How to play Magic: The Gaddering

[Chewblaha]

You cannot counter creature abilities. Unless you kill the creature before they even activate and/or think about activating it.

 

I meant "mana tapped" to be "land tapped."

 

 

Yeah. No. That Odyssey deck was on an older rule set.

 

Think of it like this.

 

You see this fucker.

 

 

He wants to asian tentacle your girlfriend.

 

You play Faceless Butcher to keep that guy out of play.

 

Someone kills your Butcher.

 

As he is dying, say from a block you put him to, you activate the sacrifice.

 

Sacrifice the Butcher.

 

On the stack, the Butcher is ALREADY in the graveyard.

 

You bring him back out and use his ability on Emrakul again, or another creature.

 

The stack is essentially a complicated list of what cards resolved when and what cards are available to whatever library/graveyard/battlefield effect is being used.

Edited April 7, 2011 by Chewblaha

[Chewblaha]

Creatures regen back to their health.

 

I did mention multiple blockers.

 

But the thing is, the attacker doesn't become a 3/5 or anything like that. It is really that the attacker has taken two damage fr...

 

Lemme do it this way.

 

5/5 attacks.

 

Two 1/1's block.

 

That 5/5's damage is completely blocked unless it has trample. HOWEVER, it DOES take two damage that does not go away at the end of combat. Damage lasts for an ENTIRE turn. Creatures regen back to normal health at the end of each turn, unless they are affected by Infect counters.

 

It just means that

[Cyber Rat]

You cannot counter creature abilities. Unless you kill the creature before they even activate and/or think about activating it.

 

 

THE GOLDEN RULE

[Chewblaha]

Eh. That's a card specific rule.

 

What I mean is, that by today's standards of cards, you cannot counter creature abilities with normal counters. Every card is different and has it's own rules.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plus, Champions of Kamigawa really sucked.

 

But the creatures were awesome.

Edited April 7, 2011 by Chewblaha

[SanaEquiesterer]

But the thing is, the attacker doesn't become a 3/5 or anything like that. It is really that the attacker has taken two damage fr...

 

Lemme do it this way.

 

5/5 attacks.

 

Two 1/1's block.

 

That 5/5's damage is completely blocked unless it has trample. HOWEVER, it DOES take two damage that does not go away at the end of combat. Damage lasts for an ENTIRE turn. Creatures regen back to normal health at the end of each turn, unless they are affected by Infect counters.

 

It just means that

 

Shit shit shit, I was saying to myself DON'T get these numbers wrong, but I did. I meant the 5/5 is damaged to a 5/3, so you've confirmed what I was thinking.

 

Thanks for clearing up the strategy I mentioned. Is your explanation based on the old rule set or the new one? Because your explanation is just reusing the remove creature ability on the same card, where the whole point of the strategy was to permanently remove cards. Or was the original wording so misleading that it was really saying what you told me?

 

First Strike was also a confusing thing to truly understand until I played Duels of the Planeswalkers on PS3. The game made it seem as though a 2/2 with first strike deals 2 damage, THEN normal combat begins (I'm not talking literal phases here). So a 2/2 with first strike will make a 4/4 a 4/2, which evens the odds for battle...right?

 

Same with double strike, but it deals pre-combat damage twice. So a 2/2 with double strike would destroy a 4/4 before battle between the two even started.

Edited April 7, 2011 by SanaEquiesterer

[Mercurial]

First strike means it just damages it first and if doesn't kill the other creature then the 2nd creature damages it second and the 1st creature doesn't do damage again.

Double Strike means it attacks first once and then damages it again in "normal" battle.

So this means Double Strike does First Strike damage then regular damage ONCE FOR EACH.

Edited April 7, 2011 by Hakidia

[Chewblaha]

Thanks for clearing up the strategy I mentioned. Is your explanation based on the old rule set or the new one? Because your explanation is just reusing the remove creature ability on the same card, where the whole point of the strategy was to permanently remove cards. Or was the original wording so misleading that it was really saying what you told me?

 

New rules. Most old cards from the old days were so overpowered, it's fun to look back on it. It was just a loophole people had found for the cards that were allowed at the time.

 

See how Basilisks have evolved over the years here:

 

 

 

 

Just the wording changes really.

 

Before it had to be blocked, some had to be blocking. Now it's just Deathtouch. Yeah it's simplified now, in literally the slightest way possible, but the wording means a whole lot now.

 

Old basilisks like the Thicket and the Lowland all require combat damage. Now Deathtouch means ANY sort of damage.

 

So some people have been attaching equipment with deathtouch to creatures like this:

 

 

It really takes the fun out of it when you do some cheap ass shit like that. Yeah I get that it works really well, but it's really just a lame combination that just shows that Deathtouch needs to be reworded to simply say "COMBAT DAMAGE ONLY."

 

Here's the main rule about it.

 

702.2. Deathtouch

702.2a. Deathtouch is a static ability.

702.2b. A player assigning combat damage from a creature with deathtouch can divide that damage as he or she chooses among any number of creatures blocking or blocked by it. This is an exception to the procedures described in rules 510.1c-d.

702.2c. A creature that's been dealt damage by a source with deathtouch since the last time state-based actions were checked is destroyed as a state-based action. See rule 704.

702.2d. Multiple instances of deathtouch on the same object are redundant.

 

So Deathtouch has had some people build some really pansy decks that include stuff like the Basilisk Collar to really just make them assholes. It takes the fun out of the game and needs to be rewritten in the 2011 set of rules when the new block hits in October.

 

 

 

Seriously. It's really lame.

[FMW]

I have read your entire guide. Twice. Thank you. It has been helpful to me.

[Chewblaha]

Any questions?

[StrifeROKs]

omg this is so epic

[Saturnine Tenshi]

Commendable post, Chewie. I honestly had no idea how Planeswalkers worked since it's been so long.

[Chewblaha]

So what happened, Charizard?

[Saturnine Tenshi]

If I have equipment that imparts Shroud, can I counter spells that target creatures by re-equipping it to the targeted creature?

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

If I have equipment that imparts Shroud, can I counter spells that target creatures by re-equipping it to the targeted creature?

 

I believe Equip is a "Sorcery-speed" keyword, meaning it could only be used during your main phase and not in response to a spell like that, unless your creature had an ability that allowed it to be attached right away (like pay 1 mana, search your hand for an equipment card and equip to target creature or something like that).

[Saturnine Tenshi]

Yep, that's right. Lightning Greaves would be OP otherwise.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

This thread put me off buying this game when it was half price on XBLA - it just sounds so complicated.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

Yeah, XBLA is pretty complicated. I'd go with Steam.

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

Saturnine, I think I've seen you playing DOTP on Steam? Is it any good?

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I'm just glad PSN escaped unscathed from an online services jibe.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

It's a port, and it suffers because of it. Technical bugs can be a pain.

 

For $9.99, I'd say it's worth it. The element that troubles most players is that you can't build your own deck(you can unlock 20+ cards per deck). It helps maintain a level playing field, though. Really, there isn't much else to say about it. It's MtG streamlined.

[Chewblaha]

 

It STINKS.

[Cyber Rat]

Chew is only mad because he can't win without OP cards.

 

DOTP is ok, only buggy as hell.

[Mercurial]

What a dick card and it's legal too!

That one too.

[Chewblaha]

I don't think you've seen this one then.

 

[Cyber Rat]

That is so much bull...