Hello everyone! I hope this day finds you bursting at the seams for more Alara Reborn fun when the set goes officially on sale at midnight tonight! I know I had a great time down in Nashville, TN at The Next Level Games store last Saturday. I even managed to sneak away on Sunday and enjoyed a sealed tournament at Castle Perilous in Carbondale (albeit I lost to my wife Michelle again — this is becoming an alarming habit). I do want to talk about the new cards and some of the things that make it exciting, but I’m getting ahead of myself already.
The month started with PTQ Honolulu in Louisville, KY. I travelled up the night before and was settling into my room at the hotel when I happened to catch Clay Baker on Facebook. Long story short, we ended up at a local restaurant for dinner and chatted. I’d originally planned to take a break and give Louisville a miss this time, but I had a funny feeling that attendance would be high the next day and so changed my mind. Sure enough, we packed in a near Kentucky record of 171 players and spent a lot of the day rushing around. Here are some of the rules highlights —
1. Active player has Tendrils of Agony on the stack with a storm count of 10. The opponent plays Angel’s Grace in response and wants to know what will happen if he lets everything resolve and then plays Lightning Helix. First, a match at a PTQ is between two players and it’s not my job to advise people what to do or when to do it! However, after some encouragement to word his question more carefully I was able to point out that Angel’s Grace only affects damage and therefore won’t change any of the life loss that Tendrils and its copies were about to unleash. It’s also a common misconception that Angel’s Grace is a damage prevention effect. It is NOT. It’s a replacement effect that changes how damage is applied to a player’s life total. Therefore, anything that triggers on a certain amount of damage being dealt will still trigger and for the full damage effect, but the final life total for the player will not go below one.
2. Active player has Future Sight in play and turns a card with suspend over on top of his library. Can he suspend the card from the top of his library? The answer is no, since the wording for suspend specifically states that the ability only works while the card is in a player’s hand. Furthermore, if a spell or effect allows you to draw multiple cards while Future Sight is in play, they are drawn one at a time and the new card on top of the library is turned face up before being drawn.
3. Similarly when playing a Mind’s Desire, the cards are removed from the game. Any cards with splice removed from the game in this way cannot be copied onto another spell because the ability only works while the card is in your hand. Mind’s Desire let’s you play the cards until the end of turn, but it does care about timing issues, i.e. a sorcery spell.
4. If a player has Reflecting Pool and his only other lands produce colorless mana, then the Reflecting Pool can produce colorless mana (colorless is a type). Keep in mind that Conflux’s Exotic Orchard does not produce colorless mana because it specifically allows a mana color that an opponent could produce (colorless is not a color).
5. We had some issues at the PTQ when players presented their deck to an opponent. Under the Universal Tournament Rules 21, players MUST shuffle their opponent’s deck at the start of the match. If there is a shuffle effect during the game, the opponent MAY shuffle his opponent’s deck when he presents, but MUST at least cut the deck one time. If your opponent does shuffle your deck then you MAY make one last cut. There seemed a lot of people around that were unaware of this! The Penalty Guidelines rule 134 also covers shuffling and says in part, “Any time cards in a deck could be seen, including during shuffling, it is no longer randomized, even if the player only knows the position of one or two cards.” Unfortunately a lot of players still shuffle cards face up. Even if you are not looking directly at the cards when shuffling (although this isn’t always easy to tell from a judge’s standpoint) you may still see the cards on some reflective surface. Players that shuffle face up are therefore going to receive a game loss for insufficient randomization. One young gentleman effectively cost himself the chance of making the Top 8 in Kentucky that day by doing exactly this at the beginning of the final round of Swiss.
I got home from the PTQ in Louisville and was surprised by an email from Brian Kowal. I don’t really know Brian, but I have obviously seen him at many PTQs and GPs over the last two years. Unfortunately our last encounter was at GP: Chicago when I was the sitting judge for his third missed trigger penalty during the Top 8. As I’ve outlined before, this meant Brian’s penalty for missing the Dark Confidant trigger was upgraded to a game loss instead of a warning (3 warnings for ANY combination of missed triggers over an event means an upgrade at professional and competitive). Now it appears that Brian was ‘a bit steamed’ about this for some time (his words), and he decided to talk to me about it. The main thrust of his argument was that his penalty was given out in a very public way. By that I mean that there were a lot of people within earshot as I talked him through it. My thinking at the time was along the lines of a relatively minor “missed trigger” infraction. However, hearing the news that your tournament is over is never an easy thing, and made much worse with an audience. I suddenly wished that I’d taken Brian to one side to explain things in a more private fashion. This is exactly the kind of subtlety of judging that isn’t written down in the penalty guidelines. I’m grateful to Brian for taking the time to write to me about this, as I can say that he’s made me a better judge for it! If you do feel that a judge has made a mistake, do try and approach him between rounds and talk about it. Just keep in mind that he might still be busy, but any judge will normally be more than happy to talk further about rulings. Just think carefully about what you want to say and just as importantly how you are going to say it: be patient, be respectful and listen as well as talk.
And so fast forwarding to last weekend, the wait is now over and the new set of Alara Reborn cards are almost upon us! As I said at the top of the article I was judging last Saturday and was quite excited at some of the new cards coming out, however it wasn’t until I played on Sunday that I started to realize how much fun the new set is going to be. I’m sure readers have been inundated with people’s opinions of cards already, but I can’t resist doing a bit of the same (this is MY article!)
1. Borderpost Cycle.
I was a bit worried when I heard the set would be all multi-colored, since the need for mana color fixing is going to be even more critical. However the alternative cost for the Borderposts is pretty clever in my opinion. Remember that cost increases and cost reductions will still apply when playing the post.
