MTG Salvation

Quote from Castle

Where are the other 5 tokens?

You, sir, want war

But, but... Lady Gaga's music's great!
And I'm actually serious about what I just said
I don't agree with the name, but I'll give you a thumbs up for the ultimate - the stereotypical fan base sadly doesn't deserve her.

@Seth's card:

Whenever you gain life, (if [this] doesn't have a [something] counter), put a [something] counter on [this].
At the beginning of your upkeep, if [this] has a counter, make a token and remove a counter.

I know I'm kinda absent lately; if anyone needs me for contests or stuff, PM, I do check the thread almost every day but I find it hard to post on a topic that has already gone on for days without seeming redundant or pseudo-necroing.

I did find the time to play today, LSV-ing my prerelease 7-0. Nothing epic in the Swiss, just attaking with an always drawn Sword of Body and Mind backed up by a good removal suite. The final had the only little "Oooh!" moment worth mentioning, when in the decisive game my opponent windmill cast his Asceticism on a clogged up board, and the next turn I Volition Reins it

I'm still alive =)
But I've been kinda busy trying to set in motion my plan of total wordly domination.

Seriously!

At the end of last year I was made Director of the school's magazine, and this year I'm in the run for Head of the Student's Counsel, and when (notice: when, not if :D) I'll manage to be both, I'll be the first to cover both this roles, becoming virtually the first undiscussed authority among the students. And doing that in an Italian school being of Rumenian descent, well, it's a satisfaction

Darksteel Myr is IMO one of those cards that seem ugly at first but that Wizards prints to prove a point. In this case, they'll emphasize how great it was against infectless opponents, whereas it was balanced against the others.

Quote from The Cursed

I think the real question here should be why is this card selling for $30! It has limited uses (so far) and all I have read about it is complaints about how much better a chrome mox reprint would have been.

Well the first thing that came to mind was turn one land, Ornithopter, Memnite, Mox Opal with two mana open for Mana Leak/Doom Blade, turn two land, Tempered Steel, swing for 5... And it only gets more degenerate as far as the set is spoiled and the more 1, 0, and 2 mana efficient artifact beaters they print - luckily Court Homunculus rotates.

But this is not the topic at hand... I don't think there are any problems in vintage with it. Control-style decks that run it will always have a couple of artifacts in play - they also have access to artifact lands. AFAIK there isn't a way to "break" moxen... I mean, they're generally already broken themselves

Quote from Grim Lavamancer Joe

Mythic definition: a card that appeals to Timmy, Johnny and Spike that no deck wants more than 1-2 of.

The only thing I'd add is "does something no/few other card(s) do(es)"

Quote from perv90210

That is strange rewording, seems more convoluted. Rather than the old "You control target player's next turn" you have "You control target player during that player's next turn."

Lately they've been rethinking a lot of the stuff taken for granted (manaburn, set size, mythic rarity), but since there are few Melvin out there, may I also say that they've done that with wording too. Without speaking about lifelink, deathtouch, and the whole casting and entering the battlefield, State Base Effects are now State Based actions because that's what describes better the real outcome. It's the same here. Actually, you can't control a turn, but you can control all the choices that player could make - you're therefore controlling him. Makes sense, I suppose.

Sorin Markov has the old wording.

And he will probably get errata as soon as this comes out

Quote from Guesswork

Needlessly legendary

C'mon, it's not like this thing controls other creatures like Mind Control, a spell anyone could cast... some artificer managed to create and artifact that could control the mind of other planeswalkers! How many of it could be out there?

The mechanic feels very blue.

Almost every ability ever on any artifact is part of some color's part of the color pie, and they've also given us a perfect example with Scepter of Fugue, Scepter of Dominance and Scepter of Insight, based on previously colorless artifacts.

The inverted curve between mana and activation costs.

I'm a lousy developer, but they probably thought that the potential for abuse was higher, not simply because it could be cast earlier, but it could also be tutored easier (see Reshape, Tezzeret the Seeker, Beseech the Queen and Wargate)

It only exists to sac itself.

