MTG Salvation

Quote from nineinchnate »

Banding is not coming back. It was removed for a good reason: it slows the game to a crawl. Combat math becomes abysmal for the player without banding, trading their best creature with a 1/1.

Bushido was every bit as complicated to calculate as Flanking, just in reverse, and they did it. Don't believe me? Try building a deck with nothing but Samurai & Samurai legends sometime...it's a *****.

re: the thread. There is some pretty silly (and utterly non-productive) discussion going on. I'm surprised this hasn't been locked yet. Let's PLEASE get past the 'omfg1!1 wot a st00pid nam3 for bl0cx...they've c0mpl3+3Ly jump3d th3 sharx wi+h +his xrap suxxors!1!111!one.' How is any of that relevant...at all...to the game. It's a name, people. If you want to lampoon something so utterly non-important, go to misetings. If the cards themselves suck, then you have something legitimate to complain about.

re: the announcement. OK, so this confirms more or less that we're going to see a rehash of mechanics (and now, planes as well it appears) in TS block. That is an interesting way to do a block without resorting to a 'Chronicles 2'. I'm pretty interested to see what they do with this...I'm reminded of Golgothian Sylex, Apocalypse Chime and City in a Bottle as well as all the 'Expansion Symbol Matters' ie World-Bottling Kit stuff they did in Unhinged. Further, if any set could re-work Poison, this would be the one. I also agree with whoever said Teferi will be the cause of this dimensional-screwup.

.out.

1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Jimi Hendrix
3. Jimi Hendrix
4. Jimi Hendrix
5. Jimi Hendrix

Honorable Mention: Jimi Hendrix.

Like there's any competition here...

Fireshrieker, anyone?

I didn't realize the poison counters trigger w/Timmy effects....omg!....this changes everything. I've been seriously considering building this deck lately...just need a couple more of the old :symb:/:symg: to do so...

@Harkius I'd like to 'step up' and apologize for offending you. In my zeal to be heard (a problem sometimes), I forgot that this is still a religion for some folks, and that is a deeply personal thing. Hey, if it makes you happy and fills that need in your life, than it's doing its job as well as any other religion.

That said, this belief system still just seems too far out for me to take seriously. From what I've read (from both sides), it does kind appear to be, well, brainwashing by another name. If any of the detractor sites are to believed <at all>, you need to keep you eyes open during this process of exploration. Be careful, dude.

I'm curious...what happens to 'former' members? Further, are their viewpoints good?...bad?...meh? about their experiences? Are they allowed to speak their minds freely in critique or are they excommunicated and labelled heretics like so many other major religions? Have their been any power-struggles or schisms/subgroups formed within Scientology? I'm not trolling here...I'm really interested.

Anyone who actually believes this UTTER nonsense deserves whatever they get. (Thanks for the links!)

A certain famous quote by P.T. Barnum immediately comes to mind...

As if I needed another reason to hate Hollywood.

A couple of options...

Strictly Tutors
Worldly Tutor & it's Portal cousin Sylvan Tutor
Eladamri's Call & Altar of Bone (EDIT: Sorry, they're white...but they're still quite good.)

There are others... You should definitely check out http://gatherer.wizards.com

Quote from Glix »

FYI, this combo doesn't work anymore.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/askwizards/0406

April 21, 2006

Q: "When cards are designed, they are tested to make sure they aren't too powerful, right? I read that Scythe of the Wretched used to give +2/+1, but had the toughness boost increased to prevent a two-card win with Triskelion. The rule I heard was that the designers try to not print cards that can generate a two-card instant win. With that in mind, when Flame Fusillade was designed, was the combo with Time Vault discovered? If so, why didn't this apply to the rule? Does the combo have to be Standard-legal to disqualify a card because of two-card 'I win' combos?"
--Sam
Oakland, California, USA

A: From Mark Gottlieb, Magic Rules Manager:
"Sam, you’re right about the effort we take to avoid game-ending 2-card combos. But no one in R&D saw the Time Vault-Flame Fusillade combo. There are a few reasons for that. 1) We generally limit our degenerate combo search to Standard, and maybe Extended if something jumps out at us. There are so many thousands of cards that we can’t do an exhaustive search, so Legacy combos aren’t a priority. 2) For the sake of our sanity, we generally ignore the very existence of Time Vault. 3) Time Vault doesn’t work like it’s supposed to work, so none of us anticipated anything like this combo.

