Magic the Gathering

Do you play Commander, though? That's what that Commander's Arsenal is made for. Your friends introduce you to that yet?



Wait, that's happened? Well, it's a non-zero chance, but that'd only be a packaging error or something, right?

Commander? They just explained it a bit to me. It sounds fun but I haven't tried it yet.
But I just want the cards so I can put it in my binder for display. That's why I'm wondering if it's randomized.

Also, if my Goblin Chieftain gets detained, its bonus buff to my creatures wont work right?

Yeah, you need to have played the game for a while and have an extensive enough collection to build a commander deck because it needs to be singleton, meaning you can only put one copy of each card in your deck, besides basic land. Also, it needs to be built around a commander, a legendary creature.

And no. That's a static ability, always works as long as it is on the battlefield. Detain only affects activated abilities. Basically if the ability is arranged in [Cost]: [Effect], it's an activated ability.

Not per se, there are people who play legacy (such as myself) who would like pimp foil Sylvan Library (badass card, no really)

That and commander isn't really an expensive format to get into, because you need only one of a particular card, you don't need a playset of say force of will, sure you need the cards to do so, but if you play magic for a couple of months, it should be easy to put together a deck.

Yes, that has happened, it's not common, nor is it something I would bet on happening, but printing/packaging mistakes do happen (saw a thread about someone opening a Vraska with square edges). In fact Miscuts/printing errors fetch a pretty penny actually if you find one, it comparable to finding a shiny pokemon, it doesn't happen often, in fact, you may doubt that it does, but when it does...

Oh, yeah. For sure.

Well, you do accumulate enough cards after a couple of months, but my first commander deck I built from scratch (the Grand Arbiter one I mentioned when I first started this thread) was a flop since I didn't have too many good cards to put in, a huge chunk of it became filler cards that didn't impact it that much, which is why I'm reconstructing it again.

I see. Yeah, I remember a couple of my Avacyn Restored cards had oddly colored backs (I think someone described it as albino).

EDIT:
More Stuff about the Arsenal:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/218c

Scroll Rack, Sylvan Library, one of the oversized is Zur the Enchanter...
omg

I'm getting a bit confused with Unbreathing Horde.

It says in the ruling that "If Unbreathing Horde has no +1/+1 counters on it (but its toughness is raised above 0 by another effect), any damage dealt to it will still be prevented, even though no counter will be removed."

So lets say I have Death Baron and Unbreathing Horde. Lets also say I already blocked once with UH so he is 1/1. A 10/10 creature attacked me and I blocked with UH.
How come he doesn't lose a counter or die? Isn't Death Baron's buff a +1/+1 counter to all zombies?

Unbreathing Hordes effect is a replacement effect. If it would be dealt damage, instead, prevent all damage that would be dealt to it, and remove a counter. It would usually die if it had no counters on it because it'd be a 0/0 (0 toughness = goes to graveyard).

Death's Baron's effect is NOT a counter, it's a static effect. All your zombies and skeletons get those buffs, and they are not counters, they are just there. Your Unbreathing Horde is now a 1/1 that comes in with a certain amount of counters that get removed over time, but now, if it has no counters, it still has over zero toughness, so it gets to stay on the battlefield, AND, since it has a replacement effect that prevents damage to it, it can't die by damage at all; not unless it's toughness becomes zero again (like if Death Baron goes away).

So basically, it'd be a bad idea to Lightning Bolt it, but, if it were low enough, I could certainly Dismember it. Bolt is damage-based removal, Dismember is not.

This is also a good time to note that stuff like Dismember or Tragic Slip can kill something that's Indestructible. For example you have a Flakenrath Aristocrat that's Indestructible, she can't die from any damage or destroy abilities like Deathtouch or spells like Go For The Throat.

However, since you can still target her with spells, you can cast Tragic Slip on her and she will die. No damage was dealt to her, but her toughness has reached zero, so she is sent to the graveyard.

Ahhhhh, there's not any good early monoB ramp in Modern... I wanted to build a Modern-legal Suicide Black so I can put in Phyrexian Obliterator...

I was gonna base it off of this:
http://mtgsalvation.com/1376-squandered-resources-black-and-budget-legacy.html

And most of the shell is from here, but I had to take some inspiration from this guy's deck to find my second threat I needed, the Immolating Souleater:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/deck/953

I'm not gonna splash red yet, though if it comes down to it, I may have to.

