Category Archives: Shortcuts

Shortcuts: Adding multiple objects to the stack.

Posted on April 16, 2013 by bimmerbot

Today, we’ll be looking the shortcut policy in the tournament rules, which lets you do things that aren’t technically correct but still understandable by both players. Sit tight, because we’ve got a lot to cover. One of the little-known rules … Continue reading →

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Understanding Out-of-Order Sequencing

Posted on March 26, 2013 by bimmerbot

Magic is a complex game. With over 12,000 unique cards and a hefty set of Comprehensive Rules, it’s not reasonable to expect players to have complete mastery over the precise rules behind every action they’re taking in the game. As … Continue reading →

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All about Lion’s Eye Diamond (yes, it’s a mana ability, but it has a timing restriction)

Posted on January 2, 2013 by bimmerbot

So Lion’s Eye Diamond is kind of a weird card. Let’s start things off by looking at its current Gatherer text: Sacrifice Lion’s Eye Diamond, Discard your hand: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool. Activate … Continue reading →

Posted in Activated Abilities, Casting / playing a spell or ability, Mana Abilities, Shortcuts | Tagged | Comments Off

Shortcut directly to X-mas! (about the X-spell shortcut)

Posted on December 27, 2012 by bimmerbot

If you’ve ever played Magic Online, sooner or later you’re going to experience the frustration of clicking too rapidly through an X spell, like Bonfire of the Damned, and ending up casting it for X=0. Luckily, in the real world … Continue reading →

Posted in Casting / playing a spell or ability, Shortcuts | Comments Off

Feeling of Dread can only stop attackers if cast before the declare attackers step.

Posted on December 19, 2012 by bimmerbot

A question that I’ve been asked a lot is, “When is the last time I can tap a creature to prevent it from attacking?” So today, let’s use Feeling of Dread as our example card. When is the last time … Continue reading →

Posted in Casting / playing a spell or ability, Combat Phase, Shortcuts, Turn Structure | Tagged | Comments Off

How Nivmagus Elemental’s ability really works.

Posted on October 1, 2012 by bimmerbot

As many of you know, this weekend marked the pre-release of the new set, Return to Ravnica. Many of us judged such events, and we managed to collect a few common questions that popped up a lot, so we can … Continue reading →

Posted in Activated Abilities, Casting / playing a spell or ability, Priority, Resolving spells and abilities, Shortcuts | Tagged | Comments Off

Can you respond to the choice of what to copy with Phantasmal Image? It depends!

Posted on August 16, 2012 by bimmerbot

This is a very common question with any kind of copy creature. The most important thing to note is that the static ability that lets you choose to copy something is NOT a triggered ability (if it was, pretty much … Continue reading →

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How the Heartless Summoning + Havengul Lich combo works.

Posted on April 27, 2012 by bimmerbot

As you might have guessed by now, we’re doing a special Combo Week this week! I got saddled with (in my opinion) the most hilarious combo in Standard right now: Heartless Lich. But how does it work? First, you need … Continue reading →

Posted in Abilities, Activated Abilities, Shortcuts, Triggered Abilities | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

How loop shortcuts work.

Posted on April 24, 2012 by bimmerbot

So now you’ve assembled your Palladium Myr and two Myr Galvanizers, and are ready to make infinite mana… but you don’t want to sit there tapping and untapping them ad nauseam. Luckily, you don’t have to, thanks to the magic … Continue reading →

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The combat shortcut: What it means when you say, “Declare attackers?”

Posted on March 13, 2012 by bimmerbot

Many players are unsure about how the combat shortcut works; when they tried to tap an attacker before their opponent swung, the opponent said, “You can’t tap it, I already attacked.” Whether that’s true or not depends on what was … Continue reading →

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