Pseudo Newb and . . . . Legacy?

Ok, I'm not 100% sure that this is a good idea, because I'm still not 100% sure what it is that I get out of participating in GPs. ( reminder to self- finish the comparison of GP Balt and GP Philly experiences and get them here on the journal - you know you're just avoiding the self-reflection)  I am thinking of going to the GP in Washington DC in November 2013.  The hitch is that it's legacy.

The next closest GP is Atlantic City, It's in January and it's standard. One of the things that concerns me is that I haven't played enough standard to feel like I have any understanding of it. I have a Pack Rats Reanimator Deck, and I just put together a Dark America Deck but they may both be above my skill set. However I could concievably play my 12.00 Pack Rats deck with no sideboard and see how it goes?

Not sure. If I'm serious about participating in a legacy event I would seriously need some coaching. The advice I've gotten is to find an archetype I like and work with it in several different builds.

To that end a friend who plays on the money circuit for Legacy gave me this site:

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/forum.php

Apparently Legacy does react to the new releases at the competitive level. I might be able to play one of the Legacy delver builds but I also think I may have to borrow the deck for an actual tournament.

There's something called Angel Stompy that sounds interesting.

Pseudo Newb and the First RtR Draft

They needed people to make sanctioning level today at draft - I'm on a call list and I know exactly why they're having trouble - because it's finals week for projects and starting tomorrow is the finals for tests for some of the classes.

I've been trying to get to a draft for sometime, but I've actually gotten to do very little drafting since Avacyn Restored. I've been playing a lot of sealed and my record was improving and I drafted some through Magic Core Set 2013 which was much better for me than the Avacyn Restored limited environment, but honestly I felt like I was barely understanding the synergies in sealled and standard and draft is a different beast.

So for the first time every I went knowing that I was going to have to drop, because I have a final tomorrow at 8am but I did the absolute worst thing I could possibly do before a draft- about 3 .5 hours of algebra.

There was a section that hit me really hard in the LD involving graphing, so by the time I got to draft I was really burned out. While I knew I was having the cognitive dissonance reactions and vertigo what I hadn't realzed is fighting through it kind of tabled it and it (the vertigo ) kind of washed over me like it had been building up all evening.

So I opened pack 1 got an Angel of Serenity in pack one and some other white put me in either green/white, mono white or white blue.

I went 0-2 for both rounds before  I dropped.

The first round Frank and I played each other and we both mulled down to 5. We were playing almost the exact mirror but he had a Martial Law I had passed on to tap down the AngelI felt better about the Sundering Growths I had picked for sideboarding.

The second round I was manna screwed at the beginning but I just tried to make the best of it but the reality was my mind was compelelty on the final tomorrow. I'll have to review the build when I'm done with all this.

I also got a call of the conclave, a fencing artist, and an epic experiment and my LGS members got their planeswalker points but I'm going to have to catch up with the drafting strategies.

Psuedo Newb and Two Articles about Sideboards I need to spend time with

I need to stop being ill during FNM nights.

I also need to read this article by Gavin Verhey very slowly and probably take notes

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/rc/222

And then I need to re-read this one by Dee

http://magicgameplan.com/blog/how-to-beat-falkenrath-aristocrat/

I think between the two of them I might be able to get some clarity on figuring out constructing my sideboards.

Pseudeo Newb and the Quick new thing I learned about Deathrite Shaman

Quick new thing I learned about Deathrite Shaman

Plus Pack Rat Tokens


Arrgh so much stuff - so far behind.

This last weekend was Thankgsiving. I've been playing a lot because I'm fully integrated into our college's gaming club. I've been playing a 20$ pack rats deck that is more fun than many, may things and then I realized I needed to make a Pack Rat's token that actually had the rules on it so that I didn't have to remember an extra thing on the board unnecessarily.

Here's my token - feel free to share internet. I'm playing Pack Rats because I love adorable rodents, I'm just happy that WotC made me a card so that I can play ALL the rats in standard at one time and have a usable deck.

*Newb Note - because Pack Rat Tokens are full copies of Pack Rat they also have all of the same card text abilities of the original card - I made these tokens to make sure that I didn't forget that.

Sometimes it's strategic to use a pack rat token instead of an actual Pack Rat card when you are choosing to attack or whatever maybe you have something that buffs up tokens or something else that needs a non-token creature and the original card isn't hanging around to read the text off it. My final copy is an .AI file that has the word token on it.

