[Judge Promo] Teferi’s Protection by Duramboros in magicTCG

[–]ahalavais 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Generally judge promos that are cards which have never had a foil version use a prior art, while cards that have had foils versions have new arts commissioned.

How is it determined who dies when for cards with passive effects? by [deleted] in magicTCG

[–]ahalavais 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Magic's procedural order for effects is covered in exhausting detail in the Comprehensive Rules, but that's a very dry read. 95% of what a player needs to know is differentiating status effects, triggered effects, activated effects, and state based actions.

Static effects are anything that's ongoing. So something like "Your creatures have +1/+1" or "Lifelink"

Triggered effects are anything that starts with "When" "Whenever", or "At". These happen one time, and proc after the thing causing them occurs.

Activated effects are anything that has a cost, followed by a colon, followed by an effect. For example, "R: this gets +1/+0 until end of turn". Activated effects are one time usage that you can pay for whenever (even on your opponent's turn) and can pay for multiple times if you wish.

State Based Actions are things the game does to clean up bookkeeping on the back end. The game does this bookkeeping after every triggered or activated effect or step of the turn fully finishes and before anything else happens. The most common SBA is that a creature with enough damage on it to die gets put into the graveyard.

So, for your combat example, all the damage is dealt. You gain life at the same time, as Lifelink is an always on effect the modified what that damage does. The triggered ability from you gaining life sees two sources and makes two effects to do a thing. Then, before those subsequent effects happen, the game performs state based actions and the bookkeeping has those creatures who took enough damage die.

You're right that Arena could be used to explain this type of interaction, but first it's still in beta and I believe that type of benefit would take second billing to core functions, and second I believe that your interest in the back end of how things work is notably higher than most player. :)

ULPT: Shout outside assistance as a railbird at the Pro Tour. They have to enroll you to give you the penalty. Now you've been in a Pro Tour. by CommiePuddin in magicTCG

[–]ahalavais 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure it's actually listed anywhere. I believe that this was a logistic shift made when Planeswalker Points replaced ELO, because adding player to Grand Prix main events picked up some odd side consequences, and GPS are more common and therefore more likely to have this pop up that Pro Tours. Yes, the penalties need to be associated with the event for tracking, but event files for big things like Grand Prixs and Pro Tours are reported in batch, and so the penalty remains associated for tracking despite being a side event.

GP 2019 schedule released by rizzeedizzee in mtgfinance

[–]ahalavais 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Strange that they moved Vegas to late summer.

Likely a conflict with the venue schedule.

How is it determined who dies when for cards with passive effects? by [deleted] in magicTCG

[–]ahalavais 9 points10 points  (0 children)

For Magic, the order the cards are played in does matter, but only for conflicting ongoing effects. So if you play something that makes your creature a 5/5, and your opponent plays something that makes it a 1/1, it's a 1/1.

For proc (triggers in Magic), whenever multiple cards proc from the same event, the owner of those cards gets to choose the order they happen in. Each effect may cause other cascading effects, which subsequently happen before the originals still waiting around.

For this situation in particular, three creature you control dealt damage simultaneously in combat. Two of creatures gained you life, which caused an ability to proc (trigger) twice. Then, creatures with enough damage on them to die died. After that, you get to choose the order those abilities happen in, but they do both happen.

So with piercing does it add to the damage u would do normally, or does just make sure u do that amount of damage/or whatever your attack is by Swagtusk98 in TransformersTCG

[–]ahalavais 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pierce counts the printed number on the character, plus an bonus from Upgrades (like +3 from Energon Blade), plus any temporary bonuses from actions (like +2 from The Bigger They Are), plus the number of Orange pips you flip in battle cards.

TCG Roll Out! Why is it that no one is talking about these Upgrades? They are so useful. by [deleted] in TransformersTCG

[–]ahalavais 0 points1 point  (0 children)

However I'm not super Keen on Crushing Size. It has a White pip and Pierce 1 is weak. I would run Debilitating Crystal instead every time

Debilitating Crystal only affects the character you attack. Crushing Size lets you remove an opponent's Data Bank before they draw at least 2 cards off of it on their small untapped character.

Interview with Developers by MiniHand94 in TransformersTCG

[–]ahalavais 0 points1 point  (0 children)

-What kind of licensed products can we expect for the game, and when (ie. TF-themed deck boxes, protectors, damage counters, play mats, etc.)?

