desire, and now I've got twenty-six copies of it. Do I really need to shuffle each time, or can I just shuffle once and flip cards off the top?
A: Not only is it well within reason to shuffle thoroughly and flip the top cards over, it's a well-established and very time-saving shortcut. The whole point of shuffling for Mind's Desire is to fully randomize your library, so unless something orders your library in any way between any copies resolving, the first bout of shuffling will ensure that. In fact, shuffling between each copy might have judges seriously looking into why you're wasting so much time.
One should note that even though this shortcut allows the player to actually shuffle only once, the game still sees him shuffle 26+ times, which is relevant with Psychogenic Probe. Take 52 !:rofl:.
I believe you might be incorrect. But this is how i would read it.
trinisphere creates an additional cost when playing spells that would cost less then 3.
But, Maelstrom archangels ability isnt reducing the cost to 0, which would then become 3 because of trinisphere, it is in actuality creating a replacement effect to play the spell. in this case the trinispheres ability isnt being applied because you arent paying a mana cost for the spell, isnt the same as paying 0.
for instance, take a card like ornithopter which if played would normally cost 0, would become 3 due to trinisphere. if instead you attacked with the angel, and used its ability to play the ornithopter from your hand without paying its mana cost, you would replace the normal 3 you would have to play.
in summary: the ability of trinisphere alters the mana cost, but maelstrom archangel ignores any mana cost.
Georgias is perfectly right. Trinisphere's effect doesn't care if you would pay something else than the mana cost (or no cost at all) to play the spell. As long as you're technically doing the game action of playing it with all the necessary steps (annoucement, modes, targets, etc.), it sees that you're playing a spell, and if at the time that you would pay costs, it sees that you're not going to pay any mana, it willl require you to pay 3.
To help clarify (I hope) Reflecting pool copies the type, but not the supertype. Snow is a supertype, not a type.
While it sure can help as a reminder, that explanation is somewhat flawed because it mixes two very different uses of the word "type" in Magic rules, aka mana type and card type. It doesn't matter much though, as I don't really think it could confuse people into thinking that, I don't know, Reflecting Pool gets the card type "artifact" when you control an artifact land. Just nitpicking
Yes, one can. Deserted Temple's ability says "target land". Nothing normally prevents a permanent from targeting itself with its abilities as long as it's a legal target otherwise. When you play the ability, you tap the Temple as a cost, and when the ability resolves, it untaps.
Blood Moon sure is excellent in extended, but heavy red decks that want to play it aren't many. It's used in All-In Red, where it does wonders, but I can't think of an other currently played deck that should be using it. Monored burn can't normally afford to spend a card to do something else than damage, unless said card REALLY screws the opponent. Can be played in some sideboards I guess.
There's something about Progenitus that needs to be discussed, and since it hasn't been mentionned here yet (it must have been on another forum, but for me it's the most important thing to say about Progenitus, so I'm still surprised no one's talking about it on this thread).
Progenitus is the single best target ever printed for Natural Order.
I'm wondering if that "combo" could be the foundation of a new top-tier archetype in Legacy. I'm envisionning a blue-green base, with Mystical Tutor to double up the Natural Order count, Force of Will to it back up, and Brainstorm to put Progenitus copies in your hand back into your library. Add in green mana accel creatures like birds and elves, a set of Chrome Mox for the turn 2 Order and for getting some use of drawn Progenitus copies (five-clor mox :D), and you got what appears to me like a powerful Legacy deck.
Once Progenitus is in play, very few things currently played in the format can remove it, and it's unblockable. Diabolic Edict could work in theory, but there will most likely be some little green creatures to sacrifice alongside the giant hydra. There's Wrath of God or Damnation, but are those even played at all ?
Discuss !
Quote from Dragoon26 »
Maybe it's just me, but isn't Progenitus kinda inferior to Darksteel Colossus? I mean, yes, the Colossus can be Sowered or Path to Exiled, but at least it survives Wrath of God... and it doesn't have the horrendous color requirement. I dunno, maybe it's just me...
That depends on the format and the deck you're playing Progenitus in. The fact that it's colored (green) might very well make it more played in Legacy than Colossus is, for the reason stated above. And correct me if I'm wrong, but Wrath of God sees no play in that format, so that's not a liability. Swords to Plowshares and bounce spells are, though, and Progenitus is immune to those.
Quote from dopamine »
Progenitus is incredibly inferior to DSC...especially with the existence of Tinker...although I'd probably rather have a Progenitus in play than a DSC in a Vintage match - the problem is getting one out quickly enough (I doubt the Oath decks would pick this up, considering how much faster Hellkite Overlord is.)