I really don't understand this argumentation... There are more than 200 artifacts in Magic which autosacrifice, this isn't anything new or unusual.

SoM would have been an excellent time to do not a Mindslaver reprint, but rather a Mindslaver homage.

1. Huge nostalgia factor.
2. (Many casual) players already owning it should be able to play it again instead of rebuing/retrading for something expensive, rare, and extremely similar to something they already have and treasured for all these years. You know, maintaining players' confidence in Magic as a collectible and so on and so forth.

Maybe a sexy Mindslavering equipment?

This I like... if what you meant is to get Psychic Possession to a whole new level, heralding Equipment for players

Quote from Anubis_Ravenheart

Lol at us all having nerdgasms over SOM. But damn is it gonna be amazing!!!!

QFT, I nerdgasmed all day long, first at the beautiful PT Amsterdam, and then at all the cards

Quote from Monkey Playing MTG

I find it funny that people in the custom card section debated like forever on the topic of a 1/1 for :0mana:, and now we have one. I laughed when I saw that...

Maybe I'm a bit Facebook dependent, but there are times when you'd just press "I like it" without adding any content, mainly because there isn't any to be added, but you'd still want to let the know the person that you've seen her post and found it interesting.
Poll to add this feature to MTGS?

I'm dowloading the MTGO client as I post, and I'd like some input from my fellow clanmates who use it
I've not created and account yet because I'm planning on convincing the friend I share my collection yet to also share the account. The more I've been thinking about it, the more it's the perfect solution for our situation:

1. We both want to get it to another level, he's even designed two lists that won two last chance qualifiers at nats in the hands of friends, whereas we both didn't make it in the last rounds.
2. It is generally widely accepted that MTGO gives you a great hand at reaching that next level.
3. Being two halves the costs.
4. We are both limited specialists, and our main plan is, after an initial investment of 50 bucks or such, to "go infinite" thanks to draft queues. The fact that money is at stake will greatly improve our performances, with the consequential improving in skill.
5. Personally, I don't have the time to play Magic in any casual environment, not even 8-man RL drafts. The only magic I'll get to play will be City Championship tournaments once and sometimes twice a week, and that is honestly not enough to attain my goal - qualify for nationals through the championship.
6. Other obvious stuff like a more professional playerbase than MWS, game rules-enforcement, not having to order and or store your collection and won prizes etc.

Someone please give me feedback on some or all of these points. I know that at worst it's 10 bucks thrown away, but I really hope it isn't.

Quote from Castle

Hold the Line (a.k.a "Love Isn't Always on Time" )

Quote from Castle

Defensive Offense 1WR
Enchantment
All instances of the word "attack" on permanents and cards not on the battlefield become "block", and vice versa. (This means "attacks" becomes "blocks", and "attacking" becomes "blocking".)

Quote from Jenesis

How would this work with keywords? Does Giant Spider become unable to block flying creatures, even though the word "block" only appears in its text box on reminder text? And how does it interact with creatures supposedly being able to attack creatures?

Poorly
Here's what I propose:

Defensive Offense 1WR
Enchantment
All instances of the word "attack" on permanents and cards not on the battlefield become "block", and vice versa, if possible. (For example, "whenever this creature attacks" becomes "whenever this creature blocks", but "this creature can block creatures with flying" remains unchanged.)

The only innovation is that "if possible", but I don't think it's that daring, we already have "if able", it's a really minor tweak. It basically says that if the sentence you would end up with is against the game rules, you leave as it was before, otherwise, abuse it. Which is what James wanted in the first place

Quote from silence_dais

Grace 3: If this creature would be put into the graveyard or exile you may instead return this creature to your hand.

I like catchall mechanics like Proliferate, so why don't you give yourself a complete insurance policy, also against Bant Charm, Gomazoa, Oust and Mind Control?

