Double strike means that they deal damage during both first strike damage and regular damage. A creature with double strike gaining first strike does nothing.

Scenario 1: During first strike damage, the 3/3 deals 3 damage to the 6/6. During regular damage, the 3/3 deals 3 damage to the 6/6 and the 6/6 deals 6 damage to the 3/3. So after regular damage, you have a 6/6 with 6 damage and a 3/3 with 6 damage. Both die.

Scenario 2: Same as scenario 1.

Scenario 3: During first strike damage, the 3/3 deals 3 damage to the 6/6 and the 6/6 deals 6 damage to the 3/3. The 6/6 has 3 damage on him, and the 3/3 has 6 damage on him, so it dies.

I agree that Chrono Trigger is an excellent game, but I must nitpick. 14 endings isn't exactly replayability if you can see all of them in 2 run-throughs. If you want replayability, Ogre Battle had a ton of endings, as well as a lot of interesting mechanics. The game progresses differently depending on things like how many cities you discover, whether you have the Elite Group + Scrubs plan going on vs the Several Deep Groups plan. For example, if you run through the other armies with the Elite Group, you lose out on the "honorable" stat because you will just massacre anything that stands in your way.


7th Saga wasn't a challenging game. It was a grind fest with the boss battles that resembled rock 'em, sock 'em robots more than any sort of actual boss battles. I remember my first boss battle in that game involved me in a punch/heal/punch/heal infinite war. It took me 45 minutes to 2-shot the boss, only because he stopped casting healing spells upon himself. The intro dungeon requires that you grind up at least 5 levels.

Emerald Weapon is easy. Just wear 2 materia, have 9999 hp, and max limit breaks on everyone at the start of the combat. EW will use the attack that does 1111 damage for each materia, which will trigger the Lucky 7s, taking off half of its life. Then you just unload all of the multiple hit limit breaks (Cloud's, Barret's, and Yuffie's have the most attacks per limit break, IIRC, although Cid is also usable) and it's dead. Ruby's a bit harder, but you can still just do the infinite KotR spam.

I voted for FF6. Considering the limitations (4 MB vs 1500 or so MB of space), it was an all-around better game almost every way. I feel FF6 is better even without considering the limitations, but some people like graphics or long cutscenes, and it's a lot closer due to the relative shortness of FF6.

FF6 has a far more awesome bad guy. Kefka becomes a god, kills 2 main NPCs, and destroys the world. Sephiroth doesn't really do all that much. He menaces the world with a meteor that's kinda slow (plot says that it's coming, then you spend 10 real life hours breeding chocobos for that stupid sidequest), and he kills the white mage (but only because Square didn't finish the revive quest in time).

FF6 has the better heroes. It doesn't have any true Main Hero like almost every other Square game since. Celes might be the closest to the main hero, but everyone gets their turn, except for the few randoms piled on. I didn't really think that Cait Sith, Yuffie, Vincent, Red XIII, or Cid got nearly enough plot time, considering how few heroes there are. Yuffie had the Wutai sidequest, but it's really not that impressive. Cait Sith is just sorta there, Vincent gets a little bit. Red XIII has the backstory and the cutscene of the statue of his father, but then he just disappears. Cid has the one space travel quick quest, and that's about it. Cloud sucks up most of the character development.

Celes falls in love. Terra adopts a family. Setzer gives you an airship. Twice. Locke finally resolves the accident that left the love of his life comatose. Shadow gets the dream sequences (easily missable, but still pretty good) that tie into other characters. Gau meets his father in an amusing scene. I realize that they are relatively short plot points, but I'm more than willing to give them a pass due to space and time limitations.

FF6 had the better random enemies. The only unique ones that I remember with any sort of from FF7 are the Midgar Zolom and the Harpy (only because you can get Aqualung super-early from them). I remember the Io (machine spider from Cyan's Dream, amazing Rage for Gau), Stray Cat (amazing Rage for Gau, although they fixed that bug in the Advance version), Ninjas (the bane of the Low Level Game), Master Tonberry (sorta a boss, but Step Mine is just that awesome), Hoovers (hidden dungeon that you access via getting eaten in battle?), Intangirs (tough to find almost-boss with a bunch of cool traits, although he sucks as a Rage), and Tyrannosaurs/Brachiosaurus (they cast Meteor and Ultima if you let them stick around?). Nothing is worse than fighting almost nothing but different kinds of soldier models that differ only in damage they can take and damage they can deal.

