If you discard Biting Rain as part of the activation cost of Stromkirk Condemned's ability, you will finish activating the ability and put it on the stack, and then put Biting Rain's madness trigger on the stack. The first thing to resolve is Biting Rain's madness trigger, at which point you'll choose between casting it or putting it in the graveyard. If you choose to cast it, the next thing to resolve is Biting Rain, and then Stromkirk Condemned's ability.
Cardtags look like this:[card]cardname[/card]
Don't be sorry for asking questions, it's what this forum is here for, welcome aboard.
Does the card mean "you may have any number of creatures you control become a copy" or "you may have all your creatures (other than DoF) become copies"?
In other words, can you choose to have only one creature become a copy, that way the Legendary rule doesn't kill anything.
You choose none or all. The ability does not ask you to decide separately for each creature, but rather for all creatures you control as a group.
It probably has to do with gambling laws and that if they acknowledged that the prices of cards vary from pack to pack that they would be subjected to said laws.
This is what I also believe to be the main cause. If they admit that different cards have different monetary value then they've implied a long list of things they'd rather not (varying degree of seriousness here):
Booster Packs are lottery tickets
Drafts are gambling events
Promos are monetary compensation
MTGO objects are virtual currency
Presale of singles is blind shorting
Anyone with knowledge of banlist decisions or future releases are potentially insider traders
These implication might not hold water for any particular jurisdiction, but Magic is a global brand so WotC want to stay on the right side of the law in every country it's involved in. That is, they want to abide by the gambling laws of the country with the strictest gambling laws, and so on for each point. The risk might be low, but since there's probably very little profit in acknowledging the secondary market there's little reason to accept any risk.
You don't get to choose, you get all that apply. It's a single triggered ability at the beginning of combat, and the effect lasts until end of turn.
E.g.
You have: Typhoid Rats, Wind Drake and Odric, Lunarch Marshal. At the beginning of combat the ability triggers, when it resolves all your three creatures gain deathtouch and flying until end of turn.
Edit: Notified the mods about this being in the wrong forum. FYI, the right place for questions like this is the Magic Rulings subforum.
I'm a little amazed we don't have people doing the usual "What about those that spent money on the deck", "I can't trust Wizards anymore", and "I'm quitting the format" from the usual crowd when a sudden ban happens.
It isn't all that surprising this was going to happen though, the card was going to be abused as soon as the icon showed common.
Those complains aren't necessary for a format where card prices are relatively healthy. A full pauper deck costs less than some singles in modern and legacy. And it's not like all the cards in drake decks are now useless, e.g. Lightning Bolt and Counterspell are still great cards.
Comparable. Unlike some earlier sets the Italian version of alliances is not worth significantly less, but it might be harder to find a buyer. There are plenty of copies of both on mkm.
Hmm, that's interesting I've always been told that during that time frame there were fewer of the foreign language sets produced compared to English.
There are probably fewer total Italian copies of cards from Alliances than English copies, but the demand for Italian cards is also much lower.
Also, the Legends set was overprinted in Italian, compared to the English print run, which means that cards from Legends has historically been much cheaper in Italian than English. This has given Italian a reputation as the "cheap language" for legacy cards. This means that Italian is unlikely to ever gain popularity as a way "pimp" a legacy deck, like some other languages.
In German there are also some cards who have the same German name. (Rampant growth and overgrowth)
I can forgive that they make such "mistakes" when the cards come out years apart form each other, but in the same set? That is pretty sad.
Yes, apparently doing a search for name duplicates is not a part of their translation process. There are also some cards where the translated name is the same as a different English card, but that's more understandable in my opinion. There's no need to be consistent across all languages, but I don't think consistent naming within one language isn't too much to ask for.
Comparable. Unlike some earlier sets the Italian version of alliances is not worth significantly less, but it might be harder to find a buyer. There are plenty of copies of both on mkm.
