A common question that seems to pop up is how to tell the difference between Activated, Triggered and Static abilities. More specifically, what abilities will gain from dead creatures, what exactly can stop, and what abilities does get after you use him to do some necromancy. There’s an easy way to recognize different kinds of […]
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Ratchet Bomb destroys most tokens, but not all of them.
Tokens created by a spell or triggered ability such as ’s golem token or ’ spirit tokens have no defined mana cost, and therefore have a converted mana cost (“CMC”) of zero. A activated with zero charge counters is more than adequate to wipe out a field of tokens generated in this manner. When a […]
The importance of proper shuffling.
Before the start of a game, it is very important to properly and sufficiently randomize (shuffle) your deck. To “randomize” means to shuffle the deck so that no player could have any knowledge about the approximate position of any particular card or the relative position of any group of cards. Usually, several mash shuffles is […]
Hellrider’s ability triggers when a creature attacks.
has an ability that triggers when a creature controlled by Hellrider’s controller attacks (this includes Hellrider itself). Like similar ‘whenever… attacks’ abilities, this ability triggers when attacking creatures are declared, and will resolve before blocking creatures are chosen. It is important to note that once this ability triggers, it will still resolve no matter what […]
Don’t offer anything in exchange for a concession or a draw.
Last week, the tournament tip explained how rolling a die to determine a game or match winner is not allowed. Just as you should not randomly determine a winner, you also should not offer anything to an opponent to connive them into conceding to you. Also, you should never accept an offer like this. If […]
The token put into play by Séance is exiled in the next end step.
is a very flavorful white enchantment from Dark Ascension that allows you to temporarily bring back creatures from your graveyard as spirits. As mentioned, this is temporary. Séance’s ability triggers at the beginning of each upkeep step. When this ability goes on the stack, the controller of Seance chooses a target creature card in his […]
Complete Dark Ascension visual spoiler!
As mentioned yesterday, this weekend is the Dark Ascension prerelease. Tomorrow (or tonight at midnight) will be the first chance for all of us to play in Dark Ascension events. Pro Tours have a lot on the line and Grands Prix have a lot of players, but prereleases are truly the biggest events in Magic. […]
Prerelease FAQ is available for Dark Ascension
This weekend is the prerelease for Dark Ascension, the second set in the Innistrad block. Starting next week, we will be focusing on a lot of new Dark Ascension cards–how they work and how they interact with each other. Prior to the release of each set, a Frequently Asked Questions document is released, which covers […]
Do not roll a die or use any other random means to determine who wins a game or match.
Tournament Magic uses a time limit as a necessity in order to keep an event running smoothly. Most games and matches can be played in the time limits given. When the time limit is reached, unfinished matches will then play five extra turns (Two-headed giant games use three extra turns). If there is not a […]