The creature enters the battlefield face down, so none of its "enters the battlefield" abilities will trigger or have any effect. Also none of its "As this enters the battlefield" abilities apply.
Does this mean that if I cast a Nyxathid with Illusionary Mask, I won't choose an opponent and it will always be a 7/7?
Also, if I do the same with Iona, Shield of Emeria, will I have a Iona that prevent my opponent from casting colorless spells, or will this Iona just be essentially a 7/7 flyer?
Can a creature have multiple instances of abilities? For example a Vampire Nighthawk with Vampiric Link will have lifelink twice and therefore cause me to gain 4 life when it causes 2 damage?
You can choose to redirect the damage you would deal to your opponent to one of his planeswalkers. So, you'll target the player with Shock, and then redirect it's damage to the planeswalker. As far as I know, you can do that with any kind of damage which source you control.
any noncombat damage can be redirected from your opponent to one of his planeswalkers
You mean with a creature I'm actually attacking the planeswalker, not attacking the player and then redirecting it's combat damage to the planeswalker?
Does this also mean that if the planeswalker controller can't be the target of a spell because of, for example, a Leyline of Sanctity, I can't bolt the planeswalker?
I love reanimator decks but honestly, I don't think it will work in modern. The main reason it works in legacy are the free counters. Not only we don't have those, we also lack the great reanimation spells.
I would give Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur a try, but he will be far worse without counters to keep him alive. I believe the way to go here is the old-fashioned one, creatures with protection and shroud.
Buried Alive might work, I would give it a try. At the very least it doesn't conflict with the 4cmc reanimation spells. D'oh
All in all, I think the deck is hindered way too much to work. Specially when compared to decks like Zoo and Affinity, which are ported from legacy almost unscathed. A fun deck sure, but I don't see how it could be competitive in this format.
All I will say is that Punishing Grove against my affinity deck is devastating. If it was legacy where the deck is noticeably faster, it would be just annoying. But having 1-2 creatures killed every turn in this slower version, while still having to deal with their creatures is just devastating.
... because a creature with protection will prevent the arbitrarily large amount of damage, and while the indestructible creature will be marked with the damage, it won't be destroyed?
Yes exactly. It's so obvious, yet when dealing with trample the game just chooses to ignore the fact the creature won't die, therefore the damage assigned to it was not lethal. Why would any rule maker use the word lethal with a different meaning than it's actual meaning is a mystery to me.
Then why it doesn't know that infinite damage is not enough to kill a creature with protection? Or even one with indestructibility for that matter?
And by the way, this means that if I have a Darksteel Colossus and someone attacks me with a 4/4 deathtouch trampler they can assign 3 damage to me? Even though that 1 damage is obviously not lethal?
Really? This goes completely against the trample over protection mentality. I thought trample was just blind to any other effect and had to assign the same amount of the defending creature toughness no matter what.
But I guess keeping the rules consistent is not important.
I have 2 life, an opponent attacks with a 3/4 and a 2/2. I have a 6/6 lifelink. Suppose I block the 3/3, I'm I dead because of the 2/2? Or the life gain/loss is simultaneous?
I have to agree with those who say this deck in modern should have more of a mid-range build. Without artifact lands it can't go "all in" anymore, so there's no much point in trying to do so because you will fail more often than succeed.
Raggedjoe's creature list is spot on in my opinion. Drop Frogmites since they are less likely to be free on turn 1 anyway, and Vault Skirge helps with the mid-game mentality. Bob works with his creature list too but as far as I can tell he means no Thoughtcast. Can't really tell which would work better, I guess I will try both but I'm more inclined to go with Thoughtcast, provided the lack of artifact lands don't hurt it too much.
Misstep is run in Legacy decks that don't even run blue. It isn't just the fact that it is a counterspell it is a card that you are pretty much forced to put in your deck. It has warped Legacy, and I am sure they didn't want to see the same thing occur in Modern. Red deck wins being forced to run Mental Misstep just seems lame, but it occurs in Legacy.
Highly unlikely that this would happen in modern, if you ask me. It has much less to counter here than it does in legacy.
Does this mean that if I cast a Nyxathid with Illusionary Mask, I won't choose an opponent and it will always be a 7/7?
Also, if I do the same with Iona, Shield of Emeria, will I have a Iona that prevent my opponent from casting colorless spells, or will this Iona just be essentially a 7/7 flyer?
You mean with a creature I'm actually attacking the planeswalker, not attacking the player and then redirecting it's combat damage to the planeswalker?
Lol true. Completely forgot this insignificant detail
I would give Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur a try, but he will be far worse without counters to keep him alive. I believe the way to go here is the old-fashioned one, creatures with protection and shroud.
Buried Alive might work, I would give it a try. At the very least it doesn't conflict with the 4cmc reanimation spells.D'ohAll in all, I think the deck is hindered way too much to work. Specially when compared to decks like Zoo and Affinity, which are ported from legacy almost unscathed. A fun deck sure, but I don't see how it could be competitive in this format.
Yes exactly. It's so obvious, yet when dealing with trample the game just chooses to ignore the fact the creature won't die, therefore the damage assigned to it was not lethal. Why would any rule maker use the word lethal with a different meaning than it's actual meaning is a mystery to me.
And by the way, this means that if I have a Darksteel Colossus and someone attacks me with a 4/4 deathtouch trampler they can assign 3 damage to me? Even though that 1 damage is obviously not lethal?
But I guess keeping the rules consistent is not important.
Raggedjoe's creature list is spot on in my opinion. Drop Frogmites since they are less likely to be free on turn 1 anyway, and Vault Skirge helps with the mid-game mentality. Bob works with his creature list too but as far as I can tell he means no Thoughtcast. Can't really tell which would work better, I guess I will try both but I'm more inclined to go with Thoughtcast, provided the lack of artifact lands don't hurt it too much.
Highly unlikely that this would happen in modern, if you ask me. It has much less to counter here than it does in legacy.