Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 20:01:40 +0100 From: Paul Barclay Subject: [O] NetRep Reply 512 ======================================================================= NetRep Reply number 512 to the Magic: the Gathering List ======================================================================= This reply covers the digests: MTG-L Digest - 13 Jan 2000 to 14 Jan 2000 (#2000-15) MTG-L Digest - 14 Jan 2000 to 15 Jan 2000 (#2000-16) Older replies may be found at: http://www.second-hand.demon.co.uk ftp://ftp.magic.asuka.net http://yavapai.ccgnews.com http://www.en.magic.asuka.net http://www.thedojo.com/backpage-rulesregulations.shtml SHORT ANSWERS: ======================================================================= ** Hot off the presses news: 7th Edition will be released in 2001, not this year as previously stated. LONG ANSWERS: ======================================================================= [Wayne Ma, asking some questions] >1. Does damage on the stack go on for all creatures at the same time? Yes (unless some have First Strike). >2. How do play Hatred safely? The whole point of Hatred is that it's not a very safe card to play, since you have to pay life when you announce it. >What about picking targets with Disenchant or Vendetta? Do you have to >do it before your opponent can counterspell? Yes. Targets must be chosen, and costs must be paid when you play the spell. > Why is Catastrophe like that? It's not - you choose whether to destroy all creatures or all lands on resolution. >3. What was the deal with activating Cursed Scroll without choosing >targets at that point and being able to choose later or something like >that? You choose the target on announcement of the Scroll's ability. Name the card, then choose the card at random, when the ability resolves. >4. Can two Mogg Flunkies attack by themselves? Yes (well, they're attacking together). >5. How are lands played? If a spell is Miscalculationed and you have >one land untapped and one land in your hand and you haven't played a >land that turn, can you play it and pay the cost? No. Lands can only be played during your Main Phase, when the Stack is empty. >6. Could someone clarify what happens if YOU control a Wild Dogs and >Iron Maiden and have lower life than your opponent but your opponent >gets Iron Maiden'd during that same upkeep and has lower life then you? The Dogs and the Maiden don't interact. The Dogs' ability happens at the beginning of your upkeep, the Maiden's happens at the beginning of your opponent's upkeep. >What happens if your opponent controled the Wild Dogs? You would gain control of the Dogs, as he must put the Dogs' ability on the Stack first. >What happens if your opponent controlled the Iron Maiden? Assuming you controlled the Dogs, your opponent gains control of them (it's the same as the case above). >What happens if your opponent controlled both? The Dogs and the Maiden don't interact. The Dogs' ability happens at the beginning of your upkeep, the Maiden's happens at the beginning of your opponent's upkeep. >7. What about spells that say "All damage dealt by target permanent >this turn is prevented" or something along that lines and that permanent >has already dealt damage that turn before the spell was played? Spells don't work back in time. It will only affect damage that is dealt _after_ it resolves. >8. Which "free" cards are errated so they don't untap lands if not >being played by your hand? I know Treachery and Cloud of Fairies, but >is Frantic Search, Snap, Peregrine Drake and Palinchron like that? Treachery, Palinchron, Peregrine Drake, Cloud of Faeries, Karmic Guide, Iridiscent Drake, Priest of Gix, Great Whale and one other that I can't remember. They're all permanents, none of them are Sorceries or Instants. (To correct one erroneous poster, Academy Researchers does not have this errata) >9. How can you play Natural Affinity and have lands attack? Don't they >all have summoning sickness? You can attack with all your lands that have been in play since the beginning of the turn, as these won't have Summoning Sickness. >10. I was at Pro Tour Chicago and I noticed that the Top 8 were playing >without sleeves. Were they playing with their own cards or did Wizards >of the Coast provide them with sleeveless copies of their decks? I don't know. Probably their own cards. Sleeves aren't allowed in the Pro Tour Top 8, as they reflect the light from the television lights. >11. That was a dumb question, but if I was on Who Wants to be a >Millionaire and Regis Philbin asked me what is the best sellling CCG of >all time, please tell me the answer would be Magic and not Pokemon. I >wouldn't want to have to use a lifeline for that. Pokemon gets it on sales rate, Magic probably wins on sheer numbers of cards printed to date. WotC US Customer Service's telephone number is 1-800-324-6496 if you want to phone a friend on that. ----- [Mat Brown, asking about Gaea's Cradle] >I had someone ask me a question that I was unsure of, so I wanted to ask >here to see if