Deathtouch resolves after blocking damage but before attacker damage so things blocking other things don't get damaged assigned if deathtouch is active.
This is important because creepy dolls ( my favorite card ) has the deathtouch coinflip AFTER the item is blocked but BEFORE combat damage is assigned - the damage is not on the stack, you can't save your critter if the coinflip goes against you with an interrupt.
This is important with other creatures with Deathtouch because I believe that I have put creatures with deathtouch into my graveyard even though the damage doesn't get to them when they are blocking. I have to look into it but my assumption is that if this works like "blocking damage is assigned first then an attacking creature with deathtouch that gets blocked does go to the graveyard - I will try to get into a Duels of the Planeswalker duel to test this out.
Update note *My impulse to test this was correct - Deathtouch doesn't exactly work this way - the saga of figuring it out is in the more recent entry.
Mana Activated Power ups - yes they can be activated multiply as long as you have mana, you can't activate them during actual combat but you can "stop time" to respond by activating them. so you can power up your regerate right before or right( immediately) after combat damage is assigned.
Also don't cast a creature summing when Olivia Voldaran still has enough mana to turn it into a vampier.
Remember that "target non-land permanent" can target control enchanments exlusively
There'a a one on one challenge where that's the key and it never even occured to me.
And oblivion ring isn't a real exile, it's an enchantment, which means it's susceptible to control decks - If possible dissipate is a more permanent choice.
Assign blockers and the attackers are blocked even if you sacrifice all the blockers to inflate one blocker that operates on sacrifices.
Now this, this is useful - suddenly Selfless Cathar makes a lot more sense - he blocks x, x is still tapped for attack and blocked but sacrifice Selfless Cathar and he can pump up another blocker that allows a more versitile creature to survive, take out another bigger or more dangerous creature than the one he's blocking etc.
It also explains a lot of the bewildering sacrifice moves I've seen. Now the creature blocked by the sacrificed creature is just blocked - no damage is assigned.
Used this knowledge to sacrifice things on their way to the graveyard at FNM last night
When you take control of a creature with control cards it has summoning sickness unless the card says otherwise.
The Marchioness here.... and a fairly discouraged one at that.
ReplyDeleteI was feeling pretty discouraged about getting any better at this game I loved. It was starting to feel like a bad middle school unrequited crush. So I worked through every Planeswalker duel like I was doing grammar drills. I opened every deck, then began playing each deck against each planeswalker until I successfully opened every locked card in the deck. I've completed two whole decks and am in progress on others. I've worked every mini-challenge.
I can honestly say that its been an enormous help. I've learned more about game mechanics and card interactions in the week I've been playing the online game than in the weeks of play leading up to it. I'm not sure what that says about "learning from your community," but I'm pretty sure it says nothing good.
Then I made the mistake of playing a human. Confidence is now well and truly smashed. Worse..... for the first time my enjoyment of the game sort of went pfffffffffft.
I don't think its supposed to be this hard, nor am I sure why it is. I'm entertaining the possibility that it really is just me.
I'm getting ready to tell the Deathtouch correction. I played my version of the creepy doll deck against Snapcaster Andy and DMBen at casual Magic last night. I won both matches against Snapcaster Andy's syngergy deck and 2 out of 4 against DMBen, but I put myself specifically in card draw situations I would never have doen if I weren't playtesting.
ReplyDeleteIt was with Snapcaster Andy I ran into the Deathtouch thing. Playing White Humans on Friday my win ratio was 1-2, 1-2, 0-2 and a bye for the final round.
I didn't enjoy the deck but I did enjoy the game, moreso playing last night with something I brewed myself holding up against people who cream me on FNM. I think that this blog is going to be really useful for tracking how long it takes to understand the permutations of the keywords enough to be able to trust strategy decisions. I also think that this phase of learning the game is probably when people wash out, or if they fight past it they remember this time like a Karate Kid training montage and forget how difficult it was. I think it's like learning a language, when it becomes something you're sure about enough to stop thinking about the basics you forget how you learned it or what you struggled with.
The complexity creep is definately a factor - the lack of a core textbook with diagramming like chess and bridge is a serious issue only partially fixed by the computer games as the deathtouch story will show.
It is very Darwinistic, but I still prefer head to head play, and casual is ALL about multiplayer and teams right now, but you might like competitive multiplayer as the best of both worlds : )
BTW- I believe deathtouch resolves differently, but I'm guessing that's what you're getting ready to tell ;-)
ReplyDeleteI was reading about a newb's experience at a LGS where FNM actually has a beginner table. That would be an attractive idea in terms of lowering the inertial bar of just starting, or having someone willing to coach newbs for better play and teaching the rules.
I wouldn't be willing to stay at the newb table because I'm not going to learn much playing against other newbs. On the other hand, I hate getting unrelentingly creamed by people's $200+ decks at FNM; its just not *fun*.
I like head-to-head competition; I love making the magic happen... when a deck works it makes me all tingly. So, I'm compiling my list of what I suck at (its long) and practicing, practicing, practicing, practicing.