is a throwback to one of the most powerful cards in Magic history: . Like Dark Confidant, the Seer will let you have an extra card on each of your turns, for the low, low cost of your life total. Unlike most vampires, Mr. Duskmantle is actually very generous — he lets your opponent get […]
Category: Abilities
Thrull Parasite can slow the Assembling of a Legion, but it can’t stop it completely.
A slow, inevitable death. That’s pretty much what brings to the table. Every turn, the Legion gets another counter, and you get another batch of tokens. If you leave the Legion unchecked, it’s going to overwhelm you. Sure, there’s always enchantment removal, but sometimes that’s not an option. Are there any outside the box ideas […]
Wolfir Silverheart only triggers Evolve as a 4/4.
Evolve is a fun ability. Play out your evolve creatures, then play something big and POP! All those evolve creatures level up and get bigger. What’s not to like? I mean, a creature like should pretty much always cause your evolve abilities to trigger, since it ends up as an 8/8, right? Well, not quite. […]
Lifelink can save you from dying in combat.
Ah, lifelink. The boon of white mages, the bane of red mages (the jury is still out on how Boros feels about it). Even though lifelink has only been around for a relatively short period of time (it was introduced in Future Sight), it has caused a lot of confusion, mostly due to how the […]
Corpsejack Menace and Master Biomancer.
From the research notes of Gulistan, Master Biomancer: A strange, filth-covered creature crawled up from the plumbing today. Our laboratory assistants noted a strange aura about it, which responded well to many forms of magic and was especially noted to accelerate the pace of evolution. Naturally, I had to summon one for myself. Imagine my […]
Extort resolves BEFORE the spell that triggered it.
Slow and controlling as they may be, those greedy Orzhov just can’t wait to dig their spectral claws into your opponent’s life points. In fact, when you cast a spell to trigger extort, they don’t even wait for that spell to resolve! When you cast a spell, each permanent with extort you control will toss […]
Boros Reckoner can’t kill a beast token from the Thragtusk it blocked.
“Judge, I blocked my opponent’s Thragtusk with Boros Reckoner. After they kill each other, is there a way I can use Reckoner’s trigger to kill the Beast token, too?” Your opponent may be protesting at this point “judges can’t give strategic advice!” but it turns out that according to the rules, there’s only one legal […]
Pithing Needle stops all of Deathrite Shaman’s abilities.
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 […]
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 […]