I don't have the exact wording, but here is a summerized version. Anytime you would cast your general from the command zone, you may do so by paying two more colorless. The game does not forget which card is the general.
Anytime your general would be exiled or putinto the graveyard, you get a replacement effect that allows you to put your general into the command zone if you wish. What's interesting here is, lets say you cast a cascade card, and your general's converted mana cost does not meet the cascaded requirements, when it's exiled for the cascade effect, you can opt to put it into the command zone instead of the bottom of the library.
Hand denial, although good against one person, isn't that great against multiple people, and I don't see it much from my perspective. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
You are right in the fact that not everyone knows or follows the social contract. The point of our articles, and this one in particular is to educate the public and let them know there is one. Will there be a day when everyone follows the social contract? No. Well maybe in Magic Christmas Land, but other wise no.
You did bring up a valid sollution, and thats to associate yourslef with someone willing to follow the social contract, and invite them along for future games.
thanks for the comment, i know the grading system is flawed in many ways, but it isn't easy to try and put a mathematical formula/system to such a thing
You can bring whatever tribe you want most weeks. Some weeks there are Special Challenges that award a door prize if you go 3-0 but they aren't necessary for participation. Last week was the Dragon Event Challenge, with the prize of Two-Headed Dragon. Then there are the Special Events that you must adhere to for participation. The endangered event is happening on the 27th and that is an event that you must use an endangered tribe.
Valakut was released as a promo card so that probably helps to keep the price lower as well.
I'm looking forward to playing in your league, I still want to join one of your events but the weekends are sometimes difficult because of family commitments. I figured a plus couldn't hurt to try to get some more people involved :). I really like the 'play everyone once a week' policy which should keep us busy getting in a lot of games.
The client only saved one replay from the tribal and that's the game I won, on the back of the two Brittle Effigy in my hand. Those were one of the only ways I could've killed the Baneslayers, along with Chain Reaction or Mana Leak. As always, thanks for reading.
I see myself in your writing. It reminds me back to 1997, when I started to play Magic with three friends of mine. After a couple of years, Magic was getting too expensive for us and we all quit. Then, I re-started to play at the end of Onslaught block and try to move those friends back to the game, but we weren't living in the same city anymore, though it was going to be hard to have those Magic sessions by night. More, we all get married, and women plus Magic is a hard combination.
Then, 2 years ago by Christmas, we all get together and talked about the old times; including Magic, which gave me an enormous will of playing Magic. I went into two accounts in MtGO and gave one of them to one of the group (eheheh, to the Timmy one).
Guess what, we all (with our kids too) are back in business and enjoying (a lot) playing Magic again.
I'm always amazed that what with valakut doing so well in events the card doesn't become worth at least a couple tix, anyhow good article of the comings and goigns of standard and your personal adventures in magic recently. I've always had a soft spot for red blue green as a color combo myself.
Thanks for plugging the league. I look forward to playing a lot of new people in an Heirloom format now that we'll have an ongoing limited event as well as the constructed event that's been so successful.
Bringing Baneslayer to a Steel Hellkite fight... recipe for win.
It's often much more fun to play the game with an old friend than someone you've met online. The rules of engagement change because your priorities change. There seems to be a magic in revealing very well known facets of the game to them and you could play for hours with decks that are intentionally irrelevant to anything but your games.
I once built a series of five decks in paper that were intentionally simple but appealing artistically and interactively to new players. Whenever I tried to teach someone the game I would take out these monocolored "beginners" decks and if I got the other player to agree to play me I could ask them what color they wanted to play and we could get right to playing.
I don't know how many people I've really convinced to play the game that didn't already or that had quit, but certianly the attempts have been fun.
I thought duels of the planeswalkers might be a good way to help my girlfriend learn the game, but unfortunately she has a mac, and wotc apparently doesn't belive that macs are real.
I played in a paper constructed last week and had such a sick, sick pool. I got 7 amazing rares (1 foil Argentum Armor) and perhaps even more amazing, every blue card I had was playable. Most were great. After playing the deck out I showed my opponents what was not in my deck (Lux Cannon, 2*Heavy Arbalest, 2*Neurok Replica). I explained that the Arbalest was playing too slow for me. But, if I had a Soliton...
The point here, is that was the first combo I came up with in a while without someone first telling me about it. I then drafted 2xArbalest and 2xSoliton this weekend and promptly lost my first two matches, and got a bye for the last round. Frustrating! It is a sweet, sweet combo. I think Arbalests will start to get 1st picked, since Soliton's usually wheel.
I also got a friend interested in Magic after introducing them to the xbox version of the game. After showing them the xbox version is "meh" on the competitive level, he joined my quest for sheer domination of the local FNM meta.
I thought the article was a great read, a nice change in pace from the typical stuff seen here. Well done Sir.
"Mostly I just want to see new stuff. Seeing Momir Vig find Teferi and Seedborn Muse again just makes me want to pluck my eyes out. As does Sharuum finding his Magister Sphinx. But if you can assemble your six card combo to crush the board more power to you, especially if you've used "bad" cards to do it."
