The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

[Prospero101]

Hokay! I've got a night off work, which means it's time to jump into my first MTGO draft. I'll be playing one of the New Plaer M14 queues. I have my stops set at my upkeep, main, attackers, blockers, and second main; for my opponent I have attackers, blockers, and end step.

I rebound all the F keys to the regular numbers, since I have a laptop and the function keys all have additional functions which makes using them a pain in the ass.

Any tips for a MTGO noob?

[AdmiralMemo]

Git gud?

Not really. Once you have your stops and F-keys figured out, it's just like paper MtG. Good luck.

[Utilitarian]

Holding CTRL as you play a spell will hold priority. This is occasionally very relevant.

[Prospero101]

Thanks, Memo!

Care to elaborate, Utilitarian?

[Kapol]

If you want to respond to your own spell before your opponent has a chance to do so, you'd hold down control to retain priority to allow that.

[Prospero101]

Related: I hate lifegain.

[korvys]

I recommend a stop on your opponent's Begin Combat step. This is where you would do things like bouncing creatures before they attack, but not in the main phase, so they can't then re-cast them before attacks. The step labled "Attackers" is you getting priority after they have declared attackers.

[Jamfalcon]

Woo, just played (well, co-drafted with my brother) Vintage Masters for the first time. Went 3-0 with a super fast goblin deck, without giving up a single game!

[Duckay]

Haha, my first win in Vintage Masters was also goblins! I was drafting with a friend and he told me not to draft goblins. Taking his advice didn't work so I did it my way. On a related note, two different opponents scooped prematurely (e.g. Still on 17 life against my vanilla 2/2 and two vanilla 1/1s?) Maybe the deck is getting famous.

[Jamfalcon]

Could be, there were a couple pretty early scoops in mine too.

[Prospero101]

First Magic Online draft accomplished! And lemme tell you, a four-man draft pod makes for a superweird metagame. It felt like I was getting cut on blue, but they only cut the bad cards...

Sadly I only got to play one round, since these four-player noob events only have two matches and I got the bye after the fourth guy dropped, but I did slog my way through a truly pitiful green-white lifegain deck. He had a decent run there in game two when he had a Serra Angel out...until I played my Clone to copy it, then Claustrophobia'd it next turn. For the most part, it was "Aw, honey."

Still! MTGO's interface was not nearly as intimidating as I expected. I'm guessing watching all those drafts on stream, plus the sage advice of all you fine folks, made the transition a bit easier.

I think it's safe to say that, aside from the occasional Commander game with friends, I'll be saying sayonara to paper Magic.

[NamelessSteve]

Bloodchief Ascension works as a combo piece with Mindcrank as well. It was a known combo in standard.

Thanks, I hadn't thought of that one. It would be good to have a backup for one of the combo pieces. That said, it is a little slow to get started up and is so powerful in multiplayer that it paints a big target on me (whereas this deck will probably look a little durdley and nonthreatening until it goes off otherwise). Weird that it being good is kinda a downside. Also it's one of the few cards I can't transmute for. I'm kinda conflicted on whether or not it's a good add overall, or what I would cut for it...

[Utilitarian]

Thanks, Memo!

Care to elaborate, Utilitarian?

So, let's say I want to cast Divinaion and then copy it using a Nivix Guildmage.

Normally, if I cast the divination, my opponent gets priority, and if they don't respond to it the spell resolves and I've missed my chance to copy it

So instead, I cast Divination while holding control. This puts the Divination on the stack but RETAINS priority so I can then use my guildmage to copy the spell before my opponent gets priority.

[AdmiralMemo]

Another example is Nivmagus Elemental, where you need to exile a spell while it's on the stack.

[Antitonic]

Did you know that Planeswalkers can be targeted instead of the player? I didn't!

I mean, obviously I do now...

[Phosphatide]

Technically they can't, it's a kind of tournament shortcut. When you say you wish to Shock someone's Jace, for example, you're employing a shortcut that basically says "I cast Shock targeting you, but will redirect it during resolution." Note that unless your opponent does something in response to the spell/ability, your shortcut has become contractual and you cannot change your mind during resolution to bring it back to the opponent's face. If something in response is done, then you can change your mind.

So yeah, there you go. Usually it won't make a real difference, but still a nifty thing to keep in mind when in a more competitive setting. The list of common shortcuts is a good read if you want to know more, which can be found in the Magic tournament rules document somewhere on the Wizards site.

[VectorZero]

Here's the 'redirect damage' rule:
306.7. If noncombat damage would be dealt to a player by a source controlled by an opponent, that opponent may have that source deal that damage to a planeswalker the first player controls instead. This is a redirection effect (see rule 614.9) and is subject to the normal rules for ordering replacement effects (see rule 616). The opponent chooses whether to redirect the damage as the redirection effect is applied.

You can also redirect damage from abilities, like that on Prodigal Pyromancer. Of course, planeswalkers can be targeted by spells that target planeswalkers, like Fated Conflagration. Rule 306.7 was implemented so that all the years of burn spells, damage effects and so forth have any effect at all on planeswalkers.

You can only redirect damage; that damage causes loss of loyalty counters. You cannot redirect life loss, so you can't redirect the life loss from Absorb Vis, for instance.

[Jenelmo]

They can but the only card that can (exept cards that say non-land) is Fated Conflagration

[Utilitarian]

Well, I mean they can be targetted with spells and abilities that are valid to target them, so if a card targets a "Planeswalker" or "Permanent" (of the non-land or non-creature variety) it will target a planeswalker completely as per normal.

The redirection shenanigans is for damage spells that target players but NOT planeswalkers

[tamaness]

When redirecting something like a Fireball to a Planeswalker, it's good to keep in mind that you can't hit multiple planeswalkers with redirected damage from a single source, because spells like Fireball only target the player once, and can therefore be redirected only to a single walker.

[AdmiralMemo]

I'm assuming you can't split Flames of the Firebrand among multiple planeswalkers controlled by the same player for that reason.

[VectorZero]

They can but the only card that can (exept cards that say non-land) is Fated Conflagration

Dreadbore, Hero's Downfall and Sorin's ultimate also target planeswalkers.

[Antitonic]

This was more straight-up "I can take 5 damage from a monster, and it'll make my turn more effective. Wait, I didn't lose any life, and my planeswalker's dead. That's weird. Welp, I'm screwed."

That's what the New Player drafts are for, I guess: learning the rules of play.

[Phosphatide]

Oh, were you talking about combat and attacking planeswalkers instead of players? That would be a different thing entirely than what we interpreted. Whoops.

[Antitonic]

Yeah, combat damage. Sorry about that, I'm still trying to learn all the things.