R&D knew the theme of Time Spiral would cause intense emotional reactions... Some people are overtly excited by the throwbacks, some are overtly disapointed because they wanted only totally new stuff. It's the same for card faces. Personnaly, I didn't like the new design at first glance, but it was only a natural reluctance to what's new, and I got used to it. Aesthetically speaking, I now like both styles equally, but I think WotC should really keep the new design for consistency reasons. Anyway, the mystery of the reprints is still complete and that weird canceled auction only brought more questions than answers IMO.
About the set itself, I'm a bit disapointed so far. I agree with the people who think there are too many different mechanics not working well with each other. I don't like many of the suspend cards, especially those that have a target, because you can't know if you will have a good target or if the circumstances will be right on the turn they get put on the stack out of suspend wait. There are several singles that I like a lot, but the set as a whole looks very messy so I'm not sure I'll be playing much Limited with it. We shall see.
I noticed something about Jaya : do you remember there are Madness cards in Time Spiral ? She will combo nicely with those, especially the red ones if they are any good. I kept thinking it's a shame that Masques block and Odyssey block were separated by Invasion block so spellshapers could never be used with Madness in standard. I know Odyssey had plenty abilities with discard costs by itself, but few good red ones. I already feel like playing Jaya in an Extended red deck with Fiery Temper and Violent Eruption.
The only problem is that makes the card suck... not that the drawback isn't interesting. If it couldn't be played after your first three turns, that'd be crazy. But weenies kinda have to be on the board before turn three.
Like Mike Flores explained in his article, no, all weenies don't necessarily have to arrive on the board in the first 3 turns. Weenie decks keep summoning weenies after turn 3, especially if the first creatures they casted have been killed or controlled in some way. Because weenie decks are redundant, you will likely have plenty other critters to cast on the fist 3 turns before summoning her, and then on turn four you will have some more mana to cast something else right after. I wouldn't play more than two or three of her in a deck in fear that I get three in starting hand and nothing else to play in the early turns, but it's still excellent. A creature with such stats requires a drawback and that one is cool, new, and really doesn't make Serra Avenger unplayable.
If I want to play with the troll, I can just buy it, I don't need another card that does just the same but is a sliver instead of a troll.
I guess it's true for you if you play only "casual type 1" with your friends, but many people will want to play that sliver in Standard and Extended. You do have the right to not like slivers, tough I don't understand why. Maybe it's because one of the guys in your play group keeps pwning you with his annoying sliver deck ?.
Like Maro said, the angel is not some wimpy 2/2... She's actually a 3/3 with flying and vigilance for WW with the drawback that she can't be played in any of your first 3 turns. Very powerful, and I love the drawback, it's a new and brilliant way to tweak such a good weenie. It was previewed in Mike Flores' Swimming with Sharks column today.
I'm very impressed by Jaya too, she's an incredible killing machine... especially since all her abilities are instant speed. She's a throwback not only to three of the powerful red spells she has quotes on, but also to the Masques block spellshapers; that's funny but a bit strange since she has nothing to do with Masques Block (Except for the flavor text of 8th edition Sizzle wich was originaly a Mercadian Masques card with no flavor text).
Teferi is a neat card. He's a great hoser for certain decks, and perhaps a Johnny tool with creatures that have 'comes into play abilities'. For tournament play, at first glance I'd say he's at least a good sideboard card for any heavy blue deck, but he's a bit narrow so I'm not sure if he will be much more than that.
Sedge Sliver is a great package of power and flavor... Sedge Troll was a VERY good card for the BR aggro decks of its era (it's still above the curve today for these two colors in my opinion) and Sedge Sliver is strictly better. MUCH better in a Sliver deck. A sliver that gives TWO abilities (under a certain condition alright but one not too hard to meet) to all slivers is something really powerful; actually I think it's never been done before (tell me if I'm wrong).
A good sliver deck is almost always 3+ colors, and with the fixing available these days, it's not really a problem. If there are only 3-4 other slivers of this power level in the set, It's pretty obvious we will see a kind of "Sliver Zoo" archetype appear in the standard metagame. The deck would be at least RGB, considering green has probably very good slivers and color fixers.
I hope the new slivers will succeed in making the tribe competitive in Extended and Legacy too. They are currently fun but they have weaknesses and they need a little boost.
