==ISLANDHOME #34==
October 22nd 2008
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
FNC is Moving!
States '08
The Future of Magic
Madonia Minute
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC @ 1 PM
Sunday: Casual Day at Brothers Grim @ 2 PM
==FNC IS MOVING!==
Author: Brian Paskoff
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
FNC is Moving!
States '08
The Future of Magic
Madonia Minute
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC @ 1 PM
Sunday: Casual Day at Brothers Grim @ 2 PM
==FNC IS MOVING!==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Friendly Neighborhood Comics will be moving to West Islip on November 1st, and to say goodbye to FNC's original location, we're having a huge tournament this weekend. Come down, play for big prizes, and join us in the last tournament at FNC Islip! (As John Madonia IMs me five thousand times a day, "fnc u!")
I'll miss the little store I helped build up over the last two years, from a little store with a half dozen players with 86 card "green decks" to a thriving store with Grand-Prix-top-8 level decks piloted by skilled players, the same ones who two years ago were playing Blaze in their red decks. I don't mean to sound like I'm taking credit for the drastically improved skill level of players (watching me play, you'd think I'd have players still playing giant mono-colored decks) - I'm proud of everyone's effort to be the best player they can be, and this goes for every Islandhome reader. It seems like every once in a while, some new player comes to FNC with a "Pro" deck because they heard FNC was a "kid's store", only to get smashed into the losers' bracket by the skill of the "kids" they thought they were sure to beat.
Hopefully this tradition continues at the new FNC, where the bigger venue and location on a main road will attract many more players. FNC has a casual atmosphere with lots of friendly competition and nice players, and I hope to see everyone there on opening day!
In just over two weeks, as we find out who the next President of the United States is (Tarmogoyf '08!), Magic players all over the country will be participating in their state's State Championships! After cancelling one of the most popular annual tournaments, Wizards has caved in to popular demand and has brought back States. A casual-competitive level event, States appeals to everyone, and the fact that there's no Pro Tour invite or large cash prize on the line makes it a much friendlier playing environment than a PTQ.
Entry fee is only $25, and everyone who plays gets a free foil Dauntless Dourbark. I know - not the most exciting card in the world, but it's a collector's item that you can't get anywhere else. In previous years, pre-cancellation and resurrection, Wizards printed a special full-frame chase rare for everyone who placed in the top 8. Because they didn't have time to print a new card after reanimating the State Champs program or some other reason, there's no top 8 promo this time around. Instead, everyone who makes it to the top 8 table gets a Predator Dragon playmat that's sure to raise a hefty price on eBay. The winner of it all though gets a new prize: free entry to all Gray Matter constructed events for an entire year! That's right - you can play in every Gray Matter constructed PTQ for free, with nothing at stake other than your rating and pride!
John Madonia has some ravings about the Standard metagame in his column, but I'll offer some of my limited expertise on constructed right now. I'll go out and say that five-color control decks will be by far the most popular choice, probably rivaling Faeries's showing at some large Standard tournaments pre-Shards rotation. With the best mana fixing ever in Standard (besides Reflecting Pool + City of Brass), Toast decks can play any card they want. The major weakness of the deck is that it relies on big spells, like that oh-so-trendy Cruel Ultimatum. Thanks to lots of mass and spot removal, as well as life gain, Toast can swing back around after being battered down in the early game.
A small percentage of the field will be packing anti-five-color decks. Toast has trouble wth quicker decks that pack counterspells of their own, such as Faeries. That archetype seemed to be dead after it lost Ancestral Visions and Rune Snag, but its good matchup against Toast even without its most powerful spells might give it renewed life... at least until Toast loses popularity.
I'll have more Standard metagame review next week's article, as I expect the majority of the decklists from States to come straight out of this weekend's StarCityGames $5000 tournament this weekend.
