400.6. If an object would move from one zone to another, determine what event is moving the object. If
the object is moving to a public zone, all players look at it to see if it has any abilities that would
affect the move. Then any appropriate replacement effects, whether they come from that object or
from elsewhere, are applied to that event. If any effects or rules try to do two or more contradictory
or mutually exclusive things to a particular object, that object’s controller—or its owner if it has no
controller—chooses which effect to apply, and what that effect does. (Note that multiple instances
of the same thing may be mutually exclusive; for example, two simultaneous “destroy” effects.)
Then the event moves the object.
604.2. Static abilities create continuous effects, some of which are prevention effects or replacement
effects. These effects are active as long as the permanent with the ability remains on the battlefield
and has the ability, or as long as the object with the ability remains in the appropriate zone, as
described in rule 112.6.
Since Urabrask's abilities only function while he's on the battlefield, and his second ability would have to be applied before he gets there, it's not functioning. Your opponent's creatures enter with their default tapped/untapped status (usually untapped).
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Fetches. Shocks. Tangos.
Embrace it, spread it. It takes 2.
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The core argument of the anti-tuckers is that strategic depth takes a back seat to the identity of the format.
Tuck was an anomaly in the format's conception. Where other removal would delay Commanders in a uniform way, tuck would do it not only in a different way, but in a highly variable way. There was variance based on shuffling (downright luck, and nothing more) and variance down to "tutorability" (an uneven distribution among colors), and the decks that could abuse this unequal removal were also unevenly distributed among colors, not by WOTC R&D's color pie, but arbitrarily due to the rules of the variant format.
Disregard everything about competition, fair or unfair, necessary or unnecessary. An anomaly was quashed.
Balance and additional rulings to curb degeneracy are another problem for another day. This is a case of something that had to be done sooner or later, and which is now something we can start to get over.
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This will see the most play in Limited Izzet and Jeskai decks with Prowess, which gain back some of the tempo loss via Prowess.
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From Oracle:
If multiple effects modify how damage will be dealt, the player being dealt damage or the controller of the permanent being dealt damage chooses the order to apply the effects. For example, the ability of Decorated Griffin says “Prevent the next 1 combat damage that would be dealt to you this turn.” Suppose you would be dealt 3 combat damage and you activate the ability of Decorated Griffin. You can either (a) prevent 1 damage first and then let Dictate of the Twin Gods’s effect double the remaining 2 damage, for a result of being dealt 4 damage, or (b) double the damage to 6 and then prevent 1 damage, for a result of being dealt 5 damage.
Deflecting Palm's text:
The next time a source of your choice would deal damage to you this turn, prevent that damage. If damage is prevented this way, Deflecting Palm deals that much damage to that source's controller.
Basically, you get to "deflect" it as is, or let it get doubled then "deflect" it because the damage would be dealt to you and there are two replacement effects trying to apply to it. I think it's an easy choice, double it, then shoot it back! It's new damage now - Deflecting Palm "remembers" the damage count prevented and becomes a new source of damage, so Dictate will apply again. "Deflecting Palm deals that much damage to that source's controller."
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These are very high profile cards, and I'm sure they were developed extensively to fit into the Standard metagame and help solve problems for the given decks. These aren't flavor-driven cards. They're pure utility.
I'm not so convinced that Mardu Charm is as bad as you think it is. I think that Mardu will not be as aggro as people think it will be as far as 1-2 drops etc. I think it's going to stay aggressive but get a serious bump in efficiency at 3-4 mana, which will make cards like Mardu Charm and Crackling Doom seem more reasonable. Mardu charm is removal at a critical damage level for standard.
There is just so much left that we don't know! I'm not saying you don't have a right to judge things, but some of the major roleplayers are going to be monocolor cards, often at uncommon or even common, that we won't have seen yet because they don't fit the gold, glitz, and glam paradigm that spoiler weeks have.
Regarding the charm cycle as a whole, I would say that the Sultai one is the most elegant and obviously viable. The removal options on all of the charms are good, though.
Take a second and compare these to the Alara charms. All 5 of them saw play in successful decks, with the worst of them being Naya Charm. Some of these charms are considerably better than a couple of the Alara charms. Naya Charm to me feels like a weaker version of Temur charm, which has the ability to be used as disruption, a more powerful ability than a regrowth. The final ability is a wash in almost all circumstances.
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Do you understand what intuition means?
Intuition is how you expect something to work, assuming no prior teaching or knowledge. The flavor and design of these cards is very intuitive: this enchantment is a temporary prison that can be "broken" to retrieve the prisoner.
It's incredibly unintuitive to say "Here's a prison...and before the door closes, I'm going to make that prison disappear. Therefore, your guy is imprisoned FOREVER, because the prison was gone before he was even in it!"
What? What the ****? That doesn't follow any kind of reasonable narrative, and the narrative of cards is a very important part of Magic.
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