User avish - Draw 3 Cards - Magic Q&A

Moving counters to an illegal target

2010-07-26T12:19:27Z

Suppose I have [[[Forgotten Ancient]]] in play, and I use its ability during my upkeep to move its counters to another creature. My opponent responds with a [[[Terminate]]], killing the target creature.

What happens to the counters? I assume they're not 'lost', so they probably stay on [[[Forgotten Ancient]]], but can I move them to a different target?

[[Forgotten Ancient]]

When would you play Repay in Kind in Limited?

2010-05-09T12:45:29Z

[[Repay in Kind]]

Do you think it's useful in limited? When? Why? Why not?

Answer by Avish for How do you organize your card collection?

2010-06-19T08:16:25Z

I'm not much of a collector, but I've seen people order by color with a secondary sort by rarity. Multicolored cards get their own slot, as do colorless cards and lands. Cards with out-of-color activated abilities are still in-color, as are cards like [[[Kird Ape]]] or the more recent [[[Sejiri Merfolk]]].

Does protection prevent all combat damage, including trample?

2010-06-12T16:55:51Z

Suppose my opponent has a [[[Rapacious One]]] in play, attacking into my 0/1 chump blocker, on which I played [[[Emerge Unscathed]]] to gain protection from red.

Does the protection eat up all of the damage or does trample still makes 5 damage come through?

[[Rapacious One]] [[Emerge Unscathed]]

Answer by Avish for Rules to build a Type 2 Deck?

2010-06-12T06:08:20Z

This looks like T2 valid to me.

Make sure your MWS knows which sets are considered standard now. There's a setting somewhere that defines this, and MWS doesn't do this automatically when you add a new set (it doesn't know which one to rotate out either). So if you installed any of the latest sets as patches, your settings are probably off.

Answer by Avish for How does Choice of Damnations work?

2010-06-05T08:24:32Z

If you're asking whether the target player who picks the number knows that the number is picked as part of [[[Choice of Damnations]]], then yes, of course. Your opponent can only make you choose a number after casting and resolving [[[Choice of Damnations]]] and in order to do that he has to reveal the card (so that you could choose to counter it, for example). However, he doesn't have to reveal his choice (i.e. whether the number will be used for life loss or for sacrifice).

The order of things is roughly this:

Your opponent casts Choice of Damnations. He reveals it, pays its casting cost, chooses the target (you), and puts it on the stack.
You pass priority, allowing the spell to resolve.
Choice of Damnations resolves, making you choose a number and announce it. At this point you know that this number will be used for Choice of Damnations' effect.
Your opponent chooses whether you lose life equal to that number or sacrifice all but that number of permanents.
You lose life or sacrifice permanents according to your opponent's choice.

Generally, in Magic, you will never have to perform an instruction without seeing the card that made you do it (and its consequences).

EDIT: Comprehensive Rules quote on casting spells (Thanks CodeSavvyGeek):

601.2. To cast a spell is to take it from where it is (usually the hand), put it on the stack, and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect. Casting a spell follows the steps listed below, in order. [...]

601.2a The player announces that he or she is casting the spell. That card (or that copy of a card) moves from where it is to the stack. [...]

[...]

601.2c The player announces his or her choice of an appropriate player, object, or zone for each target the spell requires. [...]

[...]

601.2h Once the steps described in 601.2a-g are completed, the spell becomes cast. Any abilities that trigger when a spell is cast or put onto the stack trigger at this time. If the spell's controller had priority before casting it, he or she gets priority.

So you see, your opponent must first announce that he is casting Choice of Damnations, long before it resolves and forces you to pick a number.

Answer by Avish for Draft second pick - Rise of Eldrazi White

2010-05-31T08:27:14Z

I think I would've gone with removal. Specifically, [[[Induce Despair]]]. Like Shushoto, I prefer it over [[[Staggershock]]] because of its ability to deal with fatties. And these things don't stay around for very long in drafts, while you can get a [[[Knight of Cliffhaven]]] or two much later.

