I’m just learning to play this game and had a few questions. I think they’re easy for long-time players. Thanks in advance…
1: About flying…
1a: A creature that has flying cannot be harmed by a creature that does not have either a) flying or b) reach, right?
1b: Does this apply to both attacking and blocking?
1c: So if a creature with flying blocks an attacker without, the flying creature cannot be harmed? If so, then I guess you can pretty much block one non-flying attack every turn without much risk.
2: I have a card, Megrim that is an Enchantment.
2a: For enchantments, do you just play them in front of you like you do for land and creatures? This one is not an aura BTW.
2b: Enchantments are permanent, right? So this card is active until the opponent gets rid of it, right?
2c: How does the opposing player get rid of this enchantment? I’m sure there are several ways, but I haven’t run across any yet. Can you give me an example so I know what to look for?
2d: This card in particular say “Whenever an opponent discards a card, Megrim deals 2 damage to that player.” So whenever an opponent puts a card in the graveyard they lose 2 life? This applies to creatures, sorcery, etc.?
This particular card came up and threw off the balance of the game. What was a pretty even game, turned into a pretty easy victory. I am not sure if it is because the card is that powerful or if it was because we were using it incorrectly.
1 is incorrect. A creature with flying can be damaged by a creature without flying.
2a: You play like a creature yes, pay it’s mana, put it out on the table.
2b: Yes, yes.
2c: Specific cards that destory enchantments are Disenchant and Naturalize.
2d: Incorrect. It only affects a player when they are specifically told to discard a card. Look up the card Duress and you’ll see what I mean.
A card simply going to the graveyard is not the same as being discarded.
Megrim is not that powerful, you were using it wrong.
Don’t let the complexity of the game get you down though. Once you get the nuances down, it’s a very enjoyable game.
Eh? No. An attacking flying creature can’t be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach. However, a flying creature can block a nonflying creature.
A creature with Flying cannot be blocked by non-flying, non-reaching creatures. However, if you use a flying creature to block, it takes damages just like any other creature (Think about it this way : when attacking, the Flying creature flies 2 miles above the defense, then does a steep dive on the enemy wizard. When defending, it has to stand in the way of the attacker, ergo takes damage just as usual).
So, if a flying creature blocks a creature without flight, both take damage as usual.
2: I have a card, Megrim that is an Enchantment.
May be different rules these days, but back in 4/5/6th edition, enchantments cannot be played just any time. They must be played in your player phase, of which you have two : one right after the land phase, and before the combat phase, and one after the combat phase.
Correct.
The white card “Disenchant” is one. I’m sure Blue has tons of anti-enchant cards as well, since blue is the pain-in-the-ass color. Black possibly has some these days, but I wouldn’t bet on red/green anti enchant cards. Well, maybe green, but that’s 'cause green is overpowered
No. It only applies when the opponent discards, not whenever he puts a card in the graveyard. Discarding is pretty specific : it’s putting a card from one’s hand right into the graveyard. Whether you force him to do it, or he has to do it because he’s got more than 7 cards in his/her hands doesn’t matter, however if you say kill one of his creatures, it’s not a discard.
However, yes, “discards a card” applies to any and all types of cards : creatures, lands, sorceries, artefacts… As long as it goes straight from his hand to the graveyard, you’re good.
Well, if your opponent isn’t a good player, he’ll have tons of cards in his hands that he can’t use right now (because of his land sitch). That’ll make him ripe for a “-2 HP on discard” card, of course. So if you want challenging games, either wait till your regular opponent(s) figure out how to build a deck, or tell them how to. The standard is 20 lands for 40 spells, no more, no less (less spells means more chances to land on one of the 4 copies you’re allowed of each spell, so more chances to start your bad ass combo each turn)
Sorcery cards…things like Lava Axe, Volcanic Hammer, Slice & Dice(Red)…will deal direct damage to targeted creature(s) or player. Unsummon (Blue) can make you return the card to your hand. Lots of black cards have a “destroy target creature” ability. Pacify (White), and other similar cards can prevent target creature from attacking, blocking, untapping, etc.
Artifact cards like Rod of Ruin…it taps and does 1 point of damage to target
Creature abilities…like Crossbow Infantry can tap and damage target creature, Lure cards can force you to block something, etc.
It’s been a long time since I played, but Megrim, Megrim hm, sounds familiar.
Ah yes, Megrim! Now I remember, that card was whole lot of fun.
I recall building a deck based on that and Blazing Specter, for a 2/2 it could hurt a lot when combined with a Megrim(or four)
Thanks a lot guys, these explanations make a lot of sense.
I didn’t realize that discard was a specific type of action and not just the process of moving a card to the graveyard. Looking at the starter rules, I see that it spelled out as such.
I’ll probably have some more questions tomorrow when we continue our game.
The precise term is “main phase”, not “player phase”, but this is otherwise correct. Players can only play an enchantment during their main phase, when the stack is empty, and they have priority.