I'll miss the little store I helped build up over the last two years, from a little store with a half dozen players with 86 card "green decks" to a thriving store with Grand-Prix-top-8 level decks piloted by skilled players, the same ones who two years ago were playing Blaze in their red decks. I don't mean to sound like I'm taking credit for the drastically improved skill level of players (watching me play, you'd think I'd have players still playing giant mono-colored decks) - I'm proud of everyone's effort to be the best player they can be, and this goes for every Islandhome reader. It seems like every once in a while, some new player comes to FNC with a "Pro" deck because they heard FNC was a "kid's store", only to get smashed into the losers' bracket by the skill of the "kids" they thought they were sure to beat.
Hopefully this tradition continues at the new FNC, where the bigger venue and location on a main road will attract many more players. FNC has a casual atmosphere with lots of friendly competition and nice players, and I hope to see everyone there on opening day!
==STATES '08==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Author: Brian Paskoff
In just over two weeks, as we find out who the next President of the United States is (Tarmogoyf '08!), Magic players all over the country will be participating in their state's State Championships! After cancelling one of the most popular annual tournaments, Wizards has caved in to popular demand and has brought back States. A casual-competitive level event, States appeals to everyone, and the fact that there's no Pro Tour invite or large cash prize on the line makes it a much friendlier playing environment than a PTQ.
Entry fee is only $25, and everyone who plays gets a free foil Dauntless Dourbark. I know - not the most exciting card in the world, but it's a collector's item that you can't get anywhere else. In previous years, pre-cancellation and resurrection, Wizards printed a special full-frame chase rare for everyone who placed in the top 8. Because they didn't have time to print a new card after reanimating the State Champs program or some other reason, there's no top 8 promo this time around. Instead, everyone who makes it to the top 8 table gets a Predator Dragon playmat that's sure to raise a hefty price on eBay. The winner of it all though gets a new prize: free entry to all Gray Matter constructed events for an entire year! That's right - you can play in every Gray Matter constructed PTQ for free, with nothing at stake other than your rating and pride!
John Madonia has some ravings about the Standard metagame in his column, but I'll offer some of my limited expertise on constructed right now. I'll go out and say that five-color control decks will be by far the most popular choice, probably rivaling Faeries's showing at some large Standard tournaments pre-Shards rotation. With the best mana fixing ever in Standard (besides Reflecting Pool + City of Brass), Toast decks can play any card they want. The major weakness of the deck is that it relies on big spells, like that oh-so-trendy Cruel Ultimatum. Thanks to lots of mass and spot removal, as well as life gain, Toast can swing back around after being battered down in the early game.
A small percentage of the field will be packing anti-five-color decks. Toast has trouble wth quicker decks that pack counterspells of their own, such as Faeries. That archetype seemed to be dead after it lost Ancestral Visions and Rune Snag, but its good matchup against Toast even without its most powerful spells might give it renewed life... at least until Toast loses popularity.
I'll have more Standard metagame review next week's article, as I expect the majority of the decklists from States to come straight out of this weekend's StarCityGames $5000 tournament this weekend.
==THE FUTURE OF MAGIC==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Author: Brian Paskoff
Welcome to the world of tomorrow! Well, not just yet. It's going to be about three months before we even get a look at a new Magic card, so get used to Shards of Alara. On Monday, Wizards released the official name of the third set in the Alara block: Alara Reborn [ARB]. According to the little bit of information given about it in the press release, Alara Reborn is going to be all about the five Shards coming together to become one world again. As anyone who's remotely interested in the fluff behind the game is aware, Alara block's storyline is about the post-post-apocalyptic plane of Alara after it was torn apart into five different worlds by something called "The Sundering". Conflux, apparently, is all about the five Shards starting to rejoin, as seen in the promotional art on the back of some token/tips cards. That art seems to show Progenitus, the giant hydra god sleeping beneath Naya (see Relic of Progenitus and Keeper of Progenitus), invading Bant and about to enjoy a nice angel food cake.
