If your opponent casts , your first instinct might be to kill all his token creatures in response so he can’t populate. However, it’s not quite as easy as that. Once Eyes in the Skies starts to resolve, it continues to resolve until all possible actions written on the card are taken, before being put […]
Abrupt Decay can be countered by game rules.
at first looks a lot like the other cards in its cycle, in that it “can’t be countered.” But look closer and you’ll see a difference… those four little words at the end: “…by spells or abilities.” What does this mean? Well, in most cases, it means nothing. Your opponent still can’t counter your spell […]
The new Jace’s +1 ability doesn’t affect Geist of Saint Traft’s Angel token.
A new block rotation always comes with a new set of planeswalkers, and the new looks to be a fair bit more complicated than his predecessors. Today we’ll be focusing on his +1 ability. When it’s activated, it sets up what’s known as a delayed triggered ability, meaning it’ll wait to be put onto the […]
If your opponent shuffles your deck, it’s not an insult.
Did you know that at a competitive event like a PTQ, it’s required for your opponent to shuffle your deck after you present it? Most people don’t; most people are lazy and don’t bother, or will just cut their opponent’s deck. However, on occasion you will play an opponent who wants to shuffle your deck, […]
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 […]
You can cast a spell with Populate even if you control no tokens.
The Selesnya guild had their mechanic of Populate stapled onto quite a few of their cards that already did other things. fogs and populates, makes your guys indestructible and populates, is a with Populate thrown on, etc. What I’ve heard happened a fair number of times at a prerelease where a good friend of mine […]
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 […]
How Deathrite Shaman’s targeted abilities work.
Continuing the trend of fun one-drops that got a lot of questions, today we cover . Shaman’s got three abilities, and each one does something based on what you exile. Exiling sorceries and instants bleeds your opponent for 2; exiling creatures gains you 2 life; exiling lands makes mana. The problem here is, all three […]
Prevention and Replacement Effects, Resolving spells and abilities, State-Based Actions, Static Abilities, Zones
The different ways Dryad Militant interacts with removal spells.
! This little tree-girl seems like lots of fun in Limited and Constructed both, but the most common question I’ve seen regarding her is how she works with removal. When does the spell go to the graveyard? Does she exile it or not? A spell does not go to the graveyard until it has fully […]