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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Said on Win or Lose?...

#1

Weaver_Salazar: Answers to your question have been up for a while. Since there don't seem to be any more follow-ups or corrections that need to be made, I marked one of them 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.

December 30, 2025 1:49 p.m.

Said on How do I …...

#2

FYI I have re-selected the "Accepted answer" based on the correction to the Lion's Eye Diamond question.

December 30, 2025 1:47 p.m.

In both cases Sol Ring will be a 2/2 with its own abilities plus haste given by earthbending.

Normally when multiple effects would modify an object's characteristics, they get applied in timestamp order. But if one of the effects would impact what the other effect would do to the object or whether it would apply at all, then the other effect is said to be "dependent" on the first one, which is said to be "independent" of the second. The independent effect is always applied first, then the dependent one, if it even still applies. In this case, the fact that Titania's Song only affects noncreature artifacts makes it dependent on earthbending.

This one was tricky. I had a whole different response typed out before I realized right at the end what was really important.

December 22, 2025 2:05 p.m.

Said on If I make …...

#4

ContraMundi: 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.

I try to avoid marking my own responses when I do this, but in this case it was the only option.

December 22, 2025 1:43 p.m.

Said on What happens if …...

#5

ContraMundi: Answers 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 one of them 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.

December 22, 2025 1:42 p.m.

Said on What happens if …...

#6

ContraMundi: 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.

I try to avoid marking my own responses when I do this, but in this case it was the only option.

December 22, 2025 1:42 p.m.

ContraMundi: Answers 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 one of them 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.

December 22, 2025 1:41 p.m.

Said on Win or Lose?...

#8

You win because the SBAs get processed first. Triggers generated during the resolution of a spell/ability are put onto the stack the next time a player would get priority, but SBAs are checked and executed right before each time a player would get priority. All the "win the game" SBAs created by Jace's and/or Maniac's replacement effects will be dealt with before the Crawler's triggers are put onto the stack.

December 18, 2025 11:42 a.m.

Said on ContraMundi...

#9

Hey, good questions in the Rules Q&A area. For all the ones where you feel like you've gotten a satisfactory answer, remember to mark the response that you feel is the most helpful answer to your question. I usually go through and do this myself for ones that are either getting old or where the OP has made a clear response that they're good, but since there are several and it's not clear they're all 100% answered I'm going to let you take care of them.

December 15, 2025 10:45 a.m.

Polaris: The copy effect of Clever Impersonator is applied in layer 1 but the name, type, and ability-changing effects of the Princess Yue reanimation ability are applied in later layers. The Impersonators will all end up as Moon-ified versions of whatever they're copying.

And the reanimation effect doesn't make them legendary. That reminder text on Princess Yue is a reminder that the reanimation effect doesn't change her supertype.

December 15, 2025 10:39 a.m. Edited.

It will be named Moon but it won't be legendary. The ability from Princess Yue that brings it back only changes the name to Moon, sets the type to land, and gives the mana ability. It doesn't add the legendary supertype. The "It's still legendary" reminder text on Princess Yue is a reminder that for the Princess, herself, the type-changing effect of the ability only changes her card types, not her supertype.

December 15, 2025 10:32 a.m. Edited.

Thank you Neotrup, I didn't think that through all the way.

December 15, 2025 10:25 a.m.

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5-Color

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Finished Decks 107
Prototype Decks 8
Drafts 2
Playing since Ice Age
Points 323
Avg. deck rating 10.65
T/O Rank 31
Helper Rank 87
Cards suggested / good suggestions 59 / 46
Venues Lucky's Card Shop, The Toy Factory
Cards Added/Fixed 10
Joined 15 years