L2 Trainers are given special permission by the DCI to administer tests for the certification of L1 judges, and is used in areas where the L2 is either the most senior judge present and there is no L3 within a reasonable distance
How is the "reasonable distance" defined ? Is it based on the area used for Regionals and PTQs ? I live in Quebec and the Head Judge at these qualifier tournaments and prereleases is Mauro, so I guess he's the only one in the province who can certify lvl 1 judges even if he's lvl 2. There's a player I know in my area who wanted to become a judge, and he read the same requirements MadWarper quoted (maybe those should be updated with the precision Epeeguy gave...), and thus really thought he had to travel to Toronto, so I'll be glad to tell him he can just go see Mauro.
OK, I'll sticky this thread, but I already deleted several posts that were just complaints about L3-judges too far away. Similar posts will be treated the same way. This thread is solely about how to become a judge, not about "why isn't there a L3-judge nearby?" or "where is the nearest judge who can test me?"
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Excuse me Craven, but it is Oni Kadaki himself, the original poster of this thread, who derived his original question and talked about the distance problem. This brought an important and pertinent answer from epeeguy and that's what we're talking about now. Board threads often take a different direction from where they started and I don't see why it's unacceptable. I do hope you won't delete my post again.
If the purple reprints do exist, then they are not officially part of the set and are not in the normal booster packs. I'm less certain of their actual existence now but they might be a special separate set like Chronicles. I wonder how they would be distributed then...
Since no judge fully answered the question and the explanations above are incomplete or wrong, I'll try to give the full and comprehensive answer :
1) Replicate is irrelevant here, because the replicate copies are directly put into the stack rather than played, and thus don't increase the count of spells played nor trigger ripple. So we can ignore it.
2) Storm and ripple trigger at the same time and go on the stack on top of the spell in the order you want. You put ripple on the stack last so it resolves first.
3) If the ripple makes you reveal a copy of the spell, you can play it without paying its mana cost, wich triggers both a second ripple and a second storm. You put the second ripple on top of the stack again.
3) The second ripple resolves. You can repeat the process up to two times if each ripple reveals the same spell card.
4) When you're done rippling, you can let all the storm triggers resolve. Storm doesn't count spells until it resolves, so each instance of it will put copies into the stack equal to the number of spells played including the ones played trough ripple minus one (each storm doesnt count the spell that spawned it). SO, If you played one spell card trough ripple, you end up with 4 times the spell into the stack (2 cards + 2 copies); if you played two spell cards trough ripple, you have it 9 times (3 cards + 6 copies); and if you played all 3 remaning spell cards trough ripple, you have it 16 times (4 cards + 12 copies).
I agree there was no very good reason (except budget) to play monored over Gruul or Zoo pre-Coldsnap, but post-Coldsnap it has potential thanks to the restocking Scrying Sheets. Having only the mana base snow is not enough in my opinion; you should be running at least half snow cards in your deck for the sheets to be efficient. Happily, red has good options for that, mainly Stalking Yeti and Karplusan Wolverine wich can replace frostling. Phyrexian Ironfoot is a great card in any snow aggro deck, especially considering it fights color hosers like the dreaded paladin, being bigger than him and most protection creatures. That's pretty much all I would add from Coldsnap tough; I don't like Skred since it targets only creatures, and thus is more useful than other burn spells only against targetable creatures of high toughness that you do want to kill, wich are few in the format. Surging Flame is pretty bad in constructed imo, you'd be better with shock.
still we face a problem : the word "Slivers" apears 26 times... but if we have 27 "real" Sliver-Cards, how can "Slivers" appear just 26 times? (it's known that in every Sliver-Card, the word "Slivers" appears at least 1 time...)
The word "slivers" (plural) doesn't necessarily appear in the text box of all slivers, because some can have a triggered ability starting with "whenever a sliver..." like Essence Sliver does.
With the new suspend ability, Blue's ability to bounce permanents is going to be more powerful than its ability to counter spells. Say there is some sort of 7/1 red beatstick with suspend. If the red mage suspended it, it can't be countered, but if the blue mage bounces it, all that time was wasted while it was suspended.
You cannot bounce a suspended card because it is removed from the game. When the last time counter goes, the spell is normally played and goes on the stack, so it can be countered. Of course, bouncing a permanent that did resolve after a long suspend wait can still be mean. Not in the case of the Lotus Bloom, but for something that can't be sacrified in response it is.