The danger here is getting sidetracked out of color -- neither the knight nor the wall are "missed opportunities" that could make or break the deck, but starting to pick blacks in addition to whites might make for a less consistent deck.

So -- I'm not sure this is the "correct" pick here, but knowing myself, it's probably what I would've done.

[[Induce Despair]]

Answer by Avish for Best walls of all time

2010-05-30T21:47:50Z

-- "Walls are stupid because they can't attack"
-- "Ah, but what if they could force your opponent's creatures to attack?"

[[Rage Nimbus]]

Rage Nimbus: Why settle for declaring attackers OR blockers?

Answer by Avish for Can my opponent tap my artifcat to prevent me from activating its tap ability?

2010-05-29T12:08:31Z

You are right - paying costs happens immediately and doesn't use the stack. So once you have priority and activate the stone's ability, you pay its cost as part of activating it -- which means that you tap it -- and only then your opponent can respond with icy manipulator's ability. The stone's ability goes on the stack below the manipulator's ability (so the manipulator's ability will resolve first), but the costs are payed immediately and cannot be affected, so when the manipulator's ability resolves it'll find your stone already tapped so it will do nothing. The stone's ability will then resolve, milling the cards.

This is true for every action that is part of a cost. For example, if you have something like [[[Bloodthrone Vampire]]] in play, you can sacrifice any creature you control as part of paying a cost, and no opponent can respond to that cost (only to the ability).

Answer by Avish for More card designing. What do you think about this land cycle?

2010-05-27T06:08:17Z

I think some of these are way too powerful to be common. Abundant Wood and Celestial Field in particular are quite strong. I'd put them at uncommon, at least.

Also regarding Celestial Field, the wording is ambiguous -- the way it's currently worded, you can pay 2 instead of WWWW regardless of how many you control (the explanation text helps somewhat, but...). A possibly better wording would be:

You may pay 1 instead of W or WW to pay the casting cost of spells you cast. Use this ability no more than once for each spell you cast that way.

Answer by Avish for Draft first pick - Rise of Eldrazi (Hedron Matrix, Explosive Revelation, Luminous Wake)

2010-05-14T15:43:23Z

I'd have gone with the matrix -- I usually play [[[Ulamog's Crusher]]] in decks without a large mana base, because more often than not you can get him on the battlefield due to long stalemates. [[[Hedron Matrix]]] costs that much to play+equip, or you can do it over two turns as early as turn 4/5. There's very little artifact removal in the set (just [[[Naturalize]]] and [[[Fissure Vent]]] which nobody uses), so you're basically golden.

If I wanted to avoid the matrix, I'd have picked Skywatcher Adept -- it's a decent, non-committing leveler. Null Champion is also rather solid.

EDIT: I just realized I confused [[[Hedron Matrix]]] with [[[Eldrazi Conscription]]]. The skywatcher is indeed the better pick here.

Answer by Avish for Would anyone be interested in writing an open source netdraft replacement?

2010-05-12T22:24:06Z

I was toying with the idea for quite some time. Yes, I think it must be able to talk to existing netdraft clients/servers. But there's so much to improve in the UI that the protocol really doesn't matter.

Either that, or it could be a web-based application without anyone having to host. I think CCGDecks has one of those and nobody uses that.

Answer by Avish for Creative ideas on Spellshift?

2010-05-11T13:48:03Z

A little expensive, but here's how it goes:

Find some giant instants/sorceries that are hard to cast, and put them into your deck. Avoid other instants and sorceries, except of course Spellshift.
Get Spellshift in your hand.
Get Echo Mage onto the battlefield
Wait for opponent to cast an instant or sorcery.
Activate Echo Mage to copy your opponent's spell, then cast Spellshift on it.
Enjoy your free mega-spell! (if it isn't another spellshift).

[[Echo Mage]] [[Spellshift]] [[Cruel Ultimatum]]

Answer by Avish for When would you play Repay in Kind in Limited?

2010-05-09T12:46:23Z

The only time I considered siding it in is when my opponent had 2 [[[Soul's Attendant]]] and played [[[Nomads' Assembly]]] with 6 creatures.