Yup, deck construction and other rules use the english name (so you can, of course, run 4 of each of these in the same deck, you can't block both with a single Meddling Mage, etc). There are other examples, like Ponder and Contemplation which are both called "contemplation" in French.
Edit: Conduit of Ruin and Ruination Guide were both printed with the same Japanese name, in the same set! (and I get "Non Latin Unicode characters are temporarily not allowed." if I try to write the japanese name)
Edit2: Conduit of RuinRuination Guide WotC link to Japanese version.
Alchemist should be its own type. Throughout history, Wizards has has not quite known what to do with alchemists. I want Alchemist, Child, and Lord to all be creature types. Maybe not child, as few cards would have it, but Lord seems obvious. Lords and Advisors are not the same thing.
Lord used to be a creature type, but was dropped.
Witches, like alchemists, seem to switch randomly between shaman and wizard, as well as the occasional cleric and spellshaper.
Original Ravnica had a few different types, probably trying to reflect differences among the guilds, but I think the Selesnya crystal one was the most iconic. RtR printing is similar but lacks the crystal and legs, so it is probably the same type but it feels a bit different. Supply // Demand, Selesnya Evangel, Fists of Ironwood, Seed Spark, Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
Guess I will just hope that the next thallid/saproling set gets a feature like Eldrazi Scions, Clues, Zombies, Thopters, and Servos have recently
You're completely right about the crystals. Fingers crossed on the thallid/saproling set.
I love the new bird token, and the spirit token. And as several have pointed out, that zombie token has been reprinted too many times. Any other art would have been more interesting. I had completely forgotten about the artifact horror token, but it's pretty good (originally from mirrodin besieged).
The "look" of saprolings seem to be highly plane-dependent. Like goblins, which look very different on Tarkir and Mercadia. So a saproling on Mercadia isn't the same as one on Dominaria or Ravnica etc. The saproling on Tana, the Bloodsower looks like Brad Rigney's art, which also has been reprinted a couple of times. I think that "look" first appeared on Fungal Sprouting, which references Ghave, Guru of Spores, but I'm not sure if it's ever been revealed where he's from. Brad Rigney's Art has only been used in core sets and a duel deck, so it's an open guess which plane it's supposed to represent.
For "holding" value? Reserve list staples seem like a good choice.
For something that's easily sold for cash? Any kind of frequently traded card, e.g. modern staples.
Any cards you actually want to play with yourself is probably the highest utility choice for you personally, but there's no way for us to know what cards you want (if any).
Edit: And if you want to turn the cards into cash ASAP compare the buylist prices of some larger store with the retail prices of the store in question. You'll lose a significant percentage, but that's probably the quickest store credit to cash transaction you can get, unless you find someone willing to buy your store credit (if that's even allowed by the store).
Edit2: Noticed you're in Australia. Due to postage prices and such it's probably better to just get reserve list staples, with the value divided among as few cards as possible (preferrably a single card). Or if you're looking to resell quickly, go for the kind of cards you see sell quickly in your local groups.
What tokens can be displayed with card tages. Some, like Goblin ([card]Goblin[/card]) work, but others like Hellion ([card]Hellion[/card]) don't. Is it based on tokens that were included in the duel deck anthology, because, at first glance it kind of looks like that's the case.
Also, is there a way to link to a specific version of a token? Like Goblin, but with [card]Goblin|Magic Origins[/card], or something similar to get the specified version? This is probably more important for things like Elemental, where the different versions have different power, toughness and abilities.
This one is currently displaying something that doesn't exist: Dragon
If you discard Biting Rain as part of the activation cost of Stromkirk Condemned's ability, you will finish activating the ability and put it on the stack, and then put Biting Rain's madness trigger on the stack. The first thing to resolve is Biting Rain's madness trigger, at which point you'll choose between casting it or putting it in the graveyard. If you choose to cast it, the next thing to resolve is Biting Rain, and then Stromkirk Condemned's ability.
