At the risk of being flamed into oblivion, my favorite card is Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Now let me explain...
There's plenty of hate around Jace, both in terms of $$$ and power. Still though, I think it represents something we don't see as much of anymore, and something that I think people enjoy.
I like that Wizards decided to just go a little crazy and say "You know what? Screw it, we're going to blow it up and create the most powerful planeswalker the game has seen and probably will ever see. Three abilities? Pfft, give it four! Make ALL of them awesome!"
I feel like Wizards is afraid to create crazy cards anymore. How often do people look at some new powerful card and think "man, it's like they ran to the 1 yard line, stopped, and then said 'good enough!'" I like that they went crazy even if it meant banning the card in multiple formats. I like that they decided to make it the poster child of Magic in terms of artwork and power. I like that they revealed it a puzzle piece at a time, letting fans salivate over the abilities. "OMG, is that Brainstorm on a stick?" "Holy crap, he can unsummon too?!"
I think it meant something to the game in general, no matter how broken it was. It said that Wizards could still go a little nuts. It proved that the game could still be broken, resulting in the first Standard ban in a long time.
Love it or hate it, I feel like Jace, the Mind Sculptor is the first card printed in a long time that had the same notoriety and fame as the cards in the Power Nine.
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- The Greendale Human Being
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Apr 3, 2013
The Greendale Human Being posted a message on The Stack, Ability Resolution, and Checking ConditionsPosted in: The Greendale Human Being BlogQuote from SpikexNow, there is something which happened to me at a tourney which I dont understand. My opponent was playing restoration midrange and I was playing R/G Tron. I play Karn Liberated, knowing I have priority over his direct damage, I exile his only source of red mana - a Steam Vents. He "responds" by playing Lightning Bolt on my Karn - I told him I had priority, and he was confused so I called the judge. The judge said that my opponent could, indeed, add the bolt to the stack though it wouldnt resolve before Karn's ablity of exiling the Steam Vents did(the judge added that my opponent could also tap for red, float R, then bolt Karn when his ability had resolved. This I didnt appreciate becuase the judge isnt supposed to tell my oppenent his plays). This is what confuses me: If the bolt resolves before Karn' ability does, yet the cost of loyalty counters on Karn goes down to 3 because his ability is payed for wouldnt the bolt resolve first, since it was added second to the stack, Karn is at 3, hit for 3 then dies before his ability could resolve(since the targets have been altered as you descirbe in this entry)? This would mean that direct damage can kill planeswalkers before their prioritarian ability can even resolve making the whole rule about planeswlakers having priority completely moot and useless. In my opinion, the judge was wrong here, and my opponent couldnt cast lightning bolt, except by floating the R, the playing the bolt after the land was exiled. What are your thoughts on this?
The judge was indeed wrong and doesn't understand how the stack works.
In the situation you mentioned, your opponent can tap land targeting and add red, or even float it for that phase (remember mana empties between phases). At that point, Karn's ability has been added to the stack. If your opponent elects to cast a bolt, the bolt is on top of the stack (last in first out).
At that point, Bolt resolves first, killing Karn. However, that doesn't remove Karn's ability from the stack. All targets for the ability are still legal (the Steam Vents) and so the ability resolves because checking on resolution passes. The target hasn't been altered at all; it was and still is the Steam Vents. Karn doesn't need to be present for the ability to resolve.
Your opponent can keep that red mana floating until that phase ends. Once you enter either combat or the end phase it's gone though.
A simliar situation is true for abilities when creatures enter the battlefield. Say you play Vendilion Clique on your main phase. Clique's ETB ability goes on the stack. Your opponent may Bolt the Clique in response to the ability, but even with Clique gone the ability still resolves. -
May 28, 2011
The Greendale Human Being posted a message on Pyromancer Ascension: Post-Banning/M12.If you've already cast a Volt Charge, if you have a PA on the field it would get a counter on the second Volt Charge and then a second when it resolves from the proliferate.Posted in: Terrapin Guts Blog
Staggershock and Volt Charge make for an active Ascension on their second cast. -
Mar 3, 2011
The Greendale Human Being posted a message on Tezzerator 2.0Does Throne of Geth make sense in the Jace/Tezz/Koth variant?Posted in: NeoItems Blog
I'm thinking it can provide some extra backing in the form of:
- It can get Jace out of bolt/slag range if you brainstormed with him when he hit the field
- It can get Koth out of Galvanic Blast range if he's only at 4
- It can get Koth's ultimate to fire the second turn he's out
- It can get Tezz's ultimate to fire earlier/fire without losing him earlier (could be good if you need the life)
- It can pump the chalice
- It can be a 5/5 beater for Tezz
I think it *might* be worth using over the Opal since it can pump the chalice and keep Sphere of the Suns around longer. Contagion Clasp could also be good, but I think it's too slow for the aggro approach. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
The main reason? Grove of the Burnwillows.
I know DSJ is supposed to be able to "go under" Tron, but I just couldn't. He was able to consistently cause me to gain 1-2 life per turn off of Grove which kept me off the Shadow plan. At some point inevitability just takes over the game, because shredding his hand didn't matter as he could top deck something that shut down my Goyf(s), which was my only threat left.
