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 […]
Category: Abilities
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 […]
Stuffy Doll doesn’t target anything, but you can respond to its damage-triggered ability.
A very common misconception by MANY players is “implicit targeting”. It’s a belief that anything that directly affects something, targets it. This is not the case, as rule 114.9a tells us. Just because something is being affected by a spell or ability doesn’t mean that it’s being targeted! The word ‘target’ needs to be used […]
‘Summoning Sickness’ only applies to creatures.
Pretty much everyone knows what Summoning Sickness is, even though it’s not a technical game term. It’s a common phrase used to abbreviate a much more wordy rule: “A creature cannot attack or use activated abilities with the Tap or Untap symbol in the cost unless that object has been under the its controller’s control […]
When you sacrifice Solemn Simulacrum to Birthing Pod, you always draw BEFORE you search.
There is a common confusion that comes up when you activate an ability that requires a sacrifice as a payment, and the sacrificed creature has an ability that triggers when it dies. Many people (mistakenly) think you can stack the order of the abilities so the activated ability resolves before the triggered ability. This is […]
You can use Zealous Conscripts and Restoration Angel to a steal a creature permanently.
is a card that says, ʺExile target creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control.ʺ Normally, you will be both the controller (the player who currently controls the creature) and the owner (the player whose deck originally contained the creature). While the owner of a creature can’t change, its controller […]
How Sign in Blood (or any loss of life that isn’t damage) works vs. Elderscale Wurm.
Bart: I’d sell my soul for a formula one racing car. [Satan Ned appears with a race car] Ned: Heh heh heh, that can be arranged. Bart: Changed my mind. Sorry. [Ned vanishes] Cool! Marge: Bart! Stop pestering Satan! Some things in Magic–like drawing cards–are worth paying a few life points. Cards like and let […]
Thragtusk will give you a 3/3 if it leaves play for any reason (not just if it dies).
is one of the exciting new cards from M13 that everyone is talking about. Anyone who has been paying attention to Standard immediately sees that this guy is ‘s new best friend. What’s most interesting about this card is that it doesn’t have the word “dies” anywhere in its text box. Instead, it says “leaves […]