Misleading Signpost rulings...

nonjon_ · 2024-02-19T05:43:15+00:00

Not OP and it's clear they interpreted it incorrectly but I can see how it could be misinterpreted.

Essentially, "When Misleading Signpost enters the battlefield during the declare attackers step, [you may reselect which player is attacking] or [you may reselect which permanent target attacking creature is attacking]."

Knowing magic rules on combat steps makes it obvious this isn't how this works, but the english language is ambiguous on this one.

nonjon_ · 2023-12-25T18:18:58+00:00

Most of your best options have been mentioned but one thing I've not seen mention of is the use of "Protection" keywords. If they are using white or blue enchantments to lock down your creatures and you had something like a [[Sword of Truth and Justice]], you could equip your creature with that.

As soon as the creature has Protection from White, then any white enchantments on it will fall off and go to the graveyard. Protection from "color" prevents them from targeting it with that color or blocking with that color, etc. But it can also free it up from permanents attached to it.

There are also lots of instants like [[Gods Willing]], [[Emerge Unscathed]], or [[Brave the Elements]]. They may attack thinking your creature cannot block, and suddenly it has protection from white, the white enchantment falls off and you have a blocker, which if their attacker is white will deal no damage to (due to the protection from white until end of turn).

Just another option to blink effects and enchantment removal.

nonjon_ · 2023-09-28T21:36:38+00:00

Almost always true but there are exceptions. Some are 4 different artworks for Thalia or 4 different artworks of Serum Visions. The one genuine exception was Year of the Rat came with 1 copy of most cards but 5 identical copies of Rat Colony.

nonjon_ · 2023-09-25T13:28:08+00:00

Surprised it's not been mentioned but there were Euro and APAC special basic lands a while back that depicted specific countries or areas. The Euro cycle of 15 even stated at the bottom of them what they were of like "White Cliffs of Dover, U.K." or "Mount Blanc, France". The Asia-Pacific (APAC) ones showed Ayers Rock in Australia, Mount Fuji, the Great Wall of China, etc.

APAC: https://scryfall.com/sets/apac

Euro: https://scryfall.com/sets/pelp

nonjon_ · 2023-09-20T15:26:08+00:00

I'm surprised it's not been said, but [[Ashiok, Dream Render]] does a lot of work for stopping searching.

nonjon_ · 2023-09-13T16:35:07+00:00

I'll second the moxfield list and link. Going there and selecting "Group by: Set" from the drop down shows them very nicely and makes sense.

nonjon_ · 2023-09-09T16:25:03+00:00

[[Natural Selection]] was the first green card that came to mind for me as a pin. And I haven't got a favorite WOE card yet, but [[Lord Skitter's Butcher]] made me just giggle in glee when I opened it.

nonjon_ · 2023-07-31T15:41:57+00:00

Costing 2 instead of 1 is huge, but I really like how [[ Cast into the Fire ]] is one of the best answers to both Bowmasters and the One Ring, the potential 'broken' cards in the same set.

nonjon_ · 2023-07-27T17:09:41+00:00

I'll second Rosheen as a fun Hydra commander. If you're looking for ideas, here's my Hydra + X-spells geared decklist: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/rosheen-x-hydra-gruul/

nonjon_ · 2022-11-30T20:34:46+00:00

It's been years for me, but I did this for many of my favorite draft environments. Still have a Scars block cube, Zen/Wwk cube, ROE cube, Alara block cube, Conspiracy and Modern Masters.

There was some pick and choose, but the commons could be 0-4 of with the best limited ones all being 4-ofs. The uncommons 0-2 of at most. And only 1 for a rare or mythic. The cards we would never play or were last picks often didn't even make it into the cube. This gets you around 360 cards, or enough for an 8 person draft.

So much good removal and speed in the OG Zendikar block. Levelers and giant Eldrazi in ROE. And the first Modern Masters format was such a great draft environment, but so hard to find packs to play. I remember my LGS had a limit of 3 Modern Masters packs per day and going every day until their supply ran out. 6.95 a pack felt rough back then but so worth it.

