Delve would be a fine guild mechanic. That's a perfectly good excuse to print it in small quantities. It didn't work in Innistrad, though, because it hoses a lot of the other theme cards you'd probably want to play. It probably didn't get considered for Golgari because it would have been too similar to the rakdos paincast mechanic that got cut toward the end of the set's internal life. (it's like what you see on the guildleader)
Actually, there was an article explaining that Delve was originally created for Innistrad block. Then, they got to testing... and found that a mechanic that eats your graveyard is no fun to play with in a graveyard-centric block. So, it is very possible that it comes out in DGM.
Emblem of the Warmind seems like it would fit, too. There's been a good chunk of enchantments matter going on, at least in RTR. I wouldn't be surprised to see some more of that.
There's a lot of differences between the two sets. No uncounterable cycle in GTC, for example. If the two sets were made identical is every way, drafting may have gotten unpredictable. If everything is structured the same, it could make a limited enivornment that is almost be like drafting the same format for six months in a row... just with different art on the cards.
When you cast Entreat the Angels, no matter if it's miracled or not, it's casting cost is XXWWW. So, if it was Miracled for 3, it's CMC is 9.
Spells with X in their casting cost treat X as zero when determining converted mana cost everywhere but the stack. When they are on the stack, the converted mana cost is X + whatever else. Long story short, Mystic Genesis will create a 9/9 ooze if it counters a miracled Entreat for 3. CMC doesn't care about how much you paid to cast the spell; for instance a morph always has a CMC of 0 despite the fact that you paid 3 to cast it. A flashback spell has the CMC printed in the top-right of the card, not the amount you paid to flash it back.
I don't know if I had bad luck, or just weird circumstances... but I never wanted to draw my Thrull. When he came down, he did nothing besides clog up the board, and act as another extort trigger. A Basilica Guards would have been as good at the Treasury Thrull for me.
The one I saw doing the most work was Simic's Fathom Mage. That thing was a machine. I never saw anybody get it online, and lose.
Wait, nobody's even seen Yawgmoth, yet the Phyrexians were heavily involved with Yawgmoth for a couple years? Then, Yawgmoth 'died', conviniently, when Phyrexia wanted to see Yagmoth? I think I know what's going on here... Yawgmoth is Tuiasosopo!
Since the original block was such a flop in terms of game play and power level, I know it will never happen... but I would love to see them revisit Kamigawa. I really enjoyed the story of that block, even if the novels were horribly edited.
The reason a card is banned is because it has too much impact on the game. Restricting makes games even more swingy; for example, when you draw your Jace, you just win... but it's a 1 card in 60 chance. Games are won more on chance than skill with an extensive restricted list. Plus, there's always tutors, etc that make it easier to find your restricted card, and then you wind up with (essentially) five copies of that restricted card, if you're willing to use a tutor to find it. Restricting cards is just not very friendly to balanced play that WOTC is trying to push in the formats.
Cards are restricted in vintage because if they were just banned, they would not be playable in ANY format. And that would suck. That type of logic does not exist in standard, modern, or any other format. Ban in modern, still playable in legacy / vintage. Banned in legacy, still playable in vintage.
Would that really have helped? If the two players disagree on whether a mulligan happened, it's extremely likely that one or the other is cheating. It's trivial for a cheater to write down "I mulliganed", so that's not something a judge should really consider.
The bottom line is that when there's no one watching and the cheater is smart, it's basically impossible for a judge to determine which player is the cheater and which is the honest one.
While it's not the end-all, be-all, if one player has meticulous notes regarding who went first, mulligans taken, etc, and the other just has random chicken scratches that somewhat resemble life totals, it will weigh into the investigation. It doesn't take much to write "M" down next to "20" at the start of a game when somebody takes a mulligan, and a mark that will indicate which player went first. If you force yourself to take good notes and practice proper play even at FNM (no, not sharking, but being strict with yourself on how you play) it will translate positively into competitive / professional events.
If the OP's story is correct and the judge determined that the friend's opponent was the one telling the truth, shouldn't the friend have also received a penalty for lying to the judge about the mulligan?
Not necessarily; since there is a lot going on in a game of Magic, there are many judge calls where neither playing is lying, but the stories don't line up with each other. Maybe the opponent did mulligan in a previous game, but since there's been a lot happening in the match one player forgot which game the mulligan was in.
