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This week on TTC Serge and Alex join James to discuss all things Highlander. From the basics, to cards from the past year that are making their way into the format.

Bonus links to things that were mentioned

Canadian Highlander Site: https://canadianhighlander.wordpress.com/
Victoria Highlander Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/288447914624649/
European Highlander: http://www.highlandermagic.info/
Viclander Blog: http://viclander.wordpress.com/

Yay Serge! He's my favourite guest host on TTC! Probably because when Serge is on, there is surely interesting rules discussion to follow. : )

Just a minor note to James about Butcher of the Horde: from what I remember from listening to Constructed Resources, there was a pretty big period in standard where Mardu Midrange was rumbling on equal footing with Abzan Midrange. It was Butcher of the Horde vs Siege Rhino, Anafenza vs Goblin Rabblemaster, Abzan Charm vs Crackling Doom. These were questions people asked. I don't know what happened to Mardu after FRF, but that was the case for a large period of time in standard.

Mardu kinda died in standard after FRF. I don't really know why, but I guess there wasn't place for two midrange decks in the meta and Abzan won. It may be because Mardu didn't really got to play with new toys like Taisgur or Ugin.

If you cast Dance of the Skywise on an Elusive Spellfist, would it get the +1/+0 pump + unblockable from the Spellfist's ability, and then immediately lose the unblockable to DotS "loses all abilities" clause?

Garbonzo42 wrote:If you cast Dance of the Skywise on an Elusive Spellfist, would it get the +1/+0 pump + unblockable from the Spellfist's ability, and then immediately lose the unblockable to DotS "loses all abilities" clause?

Yes. The Dance triggers the Spellfists abillity, which goes on the stack on top of Dance. The Spellfist gains +1/+0 and can't be blocked, then Dance removes the can't be blocked ability and the trigger (so if you cast something afterwards it won't trigger again) and makes it base 4/4 and gives it flying.
You end up with a 5/4 flying creature.

I'm not sure why that rules question was such an issue, BTW. The change to the "base power and toughness" template makes it clear that this does not negate things like auras, equipment and pump effects. They made that change precisely to make this type of situation less of a brain twister...

susu.exp wrote:Yes. The Dance triggers the Spellfists abillity, which goes on the stack on top of Dance. The Spellfist gains +1/+0 and can't be blocked, then Dance removes the can't be blocked ability and the trigger (so if you cast something afterwards it won't trigger again) and makes it base 4/4 and gives it flying.
You end up with a 5/4 flying creature.

Correction. Can not be blocked is not an ability of the Spellfist (the template there would be "and CARDNAME gains CARDNAME can not be blocked until the end of turn"), which means that it does not get removed by the Dance, because it's not a card ability at the point the Dance resolves. So you end up with a 5/4 Flyer that can't be blocked.