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: Copies
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 […]
A Progenitor Mimic copying Scion of Vitu-Ghazi will make birds when it enters the battlefield, but not on each upkeep.
Greetings, fellow students of Mat’Selesnya. I am pleased you’ve joined me here in Vitu-Ghazi to further your understanding of the ways of our guild. As future summoners and mages, it is crucial that you understand how to best direct our many allies in battle. For example, the is both a potent threat and a useful […]
If you copy a creature that’s encoded with a Cipher card, the copy won’t be encoded.
It’s only fitting that the new guild keyword that caused the most confusion upon being released was Cipher, the signature mechanic of House Dimir. And because I most definitely am not a Dimir informant secretly reporting to my shadowy superior in a hidden base in Arizona that most definitely doesn’t exist, I believe I’m at […]
Cipher and Extort
Two of the new guild keyword abilities in Gatecrash work really well together . No, I’m not talking about battalion and bloodrush, I’m referring to the keywords of two of Esper’s favorite guilds, cipher and extort. Extort triggers off of any spell you cast, not just spells cast from your hand. And once you’ve encoded […]
Pack Rat tokens won’t get any counters or P/T boosts the original has.
I control a . Then I target it with 4 s and 4 s. Then I put a +1/+1 counter on it and turn it blue somehow. You know, for good measure. Now I use ’s ability (don’t ask me how I cast 8 spells and still had another card to discard along with the […]
If you populate Geist of Saint Traft’s angel token, it’s not attacking but you get to keep it.
As usual, people are seeing if they can use the new token toys to make their even more fun. And like before it, the Populate mechanic gives you some new options with Geist. Unlike Parallel Lives, which makes Geist throw down two tokens, both swinging and temporary, Populate will simply give you another of the […]
You don’t have to sacrifice a creature when you copy Fling
Ah, good old . The most common question I hear about Fling is the one I’m answering now, and it always gets worse when Fling is around with good ways to copy stuff. provides a repeatable source of spell-copying, and also a repeatable souce of Fling questions. No, you do not have to sacrifice more […]