The maindeck so far:



Looking through RtR cards, too I thought maybe I could find a way to fit Cryptborn Horror in. Definitely not as a four-of, though.

Also, wanted to try the Second Sunrise deck, since it always interested me since before it's victory in Pro Tour Return to Ravnica, but because of that, it interests me more. I'm kinda shocked though that none of the lists ran Disciple of the Vault. I was thinking up a way to make Ravager Affinity, but when I remembered Disciple of the Vault, I thought how awesome it'd be in the (Eggs, Second Sunrise, Second Breakfast, all those weird names for it) deck.

Bascially, I cut 1 Sleight of Hand from Cifka's Second Breakfast list for the Disciple, though it was hard to find what to cut because I love his deck otherwise:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/ptrtr12/top8decks

Disciple is unnecessary by and large, the deck is difficult enough to pilot, even when it was in extended and actually ran eggs (they're a cycle from Urzas) the deck was regarded as hard to play correctly as you had to sequence everything perfectly, and you may not realize you made a mistake until a turn or two later, cutting a cantrip for a unnecessary wincon is just making things THAT much harder for you.

Would start picking up second sunrise now if I were you, went from a dollar rare to ten dollars over night

Also it's called Eggs, don't let the boring people tell you otherwise :).

Ahhh... Now that makes much more sense to me.
I really hate this detain... especially decks revolving around it.

Is Exalted a static ability?

Yes, not an activated one.

A Static Ability is one that simply is always in effect, opposite the Activated Ability. Sabretooth Tiger has First Strike as a static ability, whereas Mantis Engine can have both First Strike and Flying as abilities, but since you have to pay for them, they are Activated Abilities.

Fuuuuuuck, I expected a price jump, too...
When I first heard of the deck about a while ago, I shoulda capitalized on it...

Now that I've seen it in action, I've wanted to play it even more than I did at that time.

And yeah, it was REALLY hard deciding what I wanted to cut from his list for the Disciple, and even then, didn't like it. Cifka's deck just seemed so perfect that messing with it at all seemed like a mistake. I guess I was a little too excited finding out about the Disciple, that my mindset became "do whatever it takes to fit this card in".
Still, it's still a little scary for me to think that the deck literally only has ONE card to win with, pre-board. That was my reasoning for wanting to put it in there.

It's actually a triggered ability. It goes on the stack when something triggers it, in this case, when a creature you control attacks alone.

EDIT:
I gotta say... Fucking Thragtusk, man... Messed me up this Game Day. My monored deck would be alright until my opponent cast that, then I'd just be screwed. I did pretty well otherwise. 2-2. Got a full-art Cryptborn Horror, too. Made a few more minor changes to the deck and sideboard. Still trying to optimize it.

There is a reason thragtusk is 20...

Mono-colors seem really weak right now, Rakdos is probably more what you want to be doing.

There was a guy with a similar build to mine, though when I kinda rolled over him, he took some inspirations from my deck, but it was Rakdos, there were actual black cards instead of just being monored like mine, so he had access to some more stuff like Slaughter Games.

I don't wanna change decks now, I've spent too long on this one. I think I might have an answer in Thundermaw Hellkite, which is going into my sideboard.

Slaughter Games seems bad in a aggro deck, it's not the angle you want to be attacking and combo doesn't exist in standard (Splinter-Twin does not count as that was an accident)

Give it a shot man, Rakdos has a lot of punch, and inevitability (bump in the night). The mana in the format is good enough to where there is little reason to stay mono-colored and nothing is punishing you for playing non basics.

Bump is cool, yeah, it's like a black Lava Spike with flashback. I'd also have access to black creatures. It's just, yeah, I've spent a lot of time refining this deck already, and quite some money. Thinking back to consider a whole other color and needing to buy a new mana base, geting those shocks... A little too much to worry about over one night, there is another tourney tomorrow. Given more time, I'd start making considerations to actually add black already, not just have it be a coincidence that my deck has hybrid black creatures despite being monored.

Anyone have a cocktrice account here yet? I really want to play you guys if you do. Let me know and add me :

SakaPro765

I have another question, I'm really sorry if I'm asking too much noobish questions.

Let's say I have Sphinx of the Steel Wind and my opponent has a Champion of Lambholt that has a 7/7 status.
Will Champion of Lambholt's power less than her can't block work on my Sphinx of the Steel Wind?