Born of the Gods - New Mechanics

The plane of Theros has been thrown into chaos by the ascension to godhood of the satyr Planeswalker Xenagos. Gods and mortals are pitted against each other, and terrifying monsters stalk the land. Will you stand with the heroes, or draw inspiration from the gods?

Inspired

Creatures with inspired abilities represent the divine inspiration that comes from the world of dreams.

A creature's inspired ability triggers every time the creature becomes untapped. That's normally at the start of your turn, but an inspired ability triggers no matter how or when the creature untaps. The simplest way to get these creatures tapped is to attack with them, but this set also contains many cards that let you tap your creatures in other ways.

If multiple inspired abilities you control go on the stack at the same time, you get to decide in what order to put them on the stack. (The last one you add to the stack will resolve first, as usual.) Inspired abilities that trigger during the untap step are all put onto the stack as the upkeep step begins, at the same time as "at the beginning of your upkeep" triggers. You put your inspired triggers and upkeep triggers on the stack all at once, in any order you wish.

Tribute

A creature with a tribute ability offers your opponent a grim choice: either it becomes even larger, or it does something nasty to your opponent when it enters the battlefield. These effects include destroying permanents, dealing damage to your opponent, and fighting opposing creatures.

As Pharagax Giant enters the battlefield, you choose an opponent. That opponent then decides whether to "pay tribute" by having Pharagax Giant enter the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it. If he or she does, then that's it—you've got a bigger Giant. If he or she decides not to pay tribute, then Pharagax Giant's enters-the-battlefield ability will trigger instead. Either way, it's good for you—and in the meantime, you get to watch your opponent sweat.

Nyx and Bestow

The gods of Theros dwell in Nyx, a starry realm visible as the night sky of Theros. The gods and their servants are infused with the power and majesty of Nyx. Enchantment creatures in theTheros block all have a unique card frame that shows the starfield of Nyx.

The Nyx frame doesn't have any rules associated with it. It's just a reminder that these creatures are also enchantments. Other enchantments in Born of the Gods use the regular card frame.

Many enchantment creatures in Born of the Gods have the bestow keyword.

A creature with bestow gives you the option to cast it as an Aura that enchants a creature, granting that creature its power, toughness, and abilities.

When a card with bestow is in your hand, you have two options: cast it normally for its mana cost, or cast it for its bestow cost. If you cast a bestow card normally, it's an enchantment creature spell that resolves and becomes an enchantment creature on the battlefield. Its bestow ability and its "Enchanted creature gets..." text are ignored.

If you cast a card for its bestow cost, it's not a creature spell. Spells like Essence Scatter that can target only a creature spell can't target it. Instead, it's an Aura spell with enchant creature, so you have to target a creature to cast it. It can be countered by spells like Negate that target only noncreature spells. If the target creature has a heroic ability, the Aura spell with bestow will trigger it, just as any other Aura spell would. Cards with bestow are always enchantments, whether they're Auras or creatures.

If the target creature leaves the battlefield after you cast a card with bestow as an Aura but before the spell resolves, the Aura spell will resolve as an enchantment creature rather than being countered like a normal Aura spell. If the target creature is still on the battlefield when the Aura spell resolves, it resolves as an Aura enchanting that creature.

While it's enchanting a creature, an Aura with bestow grants the creature the bonuses listed in its text box. If the creature it's enchanting leaves the battlefield for any reason, the Aura immediately becomes an enchantment creature again rather than being put in the graveyard like other Auras.

Some bestow cards have abilities that do different things depending on whether the permanent with bestow is currently an Aura.

Everflame Eidolon's ability checks when it resolves to see what should get +1/+0—either Everflame Eidolon or the creature it's enchanting, whichever one is a creature at the time. This means that if you activate the ability while Everflame Eidolon is an Aura, but Everflame Eidolon is a creature by the time the ability resolves (say, because the enchanted creature has left the battlefield), Everflame Eidolon will get the bonus.

Devotion

The gods of Theros grant their favors to those whose devotion is great enough.