I need to do this more often for two reasons - 1 is that it means my tokens do exactly what I need them to during the game and 2 I get to make my own art and use it in game.

Ok so here's the thing I learned about Deathrite Shaman. 

I've put together a Green and Black deck that is different than a tournament deck that runs three colors. I wanted to experiment with a few ideas and I play decks to learn specific cards or strategies rather than some other competitive goals. This one is for using ramp, learning how to play Deathrite Shaman and seeing if I can get past overly focusing on my early game by playing a deck that really doesn't have an early aggro( aggressive attacking) strategy.

Rules text Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

1

Types:

Creature — Elf Shaman

Card Text:

: Exile target land card from a graveyard. Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

, : Exile target instant or sorcery card from a graveyard. Each opponent loses 2 life.

, : Exile target creature card from a graveyard. You gain 2 life.

So the mana symbol is hybrid mana - which means you can cast it using either of the colors in the little circle. 

The abilities in the ability text box are all mana activated tap abilities even though the first ability mana cost = 0

Because they require the card to tap and the card is a creature card the abilities are subject to summoning sickness = you can't use it unless you controlled it from the beginning of the turn OR you have a special effect on your board that gives it haste, which will let you use a creature card right away on the same turn it's cast or in your control. 

So here's what I know from journaling - my particular weak points with this card are going to be 

• losing track of one of the abilities as an option because there are three instead of two, I almost always miss/forget one of them

• remembering that because it's a mana activated ability I can use it at instant speed(any turn, any legal turn phase) instead of sorcery speed ( only your own main phase)

• making sure I remember that it's ANY graveyard not just mine that I can target to feed the card exile requirements

I was correct, playing this card in my new deck today I made all those mistakes even though I was aware I would make them in advance but here is the cool new thing I learned:

If my opponent is also playing a Deathrite Shaman ( which can happen more often than you think) and he uses his to target something like a swamp in my graveyard to make himself some blue mana, if I have an untapped Deathrite Shaman then I can tap it to target the same card and create the mana of my choice for myself

I can do this even if I don't use the mana.

This works because my response at instant speed resolves on the stack ( the timing element they use to sort card effects) before the opponents' Deathrite does so in effect  I use up and exile the targeted card in the graveyard before the first Deathrite gets to.

That Deathrite picked something that is no longer a legal target and can't pick a new one so it stays tapped but has no effect.

What does that sound like in play?

Opp - I target your swamp in your graveyard and tap Deathrite Shaman to make one blue mana
Me - In response I tap my Deathrite Shaman to target that same swamp and make a green mana that i can't use. If I can't have that swamp nobody can and you should picture my Deathrite Shaman threatening to pack up his toys and go home.

What really Happened:

Opp - I target your swamp in your graveyard and tap Deathrite Shaman to make one blue mana
Me- OK

Shenanigans with the one blue mana ensue

Opp- Pass turn
Me ( as I start to untap lands for my untap phase)
Opp - you know you can use your Deathrite Shaman to tap the same land right?
Me - Urgh?

The Opponent who is Nick-that-is-not-Mike then shows me how to do that now that his turn is over, but before the game is over. We are playing casually in the cafeteria and he has to remember that although I play much better than many of our current club members I am still really a newb. He's way better at intricacies of the stack than I am and I'm not good enough to necessarily just "see" things that way yet.

About two turns later he tries it again ( knowing that my distractability is high it's a fair tactic) and I do remember and take the proper course of action complete with reference to the pouting.

But even using it that way I will later lose the game because I forget that the first tap effect will let me generate mana that I need.

But that means that I was right to put this deck together. I learned a bunch of other things that made it clear I've had some skill loss on remembering triggers. So I played it with a few more opponents but now I need to put it away for a day or add some Rancors.

It's here in the journal so I don't forget that I learned it. 

One Woman’s Reaction to the Card Art for Magic 2013

GIANT NOTE: - This is unfinished and going live so that someone in particular can see the review of Captain of the Watch and Captain's Call. I had started it just for myself and figured I could finish it for myself for card learnin' purposes - I'm starting a different smaller project about Planeswalkers but if anyone really want's me to publish the rest of a 2013 review just drop a comment and I'll work to make that happen. We'll be playing the cards for a year after all : ) 



Magic Core Set 2013

One Woman’s Reaction to the Card Art for Magic 2013

ALL the things ( maybe )

Here’s what I learned doing the Avacyn Art Review: it helped me competitively. I was able to read board states better because looking at the art and all the cards made me take into account cards I had avoided or would not play.

