The most complicated new mechanic of Avacyn Restored is Soulbond. I had dozens of questions regarding Soulbond at my local prerelease, so I will try to explain how it works. Soulbond means this: “When a creature with soulbond enters the battlefield, if you control another unpaired creature, you may pair the creature with soulbond with […]
Category: Triggered Abilities
A Miracle card must be cast in the same step you draw the card (even if it’s a sorcery).
When you draw your first card for the turn (usually in your draw step), you can reveal it as you draw it if it has the Miracle ability. When you do that, the ability triggers and goes on the stack as soon as you’re done with the action that let you draw the card. So […]
How the Heartless Summoning + Havengul Lich combo works.
As you might have guessed by now, we’re doing a special Combo Week this week! I got saddled with (in my opinion) the most hilarious combo in Standard right now: Heartless Lich. But how does it work? First, you need to control and a . You also need a (either in the graveyard or in […]
Why Knowledge Pool + Curse of Exhaustion locks your opponent out of casting spells from the hand.
As part of combo week, I’ve chosen to explain my personal favorite combo in standard: the + lock. First, let’s take a look at what these two cards do before we explain how the combo works. Curse of Exhaustion is pretty simple; it restricts the number of spells your opponent can cast to just one […]
How Fiend Hunter can exile something forever.
has 2 abilities (similar to his friend ): one that triggers when he enters the battlefield, and another that triggers when he leaves the battlefield. These abilities are known as linked abilities, because the second ability refers to the permanent exiled by the first. There’s a trick to exile a creature permanently using Fiend Hunter. […]
You can’t kill Delver of Secrets with Gut Shot after its controller reveals an instant or sorcery.
When any spell or ability starts to resolve, you have to let it resolve completely before you can do anything. So when ‘ triggered ability resolves, the player looks at the top card and has the option of revealing it if it’s an instant or sorcery to transform Delver of Secrets. This means that you […]
Parallel Lives doesn’t make any tokens. It causes other stuff to make extra tokens.
“If I make an Angel token with , and I have a out, why does the token made by Parallel Lives get exiled too?” Easy! Because Parallel Lives doesn’t make any tokens at all. What it does is create a replacement effect. Replacement effects do exactly what it sounds like they do: They take one […]
The “next end step” means the very next one to begin (usually in the same turn).
is an interesting card that lets you trade a creature card in your graveyard for a temporary creature on the battlefield. The only caveat is that your new best friend (or rather your returned best friend) will only remain on the battlefield until “the beginning of the next end step.” So what does that mean? […]
When you copy a double-faced card, you get the side that is showing at that moment.
When you copy a double-faced card with a clone effect, you get an exact copy of the currently showing side. Anything that isn’t a double-faced card can’t transform. So if you copy a with a , you end up with an exact copy of the Chalice of Death. The game doesn’t acknowledge or care that […]