MTG Salvation

I mainly play EDH now, so I bring a stack of the usual tokens that pop up in a game. 3 goblins in case of Siege Gang (different art ofc). 3 Soliders. A snake, wolf, and elephant from that 1 card in ZEN. =p

Notables I have are the wurm tokens from Wurmcoil, the 9/9 golem from Titan Forge, and the 6/12 construct from Stone Idol Trap. Also love pulling out the UB zombie wizard from Lich Lord of Unx or the dragon baby used with Dragon Broodmother. =)

Love for WotC to print X/X elemental tokens for Marath and some Triskelavite tokens! Would also love to see sort of 'blank' blue Clone tokens. For all the spells that just make a copy of something.

I have no idea what's happens, so I'll add my own **** to the melting pot that this thread has become. =p

Been cleaning up the room and making EDH decks or updating cards when I noticed that my 3 blue generals have different sleeves (as they should!). And they the shade corresponds to the color of the deck in a way. My Generals and their sleeve colors. I like to think I'm cool.

Quote from BTYcards

Hey y'all, I'm brand new to the game and I'm trying to learn some terminology. I have some random hopefully easy questions to answer for the experienced players out there.

- What is limited / unlimited?

- What is draft / sealed?

Limited is the name of a format in magic. You are 'limited' in the cards you can play with. Limited includes drafting and sealed. you open booster packs and build a deck from the cards you get.

Drafting is part of limited. Typically you sit at a table with 7 other people (8 total). You are each given 3 boosters. You start by opening 1 of your boosters, remove the token and land card and you pick 1 card from that booster. After that you pass the remaining cards to your right. You'll receive cards from the player to your left (1 card short b/c he choose his 1st card already) and you pick from that stack of cards. Repeat till all the cards have been chosen/drafted. Move onto your 2nd booster and repeat the process, but instead you past to your left! Then open your 3rd booster and past that pile to your right. Pick your cards wisely in hopes to build a deck of at least 40 cards. Lands are provided and typically you want to run 17-18 lands.

Sealed is the other half of limited. You go to a store and sign up to play. You'll receive 6 boosters in total (or in recent history 5 boosters and 1 'special' booster of your choice; it contains cards of 1 color/combination that makes building a deck easier). Just like with drafting, you make a deck of at least 40 cards from the cards you opened from your 6 boosters.

- When you play a land card, are there cards your opponent can use to remove them?

- Can you play more than one land card per turn?

- What does scry (spry? skry?) mean?

- What does splash mean?

- What does shock mean?

Lands can be remove with either spells and abilities. One example is Stone Rain which flat out says 'destory target land'. Lands on the battlefield are also permanents and thus are also affected by cards that 'target permament' like Vindicate and Woodfall Primus.

You cannot play more than 1 land a turn unless a card in play specifically says otherwise. Like Rites of Flourishing or Oracle of Mul Daya. Certain cards and abilities can help you put more lands into play like Rampant Growth and Walking Atlas. These do not affect the "Play 1 land a turn" rule.

Scry, like on Magma Jet, is a keyword. If you have the a card with Scry 1, it means you look at the top card of your library and you can choose to keep that card on top or put it on the bottom. Scry 2 you'll look at the top 2 cards and you can keep both on top (in any order), 1 on top and 1 on bottom, or put both on the bottom if you don't like either of them.

No idea what splash means. =p

Shock is a coined term for 2 damage after the actual card Shock. It gives the name to the Shocklands like Temple Garden b/c you can choose to pay 2 life (or 'shock' yourself) to have it come into play untapped. Also interchangeably, friends will just say "I shock you" when play spells or abilities that deal 2 damage when those abilities aren't shock themselves.

Bolt is 3 damage and pretty much most cards just get shortened to what they do. I'll Doom Blade your guy. I'll Unsummon your dude and after you play a while the card names and abilities will stick.

- I understand that you have to "tap" land cards in order to cast a spell, but say you cast a creature spell. Do you have to "re-tap" your land cards in order for that creature to attack?

You do not. Once you have cast your creature you don't have to tap to do anything else with it unless the card says so.[/quote]

- I'm having trouble building a deck. Is it a good idea to run one color only, or is it better to have 2 or more colors in a deck?

All depends on what your game plan is. If you have alot of spells that require UU and BBB, putting them in a deck together might not be the best idea. If you are running multiple colors, be sure to include a way to 'fix your mana'. Include lands that tap for 2 colors like Dimir Guildgate or Drowned Catacomb. Some artifacts can also tap for mana as well (e.g. Darksteel Ingot or Dimir Cluestone). Some decks and get away with playing more colors because the players have access to really good cards that either tap for more than 1 color of mana or find the lands they need.

- I was under the impression that a deck consisted of 60 cards. Watching pack openings online, I keep hearing of 40 card decks. Which is the actual minimum deck size?

Depends on the format you are playing. In Constructed as the name suggests, you bring a deck with you that you have built to play in the event. These decks should be at least 60 cards. Certain formats have restrictions and what cards you can play, so make sure to ask what sets of magic cards you can play with before signing up.

As mentioned earlier, 40 card decks are seen when you playing limited: sealed or draft.

- I have come to learn that the odd looking cards, named "soldier," "spirit," etc.. are tokens. I understand that some cards "spawn" tokens on the battle field. How are they useful when they do not have an attack or defense? Do you have to have a token card in order to have a token? Or can you use a placeholder? Are tokens part of your deck size or part of a side deck?

Some cards do indeed make tokens like Captain of the Watch. When it enters the battlefield, you put 3 1/1 soldier tokens unto the battlefield as well. These tokens can be coins, die, or the token cards that come in booster packs. As long as you and your opponent know what the creatures are, then use whatever you want. The tokens act as creatures that can attack or block like the actual cards (and follow the same rules) except if someone Unsummons a token creature or destorys it, it ceases to exist. It is not returned to your hand. Just gone, poof! They are not part of your deck size, but feel free to bring the token cards and use those if you have cards that create tokens in your deck.