So what does all this nerdy storyline talk have to do with the game itself? Well, for one thing, it gives us some clues about the theme of the next two sets. Conflux is widely believed to be the "enemy shard" set, just as Eventide mirrored Shadowmoor by switching from allied color pairs to enemy color pairs. Blending the lines between the shards would be a good mechanical way to show the reformation of Alara, and even better, gives us some new colors to work with, such as BGW - Doran colors! However, it'd present some difficulty with limited. Players have already learned that there are two ways to draft Shards of Alara: either stick rigidly within a particular shard, or go four colors with enough mana fixing to make it worthwhile. Introducing enemy shards in the third pack would make it hard for the first option to work, especially if there were the same ratio of good tri-color cards to non-tri-color cards as in Shards. You'd be forced to go at least four colors, or ignore the tri-color stuff entirely.
On the bright side, there are hints of strong "all color" mana fixing in Conflux. Out of the leaked card names, two stand out as possible mana fixers. There's Obelisk of Alara, which if it follows the theme of Shards of Alara's Obelisks, will be a mana fixer. And the generic name tells us it has something to do with adding mana of any color. Then there's Mana Cylix, a one mana artifact reprinted from Planeshift that lets you tap it to filter any color mana into another color. Shards purposely avoided mana fixers that added mana of any color to your mana pool, but with Conflux having at least one such fixer confirmed, you shouldn't be too afraid of being mana screwed in a four or five color deck.
As for Alara Reborn, it's anyone's guess as to what they're going to do with the colors. Will it mix and match color triads from all over the back of the Magic card? Be a four-color or even five-color set? Or do a total 180 and be a strictly old-school-Magic feel set with no multicolored cards whatsoever? The possibilities are wide open, and we'll have to wait until at least late March to find out what Wizards has in store for us, because the set itself will be released April 30th.
After Alara block is all done with, the block code-named Live, Long, and Prosper kicks off with Live, sometime in the fall of 2009, which will give Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, and Eventide the boot out of Standard. But before that, probably in June or July if history is any indication, 11th Edition will be released. 11th Edition will be the smallest core set in Magic's modern history, with only about 229 cards (the final number has yet to be released). 11th Edition may or may not have black borders like 10th; that too has yet to be determined. But the most excitement over 11th Edition comes from speculation over what rare lands will be in the set. The dual lands in core sets are perhaps the most important cards they add to Standard. For a long while now, we've relied on the classic painlands - well, not so much anymore with Vivid lands, Reflecting Pools, and Shadowmoor/Eventide filter lands allowing all five colors of mana to be produced by turn two - but there is a lot of hope that 11th Edition will reprint the shocklands from Ravnica block.
Personally, as someone who played back then (and without the sizeable collection I have now), I'm not looking too much forward to a possible future containing the shocklands as the defacto land in Standard. Standard decks in the Kamigawa/Ravnica and Ravnica/Time Spiral days could cost hundreds of dollars on the manabase alone, with every deck featuring multiple shocklands - some of which cost over twenty dollars! On the other hand, in a much smaller set, shocklands would be easier to obtain than they were back then... but I'd still expect the most popular shocklands to breach the $20 barrier, at least at first.
Whatever new things Magic brings to the table (literally) in the next few years, the game will stay as fun as it's always been. New sets are always exciting, and you'll be cracking packs of Live before you know it!
So what does all this nerdy storyline talk have to do with the game itself? Well, for one thing, it gives us some clues about the theme of the next two sets. Conflux is widely believed to be the "enemy shard" set, just as Eventide mirrored Shadowmoor by switching from allied color pairs to enemy color pairs. Blending the lines between the shards would be a good mechanical way to show the reformation of Alara, and even better, gives us some new colors to work with, such as BGW - Doran colors! However, it'd present some difficulty with limited. Players have already learned that there are two ways to draft Shards of Alara: either stick rigidly within a particular shard, or go four colors with enough mana fixing to make it worthwhile. Introducing enemy shards in the third pack would make it hard for the first option to work, especially if there were the same ratio of good tri-color cards to non-tri-color cards as in Shards. You'd be forced to go at least four colors, or ignore the tri-color stuff entirely.
