Wyrmhero

Evolutionary Leap is a very strong card, based off the utterly broken Survival of the Fittest. The trick isn't to rely on the sacrifice getting you a better creature, but to chain leave-the-battlefield or come-into-play effects for a strong series of plays. Thragtusk, for instance, works quite well with it. It's also useful on the defensive, as you can sacrifice blockers and creatures targeted by your opponent's spells. Alternatively, as you suggested earlier, Spren, cheap creatures can be used to apply pressure early on and then used as fodder. A Green/Black deck could also work well with it if you have something re-usable, such as Reassembling Skeleton. ...Hm, starting to wish I'd grabbed a copy myself recently . It's not a good idea to built around Primeval Bounty in a deck due to the cost outside of EDH, but it's not even a good build-around in EDH. That's not solely due to the power level, however, but simply because it's a bit vulnerable (removal is a key part of EDH) and you only get one copy of it. It's a very good include, but as an enabler to a strategy amongst many rather than a central piece. I had one in Kresh, The Bloodbraided, making use of the +1/+1 counters and the tokens it produces in multiple ways (as the deck is based on both counters and tokens and sacrifice effects). I suppose a one-of could be of use though in a standard 60-card deck, but I'd still lean towards heavily creature-based over any other type.

Primeval Bounty is the epitome of 'win-more' as a card. It is expensive, has no immediate effect, and rewards you for playing cards. It's effects may help you stabilise over time, but not if you are already dying to your opponent's board. What this means is that it doesn't fit in every deck, and finding a home for it can be very difficult. I had a copy in my Land deck, once upon a time, before moving it into my EDH deck, and then removing it for a trade. It works best in EDH, in my opinion, where high CMC spells are more viable. The issue with ramp is that there are better things to ramp in to, particularly when it's relatively easy to deal with due to Naturalise. It works best really in Monogreen outside of EDH, ideally with a heavy creature count (as that is the best mode it has). The counters part is nice, but requires you to have a developed board, and the life gain is negligible and a top-up effect more than anything. Other than that though, I couldn't really say. It is a versatile and powerful card, but doesn't advance any one strategy more than others. Maybe try it out in a few places, and if it seems too slow or doesn't really do enough, swap it with something more focused.

