is a scary thing to have sitting across the table from you no matter what the format. I cringe when I see it in Commander because it usually means there’s a whole freight train of hurt about to come my way, and precious little I can do to stop it. However, there is a way […]
Category: Costs
Cipher vs. Thalia (yes, you have to pay 1)
Did you know there’s a proper set of steps for casting a spell? Most people just tap mana, throw the spell on stack and ask for permission to resolve it (darn those blue mages!). Just a very simple breakdown, below are the steps to casting a spell in case you ever wanted to know: Announce […]
Rakdos, Lord of Riots can only reduce colorless mana.
has a fairly nifty ability. It says that for each 1 life that an opponent has lost this turn, your creature spells costs 1 less to cast. So, if your opponent has lost 6 life this turn (say, because you just attacked with your Rakdos), your creatures spells will cost 6 less to cast that […]
Rakdos Shred-Freak can’t block Knight of Glory (an explanation of hybrid mana symbols).
“Hybrid mana” is incredibly flexible. Each hybrid mana symbol in a card’s cost lets you choose which color of mana you’ll use to pay for each hybrid mana symbol. For example, ‘s cost is {B/R}{B/R}, which can be paid with BB, BR, or RR. However, the Shred-Freak’s colors are always black and red, even if […]
Epic Experiment and Additional/Alternate Costs
If you cast a spell off of , you won’t be able to pay any alternate costs for it [such as Overloading a , or having your opponents gain life to cast ]. The reason for that is because Experiment is having you pay an alternate cost [of not paying at all!] when you cast […]
How Epic Experiment does (and doesn’t) interact with Goblin Electromancer.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]