It also became a great bonding experience with other players. I’m not that good at Magic but I’m really good at critique and interpretation, just discussing it and the circumstances around the art helped build a community where higher level players were able to find topics to talk about with me and it broke down some social barriers that were holding me back.  I’m the crazy magic player that does the snarky art reviews. I have a tribal identity now.

Also – art reviews are cool.

I have written an explanation of who I am and why I’m writing, so you can pre-judge my opinions before you read them here: On the first Avacyn Restored White review.

Feel free to read the introductory part and then pop back.

Now let’s talk about Core Sets.

Wizards of the Coast did a whole bunch of things at one time, they introduced Planeswalkers, and realized that they were playing too much inside baseball with the expansions, and created the “New World Order” and created a cludgey but still better than anything they had before Intro computer game Duels of the Plansewalkers, and created a Core Set that tried to get back to the things that made the original Alpha set work. Oh and the Duel Decks and the Deckmaster kit also happened too.

That’s why when any of the WotC folk talk about any one specific thing that improved sales or lowered Barriers to Entry, the actual Operations/Project Manager in me kind of blinks. I know that they can’t actually isolate it because they don’t do follow through numbers, because no one in the toy industry tracks anything past point of sale and while they are interested in retention there has to be a certain level of willingness or ability to find and engage with the community to be able to be identified. They introduced too many things to pin their current success on any one of them and all of them had positives, but the question is whether or not they have long term positivity as they mature.

The Planeswalkers’  stranglehold on the flavor has some positives but a lot of potential long term negatives if the wrong “lessons” are taken from it.

I love WotC but they seem to have some problems with managing the “soft” side of  Magic

This will be my first Core Set.

Here’s the thing that’s right about it – it’s not fancy tricks to make long term players happy, it separates things out from the rabid screaming expert fanbase so that there is a concept of the basic game with the actual idea that YOU are the one casting spells bringing in your resources from multiple planes and the “story” of the Core Set is your story with you as the Planeswalker. Wizards then proceeds to screw that up massively but at least it starts out with you getting to be the one who the story is about.

It’s less about pushing one look/feel so it allows players especially new ones to experience a sampling of all the things magic can be look and feelwise.

They didn’t take out ALL the hard stuff they reasonably keep the complexity at higher levels but the higher levels aren’t targeting the dark desires of experts so they don’t overwhelm things and usually work best in standard by pairing up with the more targeted expansions.

So really, the thing that core set does best is remember what Magic was supposed to be at the beginning, travelling planes, collecting spells and then using them to challenge your nearby Planeswalker friend to a duel.

I’m kinda old school. I don’t see the whole “20 life” thing as kill-you-dead, I see it more like a fencing duel, you’ll live to fight another day – you just ran out of Vancian Magic Energy for this fight before your dueling partner did.

Heck, I even see it as sports practice or study partner kind of stuff. I don’t need to hate you or be at war with you to want to see how my spells that I’m studying stack up against yours. That’s one of the things Pokemon got right and seems to get swept away with the “OH I’M SO SERIOUS AND MATURE” testosterone laden bull that seems to have taken over the game. It’s fun to challenge your friends and test how your training is going, it doesn’t always have to be all life or death. When you get beaten and your pets move on they go to the Pokemon spa and get all better and groomed and come back for the next fight.

Core set lets you play with all the toys but you don’t get nearly as much forced seriousness and someone else’s insecure masculinity or storyline agenda to deal with.  You only get some problematic Planeswalkers tropes and quick, tourist-like visits to historic spots. Like one of those three week All Europe tours you might take your first time overseas to decide the next time you have three weeks free you really liked Prague and you’ll spend a month there next time.

Core set Magic is like the Grand Tour of the planes. All artists and young ladies of breeding are expected to go on the Grand Tour:

Very little would make me happier than an Expansion Set based on Edwardian Political and Brutal Colonization of Indigenous cultures fighting back with magic as long as it used actual Edwardian Clothing. Emil Brack "Planning the Tour" sourced from the wonderful "time to eat the dogs" website http://timetoeatthedogs.com/2008/08/12/the-birth-of-exploration/

So I'm expecting some Art Diversity here, I'm also expecting to see less problematic art because it's an entry level product they are expecting 10-12 year olds to play. - lets see if Core Set Art lives up to my hopes.

