Six of One, Half Dozen of the Other

[Jacob Orlove]

Make sure to tell your bank, etc. that you're going overseas in advance, because otherwise they may stop your credit card as soon as you try to use it (a simple precaution against identity theft). Once you do that, you should be fine, although not all cards are accepted everywhere.

Paying by credit card is usually your best bet, though, since you piggyback on the favorable exchange rates that international banks get for moving high volumes of money. I never ran into surcharges or hidden fees, but you should be able to check for that kind of stuff with your bank.

[Dante]

Steve - having travelled to a bunch of European countries in the last couple years (spain, uk, france, germany), I never really had problems with visa or mastercard.  American Express is really hit or miss.  Check with each of your cards individually about foreign purchase charges - some charge a small %, some a fee, others both - see which one of yours is best overseas (they all vary by card issuer).

Call your CC companies before you leave and let them know what countries you'll be in so a card doesn't get shut down for security reasons...

You should be able to purchase a universal electrical plug converter (i.e. stick regular north american 110v plug in one end, the other end has the various European/Asian plugs to stick into the wall) at radioshack.

[Jacob Orlove]

I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys submitted for the design submission.   Selecting one card out of the five the committee sends my way will be very challenging.

I sure hope so! Here are your five choices:


Twilight Tutor

Instant
As an additional cost to play Twilight Tutor, pay , , , or .
If you paid , search your library for a sorcery card; if you paid , for a creature or land card; if you paid , for an artifact or enchantment card; if you paid , for an instant card. Reveal the card, shuffle your library, then put that card on top of it.

Fortune Wizard

Creature - Human Wizard
2/2
If Fortune Wizard is in your opening hand and you're not playing first, you may remove Fortune Wizard from the game to play first.

Psychomancer

Creature - Human Wizard
Flash
When Psychomancer comes into play, you may copy target instant or sorcery card in an opponent's graveyard.  If you do, you may play the copy without paying its mana cost
2/2

Gifted Apprentice

Creature- Human Wizard
Sacrifice Gifted Apprentice: Copy target instant or sorcery spell with a converted mana cost of 2 or less.
2/1

Nemmens, the Seeker

Planeswalker -- Nemmens
(+1): Scry 2
(-1): You may choose a card you own from outside the game and put it into your graveyard.
(-7): Until end of turn, you may play cards in all graveyards. If a card would be put into a graveyard this turn, remove that card from the game instead.
<4>

[Anusien]

Fortune Wizard -
Creature - Human Wizard
If Fortune Wizard is in your opening hand and you're not playing first, you may remove Fortune Wizard from the game.  If you do, you play first.
2/2

Psychomancer -
Creature - Human Wizard
Flash
When Psychomancer comes into play, you may copy target instant or sorcery card in an opponent's graveyard.  If you do, you may play the copy without paying its mana cost.
2/2

Gifted Apprentice -
Creature- Human Wizard
Sacrifice Gifted Apprentice: Copy target instant or sorcery spell with converted mana cost 2 or less.  You may choose new targets for the copy.
2/1


Did some minor clean up.  One thing to remember Steve, is that these might not be printed as is since they still have to go through Development.  I think you have a good batch of cards here.

[Implacable]

I have to say, those are some incredibly well-designed cards!  They are all certainly powerful, but none of them are unbalanced, and all of them introduce interesting and skill-based elements into games in which they are played.

[LotusHead]

I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys submitted for the design submission.   Selecting one card out of the five the committee sends my way will be very challenging.

Twilight Tutor

Instant
As an additional cost to play Twilight Tutor, pay , , , or .
If you paid , search your library for a sorcery card; if you paid , for a creature or land card; if you paid , for an artifact or enchantment card; if you paid , for an instant card. Reveal the card, shuffle your library, then put that card on top of it.

The wording on this worries me, because, if say, I have Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst or Trinisphere in play, one could pay, say BU or BG or BR or BW and put 2 instants into their hand.  Sure, there are only so many non-blue instants Vintageworthy across the 5 colors, but the wording might make such a play possible.

Ok, it doesn't worry me, but it does seem possible, but multiple cards from this tutor weren't then intention of this card, as far as I can tell.

Good luck in Euro-Land!

Sure,

[Anusien]

You're right.  There are a few ways to handle this:
#1: Let them.  Change it to "Shuffle your library, then put those cards on top of it in any order."  This is a weird but awesome interaction.  Keep in mind you're tutoring to top of library.
#2: Change to kicker.  Then no matter how many different colors they play, you can only get one tutor.  You'd word it as, "If you paid the kicker..., if you paid the kicker..., if you paid the kicker..., if you paid the kicker..."  The downside to this is that they can potentially cast the card without paying a kicker.  Then again, they'd only get a shuffle out of it (or maybe even nothing).  This is also kind of inelegant since it does nothing without kicker.
#3: Give the card a built in cost-reducer.  This stops SoR and ToA, but not Trinisphere.

