MTG Salvation

@Lithi A smoke detector can detect smoking, not sex. Considering the amount of smoking that occurred in my highschool bathrooms, the current supervision is not enough. One time at my school someone light toilet paper on fire and it was kids in the upstairs hallway SMELLING it that alerted supervisors, not the smoke detectors or the supervisors themselves.
Also there is a difference between people having to find a space for an act and allowing them access one. To simplify this to just cheating on tests, the colleges I attended wouldn't even let me use the bathroom until I was done with a quiz, test, or exam. This was due to the POSSIBILITY of going to look up the answers. (Something I would be able to do real life on the job and it would be perfectly acceptable... but I digress).
So I ask you what is worse if you are an administrator: a student cheating on a quiz in your school's bathroom, or a 12 year old middleschooler getting pregnant in your school's bathroom?

I could say it would be because men needing to use stalls in a unisex bathroom would feel emasculated or be emasculated by their peers. There is a much more serious reason, however:

Rape.

It is because of rape. Men are much more likely to rape women then men on men or women on women. Look up the statistics if you don't believe this.
Bathrooms are one of the few places people have in public away from cameras. In order to enforce things in bathrooms, you would either need an attendant/guard (that you can trust not to rape and/or be raped) or have cameras.
I for one would prefer separate bathrooms as supposed to a camera in the stalls.

So as far as single toilet restrooms being unisex, sure. I am just fine with that. It takes at least two people for a rape to occur: at least one assailant and a victim. If there is only one person in the bathroom, rape is not possible.

@Tiax : Typically I keep my underwear on in an elevator, my typical elevator ride is well below five minutes, and there are cameras in the elevators I use.

Also, moving to general fornication: would you really trust having unisex bathrooms in middle school and highschool, with that whole puberty thing? Teen pregnancies would skyrocket!

I'll admit that the Homelands kick was mostly a joke, but you definitely have a point about the Homelands symbol and a possible moon symbol confusing people.

I also started to think along the lines of sister planes...what if we take the "world is flat" scenario and apply it to some, if not all, mtg planes?
I understand this sounds super crazy, but think of transforming cards and it starts to make a bit more sense. Also Innistrad has some mirror-opposite-similarities to Dominaria (where we last happened to see Marit Lage). The most important one is that moon. Yes, I do know that Dominaria had two moons, one of which was called the Glimmer Moon and it was supposedly a ball of WHITE Mana... I know what you are saying: white mana wouldn't bring out all the monsters to which I respond correct! It wouldn't! A mostly black ball of mana would do that sort of thing. Yes Marit Lage is black in the only rendition that we have seen of her. However ball of black mana, or cloud of black mana, defines the last seen state of another far more prominent character: Yawgmoth...
What if the Glimmer Moon encased Yawgmoth in a whole transmutation sort of bit to flip him to the other side of the plane (yes I am saying the back of Innistrad would be Dominaria) and made him the moon causing all the problems?

Yes I know that Yawgmoth would do absolutely nothing described as "Eldritch" but it is just a little bit of theory.

Team Lage.

What if the "came as three" message is actually a disgruntled employee complaining about how there are now only TWO sets in a block as supposed to THREE?

Quote from Werewolf_Rawr »

Avacyn, Bruna, and Gisela happen to be three threats that are rolling together. Threats that could be observed by Tamiyo quite easily. We've seen the gang group up on Sigarda...

You might have an odd point... look at Sigarda. Those wide, wide wings. Look at how triangular Gisela's wings are...and um, look how um Ulamog armored er um, Bruna is....
I really hope they aren't going this route. I'm still hoping Engulf the Shores means Marit Lage.
Not to say that Emrakul doesn't make sense and I didn't say exactly that at first...all these clues just had me hoping something older would pop up.

LIKE BARON SENGIR TO TAKE OVER INNISTRAD!!!!! Homelands triland reprints, here we come!!!!!

Please also see the card Engulf the Shore. Aside from having a VERY Marit-Lage-like entity on the picture, the flavor text is:
"The tides have begun to ignore the moon." —Tamiyo's Journal

That's Tamiyo, the Moon Sage...

I was just in another thread that made an extra explore deck. This deck has 75 cards that could have equipment, Zendikari quest enchantments, a few lands, and a few trap cards, such as Feeding Frenzy which would target the creature you use to explore, or Zombie Brute which would fight with the exploring creature and if said Brute survives, it joins the horde battlefield.
The current iteration is that you can pay 2 and tap a creature you control to have it explore the Explore deck (kinda like investigate... but they came up with the idea in 2013... eerie, huh?). When you explore, you reveal the top card of the explore deck and well...whatever happens does happen, unless it can't (like Feeding Frenzy trying to target a creature with hexproof or shroud). If it can't, I'm pretty sure it goes at the bottom of the deck... or the graveyard of the explore deck, I forget which.