Starting, like we did last time with White:

Ajani, Caller of the Pride

First Impression He looks like a pinwheel.  A really sharp pinwheel. 

You can barely tell that he's supposed to be a lion. And he looks a little top heavy, but the double headed double axed twirling baton looks cool.

I'm not sure why a giant lion gives your guy flying? Is it his magic whirlygig power? 

I don't really know what his story is - but I did figure that the pre-gen character trope he fills is cat people and he's the Aslan figure from Narnia. But mostly I suspect he's an excuse to justify drawing some Cat Girls for WotC.

Ajani Sunstriker

First Impression - Hey Cool! Actually cat like cat girl you drew there letting her arm cover up the antrhopomorphic single set of mammary glands preventing her from being over-sexualized, but yet still tropey enough for the "I want to believe" fanboys. 

I think she's a cheeta. I love the turquoise and silver vestments.

So if she's a cleric and she's Ajani's Sunstriker does that mean he's worshipped like a god? ( Aslan?) 

And if lifelink is his gig do I get to do an Aslan/LionKing circle of life mashup?

I think she's a cheetah. 

Angel's Mercy

First Impression: The colors are good but it looks kind of like the top of a trophy. Why are they using this when the one from Avacyn Restored is 

a: so incredibly good

& 

b: going to be legal in standard for as long as 2013 is?

Angelic Benediction

First Impression - OK now this is Awesome and full of awesomeness. 

The angels look like some kind of cross between desert warriors and nuns which is fantastic for an original take on an overwrought overly done subject and refers back to the fact that the monotheistic religions we're referencing were all basically different eras of desert/Mediterranean culture. 

And the composition and color with the diagnoal giving height and the light going down to the darker earth where the battle is happening are really elegant.

These angels are all beautiful perfect bodies and faces without being exploitive or oddly weak or young looking. 

Michael Komarck - I guess I'm going to have to look out for you.

Second Impression: They remind me a little of some of the Avacyn Restored clergy outfits, but no funny hats.

Attended Knight

First Impression - Cute but either she's got the world's most deformed tits, the armorer was wall eyed or she was really, really insecure about being flat chested and had the armorer add on those bolt ons because she saw it in some sort of Hotties in Armor woodcut that her boyfriend was looking at.

What's weird is that the artist absolutely knowns how to draw a feminine character without giant tits but still having short hair because the squire totally looks girly ( waist to hip ratio y'all).

This isn't up there with super creepy focus on tits. It's more like - dude not only did you add them where actual tits have no business being, let alone extending out that far to need their own individual protection, you made them a lighter color and have the light hit them high. They're so distracting I almost didn't notice the medieval porta-potty looking building you painted in the background. 

Second Impression - I love using this card - whoo hoo, yes I do. I wish the little squire girl were her own solider token. 

Really dude, it looks like she's compensatin' for somthin'

Aven Squire

First Impression - I'm an art nerd. This looks like an homage to a Maxfield Parrish sky.

You guys are going to have to trust me on this - none of the Parrish colors are as intense on the web as they are in real life. Seeing his art/painting technique up close is like being a blue player and topdecking Jace the Mindscultper just when you need it. 

But yeah - Aven squire, dynamic, good lines, excellent anatomy and draping, but the cloud work and color composition are what move this up a notch. 

 

Battleflight Eagle 

First Impression: OK it's an eagle. I guess. It looks like it's been hitting the hunting grounds pretty frequently but I guess if it's an eagle and its flying, that it must still be at the right weight. 

I guess I don't want to body shame it or anything.

Captain of the Watch

First Impression: Why yes I will indeed accept your shameless pandering . . .

It's a WOMAN BABY!

I FORGIVE THE TIT ARMOR CAUSE SHE'S ROCKIN' THE 80'S DRAGON COVER BAD ASSNESS with 2013 STYLE!!

Plus she's a useful card, and at least her ridiculous tit cups are where her tits might actually be. I'm beginning to think maybe they all store extra rations or something in them. 

But I don't care. She's joyous and dynamic and looking to lead her troops and kill the other guys and come back with her really awesome hair metal hand worthy helmet.

