I'm Mike, from The Mana Pool.

I first learned to play around the release of Ice Age (1995-ish) and was strongly involved with playing casually and at local events until early 2020, when I had to back off for obvious reasons. I got back into playing a little bit in 2022 with a few prereleases and casual meet-ups here and there and I still enjoy keeping up with Magic news and new sets.

As a general rule, my deckbuilding is influenced far more than it should be by what I think would be "interesting/fun/funny" instead of what's probably the better choice of cards. The friend who first taught me how to play had a very strong philosophy of "Not every card is good, but pretty much any card can be made good" and the casual groups I spent the most time playing with over the years were always keen on figuring out how to make effective game plans from odd ideas. It was all immensely fun and it's still a big influence on my approach to the game.

I also tend to design and build strictly from my existing collection. If there's a good card for a deck that I don't have in a list, there's a good chance I don't own any, but please suggest it anyway so that maybe I'll remember to go out and find it.

I was a DCI-certified Rules Advisor under older versions of the Magic Judge program and I still keep up with new mechanics and rules changes. I'm the "rules guy" of my casual play group and I like to hang out in the Rules Q&A area here on Tapped Out. If you notice a mistake in one of my responses, don't be shy about pointing it out because above all else, I want whatever question I'm responding to to be answered correctly!

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Yes, if you stack the triggers correctly. When the original Gary ETBs, both it and the Diviner will trigger. You want to put the Diviner trigger on top so it resolves first and makes the token copy. Since Gary's trigger isn't written specifically to use information from the moment it triggered, it will get information about your devotion to black at the time it resolves, so both Gary triggers will see 8 devotion in your example (as long as no one has responded with any removal).

January 21, 2026 11:40 a.m.

The AI summary results you found were incorrect. With the way a Large Language Model (LLM) works, it's essentially doing a highly sophisticated autocomplete for a discussion about your topic. LLM responses are most reliable on topics with a lot of content represented in the training data. In this case, I get the feeling not enough has been written about effects that give a player "protection from opponents" for the LLM approach to give an accurate answer. It likely gave you results that were based on a combination of what's been written about protection in general as well as things written specifically about True-Name Nemesis, which would have had a lot more content built up over the years than Absolute Virtue has at this point.

January 19, 2026 9:30 a.m.

It doesn't deal damage again. With the way the rules about the combat phase are written, the first strike damage step is for creatures with first strike and double strike and the regular damage step is for creatures with double strike and any creatures who didn't have first strike or double strike in the earlier damage step. In your examples the first-striking creatures already did their thing in the first strike damage step, so they won't be considered again during the regular damage step.

510.4. If at least one attacking or blocking creature has first strike (see rule 702.7) or double strike (see rule 702.4) as the combat damage step begins, the only creatures that assign combat damage in that step are those with first strike or double strike. After that step, instead of proceeding to the end of combat step, the phase gets a second combat damage step. The only creatures that assign combat damage in that step are the remaining attackers and blockers that had neither first strike nor double strike as the first combat damage step began, as well as the remaining attackers and blockers that currently have double strike. After that step, the phase proceeds to the end of combat step.

January 15, 2026 12:01 p.m.

No, Grievous Wound won't trigger. Being dealt damage almost always results in losing life but damage and life loss aren't the same thing. Effects that care about damage being dealt don't interact with effects that make someone lose life directly without specifically dealing them damage. Consider that if damage and life loss were treated as the same thing, then Grievous Wound would trigger off itself endlessly if the enchanted player lost life for any reason.

January 13, 2026 12:42 p.m.

Said on Gitrog & Kura?...

#5

wilsonthenarc: An answer to your question has been up for a while. Since there don't seem to be any follow-ups or corrections that need to be made, I marked it as the "Accepted answer" so this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future, you can take care of this yourself using the "Mark as Answer" button on the response that you feel is the most helpful answer to your question.

January 6, 2026 12:14 p.m.

matthias84222: An answer to your question has been up for a while. Since there don't seem to be any follow-ups or corrections that need to be made, I marked it as the "Accepted answer" so this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future, you can take care of this yourself using the "Mark as Answer" button on the response that you feel is the most helpful answer to your question.

January 6, 2026 12:14 p.m.

theNeroTurtle: Since it's clear you got a satisfactory answer to your question and there don't seem to be any follow-ups or corrections that need to be made, I marked it as the "Accepted answer" so this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future you can take care of this yourself using the "Mark as Answer" button on the response that you feel is the most helpful answer to your question.

January 5, 2026 9:07 a.m.

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Finished Decks 107
Prototype Decks 8
Drafts 2
Playing since Ice Age
Points 396
Avg. deck rating 10.65
T/O Rank 30
Helper Rank 82
Cards suggested / good suggestions 59 / 46
Venues Lucky's Card Shop, The Toy Factory
Cards Added/Fixed 10
Joined 15 years