Before we go any further, we must ask ourselves… what is a mana ability? Well, that was semi-rhetorical, for those who didn’t snap answer the previous question. A Mana ability can exist as either an activated or triggered ability. For the activated ability form: 1) Does not have a target 2) It could put mana […]
Category: Abilities
Leyline Phantom can block Armored Transport without bouncing.
does funny things in combat. Well, funny as in if it’s blocked by a creature, that creature does nothing at all! Preventing the damage dealt to it in combat means things such as lifelink and deathtouch won’t apply for the blocking creature (Note that prevention effects are a kind of replacement effect, it’s not that […]
Cipher vs. Thalia (yes, you have to pay 1)
Did you know there’s a proper set of steps for casting a spell? Most people just tap mana, throw the spell on stack and ask for permission to resolve it (darn those blue mages!). Just a very simple breakdown, below are the steps to casting a spell in case you ever wanted to know: Announce […]
Simic Keyrune can cause Abrupt Decay to be countered.
“Can’t be countered…” You get a little tingly feeling inside when you cast a spell with such a phrase. It’s as if you had your old security blanket when you were 3, 6, … or in some cases, 12 years old. But like your security blanket, this phrase doesn’t mean that the spell will always […]
Gisela will prevent all instances of 1 damage
We already did a general overview of the legendary angel a while back when she was first released. But that general overview didn’t cover probably the most common question about her, especially in my Commander group: Whether or not she prevents 1 damage. Good old Gisela has two abilities (both are replacement effects) that make […]
Quirion Dryad Triggers Once Per Spell
was an old favorite card of one of my friends, so I’m used to dealing with it. But now that it’s Standard-legal again, and with all the 3 color decks kicking around, it’s seeing some play. So I’m gonna clear up a couple of little flubs that pop up around it! First one is in […]
Tournament Tuesday: Zone-Change Triggers
As we covered last week, there’s been a few changes in the Missed Trigger policy recently. Today we’re gonna cover one that’s had a little confusion even among judges: Zone-change triggers. First, I’ll start off with a link to Toby Elliot’s article about what the trigger changes mean for players, because you guys are players, […]
Tournament Tuesday: Triggers at Regular REL
As some of you may know, there was recently a little bit of an update to the Missed Trigger rules. Nothing so far-reaching as the last few; mainly, the new rules exist to clear up exactly WHEN a trigger is considered missed, because there were some that were kind of weird with the MT rules […]
Fathom Mage and Multiple Counters
While I’m a Gruul at heart (and an Azorious on the outside), I’ve always been intrigued by the Simic guild. I wasn’t very satisfied with Simic during their first appearance during Ravnica block, but there’s quiteb a few interesting cards in Simic this time around. One that intrigues me the most is . What does […]