- What are the cards, that are printed in "landscape" with two pictures of cards on them? for instance, I have one that reads "protect" and then the other card next to is reads "serve." What are these and how are they used?

Those cards are split cards! They are a special type of card in that you can cast either side of them. Like Crime // Punishment. You can cast either side by paying the mana cost in the top right corner of either half. With the card you mentioned (Protect // Serve), that card has a keyword ability, Fuse. You can cast either half of Protect/Serve like you could in the first example, but Fuse allows you to cast both halves of the card at once as long as you have mana to cast both halves. So you can pay 2W to cast Protect, 1U to cast serve, or 3WU to cast both.

Thank you guys for shedding some light on these questions.

Be damned if I didn't complete this post after I saw the first one go up! Gonna get my answers! =)
Anymore questions, feel free to ask. If you have any specific card questions, check out the Magic Rulings subforum here. Read the rules before you post and have fun gaming!

Quote from Jivanmukta

FF isn't my cup of tea.

Fixed that for you.

@Digi, maybes.

*An ethereal dart flies through the library windows. A note is attached*

"Scouting intel has occupied much of my times. My homoculus keeps me up to date on things here, but I apologize for my lack of...physical presence.

P.S. Please be sure to feed the aberriation in Section D-3. The dropshoot to the basement clogs in rare occasions."

-AJ

@Cad, that sucks. I hate when things just end up going that way. And it's like "o! you couldn't have told me this earlier!?" >_>

Choose Boros and got no real pairings. Splash Blue and Green for nonsense cards. Had some spotty creatures and decent cards, but nothing to drive the deck home. 6 rounds. 3-3. 16th out of 44. I got a pity prize of a deck box which is nice. And I also bought a playmat with [REDACTED] on it. It looks SOOO pretty.

So to sum up. To do well in DGM. pick Black or Red. Removal is just sooo key in this set.

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All of Olivia's first ability resolves before SBA are checked. Magiccardsinfo says that

If Olivia Voldaren deals lethal damage to a creature with its first activated ability, that creature will become a Vampire before dying.

Soooo since it is a vampire before it dies, I would agree that the Stromkirk Captains pump your stonewright to a 4/4 saving it from the incoming Pillar of Flame.

Welcome back to the game and to the forums!

Watching the game, but I'll probably hit the hay for work tomorrow morn. My game is tomorrow night.

Love the new thread and that title art is awesome.

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I feel you.

I came to the exact same conclusion after playing for 6 years. I finally called it quits for competitive Magic when Theros came out.

I was out of shape, broke and very competitive. All my free time was spent formulating new deck strategies and techs.

Then it hit me that this is not what I want to continue doing. It felt that I was wasting a lot of my potential for a "hobby" that costs a lot of money without even improving my life.

Now, the only time I devote to Magic is playing casual Commander with my friends. Having a lot of free time because of it, I started doing some things that have tangible benefits for self-improvement.

I couldn't be any happier

Quote from tachiKC

If that satyr was 2/1 and dealt damage to both players and creatures he could have been the final modern 2 drop to complete THE CYCLE! But he wasn't. Or maybe If he'd been 1 mana with everything else the same... C'mon Wizards you couldn't push it just a little bit?

Creatures or players wouldn't have been pushing "it just a little bit." That would have been picking it, lifting it over their head, grunting, and launching it into space. Lightning Bolt dealing 6 to the face for 1 mana in modern seems like it might have been an issue. Instead it just hits for 3 and kills something.

I suspect this was tested in a few forms and this was the one that didn't kill Standard or Modern.

Quote from shikaku201

They should create a sticky thread with all the links to each "This is the worst set ever" in it.

I think Theros and Born of the Gods is fine, no way is either the worst set ever created.

This calls for another update to the list:

Born of the Gods
Theros
M14
Dragon's Maze
Gatecrash
Return to Ravnica
M13
Avacyn Restored
Dark Ascension
Innistrad
M12
New Phyrexia
Mirrodin Besieged
Scars of Mirrodin
M11 <-- Titans. No complaints here, it seems. Personally, my favorite core set.
Rise of Eldrazi
Worldwake
Zendikar
M10
Alara Reborn <-- People also seemed to enjoy [ARB].
Conflux
Shards of Alara
Eventide
Shadowmoor
Morningtide
Lorwyn
10th Edition
Future Sight
Planar Chaos
Time Spiral
Coldsnap
Dissension
Guildpact
Ravnica <-- Also generally well-liked, though MTGS had a lot less traffic back then.
9th Edition
Saviors of Kamigawa
Betrayers of Kamigawa

I'm hoping the plot goes something like

Chandra: The darksteel reactor is about to blow what do we do?!

Elspeth: Let's make out.

Chandra: ...Ok.

The reason this card is good is because it and many of the cards it interacts with are good on their own.
In an empty board, it's still ramp. With a desecration demon, underworld connections, birthing pod, etc. it has a powerful interaction you can make use of, and all of those cards see play without the interaction available. Allowing you to attack with a fatty and be able to block as well can be a huge deal too.
This card will always be doing something for you, and being 2CMC means that at most your opponents are 1-for-1ing you with a removal spell that costs the same amount of mana or more.

Quote from 3drinks

Sol Ring /end thread.

Nope. When I Vandalblast your T1 Sol Ring that made you keep a 1 land hand. Nothing like venomous direct hate towards just one person to set the mood to magic.

Good thing you weren't packing Engineered Explosives, Flight Spellbomb, etc... or you may have been detained.