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Magic: the Gathering |OT13| Ixalan - Port to Sideboard

Ashodin

Member
exert isn't an activated abiltiy and mentor being a 2/2 throws a wench into that

Activating energy costs hurts. Hydra et al.

Also my exert deck can protect it.

Anyway new list:

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Do you know how sick it is to Prepare + Fight a Glorybringer. Like, the sickest
 
Hearthstone also has effectively a flawless judge (the computer) performing arbitration, which is quite handy when you get to design your game to enjoy that benefit from the ground-up. Magic will always be gimped in this regard by the mere existence of paper.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
When we're talking "resolve" triggers in Hearthstone, are you guys talking about the effects that say "after you play" or "after you cast"?
 

Yeef

Member
Isn't it weird that in the 25 years of magic they've never made resolve triggers. Hearhstone in all its simplicity has cast, enter the battlefield, die and resolve triggers.
I don't know what a resolve trigger is in Hearthstone; it doesn't make much sense in Magic. If it's a nonpermanent spell, then just make it part of the effect. If it's a permanent spell, just make it an ETB trigger.

Back in the day, they used to have "If [spell] is successfully cast..." Which worked like you're saying.

They errata'd all of them to "When you play this spell..." and later to "When you cast this spell...", probably because the timing of when the trigger goes on the stack is a little ambiguous (or at least it used to be under the old rules).
"Successfully cast" was always just "on cast." The "successfully" part was just bad templating.
 

Adaren

Member
Isn't it weird that in the 25 years of magic they've never made resolve triggers. Hearhstone in all its simplicity has cast, enter the battlefield, die and resolve triggers.

I haven’t played Hearthstone in forever, but what cast triggers does it have? I would assume that when you cast a spell in Hearthstone it always resolves immediately (so that it feels clear and responsive) and then other things trigger off of the fact that you cast a spell (these are the resolve triggers you refer to). In my mind, a cast trigger in Hearthstone would happen between the time you drop the spell on the board and the time when the spell actually happens, and I don’t recall any effects like that.

EDIT: Oh, I remember there was a counterspell secret now. That would be on cast.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
I haven’t played Hearthstone in forever, but what cast triggers does it have? I would assume that when you cast a spell in Hearthstone it always resolves immediately (so that it feels clear and responsive) and then other things trigger off of the fact that you cast a spell (these are the resolve triggers you refer to). In my mind, a cast trigger in Hearthstone would happen between the time you drop the spell on the board and the time when the spell actually happens, and I don’t recall any effects like that.

EDIT: Oh, I remember there was a counterspell secret now. That would be on cast.

Hearthstone has triggers that activate both before and after spells resolve. For example, Violet Teacher and Gadgetzan Auctioneer both trigger before the spell resolves. Wild Pyromancer triggers after a spell resolves.
 
Isn't it weird that in the 25 years of magic they've never made resolve triggers. Hearhstone in all its simplicity has cast, enter the battlefield, die and resolve triggers.

I just can't think (at least offhand) of where this would be useful that isn't already covered by other existing terminology.

"Successfully cast" was always just "on cast." The "successfully" part was just bad templating.

In the Interrupt days, you could only respond with countermagic at the exact time that a spell was announced, and once that window was over you could only respond with instants. So in that era, stuff triggering on cast didn't go off until that window had passed.
 
they could combine some "if this was cast" clause and an "enters your graveyard" clause (or some other wording) if they really wanted to do it
 

Copenap

Member
After getting a Search for Azcanta last FNM I got that sweet foil Legions Landing yesterday in the booster draft. BW Vampires is really fun to draft even if it might not be the strongest default draft type.
 
I just can't think (at least offhand) of where this would be useful that isn't already covered by other existing terminology.
Since Zealous answered most of the other things I'm gonna focus on this.

The importance is the timing. The easiest example is wraths and token producers, you can't wrath with a monastery mentor on board and get to keep a token. You can't sneak a sorcery above the trigger barring a quicken effect and a trigger already on the stack.

Resolve Trigger would also be vulnerable to countermagic. The way resolve triggers work in magic are that text is added to spells on the stack which is rarely utilised.
 

Santiako

Member
Well this deck was bonkers...

media

That deck is great, it's hard to make UW work in Ixalan, but you definitely did it.

After getting a Search for Azcanta last FNM I got that sweet foil Legions Landing yesterday in the booster draft. BW Vampires is really fun to draft even if it might not be the strongest default draft type.

BW Vampires is definitely one of the best archetypes (BW Vamps and UG Merfolk are the two best ones).
 

Justin

Member
Final Ixalan story (?) is up
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/race-part-2-2017-10-18

Vraska knew in that moment that, memory or no, this was a man she could trust—and one who would trust her in return. She did not need another person to be complete, nor did she need validation of who she was. And if he weren't interested, that was fine—she had a history book at home to finish. But if he were interested, Vraska imagined he would make her tea if she was upset. He would listen when she needed to be heard, cheer her on to her own victories. All in all, not a bad prospect. Perhaps she'd ask him on a date when all this was over.
 

Justin

Member
Now he'll gain back his memories, remember she's bad, and go back to being enemies so then they can plod this love story for years.

Yep

She felt her fingers break the surface and kicked herself upward, desperate for air. She emerged, sucking in air and spitting out river water. Her feet stung through her shoes with the impact, and she could sense a bruise starting to form on her legs as she kicked. Vast walls of stone and gold had burst through the earth on either side of the water, and the risen city of Orazca towered high overhead.

Suddenly, a searing stabbing slicing pain through her temples—she cried out—and an image appeared in her mind with a flash.


Panic flooded her veins once more and she desperately kicked toward shore, craning her neck to get her bearings as she swam. Vraska was still in Ixalan, but the image in her mind was of Ravnica.