Tinker isn't legal in Legacy, but Natural Order is. It's of course less powerful, but Legacy is a less broken format, and you can play four.
Unlike you, I think Progenitus will be widely adopted by the Oath players in Vintage. Yes, Hellkite Overlord is one turn faster, provided that you have red mana available, and one turn is a LOT in Vintage, but the fact that the Overlord can be easily removed by the aforementionned StP and bounce spells is a true liability. The other popular new choice for Oath, Empyrial Archangel, offers a defense against damage that Progenitus does not, but it takes some time to kill with her, and she dies whether you want it or not if your opponent happens to be able to do 8 damage total to her and you during a single turn. To me, Progenitus is exactly what Oath always wanted : a creature with very high power, that has very good evasion, AND that is nearly impossible to deal with. Since it's legendary, you can't play several of it, though, so I think Oath players are gonna combine it with one Archangel or one Overlord.
I think the question is whether activating Avarice Totem on a creature you don't own but already control because of Vedalken Shackles would give you permanent control over that creature, independently of Shackles staying tapped. Nicol Bolas seems more inclined to think this doesn't work, and he's asking if he's right. Personaly, I think he is; Avarice Totem doesn't set a "new control effect" that would keep the creature on your side when shackles untaps. The creature being under you control should still depend on Shackles' ability being in effect. I can't be sure though, and would like a confirmation from a guru. I am posting mainly to try and clarify what the OP was asking.
Just for curiosity, you did forget to tell us what the red deck was about. What was the artifact stuff? Just powerful cards ( Solemn Simulacrum ) that comboed with Shrapnel Blast?
It has Fireblast, Shrapenal Blast, Solemn Simulacrum, some mana artifacts, and then guys like Hostility and Crusher. Thats about as far as I got in the deck.
I'm going to guess it was some kind of mono-red control deck with an artifact subtheme.
That monored deck seems quite understandable to me... it's a multiplayer burn deck with various interconnected synergies and sources of card advantage chosen to make burn spells more efficient in multiplayer. The centerpiece of the deck is Hostility, as is hinted by your friend's line : "You'll soon draw the card that works with it and then it will be obvious what the deck does."
The artifact theme is there for two reasons : mana acceleration for expensive things like Hostility and X-spells such as Fireball or Earthquake (you didn't mention any, but they sure would fit, especially Earthquake which is bonkers with Hostility), and Shrapnel Blast. I like the choice of Solemn Simulacrum a lot, a fantastic fit here. Kudos to your friend for this deck, it makes me want to build something similar.
Lol at me and my tendency to not read and take into account every relevant detail. That's what put me out of contention during the trials for writing for CI.
I feel a random need to point out that Mogg Fanatic can kill a Rockslide Elemental by himself during combat. If a 1/1 Rockslide Elemental blocks or becomes blocked by a Fanatic, and no other creature is put into a graveyard before damage resolves, both are gonna die at the same time and the Elemental won't have time to get a counter. However, to do this, you must not sacrifice the Fanatic with combat damage on the stack, or the Elemental will get a counter and survive. Unless it's the Elemental you target with Fanatic's ability of course, then that's 2 damage total on a (now) 2/2.
So the waterboy strikes again ! Congrats Andrew ! Part of me wants to hate you for being lucky enough to win a PTQ after maindecking Shore Snapper over Magma Spray, but for the most part I'm happy for you ;).
There seems to be an error in the sealed decklist : where's the Plains ? My guess is that the one Island should actually be a Plains. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that you initially wanted to play an Island to activate Shore Snapper ?
I'm pretty sure prophecy isn't supposed to occupy every image slot in the entire article. Although it does make for some rather entertaining captions. We can see you Ihsan's Shade!
Of course it is supposed to ! That's called a running gag, and I liked it a lot.:)
Q: Does the second player take all his mulligans after the first, or do you go back and forth?
A: Some rumor about this has propagated quite a bit; let's jump up and down on it until it dies.
You can see the mulligan rules in section 114 of the Magic Floor Rules and 101.4 of the Comprehensive Rules. Both of these documents agree: the first player takes mulligans until he keeps, and then the second player takes all of his mulligans. There is no back-and-forth.
However, if the second player chooses to perform a mulligan while waiting for the first player to complete his, no one's going to argue.
Should the rules change to enforce back-and-forth mulligans, you'll find that in the MFR and/or CR – updates to the MFR are made every third month (including today!), and the CR with each set, and Yawgatog tracks updates to these documents on his Resources page. Look for these documents to change if you think something's changed; the changes won't first be announced by the coverage team or some random pro player.