Turn 4 "So..." The High Prelan of the Canton of Resource leaned over the desk, staring at Thales Heron. He gave a small grin, though Thales wasn't sure whether it was meant to be comforting or not. "Let's hear it then. We have a number of applicants we are considering that may join us, so I would like to hear your reason. Why do you want to join the Canton of Resource, specifically? I hope it's not to help your House out..." "I am aware that I would have to renounce my House," Thales replied. "It is, in fact, against their wishes that I am here." "Hm? Interesting. But that doesn't answer my question. Why become an Obligator?" He asked, tapping the tattoos around his eyes. "These markings are for life, recall. For that matter, why with the Canton of Resource, instead of any of the other branches of the Steel Ministry?" Thales thought for a moment before responding. "If a task is of note, then there is no point in doing it to anything less than an exceptional degree, wouldn't you say?" "And you believe that you could provide that exceptional level of quality?" The High Prelan seemed amused. "Either you are being honest, or you are being cocky. I think it's the latter. Why should I believe it's the former instead?" Thales frowned. "You are aware of House Heron's affiliations, and how Tremredare has been governed so far. I believe that shows that House Heron has at least more than a passing acquaintance with the flow of gold." "From what I've heard, the Heron heir is more interested in making pretty pictures than in the financing of a city. I see no reason to assume differently with you." This time, Thales scowled, though he disguised it as quickly as he could. "Art is meaningless and frivolous. There is no... truth... to it. The only reality in art is what you want to see in it." "I presume then that you did not undertake an apprenticeship as your brother did." "I preferred to study real things, things of worth. Numbers, and their movement. The flow of wealth, from creation to usage. The logistics of feeding the skaa of Tremredare without expensive wastage. These are all tangible quantities which are the same no matter the angle you look at them from, not malleable concepts which may be argued over. Kyrus Heron may return to study under our father after his apprenticeship, but only after several years wasted on the study of glass. I did not wish to spend my time in that manner." He paused briefly. "There is only worth in real things," he repeated, almost a mantra to himself. The High Prelan nodded slowly and made a few notes on a sheet of paper before him. "I see..." He muttered. "But speaking of waste - Even taking that into account, House Heron does not exactly treat skaa badly, do they?" he asked, dancing the accusation a little. Even for him, it would be fairly serious to accuse a House of being on rather friendly terms with skaa. "We feed them the amount we have decided would get the most out of them," Thales replied, looking the Obligator in the eyes as to challenge him to say otherwise. "House Heron is not a House of skaa-lovers, like House Penrod. The Herons have never taught them or given them favoured positions in our staff. They merely avoid pointlessly antagonising them." "Hm," more note-taking. "You already refer to them as if you were not connected." "There is no point in my doing otherwise, High Prelan, if I wish to disassociate myself with them in this manner." The High Prelan smiled a bit. "True," he said. He thought a bit, and then his smile widened. "I think you will do rather well here..." Generation 3, Turn 4 has begun! It will end at 6PM BST on the 29th of August. At this point, I will be calling a hiatus for about a month. I will try and post the writeup and information as soon as I can after that. I would like to aim to restart on the 3rd of October. Regardless of when this starts up again, I will send PMs out a week before we restart to see if you are still able to play. In the meantime, I would quite like it if you guys could give some feedback on the game so far in the set-up thread. This game is as much playtesting as roleplaying, so I'd like to see what you think works and what doesn't work. For the sake of explaining it to everyone now: I will be overhauling Stewardships a little at the re-start of the game, or at least the Governor aspect of it. I will give a snapshot of the city each Generation or when a player obtains one, similar to the ones you get for your House. Cities will then compete against each other on various levels to see how relatively prosperous they are, and that will determine their profitability. This may also have an effect on the game on a global level as well. House Elariel has decided to host a trades event! Players may, without using an action, decide to show off a sample of their wares at the event. You may use Tier 2 Goods which are created this Turn, and they may still be sold or used afterwards - Essentially the sample you provide is too small to make a dent in their usage elsewhere. Similar to the Allomantic Games of last Generation, additional Goods will provide you more chances to win, but the uniqueness of your Good is also a factor in determining your score. The decreased purchasing cost in Lansing has finished. House Izenry is now providing a 1 Wealth discount to the first four Houses each Turn to build in Urteau. As a reminder, at the end of this Turn, your Houses and Skaa will automatically consume one Tier 2 Food and one Tier 2 Luxury. Generation 3 Player List PMs will be sent out shortly.

Right, that's the end of the Turn. Stay tuned for the writeup, coming up after these messages... HttFE is brought to you by Heron IndustriesTM: Now with 20% less evil! and 20% more trolling!

Thinking about it, the only card we've seen it on is a 3 CMC 3/2. In limited, that's already disappointingly playable. It's colourless, which adds synergies and is unlikely to remove them. It has another ability which can let it hit a player for 2 on ETB. Already we're looking at a fairly solid common here, so I don't think we're actually paying for Ingest.

I reckon all the rare Eldrazi are going to have Exile-based effects, and the common and uncommon ones set up for them. I don't like that idea though, because it seems really dependant on the combo, so I don't know... I would hope there are some 'self-contained' Eldrazi though, I think that's the only way it could be useful. Ingest only ever exiles one card though. So it's not got much of an effect in a vacuum. Will be interesting to see how much Eldrazi cards interact with Delved cards though.

