Islandhome #12

==ISLANDHOME #12==

May 12st 2008 ---- FREE

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

Store Updates: News, sales, and other things.
Rules Corner: So about that 420.5n deck....
Contest Time: The winner of Islandhome's first contest, plus your suggestions!

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: Brothers Grim Draft @ 7 PM
Saturday: FNC Standard @ 1 PM
Sunday: Brothers Grim Lorwyn-Shadowmoor Block Constructed @ 2 PM [NEW!]

==STORE UPDATES==

I've got a few updates on the latest happenings and what-have-you at stores on the Island that I need to share.

First off, but in no particular order, Brothers Grim. As you can see from the weekly schedule above, there's a Lorwyn-Shadowmoor Block Constructed tournament this Sunday at 2 PM! Entry's $5, and the legal sets are Lorwyn, Morningtide, and Shadowmoor. Eventide's not legal yet, so please leave your Hellkite Overlord decks at home. Block's a much smaller card pool than Standard, so you might see some surprising card choices that don't usually pop up in Standard. We need eight people for the event to be sanctioned, so come down and bring your friends! It'll be great practice for Block season, which starts June 7th.

Grim's also having a 50% off sale on all foils this week only, so stop by and pick up some cheap shiny cardboard!

FNC got their hands on a Mox Pearl recently, certainly something to gawk at. You'll notice that the borders on it are a little yellow; that's because someone took a highlighter to it many, many years ago, probably before it was ever worth anything.

==LOSING LIKE A CHAMP==

So in my first ever Standard tournament since March 1st, I went 1-3 at FNC, drawing horribly with a deck I wasn't familiar with. Was I upset? Sure! No one wants to end a tournament with a losing record, but I didn't let it get to me. I kept it bottled inside, then went home and cried myself to sleep. I mean.... what I mean to say is, no one should take Magic seriously enough that they get too upset when they lose or mess up. Making mistakes and/or losing is just part of the game of Magic. If any of us could play perfectly every time, we'd be making tens of thousands of dollars on the Pro Tour! There's really not much at stake at a local tournament - you're only spending $5 to play Magic for a few hours and maybe win some packs. The real reason to play at a local event is to have fun, so whether you win or lose, go home happy!

==RULES CORNER==

Q. I attack with a 2/2 creature and my opponent blocks with his Cinderbones. With damage on the stack, he regenerates it, and in response I target it with an Inquisitor's Snare. Does the Cinderbones regenerate?
A. "Regenerate this creature" is a bit misleading, and comes from the pre-6th edition rules where the timing rules regarding regeneration were a bit more complicated. The regeneration ability creates a regeneration shield on Cinderbones when it resolves, but while it's still on the stack, Cinderbones isn't protected, and can still be destroyed. If your opponent had 1B open, they could regenerate it again in response to your Inquisitor's Snare.

Q. How does the "420.5n" combo work with Greater Gargadon, Juniper Order Ranger, and a persist creature such as Murderous Redcap?
A. Big combos using trickiness with the stack have always been a source of confusion. Lots of players knew Reveillark, Mirror Entity, and Body Double were a combo, but even some players who tried the deck out didn't know how it worked at first! Beware - this is some tricky stack trickiness.

To start the combo off, you need a Gargadon suspended, and both Juniper Order Ranger and a creature with persist (let's say Murderous Redcap) in play. First you announce you're playing Gargadon's ability, which moves it to the stack, then sacrifice the Redcap to pay for its ability. That triggers Redcap's persist trigger, which goes on the stack on top of Gargadon's "remove a counter from me" ability. Once the persist trigger resolves, Redcap comes back into play with a -1/-1 counter and its comes-into-play (rule 187 for those of you keeping score) ability and Juniper Order Ranger's ability trigger. Being as you control both triggers that are triggering at the same time, you choose the order they go on the stack. If you put Redcap's 187-ability on the stack first and the Ranger's ability above it, the Ranger's ability will resolve first. It'll put a +1/+1 counter on itself and one on the Redcap, and thanks to rule 420.5n, the +1/+1 counter and -1/-1 counter annihilate each other. The Redcap will be a 2/2, so it'll deal 2 damage when its 187-ability resolves. You could do it the other way around, having it deal 1 damage and then getting the counter put on it, of course, but if you're going to go "infinite" you may as well do it right! Once those two abilities resolve in whichever order you choose, you have a Redcap with no counters on it, a Juniper Order Ranger with a +1/+1 counter on it, and Gargadon's "remove a counter from me" ability on the stack. You can respond to that ability on the stack by sacrificing Redcap to it again, which starts the whole process over. It's "infinite" damage, though you can only do it until your opponent's life total drops below 1 and they lose the game. You can gain an arbitrarily large amount of life with Kitchen Finks this way too!

