This is the latest red card to include the ability sometimes referred to as “reverse looting,” “red looting,” or “rummaging.” While blue cards frequently have “Draw a card, then discard a card” abilities, red doesn’t get that same luxury and flexibility. Instead, red gets “Discard a card, then draw a card.” So be careful when […]
Don’t store any extra cards with your sideboard!
One easily avoidable problem that we run into all too frequently is the Deck/Decklist Problem that occurs when a player puts extra cards in his or her deckbox. People do this for a variety of reasons, such as: I was having trouble deciding which cards to use in my sideboard, and these are the ones […]
Two Syphon Slivers are the same as one.
There are some keyword abilities that are useful in multiples. Generally speaking, it’s the triggered abilities (like Exalted or Flanking) that make sense to have more than one. Static abilities that modify power/toughness (like or ) also make cumulative sense. However, there are also many abilities that are useless when duplicated. Things like Trample, First […]
Dark Prophecy and Planar Cleansing – You’ll draw for the dying creatures.
A common question players have is about when lots of creatures die at once, and one of them has a trigger that cares about creatures dying. Does it see them dying at the same time? Yes. If dies with 3 other creatures to Supreme Verdict, for example, the Artist will trigger for all the creatures […]
Windreader Sphinx Triggers
“All right, I’ll swing 2 in the air with this guy, and 3 with this one.” “Okay, I’ll draw 2 cards from my Sphinx.” Does that sound right? Well, it should! doesn’t much care where the winged swings are coming from, or where they’re aimed. The ability on the Sphinx is “Whenever a creature with […]
Warden of Evos Isle and Galerider Sliver
Those of you that played in the prerelease might very well know what a formidable card can be; an aggressively costed evasive beater that makes your other flying creatures even cheaper! The important thing about Warden is it only checks whether or not the creature spell has flying when you cast the spell; it doesn’t […]
Savage Summoning and Quicken
We’ve got an old trick back in M14 with the reprinting of , and a similar bag of fun with . These spells allow you to turn less reactionary things like creature spells and Sorceries into any time spells like Instants. First, a few quick things to cover: neither of these change your spell’s type. […]
Becoming a Judge
As many of you know, Judges are important to Magic (more specifically, tournament Magic usually). The Tournament Organizer hires us to make sure things run smoothly; we answer rules questions, help settle disagreements and disputes over how a certain thing works. We enforce those rules, set up the venue, and tear it down when all […]
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 […]