Ok, so the mulligan rules really didn't change this year ? Man, the rumor of a change must have gone a long way for the Head Judge at Canadian Nationals to enforce a change ! What he told us is this : from now on, both players should announce first whether they're gonna take a mulligan (the decision being taken in the same order as before, though) and then if both choose to do so, the mulligans are done simultaneously. Rince, repeat until everyone is happy with his/her hand. It made sense to me, and after that I've been teaching that new rule to all players in my area :xd:. I mean, it was the Head Judge at Canadian Nationals ! How could I not believe him ? The worst part is I read the Floor Rules a few weeks later, didn't see the change written, and thought : "ah, it's not updated yet !". Dumb me !
I, too, offer high praise to Carsten, who's obviously a great writer, as well as a worthy opponent.
Many thanks to to all those who voted, as well as everyone who offered constructive feedback in the forums. As a writer, I need criticism, no matter how much I dislike it.
In my defense, however, I submit that it's easy to make an incorrect determination of gender when given an image less than two inches across that lacks the more obvious anatomical characteristics. But, yes, Ethersworn Canonist is a woman.
- Aaron "Rutabaga" Stevenson
Congratulations to you for getting the job and to Carsten for getting so close. As I said last week, even if I voted for him, it was too close for me to mind much about who would win anyway, and that you took the time to answer my concern about Ethersworn Cannonist's gender further convinces me that you'll do great and watch for those small mistakes.
Both writers are quite good and I wouldn't mind having any of them as the new author. I needed a small, nitpicky reason to decide between the two, so I settled on this one :
Quote from Rutabaga »
Sure. The Canonist is screaming "I AM THE LAW!" only while he's in play. Once he's dead, he can't stop you from playing nonartifact spells, and you don't get a chance to play Rift Bolts #2 or #3 until after #1 has resolved.
If Ethersworn Canonist is actually a guy, then that means he used his etherium infusing process to undergo a sex change at the same time. That'd be a nice way to kill two birds with one stone ! Seriously, that creature really looks like a woman to me. Altough I won't get mad at anyone for that (very frequent) kind of gender mistake about a creature card, it does annoy me a little. I mean, if you are not gonna care about the flavor of a card, I think you should use "it", not "he".
So my vote is for Pamplemouse. I think I like his style a little more too, but it's not clear, just my current gut feeling. As I said, I really wouldn't mind seeing Rutabaga as the new author, and him calling every creature a "he" wouldn't stop me from enjoying his articles.
The Demonic Tutor issue is an interesting one... A playgroup that allows such things as playing multiples of that card is, in my opinion, one that should be maintaining a clear house B&R list, or else why couldn't someone play a deck with 4x Sol Ring, 4x Mana Vault and 4X Tolarian Academy ? Because it's less fair than 4x Demonic ? That's very arguable. As someone else already pointed out, being able to go fetch the very best card in your deck for the current game state for only two mana is broken, period. It's not about combos at all.
Because stuff like that is always arguable, such a B&R list would be something hard for all players in the group to agree upon, and could make the inclusion of new players difficult, if they don't wish to abide by those rules. That is why most groups use the Vintage restricted list : it represents the authority of WotC, thus spawning less arguments, and it is something most players know pretty well, at least for the most proeminent cards in it, which smoothens the addition of new people. The best thing to do might be to start off with that list and make tweaks, such as the very popular "Kokusho is banned". Those tweaks could include unrestrictions, but it would be something harder to implement than banning additional cards, as restricted cards are perceived by players to be restricted for good reason.
QFT. If Goblin Outlander is the new key card for Blightning decks due to the omnipresence of white removal and creatures, then Black Knight, who is better for the same CMC, will assuredly see play, at least in that deck. Like many red players, I mourned the loss of Blood Knight, the planeshifted Black Knight (who also saw quite a lot of play in RDW, to further strenghten your point), especially when White became a dominating color with Shards. Getting to play the original will be great in BR beatdown, at least for as long as White owns that much. Playing both him and Outlander is far from excluded IMO in the current metagame : white decks are the main ennemy of the BR deck, and those 2-drops are almost too great of an help.
While it didn't explicitly say it, the last sentence of the answer kinda implied that our protagonist would choose to copy Chains of Plasma again, targeting his Swans, which he sure can do since he is the controller of the birds when the Chains of Plasma copy controlled by the opponent resolves.
One should note that even though this shortcut allows the player to actually shuffle only once, the game still sees him shuffle 26+ times, which is relevant with Psychogenic Probe. Take 52 !:rofl:.
Georgias is perfectly right. Trinisphere's effect doesn't care if you would pay something else than the mana cost (or no cost at all) to play the spell. As long as you're technically doing the game action of playing it with all the necessary steps (annoucement, modes, targets, etc.), it sees that you're playing a spell, and if at the time that you would pay costs, it sees that you're not going to pay any mana, it willl require you to pay 3.
