Whoa, I never realized that one. That makes Mishra’s Factories and assorted archer-types much more effective.
Least Original User Name, I’ve been out of active play for about as long as you have, but I’ve recently gotten caught up on the new mechanics. What I did was just follow a few of those links to the Gatherer database, look at the comments for a card, see what cards folks were mentioning in the comments, and so on. Occasionally, when I stumbled across an interesting new keyword, I’d do a search for other cards with that keyword. There’s still plenty of cards I don’t know, of course, but I figure that the ones that make it into peoples’ comments are the most interesting ones. And really, when you’ve seen oneGrizzlyBear, you’veseenthemall.
So out of curiosity, in terms of the more powerful creatures, how does the average (tourney-worthy) bigger critter of today stack up to an Ernham Djinn? (4/5 nonflyer for 4 mana, 3 colorless, and a minor drawback).
I haven’t played competitively in 3 or 4 years, but from what I have seen, the current 4 drops are better than Ernham Djinn. There are plenty of 4/4 (or bigger!) for 4 creatures with upsides rather than downsides. Take Ravenous Baloth, for example. Blastoderm is another.
Depends on the color of course, but to give you an idea, a 4/5 for 4 in green would have no drawback at all these days, and possibly a minor ability. (though maybe cost more Green mana and less colorless)
I don’t have my finger on the pulse of standard right now, so I don’t know if any of those are played. I doubt it. But power=converted mana cost is relatively standard in green these days.
the creature that’s tearing up tournaments at the moment is Baneslayer Angel, but most players agree that one’s overpowered.
Ernham was brought back in the Judgment set, back in '02, but didn’t make much of a splash, if I recall.
Note that this isn’t necessarily power inflation, just a recognition that big creatures are inherently fragile and have to be worth the mana put into them, lest they simply die to a one mana Path to Exile or a 2 mana Doom Blade.
And until recently, creatures did their damage even if they weren’t around anymore when damage was dealt. (you could “stack” the damage and then sacrifice or bounce the creature for some benefit and still do damage.) This type of shenanigans was recently removed in Magic 2010 when creature combat damage stopped using the stack.
They brought Ernie back in Judgment and it didn’t get played in any competitive deck. Juzam Djinn, probably wouldn’t even get played anymore in the standard format if they were to bring it back.
I can’t, for example, block a 2/2 with my 3/1, then use a spell to return the 3/1 to my hand after damage has been placed on the stack but before it has resolved?
Yes, but before Magic 2010 you could assign damage, then prevent damage dealt to a creature. If the opponent killed your critter, its damage would still be dealt. But now you have to risk your creature being wiped out in order to try and prevent damage to it.
Basically, there is no chance to cast spells or activate abilities between assigning damage and dealing damage. They still remain two separate actions - necessary to allow trample to work and, as we shall see, even regular combat damage when multiple creatures are involved on one side.
Damage prevention and regeneration effects must now be created before damage is assigned. Thus, they had to take steps to make damage prevention useless in the most common multi-blocking scenario - many defenders on one attacker. So they introduced the Conga Line of Death.
When multiple blockers are assigned to one attacker, the attacking player chooses an order for the creatures. He or she is then committed to assigning damage to creatures in the order they chose. To assign damage to the second creature in the order, the first must be assigned lethal damage (which is defined as per the trample rules) and so on.
He let you have three turns? His deck must have been badly tuned. Either that,or the changes to the Wishes have made that deck uncompetitive.
The card is called Tendrils of Agony; it’s been a premier kill spell in Vintage since people realised just how powerful the Storm ability is.
I haven’t played since a friend brought some Unlimited decks back to college from Winter break in '94. Every once in a while I surf around and check it out. I’m really impressed with their worldbuilding in the last few years. I like that they create these diverse, well-delineated fantasy setings that don’t have to be in service of tired storylines you’ve read a dozen times already.
Checking out their website I’ve seen a lot of stuff that seems intriguing and I’ve mostly convinced myself to go to the Core 2011 pre-release next month and give it a shot. That’s probably the best place for me to play, as the thing I found most fun back in the day was playing along and then having the flash of inspiration as I saw a completely unanticipated line of attack sitting in my hand. I take it that style of play isn’t very effective these days.
Yeah, that change I was aware of, and heartily approve, since it’s just silly to be able to sacrifice a creature that’s dying anyway. I’m not a big fan of the removal of mana burn, though (it just felt like change for the sake of change, and shook up the balance of a lot of things that were designed with it in mind), nor of the new mulligan rules (which make it too easy to get your first-turn-win über-combo out). Another new rule which I didn’t like at first, but which I realize on reflection is a good thing, is that now, whichever player goes first doesn’t draw on their first turn.
EDIT:
Eh, really, you want to already know what all of the combos in your deck are before you sit down to play. That’s been true since the beginning. You do of course still have to choose what you’re going to pursue during the course of the game (thinks like trying to figure out whether you can scrounge up enough mana to make that Fireball worthwhile, for instance).
Either I went first and it was his second turn, or he went first and it was his third. I can’t recall. I had two mana available for the Trickbind, and wasn’t using Moxes.
The version of that deck I built predated the restriction of Burning Wish and LED in Vintage, and could routinely win on turn 2. It seldom saw turn 3. That’s why I was a little surprised.
Stifling or Trickbinding the Storm trigger nowadays leaves the player with no way to restart, so scooping in the face of the Trickbind was a rational choice. (I remember one game in which an opponent mulliganed to 4 cards in hand in order to ensure he could cast a turn 1 Null Rod. I had one card in the deck to deal with such evilness. I didn’t draw it in time.
Well, you still can sacrifice a creature that’s dying anyway. You just have to choose whether you want to sac it or let it do its damage.
Example: You block a Jackal Pup with a Sakura Tribe Elder. You can still sac the elder to fetch a land, but if you do, the pup will survive. (though it’s still blocked, so you take no damage from it). If you want to kill the pup, you have to forgoe fetching a land.
More tough choices are always a good thing in the game.
The official stance is that it was an extra rule to confuse newbs and had only limited benefits to the game. Also, it allowed them to print Near Death Experience.
The only change to the mulligan rules recently is that players can take mulligans at the same time, instead of waiting for the active player to do all theirs first. It saves a bunch of time, but doesn’t make it any easier to sculpt hands.
Unless you’re talking about the Paris mulligan itself, introduced well over a decade ago. While that does allow people to sculpt hands to some degree, it’s necessary to combat mana screw. And the other guy can use his mulligans to find a Force of Will to stop the combo anyway, so it balances out.