That's my thought exactly. I like commander because you get to play (and play against) cards you wouldn't normally see, but it's also a format that can go stale very quickly. I want so scream every time someone puts a Solemn Similacrum into play.
While you are at it, could you also relay the message to them that mimic vat isn't as broken as it appears and to completely avoid using it in any deck so us low on the totem pole kinda of players can reveal it as tech during the next FNM.
I wouldn't lose to much sleep over it. A competitive deck for under $25 isn't something people should complain about. Could you hurry up and find some pro to make the prices of captivating vampire skyrocket cause I own like 10 in paper.
Guys you're taking things way too serious than they are in reality. I know him since I-don't-know-when, and I know him far too well to know that when he will see this article this weekend, he will just smile. Oh and I will show this to him.
That was not YOU I played against that weekend but someone I know from the dawn of time. So trust me when I say it's okay.
AJ it must be the one near the end of the game. I do remember that it took me some good amount of time to find a way to beat it.
Flippers I actually thought about buying preconstructed decks too. But then I thought that it would have been easier playing with the cards he knew instead of playing with totally new cards. I mean, he recognizes Overrun by just looking at the art but the new cards are total strangers to him. But the next time we visit the game shop, I will definitely offer him to buy preconstructed decks.
As a matter of fact my next target is my wife. Now I have to get her back too. We played Magic during the Invasion days, and she had an incredibly powerful GR deck built around Shivan Wurm, Fires of Yavimaya, Horned Kavu etc.. But getting her will be much difficult than getting that friend back.
And Paul, what I did wasen't lying at all. I was just holding some cards in hand instead of playing them. That decision of mine turned out to be wrong at the end and I lost. That simple. I was waiting to finish the game in one big turn by playing all those cards I had in hand, but sadly my friend was faster than me. Just think about it this way. Because in no way I lied to him.
And besides, at the end of the day I was the winner. But just instead of crushing him 5-0 within 10 minutes, I made sure that we both enjoyed the day at the game shop and that we had a good time. Oh and I was successful at that too.
I don't have the exact wording, but here is a summerized version. Anytime you would cast your general from the command zone, you may do so by paying two more colorless. The game does not forget which card is the general.
Anytime your general would be exiled or putinto the graveyard, you get a replacement effect that allows you to put your general into the command zone if you wish. What's interesting here is, lets say you cast a cascade card, and your general's converted mana cost does not meet the cascaded requirements, when it's exiled for the cascade effect, you can opt to put it into the command zone instead of the bottom of the library.
Paul,
Hand denial, although good against one person, isn't that great against multiple people, and I don't see it much from my perspective. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
You are right in the fact that not everyone knows or follows the social contract. The point of our articles, and this one in particular is to educate the public and let them know there is one. Will there be a day when everyone follows the social contract? No. Well maybe in Magic Christmas Land, but other wise no.
You did bring up a valid sollution, and thats to associate yourslef with someone willing to follow the social contract, and invite them along for future games.
Way to go Mich, very nice and enjoyable report. Keep up the good work! :)
thanks for the comment, i know the grading system is flawed in many ways, but it isn't easy to try and put a mathematical formula/system to such a thing
thanks for the compliment, but I don't think there is any harm in warning people not to assume that everything they read is fact
You can bring whatever tribe you want most weeks. Some weeks there are Special Challenges that award a door prize if you go 3-0 but they aren't necessary for participation. Last week was the Dragon Event Challenge, with the prize of Two-Headed Dragon. Then there are the Special Events that you must adhere to for participation. The endangered event is happening on the 27th and that is an event that you must use an endangered tribe.
Double Post
Valakut was released as a promo card so that probably helps to keep the price lower as well.
I'm looking forward to playing in your league, I still want to join one of your events but the weekends are sometimes difficult because of family commitments. I figured a plus couldn't hurt to try to get some more people involved :). I really like the 'play everyone once a week' policy which should keep us busy getting in a lot of games.
The client only saved one replay from the tribal and that's the game I won, on the back of the two Brittle Effigy in my hand. Those were one of the only ways I could've killed the Baneslayers, along with Chain Reaction or Mana Leak. As always, thanks for reading.
i thought angels were on the endangered list for the weekend tribal event. doesn't that mean its a banned tribe for the event?
Great article.
I see myself in your writing. It reminds me back to 1997, when I started to play Magic with three friends of mine. After a couple of years, Magic was getting too expensive for us and we all quit. Then, I re-started to play at the end of Onslaught block and try to move those friends back to the game, but we weren't living in the same city anymore, though it was going to be hard to have those Magic sessions by night. More, we all get married, and women plus Magic is a hard combination.
Then, 2 years ago by Christmas, we all get together and talked about the old times; including Magic, which gave me an enormous will of playing Magic. I went into two accounts in MtGO and gave one of them to one of the group (eheheh, to the Timmy one).
Guess what, we all (with our kids too) are back in business and enjoying (a lot) playing Magic again.