Your devotion to a color is the number of mana symbols of that color in the mana costs of permanents you control. There are cards that count devotion to each of the five colors, and they have many different effects based on that devotion. Some examples:
A permanent that costs adds one to your devotion to black.
A permanent that costs adds three to your devotion to red.
A permanent that costs adds one to your devotion to green and one to your devotion to white.

Devotion counts only mana symbols in your permanents' mana costs—the cost in the upper right corner of the card. Mana symbols in text boxes, such as activation costs or the big mana symbols on basic lands, do not count toward your devotion. Only colored mana symbols count; it doesn't matter how much a permanent costs to cast, just how much colored mana. A permanent that looks at your devotion to a color counts the mana symbols in its own cost.

Because Skyreaping isn't a permanent, its own mana cost doesn't count toward your devotion. If you don't control any permanents with green mana symbols in their mana costs as Skyreaping resolves, it won't deal any damage.

Gods

Five gods appear on cards in Born of the Gods as legendary enchantment creatures with the creature type God. Where the Theros Gods were monocolored, each God in Born of the Gods is two colors. A two-color God manifests as a creature on the battlefield once your devotion to its colors is high enough.

Your devotion to white and blue is the total number of mana symbols that are white or blue among the mana costs of permanents you control. So, if you control permanents with mana costs of , , and , your devotion to white and blue is five.

Hybrid mana symbols such as count toward both their colors but aren't counted twice.

Like the Theros Gods, each of the Born of the Gods Gods has indestructible, and each one is a creature only if you have enough devotion to its colors. If a God enters the battlefield while your devotion to its colors is less than the required number (counting its own mana symbols, as usual), abilities that trigger when a creature enters the battlefield won't trigger. If a God on the battlefield is a creature and your devotion to its colors drops below the required number, it immediately stops being a creature. A God can't attack the turn it enters the battlefield unless it has haste, even if it wasn't a creature as it entered the battlefield.

Gods are always legendary enchantments, and their abilities work whether they're creatures or not. Ephara triggers at the beginning of each upkeep, regardless of your current devotion to white and blue.

Heroic

A creature with a heroic ability gives you powerful benefits every time you cast a spell that targets it.

A heroic ability triggers whenever you cast any spell that targets the heroic creature, including a spell that also targets another creature. If a spell targets multiple creatures with heroic abilities, all of them trigger. Activated abilities, such as equip, do not cause heroic abilities to trigger, nor do triggered abilities such as the enters-the-battlefield ability of Breaching Hippocamp.

An instant or sorcery spell has a target if it includes the word "target" in its rules text. Each Aura spell also has a target, indicated by its enchant ability. Creature spells and other permanent spells (except for Auras) never have targets.

A heroic ability triggers only when the creature's controller casts a spell that targets it, not when any other player does.

Scry 

The scry mechanic lets you manipulate your destiny.

Scry is a keyword action that always has a number associated with it. To scry, look at that many cards from the top of your library, put as many of them as you want on the bottom of your library, and leave the rest on top in any order you choose. When you scry 1, that translates to looking at the top card of your library and deciding whether you want it on the top of your library or the bottom. When you scry 2 or more, you have more options.

"Archetypes"

Born of the Gods contains a cycle of five enchantment creatures, one of each color, called Archetypes.

Each Archetype has two abilities: one that grants a keyword ability to all of your creatures, including itself, and one that makes your opponents' creatures lose that same keyword.

That first ability is straightforward—all your creatures have flying. The second ability is worded so that it doesn't matter how or when your opponent's creatures would have or gain flying. Whether they have flying printed on them, gained flying before your Archetype of Imagination entered the battlefield, try to gain it after your Archetype of Imagination entered the battlefield, or are being granted flying continuously (say, by another Archetype of Imagination), they can't have flying for any reason while you control Archetype of Imagination.

This means that if two players each control Archetype of Imagination, none of their creatures have flying.

Avacyn New Mechanics

I know that many of you are already talking about the new mechanics for Avacyn Restored, but if any of teh newer players a not familiar with what to expect with the new set the have a look the Wizards website for details.

Also to keep up to date on the cards as details are released then have a look at the card gallery!