I like hitting people with my lands (as I posted my land deck earlier ), but I just feel it's... dull. It's a mechanic solely built around limited and providing value with excess lands. Obviously you're not meant to use it when you're low on lands, but it's still just less than exciting. If there's a decent card or two with Awaken I might pick them up, but not solely for that effect. Devoid is interesting because it shows the direction they're going with colourless cards. I agree with it; it's a good way to make fair 'colourless' spells, even if they still have a colour identity. As I said, Ingest is just a combo mechanic. It does nothing on its own (aside from maybe screwing with your opponent's Scry effects), but it seems like it will require bigger Eldrazi to do things with your opponents' cards. Just have to wait and see on that, though I dislike building mechanics solely for combo potential.

So, pretty important announcement: I will be calling a halt to the game temporarily at the end of the Generation, on the 30th. Basically, I've become employed, which brings with it a whole host of issues, not least of which is relocation. While I'm obviously not sure how long it will take me to find a place, I am hopeful that it will be resolved as soon as possible, particularly with how expensive that's going to be. But I digress. I would provisionally like the game to restart on the 4th of October.

I'm not too sure what to think about it. Dominator Drone is just all over the place, for example. I don't really like any of the abilities they've revealed. Devoid is a sensible way to do colourless things, but I'm not sure if it needs a mechanic if it's going to have rulestext on all the more common (and thus coloured) Eldrazi. Ingest... No. It's very, very low impact, and entirely dependant on comboing it with other things. Dominator Drone, in a perfect world, exiles five cards from your opponent's library before killing them. That's barely even worth considering, and it's worthless as mill (not that it's intended to enable mill, mind you). If it was at least Ingest X, it would be interesting. Awaken is a very complicated (and poorly worded, I would say) ability. I don't get why they didn't make it an additional cost rather than an alternative cost. I'm really unsure as to how much design space there is there. I am somewhat disappointed that it's not Jund Eldrazi in the deck as well. Awakening Zone would have been a good include, as well as more Eldrazi rather than generic 'sacrifice' effects. The other side is a bit all over the place too - Landfall and Level Up and Allies with barely any Ally effects? Hmm. I am also disappointed they included Rocky Tar Pits instead of a decent dual-land. They could have done a Bloodstained Mire or Lavaclaw, even if it wouldn't quite fit. The vast majority of cards reprinted in the duel deck have had a very recent reprinting. Some very nice ones at the price, sure, but... Bah, I just hate Wizard's reprint policy . I'm quite fond of Shared Animosity as well - I keep meaning to pick a copy up for my monored Elementals. Conspire cards are also rather good with tokens.

Obelisk and DoD fulfill slightly different functions, in my opinion. Both are very good cards, but shine in different circumstances. Obelisk of Urd (I do hate the nonsensical name >>) is mostly good for token decks and aggro decks, because it gives an immediate boost and can come down much earlier thanks to Convoke - Turn 1 Goblin, turn 2 Dragon Fodder, turn 3 Obelisk of Urd, for example. Convoke also gives a nice bit of flexibility with casting. DoD is better for decks where you are playing a lot of creature spells of the correct type, and can make use of the slower plan. It takes roughly until turn 6 to get the same bonus out of it - and that's assuming you play creature spells the next two turns, which may not happen if you topdeck it late game. So really, it's a question of the speed of your deck and the number of creature spells you have in it of the right type.

I'm not really sure what I think about FTV: A. There are some very nice Angels in there (Iona, Akromas, Avacyn, Entreat, Baneslayer and Jenara), but there are also some rather more junk ones. And Exalted Angel's just a weird one to add. I think at least it's one that's hopefully going to remain somewhat near the suggested price, even with Avacyn and Baneslayer, considering. ...Or not, as I'm looking it up. £80 on Magic Madhouse when it has a price of $35... Well, I guess I'm never going to buy an FTV set then . I might grab both Akromas to replace the non-foil one in my Morph deck and to slot into my Angels, but my Angel deck already has Platinum Angel, Entreat and Avacyn. But then, I'm not playing Magic much at all right now, so it's nowhere near as urgent (if that's the right word) to do that anyway.

