Hello again. How is everyone? Fine, I hope.

A simple question. Can Tallowisp fetch Threads of Disloyality?

Mr. Saturday School man says Yes, it can as stated here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/satschoolarchive&term=tallowisp

but if you look at that day's forums, it also says that MaRo disagrees and says Tallowisp CAN'T fetch Threads of Disloyality because its really "Aura - Enchant Creature with Converted Mana Cost Two or Less" and not an "Aura - Enchant Creature"

No retraction was printed in the following week's Saturaday School so the question is quite open..

Ok.. this is a pretty easy question but somewhere along the lines I got utterly confused... anyway.

You play Glacial Ray and splice onto it Evermind (so evermind stays in hand). Is the spell blue or red?

I always thought it was blue but I looked it up on SCG.com one day.

If Evermind is in your hand, you can play its splice onto Arcane ability. However, the splice ability doesn't copy characteristic-setting abilities. This means that the text "Evermind is blue" isn't copied onto the Arcane spell.

Ok... no problem.. so I double check with wizards.com's oracle text and offical rulings.

Aug 1, 2005 - If Evermind is in your hand, you can play its splice onto Arcane ability. The splice ability copies characteristic-setting abilities. This means that the text "Evermind is blue" is copied onto the Arcane spell, making it blue.


well... damn...

Of course. Crucible of Worlds doesn't have any activated abilities.

And thus with aether vials become a little bit more broken, yes?

I collect Krark's Thumb cause well.. maybe I wanna someday make 10 flipping decks huh???

I always loved shackles in a monoblue (or almost bbs) type build. it helps vs a lot of the aggro matchups and just makes life so much more easier. any reason why time walk isn't there as well? and any reason why there are no cunning wishes? you might not want to go in that direction but definitely something to think about.

I could honestly care less who gets voted into the HoF...

Except for Mike Long...

Are chalices even any good in an unpowered meta? I mean they are ok but without moxen i would believe they aren't as good while spiketail hatchlings are better because of the same reasons.

Some more updates.

1 - 2 vs stax - nothing to say. he just got the better draw including 1 game where he went turn 1 smokestack, turn 2 smokestack, turn 3 crucible.
4 - 1 vs landstill - =/ anyway.. he definitely made some play errors in this game so the results might be off. highlight of the match, me playing 2 chains in 1 turn and him asking what they did. I explained to him as best I could (because of language barrier) and him deciding to play 2 standstills in a row and an ancestral targetting me effectively mind twisting away my hand and milling a bunch of cards from my deck.
4 - 0 vs SBB - surprisingly, this matchup was pretty easy. I don't know how much of the player's playskill was in effect during these games but it seemed very lopsided. It was like monoblue control vs sui black all over again.

It would be I guess but doesn't wretch have the same effect?

I said it was an auto include but as a side comment I said I've always hated the card for unknown reasons. Just like how some people love to cast fatties, I hate casting consultation. Dunno why... consultation probably tried to steal my lunch money when I was 5.


It is definitely an interesting card. But it gives itself the -1/-1 as well which makes it only stick for 3 turns. Wouldn't it be better just to run of a more "wrath" effect? I was thinking of massacre for UW fish but I can't find any good WTF hosers. The only thing I could find was Kagemaro, First to Suffer which sucks 100%

That's what I call teamwork ^^


I've tested this deck vs combo and honestly I'm not really THAT worried about the matchup. There are so many good combo hosers in black that I would see combo having a hard time going off. I.E. - Chains, Chalice, Nether Void and my new pet card, Oppression.


Bane of the Living definitely seems too slow. Its almost impossible, with this deck, to ramp up to 5+ mana to cast and flip in the same turn which makes it a bit slow. I was thinking more of mutilate but I feel its a bit slow too


I dunno why but I've always hated Consultation. Its like how some people just refuse to play combo or control but does seem like an auto include.

In the oath matchup, I would assume you would want to keep deed/EE in the deck. Its an answer to oath and can be cast really any time your opponent doesn't have drain mana up. Instead, I would take out the mind twist. My reasons behind this is depending on what version of oath, oath decks usually run a misdirection and sometimes even 2 and getting mind twist misdirected back sucks.

 

I think Kowal's comments were directly influenced by the metagame at scg. Just by looking at the top 8, 4 of them were fish decks with 2 of them running vials as well while the others were running cloud of faeries. His creatures are much better compared to the "normal" fish deck's creatures so he had to be the beatdown in the matchups.

FCG: 0-4 - Omg this matchup was hard. Gempalms for your negators, their creatures are just better than yours and they can combo off. Jeez.

cerebal assassin: 2-0 - With the wretches and graverobbers, it is very hard for them to reanimate anything. The duresses, fiends and CotV are just icing.

Jacob Orlove's WTF: 1-4 - In theory, the matchup should be even but in reality it doesn't seem so. They have more draw than you and with vial set at 2, it makes it hard to swing with a negator having them vial out a mongrel and/or rootwaller gang (its happened more than once). Also, whispers are suboptimal in this matchup as well because it just makes the mongrel lethal that much more faster.

oath: 1-2 - As soon as oath hits the tables, its gg. You definitely create a fast clock but if they oath up akroma, you might as well start scooping up the cards.

Sligh: 0-2 - Yea. This was bad. But I assume every deck packing burn sucks vs this deck like burning dryad and r/g beats.