Hah! White is overpowered and has been since Revised, at least.
But seriously, blue has little or no direct enchantment destruction. (I can’t think of any off the top of my head, anyway.) What blue has is lots of counterspells (which could prevent enchantments from ever entering play to begin with) and “bounce” cards like Boomerang or Capsize (which can return enchantments and other permanents from play to their owner’s hand). Red and Black do not have any direct enchantment destruction that I know of, but green does and has had some since the beginning. For example, Tranquility. Green also has its own version of Disenchant - Naturalize.
I just realized that my example of Tranquility above is confusing - the early versions of the card say “discard”, when new versions say “destroy”.
CaveMike, if you’re ever wondering about the wording on a card, keep in mind that some older cards have wording that is no longer used. The updated wording for all cards can be found using the Gatherer page on WotC’s website. Basically, during the very early days of the game even the designers weren’t really precise in their terminology. The rules are nailed down more firmly these days.
You can also find the official rules on WotC’s site, but they’re about 150 pages long and go into way more detail than you’ll ever need for 95% of the Magic games you’ll play. I should also note that a fairly major rules update becomes official today. It’s not as major an overhaul as the 6th edition rules change was, but there are a few significant changes.
I just recently got back into the game after about, oh, 8 years or so of not playing. I’ve been happy to find the game still thriving.
All of those cards and a few others made up one of the single most streamlined and deadly combos tournament play has ever seen. Actually, it never saw tournament play because Memory Jar was banned before the set even became legal to play in tournaments.
Thanks for the heads-up on the rules BlackKnight and the link to the Gatherer page – I had not found that yet. I just downloaded the new rule book, so that should help a bit.
Oh and FWIW, the game I was playing today was a Black starter-deck vs. a Red starter-deck. I got them free from a promotion they ran recently. I guess the promotion worked… But from the comments here, it seems that Red would not have anything to counter-act Megrim.
Well, your opponent could potentially get rid of some of those cards before having to discard at the end of the turn, if some of them are instants. Like, say, Disenchant.
The best part of that deck, if you can play it somewhere unadulterated, is that you can potentially beat your opponent before they get two mana up for Disenchant. Or you can just sneak a Defense Grid in play. As the linked decklist does.
Just don’t try to read or understand it all in one sitting. Like I said, there’s a lot of detail in there that’s not relevant for the majority of games.
One way for red to deal with Megrim is to just cast things as fast as it can. Red can be very aggressive, and if you don’t have many cards left in your hand, your opponent can’t make you discard them (thus triggering Megrim).
There are also “nuke it from orbit” red cards, like Apocalypse, but that’s like trying to kill a mosquito with a grenade. Then there are dicey cards like the brand new Capricious Efreet. You would likely be able to get rid of Megrim with this guy eventually, but you could end up destroying some of your own stuff as well.
But in general, yeah, red doesn’t have direct ways of dealing with enchantments. Black has it worse - it can’t really deal with enchantments or artifacts, whereas red can destroy artifacts fairly easily. Each color has its own strengths and weaknesses, which is why many people play with multi-color decks. For example, a red / green deck could use green cards that deal with enchantments and red cards for direct damage.
To be more precise, black can’t deal with enchantments in general, but it does still have responses to many of the more troublesome specific ones. I don’t know how the balance of power falls now, but back in my day, Gloom was the standard black response to Circles of Protection, for instance.
Hey, Mike. I hope you have fun playing Magic. I used to play a lot, but I rarely do anymore. No one to play with. I’ve still got two decks assembled though, a Red Goblin deck and a Black Megrim deck. Here’s what I have in my Megrim deck:
Megrim x4
Mind Twist x2
Hymn to Tourach x4
Stupor x2
Persecute x1
Unhunge x2
Mind Sludge x2
Hypnotic Specter x4
Abyssal Specter x3
Hollow Specter x1
Mindstab Thrull x4
Order of Yawgmoth x1
Chilling Apparition x2
Ravenous Rats x4
The Rack x3
Disrupting Scepter x2
Swamp x19
I haven’t kept up with any new sets since the card redesign around 5 years ago, so there may be lots of cards that I don’t know about that would go great in this deck. I keep it because I had a lot of fun making it and it can really kick ass quickly. Now that I’m aware of Memory Jar, I may have to upgrade my Disrupting Scepters. That’s some pretty sick damage right there. If I do that, I’ll probably drop the Mind Sludges and add in a couple Dark Rituals instead. And then store the deck back in the closet, heh.
Not in all formats, though. Memory Jar was only restricted in Type 1. I played it for a while in T1 (after Memory Jar had been restricted, but before… well, almost all of the other cards in that deck were restricted). I didn’t even have a fully powered deck (no Lotus, only 3/5 moxes, no Ancestral), but the version I played won about 50% of the time on turn 1, another 30-40% on turn 2, and simply fizzled out and lost the rest of the time.
