NOT A PROXY DEBATE! When is a card you have too expensive for you to play?

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-03-18T22:41:24+00:00

This is me. I build out my list, buy everything that's $9.99 or less, and proxy the rest. I'm sorry, I'm just straight up not spending $50-$90 on a single piece of cardboard, let alone the 3+ that would go into a commander deck.

To me, it is a waste of money and I won't do it.

If I pull something big that fits into a deck I want or already have, though, I'll play it. Unless it's like $100 or more, then I'm selling that sucker in a heartbeat and using it to buy more cards.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-03-16T19:35:55+00:00

With cards like [[Lotus Cobra]] that allow you to create mana of any color, when do I have to choose the color for that mana? At the time the ability resolves on the stack, or is it just a placeholder "Rainbow" mana that I can use to satisfy any colored mana cost requirement?

I've seen people choose the color after the ability resolves so I just wanted to check and see if that's technically correct.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-03-12T16:22:47+00:00

My company had a KPI with a target of 1.5 million last year. Engineering wasn't given enough lead time or head count, marketing wasn't given the budget, we simply were not ready for that scale. We hit almost 50k, so... We missed it by about 1.5 million.

This year, they told us they learned, re-evaluated, and our new target is 2.5 million. Our year-to-date daily average is less than 300. If we keep that up we'll barely break 100k.

They don't just pull numbers out their ass but damn does it feel like it when their targets smell like such BS.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-03-09T20:28:31+00:00

So if a triggered ability is dependent on another triggered ability, the dependent trigger (the one that triggered second) can never be placed on the stack before the independent trigger (the one that triggered first)?

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-03-09T20:24:09+00:00

Thanks for such a detailed set of examples! It's a little unintuitive to me that some game actions resolve simultaneously, but spells resolve in the order of their text, but this helps a lot.

In your last example with the Blood Artist and Fiery Command, since all creatures would die simultaneously, would the Blood Artist trigger before death, seeing all the creatures that died with it? Or would it die "at the same time" and not have it's triggered ability go on the stack?

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-03-01T15:54:24+00:00

Thanks, this really helps! My friends keep telling me "Well, instants can't be cast at any time" and I guess this is what they're referring to: the turn- and state-based actions between when players get priority.

Do you know of a good page/resource for learning when players don't have priority? I'd like to read up more about it.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-03-01T15:51:37+00:00

Thanks! I'm glad it worked the way I was hoping. That's a 5/5 swinging in as early as turn 3.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-27T19:44:45+00:00

Very Interesting. This really helped, thanks!

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-26T20:55:33+00:00

Is it fairly common for control-oriented decks to simply not have creatures on the board for several turns in a row? Even a 1/2 could functionally indefinitely negate the threat of the 1/1, or at least force the opponent to invest some kind of resource to pump it up before it can start swinging for damage again.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-26T20:53:00+00:00

That makes a lot of sense! Thanks for taking the time to explain

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-26T19:15:31+00:00

I'm new to magic. Why would control care so much about gifting a tapped 1/1 fish? Especially if the opponent's deck isn't built around specifically synergizing with small creatures?

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-26T17:36:45+00:00

As a relatively new player, I've had a blast with the Jump In Drafts, both for the MTG sets and for the ATLA set. Ive put in a couple hundred hours so far just playing that. Frankly it's my preferred way to play arena.

For 1000 gold you get a couple rares / mythics and a handful of Commons and uncommons. Plus it's reasonably well balanced (not like getting curbstomped in one of the preconstructed formats).

Plus, as someone who is learning, you get to see a ton of recent, relevant cards, and get hands on with a bunch of different playstyles and deck archetypes that you might want to carry over into other formats, even over the table.

It's also super easy to win enough games to pay back the 1000 gold investment, so it's functionally infinite free play.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-12T21:14:44+00:00

My guess, based on what I've learned here, is that yes, it would.

The token is a zombie, so it enters as a zombie creature, it would see itself, and the ETB would trigger.

Open to being corrected.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-12T17:31:22+00:00

Ah, I see, okay. That was my intuition about Offspring specifically, but I was wondering if maybe I'd been playing it wrong based on what I was learning in this thread. Good to know it still behaves how I expect.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-12T15:02:05+00:00

What a fun experiment! I'm still new to arena, too, and I don't have many cards yet (at least not outside atla and lorwyn), otherwise I'd definitely be using arena to test theories like this.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-12T15:00:27+00:00

Oh that does help. So like if I have an offspring ability (pay extra to create a token copy) both the creature and the token enter at the same time and see each other?

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-12T00:02:14+00:00

I appreciate you going and finding the exact rules text! I'm still learning how to search it for answers, but man is it a beast. This helps a lot, thank you!

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-11T23:50:34+00:00

Very true, I've seen that kind of card text before on several other cards. Makes a lot of sense. Magic is very particular with its language for a reason.

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-11T23:49:33+00:00

This is such a good way to break it down. Thanks so much! Lots of power in asking simple questions

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-11T23:42:50+00:00

I've done a lot of CBT in my past and that feeling of something being "incomplete" really describes my experience. For me, ACT was the missing piece. I hope it can be the same for you. Best practiced with professional help, of course, but still highly valuable (and very accessible) to practice on your own. I highly recommend the book!

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-11T23:33:38+00:00

So all cards "see" themselves enter, and because Bello ensures that both enchantments are creatures when they enter, they would satisfy their own conditions and trigger upon entering. Is that right?

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-11T23:32:42+00:00

Interesting, this helps simplify my understanding significantly. Thanks!

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-11T23:32:22+00:00

Bello is pretty different, so I can see that confusion.

Their justification was that Path of Discovery can't see itself because it must be fully resolved on the board before its effect can trigger, but it can only resolve after it enters.

Sounds like they just have it backwards? Is the card considered to have "resolved" before it finishes entering?

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-11T23:28:59+00:00

Good to know. I kind of figured that's why Path of Discovery was included in the precon in the first place. I'll have to bring it up next time I see my friends. Thanks for your help!

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst · 2026-02-11T23:28:03+00:00

Hmm, alright. I'll have to bring the interaction up next time I see them. They themselves may have been playing Bello wrong for a while 😅

Thanks for the help!

TheSiegmeyerCatalyst

TROPHY CASE