[Matt]

Could also make it, "If this cost was paid with , ..." which seems the most elegant.

[Anusien]

Could also make it, "If this cost was paid with , ..." which seems the most elegant.

That feels extremely wordy.  You'd have to be "As an additional cost to play ~this~, pay .  If this cost was paid with ..." which would make it all part of the same wording.

As an alternative, you could do:
"As an additional cost to play ~this~, pay , , or .
If the additional cost was paid with ..." which seems fine.

Stephen: don't let templating issues make your choice.  They'll do all that for you, I just wanted to bring up the issue now to make your card submission look more professional.

[LotusHead]

Hey,

Can't reply in the thread, hence PM: I don't think Spheres interact with it that way. The "if {C} was spent" refers to the additional cost, not the mana cost of the spell itself, which, as far as I know, are separate. You'd have to check with a judge, though. Twould be disappointing if it does work that way, because there were two wordings I was thinking of using, the other which I intentionally didn't use costing and using Ravnica-style "If was spend to play this spell..." and "put those cards on top" at the end, specifically to allow such trickery. I didn't use it because a cost of is much cooler*, and it would keep the card a bit simpler.

* has a history of awesomeness: Dark Ritual, Contract from Below, Demonic Consultation, Vampiric Tutor, Reanimate, Duress, Entomb, Cabal Therapy, Extirpate, Thoughtseize.

I wasn't terribly clear in my post, but the tutor seemed like Sunburst ala Engineered Explosives.

[Matt]

Could also make it, "If this cost was paid with , ..." which seems the most elegant.

That feels extremely wordy.  You'd have to be "As an additional cost to play ~this~, pay .  If this cost was paid with ..." which would make it all part of the same wording.

As an alternative, you could do:
"As an additional cost to play ~this~, pay , , or .
If the additional cost was paid with ..." which seems fine.

Stephen: don't let templating issues make your choice.  They'll do all that for you, I just wanted to bring up the issue now to make your card submission look more professional.

How is that any different than what I said. It isn't. Anyway here's an even shorter one, only 3 extra words, in bold:


Twilight Tutor

Instant
As an additional cost to play Twilight Tutor, pay , , , or .
If you paid this cost with , search your library for a sorcery card; if you paid , for a creature or land card; if you paid , for an artifact or enchantment card; if you paid , for an instant card. Reveal the card, shuffle your library, then put that card on top of it.

Incidentally, with this templating, if your opponent takes control of this spell before it resolves somehow, he doesn't get to search, because 'you' (the card's controller) didn't pay jack squat.

[Anusien]

How is that any different than what I said. It isn't.

I was emphasizing that the search text needs to be part of the same ability as the extra cost bit.  You get around that by specifying "if you paid the extra cost..."

[Liam-K]

I kind of like how the extra cost wording lets it shuffle your deck for B in desperate times.  A very un-broken alternative application that opens the door for savage plays = cool.

[Smmenen]

This has been a very difficult decision.

First of all, thanks to the Mana Drain community for coming up with so many great card ideas.   Thanks to the card creation committee for selecting these five cards.   This a great batch of cards.  It's a nice mix of design creativity, power, and innovation.    I'm happy that you guys put some serious thought into this process.

Now to the hard part....

The first and most important question, as I look at these cards, is which of these cards would be most impactful in Vintage or Legacy?   My invitational bid is about this community and I want it to reflect that choice as much as possible.

While Smmenen, the Seeker is a really cool card, it's probably the second least playable in eternal formats.   The irony is that that card is probably awesome in some block or standard format.   

Fortune Wizard is also a very nifty idea.   What an interesting design interaction!  The only problem is that I don't think he's quite good enough.   Losing a card to go first when you are going to go first half the time anyway doesn't seem worth it to me.  I really, really like the idea, but I want the card I submit to see play in Eternal Formats.   

Psychomancer is a really cool card.   I enjoy playing with him in T4 very much!   Psychomancer has won me many a t4 game at jsut the right time.   While I'm not sure if he's playable or not, I don't really consider him a product of this community as he was originally a card someone printed on Brainburst, I believe.    So that narrows it down to two options.

Gifted Apprentice.

Wow.  What a sleek, perfect design.   What form!  What shape! 
This is a well designed card in that it is good in Vintage, but not too good for other formats.   Copy TIme Walk   Copy Demonic Tutor   Copy ANCESTRAL RECALL.   Thats the definition of good design.   

