is pretty epic, like a for instants and sorceries. So, again we dredge up the way X spells work with . You decide what X is before you actually pay for the spell, so Electromancer essentially gives you a ‘free’ point to X. If you only have 3 Mountains and 3 Islands with your Electromancer […]
Category: Casting / playing a spell or ability
Overloading in Two Headed Giant
Overload does weird things with 2HG. Some of you at the prerelease may have noticed that. See, all of the Overload spells that you aim at other people’s stuff work on everything of that sort you don’t control, if Overloaded. In a normal 2 man game, or a free-for-all, that means it hits your opponents’ […]
Abrupt Decay can be countered by game rules.
at first looks a lot like the other cards in its cycle, in that it “can’t be countered.” But look closer and you’ll see a difference… those four little words at the end: “…by spells or abilities.” What does this mean? Well, in most cases, it means nothing. Your opponent still can’t counter your spell […]
You can’t use Overload with Flashback or Cascade.
New sets always bring new mechanics, and with the Izzet, I was looking forward to getting something for my Commander deck. Imagine my disappointment when I saw Overload! See, when you use an ability like cascade or flashback to cast a spell from a place you normally couldn’t, what you’re doing is casting it for […]
You can cast a spell with Populate even if you control no tokens.
The Selesnya guild had their mechanic of Populate stapled onto quite a few of their cards that already did other things. fogs and populates, makes your guys indestructible and populates, is a with Populate thrown on, etc. What I’ve heard happened a fair number of times at a prerelease where a good friend of mine […]
How Nivmagus Elemental’s ability really works.
As many of you know, this weekend marked the pre-release of the new set, Return to Ravnica. Many of us judged such events, and we managed to collect a few common questions that popped up a lot, so we can answer them for you guys here! One I saw happen quite a bit involved . […]
Return to Ravnica Preview Week: Overload and Populate
Double whammy today, since Tuesday got taken up by the new Trigger rules. Today we finish our Return to Ravnica previews with the Izzet League’s Overload mechanic, and the Selesnya Conclave’s Populate mechanic. First, the Izzet: mad scientists that act on equal parts whim, inspiration, and the wishes of their draconic patron Niv-Mizzet, these mages […]
Return to Ravnica Preview Week: Scavenge
The Golgari Swarm are masters of life and death, and view the two of them as a constant cycle. Their mechanic, Scavenge, reflects this pretty well; I’ve heard it described as “Kind of like a Flashback for creatures”, and that’s not entirely wrong. It lets your dead creatures pull some weight and be useful as […]
Engineered Explosives and additional costs (e.g., Thalia or Trinisphere)
Sunburst is a fairly unique ability. As a permanent with Sunburst enters the battlefield, Sunburst checks to see what mana was paid when casting the spell, regardless of what the cost was for. So if you want to cast when your opponent controls , you can choose any value for X, pay 1 additional for […]