The art on Magic cards tends to be really good. It’s so good that it’s one of the reasons that many players like the game so much. Some players, however, like to get their cards altered. This means that they, or someone else, have somehow changed how the card looks. A common question that judges […]
How Rhox Faithmender works with Tree or Redemption or Elderscale Wurm.
has an ability that seems pretty straightforward at first, but what happens if I’m trying to switch my life with ‘s toughness? Is that Life gain? Well, sometimes. If an effect sets your life total to a certain number, like Tree of Redemption or , for example, you ʺgain or loseʺ the appropriate amount of […]
Switcheroo needs both targets to be legal at resolution, or nothing changes control.
Another day, another variant of ! This one is actually pretty unique, though. Where most of our variants just have targeting restrictions or altered costs, this one is a flat out permanent steal instead of an enchantment. It also comes at the expense of requiring a trade to be made. Now, first off, Switcheroo has […]
Two Rhox Faithmenders will make you gain 4x as much life.
Everyone loves BOGO! (That’s ʺBuy One, Get Oneʺ for those of you without a power shopper in your life.) Isn’t it great to pay for one thing, and get twice as much instead? seems like a good way to do that. Unlike that ʺBOGOʺ sign you see in a shopping mall, Magic rules strive to […]
How Sublime Archangel works with Geist of Saint Traft.
Those of you who were playing Magic during Shards of Alara block may remember Exalted, the feature mechanic of the shard of Bant. For the rest of you, let’s break it down step by step. ʺWheneverʺ signifies a triggered ability, that goes on the stack when a condition is met. ʺa creature you control attacksʺ […]
Older versions of a card that is legal in the format are legal for tournaments.
Oh, a question near and dear to my heart! As you all may know by now, Judges are fond of Commander, and some Judges are VERY fond of ‘pimping’ their deck with older framed versions of cards, foreign language cards, rare promos, all that sort of thing. Zak Whyte, a judge friend of mine, commonly […]
Thundermaw Hellkite will tap your opponent’s flying creatures even if the damage is prevented.
is a creature that got me really excited when I first saw it, because it comes into play and takes all of your opponent’s flying blockers out of the way. This was before I saw that was being reprinted. 🙁 Anyway, there’s one thing that might be confusing about his third ability, and that’s ʺwhat […]
How trample works when the blocker is flickered.
Questions about Trample come up a lot, and I know firsthand that it’s not always terribly intuitive. When my friends and I were first learning Magic, Trample was one of the things that constantly made us shrug and guess. However, those of you who shrug don’t HAVE to guess, because you can just come to […]
Sever the Bloodline will also exile clones of the targeted creature.
Cards like (with or without kicker) and that make a token copy of a card seem to be fairly intuitive to most players. What is that token? Well, it’s exactly the card that it copied! If you copy a with Cackling counterpart, the token created is still named Runeclaw Bear. On the surface, creature cards […]