2. Meddling Mage.
One of my all time favorite cards and back with some truly awesome artwork. The card choice for Meddling Mage is a replacement effect and made as it enters play, so the opponent doesn’t get a chance to respond to it. Spells already on the stack are unaffected by the choice. Morph spells can still be played for their morph cost facedown. Turning the named card face up isn’t stopped by Meddling Mage. Split cards must have both halves named by Meddling Mage.
3. Nemesis of Reason.
Wow, what a bomb in Limited! It doesn’t even have to do damage! In 2HG, when the triggered ability resolves you would choose one of the defending player’s to put ten cards into his or her graveyard.
4. Dauntless Escort.
Double wow! This has me reaching for my Wrath of God cards and wanting to play Standard again. The sac ability does not ‘lock in’ to a set of creatures on resolution, since indestructibility is not technically an ability and is therefore not changing the characteristics of the creatures. Therefore a creature that comes under your control later in the turn will be indestructible too. If one of your creatures changes control to an opponent, it ceases to be indestructible.
5. Sigil Captain.
The captain’s ability is a fine example of an “intervening if clause,” and it’s a bit like a spell with targets to choose. If the creature isn’t a 1/1 when it comes into play the ability won’t trigger. If the creature is no longer a 1/1 creature when the ability resolves then it likewise won’t do anything. The captain does take into account any pump effects like Glorious Anthem or detrimental effects like Night of Souls’ Betrayal. It also had people at the prerelease buzzing at the prospect of combo possibilities with Murderous Redcap (since +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters on the same creature are removed by a state based effects check).
6. Putrid Leech.
The two life cost for this ability will put many people off, but as long as my opponent is losing twice as much life I’ll keep using it. If the pump ability has already been used this turn and the creature changes control because of an effect, the pump ability cannot be used again (it’s still the same turn).
7. Sages of Anima.
Nice ability to keep the creature tempo going. And while the Sages is in play, the replacement effect on the card draw means that you will never lose the game for having zero cards in your library!
8. Mayael’s Aria
Some of the players at the prerelease on Saturday thought Mayael’s ability was an example of an intervening IF clause… however, it is not. The normal set up for the clause is “When/Whenever/At . . . , if [condition], [effect].” Rule 404 of the comprehensive rules says in part, “Note that the word “if” has only its normal English meaning anywhere else in the text of a card; this rule only applies to an “if” that immediately follows a trigger condition.” The three parts of the ability are followed in the order written. So putting a +1/+1 counter on each of your creatures could cause you to gain 10 life if it gained the crucial power 10.
9. Lorescale Coatl
The ability simply states, “Whenever you draw a card, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Lorescale Coatl.” Yikes! With so many card drawing effects for Blue, this card is going to be insane!
10. Predatory Advantage.
A card more interesting in 2HG, as the wording means that it will trigger for each of your opponents. Generally, cards which only specify an event like beginning of upkeep or at end of turn will only trigger once. However, if the ability specifically triggers for each player’s upkeep or end of turn, then the ability will trigger for each individual player, even though the phases are shared in 2HG.
A word about Cascade…
I think the two coolest cards with Cascade are Enlisted Wurm and Bloodbraid Elf. The ability is a triggered ability when the spell is played on the stack. Once you have finished playing the spell, the trigger goes on top of the stack and players get a chance to respond to it. Players could Stifle the trigger or counter the original spell. As the ability resolves, you get your chance to play a spell. If you have a split card removed, as long as one half is of lower casting cost, it will allow you to play either half! If you don’t want to play the first nonland card with lower casting cost, then you remove it from the game and randomize all cards back into the bottom of your deck. If the card turned up is also a cascade card, then it will also trigger to let you look for another spell to play. Although you are not paying the spell’s mana cost, you can still pay optional additional costs and must pay mandatory additional costs.
I think Cascade is going to be a lot of fun for casual players, but I believe that pro players will hate this random ‘luck’ element being introduced into a game. I played a match at the weekend where my opponent hit a second cascade spell on more than one occasion — game over!
One last thing I want to say about the prerelease is that attendance in most of the Midwest major prereleases (including Nashville) was significantly down. This seems to be a common theme for second expansion prereleases in the spring. Have you ever skipped a spring prerelease? Why?
Looking at the previous poll figures on the affect of Alara Block on Constructed competitiveness, the overwhelming view (>75%) seems to be that things are still about the same and just as challenging as ever. That suggests that Wizards has got this block right, and people are having fun.
I guess I should shut up now, but before I go it’s looking like a feast of standard is about to hit the nation! Regionals is coming to a venue near you on May 16th (I’ll be HJ in Memphis, TN). At the end of May we’ll be on the verge of another North American GP, this time GP: Seattle. Plans are still formulating but Tim Shields is working hard out there on the west coast to make this event HUGE! Not only is the event Standard format, but Tim has already booked eight Magic artists to sign things for you, and there may be more before the event goes live. We have another season of PTQs almost upon us for PT: Austin and, after a long absence, the Standard format is going to sweep the PTQ circuit. Plan ahead and go early, as I’m hoping that PTQs may set some attendance records around the country.
The MVJ award for the most valuable judge of the month has to go to Mike ‘The Big Zee’ Zimmerman up in Chicago. He’s an excellent L2 judge and has gone to enormous lengths to try and find judges some space in his timeshare apartment for the approaching PT: Honolulu. He’s saving myself and a bunch of other judges a lot of money, and hardly wants anything back for it in return. I’m less sure about his ideas for judges going skydiving once we get there, but I’ll see if the idea grows on me. Until next time, may your topdeck be a cascade card for the win.
Once again, I am internally grateful to people like Eli Shiffrin, Matt Lemke, Lee Sharpe and Shawn Doherty for their advice and suggestions when putting this article together.