Postboard allowed me to get Fulminator hijinks online, but he sided into Relic which kept Goyf at bay and continued the lifegain shenanigans off of Grove.
Am I playing this match wrong? Has anyone else struggled like this? I think if it was the GB or GW variants I'd have been ok since IoK could have stripped removal and I could get at or below 10 life without interference.
FWIW I was trying the straight Jund plan with 2 Tombs instead of a Shrine. Other variance was 2 LotV MD and 2 Last Hope side, 3 Push, 1 MD Decay and 1 Brutality side.
Some gifts aren't though.
Just a thought really; I'm sure most will think it's a wrong thought. I just think their increasing the supply of this card is an indication it will continue to be a major player in the format, and Preordain would eliminate that presence.
Any rooting for a Preordain unban is for naught now.
Wizards is finally really starting to grasp how important reprinting format staples is.
This is reparations for MM15. "Sorry I burned down your village. Here's some gold." indeed.
I recently bought into Baubles again (managed to find them for $14 each a week ago somehow), and was dumbfounded to see that they're $30+ now.
I'm really hoping they reprint the stupid thing at common to be honest.
They're streaming another Eldrazi Tron and Death's Shadow match!
My hope is for mesas that are noticeably arid, catacombs that are sufficiently verdant, rainforests that are convincingly misty, flats that are appropriately marshy, and some tarns that are considerably scalding.
I'm curious to try it myself.
I was confused because we were talking about Cavern but then you started talking about Mindbreak Trap and Dispel against Retract in a way that seemed like it was either a bit of a non sequitur or confusion about Cavern. Sounds like it was just a deviation from the original subject that I processed incorrectly. Sorry.
Part of the reason for trying out 2 Paradoxical in the main is that my meta is lousy with interactive decks, so I feel like I'd be better off running it main since it would come in for probably > 50% of my matches from the board otherwise.
Now I'm debating whether or not 1-2 Horizon Canopy is worth it.
Also, Modern Nexus posted a financial article about the deck: http://modernnexus.com/financial-deck-tech-cheeri0s/
Sorry, just to be clear, are you suggesting that the Cavern somehow helps with Dispel/Trap against your Retracts? I'm not understanding what you're suggesting in order to have "that fight."
Genuinely baffled by this. What are you naming? Sram and Puresteel don't share a type. Also, if it's a Spirits build, it's worth calling out that Queller exiles; it doesn't counter.
I recently sleeved up the deck (had to rebuy into Opals, equipment was cheap and managed to get Retract before the spike) and I've been goldfishing it a decent amount.
I know I'm coming in to this discussion with a lot of prior art, and to quote Erlich Bachman on Silicon Valley I probably "just brought piss to a ***** fight" with my thoughts.
1) Part of me wants to run at least a singleton Muddle the Mixture. It's relevant against removal even if double blue is tough, and it's a 9th copy of Sram/Paladin in a pinch if the game goes long for some reason.
2) I tried Riddlesmith and wasn't a fan. I think it's solid if you want to get 2 guys online since draw 2/discard 1 isn't horrible, but by himself he can't really turn things on since you'll often discard too much in the process. Tried him as a 2-of.
3) I've been trying a double Revival/single Grapheshot list (everything else is more or less the same as other lists barring disagreement over Sigil). The reason for this, and one of my big concerns of this deck, is that it's really a 3 card combo you need to hit multiple times: Sram/Paladin + Opal + Retract. Since both Retract and Opal can end up in the yard trying to go off, I think a second Revival is a better option for consistency.
4) I'm having Vietnam flashbacks to bad Infect mulligans with this deck, where you really need to mull to a hand with a Sram/Paladin it seems. I think it's just a consistency thing since it's a very all-in combo, but I still get a major case of the feels bad mans when mulliganing repeatedly.
5) I have a bad feeling about playing this deck in my local meta since lately it's been a pretty heavy combination of interactive decks (BGx/Spirits/Grixis) and Burn. I don't know how much the deck can be insulated on these matchups via the sideboard.
EDIT: just found 3 (!!!) pieces of equipment that slipped under my monitor stand that were missing from my deck. Guess I better throw some of that testing out the window.
I've been running Nacatl Burn for a couple months now and I've been really happy with it, but it does seem like things are shifting towards Nocatl being more favorable from what I can tell (it's the single most divisive question with the deck though so who knows how things will go over time).
I can see that plenty of RWg decks are doing fine with a 14 creature package, but I've always felt (perhaps unnecessarily) concerned that 14 creatures just isn't enough. When I win with Burn it's generally off of the back of creatures and not spells.
For those of you playing Nocatl, have you found this to be a struggle at all?
There's a part of me that's tossed around the idea of trying out Figure of Destiny just to see how it feels. The one nice aspect of it is that it's a much better topdeck if we're going into T6+ than many of our other creatures if you'd dealing with larger opposing beats, but I'm guessing it's been tried and written off?
I'm also still tempted to try a 2/2 split of Bedlam Reveler and Grim Lavamancer in there in place of the Nacatls.