The main thing I gotta say is when going into something called "a horde" is that people typically expect a lack of noncreature spells. The only three I run are Moan of the Unhallowed, Intangible Virtue and a single Safe Passage. I do, however, like the notion of Temporal Extorion.
There are a lot of spells that you could switch out for creatures if you dropped the Zombie only clause.

grave pact -> butcher of malakir
painful quandary, gibbering descent -> cackling fiend, cunning lethemancer, [card]banshee of the dread choir
[/card]blood moon -> magus of the moon, skyshroud war beast
call to the grave -> magus of the tabernacle
Kederekt Leviathan is the number one card that I recommend for every horde. It is tough to answer, nigh impossible to completely render useless, and just because it entrers the battlefield doesn't mean the game is instantly over. Best dollar bin find I ever purchased.
tribute to the wild, back to nature, creeping corrosion -> bane of progress Bane is the second most necessary card for any horde. I don't need to explain why.
zombie apocalypse -> balthor the defiled, hythonia the cruel
everlasting torment -> stigma slasher Fang Skulkin
decree of pain -> massacre wurm
no mercy -> dread, but would need some errata; Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts.
bone knitter is too op. Especially in your current iteration. I'm not sure how you are really getting around it without requiring someone to play a white deck with arrests, swords to plowshares, or other targeted exile precisely for that.
ruination -> desolate angel
anthem of rakdos -> nobils of war

Skip Espuma's rules, if you want a greater difficulty always add tokens over swamps even if they are 0/0 germs or 0/1 goats ( 0/0 germs go great with Butcher of Malakir).

What I found works for my Horde was whenever the horde loses life, put that many TOKENS into your graveyard. Any stopper cards (cards with normal backs) are put into the horde's hand. This means that the horde's power cards have a better chance of being seen. As far as waves, the horde drops its hand one card at a time. If the hand is empty, it reveals the top of its library until it gets to a card with a normal back (typically a spell) and then puts all the tokens onto the battlefield and casts that spell.

Also if you want to SUBSTANTIALLY raise the power level of your Horde, you can still balance it by taking out haste. I run all sorts of creatures like Gigantomancer, Boneyard Wurm, Beast of Burden, Avatar of Slaughter, etc. I refer to cards with normal backings as "stopper cards". This name is for more than just the waves, for example Trepanation Blade mills until a land card is revealed. This translates to "stopper card". This helps the horde a lot as far as milling, as there are many mill cards that would instantly win without stopper card errata.

Lastly, I have an infect deck that can win turn 4 our 5 far too easily. I soloed my horde. From that point on I made this rule: each poison counter is instead an emblem that deals 1 damage to the horde during its upkeep, a la Curse of the Pierced Heart.

As for Threshold, utilize the graveyard! Boneyard Wurm and Lhurgoyf are great! Splinterfright is far too powerful as it has trample.

I like the exploring deck idea, it adds a lot of flavor and is especially good to add if the players do need help. I've held on to a bunch of the Hero cards from Theros... but I haven't remembered to let people use them a single time...I feel as though the reusable ones could be pretty good, unless you want the flavor of the one-shot heroes "sacrificing" themselves to help out the team.

It is most like the Minotaur Horde released with Born of the Gods, but the concept predates it by about two years.
As far as the +1/+0 idea, it looks fine if the team is starting at 80 or more life. 60 life with this could be pushing it.

I agree, you'd have to ban Relics being creatures as well as enchantments.

Gerrard Capashen - how many EXPANSIONS revolved around him? More than anyone (excluding Urza)
Momir Vig - going with the crowd call on the art.
Nicol Bolas - Has to be. I'd prefer the Elder Dragon Legend, but would understand the Planeswalker too.
Empress Galina - She's actually been in more than Just Invasion...
Karn, Silver Golem (doubt they'd do 'walker Karn)
Mirari - because this is what Memnarch used to be
Ashling, the something
Heliod because you know it.
Jaya Ballard, Task Mage best flavor texts make for memorable lore.
Temporal Cascade (or some time spell)
Conflux
Urza's Guilt/Urza's Rage - because not enough people know that Blind Seer is the closest Urza ever got to having his own Non-Vanguard Card.

and Marit Lage Token, because Kaldra...wasn't really too important in the long run.

The problem with modern is that it isn't. Modern looks at the cards being released basically ten years AFTER the game began and anew.
As always, it is easier to balance a set rather than a format. The twenty year mark was 2013. It is now 2016.
How have you not seen this coming? We all remember what ushered in the new "modern" age: the new card format. There was that scare with future sight, but things went back to "normal". Check out M15. Check out the lack of core sets we currently have aside from the unofficial one: Magic Origins.
I would not be surprised to see Modern shift OUT of standard, giving rise to a NEW format take its current place as a reset.

Again, if you ever suspect your opponent has a nonlegal deck, you call a judge for that.

What your opponent did was very strategic and legal, sadly. Upon being reminded that YOU are supposed to search the owner's library, not the owner, he conceded in order to bar your from that information.
Had he declared that he was done searching, then you reminded him YOU are supposed to search his library, THEN he conceded: it would have definitely warranted a judge calling and I would have most certainly had my opponent's deck checked. Sadly I don't think he would have gotten in any trouble if his deck is in order.

Even on a rollback, there is no chance to respond AFTER the first strike damage is assigned. There hasn't been "damage on the stack" for a very long time.

Asking if they were different creatures is pointless, because what would those creatures be: Norin the Wary and Krosan Cloudscraper? Assuming that one card is a Clone doesn't change the fact: regeneration shields must be in place before damage is assigned. I don't know about any judging penalties, but at a causal and rules-only standpoint, he would gain no edge or additional information in order to keep both of his blockers alive.

1. Correct. A card's effect is read sentence by sentence. This translates a period (.) into "and then after that".
2.Also correct, for the exact reason you said.

You got these questions covered!