Really liked to read your article.
Parallel Universe!
Hey DrBenwayy,
I'm always amazed that what with valakut doing so well in events the card doesn't become worth at least a couple tix, anyhow good article of the comings and goigns of standard and your personal adventures in magic recently. I've always had a soft spot for red blue green as a color combo myself.
Thanks for plugging the league. I look forward to playing a lot of new people in an Heirloom format now that we'll have an ongoing limited event as well as the constructed event that's been so successful.
Bringing Baneslayer to a Steel Hellkite fight... recipe for win.
Mike-
Here you can find the contents of the new precon decks.
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75846/26191745/MTGO_Deck_Ser...
Great article.
It's often much more fun to play the game with an old friend than someone you've met online. The rules of engagement change because your priorities change. There seems to be a magic in revealing very well known facets of the game to them and you could play for hours with decks that are intentionally irrelevant to anything but your games.
I once built a series of five decks in paper that were intentionally simple but appealing artistically and interactively to new players. Whenever I tried to teach someone the game I would take out these monocolored "beginners" decks and if I got the other player to agree to play me I could ask them what color they wanted to play and we could get right to playing.
I don't know how many people I've really convinced to play the game that didn't already or that had quit, but certianly the attempts have been fun.
X-
I thought duels of the planeswalkers might be a good way to help my girlfriend learn the game, but unfortunately she has a mac, and wotc apparently doesn't belive that macs are real.
Loved this article, thanks!
I played in a paper constructed last week and had such a sick, sick pool. I got 7 amazing rares (1 foil Argentum Armor) and perhaps even more amazing, every blue card I had was playable. Most were great. After playing the deck out I showed my opponents what was not in my deck (Lux Cannon, 2*Heavy Arbalest, 2*Neurok Replica). I explained that the Arbalest was playing too slow for me. But, if I had a Soliton...
The point here, is that was the first combo I came up with in a while without someone first telling me about it. I then drafted 2xArbalest and 2xSoliton this weekend and promptly lost my first two matches, and got a bye for the last round. Frustrating! It is a sweet, sweet combo. I think Arbalests will start to get 1st picked, since Soliton's usually wheel.
Very Nice write-up.
I also got a friend interested in Magic after introducing them to the xbox version of the game. After showing them the xbox version is "meh" on the competitive level, he joined my quest for sheer domination of the local FNM meta.
I thought the article was a great read, a nice change in pace from the typical stuff seen here. Well done Sir.
"Mostly I just want to see new stuff. Seeing Momir Vig find Teferi and Seedborn Muse again just makes me want to pluck my eyes out. As does Sharuum finding his Magister Sphinx. But if you can assemble your six card combo to crush the board more power to you, especially if you've used "bad" cards to do it."
That's my thought exactly. I like commander because you get to play (and play against) cards you wouldn't normally see, but it's also a format that can go stale very quickly. I want so scream every time someone puts a Solemn Similacrum into play.
While you are at it, could you also relay the message to them that mimic vat isn't as broken as it appears and to completely avoid using it in any deck so us low on the totem pole kinda of players can reveal it as tech during the next FNM.
Hold on, I know I have Conley's number here somewhere...
I wouldn't lose to much sleep over it. A competitive deck for under $25 isn't something people should complain about. Could you hurry up and find some pro to make the prices of captivating vampire skyrocket cause I own like 10 in paper.
Guys you're taking things way too serious than they are in reality. I know him since I-don't-know-when, and I know him far too well to know that when he will see this article this weekend, he will just smile. Oh and I will show this to him.
That was not YOU I played against that weekend but someone I know from the dawn of time. So trust me when I say it's okay.
LE
AJ it must be the one near the end of the game. I do remember that it took me some good amount of time to find a way to beat it.
Flippers I actually thought about buying preconstructed decks too. But then I thought that it would have been easier playing with the cards he knew instead of playing with totally new cards. I mean, he recognizes Overrun by just looking at the art but the new cards are total strangers to him. But the next time we visit the game shop, I will definitely offer him to buy preconstructed decks.
As a matter of fact my next target is my wife. Now I have to get her back too. We played Magic during the Invasion days, and she had an incredibly powerful GR deck built around Shivan Wurm, Fires of Yavimaya, Horned Kavu etc.. But getting her will be much difficult than getting that friend back.
And Paul, what I did wasen't lying at all. I was just holding some cards in hand instead of playing them. That decision of mine turned out to be wrong at the end and I lost. That simple. I was waiting to finish the game in one big turn by playing all those cards I had in hand, but sadly my friend was faster than me. Just think about it this way. Because in no way I lied to him.
And besides, at the end of the day I was the winner. But just instead of crushing him 5-0 within 10 minutes, I made sure that we both enjoyed the day at the game shop and that we had a good time. Oh and I was successful at that too.
LE
I think never speaking again is a bit far, but there is a point here.
Don't you think he might be a bit irked to find that you've posted an article online explaining how you deliberately misplayed to let him win?
Two words: Gaea's Revenge.