The Captain up there is awesome compared to the cover she reminded me of from waaay back in the day. She leads, she leads well and her troops follow.

Ladies and gentleman Dragon cover #147. Love the imp, infinitely prefer the modern warrior take and career choices that let you wear pants into battle. I do have to point out that when 80's artists painted large breasted women they at least seemed to have seen actual large breasted women and painted them correctly. This lady leads by subsitituting for a semi-naked masthead. All points go to the Captain!

Captain's Call

And when the Captain tells you to get your ass in gear this happens. 

First impression - this is perfectly good, perfectly serviceable art. It shows the card, there are actually three soldiers for the three tokens it creates, they're the same armor that the troops the captain is commanding in the previous card are wearing so we know they are her soldiers and now we know that the Captain of the Watch is named Rayel Vanger, Firstblade of Thune.

Do I know what Thune is? Hell no, do I want to be on their side? Hell yeah!

RayEL! RayEL! 

Note to Wizards - if I find out they are referencing anyone else besides the Captain in Captain of the Watch I will simply ignore you because you will be wrong. OK? We're good. 

Crusader of Odric

First Impression That hat. I cannot resist, the hat compels me.

No seriously - that looks like one of the official Funny Hats from Innistrad's Ministry of Funny Hats

Which would be really cool because as far as I'm concerned Avacyn Restored dropped the ball in Flavorland telling me way too much ( and then showing me WAY too much) of Garruck and Lilliana's story and we didn't get any cool stories about humans rising up to beat back the monsters, or the resistance pockets that had lost hope to be brought into the light because THEY held in the final hour as opposed to Angels coming in and cleaning up in a jif. 

Aaand could it be . . . YES! that's an Avacyn hat pin she's wearing there - Innstrad's story gets some face time in 2013.

Now later I would find out that there was a whole story

but I got to see it in the art first.

Oh and BTW the art is awesome. Grete here ( click on the link and you'll find out how I know her name now) actually looks like a real person in real space wearing practical clothes ( with the exception of the hat, but you cannot deny the Innistrad Ministry of Funny Hats) and now writing this review I see that it's Michael Komarck. Hmmn didn't I just tell myself to keep a lookout for him?

So far he's 2 for 2.

Divine Verdict

First Impression: Pretty, it looks a little like she's hatching from a sheild egg or some kind of armoured flower thought. 

Still nice. Perfectly scaled for being on a card too. 

Oh she's a squire according to the flavor text. It seems like core sets are very pro-squire.

Divine Verdict

First Impression: "So Boss, do you want me to go with a Sampson reference, or a Lot's Wife kinda thing for resonance?"

"I don't care, get them both if you want but make sure it's yet another dutch tilt angled disintegrating male"

"But you know we could . . ."

"Nope, dutch tilt, disintegration . . . not up for discussion - needs to look like it belongs in Magic, everything else is up to you. "

" . . . "

Erase

First Impression: Don't f*ck with the Disney Fairies. They have Goth days at Disneyworld and aren't going to tolerate your poser shenanigans.

Now just take your mess outa here:

Faiths' Reward

First Impression: Faith's Reward is stabby?

Second Impression: Faith's reward is stabbing the Cthulu like things rising out of the corpses and living to write the flavor text!

Er maybe that's wind, based on said flavor text, 

I got it - Faith's Reward is the glowy target parasite that's glommed on to your chest while you fight.

Maybe it's a symbiote or something, or you're a pod slave and don't know it. 

Ok now I've got it, Faith's reward is coming back without having to be a zombie.

Glorious Charge

First Impression: I can tell there is more going on here than I can see clearly at card art size. 

Maybe it's like desert raiders all got their weapons temporarily enchanted?

It's probably pretty good, but there's a lot of detail lost here.  At least it doesn't look like a generic hominid. I like that there's an actual calvalry or raider style charge happening.

Griffin Protector

Pseudo-Newb's real time learning about Shocklands

Ever wonder why it’s so hard to teach or share information with a newb? It’s because the way most people are reacting to information isn’t the way you’ve gotten used to thinking about it. You’ve forgotten. It’s OK most people do. And newbs never write articles because who would write an article when they suck and are still learning.

I would!