what I told him was right. >He has a Storm Cauldron in play, a Horn of Greed, and a Gaea's Cradle, and >no creatures. >He asked me if tapping the Gaea's Cradle would return it to his hand. (He >wanted to play it again so he could draw a card from the Horn's ability.) >I told him that it would. You were correct. ----- [Mat Brown, asking about copy cards] >How about copying the initial characteristics? We discarded that as being even more complex than the other two. >The old rulings on D'Angelo's seem to support this model. >Jeff Jordan tells us that Beth Moursund said that she supported this model. During the Copy Card Slapping Match, most people supported at least two or three different versions. All had problems. >When you were selecting copy card rules, why did you select the ones you >did instead of this? Simplicity, simplicity and simplicity. >This does, however, touch on one of my traditional complaints on almost all >topics: special cases. This makes copy cards a special case. If you think that copy cards are _not_ a special case, why are you discussing copy cards as a special case? ----- [Mat Brown, asking about weird stuff] >When was Summer Magic released? I have heard that it was immediately before >Revised, and that the washed out colors on the Revised cards were a >reaction to the dark colors on the Summer Magic cards. And I have also >heard that it was immediately after Revised, and that the dark colors on >the Summer Magic cards were a reaction to the washed out colors on the >Revised cards. Which is true? Neither, completely. It was after Revised, and it was going to be what is now 4th Edition (cleaning up some mistakes like the Serendib, and removing some pentagrams). It was released sometime around November 1994. It was recalled before release, as it contained even more errors, and the print quality was way off (far too dark). >I long time ago, I heard a rumor of an expansion set put out by another >company, shortly after Arabian Nights. Of course, the WotC legal team >stepped in and put an immediate stop to this flagrant violation of their >copyrights, but not before a small amount of these cards had made it into >circulation. I believe the name of the set was, according to the rumor, >Medieval. Is there any truth to this, or is this strictly urban legend? The truth _is_ out there. The set was called "Middle Ages", and it was printed around the time of Legends in 1994 (it uses Legendary stuff and Enchant Worlds). It was "A collectable sticker set of 73 stickers". It came in little plastic packets (like card sleeves, but stronger), with a folded bit of paper around the stickers. The front of the pack has the text quoted above. The back has instructions for how to assemble the stickers to lands. The expansion symbol was a castle tower. The card name and card type have been swapped round, and the power/toughness is up where the mana symbols are. The artwork is fairly bad in general. Some look like they were drawn then scanned in, some look like they were drawn on a computer. The nine stickers I have (kept in very thick card sleeves) are: Dwarven Steam Cannon (red) Skitzophrenia (blue) Flaming Zombies of Pothos (black) (picture is very funny, and shows two zombies with axes and burning heads) Eternal Battlefield (white Enchant World) Devilboon's Demon (red and black) (Flavour Text: "And in my dream I saw a terrible creature with no remorse towards inflicting pain - Sleepy, Dwarf of the Enchanted Wood) Heirophant (green) Engineers (colourless creature, with a silver border) Magic Shop (legendary land) Necronomicon (artifact) Yes, these stickers were stamped on very quickly by WotC's legal team. ----- [David Weinlick, asking about Humble] >I want to confirm that a Blockade Runner's unblockability (once it is >activated) is a characteristic rather than an ability. It's neither. It's an effect on the creature. The ability that creates it is an ability, and it creates a continuous effect that lasts until the end of the turn. If you Humble the Runner after its ability has resolved, it will still be unblockable, because Humble doesn't affect effects. ----- [Da Twink Daddy, asking about Oracle] >P. 157 of my Oracle says the activation card of Lifeforce's ability is G. I >thought it was GG. Am I misremembering or does the Oracle need to be fixed >there? You have an old copy of Oracle. The new copy correctly has Lifeforce's activation costs as {G}{G}. ----- [Phillip Showel, asking about Protection] >My opponent activated Shard Phoenix ability to sacrifice and deal 2 damage >to all non flying creatures. My question is: >Can I tap my 2 Mommy Runes to give them Pro:Red and save them from the >damage. Yes, you can - Protection from Red will prevent all the red damage from the Shard Phoenix. Paul. - ------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Paul Barclay -- paul@second-hand.demon.co.uk -- Mobile: 0958-980180 - - DCI Level III judge -- http://www.second-hand.demon.co.uk/index.htm - - Official MTG-L Network Representative for Wizards of the Coast, Inc -