Stax: 4-2 - This is definitely one of the better matchups. The only thing that sucks is big ole plats and sundering titan


Some opinions:
I tried splashing green for the sideboard but with only 10 swamps, making 2 of them wasteable, really sucks and can sometimes lose you a game or two. The graverobbers definitely need to leave. They are 2 mana for a 2/1 and if you flip it, it just became a 4/2 for 4 mana. Wretched Anurid seems like an interesting idea but I've been using skittering horror in the shade slot, as it has obvious synergy with vials.

3x skittering horror
4x mesmeric fiend
4x negator
4x withered wretch

4x aether vial
4x chalice of the void
4x duress
4x night's whisper
3x umezawa's jitte
1 x vampiric tutor
1x demonic tutor
1x necropotence

1x sol ring
1x mox jet
1x black lotus
4x dark ritual
11x swamp
4x wasteland
1x strip mine

sideboard:
4x diabolic edict
3x chains
3x nether void (*shrugs* thought it might help vs the fcg matchup)
5 random slots.

More testing as I type this out ^^

In the article, you mention that the furances should be tormod's crypt so the question I want to ask is how effective have the crypts been when you are putting chalice for 0 in every game (or hoping to do so). Wouldn't that be anti-syngeristic? and them welding out a jitte for crypt would be annoying too right? I'm not idling asking because I've tested it a bit and its not that rare that a TD jitte with active welder in play makes it almost uncastable.

well i wasn't the one who called but the guy who did said the hotline guy said that the 3rd option was definitely wrong

lol nice.. i was right ^^

screw you wotc judge hotline and screw the person that called.... kidding....-ish 

This question recently came up and it baffled the hell out of me.

I control Four 2/2 creatures.   My opponet plays a pyroclasm.  In response I play Shining Shoal for an X of 4 where pyroclasm is the damage source and my opponet himself as the target of shining shoal.

opinion 1..   I can save 1 of my creatures  by redirecting the 2 damage being done to it  and the extra two points of X  are wasted.
opinion 2..   I can save 2 of my creatures by redirecting 2 damage from one creature then may spend the other 2 points of X to save another creature because im allowed to make use of all points of X  and after the damage is moved off my main creature I can choose another creature and use up the rest of X.
opinion 3..   I can save all 4 of my creatures because the pyroclasm is the source of damage and it is dealing a total of 8 damage.  The shoal is letting me redirect the next X damage from that source so I am able to choose what 4 damage that the pyroclasm deals.. thereby redirecting 1 damage off each of my creatures and thus saving them.

PS- Emails have been sent to ask the judge and scg just for fun ^^

I believe he means after playing epic spell, you cycle decree for some tokens as a bootleg defense because cycling is the card's ability and not playing a spell.

4 Volcanic Island
3 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland

I am trying to get some seas but it seems like whenever I get one i trade it away to teammate cause they are 1 short for a deck they need =/

In more casual games, I riffle shuffle but in the more competitive tourneys I prefer to pile shuffle trying to randomize my deck even more.

I believe piling is best and it creates the least amount of stress on your cards but it takes up so much time.

What is the officially reason why if you play something like wrath of god with samurai of the pale curtain in play all creatures are removed? Is it last known information or something else?

Also, is it the same answer/reason if Nevinyrral's Disk is popped with compost in play and a bunch of creatures?

Wow, placebo blue has only 2 win conditions, morphling and plats. Not even the loveable blue snakes we all hate aren't there.

Still doesn't work cause if you cast the spell for the first time, it should already be rfg cause of the replacement effect  

Ya, you should never ever cut the lavamancers. If your having mana flood problems, I would test out a 5th fetchie, probably a red one since you run a lot more red 1 drops but it doesn't really matter, to cut down on land and its food for the mancer.

Given the metagame, I would actually just play a modified version of UR fish (probably because I love that deck  :lol: )

Against stax and welder based decks, you have lavamancer and MD null rods and SB you bring in whatever hate you want, namely energy flux and rack and ruins.

Against combo, just pray, counter their business spells and just bum rush the poor bastard, bring in possibly some arcane labs in the side.

Your bad matchups then would definitely be FCG and oath with stax imo being a coin flip.


Or you can go UW with mages, plows and decrease the spot removal to almost nothing.

Chalice for 4 counters the original copy of tendrils of agony but the storm trigger still is put on the stack.

Same goes with brain freeze, etc.

I agree but only to a point. If you have chant on a stick and one of the copies is countered, depending on the hand size, board position and otherwise, it might be better just to let it resolve. I mean chant is just another must counter spell for control. Your just drawing out their counters.

I agree with everyone about the mana drain/counterspell issue. The tempo swing provided on a turn 2 drain into brokenness definitely makes up for the mind trick you might play on the other person. Don't forget, just because you run counterspell and drains doesn't mean the opponent will automatically think your running both. They just might think you either don't have 4 drains or not enough proxies.

I was wondering, is an AK based draw engine viable with only 1 intuition?

PS- You have 2 library in your list and I keep counting 60 cards with 2 libraries so I was wondering what's your last card? Unless I can't count =[

Edit- Sigh, nevermind. I can't count.

Oath of Druids (and the other cycle)
Its at the beginning of upkeep now and the check for the creatures is done before the ability goes on stack and after.

Mind Twist
All versions, aside from 4th ed, errataed to now target.

Ancrestral Recall
Targets player as well.