The Gatecrash Guildmage cycle: Part 2

Duskmantle Guildmage’s 1st ability functions the same as Vizkopa Guildmage’s 2nd ability, as far as multiple activations are concerned. Since they set up a delayed trigger, each will resolve individually. Do note that it says Card, so once again, tokens won’t work, and it says from anywhere, not just the library or battlefield. Get inventive! […]

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It That Betrays and Commanders

Om nom nom! is coming to get you — and your commander! For today’s tip, I want to talk about a cool interaction in Commander, the hugely-popular multiplayer format where each player chooses a legendary creature, called a “commander,” to lead his or her deck. In this format, each player’s commander is subject to a […]

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Sphinx’s Revelation vs. Havoc Festival – You can draw cards even if you won’t gain life.

In Magic, there is a “Golden rule” that you should always remember. Basically, it says that “can’t” overrides “can”. So lets explore what happens when Narcissa controls , and Annabelle casts . Sphinx’s Revelation says to gain X life, while Havoc Festival says players can’t gain life. Can’t > Can. No life will be gained. […]

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Sundering Growth can populate a token your opponent stole with Spirit Away.

You had an 8/8 elemental token, but your opponent stole it with ! What happens when you destroy the enchantment with ? When resolving a spell, you follow the instructions of that spell in order as written in the text box. In the case of Sundering Growth, the first thing is to destroy the enchantment. […]

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Rootborn Defenses’ interaction with creatures changing control or entering later.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: This article has been updated as of the prerelease of Magic 2014 on July 13; Please refer to the revisions below. is a nifty common from Return to Ravnica that was made famous when it was (allegedly) accidentally included in a booster pack of Magic 2013. For us, it’s also interesting due to […]

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You can search for Temple Garden with Farseek, but it will be tapped even if you pay 2 life.

Fun fact: The reprinting of led many people to (correctly) believe the ‘shocklands’ were coming back. Now, onto how they interact: Farseek nabs any Plains, Island, Mountain, or Swamp card you want out of your library and puts it onto the battlefield tapped. Prior to us Returning to Ravnica, you were only going to find […]

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How Corpsejack Menace interacts with Unleash.

Even with the Guild Packs making it much easier that usual to go into your two preferred colors in Limited, there were a lot of people splashing a third color for some fun stuff. For example, some people ran Black/Red/Green to keep a Corpsejack Menace around for Unleash. But does that do anything? Unleash doesn’t […]

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