MTG Salvation

Quote from UNBAN SHAHRAZAD

There's a difference between players vastly overvaluing cardboard and stores setting prices for things that are suppose to be given away. Even if SCG is not selling the checklists they are being given, many stores, particularly ones who only have a casual interest in Magic, may very well begin to sell the ones that are suppose to be free because they look to SCG for their pricing information.

Pray tell, at what point was it declared that check lists are "suppose to be given away"? Are you arguing that Star City Games should be handing them out for free, when they don't even do that with basic land (which are more necessary to the game than these checklists will ever be) and token cards (which are even less necessary as you can literally replace a token with almost anything in arm's reach)?

The point is, the checklists are still being given away; you will be getting about three for every four booster packs you open no matter what Star City or anyone else says they're worth (not to mention those handed out or left behind by players who prefer to use sleeves). I see absolutely no reason for this bout of recreational outrage and nothing to be gained by it.

Quote from Kelnon

Forced Fruitation wouldn't work, they simply put a copy on the stack, they do not play the spell.

Yes, but they'll presumably be playing other spells of their own so Forced Fruition will pair with the draw spells you cast (with Hive Mind copying them) to mill your opponent out faster.

I've always wanted to pair Hive Mind with Megrim/Liliana's Caress/Underworld Dreams and start spamming Careful Study effects. If you could fit a third color (kind of hard with Underworld Dreams running around) some Wheel of Fate/Fortunes and maybe even Drastic Revelation's would be awesome.

Quote from patredwood

I suppose that is up to interpretation given Savia's point. I'd call Rise//Fall one card, even though it is listed twice. There were 10 multicolor split cards right? So that would put us at 990.

Indeed, and when I checked, Transguild Courier was not listed (alphabeticallty, it should be between Traitor's Roar and Trapjaw Kelpie but isn't) so It looks like 990 to me (999 that are listed, minus 10 for the double-counted split cards and plus 1 for the Courier.)

It's not really possible to say this format or that is the cheapest without knowing anything about individual player behavior.

Just to compare Standard and Legacy (two ends of the spectrum as it were): If you're the kind of player who is satisfied having one deck and playing it forever, then Legacy will be far cheaper than Standard where you are likely to change your deck at least slightly every few months and drastically every year or so. If you prefer to change your deck regularly, Standard will probably be cheaper as the average individual deck costs less than the average individual Legacy deck. Without knowing this kind of information, it's impossible to say one format is the "cheapest" one "over time".

Quote from 98ViperGTS

Why don't you just return it, and instead, get a good binder.

Ahem.

Quote from jvlin

Storytime.

So a little over three months ago, I purchased a monster binder from an amazon merchant. Recently, I noticed that all the bottom middle slots were defective, as in they open from both the left and the right. You can see that the plastic covering on top wasn't positioned correctly, and did not seal from the side it was supposed to.The defect is for every page on the first half of the binder in the same spot. There is no question that it is a manufacturer's defect. So I contacted the merchant about an exchange for the same product, and they haven't responded, probably because they don't care.

Assuming they don't respond and refuse to do an exchange, would it be ethical to buy a new product, then return the old, defective one? It is still in pristine condition, since I keep it in a laptop sleeve before I put it in my backpack.

Yes. Like (almost) any other triggered ability, Woodfall Primus' persist will go on the stack and wait to resolve. While it's waiting, the Primus is in its owner's graveyard and is a valid target for Nighteyes the Desecrator's activated ability. Once Nighteyes' ability resolves, the Primus is no longer in the graveyard so its persist ability will have no effect when it resolves.

Quote from AQJ

Isnt Leyline of Sanctity just better in every way?

Pretty much. As always there are corner cases (e.g. an opponent can Redirect your targeted spells back at you with Leyline of Sanctity but not with Ivory Mask) but corner cases are rarely worth worrying about.

Quote from Gwar_The_Trolle

HMm, Does Spiders [anything] fit the N&N Crunch? I remember hearing that Spiders were gonna be pushed as greens new tribe.

Sure. Here's the artifact section of the crunch (I didn't use quote brackets as that would italicize the whole thing.)

---START QUOTE---
Names in bold are confirmed, including their cardnumber
Names in normal type (not bold) are confirmed, but their exact cardnumber (or even colour) is as yet unknown. Their position may be subject to change.
Names in italics are speculation
Words in brackets [] are placeholders for cards we know a lot about, except the name, or only a partial name.

