Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’ve got a double-header: First you have over 23 minutes of Pro Tour: Honolulu goodness where we speak of combo, catch up with Joe K, and answer The Question in a variety of ways. On the text-only side, I’ll talk about how our game is changing and will not be the same after July and how I feel about it. Let’s go!
First, the show!
Next, what would be next week’s episode (but we’ll just get live player reactions in Boston instead), regarding the Rules Changes:
New Rules
So one blissful Wednesday I was looking at MagicTheGathering.com and I noticed a link to the new Magic 2010 Rules Update. And this wasn’t your average rules update–this is a fundamental shift in the game you and I enjoy. Things are suddenly different, whether that’s zones in play or how combat is handled.
And of course, like calm, rational adults, everyone took all of these changes in stride. They understood that due to the very nature of our complex and beautiful game we–
OMG! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! MAGIC IS F***IN DEAD MAN! GAME OVER MAN, GAME OVER!
It’s just…it’s done man…*sniff*…they done took ole Magic behind the shed and shot her. Right in the face. Right in her little…beautiful…
Now wait a minute. This is Magic we’re talking about. MAGIC. The game you and I know and love and have stuck with through thick and thin and if you’re just new to the game hi, we’re kinda weird about changes to it, okay? WotC has killed Magic more times than Kenny and we’re not about to take these changes lying down! No! We’ll…revolt! Yes! Revolt…right after the prerelease. Or Planechase. Or Garruk vs. Liliana. Or Zendikar. Oh c’mon, what are these changes really doing here? Let’s go through em, one by one.
#1 Simultaneous Mulligans
Nothing to see here, move along. This change is not only a casual staple, it’s kinda silly having to sit there and stare at your cards while your opponent mulls to oblivion. Suddenly your hand is golden no matter how bad it was to begin with. The only ‘advantage’ now is the person who wins the die roll is the first person to announce their mulliganing decision. An excellent change.
#2 Terminology Changes
As I spoke of in the past, we officially have the Battlefield and Exile zones, you now ‘activate’ activated abilities, officially ‘cast’ spells, and everything that used to say ‘at end of turn’ now says “at the beginning of your end step.” This is to closer match the upkeep triggers we all know and love so much, and also to better define the difference between ‘AT end of turn’ and ‘UNTIL end of turn’. With that they gave us the newly spoiled Ball Lightning, and holy cow is it awesome. Sure we have Groundbreaker in Planar Chaos, but believe it or not it was just meh. Now we have the original back for the first time since Fifth Edition and it is still fantastic! Never underestimate six damage for a paltry three mana. I mean, do I really have to mention that it combos perfectly with Bloodbraid Elf? Yowza.
All in all, our game is a fantasy one and these terms will ease the introduction of said game to others. Yes, I know, you and I will always say “when this comes INTO PLAY” like we have something to prove for awhile, but over time I bet you’ll be using these terms too, and it will be no big deal. We have a Library and we have a Graveyard. Now we have Exile and Battlefield. Remember they did NOT change “hand” into something like Spellbook, which is appreciated.
#3 Mana Burn is gone
I’m still yawning over this one too. A few cards get worse (Spectral Searchlight) and a few cards get better, such as Mana Drain, because, you know, we really needed to do something about this poor, underplayed counterspell. I mean, does any even remember what it does? Maybe with this little push in power level, it could see play in a few formats. Fingers crossed.
There is nothing to worry about with this change in my mind. I also like how mana empties at the end of every -phase-. This means you can’t float mana from your upkeep to your draw step, making Mistbind Clique just a wee bit better, as if it needed it, but all in all a good change.
#4 Token Ownership
This was just silly to begin with. Now, if something creates a token for you, whether that ability was controlled by you or your opponent, you “own” that permanent. This was largely in part due to cards like Brand, which could steal back tokens made by, say, Hunted Dragon, and Warp World, which relied on giving your opponents tokens that then counted towards -your- number of flips from the spell. Now this I believe makes much more sense and is far more streamlined. Bravo!
#5 .. we’ll get back to.
#6 Deathtouch
Deathtouch is now a ‘static ability.’ What does this mean? Deathtouch no longer uses the stack. This means that if you block a creature with 2 power and Deathtouch with Troll Ascetic, you only have to regenerate once to keep your troll alive. When damage is dealt, if a creature has deathtouch, it kills the creature it damaged. It no longer kills the creature ‘again’ with deathtouch if it regenerates. This is a nice change, I think.
#7 Lifelink
Lifelink is now a static ability. What does this change mean? Lifelink no longer stacks. Battlegrace Angel and Rhox War Monk are no longer the mondo combo they used to be, and that’s kinda sad. It also means that Genju of the Fields is no longer a cube-worthy card, which also makes me sad. However, with Lifelink now being a static ability, it has two very interesting situations that can occur:
The first is this: Let’s say you’re at two life, being attacked by a pair of 2/2s. You have a 3/3 lifelink creature to block. In the old rules, because Lifelink’s ability is a trigger, you would die with this life gaining on the stack. Now that it’s a ‘static ability’, when the damage happens, you will go to -2 and gain 3 at the same time, leaving you at 1 and to fight another day. So that’s new.
The other is if you have, say, Prodigal Sorcerer equipped with Spirit Link, if you tap the Sorcerer to deal a damage, and your opponent destroys it in response, in the old rules you would not gain life due to the Lifelink not being around any longer to trigger after the damage resolves. But now you will gain that life, a subtle change that could make the difference in a match someday.
