Although I’m not a Rakdos guy (I’m crazy, but not that crazy), Rakdos Charm is one of my favorite new charms. And it’s mostly because of the third mode: each creature deals 1 damage to its controller. It’s not an effect you see a lot of, especially at instant speed. However, you should be careful when using it, because it can cause the game to end in a draw.

Let’s say you and I both have five creatures, and we’re at 3 life. Casting the Charm will cause your creatures to deal a total of five damage to you. However, at the same time, my creatures are also dealing a total of five damage to me. So we both take five damage, dropping us both to -2 life, and we both lose the game, causing a draw.

Changing life totals or the number of creatures won’t really change anything. The game doesn’t care how far below 0 a player goes, all it cares about is that the player’s life total is at 0 or less when state-based actions are checked. So even if, in the above example, you have 100 creatures and I still only have five, the game will still be a draw., even though you’re at -97 and I’m at -3.

I suppose this should be a cautionary tale: be careful when you make a deal with Rakdos. Then again, as long as my friends keep playing token decks, I guess I don’t really have much of a choice, do I?

Today’s Rules Tip written by Nathan Long