What was that?!

She was alarmed and confused, desperately paddling her way to where the brand-new river met the newly exposed stone of the city.

Vraska spotted Jace. He was clinging to a rock near the riverbank, blood gushing from a wound in his head and his eyes alight with magic. His face was flush with confusion and pain, a faraway look in his eyes.

Did he see it too—?!

"Jace!" she howled, swimming closer, pulling herself and her heavy soggy clothes through the murky water, paddling to stay out of the swift current brought by the waterfall. "Jace, your head—AHH!"

She wore a blue cloak and hood, and lay on the central dais of the Forum of Azor. Niv-Mizzet, the parun of the Izzet, was looking down at her, and she could make out the faces of the maze-runners from every guild of Ravnica. This is a memory, Vraska realized. The memory was colored with meaning, belonging, responsibility. It was the day Jace became the Living Guildpact.

Suddenly, the image dissipated, vanished, and Vraska was swimming in the river once again.

He is remembering everything, Vraska realized with dread.

Jace's memory was returning all at once, returning as a flood and spilling over the sides, and he would soon remember everything about what Vraska was. He would soon remember their grudge, remember her guild, remember his job, and then none of what had happened over the last few months would matter. He would remember he was the Guildpact and she was an assassin and their friendship would certainly dissolve.

Vraska choked on river water as she frantically swam toward Jace on the shore. He was bleeding, broken, eyes alight and lost in the agony of remembering.

It's over, Vraska lamented with a heavy heart as she waded through the shallows toward the mind mage. A pang of headache warned her another memory was about to flood her perception, and she shut her eyes tight to brace herself as Jace's past slipped through his control and rammed into her mind.
 
It would be nice if this still resulted in character growth for Jace, rather than a reversion back to Jace-that-nobody-liked. Like if he came out of memory restoration and was like 'Vraska, you're not that bad, I can help you sort out the Golgari without killing everyone' or something.
 
Magic Story - The Race, part 2
* Jace and Vraska have traveled along the river for hours. Jace is sending a horse illusion into the air every hour to signal their crew.
* Vraska sings a Golgari song.
* Romance.
* Later, they leave the ship and go into the jungle. They reach a clearing, which Jace notes was made by dinosaurs. He makes a joke about dinosaur forestry.
* They're attacked by Vona the vampire, who does a color pie break by casting Darkness. Jace counters it and creates an illusory storm to disorient her. He tries to attack her mind, but she's moving too wildly for him and she hits him in the head.
* Vona takes the compass and runs away.
* Jace says he'll be able to track her mind, but they are then attacked by Tishana and Huatli.
* He tells them they don't have the compass. They leave them be and go after Vona.

* Huatli has her dinosaur follow after Vona from her scent. Vona takes a long time to tire, so they take hours to catch up with her.
* Tishana notes that an enchantment rearranges the jungle around Orazca, to prevent people from finding it.
* When they reach her, Huatli has dinosaurs throw Vona around until the compass falls out. Though the greatest warriors of the Sun Empire never kill, she does alert a nearby hungry dinosaur to the fact that there's food here.
* Tishana takes the compass. She determines that the city is half a day's travel away.
* Tishana starts to move her mount away, preparing to abandon Huatli, so Huatli lunges toward her.
* Their fight is interrupted by the arrival of pirates. One brought a sail all the way here, and magically uses it to tie up Huatli.
* Vraska turns her dinosaur into stone and takes the compass. She reveals that they were able to catch up because Vona was traveling in a straight line, which isn't the quickest path in a jungle like this. Their siren crew member provided an eye in the sky, and Jace kept track of their positions.
* Huatli summons dinosaurs from the jungle, making the pirates back away.
* Tishana summons water to flood the area, forcing Huatli to order the dinosaurs away. To her relief, the river goes around Huatli. Many of the pirates are swept away. Tishana leaves for the city on her own; at this distance, she doesn't need the compass anymore.
* Angrath approaches Huatli. He says that he won't hurt a fellow planeswalker. If they work together, they can get off this world. They just have to kill everyone else looking for Orazca.

* The pirates follow the compass, and are able to find the Spires of Orazca.
* The ground starts shaking and the city starts rising out of the ground. Someone reached the city before them.
* Giant beasts start bellowing, coming from the city.
* A crevice opens up, diverting water from a river toward them. Jace falls into a waterfall, and Vraska falls after him while trying to see if he landed safely.
* Vraska falls into water, but Jace hit his head against a rock, causing his memories to start flooding back, which his powers are telepathically sending to Vraska.
* Vraska realizes he'll remember everything, including that he's her enemy.

Oddly, the Planeswalker Deck emphasized Jace teaming up the merfolk, but that didn't happen at all in the actual story.
 
It'sanother avenue for design, more options to do things are a positive if it isn't overly comicated.

Well that's exactly the thing, it is overcomplicated. We already saw with the eldrazi that cast triggers on permanents instead of ETB triggers led people to misplay frequently and this is relevant even less often than that. A lot of the types of effects that you might think of (Monastery Mentor being an obvious one) wouldn't be designed with this type of wording in the future anyway.
 

Poppy

Member
good thing getting bonked on the head is just an easy way to fix your amnesia instead of something that gives you brain damage
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
It's not like anyone actually wanted Jace to get his memories back.
 
So one of the things we've seen from MTG Arena is that (partially of necessity) they're greatly increasing the amount of iconography they're using for things. Here's an example screenshot:


I'm wondering again whether it might make sense to revamp the card frame again and incorporate more of this stuff. We already have the concept of card type icons from the future frame that could easily be incorporated into the spot used for DFC icons now; I could easily see putting icons for keywords along the border of the textbox for ease of reference.
 
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