Now…back to #5: Damage no longer uses the stack
I remember the exact moment I read it. Wednesday morning. 1:53AM. My jaw, on the floor. My heart, in my throat. My magic-laden world turned upside down. Who’da thunk it, they done destroyed every tricky thing I love about the combat step! How could they! What have they done!
Okay, okay, before we get all emotional let’s see just how it works now.
First let’s look at one-on-one blocking. In that scenario you simply have declaring attackers, declaring blockers, and once both players pass, damage happens. You can’t stack damage and Unsummon. It just, well, happens!
So now we get tricky: Multi-creature blocking.
Let’s say you’re attacking with a Rhox Brute into Cylian Elf and two Soldier tokens. Your opponent blocks with everything. What happens? First, you order the blockers. You simply make them #1, #2, and so on. This is the order in which you will assign damage to them. After this ordering, players get a chance to cast spells and activate abilities. This is when your opponent may cast Giant Growth on Blocker #1, the Cylian Elf, in order to blow you out and not lose any blockers. This is also your last chance to use Mogg Fanatic, Sakura Tribe-Elder, or Ravenous Baloth’s ability. This is the change in which these creatures were lowered in power.
After you both pass, you assign combat damage to the blockers. You must assign enough to deal lethal to them, which is a creature’s toughness minus the amount of damage already dealt to it this turn. So if you play Pyroclasm and attack your Rhox Brute into their two blocking Rhox Brutes, you can assign each of them two damage accordingly.
Note that you do not have to take into effect damage prevention. If they double block your Rhox Brute with their two copies that have two damage on them, if your opponent plays Healing Salve on Blocker #1, you can still assign just two damage to it.
Now this is the change I most disagree with, because to me it makes sense that if a bunch of creatures block my guy, I can split the damage up any way I please, regardless of what ‘order’ they’re in. Sure, give me an order and I’ll split the damage myself. This makes cards like Pyroclasm terrible because you now have to play it before combat to get maximum advantage from it. At least they gave us Volcanic Fallout, amirite?
With that said, if a creature has Deathtouch, you can split up the damage any way you choose amongst the blocking creatures, regardless of toughness or order. That’s nice.
Why are all of these changes here? What made them come into our lives? A few things: Experience, Game Growth, and XBox Live.
Yup, I do believe that the XBox Live game actually impacted these rules. I’m sure it didn’t ‘officially’, but, let’s face it, explaining how to stack damage to someone playing on an XBox360 is kinda tough. Explaining that damage ‘just happens’ at some point is much easier from both a programming standpoint and the standpoint of a new player.
Yes, I know we lose strategery in this awesome game of ours. Yes, it makes our game a ‘little’ less complex. But my God, what more do you want from a game with over 10,000 moving pieces and parts, all interlocking and working with one another. Have you looked at the rulebook lately? Even with these mass changes, the thing is still hefty and requires years of study to comprehend it masterfully.
Now the naysayers, and there are many, have their many problems with this. While Mogg Fanatic has become the poster child of stacking damage, other players complain that Planeswalkers aren’t that ‘intuitive’ and yet all of these changes were made in the name of ‘intuitiveness.’ This is a word you’ll hear over and over when discussing these changes, and many will argue its merits.
Magic is frankly, even after these rules changes, not very intuitive. For example, if you use your Vithian Stinger to kill my Druid of the Anima, and I Incinerate the Vithian Stinger in response, the ping ability shouldn’t happen, should it? The creature whose ability it relies on is dead!
That’s one way to look at it, and many games have worked this way. But in Magic, we’re stack-bound and while we have stacked damage all of these years, that doesn’t mean we always did and that doesn’t mean we always should. It’s just a way of creatures smashing into one another. Cards like Sakura Tribe-Elder and Mogg Fanatic will no longer be the powerhouses they once were, which I’m kinda thankful for because really, how annoying were the endless Umezawa’s Jitte’s questions about whether or not it got counters when you blocked and did or did not stack damage first? Ugh.
All I know is, at the end of the day, these changes will come and go, some cards will get better, some cards will get worse, and we’ll all be playing just the same. The game is still incredibly complex and incredibly satisfying. I hate to break it to you, but double and triple blocks aren’t the most common things that come up, and having a systematic way of dealing with such situations is far more enjoyable than explaining how the guy threw a punch, disappeared, and it still landed.
As the interwebs have gone through their normal cycles of grief, I think we’ve gone through Denial and Anger, and are currently in the Bargaining phase. “Well, if we just revolt…” or, “Well, if we sign enough petitions…”. Soon we’ll get through the Depression of losing stacked damage as Magic 2010 is released and amongst us, and arrive at Acceptance long before Zendikar hits.
And besides, the latest rumor is Lighting Bolt is returning! Lightning-frickin-Bolt baby! Now that’s a card I can not only get behind but fall in love with all over again. As a player who began in Ice Age, I know the power of a Lightning Bolt, and I know -exactly- how bad ass that guy really is. The difference is, I guess, that there is no first turn Dark Ritual into Hypnotic Specter to Bolt out of the sky, but hey, I’m not looking a gift reprint in the mouth.
So with that I’ll say that these changes are painful, as all change is, and once we get through them we will come out a stronger game. Many more players will join us thanks to trying out the game on XBox Live, and they won’t get completely hosed in their first tournament by not understanding how awesome Mogg Fanatic…well, used to be.
And for those ‘used to be’s’, just think of all those still to come. Magic flows, and as some get better some get worse, and I’ll happily be along for the ride.
Until next time Magic players, this is Evan Erwin. Tapping the cards…so you don’t have to.
Evan “misterorange” Erwin
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