…and knowing is half the battlefield
If there’s one thing Elves love [beyond having Hobbits do their dirty work, but that’s another plane entirely], it’s mana. Lots and lots of mana. Enormous, obscene piles of green mana, ready to be converted into an astoundingly large spell, or into many little elves, who will make even more mana. Continuing the trend of […]
is part of a cycle in M13, and it’s a pretty neat cycle! They’re all uncommon mono-colored creatures that have an ability which requires an allied color of mana to activate, and they get +1/+1 if you control a corresponding basic. Flinthoof Boar is a 2/2 for 2 that gets +1/+1 if you control a […]
In Magic: The Gathering’s judging system, combat-based rules questions are considered especially heinous. On this blog, the dedicated judges who investigate these tricky interactions are members of an elite squad known as the Special Cards Unit. These are their stories. “Captain! I’m so glad you’re here; it’s a bad one.” “What’s the situation, Sergeant?” “Well, […]
Today we’ll be taking a look at Rakdos Charm’s third mode, or specifically, what it means for a creature to deal damage to its controller. While it’s unusual for a source you control to deal damage to yourself, it does happen, and in most respects it’ll be treated like any other source of damage; a […]
From the research notes of Gulistan, Master Biomancer: A strange, filth-covered creature crawled up from the plumbing today. Our laboratory assistants noted a strange aura about it, which responded well to many forms of magic and was especially noted to accelerate the pace of evolution. Naturally, I had to summon one for myself. Imagine my […]
does funny things in combat. Well, funny as in if it’s blocked by a creature, that creature does nothing at all! Preventing the damage dealt to it in combat means things such as lifelink and deathtouch won’t apply for the blocking creature (Note that prevention effects are a kind of replacement effect, it’s not that […]
We already did a general overview of the legendary angel a while back when she was first released. But that general overview didn’t cover probably the most common question about her, especially in my Commander group: Whether or not she prevents 1 damage. Good old Gisela has two abilities (both are replacement effects) that make […]
That’s right, we’re still hot on this Simic trend for the week! I promise, last Simic topic this week is a neat new card from Gatecrash with a lot of uses; you can pump a creature a la , you can bounce a creature, or you can make everything you control Hexproof to mess with […]
Welcome to the lab, initiates. I am Gulistan, , and today we will learn about replacement effects. Observe as I invoke the summoning spell for a basic . How many counters does it enter the battlefield with? If you were paying attention last week, this should be a no-brainer. Cloudfin Raptor normally enters with zero […]