The more I read about it, the more I'm intrigued by the rumor of the 121 reprints with purple expansion symbols, wich explains the 422 vs 301 cards issue... It's pretty certain that they do exist, but do we know anything else about them ? Are any of them confirmed ? Will they be distributed in normal 15-cards booster packs or perhaps as a 16th bonus card per pack ? Will they be legal in Limited if they are in boosters ? Will they be standard-legal ? I've heard they are reprints of acceptable power level selected to interact with the new cards (for example, Rohgahh of Kher Keep to go with Kher Keep) so they really might be legal. If anyone has more info, post it fast ! This is really intriguing, Wizards never did something like it before.
It doesn't mean that the spell is uncounterable, it means it can't be responded to with any instants or non-mana activated abilities, wich is a much wider advantage. For instance, the black removal with Split Second (it's pretty obvious there will be one) will prevent the targeted creature from being sacrified in response. Besides, Split Second spells are still counterable by triggered abilities like those of Chalice of the Void and Counterbalance.
Split Second definitely couldn't have been called "interrupt" for several good reasons. It would have created confusion, and it would be an illogical reference. First, unlike interrupts, Split second spells aren't necessarily meant to respond to other spells : Krosan Grip is a Disenchant and Disenchant has always been an instant, never an interrupt. Second, as I said before, back in the day interrupts could be responded to with other interrupts and interrupt-speed abilities. The meaning of the interrupt card type was "can respond to other things", while the meaning of Split Second is "cannot be responded to". It's really not the same thing.
and... did someone say they were reprinting crucible of worlds?
if so, wtf is R&D thinking?
Actually, R&D wanted to put one of the two You Make the Card cards in the 10th Core Set, and they asked the players who visit magicthegathering.com wich of the two they wanted. The other choice was Forgotten Ancient, a bad creature (that would have been good if Development didn't raise its mana cost from 1GG to 3G before printing it). Of course, the players chose the most powerful card. So the real question is much more "wtf were WE thinking ?", both when we made the card and when we voted it in the Core Set ! ;). I participated in both instances :D.
Honestly, I don't think Crucible of Worlds will be overpowered in Standard. Ok, it's powerful, but it'll always be manageable. Keep in mind that it wasn't played in standard when Mirrodin block was legal and that it's not currently played much in extended or legacy. It's pretty much only a vintage card. Life from the Loam, an other great land reusing engine (more powerful than Crucible in many decks because of dredge), sees much more play in all formats and is not considered broken, at least in standard. Besides, 10th Edition becomes legal only 2 months before Ravnica rotates out, so Crucible will kinda just replace Life from the loam. However, I do realize that land reusing engines are becoming better and better with cards like Ghost Quarter, Mouth of Ronom and the upcoming Terramorphic Expanse... We shall see.
About the set itself, I'm a bit disapointed so far. I agree with the people who think there are too many different mechanics not working well with each other. I don't like many of the suspend cards, especially those that have a target, because you can't know if you will have a good target or if the circumstances will be right on the turn they get put on the stack out of suspend wait. There are several singles that I like a lot, but the set as a whole looks very messy so I'm not sure I'll be playing much Limited with it. We shall see.
Like Mike Flores explained in his article, no, all weenies don't necessarily have to arrive on the board in the first 3 turns. Weenie decks keep summoning weenies after turn 3, especially if the first creatures they casted have been killed or controlled in some way. Because weenie decks are redundant, you will likely have plenty other critters to cast on the fist 3 turns before summoning her, and then on turn four you will have some more mana to cast something else right after. I wouldn't play more than two or three of her in a deck in fear that I get three in starting hand and nothing else to play in the early turns, but it's still excellent. A creature with such stats requires a drawback and that one is cool, new, and really doesn't make Serra Avenger unplayable.
I guess it's true for you if you play only "casual type 1" with your friends, but many people will want to play that sliver in Standard and Extended. You do have the right to not like slivers, tough I don't understand why. Maybe it's because one of the guys in your play group keeps pwning you with his annoying sliver deck
I'm very impressed by Jaya too, she's an incredible killing machine... especially since all her abilities are instant speed. She's a throwback not only to three of the powerful red spells she has quotes on, but also to the Masques block spellshapers; that's funny but a bit strange since she has nothing to do with Masques Block (Except for the flavor text of 8th edition Sizzle wich was originaly a Mercadian Masques card with no flavor text).
Sedge Sliver is a great package of power and flavor... Sedge Troll was a VERY good card for the BR aggro decks of its era (it's still above the curve today for these two colors in my opinion) and Sedge Sliver is strictly better. MUCH better in a Sliver deck. A sliver that gives TWO abilities (under a certain condition alright but one not too hard to meet) to all slivers is something really powerful; actually I think it's never been done before (tell me if I'm wrong).