Turn 3 In a tavern in Luthadel, two gentlemen sat before a roaring fire, glass in hand. An unseen mechanism tripped behind the fireplace, and metal powder dropped in from above, changing it to a brilliant red flame. A skaa stood off to the side, dressed in a smart suit, with a half-full bottle of wine in his hand. "Have you heard the rumours?" Lord Artorius asked, reclining back in his chair. He swirled the glass of wine around a little. "It's quite interesting, you know, what you pick up in a place like this." "Now which rumours would these be?" Votir asked, leaning forward in turn. "Perhaps you are talking about the tunnels the skaa are supposedly using to enter and leave the city illegally? Or the rumours that there is a man claiming to be The Lord Ruler's son in Urteau? Or perhaps even the ones that cast doubt on your parentage. I'm quite fond of that last one." Doran scowled at him. "There is no truth to that rumour. Do you really wish to say you believe such rumours, here and to my face?" He thought about it. "No, there is no rumour, is there? Such a thing is dangerous to suggest, Votir." "Then perhaps you had better tell me exactly what you mean before such a rumour gets spread, hm?" Votir Zerrung smiled at Lord Artorius. He thrust his wine glass into the hands of the attending skaa, who refilled it for him and passed it back to his hands. More powder dropped into the fire, bathing the room in a green glow. "They say..." Doran paused and gave the attendant a sign of dismissal. No need for the hired help to hear about this, after all. When the man had left, he continued. "They say that the Farrsolin skaa are revolting." "Of course they are. Skaa are base creatures with no idea of how to dress or even how to keep themselves clean. They are covered in dirt and infested with all manner of things." Lord Artorius gave an exasperated sigh, which quickly changed into another scowl when he saw Lord Zerrung's smirk. Bastard. "You know what I mean," he said snappishly. "Supposedly they have been stealing from him." "That is the rumour," Lord Zerrung nodded vaguely. "Is there any truth to it? And is there any more of this wine?" "Who knows? If it is repeated enough, perhaps it will become the truth," Doran shrugged. When Zerrung tapped on the side of his glass, he sighed. "No, there is not. I'm sure you've heard rumours of a fire at the Urbain distillery, as well. It has... interrupted supplies." "Such a shame," Votir sighed. "Perhaps I will have to frequent another tavern instead. Or maybe I will just take my complaints up with Glam, next time I see her." There was a knock on the door. It opened to reveal Lord Vinid, who nodded to them both and sat down in a third chair before the fire. A new bottle of wine was opened, and a glass filled in his hand. The skaa disappeared quickly at Lord Artorius' orders. "Cladent!" Lord Zerrung said with a smile, when they were once more without servants. "I don't suppose you could shed some light on this matter?" The glass paused on the way to Lord Vinid's lips. "What matter would this be?" he asked, before taking a sip. "The matter of Lord Farrsolin's skaa, and their potential uprising," Lord Artorius explained. "We were wondering if there were any truths to these rumours. Considering the latest announcement from the Steel Ministry regarding your promotion, we thought you would be best placed to answer our questions." Lord Vinid shrugged. "I have had no official request to step in from Lord Farrsolin. My understanding is that measures will be put in place to deal with it soon." "Well, good," Lord Zerrung sat back in his chair. "Be a shame if the idea spread, after all. Ambition is a dangerous thing for skaa to have." "Hopefully it will be dealt with swiftly," Lord Artorius nodded. "And if not, well... I'm sure the sight of koloss will bring a swift end to their rebellion." "I would rather it not come to that," Cladent said. "Koloss tend to be somewhat... indiscriminate... when it comes to a fight. There would be considerable collateral damage." "But if it comes to that...?" Lord Zerrung asked, letting the words hang on the air briefly. "If it comes to that," Lord Vinid replied, tilting the glass back and draining it. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket to dab at his mouth. "If it comes to that," he repeated as he stowed it away again in his suit pocket, "then there is little choice in the matter. A swift, brutal end would be best for all concerned. At the very least, it will serve as a lesson." "Yes," Lord Artorius nodded, "But to whom?" Lord Vinid just smiled grimly. Generation 3, Turn 3 has begun! It will end at 6PM BST on the 22th of August. Remember that you can look at all public information in the spreadsheet in my signature. I am ending any and all 'recruitment drives' now. It's just too strong to be able to get a boost in MP at such a cheap cost (i.e, not factoring Upkeep into things). Pair of requests: Firstly, please name your children. Secondly, if you want to cancel a public action, it'd be handy if you edit it somehow to show that, such as a strikethrough. House Heatherlocke has put together funds to encourage building construction-related Properties in Lansing City. The next four other players who build there will receive a 1 Wealth discount on that building. Generation 3 Player List PMs will be sent out shortly.

