Imagine. Aurelia and her trusty attack. After this attack, Aurelia asks herself “Hey, is this the first time I’ve attacked this turn?”, she thinks for a bit. “Why yes Aurelia, yes indeed this is the first time I’ve attacked this turn. ANOTHER!” And she triggers, untapping her White Knight (and herself if she didn’t have […]
Category: Abilities
Blood Scrivener and Miracles – It has to really be the first card.
Miracle states it only applies to the FIRST card you draw each turn. Really, the first one. Whenever Magic involves drawing cards, it’s actually done as individual actions, so when it says to draw 3, it means “draw 1, draw 1, draw 1” in principal. Hence, you have to reveal each of them when is […]
You have to mention your Pardic Dragon triggers when your opponent casts a spell.
Oops, I personally may have been guilty of this myself at our kitchen table 8-man MM draft. In that case, Pat, I apologize, it was late, I had a bit to drink… I should not have crushed you that game and made you quit Magic… my bad. Since Paradic Dragon has a trigger which does […]
Responding to Deathrite Shaman with Snapcaster Mage
Ahhh, the classic “Me firs- NO ME FIRST!” scenario in Magic. Remember folks, those who respond last, get to resolve first; a concept that NONE of the people in busy lines seem to grasp at my local amusement park. Following that principal in Magic, Deathrite Shaman’s ability states that, “Hey, pay {B} and tap me, […]
Abilities, Activated Abilities, Continuous Effects, Effects, Mana Abilities, Type & Subtypes, Type Changing
Stony Silence and Artifact Lands
To finish out this week’s Modern flair, let’s talk about a deck called Robots (or back in my crotchety days, “Affinity”). It uses lots of artifacts to make your opponent and his life total very sad. The Legacy version (and the original Standard version) made delightful use of the artifact lands like and pulling double […]
Wall of Roots and +1/+1 Counters
There was a time when counters didn’t cancel each other out on the same permanent; you could have a bunch of +1/+1 counters and a few -1/-1 counters on a creature and they’d just co-exist happily on that creature, in case anything cared. With the Lorwyn block, that got changed up because it was a […]
Tournament Tuesday: Dark Confidant at Competitive REL
As expected, Modern Masters has created quite a stir, and we’re looking at GP Las Vegas in just a couple of weeks, where Modern Masters sealed will be the format. On top of that, there’s plenty of people drafting their MM boxes right now, and a lot of people looking to get into the format […]
Abilities, Activated Abilities, Characteristics, Continuous Effects, Effects, Interaction of Continuous Effects, Keywords, Static Abilities
Melira and Inkmoth Nexus
Infect! Quite the polarizing mechanic in most areas, it was either considered laughably bad or stupidly broken depending on who you were talking to. It’s gained some traction lately with eggs-in-one-basket rush decks, especially in Modern, and it’s possible you might run into a Pod deck running and you want to know how it interacts […]
Pit Fight Won’t Trigger Blaze Commando
is a Minotaur Soldier, which is a pretty sweet creature type you don’t see every day. He also has an triggered ability you don’t see very often, one that triggers whenever an instant or sorcery spell you control deals damage. This trigger is a little tricky to understand, but the important thing to realize is […]