Cardtags look like this:[card]cardname[/card]
Don't be sorry for asking questions, it's what this forum is here for, welcome aboard.
You choose none or all. The ability does not ask you to decide separately for each creature, but rather for all creatures you control as a group.
This is what I also believe to be the main cause. If they admit that different cards have different monetary value then they've implied a long list of things they'd rather not (varying degree of seriousness here):
These implication might not hold water for any particular jurisdiction, but Magic is a global brand so WotC want to stay on the right side of the law in every country it's involved in. That is, they want to abide by the gambling laws of the country with the strictest gambling laws, and so on for each point. The risk might be low, but since there's probably very little profit in acknowledging the secondary market there's little reason to accept any risk.
E.g.
You have: Typhoid Rats, Wind Drake and Odric, Lunarch Marshal. At the beginning of combat the ability triggers, when it resolves all your three creatures gain deathtouch and flying until end of turn.
Edit: Notified the mods about this being in the wrong forum. FYI, the right place for questions like this is the Magic Rulings subforum.
Turn it around, if you gave a new player a tuned deck there would be no changes the player could make that wouldn't make the deck worse.
Those complains aren't necessary for a format where card prices are relatively healthy. A full pauper deck costs less than some singles in modern and legacy. And it's not like all the cards in drake decks are now useless, e.g. Lightning Bolt and Counterspell are still great cards.
There are probably fewer total Italian copies of cards from Alliances than English copies, but the demand for Italian cards is also much lower.
Also, the Legends set was overprinted in Italian, compared to the English print run, which means that cards from Legends has historically been much cheaper in Italian than English. This has given Italian a reputation as the "cheap language" for legacy cards. This means that Italian is unlikely to ever gain popularity as a way "pimp" a legacy deck, like some other languages.
Yes, apparently doing a search for name duplicates is not a part of their translation process. There are also some cards where the translated name is the same as a different English card, but that's more understandable in my opinion. There's no need to be consistent across all languages, but I don't think consistent naming within one language isn't too much to ask for.
Edit: Conduit of Ruin and Ruination Guide were both printed with the same Japanese name, in the same set! (and I get "Non Latin Unicode characters are temporarily not allowed." if I try to write the japanese name)
Edit2: Conduit of Ruin Ruination Guide WotC link to Japanese version.
Lord used to be a creature type, but was dropped.
Witches, like alchemists, seem to switch randomly between shaman and wizard, as well as the occasional cleric and spellshaper.
You're completely right about the crystals. Fingers crossed on the thallid/saproling set.
I love the new bird token, and the spirit token. And as several have pointed out, that zombie token has been reprinted too many times. Any other art would have been more interesting. I had completely forgotten about the artifact horror token, but it's pretty good (originally from mirrodin besieged).
Scatter the Seeds kind of looks like Raoul Vitale's art from RTR.
Personally I would love a Sprout Swarm saproling.
For "holding" value? Reserve list staples seem like a good choice.
For something that's easily sold for cash? Any kind of frequently traded card, e.g. modern staples.
Any cards you actually want to play with yourself is probably the highest utility choice for you personally, but there's no way for us to know what cards you want (if any).
Edit: And if you want to turn the cards into cash ASAP compare the buylist prices of some larger store with the retail prices of the store in question. You'll lose a significant percentage, but that's probably the quickest store credit to cash transaction you can get, unless you find someone willing to buy your store credit (if that's even allowed by the store).
Edit2: Noticed you're in Australia. Due to postage prices and such it's probably better to just get reserve list staples, with the value divided among as few cards as possible (preferrably a single card). Or if you're looking to resell quickly, go for the kind of cards you see sell quickly in your local groups.
Also, is there a way to link to a specific version of a token? Like Goblin, but with [card]Goblin|Magic Origins[/card], or something similar to get the specified version? This is probably more important for things like Elemental, where the different versions have different power, toughness and abilities.
This one is currently displaying something that doesn't exist: Dragon