{"id":5413,"date":"2015-08-21T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2015-08-21T16:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/?p=5413"},"modified":"2015-08-18T15:07:15","modified_gmt":"2015-08-18T22:07:15","slug":"hangarback-walker-vs-eidolon-of-the-great-revel-and-disdainful-stroke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/2015\/08\/hangarback-walker-vs-eidolon-of-the-great-revel-and-disdainful-stroke\/","title":{"rendered":"Hangarback Walker vs. Eidolon of the Great Revel and Disdainful Stroke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p><img  style='float:left'  class='lems-mtg-cardimg' src='http:\/\/gatherer.wizards.com\/Handlers\/Image.ashx?size=small&type=card&name=Hangarback Walker'><\/p><p><img  class='lems-mtg-cardimg' src='http:\/\/gatherer.wizards.com\/Handlers\/Image.ashx?size=small&type=card&name=Eidolon of the Great Revel'><\/p>You may have had it hammered into you that &#8220;X is always 0 for converted mana cost!&#8221; While this is certainly true for objects on the battlefield and for cards in your hand, graveyard, library, and exile, it&#8217;s not true for spells on the stack. That&#8217;s the one place that &#8220;X&#8221; has a numerical value other than 0. As you cast an X spell, you choose a value for X, then pay mana based on that choice. Since you rarely cast an X spell choosing 0 for X, it&#8217;s pretty rare for X to be 0 for a spell on the stack.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if you cast <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-content\/plugins\/lems-mtg-helper\/lems-mtg-helper-cardfinder.php?find=Clash+of+Wills&width=223&height=310\" class=\"jTip\" name=\"\">Clash of Wills<\/a> with X=3, then the spell&#8217;s mana cost is 3U for a CMC of 4. It won&#8217;t trigger <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-content\/plugins\/lems-mtg-helper\/lems-mtg-helper-cardfinder.php?find=Eidolon+of+the+Great+Revel&width=223&height=310\" class=\"jTip\" name=\"\">Eidolon of the Great Revel<\/a>, and it can be countered by <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-content\/plugins\/lems-mtg-helper\/lems-mtg-helper-cardfinder.php?find=Disdainful+Stroke&width=223&height=310\" class=\"jTip\" name=\"\">Disdainful Stroke<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A spell with two X&#8217;s in the cost is treated no differently. You choose a value for X, and each X is the same. To determine CMC for that spell, you add the two values together. So if you cast <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-content\/plugins\/lems-mtg-helper\/lems-mtg-helper-cardfinder.php?find=Hangarback+Walker&width=223&height=310\" class=\"jTip\" name=\"\">Hangarback Walker<\/a> for X=1, you get a CMC of 1+1=2, and it would trigger Eidolon but dodges Disdainful Stroke, while X=2 means a CMC of 2+2=4, evading Eidolon&#8217;s trigger but becoming vulnerable to Disdainful Stroke.<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s Rules Tip written by Josh Stansfield<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The X&#8217;s in a spells cost are counted as having the value chosen for it while that spell is on the stack. As such, Hangarback Walker for X=1 means a CMC of 1+1=2, and it would trigger Eidolon, while X=2 means CMC 2+2=4 to evade Eidolon&#8217;s trigger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[29,38,8],"tags":[1174,1258],"language":[1196],"class_list":["post-5413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-casting-playing-a-spell-ability","category-characteristics","category-triggeredabilities","tag-eidolon-of-the-great-revel","tag-hangarback-walker","language-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5414,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5413\/revisions\/5414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5413"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=5413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}