Every person to new to the game brings their own unique background and skills to learning the game, but experienced players absorb background knowledge pretty quickly and don’t know much about adult learning theory. That stuff’s complicated, so instead let me show you how ONE NEWB ( that’s me) tries to make sense out of things that everyone in magic culture seems to know.  If anyone reads this and sees all my impressions, I’d like them to keep in mind that other new players are coming in with other ideas/mistakes/impressions that are just as off base. At the end when I’ve hopefully learned it I’ll show how I’d teach/tell a fellow newb the thing I learned.

If it’s not entertaining at least you can feel intellectually superior.

First Impressions of the Ravnica Guilds:

Oh my God it’s full of Symbols – sooo many symbols . . . .

Wait, is this where the whole Jund, Bant, Grixis slang that keeps getting thrown around comes from? I don’t see anything that looks like that. 

Hey Mark Rosewater is writing an article on the Guilds. Cool this will fix it.

Lesson learned – I can only read three longform Magic articles in the morning before I cannot absorb anymore new information. Unfortunately I read the Selysnia article fourth, realized it was as long as one of my journal posts and all about one guild.  I was suddenly worried that I was too dumb to understand the strategy of this game if I had trouble reading the flavor articles after half a year in. I love flavor. This might be a problem.

Before the Journey – Distracted by Shocklands

Here’s what a I knew before I started the journey. Everyone talks about Ravnica like it was the best thing ever, there were a bunch of Magic the Gathering novels about it and it took place on a giant cityscape – which as a former Brooklyn street rat I should enjoy immensely.  I knew there were guilds but because of the way everyone writes tournament reports I figured they were the whole Jund, Grixis Bant things that I can never keep track of because I don’t know what they mean other than “three colors”.  And I knew that they liked and practically harassed the various public people in Wizards like Aaron Forsythe and Mark Rosewater about “shock lands”.

So those I actually looked up, because they had to be super special right?

They are (in alphabetical order):

▪                Blood Crypt (/)

▪                Breeding Pool (/)

▪                Godless Shrine (/)

▪                Hallowed Fountain (/)

▪                Overgrown Tomb (/)

▪                Sacred Foundry (/)

▪                Steam Vents (/)

▪                Stomping Ground (/)

▪                Temple Garden (/)

▪                Watery Grave (/)

A Real Time Learning Curve – How a Newb Tries to Learn

Ok, I think I’ve got this now – the old Dual Lands from when there was no Pseudo in my Newb are searchable by things that look for Land Types (Basic Lands) even though a card will clearly say something like:

{T}, Sacrifice Evolving Wilds: Search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped.”

So here’s the newb question. Are these so-called Shock Lands “basic lands” or are they somehow not basic lands since here in Newbville they don’t seem basic at all.

All of you sitting there in your moral, experienced superiority, either already know the answer or will tell me to ask my community or internet or something. But experience has taught me not to trust answers like that, because they rarely are explained correctly or leave out the “how” so it sets me up for a humiliating misinterpretation of something else later.

 There’s also the simple fact that I’ve had answers misrepresented before.  In my most charitable moments I simply assume that the misrepresentation was a bad attempt at “jedi mind tricks”.

Here’s how a newb with trust issues checks things before finally collapsing in tears and writing to Cranial Insertion because they seem “safe”.

Phase 1 – Investigation - Look up the specific representative of the card type on Gatherer- OK there’s a little box called rulings at the bottom of Gatherer and it has this to say about Steam Vents:

▪       10/1/2005 Has basic land types, but isn't a basic land. Things that affect basic lands don't affect it.  For example, you can't find it with Civic Wayfinder.

▪       10/1/2005 If another effect (such as Loxodon Gatekeeper's ability) tells you to put lands onto the battlefield tapped, it enters the battlefield tapped whether you pay 2 life or not.

▪       10/1/2005 If multiple permanents with "as enters the battlefield" effects are entering the battlefield at the same time, process those effects one at a time, then put the permanents onto the battlefield all at once. For example, if you're at 3 life and an effect puts two of these onto the battlefield, you can pay 2 life for only one of them, not both

So Evolving Wilds won’t work with Shock Lands because they aren’t basic.

Phase 1 – Result = metacomplexity I’m really confused now, everything I read on the internet seems to indicate that “Shock Lands” are good with “Fetch lands”

I thought that Evolving Wilds would be a Fetch Land because it’s a land that goes to get another land. I’ve been playing and reading articles most of the year. Have I been wrong or missing things the whole time?  As I’m writing this, it’s the first time I’ve even considered any other definition.  So now for the first time I’m going to look it up.