Artifacts: 1C-10U-2R-0M/?C-??U-6R-1M
201 A
202 A Angel’s Feather (Artifact), Uncommon
203 A Crown of Empires (Artifact)
204 A Crumbling Colossus (Artifact Creature – Golem), Uncommon
205 A Demon’s Horn (Artifact), Uncommon
206 A Dragon’s Claw (Artifact), Uncommon
207 A Druidic Satchel (Artifact), Rare
208 A
209 A Greatsword(Artifact – Equipment) , Uncommon
210 A Kite Shield (Artifact – Equipment), Uncommon
211 A Kraken’s Eye (Artifact), Uncommon
212 A Manalith (Artifact), Common
213 A Ornithopter (Artifact Creature - Thopter), Uncommon
214 A Quicksilver Amulet (Artifact), Rare
215 A Rusted [Sentinel] (Artifact Creature – Golem), Uncommon
216 A Scepter of Empires (Artifact)
217 A Solemn Simulacrum (Artifact Creature – Golem), Rare
218 A
219 A Swiftfoot Boots (Artifact – Equipment), Uncommon
220 A Thran Golem (Artifact Creature – Golem), Uncommon
221 A Throne of Empires (Artifact)
222 A Worldslayer (Artfact – Equipment), Rare
223 A Wurm’s Tooth (Artifact), Uncommon
---END QUOTE---

As you can see, Wurm's Tooth in slot 223 is only speculated right now. However, any artifact beginning with the word "Spider's" would fit into slot 218 perfectly. "Hydra's" artifacts are out because they would have to fit between Greatsword (at 209) and Kite Shield (at 210), both of which are fully confirmed and locked it.

Quote from Gwar_The_Trolle

Hmm, the more I think about it the more likely "Hydra's Scale" seems plausible.

Why else would they not spoil the green one at the same time as the rest of them?

The problem is, as I said in my edit to the first post, "Hydra's [Noun]" doesn't fit in the name and number crunch. I could see "Spider's [Noun]" (fang, maybe?) being printed.

As you say, it just seems strange that all of them were spoiled in one shot except the green one.

This may be nothing and doesn't seem very important one way or the other (I mean, look at the card in question.

In any event, I've noticed that Wurm's Tooth isn't in the official visual spoiler even though the rest of its cycle (Angel's Feather, Demon's Horn, Dragon's Claw and Kraken's Eye) is there. As best I can figure, this means one of three thing:

1) Absolutely nothing, the Tooth simply hasn't been spoiled or verified yet. This seems pretty likely.

2) Wizards is breaking the cycle, printing only four of the five. This seems very unlikely but I guess it's still possible.

3) Wizards is replacing the Tooth with an equivalent card to complete the cycle. This is less likely, but more interesting than option 1. There's been a good amount of talk over the years about green's big, iconic creature type so maybe Wizards is repackaging green's life-gain charm to reflect a creature type they're trying to push more. It does seem like we have seen a lot of hydras lately; maybe it will show up as Hydra's Tooth or maybe something else entirely.

As I said, option 3 seems unlikely (especially since Wizards didn't rebrand Kraken's Eye to Sphinx's Something-or-Other to reflect the greater use of sphinxes (sphinxen?)) but I found it kind of interesting so there you go.

EDIT: Having taken a look at the Name and Number Crunch, it looks like Hydra's [Noun] is out of the question. There's still space for Wurm's Tooth or something before Angel's Feather, between Druidic Satchel and Greatsword or between Solemn Simulacrum and Swiftfoot Boots (or after Worldslayer, but at that point Wurm's Tooth is the obvious guess.) I suppose Spider's [Noun] would fit...

UNBAN SHAHRAZAD: I think you're overstating the importance of "uniqueness" (as you call it here). Several planeswalkers have done very unique things (like Nissa Revane letting you fetch as many elves as you want from your library to the battlefield and Venser the Sojourner giving you repeatable free exile-based removal) without actually being very good and several that have done things we've seen a million times (like Garruk Wildspeaker's Overrun and Gideon Jura swinging for 6) that are still very good planeswalkers.

"Uniqueness" can add a big "Wow!" factor to a planeswalker (or any card, really) but it ceratinly isn't the only way to go about it or even necessarily the best.

Yes, they are considered the same. All cards printed with the type "Soldiers" should have received errata to have the type "Soldier" in their Oracle text. (See the Weatherlight Ardent Militia for example.)

EDIT: Benalish Infantry is probably a better example as it was printed with the creature type "Soldiers" and has received errata to have the creature type "Soldier" even though it has never been reprinted with the updated type.

In my opinion, the problem isn't the troll deck, but the troll playing it. There's nothing inherently wrong with playing a lock-down deck, but there certainly is with a player whose game plan doesn't involve winning so much as making the game such an unpleasent experience that your opponent concedes just to get away from him.

Quote from UNBAN SHAHRAZAD

Playing against people who are rule lawyers.

Funny, one of mine was going to be "People who complain, call me a "rules lawyer" or act like I'm being a spoil-sport or kill-joy for not letting them make illegal plays."

I'll agree with a number of the people who've posted above about people who argue and refuese to accept basic rules answers. I've got a good track record and friends voucing for my rules knowledge and they still don't beleive that I can put triggered abilities I control on the stack in the order I choose or something simple like that.

Even worse are people who really should know the rules but don't. I once had a judge (at a causal, free-play event) argue once that multiple Ronin WarClubs can't trigger for a single creature entering the battlefield and a rules advisor try to tell me that, because of Lucent Liminid and Dryad Arbor, "Enchantment", "Land" and "Forest" are now creature types.

Quote from NumaPompilius

Actually, Lance was uncommon, and, as far as I know, "rare" islands were only printed for Alpha/Beta and Unlimited (see here).

Psst. He said "Lace", not "Lance".

To be fair, bradstone did mention getting a Serra Angel in the first post and Serra Angel was uncommon at the time.