Gary of Team Gambit

Avacyn Restored Previews

Wizards have unveiled a few cards from Avacyn Restored at the PAX East panel.

First up is Silverblade Paladin, a Human Knight with the new mechanic Soulbond:

White is set to be the colour with the most emphasis in this set as its all about the Humans fighting back against the forces of the night. With Avacyn's return, angels are instilled with new valour and will feature heavily:

Of course Demons are still present on Innistrad:

Demonlord of Ashmouth also reveals that the Undying mechanic from Dark Ascension will appear in the set.

Another new mechanic previewed is Miracle.

That's all for now but stay tuned to the daily mtg site as 'official' previews begin tomorrow.

The biggest preview of the day however; was this:

After months of speculation it appears that Ravnica will be the large block release for October when Scars of Mirrodin rotates out of Standard.

John of Team Gambit

Dark Ascension Mechanics

With the prerelease events only days away here is a summary of the new mechanics:

Undying

Undying is a new keyword in Dark Ascension that lets creatures come back from the grave stronger than ever.

When your undying creature with no +1/+1 counters on it dies, you'll return it to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. An undying creature that has one or more +1/+1 counters on it when it dies stays in the graveyard as normal.
It doesn't matter where the +1/+1 counters came from, or whether a creature has already come back with a counter on it; all that matters is where the counters are when it dies. If your undying creature gets a +1/+1 counter on it (say, from Travel Preparations) and then dies, it won't come back, even if that's the first time it died. On the flip side, if you can get that +1/+1 counter off of an undying creature somehow after it comes back, it'll come back yet again the next time it dies. Undying indeed!
If a creature ever has +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters on it, the two kinds of counters immediately "cancel out," one for one, until only one kind of counter remains. For example, a creature with three +1/+1 counters and two -1/-1 counters would end up with one +1/+1 counter. There's a twist, though: If a creature with +1/+1 counters on it gets enough -1/-1 counters to kill it, it dies before the two counters have the chance to cancel out. For example, if your Strangleroot Geist with a +1/+1 counter on it got three -1/-1 counters from Skinrender's "enters the battlefield" ability, the Geist would die with one +1/+1 counter and three -1/-1 counters and wouldn't return to the battlefield.

Fateful Hour

They say the night is darkest just before the dawn, and the new fateful hour ability word in Dark Ascension takes that philosophy to heart.

Fateful hour abilities work as long as you have 5 life or less. As soon as your life total drops to 5 or less, they immediately kick in. So you could pay some life to an Immolating Souleater in the middle of combat to suddenly give your team a boost with Thraben Doomsayer. As soon as your life total becomes 6 or higher, fateful hour abilities stop working—so gaining life with Thraben Doomsayer on the table might cause your creatures to get smaller in the middle of a turn.
Other fateful hour abilities may be triggered abilities, static abilities, or abilities that change what an instant or sorcery spell does.

Also back are curses, flashback, morbid and double sided cards. Remember that if you wish to use double sided cards you can either use one of these:

or buy some sleeves, either on the day or bring your own, you will need at least 40! Packs of 50 will be on sale for £2.50 in various colours at both events!

*** If you want to come to the Shoreham event then you need to get you ticket soon, there are only 4 spaces left! ***

Gary of Team Gambit

The Wizards are coming!!!!

Morning all, just thought I would let you know of a great opportunity that has come our way! We are proud to announce that Amar from Wizards of the Coast is coming to our Shoreham store at 10am this Saturday (tomorrow!). He will be here for about 6 hours to demonstrate the game to new players, but he is also here to discuss Magic the Gathering events, tactics, deck ideas and anything that you want to ask. He has loads of experience of the game and is a pro-tour player in his own right!
So if you got a few minutes to discuss MTG this Saturday then why not pop along!

Gary of Team Gambit
PS (Store address is 57 High Street, Shoreham By Sea, West Sussex, BN43 5DE)

5 GO-LEM TOKENS!...

4 Birds of Paradise, 3 Cards are Pondered, 2 of the same Legend (oh no!) and a Cat Boy with a response

As the winter nights are drawing in, it's cold out and the wind is blowing. The League is falling down and we're getting some new faces though our hallowed halls. Sounds like it's time to resurrect the...