[[Nomads' Assembly]] [[Soul's Attendant]]

Otherwise, I find it quite the suck.

Answer by Avish for How did you fare in the Rise of Eldrazi release events?

2010-05-09T12:09:05Z

Not so bad, but not so good either.

My sealed pool gravitated toward a very nice black-red deck with nice removals -- [[[Last Kiss]]], 2 [[[Vendetta]]]s, 2 [[[Virulent Swipe]]]s, [[[Heat Ray]]], [[[Guul Draz Assassin]]] and so on.
I had a nice arsenal of spawn-generating cards (2 [[[Emrakul's Hatcher]]]s, 2 [[[Dread Drone]]]s, [[[Essence Feed]]]), leading up to a [[[Hellion Eruption]]], [[[Lord of Shatterskull Pass]]] or [[[Ulamog's Crusher]]] to swing for the win.

For the early game (early in Rise of the Eldrazi means turn 4 or so) I had two [[[Battle-Rattle Shaman]]]s augmented by a [[[Goblin Tunneler]]] for some nice swings with 6/2 unblockable goblins, and a [[[Brimstone Mage]]] to keep their minds off the shamans (which were much more useful). I splashed in 2 [[[Narcolepsy]]] for stronger removal, and ended up with 3W/3L which is a personal record for me. Some good games there, too.

[[Emrakul's Hatcher]] [[Dread Drone]] [[Hellion Eruption]] [[Brimstone Mage]] [[Guul Draz Assassin]] [[Lord of Shatterskull Pass]]

I then stayed for an after-event draft in which I fared very badly, the highlight of which was trying to block an 8/11-flying-vigilant-mammoth-drake-antelope (a [[[Totem-Guide Hartebeest]]] with a [[[Mammoth Umbra]]] and a [[[Drake Umbra]]] on it). It wasn't pretty.

[[Totem-Guide Hartebeest]] [[Mammoth Umbra]] [[Drake Umbra]]

All in all, it was fun. I learned some new things about some cards, and I'm pretty sure I like the set.

Answer by Avish for Draft Strategy for Rise of Eldrazi

2010-04-25T21:56:39Z

I've awfully fond of UW levelers. Here are some 8,000 words on that subject:

[[Knight of Cliffhaven]] [[Caravan Escort]] [[Kabira Vindicator]] [[Hada Spy Patrol]] [[Halimar Wavewatch]] [[Skywatcher Adept]] [[Ikiral Outrider]] [[Enclave Cryptologist]]

It's not that the best levelers are necessarily in UW (there are some good ones in G and B also), but in UW you can use the leveling accelerators:

[[Venerated Teacher]] [[Time of Heroes]] [[Training Grounds]]

Add some nice common removal and evasion:

[[Guard Duty]] [[Smite]] [[Dawnglare Invoker]] [[Kor Line-slinger]] [[Narcolepsy]] [[Distortion Strike]]

And you got yourself a pretty solid deck, even without getting any of the rare ones:

[[Coralhelm Commander]] [[Echo Mage]] [[Lighthouse Chronologist]] [[Student of Warfare]] [[Hedron-Field Purists]] [[Transcendent Master]]

Answer by Avish for Why is Magmaw rare? What is it good for?

2010-04-24T19:10:55Z

Well, other than your ability to sacrifice your own Eldrazi Spawn tokens to deal damage to whomever you want, multiple times in a single turn, I don't see any other obvious use. BUT! put deathtouch on this thing and you got yourself a winner.

Answer by Avish for Draft first pick - Rise of Eldrazi (Khalni Hydra, Corpsehatch, Vendetta)

2010-04-24T15:07:32Z

Tough pack. I would have taken either the Khalni Hydra (it's a bet, but it might work out) or one of the white commons - both Dawnglare Invoker and Kor Line-Slinger are pretty damn good, although not strictly first-pick material.

The pathrazer is nigh unplayable in a draft, and the drake umbra is so-so.

