Magic: The Gathering: The Megathread: Tenth Edition

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qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

My favorite way of determining who goes first is pulling out Rock Lobster, Paper Tiger, and Scissors Lizard and shuffling them facedown and letting my opponent pick his card and mine.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2014 22:13

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 02:08

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Fingers McLongDong posted:

Acolytes reward- does it always deal damage equal to my devotion, or based on the amount of damage that was prevented? If I'm reading it right, if I have 5 devotion it should deal 5 damage, regardless of how much damage would have actually been dealt to my creature?

No it only deals damage equal to the amount of damage that's actually prevented. For example, your devotion is 5, so the next 5 damage dealt to whatever creature you targeted first would be prevented. The creature gets hit with Lightning Strike, it would only deal 3 damage to the 2nd thing you targeted.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2014 11:08

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Tharizdun posted:

What the gently caress happened to Archangel of Thune? It just popped to pre-order prices again after safely settling at "casual-bait $17"

U/W Standard decks started running a full play set in the sideboard.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2014 06:15

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

All banned cards in Vintage are banned in Commander, FYI.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2014 06:29

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

rabidsquid posted:

I feel like it's less good now that more people are doing it, although it was a great metagame call by Hayne at the time.

I'd hesitate to call it Hayne's call since that exact same weekend Brad Nelson ran the exact same 75 (maybe 74 with 1 sideboard card difference?) at SCG Baltimore and came in 4th. I forgot who came up with the list but it was floating around online for a bit and they just clearly copied it.

But yeah switching to a midrange U/W deck with control elements postboard is actually a pretty solid strategy for the meta right now, especially with the addition of Brimaz. If you're playing against the deck, there's pretty much a 50/50 shot boarding out all your removal completely screws you over in game 2.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2014 10:00

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Simple solution: ban Thoughtseize, Duress, Lifebane Zombie, and Slaughter Games.

Works for me!

# ¿ Feb 14, 2014 22:35

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

What a Judas posted:

I would promptly crack that out of that case and play it. Droooool.

Out of curiosity, how do you play a card like that in a deck and not have it clearly stick out because of the size?

# ¿ Feb 17, 2014 06:09

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Fingers McLongDong posted:

So where is Brimaz seeing the most use right now anyway? I have two that I plan on running in my big boros deck since it fits the theme of that deck, but are they anywhere else? R/G monsters seems to have taken a huge spike in popularity and thats the only real change I've noticed in standard lately.

I'm playing 2 in my mainboard U/W control deck, and it seems to be doing pretty good work. Getting it out T3 can be either a really solid defensive measure, or a wincon against a lot of decks.

Currently my deck's wincons are 2 Brimaz, 1 Aetherling, 2 Elspeth, and 3 Mutavaults.

Dungeon Ecology posted:

drat I just made a stupid block that cost me the game, and I'm not even sure why I lost...

used an Akroan Conscriptor to steal a guys 8/8 and block is 10/9 trample. But since I wanted to kill the 10/9 trample, I added an additional 2/2 first strike blocker so I could deal the additional damage.

My opponent just assigned all his damage to my 2/2 and none to his 8/8. I was under the impression that you had to assign lethal damage to each creature blocking the blocked creature (or as much as you can in the order chosen to block) before assigning additional damage anywhere else.

Where have I gone wrong?

Nowhere. You're correct and I'm not sure why you lost.

Edit: You should probably mention the exact creatures that were involved, which might provide an answer. Otherwise, if this was MTGO it sounds like a glitch. If this was paper magic, someone messed up in the rules.

qbert fucked around with this message at 10:32 on Feb 18, 2014

# ¿ Feb 18, 2014 10:26

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

cheetah7071 posted:

This is all legal if they put the 2/2 first in the block order. You're allowed to overassign past lethal damage, you just can't underassign.

Wait, what are you saying? The attacker has to try and assign at least lethal damage for every blocking creature before being able to assign damage to the defending player. They are not allowed to assign all the damage to the 2/2 while ignoring the 8/8. MTGO hosed up.

quote:

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.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2014 12:03

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Serperoth posted:

The dude was perfectly reasonable. He can assign as much damage as he wants to the first blocker. The only thing the rules say is that to assign damage to each blocker down the line, he needs to assign lethal to all the ones before it. So you can just as well assign 10 damage to the 2/2.
Unless he dealt the remaining 8 to you, I don't see the issue.

Quoting for clarity.
Also, you did destroy the 10/9 trample, but you just don't get to destroy the 8/8 as well.

