Islandhome #8

==ISLANDHOME #8==

April 23rd 2008 ---- $50

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

Shadowmoor Report: How'd you like the prerelease? Really? I had fun too, thanks!
The Metagame: Shadowmoor deck ideas.
Shadowmoor Release Events: Details for what you're doing next week!
Rules Corner: Shadowmoor rules questions from the prerelease.

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: Brothers Grim Standard & Draft @ 7 PM
Saturday: FNC Standard @ 3 PM

==SHADOWMOOR PRERELEASE==

Shadowmoor is finally here, the death metal to Lorwyn's epic power metal, and the prerelease was a huge success! There were no major problems (sorry for the wait starting the team event and orange bonus flight, but we just squeezed by with enough seats after green flight wrapped up) - no printers breaking, computers crashing, or judges breaking and/or crashing this time, and everyone I talked to said they had a great time. It was also my first time head judging a large sanctioned event, so if you have any thoughts on how the event was run, I'd love to know so I can take things into consideration for next time.

Now that you've had a chance to play with the cards in a limited environment, here's the time to start brainstorming up decks using Shadowmoor cards for standard and block constructed when the set comes out, and becomes legal, on May 2nd! Both FNC and Brothers Grim will have release events that weekend, so circle May 3rd and 4th on your official Girls of Islandhome calendars! You guys did get that mailing, right?

==SHADOWMOOR RELEASE EVENTS==

I'll be running Shadowmoor launch parties at FNC and Brothers Grim next weekend, so come and play and win fabulous prizes! Players at each event will receive a tournament pack of Shadowmoor and two Shadowmoor boosters to construct a 40-card minimum deck. We'll have deck boxes and life counters to be given out, and each participating player will receive a promo Vexing Shusher, one of the chase rares of the set!

FNC Launch Party
Entry Fee: $25
Date: Saturday, May 3rd
Starting Time: 1 PM

Brothers Grim Launch Party
Entry Fee: $24
Date: Sunday, May 4th
Starting Time: 2 PM

==THE METAGAME==

With the addition of about 300 new cards to the standard environment on May 2nd, the metagame should shift drastically. Old decks will rise or fall a tier or two, and new ones will take their place. One of the major changes predicted is that faeries, probably the best deck in the format right now, will have a hard time staying in the top tier with things like Vexing Shusher, Guttural Response, and Raking Canopy.

Like with any big set release, there's a lot of new deck ideas based on the new cards, and none of them are really fleshed out yet. Sometimes even the best decks start out as random ideas in poorly-constructed decks: for example, Dragonstorm, the deck that won Worlds two years ago during Ravnica-Time Spiral block standard, started out as a bad mono-red deck before someone had the idea to splash blue for Gigadrowse. So here's some of the decks you might be facing come May 2nd!

"Geese Lightning" or "Swan Song": There's no doubt that Swans of Bryn Argoll is one of the most breakable cards in Shadowmoor. Like Reveillark, it seems like an innocent card, but its ability has so many potential uses. This deck idea revolves around hitting the Swans for massive damage and therefore massive card advantage. The most popular idea is to use Swans with Seismic Assault and Dakmor Salvage, the only dredge card in standard. The combo involves pitching Dakmor Salvage to Seismic Assault, targeting the Swans, then dredging the Salvage back, drawing a card, and repeating the process until you have enough lands in your hand to hit them for 20. The deck plays Gaea's Blessing to restock the library with all the cards ditched by dredge. The only problem is that it's very vulnerable to Extirpate, even moreso than the Reveillark combo since the deck ONLY revolves around the combo.

Enchanted Eve Combo: Enchanted Evening seems like a jank rare at first, but some metagamers feel that it can be devastating with the wealth of enchantment hate in standard right now. It turns Ronom Unicorn into a better Necrotic Sliver, and Krosan Grip into a split second Vindicate. But the best uses of the enchantment come from Patrician's Scorn and/or Spring Cleaning, the latter of which can destroy everything your opponent controls if 1G if you hit on the clash. In case you want to destroy all permanents with Patrician's Scorn, the deck plays creatures with persist to restock the board once it's wiped out. Pinpoint bounce on Enchanted Evening in response to an enchantment-killing spell can hurt the combo however.

Druidstorm: Devoted Druid is a pretty cool card. The turn after you play it, you can tap it for G, untap it, and tap it for G again. The only problem is that you can't tap it again, because while you can pay the cost to untap it, it's got zero toughness and dies before it actually untaps. Druidstorm plays Might of Old Krosa and Giant Growth to pump the druid up, allowing you to get lots of mana out of it in a single turn.

Mono-Red Burn: It gets a drawback-less Char in the form of Flame Javelin (which apparently comes one per case, as I cracked almost two boxes and didn't see a single one), and a new anti-life gain sideboard trick, Everlasting Torment.

Of course other existing decks also get new tricks. The filter-lands, i.e. the other allied color Graven Cairns, will see lots of play, as will Reflecting Pool. Right now it's hard to say what cards will be format-defining because no one's gotten any real testing in, so start metagaming now - sanctioned Shadowmoor standard is only ten days away!

==RULES CORNER==

This week I've got some rules questions I got at the Shadowmoor prerelease for you. Since prereleases are often full of casual players who don't get out to tournaments larger than their local FNM, and the set's full of cards and mechanics no one's seen before, judges get asked a lot of questions, often the same ones over and over until answering them becomes a reflex. I'm sure these will get asked even more at the release events

Q. My opponent plays Traitor's Roar targeting my Chainbreaker and pays its conspire cost. When conspire's "create a copy" trigger resolves, he targets my Chainbreaker with the copy. In response to the spell, I tap my Chainbreaker to remove a -1/-1 counter from it. Now what happens?
A. Traitor's Roar says to target an "untapped creature". If the creature it targets somehow becomes tapped, the target is now illegal and the spell is countered by game rules.