[[Khalni Hydra]] [[Kor Line-Slinger]] [[Dawnglare Invoker]]

If I had to pick one of them, I think the line-slinger would win (but only because I like the little fella for more than its worth).

Answer by Avish for Can two auras ever enchant one another? How does this interact with Totem Armor?

2010-04-23T15:38:29Z

I think it's possible:

Take any Aura that can enchant any permanent. We'll use [[[Confiscate]]].
Cast another one, enchanting the first one.
Cast [[[Aura Graft]]] to attach the first aura to the second one.
Cast [[[Umbra Mystic]]] to give them both Totem Armor.
Serve chilled.

[[Confiscate]] [[Aura Graft]] [[Umbra Mystic]]

I have no idea what happens if one is destroyed. As far as I can tell this is an infinite loop and the game is forced to a draw.

Answer by Avish for Are there any colored Eldrazi spells except shapeshifters?

2010-03-03T16:07:25Z

My guess is the latter.

Since Eye of Ugin was meant as an obvious "teaser" for RotE, I guess they took the extra effort not to make it useful before RotE comes by, by explicitly preventing it from accelerating changeling decks.

Answer by Avish for Lightmine Field combos

2010-04-14T05:42:41Z

One of [[[Gideon Jura]]]'s abilities says "on target opponent's next turn, creatures that player controls attack you if able".

Add [[[Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs]]] to the mix and you're golden.

Answer by Avish for If I control an Ivory Mask and a Jace, can my Jace still be targetted by a Lightning Bolt?

2010-04-11T09:05:36Z

In order to hit Jace with the Lightning Bolt, your opponent needs to target you and then use the planeswalker damage redirection rule.

Since Ivory Mask prevents them from targeting you, they can't hit your Jace.

212.9g If noncombat damage would be dealt to a player by a source controlled by an opponent, that opponent may have that source deal that damage to a planeswalker the first player controls instead. This is a redirection effect (see rule 419.6c) and is subject to the normal rules for ordering replacement effects (see rule 419.9). The opponent chooses whether to redirect the damage as the redirection effect is applied.

Answer by Avish for Refraction Trap Targeting. Countered or Not?

2010-04-08T18:03:34Z

Worldwake FAQ (copied to the rulings in Gatherer) clearly states this about [[[Refraction Trap]]]:

Refraction Trap's only target is the creature or player it may deal damage to. You choose that target as you cast Refraction Trap, not at the time it prevents damage.

[...]

If the targeted creature or player is an illegal target by the time Refraction Trap resolves, the entire spell is countered. No damage will be prevented.

So yes, the spell is countered and the damage is not prevented in this case.

Answer by Avish for Near Death Experience combos

2010-04-01T09:23:48Z

Anything that allows you to pay an arbitrary amount of life will do. For example:

[[Blood Celebrant]] [[Ethereal Champion]] [[Kuro, Pitlord]] [[Mischievous Poltergeist]] [[Yawgmoth's Bargain]] [[Wall of Blood]]

Answer by Avish for Will Sarkhan Vol be in Rise of Eldrazi?

2010-03-22T19:21:29Z

It seems that Sarkhan Vol is already on Zendikar, and in fact has something to do with unlocking the Eye of Ugin and freeing the Eldrazi. This is shown in the webcomic "Awakenings":

http://www.wizards.com/magic/multiverse/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/feature2/82a

From this, I think it's very probable that Vol will appear in RotE, possibly mad and with multiple personalities. Either that, or the story ends with Chandra killing him and unlocking the Eye herself, which would leave place for a white planeswalker. We'll have to wait and see.

Answer by Avish for Discard deck suggestions

2010-03-21T06:13:32Z

There are some good options in Zendikar/Worldwake, most notably Quest for the Nihil Stone and Guul Draz Specter:

[[Quest for the Nihil Stone]] [[Guul Draz Specter]]

Both give a pretty good answer to the "and then what?" part.

What combos with Cosi's Trickster?