Oh yes, here we go again. The format is my own creation, a format thought up to include everyone, however much Magic you own, standard, legacy... it doesn't matter. It's name is ' The Fantasy Booster'.
The idea is based loosely on the booster bash idea; Buy a booster, add 3 land of each basic type, shuffle and play, except this time you decide exactly what cards make up your booster.
These cards can be from any set, pre-made deck or expansion you wish. Maybe 1 from Worldwake, 1 Eldrazi, 1 Scars, 1 M11, 1 Alara Reborn, 1 Morningtide, 1 Original Mirrodin, 1 Ravnica etc.
Your limitations are the amount of cards from each rarity. A normal booster will include 10 Commons, 3 Uncommons and 1 Rare/Mythic Rare
You may also include 1 Shiny card of any rarity, but only 1. If you have a Shiny Garruk, Primal Hunter, he may only be your Shiny card, he may not take the position of the Mythic.

With the release of Innistrad, we have a slight conundrum on what to do with Transform cards within this format. I have decided that if you wish to include any transform cards it should follow the restrictions of an Innistrad booster, in which a double sided (transformer) card would take one of the 10 common spots, it may be any rarity.

So to conclude the concept; 3 of each basic land (there is land for loan at Kids Dreams) 10 Commons (or 9 and a Transformer of any rarity), 3 Uncommons, 1 Rare/Mythic Rare and 1 additional shiny card from any rarity if you wish, this is an optional extra.

The date for this event will be Tuesday the 13th of December at Kids Dreams, Boundary Road Hove. It is a free to attend event and all (adults) are welcome to participate. Prizes will be addressed between now and then :D


So, idea over now for some....ideas

I've been concocting this idea for quite some time now and have come up with a few hints and tips that could address any problems or indeed help to fuel your own 'Fantasy Booster'.

1- I am planning on staying clear of any card that costs 3 or more of any specific colour. As land is going to be such a mix, it will be hard to cast any such cards.

2- If point one is ignored I will include at least 1 Terramorphic Expanse, Panorama or Evolving wild(s), to help fix my mana issue.

3- I will not be making a Booster entirely within one colour, unless I am including one of the above mana helping lands.

4- As land is going to make up a vast percentage of the eventual deck I may include cards with 'Landfall' effects. I may as well use the land for something.

5- 'Phyrexian Mana'. If the appropriate land is not available, life can be.

6- Colourless spells, anything that is not colour specific will be so much easier to cast.

Well I think that's everything I need to say. I'll be posting this on the forums and on the facebook, so if there are any thoughts feel free to blurt them out in either or indeed this direction.

Once more I've been Olly for GGUK
Happy Brewing

(p.s I've done a pretty thorough job of linking to appropriate pages, so if any links don't work please let me know. They are meant to show all exactly what I'm talking about.)

Combo Corner in a Darker Standard

I've been putting this article of for a little while. I love to find little ways of making mechanics work for me (and you) but wanted to see if you guys would think of the same things as me, but I can't wait any longer.

So, the number one card that jumped out at me when the set was spoiled (at least for exploiting)...
Yep, 'Parallel Lives', What an awesome card, with so many uses, for example....



Those are just a fraction of the cards that produce tokens in standard at the moment. Those of you that know me will already realise that I don't normally shrink my options to standard legal cards when I build decks but there are to many token generators to list (or picture). Also I want to show some stupid things that are do-able in this tiny amount of cards.

(Unfortunatly Gather may be needed to read some of the detail as Blogger have changed how you enlarge pictures)

My first idea is as follows...
I've purposely left the final result blank just to see what you guys think will happen.

Secondly, moving away from tokens I came up with this as an idea to get around the costly trigger of 'Ludevic's Test Subject'...
It's still a little clunky but it's potentially a quicker and more responsive way to transform him, rather than giving your opponent the time to remove him.