Q. My opponent and I are playing a 420.5n mirror match and he gained infinite life with Kitchen Finks. If I combo off with Murderous Redcap a turn later, can I kill him, or is the game a draw because you can't really subtract infinite from infinite?
A. There's really no such thing as infinite in Magic - that's why I used the term "arbitrarily large" above! When you combo off with an "infinite" combo, all you're really doing is specifying a number and saying you're auto-repeating that sequence of actions that number of times. So if you do your combo so you're at a trillion life, your opponent can later combo off to deal you two trillion damage.

Q. I play Ember Gale, targeting my opponent. Once it resolves, if my opponent flashes in a Prismwake Merrow, can he block with it?
A. Once Ember Gale resolves, it sets up a continuous effect that lasts until the end of the turn. Since this continuous effect doesn't change the characteristics of anything (characteristics being an object's name, mana cost, color, card type, subtype, supertype, expansion symbol, rules text, abilities, power, toughness, or loyalty), it instead changes the rules of the game, and means even creatures that came into play after the effect was generated can't block.

Q. What is "slow play"? I think my opponent is taking a lot of time, but he says his options are really complicated.
A. No matter what kind of options a player has, there's no reason for them to do nothing for more than about thirty seconds. Of course this is just a rough estimate - the real measure of what's considered playing slowly is up to a judge watching the match!

Have a rules question you want answered? Send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

==CONTEST RESULTS==

Congradulations to Matt Brocking who won our first ever contest. Matt was selected at random from thousands upon thousands of entrants, and will be receiving $5 Pasgoyf Fun Bucks (tm) valid for paying for his next tournament entry at either Brothers Grim or FNC!

Lots of people chimed in with suggestions for Islandhome. Most of the suggestions were for more tips on playing constructed and limited, or for player interviews. So starting next week, there'll be an interview with at least one dueler in the newsletter, with hard-hitting questions that'll get you inside the minds of some of the greatest players on Long Island. I'll also have a feature in the next issue involving a Shadowmoor draft walkthrough, since the best way to learn how to draft is by watching someone good drafting, and the second best way is to read about it on the internet.

==UPCOMING EVENTS==

June 7th: NJ Regionals
Gray Matter is hosting the regionals for our area in the basement of St. Matthew the Apostle church in Edison, NJ. The format is Standard constructed, and I'll have more details as I hear about them. I'm sure I'll be judging it, so I'll find out ahead of time what's going to happen with Grim and FNC that weekend.

June 7th - August 31st: PTQ Season for PT Berlin
The next PTQ season starts this summer, and it's going to be Lorwyn Block Constructed! Lorwyn block will consist of Lorwyn, Morningtide, and Shadowmoor. Eventide won't be available during the beginning of the PTQ season, but will be legal before it ends.

PTQs in our general area this season:

• 6/21 - Philadelphia, PA
• 6/28 - Edison, NJ
• 8/9 - Philadelphia, PA
• 8/16 - New York, NY
• 8/30 - Edison, NJ
• 8/30 - Hartford, CT
• 8/31 - Rochester, NY

==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==

Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com

Friendly Neighborhood Comics
3 Grant Avenue, Suite 2
Islip, NY 11751
Phone: 470-7984

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

-Brian Paskoff