Phase 2 – Secondary Investigation - MtG Wiki is the first hit on a Google Search for Fetch Lands, you can check it out at your leisure:

 http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Fetch_lands

Ok apparently Fetch Lands are a particular thing – They ARE lands that search for other lands but specifically search for Land Types (mountain, island, etc.)

http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/images/a/af/MTG_-_Fetch.jpg

This is what the original ones look like

Phase 2 – crosscheck: I’m going to check with Gatherer just to make sure there aren’t any super secret hidden rules that I don’t know about so I’ll pick Flooded Strand to check for rulings.

OK, no extra rulings.

I think I’m good, but I keep remembering my experience with Islandwalk. It was a big problem for me, and my first experience where everyone told me something slightly different until I learned how to check FAQs to see if my dumb questions were already everyone else’s dumb questions.

Over here is Harbor Serpent: my go-to check to see how Islandwalk works. Islandwalk specifically says this in the rulings:

8/15/2010            Harbor Serpent's abilities care about lands with the land type Island, not necessarily lands named Island.

8/15/2010            The second ability checks how many Islands are on the battlefield (regardless of who controls them) only as attackers are declared. Once Harbor Serpent is declared as an attacker, it will continue to attack even if the number of Islands on the battlefield falls below five.

Learning from past mistakes - I’ve absolutely made the mistake of thinking that if it creates blue mana and it’s a land,  that means that it’s a Land Type Island because of that ruling text from 8/15/2010.

I was wrong, but I never found out from anyone else.

I embarrass myself here so the newb you love in your life won’t have to.  Things that seem simple and clear to people who play regularly  ARE relatively simple and clear but presented in disjointed and contradictory ways. The comprehensive rules are a repository, not a learning tool. The information is not set up connectively.

That was hard for anyone else to correct, because well, Islandwalk doesn’t get played very often, and there weren’t any nearby lands that had land types that would meet the criteria to show me the difference.

Not gonna lie. I might have understood that the words “Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest, Plains”  need to be next to the word “Land –“ on the Card Type line but I was still confused about whether mana color  also indicated land type if it was on a land until just now.

I figured this out because I looked at Drowned CatacombThe rules text that  references a “Shock Land” - Blood Crypt -  as something it will recognize as a “land type swamp.”

10/1/2009

This checks for lands you control with the land type Island or Swamp, not for lands named Island or Swamp. The lands it checks for don't have to be basic lands. For example, if you control Blood Crypt (a nonbasic land with the land types Swamp and Mountain), Drowned Catacomb will enter the battlefield untapped.

That means that if I’ve only got Drowned Catacomb out, Drowned Catacomb won’t recognize another Drowned Catacomb as an island or swamp so it will come in tapped. But it will recognize Blood Crypt. And Drowned Catacomb does not count towards the 5-island total that triggers Harbor Serpent’s Islandwalk.

Ok I can grok* that.

(A note on community and “just play a lot” advice. I’m pretty sure I played Drowned Catacomb incorrectly for a few months and even people “teaching” me in play never caught it to correct me leaving me with the horrible epiphany when I realized it on my own during a match. Initially it was because another player had taught me that the mana symbol means land type on searches, but going uncorrected for so long means either it almost never came up ( possible ) or that I had played it incorrectly and my opponent didn’t read my board state. Admittedly I didn’t play it in tournament. I’m glad I caught myself before I did, but “community” is not a panacea for learning, please be kind to newbs who are struggling with that.)

Phase 2 – Result  "Fetch Lands" as terminology was something I thought was general and could tell from context, but really isn’t and other people might be using it sloppily because they made the same assumptions I did.  It’s possible that the slang will change to match that usage, which will make old articles confusing. This has probably already happened with other Magic Slang.

Ok- what have I learned so far?

▪       Shock Lands are a bunch of Lands that have two types of land each.

▪       Fetch Lands are lands that search for other lands, but Evolving Wilds may not be one because it only searches for Basic Lands.

▪       Land Types are ONLY Land Types if they are on the Card Type Line

What are the questions I still have?

1.   Why is everyone so excited about Shock Lands coming back, they don’t look THAT much better or worse than other dual lands that have been in Standard?