On the bright side, there are hints of strong "all color" mana fixing in Conflux. Out of the leaked card names, two stand out as possible mana fixers. There's Obelisk of Alara, which if it follows the theme of Shards of Alara's Obelisks, will be a mana fixer. And the generic name tells us it has something to do with adding mana of any color. Then there's Mana Cylix, a one mana artifact reprinted from Planeshift that lets you tap it to filter any color mana into another color. Shards purposely avoided mana fixers that added mana of any color to your mana pool, but with Conflux having at least one such fixer confirmed, you shouldn't be too afraid of being mana screwed in a four or five color deck.
As for Alara Reborn, it's anyone's guess as to what they're going to do with the colors. Will it mix and match color triads from all over the back of the Magic card? Be a four-color or even five-color set? Or do a total 180 and be a strictly old-school-Magic feel set with no multicolored cards whatsoever? The possibilities are wide open, and we'll have to wait until at least late March to find out what Wizards has in store for us, because the set itself will be released April 30th.
After Alara block is all done with, the block code-named Live, Long, and Prosper kicks off with Live, sometime in the fall of 2009, which will give Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, and Eventide the boot out of Standard. But before that, probably in June or July if history is any indication, 11th Edition will be released. 11th Edition will be the smallest core set in Magic's modern history, with only about 229 cards (the final number has yet to be released). 11th Edition may or may not have black borders like 10th; that too has yet to be determined. But the most excitement over 11th Edition comes from speculation over what rare lands will be in the set. The dual lands in core sets are perhaps the most important cards they add to Standard. For a long while now, we've relied on the classic painlands - well, not so much anymore with Vivid lands, Reflecting Pools, and Shadowmoor/Eventide filter lands allowing all five colors of mana to be produced by turn two - but there is a lot of hope that 11th Edition will reprint the shocklands from Ravnica block.
Personally, as someone who played back then (and without the sizeable collection I have now), I'm not looking too much forward to a possible future containing the shocklands as the defacto land in Standard. Standard decks in the Kamigawa/Ravnica and Ravnica/Time Spiral days could cost hundreds of dollars on the manabase alone, with every deck featuring multiple shocklands - some of which cost over twenty dollars! On the other hand, in a much smaller set, shocklands would be easier to obtain than they were back then... but I'd still expect the most popular shocklands to breach the $20 barrier, at least at first.
Whatever new things Magic brings to the table (literally) in the next few years, the game will stay as fun as it's always been. New sets are always exciting, and you'll be cracking packs of Live before you know it!
==MADONIA MINUTE==
Author: John "Metagame" Madonia
Author: John "Metagame" Madonia
I sit amongst the 10,000 or so Big Gulp cups that surround by twin bed as I write to you this October. An autumn night with leaves falling slowly and a brisk wind forcing a light sweatshirt to be worn as a trip to the drug store awaits. I peer out my window and notice a young specimen maybe 19 or 20 years of age, female, jogging to her hearts content as my hearts races yearning to speak to her. She passes by my home each evening around 8:00pm usually in a swift manner with her blond hair waving along as she shirt slowly moves around as each passing step my heart palpitates and hungers for one opportunity to be great and have that courage to go over to her and tell her that she's the most interesting person I've ever met and that I promise not to call her 24/7 and call her self-absorbed. And yet I sit here, yet again with my heart buried in my hands wanting to reach out, but I cannot handle the possible rejection that has hindered my fourfathers (spelled this way on purpose) I cannot bear to hear the words im not going to date you, I will instead continue to play Diablo 2 and wear pleather jackets and one day find that special one that will allow me to take me to a place many men know well, the sushi date 08.
The preceeding paragraph has little to do about Magic but it had sentimental value and needed to be addressed.
Reveillark has been one of my favorite non-blue cards printed in recent memory. The first decks packing this card were built around infinite damage and infinite life-gain. Even the best of players had difficulty piloting this deck and with a near unwinnable game against Faeries, so it feel by the wayside. At the end of the Time Spiral Standard season, the deck made its return as a tempo-based control deck winning various Grand Prix.
I decided to try and look at some cards that could fit well in a Reveillark themed deck. I looked at the current metagame as Five Color (5c), Faeries, Kithkin, Elves, Merfolk and Red based variants. I feel at an average States event that a solid 25-30 percent of the field would be piloting 5C. You need to be able to have a strong matchup against the deck if you have any shot at doing anything this season. The only problem is it's near impossible to fight their spells, as they can play any card in the format. Some of their lists play Cruel Ultimatimum, some have Negate to counteract them. Your best plan at the moment is to fight their mana-base. Although we don't have Magus of the Moon at our disposal, we do have various spells to keep their game in check.
I started building with the core cards:
4x Reveillark
4x Mulldrifter
4x Cryptic Command
Most decks pack these cards in 4-ofs. Mulldrifter is a key creature and reanimator target. Of course any control deck has to pack Cryptic Command.
Utility Creatures:
4x Tidehollow Sculler
4x Fulminator Mage
Anyone that used Mesmeric Fiend knows how good this type of card is. It's Thoughtseize 5-8 in the early game and forces your opponent to waste spot removal on a Grizzly Bear. It's usually never a dead draw, as it's at worst a 2/2 and it also gives information, which when your opponent has card(s) in his hand can be crucial for decision making.
Fulminator Mage plays a similar role to Stone Rain in the old Magnivore style deck. It can severely hurt 5c mana and taking out a stray Mutavault or Windbrisk Heights.
So we have 20 cards, 16 creatures. Other utility cards are crucial to our gameplan. I attempted each Charm with limited successes, except for Esper Charm and Bant Charm. I decided on 3 Esper Charm and 2 Bant Charm as I feel the early Bitterblossom pressure is too important to ignore. Bant Charm is for the the stray Collosus or Demigod that slips through your removal package.
So to update
4x Tidehollow Sculler
4x Mulldrifter
4x Reveliark
4x Cryptic Command
4x Fulminator Mage
3x Esper Charm
2x Bant Charm
We tried Bitterblossom for a short time, but it counteracted everything I wanted to do with my deck. I felt that although my three-to-five drop slots are consistently powerful I need spells on the beginning of my curve. I looked at a utility card like Unsummon and Boomerang which in theory would allow tempo and great opening. Boomerang never seemed like a dead card was especially damaging early. So I decided on 4.
4x Boomerang
3x Thoughtseize
I feel any control deck I play needs to have either Cryptic Command or Thoughtseize main deck. I feel that any advanced knowledges helps me prepare much stronger, like which spell to Rune Snag or Mana Leak, and which spell warrants a game breaking spell.
3x Makeshift Mannequin
This inclusion is more or less an obvious include.
Mana
4x Reflecting Pool
2x Mystic Gate
2x Sunken Ruins
2x Vivid Meadow
2x Vivid Creek
2x Vivid Marsh
3x Fetid Heath
1x Arcane Sanctum
1x Island
1x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Underground River
1x Adarkar Wastes
1x Caves of Kolios
I usually don't have mana issues, so I usually use my normal formula to tabulate the mana correctly.
Sideboard choices
3x Ajani Vegenant
This card is a pseudo Tangle Wire and Lightning Helix foiled into 1.
4x Kitchen Finks- I feel that I have enough early tempo to disrupt the control decks and to an extent Kithkin decks. This helps the mono red matchup immensely.
3x Wrath of God - For the Kithkin matchup. If the deck becomes overwhelming for our deck then utilizing these maindeck would come to the forefront.
3x Negate - Countering a Cruel Ultimatum for two mana sounds really good, also forcing an early Spectral Procession to not resolve can work wonders for you.
2x Hallowed Burial - Also helps our Kithkin matchup, good tech for the mirror as well.