FF6 has more awesome equipment. A sword that ignores row, ignores evasion, auto crits, randomly casts a good spell for free, gives you good bonuses to all stats, gives you a 40% chance to evade everything that doesn't ignore evasion. A set of dice that can pump out giant piles of damage if you use a relic. A shield that absorbs elemental damage and negates the elemental damage it doesn't absorb. Another shield that gives 33% miss chance. A set of gear that is actually pretty awesome if you are an Imp.

FF6 had real differences between the characters mechanically. Every character had a unique ability that really defined that character. FF7 has different limit breaks, but they are almost all some variation on "multiple attacks or strong attack". Everything is also done via Materia, so you can't point at something like Enemy Skill as a unique ability, when everyone can get it. FF6 has: Throw (deal lots of damage, but break an item, and it ignores evasion and defense), Runic (not overwhelmingly useful, sure, but it's unique), Morph, Tools (unique items that have some interesting effects), Swordtech (really crappy, but 1 is usable for a while), Blitz (play Street Fighter in an RPG), Natural Magic (if you are playing a Natural Magic run through, it's worth mentioning), Rage (amazing, gets better in Low Level Games/Natural Magic Games/No Equipment Games), Gogo (Does everything, but poorly), Enemy Skill (very useful in Natural Magic Games).

If you include FF6 Advance, the characters even get unique "ultimate" items (nothing is more ultimate than Illumina), so FF7 ties with FF6 on that.

And last, but not least, FF6 doesn't include a stupid sidequest involving chocobo inbreeding for ultimate power.

Settlers is also a fairly easy game to both play and learn. I wouldn't suggest that a new board gamer start out with something like Twilight Imperium or Descent.

And the Go-Fish with dice is Monopoly.

For suggestions, I've been playing through Scribblenauts. You have to love a puzzle game where everything is solvable by by some application of soda, a rocket launcher, some rope, a potted plant, Samuel L Jackson, and Cthulhu.

A slight correction: Priority is always done Active Player - Non Active Player after either adding something to the stack or removing something from the stack. If a player plays a spell during their opponent's turn, their opponent gets priority back first. (I don't think that I've ever seen the scenario of opponent receiving priority back first come up, to be honest.)

The decklists can be part of an investigation into Stalling. They won't be the entirety of the investigation.

What do you feel is objectionable to using a decklist in an investigation?


A judge can't answer the question "Can my opponent beat me?", because that would both give away private information and constitute outside assistance.

Your opponent has the right to keep playing, as long as they are doing it quickly. They can't just draw a card, think for a bit, then play a land, think some more, ineffectually swing with their creatures, and pass turn.


The definition of Stalling is: playing slowly or doing things that don't advance the gamestate in order to run off time on the clock with the intent of using the round clock to impact the match result.

It's not Stalling to bring 60 Island.dec to a tournament. It is, however, Stalling to play slowly with the intent of turning losses into draws.

Have fun with that 8 mana to draw a card. I'm pretty sure Earnest Fellowship + Painter's Servant + Iona means you win, if they don't have anything on the board (Vial, Dispeller's Capsule, etc.), and they can't run out a ton of man-lands. That combo is crushingly unfun.

I would actually worry more about a GW general than mono-W because of Tooth/Defense of the Heart. Pulling off a turn 3 Defense (Forbidden Orchard + they play a creature) into that lock is crazy good.

It turns out that Painter's Servant is pretty good in Iona. If you really worry about on-board abilities, there's always Earnest Fellowship.

Most of the hate comes for generals around here. Jhoira, Zur, Arcum, Erayo, Sharuum, Rofellos, Kraj, Momir Vig, etc.

Armageddeon effects are unpopular around here because everyone likes to keep their lands. Wrath effects are expected, but Armageddeon really takes the life out of a game. Same thing with Obliterate/Red Decree. It really slows down a game (unless it's a Jhoira deck).

Magister Sphinx is a pretty big whack for one player, but it's not necessarily a dire threat.

Seedborn Muse is amazing, I have no idea why more people around here don't run it.


Winter Orb, Rising Waters (enchantment Winter Orb that doesn't get hosed nearly as easily? Sign me up!), and Hokori all draw the hate, although Winter Orb can be necessary to slow down some decks enough to keep some games interesting. Especially whne you have one or two fast-midrange combo decks and a bunch of slower late-game decks.

Thievery is expected as a matter of course for a blue deck. While it is swingy, the stolen stuff rarely lasts more than a turn.

Planeswalkers tend to not last long. Too many random creatures floating around to really keep them in play for long.