Yes, this is correct, but I interpreted his post as saying he got hit for 8 trample damage and died. If what happened was that the 10/9 and the 2/2 died, then his opponent got the 8/8 back (now a 4/4) and won with that, then everything worked correctly.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2014 12:24

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Inverse posted:

I bought out a collection from a coworker and karakas was among one of the cards, why is it worth so much? its banned in any format it could be useful in? (EDH)

Legal in Legacy and deals with Dark Depths decks.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2014 07:56

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Alris posted:

Potentially dumb questions relating to landchat a few pages back.

Will people get pissy if I throw Unglued or old land cards into a Standard deck?

Oh, also, how far back can you go for cards to include in a Commander deck? Is anything restricted?

You can throw any basic lands you want into your Standard deck. People try to bling out their decks all the time this way.

There is an official Commander ban list HERE under deck construction. Note that any card banned in Vintage is also banned in Commander in addition to that list.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2014 11:14

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

The price speculation in Modern just seems ridiculous. It seems like card prices skyrocket and crash from week to week. Trying to build decks in the format from scratch must be maddening. Even Standard doesn't fluctuate this badly.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2014 22:06

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

I've never had any desire to play Modern until I saw Matthias Hunt's Amulet/Titan/Pact/Hive Mind...thing. The deck just looks awesome as hell.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2014 09:10

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

You'd also need to pick up Lifebane Zombies and Erebos for the sideboard, which aren't cheap either.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2014 20:44

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Quick rules question: Pithing Needle's ability doesn't use the stack, right? So if I cast Needle and my opponent has an Underworld Connections on a Swamp, and they choose to take no action while the spell is on the stack, as soon as it enters the battlefield and I name Swamp, they cannot respond by tapping the Swamp to draw one last card, right?

# ¿ Feb 24, 2014 22:41

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Carrasco posted:

That is correct. If it said "When Pithing Needle the battlefield", it would be a triggered ability that goes on the stack, but "As Pithing Needle enters the battlefield" doesn't use the stack.

Thanks, 2nd quick question. Creatures with Inspired that untap during my Untap phase actually have their triggers moved to beginning of Upkeep, right? So for example, say I had an exiled Obzedat that was going to be returning at the beginning of my Upkeep. I also have Pain Seer untapping at the beginning of my turn and I'm at 1 life. Can I choose to have Obzedat come back first to gain 2 life before triggering Pain Seer's ability, to give myself a better chance of not killing myself?

# ¿ Feb 24, 2014 22:58

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Had a weird situation arise at a local Standard tourney I played at tonight. I wasn't actually involved, but my opponent and I were between games and sitting next to us two people got into a dispute over how Archangel of Thune works. One player attacked with a 4/4, and her opponent blocked with the Thune at 3/4, arguing that it would gain a +1/+1 counter and survive the block. Both my opponent and I mentioned that no, the Thune actually dies before it would get the counter, but the guy said that he had the same situation happen to him the other way around and the judge here said Thune lives.

So they call the judge (the owner of the store), who comes over, hears the situation, says he has to go double check in the back, and comes back and rules that the Thune lives. The girl seemed too timid to raise anymore of a fuss about it (she was even reluctant to call a judge in the first place).

Since my opponent and I had our own match to worry about we just shook our heads and continued playing. I'm wondering what you can do in that situation, when the only thing close to a "judge" at the event clearly makes a wrong ruling? I don't know what he did when he went away to "double-check" but he didn't come back with the right answer and since I play there weekly I didn't want to question him publicly.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2014 09:43

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

At least the story had a somewhat happy ending. The girl ended up winning the entire event, with me coming in 2nd!

Game 3 of our match I kept a pretty great opening hand (something like 4 land, Syncopate, D-Sphere, Verdict), but she gets the GOD HAND of:
T1: Soldier of the Pantheon
me: Land, go.
T2: Boros Elite, Boros Elite, hit me for 2.
me: Land, go.
T3: Mutavault, Spear of Heliod, hit me for 11.
me: Land, Detention Sphere the Elites.
T4: 2nd Soldier, hit me for 6 (now I'm at 1 life)
me: Land, Verdict, scoop.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2014 10:27

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

If you play Standard, you have to accept the fact that a lot of rares and mythics will crater in value post-rotation, because they aren't good in other formats. If you need a Jace, AoT for your Standard deck, then it's not bad to buy this as he'll still be playable for 6 months after it comes out. If you don't need him or care about Standard, then it's silly to try and buy any Duel Deck for perceived future "value".

Actually, it's silly to do that with any Magic card, period.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2014 01:41

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

As someone who just got back into Magic in the last few months, I'm curious: how much were shock lands before the reprint?

# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 01:55

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Mortimer posted:

Yeah but I think they're realizing how they can get a set like Commander 2013 or a duel deck to get bought in the tens of thousands by people who have no interest in 99 of the cards.

Yep, and in that regard picking Remand to reprint wasn't a bad idea at all, as there will always be people annoyed about paying over $15 for uncommons.

Hell, I still refuse to pay for a Sensei's Divining Top for my Commander deck, even though I really want one.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 03:32

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

C-Euro posted:

Round 3 vs some UW aggro deck?: Won 2-1. Game 1 I get a Pyromancer out early, then he D-Spheres it. I'm dialing up a Ratchet Bomb to kill it but he detains the bomb two turns in a row with Lyev Skyknights and suddenly he's swinging for 11 one turn and 12 unblockable the next (double-strike flying Ephara off of Ajain CotP). Game 2 I get some value out of Young P and Purphoros before both are D-Sphere'd, then I win the flip three times in a row with Molten Birth and he scoops at 8 life with only 7 damage coming his way I must have had a Tymaret in play or something but I remembered being really surprised to see a scoop so maybe not. Game 3 he gets a lot of early attackers but I somehow live long enough to overload a Mortars, then take command with Purphoros-pumped Tymaret and Mutavault beats.

His deck seemed really interesting, my interpretation was that it's a UW analog to Murdergoats that wins off of Ephara card advantage rather than Purphoros damage. I remember seeing Precinct Captain, Soldier of the Pantheon, Lyev Skyknight, Ephara, D-Sphere, Negate, Banisher Priest, Brave the Elements, Spear of Heliod, and Eidolon of Countless Battles. I told him to try Horse and Post in his deck for extra creature generation. I might try to reverse-engineer the list out of curiosity, he claimed it was a lot better than he played it today but who knows.

This is just U/W Devotion which is actually a popular Standard deck right now. It's a known list.

My Game Day was a big old bust. The LGS I went to started at 1pm, then at 1pm they announced they didn't have enough sign-ups for the Game Day and cancelled it. By then all the other local shops had started their tourneys so I was poo poo out of luck.

Ended up hanging around and doing the free Commander event, which was fine. I really wanted to play some competitive Standard though.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2014 04:59

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

The GP Melbourne Quarterfinal match right now is nuts. 49 life (Obzedat + Whip) vs 8 life, and the 8 life guy might win since he ultimated Garruk.

Edit: Yep, G/R dude won with one of the best comebacks I've ever seen on stream. Even the commentators were dumbfounded.

qbert fucked around with this message at 07:32 on Mar 2, 2014

# ¿ Mar 2, 2014 07:20

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

First Bass posted:

It did horribly, though a lot of that was impossibly lovely luck with lands, and I don't think I'm going to bring it to the Sunday tournament. I would've gone Saturday, but I decided to sleep all day and watch LEGO Movie with friends the rest of it.

Doesn't mono-U play 25-26 lands? That may have been your problem.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2014 20:07

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Game Day blah blah.

After the terrible circumstances yesterday when the Game Day I attended was cancelled at the last second due to lack of interest, I finally got to do a bona fide tourney today with about 25 people. It ended up being 4 rounds with cut to Top 8.

I went 3-0 in the Swiss and ID with my opponent in the 4th. Beat Naya midrange, Jund monsters, and Simic flash. Three decks which I pretty much had no expectation of playing, although I guess Jund monsters is gaining in popularity. In the latter two matches, Blind Obedience did SO MUCH WORK post-board, as it held all these terrifyingly huge Mistcutter Hydras and Stormbreath Dragons at bay. Buying an extra turn to minus an Elspeth of drop a Verdict is just ridiculously good.

Also hilarious was Game 2 against the Jund deck, with both of us running out of gas and literally racing each other with our sole Mutavaults. I got my opponent to 2 life, attacked with Muta, he blocks with his Muta, I Celestial Flare and extort for 1 life, then during Main 2 I Pithing Needle for no reason in order to extort for the last life.

Top 8 I beat B/W midrange in the Quarters, in a tough as nails 3 games. Game 3 he manages to get out 3 Underworld Connections (after Revoke Existence-ing 2 of my Detention Spheres) and literally had all the hand disruption in the world, but couldn't draw a threat other than an active Erebos, which I Celestial Flared. He lost so much life from the card draw that again, my sole Mutavault went the distance in Game 3.