Thirdly, how to make the most of the 'Wooden Stake', if only you could make sure your opponent had Vampires...
Forth, how to help play your own spells whilst avoiding that pesky Werewolf trigger?...
Lastly but no means least-ly, do you want to cast 'Army of the Damned' for free? Yeah you do...
Well, I hope that's fueled your creative fires, hopefully the darkness will be forced to recede under your revitalised passion and I'll see you next time,

Olly, GGUK

Pre Pre-Release

Olly here on the eve before the Prerelease of M12. Just thought I'd quickly put up the changes and additional mechanics that we will be faced with at 10am tomorrow morn (in the Whistle Stop Pub, by Portslade Station).

Firstly a simple one, they are changing "When [this card] is put into the graveyard from the battlefield" into "When [this card] dies" not a drastic issue but it's worth mentioning.

Next is "Hexproof". This is again a replacment phrase for "Can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control". Mostly a green feature in the past, on such cards as Troll Asectis and Asceticism, in fact if you search for Asceticism on Gatherer the discription has been updated to include "Hexproof" - http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=false&multiverseid=215082.

Third is a re-hash of an oldy, "Bloodthirst". It's a mechanic found on creatures that provides additional +1/+1 counters, and this is how it works. "Bloodthirst X" means "If an opponent was dealt damage this turn, this creature enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it." The 'X' on your cards will be replaced with 1 or 2 or 3...

And lastly the return of Planeswalkers. Never really far out of view, some have been re-writen and revamped but either way there will be some found somewhere tomorrow, so it is probably worth me explaining how they work and how to kill them.
A planeswalker counts as a spell (whilst being cast) and a permanent (whilst on the battlefield), so it can be targeted by spells that address these card types/ things.
They do not have power and toughness, but do have a sort of life in 'Loyalty Counters'. Each 'walker will say how much life they start with in the bottom right corner. They have abilities that add or subtract counters from this 'Life'. Abilities that subtract life can only be used if they have at least that many counters on them. If an opponent has a 'walker, you can choose to attack it/him/her instead of your opponent, but the opposing player can choose to block as normal. Unblocked damage done to a 'walker results in that many loyalty counters being removed. Similarly if I had 'Shock' (a red instant that deals direct damage to target creature or player) I can choose to target my opponent, but on it's resolve I can change my target to a 'walker. I don't wish to tell you why I can (because it's long and really complicated) just know that it can be done. This would again lead to damage and lose of counters and hopefully a dead expensive card.

Ok, I think that covers everything, if not well, talk to me tomorrow morning. See you there printed card based gaming fans.

Olly for GGUK out

Exchecking out the Chancellors

As promised here is the blog covering the Chancellor cycle.
Each colour has its own chancellor, a powerful member of the Phyrexian hierarchy. Each are 7 mana creatures that can have an impact on the game before it's even begun. For example:


Normally, you wouldn't want a 7 mana creature in your opening hand. Chancellor of the Dross, however, can put you onto 23 life and your opponent on 17 before the game even gets going and that's if you've only got one opponent!

So what happens if both players have chancellors or one player takes a mulligan?
I win the roll and opt to play first. I then take my opening hand of 7 cards, two of which are:





















I don't reveal it yet, however, because my opponent may wish to mulligan. They look at their opening hand which contains another chancellor but decide it isn't worth keeping. If a player mulligans, the hand they initially drew does not count as their opening hand and therefore the Chancellor is not revealed.

My opponent then draws a new hand of 6 cards, which they keep. As I'm the active player, I reveal my two chancellors in the order of my choosing (in this case I would reveal Spires last). Both abilities go on the stack with the last revealed on top.
Then my opponent reveals:

As Chancellor of the Forge was revealed last, its ability will go on the stack and resolve first.

1. My opponent gets a 1/1 red Goblin creature token with haste in my upkeep step as it is the first upkeep of the game

2. Chancellor of the Spires ability resolves and my opponent puts the top seven cards of their library into their graveyard

3. The ability from Chancellor of the Annex resolves resulting in a static effect which means the first spell my opponent casts is cancelled unless they pay 1 mana

I hope this has helped clarify any issues which arose from this cycle of cards.

JoTG