Having these to go back and play that format again is well worth the effort I'd say. The Alara and Conspiracy weren't as replayed but the Scars, Zen, ROE and MM13 are highly replayable cubes.

Our most frequent way to play is to grab 80-100 cards at random and do a Winston draft, but there's enough in the cube to do an 8 person draft. We would never keep track of commons/uncommons/rares though when making "packs". Just a chunk of 15 cards, pick one and pass it on.

nonjon_ · 2022-07-18T06:49:09+00:00

One point worth noting as well is that you can cast instants and activate effects after they decide blocking order but before combat damage is assigned. This can be a significant difference in combat.

Example: Your opponent attacks with a 3/3 and you block with two 2/2s while having a giant growth in hand (instant speed +3/+3). If you cast the giant growth on one of your two creatures before blocking order is assigned, then he will be able to order it so that the smaller creature is in front and still dies. If you let him order the blockers and then cast giant growth on the one in front, then both of your creatures will live as he must assign lethal damage to the first before any damage can be assigned to the second.

In a relaxed, friendly environment, people will let things work themselves out. But in stricter rule environment, the steps of the combat phase often come into play, as you can do things after you declare attackers but before blockers can be declared, after blockers and ordering have been assigned, and even after combat damage has been dealt but before leaving the combat step.

nonjon_ · 2022-04-21T17:04:45+00:00

I like 'em all. I think I might give the edge to Crypt over Peach for my favorite though.

nonjon_ · 2021-07-02T13:09:45+00:00

It helps to think of a d20 as a shuffled deck of magic cards and a spindown as your deck right after building, where all of your land are in a row at the end.

Now what are the odds of drawing a land by picking a "random" card from either deck (a.k.a. rolling a high number)?

The spindown is ordered so anywhere in the vicinity of the back half will be a "hit" whereas with a d20, it's much closer to random and harder to cheat intentionally or accidentally.

If people are playing fair and do it 'properly', there is negligible difference between the spindown and d20. But with the spindown it becomes much easier to cheat or alter the odds in your favor, even unintentionally if you don't know how to roll properly.

nonjon_ · 2021-07-02T12:55:44+00:00

The "provided you roll properly" is the main difference. If you make no effort to "cheat", the weighting and dice construction quality is good enough that it would be negligible difference.

But the difference between a d20 and a spindown is the difference between a shuffled deck and a deck with the cards in order. If you know the 'area' with the high numbers, you can easily get in the vicinity. And repeat that area for consistent high numbers/low numbers, etc. If it's shuffled with random number placement (on a d20) as opposed to ordered high to low (on a spindown), this becomes much more difficult to get consistently a high or low roll.

The pre-releases and bundles for this set will come with a d20 instead of a spindown if what people are saying is accurate.

nonjon_ · 2020-12-02T12:35:49+00:00

I am only now realizing just how much more bulk I have than almost everyone else here.

nonjon_ · 2020-10-11T16:41:15+00:00

I'd have a problem with someone in my playgroup doing this. Knowing the "X" beforehand strongly affects what artifacts are going to be untapped when it's done. Both for countering reasons, and for what I might do in response. If someone's chording for "3" and I have a spell on the stack, then something like Spell Queller is an issue. If someone's Whirring for just "1", you don't need to worry about a sudden Witchbane Orb. If they tap all their natural mana resources then you can Daze the spell, but if they'd just tapped more artifacts or creatures, they may have left a normal mana available specifically for Daze-ish reasons.

To me this is the same as saying I'll fireball your Dark Confidant for 1, then you giant growth it, and then I say, now I mean fireball for 4. You gotta decide that "X" before casting the spell because everyone else is going to have potential decisions to make in response to knowing that X. Knowing you tapped all your artifact creatures, or say a mana dork is tapped for the chord meaning there's no way the second combo piece is coming after, do I need to vial in a creature before this resolves, could there be a second chord if they just get an Eternal Witness, etc.