Shock Lands require you to either pay two life or they enter they battlefield tapped.  And Fetch Lands allow you to get a basic land type if you sacrifice it and pay one life. So theoretically, you’re told that it costs 3 life and 2 cards to get out a usable dual land in a single turn. I think I can see why it’s really popular for Commander where you start with 40 life and the cost means nothing serious but is it really that good in Standard or anywhere else that it’s worth being so obsessed with it that it’s pretty much the only thing I’ve heard about since Return to Ravnica was announced?

2.     Are there a lot of cards in Standard at the moment that search for Land Type?

Well, the second one I can answer for myself. 

Using this search criteria in text I got this result

Search Criteria

▪                x Text:

                                    x DOES contain search

                                    x DOES contain for

                                    x DOES contain island

                                    x OR contains swamp

                                    x OR contains plains

                                    x OR contains forest

                                    x OR contains mountain

▪                x Format:

x OR contains "standard"

        

Farseek  (2)

Sorcery

Search your library for a Plains, Island, Swamp, or Mountain card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.

           

Gem of Becoming  (3)

Artifact: Sacrifice Gem of Becoming: Search your library for an Island card, a Swamp card, and a Mountain card. Reveal those cards and put them into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

So there are only two Standard Legal Fetch Style Thingies that take advantage of the Shock Lands.

Now I have a new question – if your Farseek goes and gets your Steam Vents does it allow you to pay your life to untap it or does the Farseek ability resolve higher up in the stack?  I don’t have to guess or track slowly like I did in December, I have Magic Playing Twitter friends now! I can ask the internet, actually I’ll ask Twitter which is like the Internet’s friendlier cousin.

12:27 the question tweets without preamble

10/1/2005 If another effect (such as Loxodon Gatekeeper's ability) tells you to put lands onto the battlefield tapped, it enters the battlefield tapped whether you pay 2 life or not.

Hey, wait a minute. I’d posted that myself, here in this very document. Its up at the beginning.

That, boys and girls is what the side effect of complexity creep is.

The wording of the ruling is tied to a card name I don’t know, and there’s no way for me to associate it it when I’m 3 learning objectives away from seeing how it’s relevant.

I’m no closer to understanding anything about Ravnica, or picking a guild but at least I know what the Shock Lands are and what they really do. But I’m at information overload and need to stop or I’m going to make bad decisions or misprocess something new.

Takeaway –

This is the way I would now teach a fellow Newb about Shock Lands:

There are dual lands that match each of the color pairs in Ravnica Guilds, but when they come into play  they come in tapped unless you pay two life and then they can come in untapped like a regular land.

The regular basic lands let you use them right away. But if a special land does something cool, there usually has to be a drawback. So for these lands the drawback is “wait a turn to use it or get damaged”.

The reason they’re called “Shock” is because of the life cost.

Magic Players love insider jargon alot, so they put some insider jargon in their jargon. There’s a spell called “Shock” that damages a player for 2 life. That spell isn't currently in Standard so it's just slang but it also has the regular English wordplay going for it.

The other thing that makes Shock Lands important is because it has the type of Land it is right on the Card Type line. That’s important.

If the card type line DOESN’T say “Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain or Forest” on that line right under the art box then it’s not really any of those land types. No matter what anyone else tells you.

Shock Lands have more than one of those; they’re "Island Swamps" so they’re both of those things. That makes them different than old dual lands which made colored mana but really weren’t any special kind of Land Type.  Shock Lands let you cast spells that interact with those things.

One card that can always be looked at as two things always makes Magic Players super happy because of card advantage stuff they’re always writing about, but have trouble explaining.

So that’s the important part for now.  Shock Lands let the expert players do some things really fast, but let every player use more cards even though they’re just lands. Just be careful and go slow. Even if we use them for basic stuff to start with I’m sure we’ll be OK and figure out the big deal later.

Now we still have to figure out what the heck the guilds are and how to pick them.

*****

Note *You don’t know what “grok” means because it’s insider SF lit fan terminology? (Or old hippie’s terminology). Welcome to my world when I try to read MTG articles anywhere.

Actually, if you all storm the comments section to tell me how you do too know what grok is you’ll make me cry tears of hope and joy.

Otherwise I’ll share, we’re all friends here. Here’s a link:

It’s a real word in the dictionary: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grok

And the Wiki article on Grok isn’t bad either http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok