When declaring blockers, the defending player can only use untapped creatures. Once blockers are declared, though, the game doesn’t care if the blocking creatures become tapped later! A useful application of this is , which has three abilities: (1) a mana ability, (2) an “animation” ability, and (3) a “pump” ability. You can use the […]
Author: bimmerbot
You can’t flashback Ancestral Vision, but you can cascade into it.
’s mana cost is an enigma wrapped in a mystery. Actually, Ancestral Vision doesn’t have a mana cost at all. It’s not 0 — cards with a mana cost of 0 exist, and they actually have the number 0 in their upper corner, such as . Rather, just like a land, Vision’s mana cost simply […]
You can’t Burning Wish for exiled cards
When you wish upon a star Makes no difference who you are Anything your heart desires Will come to you But what can you Wish for in Magic? A card like Burning Wish tells you to choose a sorcery card from outside the game. So what’s outside of the game then? When the Wishes were […]
All about Lion’s Eye Diamond (yes, it’s a mana ability, but it has a timing restriction)
So 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 this ability only any time you could cast an instant. So the main difference between the printed version […]
Best practices for resolving Show and Tell
Chances are, if you’re reading this, one too many Emrakuls have been beating your face in. (I know mine has been squashed in! Holiday Cube is still fun though!). Most people when playing , put their chosen card face down, and flip them up at the same time. While this is acceptable, today I’m going […]
You can’t respond to Tombstalker’s Delve ability
Delve is an ability that was (so far) only printed in Future Sight, and as such most players aren’t very familiar with it. Here’s the relevant rules text for “Delve”: “As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may exile any number of cards from your graveyard. Each card exiled this way reduces the […]
You can respond to Stoneforge, Aether Vial or Miracle with Vendilion Clique
One of the strengths of is its versatility: you can surprise block an unsuspecting creature, cycle away a card in your hand, or take a peek at what your opponent is up to. Indeed, because it has flash, you can even cast it in response to an opponent’s activated or triggered ability. This is good […]
Craterhoof Behemoth’s ability checks how many creatures you control as it resolves.
, like Santa Claus, just loves handing out presents to all the good little boy and girl…creatures (though in Hoofie’s case, the presents are in the form of plusses and trample). But how many presents does each creature get? Unlike a spell, the value of X isn’t locked in when a triggered ability goes onto […]
Rancor goes to the graveyard before it returns to your hand.
Normally I frown on re-gifting, but in the case of , I’m inclined to make an exception. This Christmassy colored ball of ire loves to bounce around from one creature to another. But wait, you ask, isn’t the holiday season supposed to be about peace on earth and goodwill? Well, as resilient as Rancor is, […]