A lot of people associate combat damage with the end of the combat phase. While it’s true that the majority of the time, people move straight from dealing damage to doing stuff in the second main phase or passing the turn, there is still the rest of the combat damage step and an end of […]
Author: bimmerbot
Sigarda won’t save you from sacrificing your own Phantasmal Image, even if an opponent targets it.
‘s ability is pretty cool. If an effect an opponent controls says “sacrifice a creature” Sigarda says, “No, I’d rather not.” So she keeps you safe from things like and . But what if the opponent targets your Phantasmal Image (copying something other than Sigarda) with ? On the surface, it almost looks like the […]
Can you respond to the choice of what to copy with Phantasmal Image? It depends!
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 every Clone-type creature would die for being 0/0 before you could choose to copy something!). […]
Surgical Extraction vs. Miracles
Miracle causes lots of questions, as it’s a pretty complex mechanic. First, there’s the static ability that says “You may reveal this as you draw it if its the first card you drew this turn.” Then once you do that, there’s the triggered ability that say “When you do, you may cast this for its […]
Strategy Week: Using priority to your benefit.
Ah, the good old days of “Bolt your Jace as soon as he comes in”. See, priority is a funny thing, and it’s almost like magic (editor’s note: no pun intended?) to the people who aren’t well-versed in it. The short version of the story: Priority is the system of who can do what at […]
Strategy Week: Ordering Triggers for Fun and Profit!
While Triggered Abilities may seem confusing at first, there is profit to be made by understanding them! First, let’s review how to identify a triggered ability. Triggered abilities are identifiable using 3 key words: 1) When 2) Whenever 3) At If you see one of these words, you’re in trigger-town! If you can memorize these […]
Strategy Week: Wait to activate abilities until the end of your opponent’s turn.
When you play a card that has great potential, like , it’s sometimes tempting to activate its abilities right away. But remember the saying: “Patience is a virtue.” Or, in Magic terms, “Wait until the latest possible moment before playing anything.” There are a lot of steps and phases that can fly right by players […]
Strategy Week: Ask your opponent if they have effects BEFORE you turn your creatures sideways.
Something you’ll hear and see a lot in any competitive event [and even some FNMs and prereleases where competitive crowds hang out] will be players consistently asking their opponent for a response before attacks. This commonly manifests itself in the form of a very simple shortcut: the active player will simply ask “Moving to combat?” […]
Strategy Week: It’s often better to attack BEFORE you cast spells on your turn.
If you watch many pro players, you might notice something consistent about how they play: They attack BEFORE they cast spells. Why is that? What’s the point of waiting? Well, sometimes, it makes sense to cast spells before you attack, such as when you’re casting a creature with haste. Also, you’d probably never want to […]