When resolving the Killing Wave, the active player decides first which creatures will be sacrificed, then the non-active played decides. However, all the creatures sacrificed will see everything die... just like with Mutilate. So if you Killing Wave for 2, and choose to sac your Blood Artists, they will still see everything else die, and provide the triggers for those dying, too.
This is true of all choices that have to be made when a spell resolves (both players discard 1, or sac creatures, or whatever). Active player chooses, then non-active player. In the case of discarding, you can keep the card you've chosen to discard face down until everybody's chosen, though.
9 people in my pod. 3 pods and a constructed fnm on the night.
The thing is the TO gave away 2 of the fnm foils randomly
All 25+ people in the draft portion were considered to be in the same event, even though it sounds like you didn't play cross-pod. It's a perfectly acceptable method of running a tournament. You probably got third or fourth due to tiebreaks, and I would be willing to bet you were paired down at least one round, and I would put money on you being paired down both the second and third round. Two randoms, and two to the players in 1st and 2nd left you without a promo.
Yes, there is. During the "End of Combat Step", a trigger will be put on the stack exiling the angel. If you activate your Sundial with that trigger on the stack, you will keep the angel indefinetely (since the exile trigger only goes on the stack once).
Long story short, if you Ovinize a Kobold, it will remain red, since being red is a "Characteristic Defining Ability" of the Kobold.
When there are effects that 'play around' with abilities, wording, color, p/t, etc, the characteristics of the card are determined by looking at layers. Color is the second layer, well before abilities are looked at / changed.
Actually, there was an article explaining that Delve was originally created for Innistrad block. Then, they got to testing... and found that a mechanic that eats your graveyard is no fun to play with in a graveyard-centric block. So, it is very possible that it comes out in DGM.
Emblem of the Warmind seems like it would fit, too. There's been a good chunk of enchantments matter going on, at least in RTR. I wouldn't be surprised to see some more of that.
Awesome how? Extort doesn't trigger off of your teammate casting spells. Extort will drain for 2 instead of 1 though (1 per opponent).
Spells with X in their casting cost treat X as zero when determining converted mana cost everywhere but the stack. When they are on the stack, the converted mana cost is X + whatever else. Long story short, Mystic Genesis will create a 9/9 ooze if it counters a miracled Entreat for 3. CMC doesn't care about how much you paid to cast the spell; for instance a morph always has a CMC of 0 despite the fact that you paid 3 to cast it. A flashback spell has the CMC printed in the top-right of the card, not the amount you paid to flash it back.
The one I saw doing the most work was Simic's Fathom Mage. That thing was a machine. I never saw anybody get it online, and lose.
Cards are restricted in vintage because if they were just banned, they would not be playable in ANY format. And that would suck. That type of logic does not exist in standard, modern, or any other format. Ban in modern, still playable in legacy / vintage. Banned in legacy, still playable in vintage.
While it's not the end-all, be-all, if one player has meticulous notes regarding who went first, mulligans taken, etc, and the other just has random chicken scratches that somewhat resemble life totals, it will weigh into the investigation. It doesn't take much to write "M" down next to "20" at the start of a game when somebody takes a mulligan, and a mark that will indicate which player went first. If you force yourself to take good notes and practice proper play even at FNM (no, not sharking, but being strict with yourself on how you play) it will translate positively into competitive / professional events.
Not necessarily; since there is a lot going on in a game of Magic, there are many judge calls where neither playing is lying, but the stories don't line up with each other. Maybe the opponent did mulligan in a previous game, but since there's been a lot happening in the match one player forgot which game the mulligan was in.
This is true of all choices that have to be made when a spell resolves (both players discard 1, or sac creatures, or whatever). Active player chooses, then non-active player. In the case of discarding, you can keep the card you've chosen to discard face down until everybody's chosen, though.
All 25+ people in the draft portion were considered to be in the same event, even though it sounds like you didn't play cross-pod. It's a perfectly acceptable method of running a tournament. You probably got third or fourth due to tiebreaks, and I would be willing to bet you were paired down at least one round, and I would put money on you being paired down both the second and third round. Two randoms, and two to the players in 1st and 2nd left you without a promo.
When there are effects that 'play around' with abilities, wording, color, p/t, etc, the characteristics of the card are determined by looking at layers. Color is the second layer, well before abilities are looked at / changed.
I can't speak for how it used to work; I've played for a long time but never paid attention to nuances like you're talking about until recently. For a great article on how layers work, and why they work that way, look here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=judge/article/20091105a