If Paskoff allows me to make the deck this week, I might play it at the last FNC event in history.
Appreciate the time,
John Madonia
P.S
Here are the players that are on the inside track to making the Madonia Invitational Top 8
David Drebsky
Nestor Nestor
Joe Aprano
Mike Bauer
Dan Gould
Mike Evans
Mike Innace
Lee Cruceta
Dylan Duprez
Jim Chianese
John Lorig
Top 8 will be announced next week!
The preceeding paragraph has little to do about Magic but it had sentimental value and needed to be addressed.
Reveillark has been one of my favorite non-blue cards printed in recent memory. The first decks packing this card were built around infinite damage and infinite life-gain. Even the best of players had difficulty piloting this deck and with a near unwinnable game against Faeries, so it feel by the wayside. At the end of the Time Spiral Standard season, the deck made its return as a tempo-based control deck winning various Grand Prix.
I decided to try and look at some cards that could fit well in a Reveillark themed deck. I looked at the current metagame as Five Color (5c), Faeries, Kithkin, Elves, Merfolk and Red based variants. I feel at an average States event that a solid 25-30 percent of the field would be piloting 5C. You need to be able to have a strong matchup against the deck if you have any shot at doing anything this season. The only problem is it's near impossible to fight their spells, as they can play any card in the format. Some of their lists play Cruel Ultimatimum, some have Negate to counteract them. Your best plan at the moment is to fight their mana-base. Although we don't have Magus of the Moon at our disposal, we do have various spells to keep their game in check.
I started building with the core cards:
4x Reveillark
4x Mulldrifter
4x Cryptic Command
Most decks pack these cards in 4-ofs. Mulldrifter is a key creature and reanimator target. Of course any control deck has to pack Cryptic Command.
Utility Creatures:
4x Tidehollow Sculler
4x Fulminator Mage
Anyone that used Mesmeric Fiend knows how good this type of card is. It's Thoughtseize 5-8 in the early game and forces your opponent to waste spot removal on a Grizzly Bear. It's usually never a dead draw, as it's at worst a 2/2 and it also gives information, which when your opponent has card(s) in his hand can be crucial for decision making.
Fulminator Mage plays a similar role to Stone Rain in the old Magnivore style deck. It can severely hurt 5c mana and taking out a stray Mutavault or Windbrisk Heights.
So we have 20 cards, 16 creatures. Other utility cards are crucial to our gameplan. I attempted each Charm with limited successes, except for Esper Charm and Bant Charm. I decided on 3 Esper Charm and 2 Bant Charm as I feel the early Bitterblossom pressure is too important to ignore. Bant Charm is for the the stray Collosus or Demigod that slips through your removal package.
So to update
4x Tidehollow Sculler
4x Mulldrifter
4x Reveliark
4x Cryptic Command
4x Fulminator Mage
3x Esper Charm
2x Bant Charm
We tried Bitterblossom for a short time, but it counteracted everything I wanted to do with my deck. I felt that although my three-to-five drop slots are consistently powerful I need spells on the beginning of my curve. I looked at a utility card like Unsummon and Boomerang which in theory would allow tempo and great opening. Boomerang never seemed like a dead card was especially damaging early. So I decided on 4.
4x Boomerang
3x Thoughtseize
I feel any control deck I play needs to have either Cryptic Command or Thoughtseize main deck. I feel that any advanced knowledges helps me prepare much stronger, like which spell to Rune Snag or Mana Leak, and which spell warrants a game breaking spell.
3x Makeshift Mannequin
This inclusion is more or less an obvious include.
Mana
4x Reflecting Pool
2x Mystic Gate
2x Sunken Ruins
2x Vivid Meadow
2x Vivid Creek
2x Vivid Marsh
3x Fetid Heath
1x Arcane Sanctum
1x Island
1x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Underground River
1x Adarkar Wastes
1x Caves of Kolios
I usually don't have mana issues, so I usually use my normal formula to tabulate the mana correctly.
