I love this book, and Sanderson in general. He really does well at making his magic systems with rules.

Training ground doesn't reduce Ninjitsu costs because you activate Ninjitsu when it's a creature card in your hand (not a creature).

Zombie cutthroat was great in the situation where both players play a morph on curve, and your opponent attacks into yours. Now you can block, they have priority first, so they have to flip up their morph first if they want to. Often the morphs that they can flip up for 3 or 4 will lose to a zombie ...

In the episode, you say that you can wait to flip up Muzio's Preparation until everyone responds (or not) to your creature, but this is incorrect. Revealing them IS a special action that doesn't use the stack, but you do have to have priority to do so. You get priority first when you cast the creatu...

My problem is that the rules are poorly presented. If "damage" ≠ "life loss," how am I supposed to know that without calling a judge or reading the Comprehensive Rules, which Wizards say you won’t usually need to refer to [...] except in specific cases or during competitive game...

I think you guys are underrating Banshee in a limited environment. It's definitely not amazing or anything, but anything that can be used as repeatable removal is certainly worth talking about. With banshee out, for 4 mana and 2 life, you can take out a 2 toughness creature. It can rack up some card...

When you're fusing the spell, you're casting one spell with a combined converted mana cost, but two mana costs. The mana costs are the relevant part when you cast the spell. The mana costs of Catch and Release are 1UR and 4RW, so I think you reduce both costs by 1 with the medallion. This is the op...

Yeah, it used to be the opposite. They changed the rule in the most recent update.

I do believe the Evolve one works like this: Evolve checks the condition twice, first when the creature enters the battlefield, then when the ability resolves. When Tristani's Summoner hits the board, the menagerie also hits the board, giving the evolve creature 4 triggers. In order to have them al...

When council of the absolute enters the battlefield, you can name one side of a fuse card, not both. It reduces the total cost by 2 if you cast the named half, or if you fuse it, but not if you cast the other side. When you're fusing the spell, you're casting one spell with a combined converted mana...

Desert is a subtype so that templating would work well with it. You could do protection as "protection from cards named desert," but landwalk needs super types or (more often) subyptes to work.

Artifact Lands have two card types, not any super-types.

Yes, tokens ceasing to exist when they aren't on the battlefield is a state-based action. Yes, state-based actions occur simultaneously and can't be responded to. They don't use the stack. The game checks all state-based actions just before a player would receive priority. If any should occur, they ...

Wow that was confusing so what happens if I cast weapon surge targeting Nivix Cyclops and in response to the casting cast dragon shift targeting the Nivix Cyclops? I want to see how much I can break this guy. Nivix's cyclops' ability triggers twice. When both those triggers and both spells have res...

Yes, the first strike damage happens first, marking 6 damage on your 10/10 (which doesn't actually reduce toughness). Then your creature can deal 3 to each 3/3 and 4 to the defending player. And yes, if your opponent blocks your 10/10 with 10 power of first strike creatures, your 10/10 will die befo...

Correction: without trample, extra damage is dealt to one (or more) of the blocking creatures. A 5/5 lifelink that's blocked by two 2/2 creatures will still gain you 5 life, even though it only needs 4 damage to kill both blockers and the 5th damage won't be dealt to the defending player. You will (...

We play star all the time too when we have 5 or 7, but without color restrictions on decks. Your goal is to defeat the two players opposite you. We minimize politics by allowing multiple winners. Once you defeat your two opponents, you win and leave the game, but if there are still players in the ga...

It's an additional scavenge ability. A slitherhead will have scavenge for 0 and scavenge for B or G.

The most ridiculous format my group has played was commander planechase octant . We had each occupied octant zone have its own plane. It was truly horrible. It went way too slowly. Our most common format though, is something that you don't really hear about anywhere either. Emperor draft. Our group ...

So I have a few questions regarding the etiquette of playing and general magic stuff. Booster pack - I am so confused by these. I don't know which ones I should pick up or buy. Will any pack do? Should i go after older ones? Is there a difference between the expansions? Gameplay - How many cards sh...

1. No, unfortunately you can't do that. On the back side of Loyal Cathar is a black color indicator, which means that the card has a black and white color identity. You can't play it in a mono-white commander deck. 2. That's correct. A red phryexian mana symbol gives the slash panther a red color id...

Picking matching lands isn't just OCD, it's good strategy. Sure, it matters very very rarely, but why give your opponent extra information? Let's say you're splashing a color in an ISD limited deck, but show 3 different pictures on your splash lands over the first two games. In the third game, you h...

Kapol wrote:Everything before the : is part of the cost for activation if I'm not mistaken.

Yes, that's right. All activated abilities are templated [cost]:[effect].

Yes, the only reason you'd pay two life for a shockland is if you didn't want it to enter the battlefield tapped. Amulet of vigor only triggers if the land does enter the battlefield tapped, meaning you didn't pay life for it. Then it untaps the land and the land can be used for mana the turn you pl...

No, Hypersonic Dragon's ability only applies to actual sorceries, not abilities or other spells that could only be cast when a sorcery could be cast. From the comprehensive rules: 307.5. If a spell, ability, or effect states that a player can do something only “any time he or she could cast a sorcer...