Q. My opponent's at 12 and controls only a single Loamdragger Giant. If I play Traitor's Roar and pay its conspire cost, can I target the Giant with the copy to deal him 12 damage?
A. You can target the Giant twice if you want, but unless you can find a way to untap the Giant after the first Roar resolves, you won't win the game this way. Once the copy of Traitor's Roar resolves, the Giant is tapped, and the original Roar will be countered on resolution because its target requirement - an untapped creature - hasn't been met.

Q. My Spawnwrithe has a -1/-1 counter on it and it gets in there for one damage to my opponent. When the copy is created, will it also have the -1/-1 counter on it?
A. Your new Spawnwrithe will be much healthier than the one that created it. Copy effects (you can tell if something's a copy effect because it has the word "copy" in it) only check the printed values of the card it's copying, plus any applicable copy effects. That latter part just means that if, for example, your Spawnwrithe was turned into a Loamdragger Giant through something like Mirrorweave with the "make a copy of me" trigger on the stack, the token copy would be a Loamdragger Giant.

Q. I've got a Drowner Initiate out and my opponent plays a blue spell. Can I pay 3 to make him put the top six cards of his library into his graveyard?
A. Drowner Initiate has a triggered ability that triggers whenever a player plays a blue spell. When it's resolving, you have a chance to pay 1. If you do, you can mill someone for two, but you only have one shot at it for each blue spell played.

Q. My 2/2 creature blocks a Sickle Ripper and gets two -1/-1 counters. As it dies, can I use Fate Transfer to move its -1/-1 counters onto my opponent's creature?
A. Once combat damage resolves, your 2/2 gets two -1/-1 counters. Then, before any player gets priority, it's put into the graveyard as a state-based effect. By the time you have priority to play Fate Transfer, your creature's already in the graveyard.

Q. I've got a Blowfly Infestation out and attack with a 3/3 that has a -1/-1 counter on it. My opponent blocks with his Safehold Elite. Can I stack the triggers so that when Safehold Elite comes back, Blowfly Infestation puts a -1/-1 counter on it?
A. Even though the Active Player/Non-Active player rule says that Safehold Elite's persist trigger will be put onto the stack last and therefore resolve first, both triggers are put onto the stack at the same time, and Blowfly Infestation requires a target. As soon as it's put onto the stack, you have to pick a target for it, and Safehold Elite hasn't re-entered play yet.

Q. How many copies of Burn Trail can I create if I control six untapped creatures when I play it? (#1 question at the prerelease!)
A. Only one! For each instance of conspire on a spell, you can tap two creatures as part of its cost if you want to create a copy. But sort of like the Initiates I mentioned in an earlier question, you can only do it once per spell. However if one of those creatures you controlled was a Wort, the Raidmother, your Burn Trail would have two instances of conspire and therefore you could tap two additional creatures that share a color.

Q. Can I use Merrow Wavebreakers's ability to give it flying before my opponent declares blockers?
A. Indeed! You could argue that it's what the designers intended you to do. For a mere 1U, you can give the merfolk flying and pseudo-vigilance for a turn. Declaring the Wavebreakers as attackers causing them to become tapped. During the declare attackers step of the combat phase, you can pay 1U and untap it. By the time the declare blockers step rolls around, the fish are already flying. It's worth noting that pulling this trick after your opponent declares a block with a non-flier won't cause the Wavebreakers to become unblocked.

Q. Does the copy of Burn Trail created by conspire have conspire itself?
A. It does - however, you're not playing the copy, it's just put onto the stack, so you can't pay the copy's conspire cost.

Q. If I play Torrent of Souls to bring back a Siege-Gang Commander, will the tokens it creates get +2/+0 and haste if I paid both red and black mana?
A. This was actually answered incorrectly on another site where Torrent of Souls was spoiled. The first thing Torrent of Souls does is bring back the Siege-Gang Commander. SCG's triggered ability triggers at this time, but since no player is getting priority while Torrent of Souls is resolving, it doesn't go on the stack yet. Then Torrent of Souls gives all creatures you control - including the Commander - +2/+0 and haste until end of turn. As the last part of the spell resolving, Torrent of Souls is put into its owner's graveyard, and then the game puts Siege-Gang Commander's triggered ability on the stack. The goblin tokens are way too late to the party at this point, so they're just regular 1/1s.

Q. If I control a Flourishing Defenses, what happens if I play a Grief Tyrant?
A. Your Grief Tyrant will come into play with a bunch of elf buddies to cheer him on. The counters that creatures come into play with count as being put on them, so Flourishing Defenses triggers four times, giving you four elves.

Bonus Combo!: Just to show how crazy this rule can be.... If you control Flourishing Defenses and a Doubling Season and then play a Grief Tyrant, he'll come into play with eight -1/-1 counters and promptly die. Then Flourishing Defenses will create sixteen elf tokens (eight from the eight -1/-1 counters, doubled to sixteen from Doubling Season). Since he left play with eight -1/-1 counters, you can put sixteen -1/-1 counters on a target creature. If you put them all on one of your elves, it'll die painfully and spawn thirty-two more elf tokens. Net result: 47 elf tokens in play. For a standard-legal version of this combo, just play two Grim Poppets and a Flourishing Defenses for infinite elves at instant speed.

==FIN==

Well that's all for this week. This weekend is the last time you'll get to play Shadowmoor-less standard, and probably the last time you'll ever get to draft Lorwyn-Lorwyn-Morningtide, so come on down to Grim and FNC!

-Brian Paskoff