OP, have you ever enjoyed a game of magic where you lost?
If you answered yes, then you might understand that you can have fun without winning.
There are some people out there that enjoy the actual act of playing.
To a non-competitive person, Armageddon is "unfun" because they no longer get to play the game.
Think about it this way: let's say from now on you get to only use a sealed deck from Kamigawa block. Your opponents all use vintage decks. Turn 1 they dump their hand and kill you. Great, they won. Let's play again. You turn 1 land, they turn 1 dump their hand and kill you. Great, they won.
Notice how the only person having fun is the person who got to dump their hand? As much of a spike you are (or even if you aren't) you have to realize that many people enjoy moving cards around and actually playing out combos (janky or otherwise) that they spent time building. I'm confident that if you let your opponents play their combos (since it's CASUAL PLAY) and you win against them, they would have no complaints, since they actually got to move some cards around.
Let's frame this a little differently, your 8 year old cousin comes over with the timmiest deck ever. Do you kill him turn 3 every game or do you sandbag a little to let him timmy out? I'm confident that if you let him cast his foil Shipbreaker Kraken while he screams "AND THEN A GIANT CRAB SMASHES ALL YOUR CREATURES AHAHAHAHAH!!!!" and let him swing, then you proceed to wrath and win the game, BOTH of you would have had fun. Obviously your play group isn't 8, but you can see how actually playing the game can be fun.
If the cards will not be touched, then a white box unsleeved is fine.
However, I have a friend who stored some ABU cards like this in his attic. He came back to them about 3 years ago to find them all turned into mush. As in, the stack of cards became one piece of... wet cardboard. There was a small leak and the cards ate them up over years.
If you're going to sleeve, then I'd recommend double sleeving them. Single sleeving won't save you from water damage, but double sleeving will be way better. Still won't be waterPROOF, but way more water resistant. Or you could just put the box into a tupperware box or something. Doesn't have to be a safe, but something that's waterproof will do wonders. Humidity control will save cards (especially foils) from warping also.
702.19b The controller of an attacking creature with trample first assigns damage to the creature(s) blocking it. Once all those blocking creatures are assigned lethal damage, any remaining damage is assigned as its controller chooses among those blocking creatures and the player or planeswalker the creature is attacking. When checking for assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the creature and damage from other creatures that’s being assigned during the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage that’s actually dealt. The attacking creature’s controller need not assign lethal damage to all those blocking creatures but in that case can’t assign any damage to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking.
Example:
A 2/2 creature with an ability that enables it to block multiple attackers blocks two attackers: a 1/1 with no abilities a 3/3 with trample. The active player could assign 1 damage from the first attacker and 1 damage from the second to the blocking creature, and 2 damage to the defending player from the creature with trample.
Example: A 6/6 green creature with trample is blocked by a 2/2 creature with protection from green. The attacking creature’s controller must assign at least 2 damage to the blocker, even though that damage will be prevented by the blocker’s protection ability. The attacking creature’s controller can divide the rest of the damage as he or she chooses between the blocking creature and the defending player.
The same applies with each of the damage steps. Since cartel aristocrat isn't dead at the time regular damage occurs, you must assign lethal damage to it before you trample over. You don't get to absorb all of it with your cartel. The life gain is only 3 in both steps because damage is prevented on the cartel aristocrat.
Squadron Hawk 1 enters stack
Possibility Storm trigger gets put onto stack
Possibility Storm trigger resolves
- SH 1 is exiled
- SH 2 is found via exiling cards off the top of the library
- SH 2 is able to be cast
- SH 2 is cast by your choice; enters the stack
- SH 1 is put on to the bottom of library as well as the other cards exiled by PS
SH 2 is on the stack
SH 2 resolves
SH 2 ETB trigger happens
SH 1,3,4 is able to be found with SH2ETB trigger.
Remember that the ENTIRETY of Possibility Storm card text happens before anything else has a chance to resolve.
I currently have a 360 cube and am very accustomed to drafts where I can expect to see nearly all the pieces of the archetypes that were put into the cube.
I've never drafted a cube bigger than 360 and I'm wondering how you deal with drafting stuff like reanimator when you aren't guaranteed to see all the cards in the cube? I've done the opposite where I've drafted with fewer than 8 and tried to draft an archetype only to find half the cards I need and I end up with just a pile of good cards but not terribly synergistic.
Is drafting larger cubes like this? Do you rarely get to go full out reanimator and just get left with one animate dead and 2 finishers you are able to pitch the yard with 2 discard in the main? Is a lot of the time spent looking for just a pile of good cards and only playing a theme if you happen to luck out?
I'm assuming this has more to do with my draft style and skill and I'll admit that I do tend to try to force things, but in a 360 list I at least have the certainty that the card I want will circulate and that I can use its absence as a sign that someone else is playing something similar.
2 hours a day? I'm getting 3 hours a week and that's only if I decide I can make it to FNM.
Honestly, are you going to let a card game get in your way of your future?