A good sliver deck is almost always 3+ colors, and with the fixing available these days, it's not really a problem. If there are only 3-4 other slivers of this power level in the set, It's pretty obvious we will see a kind of "Sliver Zoo" archetype appear in the standard metagame. The deck would be at least RGB, considering green has probably very good slivers and color fixers.
I hope the new slivers will succeed in making the tribe competitive in Extended and Legacy too. They are currently fun but they have weaknesses and they need a little boost.
How is the "reasonable distance" defined ? Is it based on the area used for Regionals and PTQs ? I live in Quebec and the Head Judge at these qualifier tournaments and prereleases is Mauro, so I guess he's the only one in the province who can certify lvl 1 judges even if he's lvl 2. There's a player I know in my area who wanted to become a judge, and he read the same requirements MadWarper quoted (maybe those should be updated with the precision Epeeguy gave...), and thus really thought he had to travel to Toronto, so I'll be glad to tell him he can just go see Mauro.
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Excuse me Craven, but it is Oni Kadaki himself, the original poster of this thread, who derived his original question and talked about the distance problem. This brought an important and pertinent answer from epeeguy and that's what we're talking about now. Board threads often take a different direction from where they started and I don't see why it's unacceptable. I do hope you won't delete my post again.
1) Replicate is irrelevant here, because the replicate copies are directly put into the stack rather than played, and thus don't increase the count of spells played nor trigger ripple. So we can ignore it.
2) Storm and ripple trigger at the same time and go on the stack on top of the spell in the order you want. You put ripple on the stack last so it resolves first.
3) If the ripple makes you reveal a copy of the spell, you can play it without paying its mana cost, wich triggers both a second ripple and a second storm. You put the second ripple on top of the stack again.
3) The second ripple resolves. You can repeat the process up to two times if each ripple reveals the same spell card.
4) When you're done rippling, you can let all the storm triggers resolve. Storm doesn't count spells until it resolves, so each instance of it will put copies into the stack equal to the number of spells played including the ones played trough ripple minus one (each storm doesnt count the spell that spawned it). SO, If you played one spell card trough ripple, you end up with 4 times the spell into the stack (2 cards + 2 copies); if you played two spell cards trough ripple, you have it 9 times (3 cards + 6 copies); and if you played all 3 remaning spell cards trough ripple, you have it 16 times (4 cards + 12 copies).
The word "slivers" (plural) doesn't necessarily appear in the text box of all slivers, because some can have a triggered ability starting with "whenever a sliver..." like Essence Sliver does.
You cannot bounce a suspended card because it is removed from the game. When the last time counter goes, the spell is normally played and goes on the stack, so it can be countered. Of course, bouncing a permanent that did resolve after a long suspend wait can still be mean. Not in the case of the Lotus Bloom, but for something that can't be sacrified in response it is.
Split Second definitely couldn't have been called "interrupt" for several good reasons. It would have created confusion, and it would be an illogical reference. First, unlike interrupts, Split second spells aren't necessarily meant to respond to other spells : Krosan Grip is a Disenchant and Disenchant has always been an instant, never an interrupt. Second, as I said before, back in the day interrupts could be responded to with other interrupts and interrupt-speed abilities. The meaning of the interrupt card type was "can respond to other things", while the meaning of Split Second is "cannot be responded to". It's really not the same thing.
Actually, R&D wanted to put one of the two You Make the Card cards in the 10th Core Set, and they asked the players who visit magicthegathering.com wich of the two they wanted. The other choice was Forgotten Ancient, a bad creature (that would have been good if Development didn't raise its mana cost from 1GG to 3G before printing it). Of course, the players chose the most powerful card. So the real question is much more "wtf were WE thinking ?", both when we made the card and when we voted it in the Core Set ! ;). I participated in both instances :D.
Honestly, I don't think Crucible of Worlds will be overpowered in Standard. Ok, it's powerful, but it'll always be manageable. Keep in mind that it wasn't played in standard when Mirrodin block was legal and that it's not currently played much in extended or legacy. It's pretty much only a vintage card. Life from the Loam, an other great land reusing engine (more powerful than Crucible in many decks because of dredge), sees much more play in all formats and is not considered broken, at least in standard. Besides, 10th Edition becomes legal only 2 months before Ravnica rotates out, so Crucible will kinda just replace Life from the loam. However, I do realize that land reusing engines are becoming better and better with cards like Ghost Quarter, Mouth of Ronom and the upcoming Terramorphic Expanse... We shall see.