Sideboard choices
3x Ajani Vegenant
This card is a pseudo Tangle Wire and Lightning Helix foiled into 1.
4x Kitchen Finks- I feel that I have enough early tempo to disrupt the control decks and to an extent Kithkin decks. This helps the mono red matchup immensely.
3x Wrath of God - For the Kithkin matchup. If the deck becomes overwhelming for our deck then utilizing these maindeck would come to the forefront.
3x Negate - Countering a Cruel Ultimatum for two mana sounds really good, also forcing an early Spectral Procession to not resolve can work wonders for you.
2x Hallowed Burial - Also helps our Kithkin matchup, good tech for the mirror as well.
If Paskoff allows me to make the deck this week, I might play it at the last FNC event in history.
Appreciate the time,
John Madonia
P.S
Here are the players that are on the inside track to making the Madonia Invitational Top 8
David Drebsky
Nestor Nestor
Joe Aprano
Mike Bauer
Dan Gould
Mike Evans
Mike Innace
Lee Cruceta
Dylan Duprez
Jim Chianese
John Lorig
Top 8 will be announced next week!
==RULES CORNER==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Author: Brian Paskoff
Q. Can I make a Cryptic Command counter itself with Swerve?
A. Technically, no... although Swerve can be used to counter a counterspell. Spells on the stack can't target themselves, it's put that plainly in the rules. However, you can target the Cryptic Command with Swerve, and as Swerve resolves, change Cryptic Command's target to Swerve itself! Swerve is still a legal target, since it's still on the stack while it's resolving. Swerve will finish up, and Cryptic Command will still be pointed at it. But when it tries to resolve, it'll find that its new target is illegal and Cryptic Command will be countered. There's one sticky little caveat here though - if Cryptic Command has two targets, it's not a legal target for Swerve, which needs a target spell with a single target. Cryptic's "tap all creatures your opponents control" and "draw a card" modes don't target, but "counter target spell" and "return target permanent to its owner's hand" modes do, so as long as Cryptic Command has one and only one of those targeted modes chosen, it's a legal target for Swerve.
Q. If I Twincast a Torrent of Souls that had both red and black paid to play it, do I get to return a creature and give all my dudes +2/+0 too?
A. If black was paid to play Torrent of Souls, you get to Zombify a creature, and if red was paid, your guys get +2/+0 and haste. But nothing was paid to play the copy of Torrent of Souls, so it'll just be a priority speedbump on the stack, doing absolutely nothing when it resolves. You pick a target before you actually pay for the spell though, so you can bluff your opponent by picking a target for the copy and hope they fall for it by countering it. Of course, that won't work on anyone who's read this article!
Q. I have a Runed Halo out naming Wren's Run Vanquisher, and an Empyrial Angel in play. If I don't block my opponent's attacking Wren's Run Vanquisher, does my Empyrial Angel die?
A. It depends - do you want it to? There are two replacement effects both tugging at the damage about to be dealt to you: Runed Halo is set to prevent the damage, and your Angel wants to take the damage for you. Since you're the affected player, you get to choose which replacement effect (well technically protection's effect is a prevention effect, but same difference) happens first. If you let Runed Halo prevent the damage first, Empyrial Angel will have no damage to soak up and deathtouch won't trigger. If you let Empyrial Angel take the hit, the Vanquisher's deathtouch ability will trigger, destroying the big bad mythic rare.
A. Technically, no... although Swerve can be used to counter a counterspell. Spells on the stack can't target themselves, it's put that plainly in the rules. However, you can target the Cryptic Command with Swerve, and as Swerve resolves, change Cryptic Command's target to Swerve itself! Swerve is still a legal target, since it's still on the stack while it's resolving. Swerve will finish up, and Cryptic Command will still be pointed at it. But when it tries to resolve, it'll find that its new target is illegal and Cryptic Command will be countered. There's one sticky little caveat here though - if Cryptic Command has two targets, it's not a legal target for Swerve, which needs a target spell with a single target. Cryptic's "tap all creatures your opponents control" and "draw a card" modes don't target, but "counter target spell" and "return target permanent to its owner's hand" modes do, so as long as Cryptic Command has one and only one of those targeted modes chosen, it's a legal target for Swerve.
