Gideon's Sacrifice

Instant

Choose a creature or planeswalker you control. All damage that would be dealt this turn to you and permanents you control is dealt to the chosen permanent instead (if it's still on the battlefield).

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (40)

plakjekaas on Why is Mark Rosewater so …

2 months ago

This conversation so far in my head (skipping the parts that weren't about the story):

-MaRo says we can't, but why couldn't we have a card that removes poison counters from players?

• you've asked this before. Also, this is not the flu we're curing, the story doesn't allow this to be cured.

• but wait, we have healed planeswalkers in the story right now, so it can't be true that the story doesn't allow for it.

• Melira is a Macguffin and a one time sacrifice, that can't happen again.

• That doesn't mean her story actions can't be on a card; Here's an example of a one time sacrifice that saved another planeswalker that made it to be a card ( Gideon's Sacrifice ) Here's an example of how cards are used in game that weren't meant to be used that way, storywise (The Gitrog Monster in a Heart of Kiran) Here's an example of Wizards printing cards about events that happened in the past (Eldrazi Titans that should be ash or moon). These factors combined; the story does not forbid a card to be printed that would cure poison counters.

• you don't understand what a macguffin is.

• I know what a macguffin is, Here's several macguffins that made it to be magic cards.

• Melira is a one time thing and it can't happen again.

• Yes, but that doesn't mean her last act can't be on a card.

• You just hate poison, admit it.

• ... dude what?

• you don't know what I feel. what do you want?

• for you to read the actual words I type, and not scold me for the words you put in my mouth. I'm making the case that: the canon story did allow a planeswalker to be cured from compleation, so the story does not disallow the card described in the original question to be printed no matter how stupid I was called for suggesting it.

Melira does not remove poison counters, Leeches does not picture Melira's act of curing compleation, and your very adamant argument of:

The blessing of Glistening oil and Phyresis was never cured, only enhanced.

Was directly disproven by:

Even at the end of the story arc no one was "cured" of phyresis without making the ultimate sacrifice.

In the very same post.

You both say it can't be cured, and that it wàs cured in the same post, and you can't seem to admit that those statements are mutually exclusive, making your entire argument andv every following post shaky.

So what I really want, I guess, is for you to admit you were wrong. You're biting my head off for agreeing with almost everything you say about the story, apart from the one fact that phyresis can't be cured; while it was in fact cured, you even said so yourself.

plakjekaas on Why is Mark Rosewater so …

2 months ago

Dammit, I had a long text lined up that didn't make it to post. Key notes:

I don't want to be forbidden from guestimating a mood by someone who ended their last remarks with: "Admit it, you just want the mechanic removed from the game - just because you dont like it."

I want everyone to read the actual words I type before calling me out. How does "Melira is a McGuffin" explain anything about how canon story could be pictured as a playable card?

And I really want to know how my Gideon's Sacrifice is not a perfect analog for how they could print a card that could cure poison counters ingame. That one has been conveniently left out of every answer that tried to disagree with me.

Maybe the leap from the original question to "if they would print a card that does this, how could it fit without breaking the story?" was not described explicitly enough, that's how was missed what point I was arguing?

I also would like to be treated better by strangers on the Internet, but I know that's a long shot :P

plakjekaas on Why is Mark Rosewater so …

2 months ago

For dragonmaster:

The literal quote of my post:

"But by healing several planeswalkers from compleation in the story, the precedent was set that that's a thing that happened, and therefore can happen."

Go and read it back if you think I'd edit my own words to try to convince you.

That's just me infering a truth using logic. A fly was swatted by a newspaper, so flies can be killed by newspapers. A planeswalker got their compleation cured, so planeswalkers can be cured from compleation. There's no circumstances involved yet, 'A' happened, so 'A' is a thing that can happen. That's how far you were supposed to read into it.

You tell me something cannot happen. I show you it did happen. Confronted with this result, you are unable to change your mind, and adjust to "it can't happen again" and tell me I'm intentionally obtuse for proving you wrong.

This is not me gaslighting you.

This is you trying to make me question my intentions and my truth after I disagreed with you about something. That's you unable to bear being wrong, and instead change most about your argument and misquoting me so you can be right.

Textbook example of you gaslighting me. You were wrong to accuse me of it, I would not have brought it up if you hadn't been so intentionally obtuse to me.

For Mortlocke:

I already described how I don't need another functional Melira in the story so we can have a new sacrifice to cure poison. The one that actually happened is fine. Gideon will also never exist again, made a major final sacrifice to save another planeswalker, and Gideon's Sacrifice has no trouble being a card.

The Soul Stone is a McGuffin in the Infinity War saga. They still had not the slightest trouble to turn it into a card.

I'm not invested in a cure for poison, I'm presented with facts that contain inconsistencies. I don't know why pointing them out makes you so mad.

For both:

So now that we've gathered that Ajani was compleated in the Dominaria United story, and is no longer compleated with the story of Lorwyn Eclipsed, we can infer the logical truth that his compleation has been cured. Therefor, curing compleation is something that can happen. Because it has happened. Doesn't need to happen again for that to be true.

