MTG Salvation

Double strike & first strike are two different keywords. Archtype will not be able to remove the first strike portion of double strike as it isnt first strike.

Did someone say Emrukal? This can be super bonkers in limited and constructed

Quote from flaming infinity

Sets haven't ever had a huge number of their rares see play in standard and even if you pushed every single one, you'd still likely end up with a handful of "best decks" and a lot of strong cards that aren't worth much anyway. The big, splashy cards Commander loves aren't even taking up slots that would go to tournament cards. They're taking slots away from cards that are so narrow that almost no one would ever want it for anything including limited. We're talking cards like One with Nothing.

Precisely. I for one would rather open the "junk" card of something like Luminate Primordial or Biovisionary. Why? Because they are in some way fun, regardless of mana costs or viability.

Trying to defend the Spike point of view saying "you want to control variance and reward skill" isnt what you truly mean; you want to have all the control over the game, every aspect. You dont want to lose to what you consider an "inferior" card or strategy because if you do somehow (A) They cheated you or (B) its not fair.

Spike players are not a problem, but certain Spikes, lets call them Pinheads, don't look at anything else other than the overpowered. If its not unbalanced it's not good is the typical mindset of Pinheads, and are usually the ones to drive a particular deck into the ground because they cant wrap their heads around anything else.

i may receive some negative feedback for calling it out like this, but really, not every card can be Jace the Mind Sculptor or Stoneforge Mystic, because if they were they game itself would collapse, meaning no more Magic. but i guess you could always try more "competitive" games like The Spoils or Kaijudo

Quote from Uote

Oh god. Hadn't realized Evolve can get this complicated.
I'll have to sit down and learn the rules properly... euh.

Simic Fluxmage,
Elusive Krasis and
Crablimb Shark are in play.

Ghostway

*head implodes*

This isnt that hard. Each evolve creature will trigger twice, and if you stack your triggers correctly they will each get 2 counters a piece. How? Because of the "if" clause, as long as the creature has greater power or toughness upon resolution it will grow. The best way to stack it would be in sequence; shark, fluxmage, krasis, shark, fluxmage, krasis.

EDIT: Shark becomes 3/2, because fluxmage and krasis are "bigger, then fluxmage becomes 2/3, because shark and krasis are bigger, then krasis becomes 1/5 because of shark and fluxmage. Rinse and repeat and you end up with 4/3 shark, 3/4 fluxmage and 2/6 krasis. Math = fun

Yes. This is true with any sort of pumping/ p/t changes made to Beastmaster before she swings, including +1/+1 counters, giant growth effects, or p/t setting.

I answered a similar question here, but the short answer is yes, the game will remember what permanents are encoded, even when they stop being creatures.

Extort is a trigger ability on permanents (likely only creatures, but we'll see) that states "when you cast a spell you may pay X. if you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain the life lost this way." So, you cannot pay a single extort cost multiple times, but if you control multiple extort permanents they will trigger from each spell you cast.

Correct, much like other things, being encoded with more than one spell is fine, each trigger of cipher will happen when you deal combat damage with the encoded creature, just chose how you want them stacked and go to town

Just for clarification;

702.32a Flashback appears on some instants and sorceries.

It represents two static abilities: one that functions while
the card is in a player's graveyard and another that functions
while the card is on the stack. "Flashback [cost]" means
"You may cast this card from your graveyard by paying [cost]
rather than paying its mana cost" and
"If the flashback cost was paid, exile this card instead of
putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack."
Casting a spell using its flashback ability follows the
rules for paying alternative costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2e-g.So, since Cipher exiles the spell upon resolution anyways, flashback doesn't care.

OK, so from reading the subtext it looks like when the spell resolves you may exile it, just like you would for flashback. You make the choice when its resolving, so regardless of flashback it will be exiled to encode a creature if you choose to. Think about the examples with Unearth creatures and blinks; you are exiling it, doing what initially is required of you, you just have a loop hole to work around it.

Short answer; Yes, you may exile for cipher before flashback

from a purely flavor aspect it is the perfect charm for simic. Land creatures are definitely green, bouncing is blue and hexproof is their middle ground.

This fails under paying alternate costs. You can't pay the overload cost with Epic, but you may cast it for its non-overload cost.

The answer is no. When you copy something you copy all of its copyable texts, since it didnt have haste initially it doesn't get haste after. If it inately has haste then it would gain that

The thing is this enchantment can come down early, if luck on turn 3, regularly on 4. Here's the scenario;

T1: Pilgrim or Arbor Elf
T2; Farseek and another mana dork
T3: Collective Blessing

A lot of people will whine that that leaves you open to too much, but here's the kicker; THe mana dorks arent dorky anymore. You'll have 2 4/4's on the field to deal with and an enchantment that will boost ANYTHING else you bring down. If they HAPPEN to be packing enchantment hate in the maindeck then that goes to show the strength of the card, not the weakness

ya, but the bonus here is that its a single to have a dude turn 1, and if (or rather when) it dies you can make use of it again by pumping us something a little. Not super strong but good nonetheless