Ah, got you. I've never seen any gold-bordered cards, come to think of it. Then again, I've only seen four or five Un-cards as well. Magic rarely cares about names. In the vast majority of games, the only time the name matters (aside from the 4-of rule in deck construction) is for checking Legendary creatures. And outside of Un-sets, there are no Magic cards which care about a 'part' of the name, like in Yu-Gi-Oh. I'd be cautious here, you can very easily overspend without needing it. Budget options exist and may be just as useful, if not better. If no-one else uses tokens or counters, get Primal Vigor (though this only works for +1/+1 counters, rather than all counters). If you only care about tokens, get Parallel Lives. If you only care about +1/+1 counters, might be better off with Hardened Scales. Only get Doubling Season if you make use of both aspects, and if other people would use them as well if you used a global effect. And Privileged Position isn't necessarily the best either - Ascetism does the same in monogreen for your Creatures, but costs less and allows you to regenerate your Creatures. Or just ramp into Archetype of Endurance for the same effect on a body.

My word, doesn't 25 years fly by? The Turn is over. The writeup will be going up this time tomorrow. The hype is real.

Yup, if it's got 'Creature - Minotaur' or anything similar to that or has 'Changeling' as an ability, it will trigger the Door. If you're looking at Minotaur tribal, and are playing with any cards, might be worth looking at Didgeridoo, which is an old card which allows you to put Minotaurs into play from your hand at any time for 3 Mana, regardless of how much they would usually cost. Homelands was a terribly underpowered set, but some of the cards are hilarious . Note that putting them directly into play like this would not trigger the Door, though. Why not white-bordered cards, out of interest? They're legal in tournaments (and played a lot, for that matter, in Legacy/Vintage), and there are some that are even legal in modern. It just means 'Core Set 9th edition and before'. I personally think they look ugly and don't use them, but I'm curious as to why your playgroup doesn't allow them.

Because I know someone's going to ask, if you have multiple public Actions in one Turn, and one is Try for an Heir, that doesn't count towards the once-per-Generation limit. Just under six hours to end of the Turn.

We cater to all types here

Glad you are enjoying it! Are you thinking of signing up for Generation 4? To answer your question, its complicated and technically a bit of both. While in-game your children become the next leaders of your House, in theory there is meant to be a hundred year gap between them. Ignoring that makes things a lot easier. If we were doing all Generations, this would take 4 years, so probably a good thing we are not

It would allow you to play Aura spells whenever, yes, but it would also cause problems with the fact that un-attached Auras go straight to the graveyard before effects trigger. You could prevent that happening with a change to the rules, but then you have the issue of Auras that become unattached (or Auras with no valid targets) remaining in play. Auras also have a premium on card space, so any extra rules will massively impact how it looks. All in all, we do have to agree to disagree here. Cone of Flame is a pretty amusing multi-target spell; 1 damage to a creature/player, 2 to another, and 3 to a third. Bear in mind though that all three must be valid targets. My suggestion would be to load it with things like Willbreaker, Battlemage Thaumaturge, Curse of the Swine, Comet Storm, stuff like that.