So just like Gideon can give his life and his indestructible magic to Liliana to defy Bolas in the war of the spark, and be eternalized as Gideon's Sacrifice on a card, if Wizards would have wanted to mechanically remove poison counters ingame, they could have designed a card that refers to Ajani's curing of the compleation to make it happen.

That's the point I'm trying to make. And you all tell me I'm wrong and misunderstanding the plot, but nobody seems to be able to tell me what is actually wrong in my words, and instead accuse me of intentionally misrepresenting the facts or misunderstanding plot devices.

Argue back to me with logic, instead of just ad hominem. You disliking me for disagreeing with you does not make me wrong, and saying I don't understand it does not take the truth out of the words I actually write.

You both look very insecure with your accusations and anger and lack of actual arguments that show how I'm actually wrong instead of just disagreeing with you.

plakjekaas on Why is Mark Rosewater so …

2 months ago

@dragonmaster420 no, I did not. What I (literally) said is:

It happened, so it's something that can happen.

You dreamt up the "again" part and fight me over it, while it's literally not what I said.

That's the bad faith I accuse you of. You refuse to read, you just wanna fight me, and I have to call you out in public for it because you blocked me and I can't post this on your wall, where it belongs.

You still haven't told me why Melira's Sacrifice couldn't be a card like Gideon's Sacrifice is.

plakjekaas on Why is Mark Rosewater so …

3 months ago

Guys really. I'm not asking for more Meliras to be sacrificed, I just think the described sacrifice you all throw in my face as a compelling argument, could be represented on a card.

Like The Kenriths' Royal Funeral. It's a thing that happened only once. It has a card representing it anyway. I don't need the Kenriths to die every time Eldraine is mentioned in a set, they died once, and there's a card that represents it.

You can do the same for the single occurence where Melira sacrificed her life to cure Ajani. It will most likely be a bad and flavorful card for the bracket 1 decks, not a competitively viable superanswer.

But the fact that "how did this compleated planeswalker get uncompleated?" Is a question that has an answer, that is not known to any but the most Vorthos forefighters of the lore... that's probably because there is no card representing this. I know Gideon sacrificed himself for Liliana, because I can see that on Gideon's Sacrifice. I know Kiora Bests the Sea God. I know Sorin had to destroy his masterpiece planar defender and wasn't happy about it, because I opened Anguished Unmaking in a prerelease. The Decompleation of Ajani could be an equally important story moment represented on a card.

The answer to why it's not, has been given multiple times, even by me already in a previous post, even by the title of this thread. MaRo, and therefor Wizards, doesn't want it to be possible. Making their story inconsistent with their gameplay. Because even with the plethora of sets that describe the phyrexian takeover, we also have Lorwyn Eclipsed with a healthy Ajani that takes place àfter Ajani, Sleeper Agent. You can call it a McGuffin all you like, but it has real implications to future stories, and I think you are dismissing her sacrifice more by referencing it in this discussion than I do by not knowing beforehand, but wanting it eternalized on a card now.

plakjekaas on Why is Mark Rosewater so …

3 months ago

The Gitrog example was for something that can happen in play that it was not designed to do by story.

Like Melira's sacrifice healing the planeswalker the player represents, instead of the ones the story chose. How that would not violate the principles of how story moment cards are designed to be used versus what they actually can do.

Now defy the Gideon's Sacrifice example. That's one that would be similar to how a Melira's Sacrifice card would fit in the game.

plakjekaas on Why is Mark Rosewater so …

3 months ago

I'm not asking for it to happen again. Make a Melira's Sacrifice card, if that's the only way the story can rectify it. There's no need to explain in two posts that it can't happen again, when clearly, it did happen. If there's a way to tell it in the story, there's a way to picture it on a card, I'm sure.

I've put The Gitrog Monster in a Heart of Kiran, there's no way the lore ever accounted for that. But by healing several planeswalkers from compleation in the story, the precedent was set that that's a thing that happened, and therefore can happen. I'm not forbidden from playing Gideon's Sacrifice now that he's canonically dead. There's no reason to not put the magic that was actually performed into your cardgame about magic spells, no matter how specifically you try to rectify what happened can't happen again.

They printed a new set of Eldrazi Titans while they should currently be busy being a great pile of ash or a moon. "It happened in the past and can't happen again" is no reason not to put the story moment on a card, outside of "We just don't want it to happen" which is not a side you can argue against. The best thing you can do after that, is point out the flaws in their own reasoning for why, and that's what I'm doing.

Make it a Legendary Sorcery that requires you to sacrifice a Legendary Creature named Melira as an additional cost, if portraying the story right is what you care about. But don't say it can't happen, and then keep printing new planeswalkers that have been compleated in the past, showing that it can and did happen.

ShieldOfHolyShadows on Eye for an Eye Damage Reflection

2 years ago

Hello! Dropping in from the Redirection hub where I have a very similar list. One recommendation that I would make is that while you're running a lot of the Valor Made Real blocking effects, you're not running effects like Gideon's Sacrifice, Saving Grace, Martyrdom, or Channel Harm. Obviously some are better than others, but those effects are way more flexible than block-buffing cards because they can save you from more effects. Fun list though!