But then there's Twilight Tutor...

wow....

I don't think anyone can deny the awesomeness that is this card.    Even if you don't like tutors, this card is just so flavorful.  It's like opening up a box of starburst, a multitude of candy flavors.  It's so tasty.

What's more, this card is so Eternalesque.  You can't play it in a monocolor deck.   It can't be Dark Ritualed out.   In many ways it reminds me of Burning Wish.    I'm not sure if it makes Eternal formats more interesting or better, but it will definitely have an impact.   It seems worse than Merchant Scroll in Vintage, esp. in UBr Combo-Control decks like Gifts.   So, I'm not sure it's an auto restrict either.   I could see it having alot of impact in a format like Extended.   

So.....

Drrrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuum Roll..................

The card I'm going to submit is:

Twilight Tutor

So, what that means is that I need one, final, definitive rules text to submit.   Once you've settled on that, someone message me or post here the final version.   

[Matt]

Ok, we've got our card, now we need to finalize it. Is there anything wrong with this wording? I put the mana symbols and effects in Last Stand/Sliver Queen order: WUBRG minus B = WURG. I also changed the bold parts:


Twilight Tutor

Instant
As an additional cost to play Twilight Tutor, pay , , , or .
If you paid this cost with , search your library for an artifact or enchantment card; if you paid , for an instant card; if you paid , for a sorcery card; if you paid , for a creature or land card. Reveal the card you searched for, shuffle your library, then put that card on top of it your library.

One thing to note: it can't search up planeswalkers. That's probably a good thing, since there's no guarantee we'll be seeing them in whatever block this would get printed in.

[Smmenen]

Paying by credit card is usually your best bet, though, since you piggyback on the favorable exchange rates that international banks get for moving high volumes of money. I never ran into surcharges or hidden fees, but you should be able to check for that kind of stuff with your bank.

FYI: Visa has a 3% surcharge.

On the templating, I want the card to go directly into your hand, not on top of your deck. 

[Smmenen]

I'm OUT tomorrow morning!   

I am privy to the Invitational schedule, and the Vintage format will be the very LAST format for the Invitational.   Saving the best for last

Thanks for all your help.    Wish me luck! 

I hope to represent this community with distinction.

Stephen Menendian

[The Atog Lord]

Good luck, Steve! Represent us well.

[Anusien]

Worldly Tutor |Instant| Search your library for a creature card and reveal that card. Shuffle your library, then put the revealed card back on top of it. 6E-U,MI-U,MI-TD,Vin,Leg,Classic,MIBC

So I suggest a few more minor changes (and this potentially final version):

Twilight Tutor

Instant
As an additional cost to play Twilight Tutor, pay , , , or .
If you paid this cost with , search your library for an artifact or enchantment card; if you paid , for an instant card; if you paid , for a sorcery card; if you paid , for a creature or land card.  Reveal that card, shuffle your library, then put that card on top of it.

[Ephraim]

Steve said that he wants the tutor to put the card directly in hand.  I'm pretty sure that means that the card needs to be a sorcery, so I'm thinking that this is what we want...

Twilight Tutor

Sorcery
As an additional cost to play Twilight Tutor, pay , , , or .
If you paid this cost with , search your library for an artifact or enchantment card; if you paid , for an instant card; if you paid , for a sorcery card; if you paid , for a creature or land card.  Reveal that card, then put it into your hand.  Then shuffle your library.

[Anusien]

That version is probably still fine.

[Matt]

I've gotten a few PMs informing me that Ink-Treader Nephilim might be a better order for the colors to come in (I wasn't aware it was any different, heh). I honestly don't think it matters, since Wizards has their own people to keep track of these things.

The Mirage tutors say "on top of it" so I guess we can use that too.

This is MUCH stronger if it puts the card to hand. There is no way at all Wizards would print it as such, because it would Demonic Tutor as long as you have a City of Brass, Gemstone Mine, etc. They would raise the price by AT LEAST .

[Moxlotus]

If it goes to hand the card would be immediately restricted in Vintage. 

[Implacable]

This would be amazing in all formats (not just Vintage) as a faux-D.T.  On the other hand, it's very good but still fair as a VT.

[forests failed you]

I don't actually think that they could print that card if it put the card directly into a players hand.  Demonic Tutor is undercosted by two Mana;  It is playable in constructed at 2BB, however acurately costed cards rarely see play in constructed formats.  A Demonic Tutor effect would actually see play in real formats at 1BB or 2B (Grim Tutor is good enough for Vintage at that cost).  The Tutor you guys have proposed would just be almost strictly better than Grim Tutor in almost every circumstance, if one is playing 5C lands.  (It does not deal damage to the player or cause them to lose life).  In fact its pretty much like a Merchant Scroll for UB that can fetch non-U instants. 

