Ivorytusk Fortress tells you to untap your creatures with +1/+1 counters during your opponent's untap step, while Icy Blast and its kin say they don't untap during their *controller's* next untap step. This means there's no problem untapping during the opponent's turn!
Category: Static Abilities
Prerelease Primer Week – The Ferocious Temur
Last and certainly not least of the five clans, we have the Temur Frontier. They live in the coldest parts of Tarkir, and revere the savagery of the dragons. Their symbol is a set of dragon’s claws, and their mechanic certainly feels savage! Ferocious is another ability word, like Raid from earlier this week. It […]
Prerelease Primer Week – Delve with the Sultai
The Sultai brood are an opulent and decadent clan of necromancers, naga, and naga necromancers. They revere the ruthlessness of the long-gone dragons, and their symbol is a single dragon’s fang. Even their dead fuel their war machine, thanks to their returning Delve mechanic, first pre-printed in Future Sight. Delve works an awful lot like […]
Shield of the Avatar and Multiple Blockers
Wrapping up this week’s tips, we have a fun equipment for creature-heavy decks: . This little toy helps keep your best guy alive by putting a damage-prevention effect around that creature. How much does it prevent? Well, how many buddies does your best creature have? There’s usually strength in numbers, but the Shield makes that […]
Rotfeaster Maggot and Seraph of the Masses
This one may have come up for some of you in the past couple of weeks since M15, and it may very well happen to you in the future if it hasn’t! is a common Black creature that eats dead guys. More specifically, when it enters the battlefield it’ll exile a creature card from any […]
Elesh Norn vs. Sakura-Tribe Elder, et. al.
You can only activate abilities when you have priority. If your creature enters the battlefield but dies before you get priority, you're not going to have a good time!
What “attacks if able” really means.
"Attacks if able" is pretty straightforward, until you add other restrictions or requirements! See inside for some more detail.
You can’t “miss” True-Name Nemesis’s “as this enters…” ability.
True-Name Nemesis doesn't have a triggered ability, so it's not possible to simply "miss" the ability. If you think your opponent failed to choose a player, you must mention it.
Prerelease Week: Returning mechanics – “as long as you control…”
The new core set brings back the creatures that get a bonus from "friendly color" lands. Be sure you know when the game cares about that ability and when it doesn't!