Q. If I Twincast a Torrent of Souls that had both red and black paid to play it, do I get to return a creature and give all my dudes +2/+0 too?
A. If black was paid to play Torrent of Souls, you get to Zombify a creature, and if red was paid, your guys get +2/+0 and haste. But nothing was paid to play the copy of Torrent of Souls, so it'll just be a priority speedbump on the stack, doing absolutely nothing when it resolves. You pick a target before you actually pay for the spell though, so you can bluff your opponent by picking a target for the copy and hope they fall for it by countering it. Of course, that won't work on anyone who's read this article!
Q. I have a Runed Halo out naming Wren's Run Vanquisher, and an Empyrial Angel in play. If I don't block my opponent's attacking Wren's Run Vanquisher, does my Empyrial Angel die?
A. It depends - do you want it to? There are two replacement effects both tugging at the damage about to be dealt to you: Runed Halo is set to prevent the damage, and your Angel wants to take the damage for you. Since you're the affected player, you get to choose which replacement effect (well technically protection's effect is a prevention effect, but same difference) happens first. If you let Runed Halo prevent the damage first, Empyrial Angel will have no damage to soak up and deathtouch won't trigger. If you let Empyrial Angel take the hit, the Vanquisher's deathtouch ability will trigger, destroying the big bad mythic rare.
==THE ISLANDHOME BLOG==
One of the things I wanted to do was have an archive of past issues online so I could refer people back to them as well as let new readers peruse old issues to see what all the fuss is about. So I've archived all the old issues on the blogosphere at islandhomemtg.blogspot.com. Go and relive all the past moments of glory!
==UPCOMING EVENTS==
October 4th - December 28th: PTQ Season for PT Kyoto
The next PTQ season kicks off October 4th, and the format is Shards of Alara sealed deck!
November 8th - State Champs
States makes a return on November 8th, with a massive Standard tournament in each state! New York's will be at Neutral Ground, as usual. Everyone who enters gets a free foil Dauntless Dourbark, and each player who makes top 8 gets Shards product, a playmat, and the winner gets a plaque and free entry to Gray Matter constructed events for an entire year!
December - Mox Tournament at Brothers Grim
This December, Islandhome, in association with Brothers Grim, will be holding a giant Standard tournament. The first place prize will be a Mox Emerald, with many other prizes as well. Side events such as booster drafts and EDH multiplayer games will be held that day too, so keep reading Islandhome for more details!
November 8th - State Champs
States makes a return on November 8th, with a massive Standard tournament in each state! New York's will be at Neutral Ground, as usual. Everyone who enters gets a free foil Dauntless Dourbark, and each player who makes top 8 gets Shards product, a playmat, and the winner gets a plaque and free entry to Gray Matter constructed events for an entire year!
December - Mox Tournament at Brothers Grim
This December, Islandhome, in association with Brothers Grim, will be holding a giant Standard tournament. The first place prize will be a Mox Emerald, with many other prizes as well. Side events such as booster drafts and EDH multiplayer games will be held that day too, so keep reading Islandhome for more details!
PTQs in our area this season:
10/26 - Rochester, NY
11/22 - Philadelphia, PA
12/13 - New York, NY
12/27 - Edison, NJ
10/26 - Rochester, NY
11/22 - Philadelphia, PA
12/13 - New York, NY
12/27 - Edison, NJ
==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==
Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com
Friendly Neighborhood Comics
3 Grant Avenue, Suite 2
Islip, NY 11751
Phone: 631-470-7984
Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com
Friendly Neighborhood Comics
3 Grant Avenue, Suite 2
Islip, NY 11751
Phone: 631-470-7984
==FIN==
See everyone this weekend!
Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!
Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!
-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY
L1 NY
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