This card would be undercosted at 1B + WURG and very reasonable in every constructed format from Vintage to Standard.

[Ephraim]

I happen to agree that it's too powerful.  I was just hammering out something resembling the correct template for Steve.  My recommendation:  Submit the instant version that puts the card on the top of the library.  Either that or submit the sorcery version and notes explaining "approved" fixes if they would want to power it down.  I suppose that the worst they do, though, is to keep it a sorcery and still have it put the card on top the library.  That would be pretty unfortunate, but there are far worse things that they could do to kill it.

[SpencerForHire]

If nothing is done they are almost sure to up the casting cost and leave the alternate cost...

My suggestion:
Make the card you tutored for lose you life equal to it's casting cost.

[Smmenen]

It's been too long since I've written anything in here.   With all my magic writing, it's so easy to get burned out.   

For three months now, I've been writing for a Spanish magazine called "Mirari."   The Spanish are very different than we Americans when it comes to writing about Magic.  They are all about the magazine format, whereas we place more emphasis on the web.   But the print stuff they make is just gorgeous.  I was shocked.   They have just books and books on Vintage decks, many of which I created.   It's so funny to read about decks like TnT or Masknaught from 2002.  Plus, the books are just pretty.   They go out of their way to make the mags attractive.   It's too bad its all in Spanish    

One other thing you might find cool.  Many of you have seen these in real life, but here are my teams playmats.   The first one is mine, the second is Pauls:

My playmat:
http://i5.tinypic.com/8e108xl.jpg

Paul Mastriano's AWESOME playmat:

http://i4.tinypic.com/8bq23ih.jpg

I know, his is super sick.   Oh well

Happy Turkey Day

[Smmenen]

Towards the end of last year, I got sort of burnt out from magic.   The invitational, the pro tour, the hoopla and all of the commotion wore me down after a while, especially when its capped ontop of a full time, intensive job, and a full time relationship.   Since January, I’ve been intently exploring some of the most interesting areas of Vintage, writing about Psychatog, MUD, the format in general, the Vintage experience and much more.   

I really enjoyed the opportunity to play in another SCG tournament this past weekend, and my full report will be forthcoming over the next few weeks. 

But one of the things I kept turning my mind to was the growth of Vintage as a format.   I was very impressed to see what I thought was a clearly up-and-coming crop of new players to the format.   This tournament had a healthy mix of old guard, less old guard, somewhat newer guard, but even newer guard.   

The price of gas, declining economy and the slowing growth in the broader magic community that has accompanied the collapse of MTGO and the shrinking of the Pro Tour has weighed heavily in those thoughts.   Not far behind is lingering questions about the role of Flash in the format, as potentially a driver of players from it, despite the fact that it is now seen fewer and further between.   These questions remain unresolved, but they haunt me nonetheless.   

It also occurred to me that the SCG weekend will probably be my last big tournament before defending my title at Gencon.   And despite that long absence from major tournaments, I don’t necessarily think that that is a bad thing.  It’s just something I have to deal with.   After the monster 2005 P9 series with 9 tournaments spread across three regions, and the 2006 sequel, I hope that Vintage is not in a slow decline. 

I am enjoying Vintage much as ever.   Each new set seems to add something to the format.   I have been less pleased with DCI policy (restricting Gifts, for instance), but on the whole, I can’t say it’s been bad.   

On the contrary, during the “height” of Vintage in 2005, I don’t think it comes even close to as interesting as Vintage happens to be today.   The Slaver and Stax metagame was a tiresome iteration of the same dynamic that had played out over the previous decade of Vintage.   

This metagame, while retaining strong accents of all that, is something totally different.   I just wish that we could muster the same energy and enthusiasm.   

[forests failed you]

I agree.   I felt that the format was really fun--and was particularly impressed with the quality of the new players that I played against at the SCG Richmond tournaments this past weekend.  It was also fun to see all of the old guard players once again.  It was kind of strange when I got to thinking about it:  "I've been hanging out with these people for like four years now at these events!"  And it is a great community, truly the best in all of Magic.  There were like a jillion parties going on Saturday Night--and it was like everybody was invited to all of them.  Meandeckers partying with ICBM'rs partying with Reflectioner's et cetera.  It was a fantastic weekend for sure.  I can't wait for Gencon.  I had such a fantastic experience this weekend that I'm actually excited to play the format again--I'm planning on trying to make as many Vintage events over the summer as I possibly can.