Magic: The Gathering (Spoiler-free)

Wizards really isn't going to learn how to make a balanced artifact-themed block anytime soon, huh?

They've put together a new team to try and fix these problems before the set gets released, so maybe they'll manage it now.

Last night at the local game shop, I sat down to the game of Commander thinking I'd leave the shop after this game and stop and get some food on the way home. Little did I know this would be the most confusing and exhausting game I've ever played. The players' commanders, in clockwise seating order starting with me, were;

• Ezuri, Claw of Progress (Me. My decklist is here)
• Teneb, the Harvester
• Marchesa, the Black Rose
• Odric, Lunarch Marshal
• Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge

Out of those, the Jeleva deck was the source of all the craziness of this game. It was a "chaos" deck, and it certainly lived up to that title. It was full of cards that cause permanents and spells to change controllers or get replaced with completely different ones as they're being cast. Confusion in the Ranks showed up from him early, for example. I immediately took that out with a Desert Twister before that got out of hand.

As for me, I had Sage of Hours in my opening hand, and my main game plan was to try to pull off the infinite extra turns combo with my commander. Amidst all of the chaos the Jeleva player's card-exchanging effects (including a Shared Fate in play and a Scrambleverse cast at one point) and the Teneb player reanimating creatures from other players' graveyards, the main obstacle to my plan was the Odric player's Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite I can't remember if the Teneb player had one of his own or just reanimated Odric's at some point or got it from the Scrambleverse, but the Teneb player controlled it at some point, and the Odric player got it back later. But no matter who other than myself controlled her, she would kill my Sage as soon as it entered play.

And then Jeleva's player cast Insurrection, and was ready to take out the Teneb player. This then raised the question; If a player controls a creature it gained control of with Scrambleverse, then has it taken by an Insurrection by its original owner, then is killed by the attack with the stolen creatures, what happens to the creatures that player controlled through Scrambleverse but does not own? Cue a long argument and everyone pulling out smartphones to look for rulings. Eventually for the sake of getting on with the game, we decided to say they got exiled for the time being. So then Jeleva's player killed Teneb's and passed the turn to me.

I thought to myself, "Now that Elesh Norn is finally gone, I can pull of the combo and end this madness!" I cast Sage of Hours ... then I notice Elesh still in play and remembered that was the Odric player's Elesh, and he controlled it when the Insurrection was cast. The good news was, they let me take that move back. The bad news is, they now know I have an infinite turns combo.

But my humiliation and confusion did not end there. One of the other players killed Ezuri, sending him back to my Command Zone, and on the Jeleva player's next turn, he cast Thieves' Auction. At first I thought we would only be taking opponents' cards as it went through the long and tedious process of resolving, and by the time I realized that wasn't the case, I had been stripped of all my green mana sources. And since Shared Fate was still in play, I couldn't even draw one from my own library. I was too exhausted by all of this to try to think of a way out, so I just conceded. I hadn't eaten since noon and it was now 10:30 at night, so I just went home, had a toasted English muffin with butter and grape jelly, and went straight to bed.

And then I had a dream where I basically relived that whole humiliating ordeal. Yes, that Jeleva deck was literal Nightmare Fuel.

Sounds like Tzeentch played against you and promptly trolled everyone to shit.

I had an exquisitely awful idea for an MTG RP using Plane Shift Amonkhet.

The elevator pitch is "Amonkhet except it's a shounen anime".

It ends with you punching Bolas a whole bunch. Like, he's at the far end of the escalation.

I want some help to format Magic Expanded Multiverse. Needs a colon, after all

Someone just did it. Thanks, whoever it was.

Does this involve Nicol Bolas having some sort of final human form that's uber-powerful and highly androgynous?

edited 12th Aug '17 1:25:10 AM by KnownUnknown

August 28, 2017 Banned and Restricted Announcement

Effective September 1st;

• Vintage
  • Thorn of Amethyst is Restricted
  • Monastery Mentor is Restricted
  • Yawgmoth's Bargain is Unrestricted

edited 28th Aug '17 7:58:28 PM by Lightblade

I would like suggestions for a Blue and Red deck that embodies the "It can Think" trope: a reckless animal, focused on dealing damage as quickly and as often as possible, assumed to be thoughtless until it starts pulling tricks out of it sleeves.

edited 15th Sep '17 2:22:02 PM by fredhot16

Maybe simple beatsticks and self-destructive monsters at the bottom of your mana curve, building up to some kind of a wacky combo? Teleportal might be a good card to show the monster popping up where you least expect it.

Is there a way for me to practice MTG without buying any cards?

There's a free to play MTG game on Steam that has multiplayer.

Also, Cockatrice.

edited 20th Sep '17 4:23:33 PM by Durazno

Those creatures who have Prowess can have multiple counters, correct?

If I cast two spells, would a creature with Prowess get two +1/+1 counters?

Prowess doesn't grant counters, it's just +1/+1 until end of turn.

But yes, multiple spells will stack the bonus.

So, the creature in the example I used would have their Power and Toughness increased by two?

Yes.

Also if a creature somehow gets multiple instances of the prowess ability those trigger separately, granting multiple bonuses per spell.

Thank you.

As a general rule, assume that any triggered ability can trigger as many times in a turn as there are effects to trigger it. Abilities that can only be triggered or activated a set number of times will have rules text printed on the card specifically saying that this ability can only be activated/triggered that number of times in a turn.

For instance:

"W: Creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each turn."

January 15, 2018 Banned and Restricted Announcement

Effective January 19:

• Standard
  • Attune with Aether is banned.
  • Rogue Refiner is banned.
  • Rampaging Ferocidon is banned.
  • Ramunap Ruins is banned.

February 12, 2018 Banned and Restricted Announcement, effective Feb. 19th;

• Modern
  • Jace, the Mind Sculptor is unbanned.
  • Bloodbraid Elf is unbanned.

Yes, you're reading that right! My phone started buzzing with activity the moment this announcement was posted.

IIRC, part of the problem with Jace back in the dark days of Caw-Blade was that there wasn't really effective planeswalker removal in Standard at the same time.

(Of course, that was a while back, so don't quote me on that.)

Haven't really played Modern for a long time now. The last tournament I joined was Standard, and most of my playtime was spent with playing EDH.

RE: Unbanned cards - Jace isn't THAT bad to the format though apparently. It's BBE that had a bigger effect.

Tonight at my local game shop, a great misfortune befell part of my collection. While we were busy playing Magic, the basement play area we were in started flooding. I went to get the backpack containing my trade binders and decks not in use off the floor, when I saw to my horror that the floodwaters already reached it.

I quickly got the bag onto a table and started emptying it. My decks and Standard trade binder were mostly fine. My Jor Kadeen Commander deck will need a new box since it was made of cardboard, but its card sleeves and the plastic boxes of my 60 card decks did their job of protecting the cards themselves. And the pockets of my Standard trade binder's pages open at the top, so the water didn't reach them.

The other trade binder's pockets open from the sides, so the bottom row of those didn't fare as well. That one contained rares from supplemental sets, with a few Legacy set and Masterpiece Series cards in with them. A Masterpiece Series Sword of Light and Shadow was on the bottom row of its page, and it did suffer some damage. I won't really know whether it or the other water-damaged cards will be salvageable until they've had time to dry.