2009-11-17T10:17:23Z

Cosi's Trickster grows whenever an opponent shuffles their library. Granted, it's good against very specific decks, but can you build a deck where it's consistently good? In other words, what combos with it? Preferably in the Zendikar format, but I'd accept cards from other Standard as well.

[[Cosi's Trickster]]

Answer by Avish for If your Friday Night Magic location only ran one format, what would you want them to run?

2010-03-06T11:35:37Z

Draft.

I don't like constructed play that much because it requires a monetary investment and a lot of time to build decks. I like my Magic more casual, and for that I find it much nicer to be "on even grounds" with everybody else when playing Limited.

Of the limited formats, Draft is more compelling for me than Sealed, because you can somehow steer your deck in a certain direction (and try to cut other players).

Drafting also means that every gathering is different, which maintains the fun without making the scene really all about the meta-game.

Answer by Avish for Spoiler - What the fuck ?! (Or: What are Wizards thinking?)

2010-03-03T16:11:58Z

It was pretty well-known that Eldrazi are going to be huge colorless titans with inconceivable power [citation needed]. I trust wizards to balance these with some other mechanic or just lots of cheap counterspells and bouncers in RotE.

Also, judging by the mythic rarity, it seems like this one signifies the "extreme" Eldrazi and the rest are going to be somewhat smaller -- perhaps only with Annihilator 3 :)

Also also, this alone makes Eye of Ugin playable, you don't even need to build a deck around Eldrazi.

Answer by Avish for Humble and counters

2010-03-02T07:25:31Z

That's correct: P/T counters modify the base power/toughness, and Humble sets those base values to 0 and 1 respectively. Your Blademaster is effectively a 2/3 vanilla ally creature at that point.

However, keep in mind that if your opponent casts Humble in response to you playing the second ally, then your first Blademaster will not get its second counter due to having lost all abilities.

Comment by Avish

2010-07-28T19:19:09Z

Maybe make this community wiki?

Comment by Avish

2010-07-28T17:27:40Z

Love this question. I'll try to think of something.

Comment by Avish

2010-07-28T07:19:03Z

CodeSavvyGeek nailed it, I think this should be mentioned somewhere prominently on the answer.

Comment by Avish

2010-07-28T07:10:15Z

Very thorough, I liked the verbose stack unwinding.

Comment by Avish

2010-07-27T13:11:46Z

Very clear and verbose answer. Thanks! In general, how do I determine which choices are made when putting something on the stack and which are made when resolving?

Comment by Avish

2010-07-26T12:31:35Z

Should there be something about the layering system and timestamp order involved in the answer somewhere?

Comment by Avish

2010-07-26T12:21:00Z

+1 for including the counter example. And welcome to draw3cards!

Comment by Avish

2010-07-26T12:10:37Z

I'm not convinced, I'm not sure leaving the game entirely counts as changing zones.

Comment by Avish

2010-07-09T22:56:53Z

Note that you specifically can't counter a creature's mana ability, even with cards that let you counter activated abilities like the ones mentioned. So for example, if you {tap} your [[[Llanowar Elves]]] for {G}, this cannot be countered.

Comment by Avish

2010-06-21T17:01:12Z

That's why you probably should have tagged this "subjective" and possibly made it a community wiki.

Comment by Avish

2010-06-21T07:22:43Z

I agree with both answers.

Comment by Avish

2010-06-20T06:07:05Z

I wanted to say this was silly, that collector's number is only good for specific-card fetching, but then remembered the collector's number is assigned by color and name. So I guess it's a pretty good order.

Comment by Avish

2010-06-20T06:05:53Z

"collecting" is good enough, I think. "organization" helps separate it from the countless other future questions soon to be tagged "collecting" :)

Comment by Avish

2010-06-19T12:06:49Z

I don't think Spawnsire is a shit rare, although I agree it's hardly playable in drafts. However, I've been beaten to dust by it in limited 2-headed-giant sealed so I don't underestimate its power.

Comment by Avish

2010-06-19T08:18:52Z

Welcome to draw3cards! I recommend tagging your question something other than "strategy" -- it's not really about deckbuilding or drafting, right?