Your opponent’s has been pestering you all game. Your deck doesn’t really have any flyers, so you have no way to block it. However, you just drew an Avenging Arrow, so your plan it to let the Pest attack next turn, then use the Arrow after combat damage to get rid of the Pest. Does […]
Author: bimmerbot
Wayfaring Temple and Essence Backlash
You’re playing your Selesnya token deck, and you have five tokens on the board. Hoping to take advantage, you cast your Wayfaring Temple, hoping to start attacking with a large creature and creating a larger army. However, your opponent doesn’t like that idea very much, and they counter your Temple with Essence Backlash. Surprisingly, your […]
A spectator’s role at FNM, a PTQ or Grand Prix day 2.
Whether you’re at your local FNM, watching a match because you already finished your match, or you’re at a Grand Prix watching your friend play, it’s not uncommon to see spectators watching matches. So what is expected of a spectator watching a match? First off, you should be a silent observer. You can say some […]
If Parasalene destroys Havoc Festival, you will gain life.
Your Rakdos opponent has gotten off to a fairly fast start. You managed to their board away, but then they dropped a , shutting off your life gain and threatening to drop you into burn range. You’re holding a , but you’re not sure if you’ll be able to gain any life off of the […]
Divine Deflection vs. Olivia Voldaren (a study in state-based actions).
Times are tough for your Olivia Voldaren. She came down right on schedule on Turn 4, but your opponent immediately stabbed her with , reducing her to a mere 1/1. Fortunately, your opponent has a juicy 1/1 Human token, ripe for the plucking (and the vamping)! You untap and immediately direct your vampire queen towards […]
You can cast Azorius Charm after combat damage is dealt, and you can cast it on your own creatures.
The combat phase normally has five steps: beginning of combat, declare attackers, declare blockers, combat damage, and end of combat (when first or double strike is involved, the combat damage step happens twice). Intuitively enough, when you declare a creature as an attacker, the game begins to consider it an “attacking creature.” In the same […]
Rakdos Shred-Freak can’t block Knight of Glory (an explanation of hybrid mana symbols).
“Hybrid mana” is incredibly flexible. Each hybrid mana symbol in a card’s cost lets you choose which color of mana you’ll use to pay for each hybrid mana symbol. For example, ‘s cost is {B/R}{B/R}, which can be paid with BB, BR, or RR. However, the Shred-Freak’s colors are always black and red, even if […]
Why Tarfire can never kill Tarmogoyf by itself.
For our second tip, we cover everyone’s favorite beater with confusing artwork, . Good old Goofy is a Legacy staple because he’s an astoundingly efficient creature for 2 mana, since this format tends to fill graveyards quickly and with a diverse range of card types. What some of you might not know is that killing […]
You can cast Krosan Grip targeting Standstill, but you won’t be happy about it.
More Double-Legacy days! I hope that many of you are safely in Denver, or on your way there for the event, and I hope you have fun and do well! On to the tips. is a lot of fun in Legacy and EDH both, because it’s very difficult to deal with. Since it has Split […]