I used to have this built as a deck a while ago, then I took it apart. I wanted to build it again.

I have several questions that I was hoping to see input on:

1) Any good nonbasic lands that I've left off the list?

2) What should I run for a counter suite, besides Force, Drain, Remand, and Cryptic?

3) Are there any relevant pieces of mana accel that I left off the list?

4) What do I run for utility creatures?

I have about 25-30 slots to fill, not counting Islands.

General: Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar

Lands:
Tolarian Academy
Academy Ruins
Tolaria West
Darksteel Citadel
Seat of the Synod
Teferi's Isle
Lotus Vale
Reliquary Tower
x Islands (Probably around 25)

Manas:
Gilded Lotus
Thran Dynamo
Worn Powerstone
Eye of Ramos
Darksteel Ingot
Sky Diamond
Coldsteel Heart
Mox Diamond
Chrome Mox
High Tide
Sol Ring
Mana Vault
Mana Crypt
Grim Monolith

Broken:
Vedalken Orrery
Mana Drain
Tezzeret
Eye of the Storm
Long-Term Plans
Mind's Desire

Drawing:
Time Spiral
Frantic Search
Ponder
Compulsive Research
Brainstorm
Memory Jar
Mulldrifter
Rayne, Academy Chancellor
Jace Beleren
Braingeyser
Opportunity
Mind Spring
Stroke of Genius

Counters:
Remand
Force of Will
Cryptic Command
Rewind

Creatures:
Teferi
Venser
Solemn Simulacrum

Kill:
Brain Freeze
Memnarch

There's a fairly significant legal problem with that. Wizards can legalize proxies. But that makes counterfeiting harder to prosecute, simply because they are saying "you can write Mox Emerald on an Island with a Sharpie". So some random guy can start printing out pretty good Moxes at home and sell them as real, and Wizards now has to work really hard to shut that guy down, because he can come back with "they are proxies".

Basically, this is like trying to clean off someone spilling some milk on the kitchen table by spraying the kitchen down with pressurized sulfuric acid. Sure, it will get clean. But it's not even close to worth it.

It's an example of a card that is fine in Standard but restricted in Vintage. In no way do I want to see Mind's Desire as a 4-of. I could routinely win on a Desire for 6 with the old DeathLong, back in the day. Never mind chaining Desires.

The Balance comment was aimed at the suggestion that Balance become a 4-of from both you and zeus-online.

Mind's Desire.

Also, Lurker, please don't unrestrict Balance. That card ruins formats as a 4-of. Turn 1 Mind Twist for 1W is so good.

I've seen Fluctuator done in Legacy. It's good in scrubby metas (namely, without Force). The problem with the deck is that Force just beats it.

Fluctuator. Pitch stuff like Cloud of Faeries, then drop a Songs or two and a Drain Life.

It's an interesting change. As a judge, I like the idea of letting the spectators ask them to pause if they notice something off. Nothing is worse than someone going "Judge, I see XYZ happening over there.", I walk over, it's 3 turns later, and it's too late to back up.

I'm not worried about players helping with the match any more because of this than I am now, simply because it's all about education. Just teach them to say "hold on, I'm going to go get a judge" and that's it.

I'd like to point out in the latter example that you are casting Tinker. If it resolves, everything else is irrelevant.

From personal experience, mana burn has been relevant maybe once or twice. And I've been playing since Ice Age. The arguments for leaving mana burn in that I've seen mostly consist of "Bad Card becomes terrible" (Power Surge, Citadel of Pain), or "Really Good Card becomes marginally better" (Mana Drain, anything that taps for more than one mana). I can't say that I'll miss it. It never really came up.

And will probably never be reprinted, except as some kind of promo (Judge foil, From the Vault, GP t8).

The problem with abolishing it is that Wizards will then be breaking their word. They promised not to reprint certain cards to keep the secondary market alive. Stores were extremely upset with how Chronicles reprinted cards that were previously money in a form that was significantly cheaper (Elder Dragons, City of Brass, etc.)

The easiest answer to "we won't reprint stuff in a new set, but we want to reprint some of it" is release a promo box, similar to From the Vault: Dragons. If they feel that some of the cards would make Standard better, make the box Standard-legal.

I'm not sure how many old cards would really make Standard better, to be honest. Large quantities of cards before Invasion block were either overpowered or garbage. There were very few "fair" cards, compared to now.

