MTR 4.4 (Loops) states differently (as Villawhatever already said):
Loops may span multiple turns if a game state is not meaningfully changing. Note that drawing cards other than the ones being used to sustain the loop is a meaningful change.
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The opponent, on their turn, will draw a card not involved in the loop which, according to the rules, is a meaningful change.
Recall that the scenario in comment 8 involves the opponent having only a Nexus of Fate card in their library. The loop discussed in that scenario involves discarding that card to the library in one turn and re-drawing it in the next, so that that card is arguably "being used to sustain the loop".
Loops that span multiple turns takes into account both players. WizardMN use of "opponent" is in reference to the player not discarding nexus. The comment 8 "opponent" is the one discarding nexus
To restate it more clearly:
Player A: 8 lands in play. No other permanents in play. 7 cards in hand. Library has 25 cards in it.
Player B: zero permanents in play. 7 cards in hand. Library has 1 card in it. It is a Nexus of Fate.
Player B draws nexus, ends his turn, and on cleanup, discards nexus, which becomes his library again.
Player A draws a card, library goes to 24 cards. This is not part of the loop, so it is deemed meaningful change.
Here player B cannot keep discarding nexus, because player A does nothing, and cant do anything to change the game state, so Player B MUST do something to advance the game state, which means discarding something else.
EDIT:
Now what if both players are in the same situation, where they both have 7 cards, no permanents in play, and nexus is the last card in the library. Now if both players continue to pass the turn and discard nexus, that is a loop and someone has to break it. Here, I'm not sure who has to...
I finally caved and bought Arclight Phoenix yesterday during a Cyber Monday deal. I keep wanting to make a Grixis Delver deck work and I think it would be good with Lightning Bird.
This is the list I have in my head. I'm waiting for pieces to come in to actually test and play, but this is kind of the gist of what I wanted to do:
Two of the biggest draws to going into black are the removal spells and the delve creatures. If you don't plan on playing those, there isn't really a reason to play black, and you should just go izzet in that case.
Invert now has a good target, I can see the why they wanted the errata.
Haha, yeah! Also, what’s the ruling on split card CMC?
Anyway, this is a pretty cool throwback to Nivix Cyclops. This is really good IMO. Being able to attack with it and then fire off spells is what makes this appealing to me.
Edit: Would casting invert not increase this Cyclops power to 15/0?
nah 8/1. the trigger resolves (CMC = 1), then the card resolves.
EDIT: Sorry this is actually correct. I misread it, and layers suck. This DOES work and it IS a 8/1. Layers rule:
Source:
613.3. Within layer 7, apply effects in a series of sublayers in the order described below. Within each sublayer, apply effects in timestamp order. (See rule 613.6.) Note that dependency may alter the order in which effects are applied within a sublayer. (See rule 613.7.)
613.3c Layer 7c: Effects that modify power and/or toughness (but don’t set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value) are applied.
613.3e Layer 7e: Effects that switch a creature’s power and toughness are applied. Such effects take the value of power and apply it to the creature’s toughness, and take the value of toughness and apply it to the creature’s power.
Level 1 Judge
Hitting lands on a two mana spells is not something I would ever see printed in magic again. So definitely a lock. We have already been cutting amazing removal spells like putrefy from cube because of how stacked golgari is. Hold on to your hats folks, the guild sections are gonna feel real full over the next two weeks.
At instant speed too. You can nuke a Cradle/Academy/Ancient Tomb during your opponent's upkeep and they get a tapped basic that does nothing for them until their next turn. So brutal!
This card is never going to be cheap, mainboardable Tron hate is going to be all the rage in modern.
Basic land comes in untapped, but still worth nuking those lands.
Yet a separate Gideon card representation that is more creature in visual improves the immersive experience in gameplay. So does the NicolBolas token do.
Actually it doesn't, because when I go to use vraska's contempt on an animated gideon, the token will create an unclear game state (am I exiling only the token? the planeswalker? does the damage go through if I exile the walker instead of the token?)
The bolas token is there only because bolas is a double-faced card (just like all the checklist cards when there are double faced cards in the set) so that players aren't required to have opaque sleeves to play with these cards. It probably shouldn't even be called a token. Notice at the bottom left the number is CH1/280. It's a checklist card, with only 1 possible option.
The biggest drawback I can see is the one steve_man mentioned, where they kill the rector EoT and then get a free attack into the walker without you getting a chance to activate a loyalty ability. But the rector is a may ability, so you do need to get a walker in that situation. You just lose out on a tutor and eat a removal spell for 4 mana. I still think I like lancers better.
2UW
3/3
Flash
Flying
You may cast historic spells as though they had flash
Is this strong enough to break into the stacked azorius guild? Giving all artifacts, legendaries, and sagas (if you plan on playing them) flash seems really strong. Remember, all planeswalkers are legendaries now.
I finally get a recruiter in this set but no ravages. Hopefully we get imperial seal. My cube is wanting this portal cards but I have been unwilling to pay the price for non reserve list stuff.
Same. Luckily, I have the judge promo Imperial Seal, though I missed out on getting the judge ravages.
To restate it more clearly:
Player A: 8 lands in play. No other permanents in play. 7 cards in hand. Library has 25 cards in it.
Player B: zero permanents in play. 7 cards in hand. Library has 1 card in it. It is a Nexus of Fate.
Player B draws nexus, ends his turn, and on cleanup, discards nexus, which becomes his library again.
Player A draws a card, library goes to 24 cards. This is not part of the loop, so it is deemed meaningful change.
The scenario that i assume brought up this topic/confusion is the reddit thread linked earlier https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/al5jp3/question_about_nexus_of_fate_loop_rules/
In this scenario:
Player A: no permanents other than lich's mastery, no cards left in library or hand
Player B: zero permanents in play. 7 cards in hand. Library has 1 card in it. It is a Nexus of Fate.
Here player B cannot keep discarding nexus, because player A does nothing, and cant do anything to change the game state, so Player B MUST do something to advance the game state, which means discarding something else.
EDIT:
Now what if both players are in the same situation, where they both have 7 cards, no permanents in play, and nexus is the last card in the library. Now if both players continue to pass the turn and discard nexus, that is a loop and someone has to break it. Here, I'm not sure who has to...
Two of the biggest draws to going into black are the removal spells and the delve creatures. If you don't plan on playing those, there isn't really a reason to play black, and you should just go izzet in that case.
Source:
613.3. Within layer 7, apply effects in a series of sublayers in the order described below. Within each sublayer, apply effects in timestamp order. (See rule 613.6.) Note that dependency may alter the order in which effects are applied within a sublayer. (See rule 613.7.)
613.3c Layer 7c: Effects that modify power and/or toughness (but don’t set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value) are applied.
613.3e Layer 7e: Effects that switch a creature’s power and toughness are applied. Such effects take the value of power and apply it to the creature’s toughness, and take the value of toughness and apply it to the creature’s power.
Level 1 Judge
The bolas token is there only because bolas is a double-faced card (just like all the checklist cards when there are double faced cards in the set) so that players aren't required to have opaque sleeves to play with these cards. It probably shouldn't even be called a token. Notice at the bottom left the number is CH1/280. It's a checklist card, with only 1 possible option.
2UW
3/3
Flash
Flying
You may cast historic spells as though they had flash
Is this strong enough to break into the stacked azorius guild? Giving all artifacts, legendaries, and sagas (if you plan on playing them) flash seems really strong. Remember, all planeswalkers are legendaries now.