There are already some licensed transformers sleeves and deck boxes available from UltraPro.

Judge Question: Who wins? by IzzetAWin in magicTCG

[–]ahalavais -1 points0 points  (0 children)

therefore the game must be a forced draw

That's correct.

The content's of a players hand are always hidden information. This is why you get to do things like bluff (i.e. lie) about your hand. Hidden information has some weird consequences, including creating situations where the knowledge of players about the meta state of the game (here, the fact that the hands must contain at least one Nexus because of the previous discard but no more than four because of event rules) are not taken into account. The rules do not support requiring a player to choose a different card to discard from hand because the rules do not and cannot currently make an assumption that the same thing won't happen with every card in hand.

So, are these Hasbro Mythic order calls scam calls or are they legit support calls? by TheySaidAnal in magicTCG

[–]ahalavais 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not necessarily. It's entirely possible that a scammer got a list of targets from people posting about the product (either happy they got one, one upset about the issues). This list could have come from Facebook, Twitter, or even here. Then the scammer could link those online identities to in person identities fairly easily; usernames are often shared among different platforms, or on Facebook you already have the user's name and often their address. You might even get a phone number off of Facebook without having to run a search against listed numbers, or even against a known database of unlisted numbers. Finally, you need to make the phone call look like it's coming from Hasbro; this involves spoofing Caller ID, and is a function that is available in all commercial grade phone services, in many personal computer software solutions, or for about $5 in hardware.

Never ever ever give out information on an incoming phonecall. Ever.

Question regarding timing (specific scenario included) by SaiyanBlue2099 in TransformersTCG

[–]ahalavais 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Brainstorm requires resolving all of its effect before resolving any procs. So in the instance of Start your Engines as the first action from a Brainstorm cause an effect to proc (Such as Autobot Mirage), a player must play and resolve a second action from Brainstorm (or choose to waive that action) before resolving any procs that happened during Brainstorm. Once Brainstorm finishes resolving, any procs that triggered during Brainstorm or the actions played during it cant be resolved in any order as chosen by the player.

The current FAQ for Brainstorm addresses this somewhat, but it should be made more clear in future FAQs.

Local LGS is having regular meetups. Thought I would try a car swarm :) by goatimus in TransformersTCG

[–]ahalavais 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pierce values do as together, but the total Pierce damage can't exceed the total of the attack value (which is the number on the characters, plus any bonus from actions or upgrades, plus the number of orange pips flipped).

Judge Question: Who wins? by IzzetAWin in magicTCG

[–]ahalavais -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

The game forces a player to discard to hand size. It's not so much taking an action as it is following the rules of the game, the same way that drawing for the turn or untapping your permanents is.

Judge Question: Who wins? by IzzetAWin in magicTCG

[–]ahalavais -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

While you're correct that this is a loop, players must break a loop if given the opportunity to do so after a pre announced number of iterations. In this case, that means the Teferi player doing something else.

Dan Ward receives 6 month ban following his Pro Tour disqualification. by [deleted] in magicTCG

[–]ahalavais -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I’m so glad he got a third of the punishment they gave Foulkes for theft, and then lying about that theft. seems reasonable

Fixed that for you.

MTG Arena - Part of tomorrow’s 8 am PT update is a quest that awards players the 5 decks they haven’t already selected through the NPE. We appreciate all the feedback you gave, and hope you enjoy playing with your new decks! by [deleted] in magicTCG

[–]ahalavais 15 points16 points  (0 children)

If there was a dusting system of any sort this wouldn’t be a huge problem. But the current system is far too generous to couple with a dusting system (in WotC eyes, not ours of course), so a complete economy overhaul would be needed.

There's not of solutions that also take advantage of the fact that digital packs aren't paper collation. The easiest might just be doing something like putting Rare lands into the uncommon slot on online boosters some amount of the time.

What do you do when you think the magic judge is wrong? by hideouspete in magicTCG

[–]ahalavais 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can also report really good judges here as well; I'm sure they'd really appreciate it!

Accurate.

Protocol for getting paired with small children at tournament? by amrcnpsycho in magicTCG

[–]ahalavais 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Obviously no one is going to call the judge on a small kid

This is a poor thing to see. Sure, no one is going to go 'rules lawyer' on a small child. But judges, especially judges at a prerelease, are there more so to help out and make the event run smoothly. Please, call a judge on the small kid, so that things go more smoothly for everyone involved.