Take Legends, for example. How many of the cards are playable? Moat, Tabernacle, Pendlehaven, Mana Drain, The Abyss. Mana Drain is format-distorting. Moat is playable, but I'm not sure if it's really an effect that Wizards likes, due to the fact that it can completely shut down black, red, and green decks (not everyone plays MD Naturalize). The rest of the set is 7 mana vanilla Legendary 4/4s and other marginally useful cards.

I'd rather see a 15 dollar entry and add support to the top 12.

So it might look something like this:
1- Vault
2- Drain
3/4- 4 fetches
5-8- 2 fetches
9-12- a fetch

Agreed on the silver bullets thing. Even worse is if you play the Blow-Up-The-Death-Star stuff in your deck and your opponent doesn't play Death Star. Likewise, they print Alter as a general "get rid of an Effect", then proceeded to make every Effect worth playing immune to it.

I'm pretty sure that they realize that the site does have a heavy kitchen-table bias.

I have Thran Turbine + Pili-Pala + Stasis + Frozen Solid in one of my EDH decks. I have twice had Pili-Pala get there for 40 because of Thran Turbine.

And now, due to the overenthusiastic clamors from absolutely no one, my list:

Phyrexian Plaguelord: 5 mana 4/4 that 2-1s and sets up fun comboes with my next card.

Corpse Dance: 2-0s all day long. Pure comedy gold with Plaguelord on top or in play. I can (and have) get back: Yavimaya Elder, Ravenous Baloth, Hierarch, EWitness, Volrath's Shapeshifter, Spore Frog, Spike Feeder, FTK, and Draining Whelk.

Doubling Season: Forms like Voltron with Sap Burst, Feral Hydra, Krakilin, and my next card, among others.

Apocalypse Hydra: You know what the problem with Fireball? It only gets in there for X damage. This guy gets in there for 2X damage every turn, unless you have the above card, in which case, it's 4X damage.

Spiritmonger: I need to include it in every BG EDH deck that I have. 5 mana 6/6 regenerators are really that good.

Sharuum: 6 mana to bring back an artifact (such as a second use of Mindslaver) and get a 5/5 flyer. Seems good to me.

Rupture Spire: Really high on my list of 5c lands for overall play in formats without a high-impact turn 2 play.

Magister Sphinx: Amazing in EDH. 7 mana 5/5 flyer that has the text "When ~ comes into play, ~ deals 30 damage to target opponent".

All damage from Volcanic Fallout is dealt at the same time, then you check state-based effects. So you have a 1/1 with 2 damage on it and a 2/2 with 2 damage on it. Both are put into the graveyard at the same time. The Arcbound Worker's modular trigger doesn't get put onto the stack because there is no legal target.

The problem with "just move it" is that they make arrangements for a venue, sign the contract, and advertise that there is a GP there. While it sounds easy for you to say "Just move it.", it's not like the TO can call up and say "We were just kidding about the renting the venue.", and then go and find another suitable venue in the area on short notice for cheap money, advertise that the GP is moving, and hold it somewhere else.

I think that what they've done is fine. They reduce the cost of entry and give out product.

If more than one jurisidiction starts doing this, then Wizards will need to look into a change in policy. As it currently stands, I think this is the only time that a GP has had to change prize support.

Given that it has 15% of the posts, which makes it the second-largest, behind only Vintage Open at 20%, I would dare say that it is a safe assumption that people read the Community Forums.

The Thoughtseize will now target him. He reveals his hand, chooses a nonland card from it (if one exists, he must choose one). He then loses 2 life.

This is different than Duress + Misdirection, since this targets a player, not an opponent.

Greasy hands is not a Magic card or a Magic term, so Progenitus doesn't have protection from it.

He even has Protection from Wrath of God. You just can't beat that.

There's been a lot of discussion about naming cards, and it crops up every time that a new card requires you to name a card. The answer is that "You need to distinctly name a unique card."

That says nothing about "Naming the English version of the card name." If you want to call Woolly Thoctar "Vice Admiral Fangs-a-lot" and your opponent knows that you refer to Woolly Thoctar, then that's enough.

An interesting implication to consider: If you had previously played Ancestral Recall, calling it "Recall", and you named "Recall" with Meddling Mage, then your opponent will have a tougher time to argue that you named the Legends card. Likewise for Thirst for Knowledge. If they accept that shortcut ("Thirst"), then they most likely know that "Thirst" is ambiguous in this context.

Try the most recent one.

Alternatively, check out the App DB:   http://appdb.winehq.org/

They list lots of applications, as well as the compatibility and any workarounds or bugs with it.