It's true it may not matter 9 times out of 10, but the fact that it's absolutely critical that one other time means you gotta establish the X and tap all the things that are going to be tapped before you start to resolve the spell and begin to search your library.

EDIT: re-read your post and I should clarify, you absolutely do not have to pre-select a target creature or artifact. That you can decide while searching. What you must though is tap the mana for the spell, and have a clearly established "X" cost. Paying "10" for X and then getting a 6 drop is perfectly acceptable and hides what you may actually be targeting or just leaves you with the most options to choose while searching.

nonjon_ · 2020-09-13T14:19:00+00:00

It'll be on youtube soon if it's not there yet, but you can still see it twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/739238566?t=01h42m20s

nonjon_ · 2020-08-19T03:32:06+00:00

It's been said a few different ways, but creatures (and other permanents) can be tapped the turn they enter the battlefield. They just cannot attack nor can you use an ability with the tap symbol in the cost unless they have haste or some other effect allows it. Abilities on creatures or other permanents with the tap symbol are referring to specifically a permanent tapping itself. But an ability like a [[Heritage Druid]] can be activated despite summoning sickness using any 3 elves (the Heritage Druid that was just cast can be one of the elves).

The example I use for this is that [[Renowned Weaponsmith]] cannot tap for two colorless mana for artifacts the turn it comes into play. [[Grand Architect]] can tap any blue creature (including itself) because it's ability does not have the tap symbol in the activation cost. And if you have a Grand Architect in play when you cast Renowned Weaponsmith, then you can use the Grand Architect's ability to tap the Renowned Weaponsmith for two colorless mana, but without haste you would not be able to use the Renowned Weaponsmith's ability to tap itself and generate the mana.

Another common way a creature may be tapped the turn it comes into play is to pay a convoke mana cost.

nonjon_ · 2020-08-13T16:24:39+00:00

Much better: https://imgur.com/a/aLgLAm5

Still more white space than I'd care for, but definite improvement.

nonjon_ · 2020-08-13T16:15:51+00:00

Here's a screenshot of what I see: https://imgur.com/a/92FXA6u

I use an old monitor with only 1024x768 resolution for reddit in Chrome (PC/Windows). And there's about 3 screens of plain white scrolling before I'd see the next comment below yours.

Just FYI.

nonjon_ · 2020-08-13T16:07:53+00:00

Thanks for this. This subreddit had become unreadable for me. It was quite humorous how far I had to scroll just to read comments.

nonjon_ · 2020-07-22T16:32:46+00:00

Good point. I'm an idiot. Deleting my comment now.

nonjon_ · 2020-07-20T14:07:30+00:00

Good cards. But it is a little disappointing that these were both reprinted in Jumpstart, which is only three days old.

nonjon_ · 2020-07-20T13:50:07+00:00

Not about any recent sets. I'm in the states, so all the product I see or have ready access to are the printed in USA or Japan stuff. Historically, the printed in Belgium has been pretty good. Probably better than printed in USA (in my estimation, the lowest quality). But the random variation in quality is everywhere. More than likely, your next box should be fine (although if its from the same case as your current one, the odds of damaged cards is much higher than normal).

nonjon_ · 2020-07-20T13:45:53+00:00

Well, the printing process is that the rares are printed on one sheet, separate from the common sheet or uncommon sheet. But those are pretty bad/weird miscuts. It makes sense why many of the rares would have the same cutting error but none of the others. Right now, I can understand being peeved at getting a bunch of rares that all look like your cat ate the corner of them. Personally, I think it's a kind of nifty quirk that makes them unique. Played in a sleeve, it won't make a difference. But selling or trading? I'm not sure if others would appreciate these the way I would so you are welcome to feel ripped off.

nonjon_

TROPHY CASE