Modal spells are always great fun; they let you pick between multiple options when you cast them, making them very versatile and able to deal with lots of situations with fewer cards. But how do modal spells work when you copy them? Normally if you copy something like with, say, , you don’t get to […]
Category: Casting / playing a spell or ability
Witchstalker only gets one counter for a spell that’s both blue and black.
A discussion of Witchstalker and spells that are more than one color; it still only triggers once per spell.
Chandra, Pyromancer’s 0 ability – You have to pay to cast the exiled card.
Chandra's 0 ability doesn't say "without paying its mana cost," so you still have to pay for it... but you have to do it this turn or it just stays exiled.
Fiendslayer Paladin vs. Boros Reckoner (the Paladin isn’t safe)
A reddit user posted a question about Fiendslayer vs. Reckoner, believing that the Reckoner could indeed target the Paladin with its triggered ability, while the opponent disagreed. Who was right? Well, let’s look at the Paladin’s ability: “Fiendslayer Paladin can’t be the target of black or red spells your opponents control.” That seems simple enough. […]
Warden of Evos Isle and Galerider Sliver
Those of you that played in the prerelease might very well know what a formidable card can be; an aggressively costed evasive beater that makes your other flying creatures even cheaper! The important thing about Warden is it only checks whether or not the creature spell has flying when you cast the spell; it doesn’t […]
Savage Summoning and Quicken
We’ve got an old trick back in M14 with the reprinting of , and a similar bag of fun with . These spells allow you to turn less reactionary things like creature spells and Sorceries into any time spells like Instants. First, a few quick things to cover: neither of these change your spell’s type. […]
Elite Arcanist and X Spell
You know what sounds fun? Getting rid of the 2 mana restriction on , and making it a creature. In Magic 2014, they did that, and gave us . Unlike his Scepter predecessor, Arcanist has no limit on the mana cost of the Instant he flings about willy-nilly, so you can happily put expensive and […]
All About Eye of the Storm
And here we are, Friday! As I teased yesterday, we’re going to be talking about Commander’s favorite blue enchantment, . This is a reader question, asking for some help in some situation, but I figured let’s start with an overview of what exactly does. When a player casts an instant or sorcery card, the […]
Goblin Electromancer only reduces the cost of a fused spell by 1.
Before the Izzet, there was Arcane. Before Arcane, there was storm. And before storm, there were split spells! Fresh off the heels of Grand Prix Modern Masters, we come full circle with a look at the Fuse mechanic, a blast from the past in Dragon’s Maze with a little twist involved. Probably no guild benefited […]