In the semis I faced the Simic Flash player I had beaten earlier again, and this time he won Game 3 due to a terrible misplay on my part. I attacked with Muta into an empty board COMPLETELY FORGETTING that he's playing Simic flash, so he just flashes in that 3/3 boar and blocks, sending me back a turn on tempo, which ends up deciding the game. Dude beats my buddy's American Control deck in the finals to win the whole thing.

All in all it was still a really fun time, and I walked away with like 9 packs, so I'm not complaining.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2014 06:44

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Literally The Worst posted:

Because the last time they did an all reprint set it went really badly, badly enough to scare them off of it for a long time.

That was nearly 20 years ago. Maybe it's possible to try again while learning from past mistakes and all?

# ¿ Mar 4, 2014 02:02

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Two questions about Xenagos Planeswalker's -6, which came up last night: are the cards exiled face up, and do all the lands/creatures he chooses to put into play come in simultaneously, or one at a time?

# ¿ Mar 4, 2014 19:22

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Serperoth posted:

They are exiled face up, by default, and they come into play simultaneously. Note that you can order triggered abilities as you like, and that your opponent's own triggers will resolve before yours do.

Okay, so if my opponent is putting in both Shock lands and Scry lands from this effect, he must choose whether or not the Shock lands come into play untapped before he's allowed to Scry, correct?

# ¿ Mar 4, 2014 19:30

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Dr. Stab posted:

It depends on what you mean by "simultaneously"

What card or cards are you trying to figure out their interaction with Xenagos?

Shock lands and Scry lands among the cards, also if there's a Courser of Kruphix out, can I kill the Courser in response to the first trigger going on the stack.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2014 19:32

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

I asked a couple of rules question about Xenagos' -6 ability a page or so back, and I just had one more. If my opponent reveals 2 Polukranos from the -6, can he choose to put both on the battlefield and activate monstrosity using one of them before he places it into the graveyard due to Legendary rule?

# ¿ Mar 4, 2014 23:29

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Dungeon Ecology posted:

Can you point me to the relevant ruling? I'm looking at this ruling for split cards:

708.5. An effect that asks for a particular characteristic of a split card while it�s in a zone other than the stack gets two answers (one for each of the split card�s two halves).

Spellheart counts the number of instant or sorcery cards in your graveyard. I can't think of an instance where a split card is ever considered more than one card.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2014 03:11

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Personally, I'm ecstatic whenever I play against a deck that isn't a known archetype in Standard. If I lost to something like Possibility Storm I'd sincerely congratulate the other guy for running it.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2014 06:21

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Entropic posted:

I miss decks that actually played Angel of Serenity. I'm so tired of Aetherling as the go-to Control finisher at this point.

I'm surprised more decks don't play Aetherling, but I guess 6-drops are quite rare in Standard as is (Aetherling, Elspeth, and Garruk I think are the only ones). It's very hard for any deck to justify a 7-drop, unless it auto-wins games.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2014 22:20

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Entropic posted:

Aetherling is a 7-drop, really.

And it auto-wins games, so there you go.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2014 22:29

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Crazy rules question: if I morbid Tragic Slip my opponent's Wild Beastmaster while its attack trigger is on the stack, can I give all his other creatures -12/-12 until end of turn?

# ¿ Mar 6, 2014 22:55

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

LordSaturn posted:

Yes, this actually totally works and is hilarious.

Hmm, I wonder if there are any instant speed Agoraphobia effects in Standard right now. I want to troll my opponent using Xenagod on his Mutavault.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2014 23:06

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

C-Euro posted:

I just want Mox Opal to get back closer to $40 than $50 so I can finish this Modern Goblins list before some amazing hate card gets printed against it, is that too much to ask? When they were $40 I thought "that's a lot of money for a card that only sees play in Affinity, it has to go down right?"

In my last round at Gameday I played a BWG list that was running Angel of Serenity. But it was following up Loxodon Smiters, Blood Barons, and Desecration Demons so it wasn't quite the star you're wanting it to be.

What kind of crazy mana base supports that? GW into BB into a BW into triple-W. Godspeed to that dude.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2014 05:12

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Samael posted:

Completely agree with this, I can compete with G/R decks reasonably well until nylea comes on to the board and it usually is a instant GG. Oh, also if you block a tramply creature (Let's say a 6/6) with a token and you sac the token, would you still take 5 damage?

You'd take all 6 damage. If a creature with trample is blocked but the creature blocking it no longer exists when combat damage is dealt, the trample creature can assign all its damage to the player/planeswalker.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2014 20:08

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 02:08

qbert: Oct 23, 2003; It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Kibler on stream right now. His fidgeting is so hypnotic...

# ¿ Mar 8, 2014 21:43

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