"(For those who don’t know, here’s the combo: Flame Fusillade grants your permanents the ability '{T}: Deal 1 damage to target creature or player.' Time Vault is an artifact with (among other abilities) 'Skip your next turn: Untap Time Vault and put a time counter on it.' So you could play Flame Fusillade, then tap Time Vault to deal damage, untap it by skipping your next turn, tap it, untap it, tap it, and so on. By the time you’re done, you’ll have skipped your next 20 turns, but your opponent will be fried to a crisp and in no real position to take advantage of your generosity.)

"But wait—didn’t I just say that the way Time Vault works is wrong? There are two problems with it. One is the cost of this activated ability. A cost can be spending mana, or paying life, or discarding a card, or various other resources you can spend. But a cost can’t really be spending something you don’t have yet. Magic doesn’t have a concept of debt. Look at Chronatog—It was printed with 'skip your next turn' as a cost, but that was changed in Oracle long ago so it’s now part of the ability’s effect. Time Vault should have been changed at the same time but wasn’t.

"The other issue is the original intent of its untap ability. Check out this ability from a different Vault in Alpha: 'Mana Vault doesn’t untap normally during untap phase; to untap it, you must pay 4 mana.' Mana Vault’s Oracle wording treats this ability like so: 'At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay {4}. If you do, untap Mana Vault.' This reflects the clear intent of the ability. Untapping this card at the beginning of your turn costs extra mana. You get to do it once, since it’s this card’s functional substitute for the 'normal' untap. Having this ability trigger at the beginning of your upkeep is the modern treatment of this sort of thing.

"These reasons are why Time Vault (as well as Brass Man, Colossus of Sardia, and Island Fish Jasconius) have all been given errata in the latest Oracle update (which goes live on Monday) to restore the original intent and functionality of their untap abilities. They’ll all be upkeep-triggered abilities that you can use once per turn. (Black Carriage and Marjhan aren’t getting the same errata because they were only ever printed with the activated version of their untap abilities.)

"This means the Flame Fusillade-Time Vault combo will no longer work. However, this change was not done to kill the combo. In fact, the existence of the combo is rather irrelevant. If a combo occurs naturally and is degenerate, our response would be to ban one of the cards, not change its functionality. But in this case, Time Vault and Flame Fusillade should never have interacted this way. Through years of Oracle changes and rules system changes, Time Vault drifted away from working the way it’s supposed to. It’s being changed because it’s the right thing to do for the integrity of that card."

I think it's a bunch of bunk....but there it is.

Quote from pokerbob1 »

There are some cards that deal with library order Court Hussar, Condemn, Leashling, Telling Time, Bioplasm, Crown of Convergence, Junktroller, Mindmoil etc. That could be an interesting, yet weird design space.

This is very likely the focus (or one of them) for Time Spiral. (ihmo)

We might see more in Coldsnap. If we do, it supports this theory.

I agree w/above poster that Coldsnap probably will have more to do with Ice Age block than Ravnica/Time Spiral block. Just doesn't feel right to do otherwise. But then agian, I'm not in R&D.

Well...I'm in agreement with this list.

Another mechanic I think that deserves an honorable mention is 'Gotcha' from Unhinged. R I D I C U L O U S mechanic in a, yes, R I D I C U L O U S set. Free buyback/flashback by any other name.... So annoying.

Quote from pokerbob1 »

EDIT: sarnathed

Quote from FoilPhob »

Also, The beacon doubles life, not gain life, so no combo.

Nitpick.

Sorry, but I believe you are incorrect. It is the same as life gain, just doesn't say 'gain life', and is treated much the same as cards that do. This has come up before.

Example: Beacon of Immortality + False Cure = GG

HOWEVER, that said, Rain of Gore STILL doesn't work like this b/c of 'controller' wording.

>Out<

Quote from TheDragon »

Cant wait to see if they blow up the secondary market and put FOW in a precon.

You (and everyone else in the multiverse) can probably stop waiting. It ain't gonna happen.

Sorry.

Let's see...

So I basically get a Firestorm Hellkite without the pesky upkeep and GAINING untargetability for more. Ummm.....Drawback?

What a finisher!

This card is absurd.

Very strong ability (yet fairly costed), very abusable, VERY nice art. I'm quite pleased with this one.

(Duh!)

Rackling
The Rack
Wheel of Torture

Might as well get more benefit from all that discarding...

For artifact and enchantment removal...you're best splash color is green or white.

But, that said, there is still Gate to Phyrexia

Seem to me the best splashes would be Putrefy &/or Mortify And with those, you also get creature control to boot.

My .02¢