Just combine Willbender and stuff like Twin Bolt or Electrolyse instead? Anything with multiple targets works. Though questionable as to just how effective it is compared to normal counter-burn strategies.

'Target' is a word with very specific meaning in Magic. No creatures are immune to board-wipes (except Indestructibles in most cases and usually Norin the Wary ). Hexproof/Shroud means the permanent cannot be selected as a target for a spell while it is in play. Boardwipes, such as Wrath of God, do not ever use the word 'target', and thus are not able to dodge it. Archetype of Endurance has no effect on creature spells. Hexproof does not stop a creature being countered, neither does Protection for that matter. Hexproof only has an effect when it's in play. You could counter a burn spell or something in that way, but you'll need to look elsewhere for countering counter Creature spells - Such as Gaea's Herald. My favourite way though is probably Gutteral Response - A red or green spell (hybrid mana!) which literally just counters blue instant spells (or counterspells, mainly ). Again, same here with Illusions as with the first part. You need to have the word 'target' in the spell or ability for it to be a target. A spell only targets if it says target in the text or rules (such as the rules for Auras on cast, or Equip effects).

Point of order, if you bring an Aura (or anything, for that matter) direct from hand, library, graveyard or exile to play, it's never a spell. Cards only become spells while they're on the stack, which is when their targeting restrictions come into play. Doesn't matter what permanent it is, you can always put it into play, while if it targets something on cast, you may not be able to cast it all the time. There are very few ways to interact with Hexproof creatures (and indeed, many are overpowered to ridiculous levels), and the only real way to interact with them is to board-wipe and the like. Edicts work as well, but only if your opponent has one creature, which is often not the case.

Thing is that doing it like that would require extra ruling only for Auras, and they already have a lot of rulings to make them exist. Personally, I think the ruling's good, because there has to be some counterplay for Hexproof stuff (one of my least favourite mechanics...). Not that it comes up all that often, to be fair. You are correct. Auras continually check whenever state-based effects go off to see if what it is enchanting is still valid by the Enchant ~ line. Likewise, Equipment do the same to check that they are still equipped to a creature. For that matter, the solitary Fortification checks that the fortified permenant is a land. And then if the creature gains Protection from anything it is attached to, they drop off automatically (DEBT).

The Aura still has to have a valid target. The bit that specifies the 'valid target' is in the 'Enchant Creature' section of the Aura. Aura spells only target on cast, by the very nature of how an Aura works (and by how equipping works, on resolution rather than continual checking). If it was not true, then if a creature became Shrouded after being Enchanted, the Aura would drop off. This way solves far more problems than it causes.

When you say 'Invest'...? (for reference, price history). It's pretty much impossible to say what sort of decks will exist post-rotation here. It's likely Standard will swing towards higher mana costs due to Eldrazi and Land-based format. Ugin will probably see play in that enviroment, I would say, unless decks change dramatically. He's also a Mythic Rare and a Planeswalker, and sees play in Modern. So his price is likely to stay high for a while. The question here though is whether it gets higher, and that's debatable considering his cost. People won't want a full playset in their deck when he costs 8. He'll decrease quite a bit when he rotates out, for that matter. After that, he'll be out of print and start to climb again. We're also in the middle of the Pro Tour season, which pushes the price up a bit. If you're looking at him for Standard, I'd suggest waiting for the duel deck and seeing what new mechanic Zendikar has, and some of the new cards. If they lean towards a ramp-ish game, then it suggests Standard will be slower and high cost things will see play. I'd also judge it based on how prominent he is in Standard right now. If no decks are playing him, then he is likely to be cheaper. ...But really, despite thinking of it like that, I couldn't tell you. Speculating on the prices of cards is very difficult, and particularly when they're already at a high price.