Grace (If you would lose control of this permanent, you may put it on top of its owner's library instead.)

I'd leave it costless because it's cooler, but I'd switch on top in the new version because it would be too powerful otherwise. It also creates strategical tension between keeping the flying bear you've been chumpblocking that Baneslayer with for the past three turns still available, or try to draw a card again, and therefore a possible solution

Quote from Castle

Voidling BBB
Creature - Lhurgoyf
Voidling's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in the removed-from-game zone.
*/*

Obviously this no longer works (or at the very best dies instantly no matter what) since its P/T counts cards in a zone that doesn't exist any more.

Huh? It's the other way around, actually
Previously, cards removed from the game didn't end exactly in a zone, they were just... "put aside", whereas now, exile is finally a zone, and it works for Voidling exactly how the graveyard works for Lhurgoyf

Quote from SlimDante

This took my breath away

OMG those freckles... Has it ever happened to you to see a girl on the street simply better than all the models and actresses? Well, I've just seen one on my screen

Quote from Piet

What do you guys think about the Silver Myr cycle being reprinted in SOM?

It was the first addition to my first deck, the 8th edition core set fourty-card blue one. I am obviously delighted

Quote from Castle

Damn, no spoilers, no minisite.

Exactly my reaction.

But, Paris has a Pro Tour AND a MADDA******' Grand Prix the same days! And I just found out I live an 8-hours drive from Paris!

OMG I totally have to do this.
Totally.
I'll talk all my friends into it.
All of them.
Paris.
Grand prix
AND Pro Tour!
...
PARIS!

Quote from coppro

A GP just isn't enough for Paris.

Totally!EDIT: I totally forgot about it Wurmcoil Engine will put two tokens into play, not just because it would be super awesome, but because both Swanland's arts have two mechanical wurms intewoven to form the engine

8-hour drive from Turin, north Italy. I wanna believe it.
I really want to

Quote from Ravarshi

Why'd they change the oracle like that? it should be as it's printed on goyf, not the opposite.. looks funny...

Quote from Seth Dracovitch

I originally had it as it is printed on Goyf, but I always check these things to make sure. And sure enough, the actual oracle wording is different now. I agree that it sounded a lot beffer before.

The reasoning behind the current incarnation is that vanguard, scheme, and plane are also card types, but reminding them in a normal magic game makes no sense at all, and clogs up an already long reminder text. So here we are

Quote from Jenesis

Otaria

That resolution is ridiculous! I'm so glad I switched from Gatherer to magiccards.info

Quote from Castle

I can't stand the whole mythic rarity thing and don't see the point of it. In terms of design, there shouldn't really be any difference between rares and mythics anyway...

...whereas in terms of marketing...

Quote from cocbit

Do not show the standings to the players.

This cannot be done. The number of judges is always way, way lower than the number of players: someone seeing that he/she can no longer make it and dropping is a valuable option to both the TO (who needs less resources to keep everything in check) and to the player (who saves time and might actually do something else that afternoon/evening, even something stupid like, you know, sleeping because next day he'll there's school/work)

Quote from cocbit

Randomized places for the players.

This would lead to an inefficient use of the venue, often a place that is not all-day and not totally reserved for the tournament (I'm talking PTQs here). Having half the number of players grouped in a smaller space makes the other half of the venue ready for another use or at least ready for cleaning etc. Also, when you have 200+ people PTQ with four judges, these last poor fellows will be very glad not to have to run like crazy to give timely rulings all around the tables. And I assure you, a sweaty judge is not a pleasant view

Quote from AzureShadow

I don't understand why they don't just ban intentional draws outright and have judges closely monitor the top ranked players in the round or two before the cut to top 8.

See the previous described situation for why judges won't always be able to closely (!) monitor the top ranked players. Draws can't be banned because two 3-0 players with control decks might want to draw and have lunch, or two friends that can choose would refuse playing each other in the early stages of the game, or the top 4 drawing saves everyone a lot of time and stress, or, or, or...