Granted, I realize that magic is more than a card game. I also realize that your education will not guarantee you employment, but think of it this way:
Tough it out for another 4 months and you will have secured a degree which will be crucial to you starting your career. Once you have a job, you can now spend way more money on magic than you did before.
Compare this to being stuck in school for another 4 months, losing 4 months worth of salary and enjoyable magic time.
Magic isn't going anywhere in the next 4 months. Your future might if you muck this up, or it might not be as good as you could have had it.
Oh right, I totally glossed over the enchantment part.
SOLD
If you answered yes, then you might understand that you can have fun without winning.
There are some people out there that enjoy the actual act of playing.
To a non-competitive person, Armageddon is "unfun" because they no longer get to play the game.
Think about it this way: let's say from now on you get to only use a sealed deck from Kamigawa block. Your opponents all use vintage decks. Turn 1 they dump their hand and kill you. Great, they won. Let's play again. You turn 1 land, they turn 1 dump their hand and kill you. Great, they won.
Notice how the only person having fun is the person who got to dump their hand? As much of a spike you are (or even if you aren't) you have to realize that many people enjoy moving cards around and actually playing out combos (janky or otherwise) that they spent time building. I'm confident that if you let your opponents play their combos (since it's CASUAL PLAY) and you win against them, they would have no complaints, since they actually got to move some cards around.
Let's frame this a little differently, your 8 year old cousin comes over with the timmiest deck ever. Do you kill him turn 3 every game or do you sandbag a little to let him timmy out? I'm confident that if you let him cast his foil Shipbreaker Kraken while he screams "AND THEN A GIANT CRAB SMASHES ALL YOUR CREATURES AHAHAHAHAH!!!!" and let him swing, then you proceed to wrath and win the game, BOTH of you would have had fun. Obviously your play group isn't 8, but you can see how actually playing the game can be fun.
However, I have a friend who stored some ABU cards like this in his attic. He came back to them about 3 years ago to find them all turned into mush. As in, the stack of cards became one piece of... wet cardboard. There was a small leak and the cards ate them up over years.
If you're going to sleeve, then I'd recommend double sleeving them. Single sleeving won't save you from water damage, but double sleeving will be way better. Still won't be waterPROOF, but way more water resistant. Or you could just put the box into a tupperware box or something. Doesn't have to be a safe, but something that's waterproof will do wonders. Humidity control will save cards (especially foils) from warping also.
I have Devil's Play and Earthquake at 6.
The same applies with each of the damage steps. Since cartel aristocrat isn't dead at the time regular damage occurs, you must assign lethal damage to it before you trample over. You don't get to absorb all of it with your cartel. The life gain is only 3 in both steps because damage is prevented on the cartel aristocrat.
I sey n spell da way i alwayz been spellin and don you try an lern me about languayg cuz mind yer own beesnis. who kares
Repeated Bad Spelling Infraction - Kirin
Possibility Storm trigger gets put onto stack
Possibility Storm trigger resolves
- SH 1 is exiled
- SH 2 is found via exiling cards off the top of the library
- SH 2 is able to be cast
- SH 2 is cast by your choice; enters the stack
- SH 1 is put on to the bottom of library as well as the other cards exiled by PS
SH 2 is on the stack
SH 2 resolves
SH 2 ETB trigger happens
SH 1,3,4 is able to be found with SH2ETB trigger.
Remember that the ENTIRETY of Possibility Storm card text happens before anything else has a chance to resolve.
I've never drafted a cube bigger than 360 and I'm wondering how you deal with drafting stuff like reanimator when you aren't guaranteed to see all the cards in the cube? I've done the opposite where I've drafted with fewer than 8 and tried to draft an archetype only to find half the cards I need and I end up with just a pile of good cards but not terribly synergistic.
Is drafting larger cubes like this? Do you rarely get to go full out reanimator and just get left with one animate dead and 2 finishers you are able to pitch the yard with 2 discard in the main? Is a lot of the time spent looking for just a pile of good cards and only playing a theme if you happen to luck out?
I'm assuming this has more to do with my draft style and skill and I'll admit that I do tend to try to force things, but in a 360 list I at least have the certainty that the card I want will circulate and that I can use its absence as a sign that someone else is playing something similar.
Explain Battle of Wits?
WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE
Magic is played far more casually than competitively. Keep this in mind and it will answer many of your questions as to why Wizards does what they do.
But something like Clone does not decide what it clones until it "resolves" which I believe is what you're looking for.
Any time the word target is used, it is declared at the time of casting or activation. Otherwise, that effect happens at resolution.
2 hours a day? I'm getting 3 hours a week and that's only if I decide I can make it to FNM.
Honestly, are you going to let a card game get in your way of your future?
Granted, I realize that magic is more than a card game. I also realize that your education will not guarantee you employment, but think of it this way:
Tough it out for another 4 months and you will have secured a degree which will be crucial to you starting your career. Once you have a job, you can now spend way more money on magic than you did before.
Compare this to being stuck in school for another 4 months, losing 4 months worth of salary and enjoyable magic time.
Magic isn't going anywhere in the next 4 months. Your future might if you muck this up, or it might not be as good as you could have had it.