While it sure can help as a reminder, that explanation is somewhat flawed because it mixes two very different uses of the word "type" in Magic rules, aka mana type and card type. It doesn't matter much though, as I don't really think it could confuse people into thinking that, I don't know, Reflecting Pool gets the card type "artifact" when you control an artifact land. Just nitpicking
Progenitus is the single best target ever printed for Natural Order.
I'm wondering if that "combo" could be the foundation of a new top-tier archetype in Legacy. I'm envisionning a blue-green base, with Mystical Tutor to double up the Natural Order count, Force of Will to it back up, and Brainstorm to put Progenitus copies in your hand back into your library. Add in green mana accel creatures like birds and elves, a set of Chrome Mox for the turn 2 Order and for getting some use of drawn Progenitus copies (five-clor mox :D), and you got what appears to me like a powerful Legacy deck.
Once Progenitus is in play, very few things currently played in the format can remove it, and it's unblockable. Diabolic Edict could work in theory, but there will most likely be some little green creatures to sacrifice alongside the giant hydra. There's Wrath of God or Damnation, but are those even played at all ?
Discuss !
That depends on the format and the deck you're playing Progenitus in. The fact that it's colored (green) might very well make it more played in Legacy than Colossus is, for the reason stated above. And correct me if I'm wrong, but Wrath of God sees no play in that format, so that's not a liability. Swords to Plowshares and bounce spells are, though, and Progenitus is immune to those.
Tinker isn't legal in Legacy, but Natural Order is. It's of course less powerful, but Legacy is a less broken format, and you can play four.
Unlike you, I think Progenitus will be widely adopted by the Oath players in Vintage. Yes, Hellkite Overlord is one turn faster, provided that you have red mana available, and one turn is a LOT in Vintage, but the fact that the Overlord can be easily removed by the aforementionned StP and bounce spells is a true liability. The other popular new choice for Oath, Empyrial Archangel, offers a defense against damage that Progenitus does not, but it takes some time to kill with her, and she dies whether you want it or not if your opponent happens to be able to do 8 damage total to her and you during a single turn. To me, Progenitus is exactly what Oath always wanted : a creature with very high power, that has very good evasion, AND that is nearly impossible to deal with. Since it's legendary, you can't play several of it, though, so I think Oath players are gonna combine it with one Archangel or one Overlord.
That monored deck seems quite understandable to me... it's a multiplayer burn deck with various interconnected synergies and sources of card advantage chosen to make burn spells more efficient in multiplayer. The centerpiece of the deck is Hostility, as is hinted by your friend's line : "You'll soon draw the card that works with it and then it will be obvious what the deck does."
The artifact theme is there for two reasons : mana acceleration for expensive things like Hostility and X-spells such as Fireball or Earthquake (you didn't mention any, but they sure would fit, especially Earthquake which is bonkers with Hostility), and Shrapnel Blast. I like the choice of Solemn Simulacrum a lot, a fantastic fit here. Kudos to your friend for this deck, it makes me want to build something similar.
Happy new year to all !
There seems to be an error in the sealed decklist : where's the Plains ? My guess is that the one Island should actually be a Plains. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that you initially wanted to play an Island to activate Shore Snapper ?
Of course it is supposed to ! That's called a running gag, and I liked it a lot.:)
Ok, so the mulligan rules really didn't change this year ? Man, the rumor of a change must have gone a long way for the Head Judge at Canadian Nationals to enforce a change ! What he told us is this : from now on, both players should announce first whether they're gonna take a mulligan (the decision being taken in the same order as before, though) and then if both choose to do so, the mulligans are done simultaneously. Rince, repeat until everyone is happy with his/her hand. It made sense to me, and after that I've been teaching that new rule to all players in my area :xd:. I mean, it was the Head Judge at Canadian Nationals ! How could I not believe him ? The worst part is I read the Floor Rules a few weeks later, didn't see the change written, and thought : "ah, it's not updated yet !". Dumb me !
Congratulations to you for getting the job and to Carsten for getting so close. As I said last week, even if I voted for him, it was too close for me to mind much about who would win anyway, and that you took the time to answer my concern about Ethersworn Cannonist's gender further convinces me that you'll do great and watch for those small mistakes.
If Ethersworn Canonist is actually a guy, then that means he used his etherium infusing process to undergo a sex change at the same time. That'd be a nice way to kill two birds with one stone
So my vote is for Pamplemouse. I think I like his style a little more too, but it's not clear, just my current gut feeling. As I said, I really wouldn't mind seeing Rutabaga as the new author, and him calling every creature a "he" wouldn't stop me from enjoying his articles.