Island

Basic Land — Island

: Gain .

Discussion (42)

Yesterday on How do staggered infinite loops …

2 days ago

This is a game rules question that I'm intentionally posting here because, after the ~15 hour downtime, the preview in the Rules Q&A section is showing no line breaks or text formatting and this is a pretty long post. If a mod could move it over please, I'd appreciate it.

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I want to make sure I'm understanding correctly.

From MTG Tournament Rules

4.4 Loop

A loop is a form of tournament shortcut that involves detailing a sequence of actions to be repeated and then performing a number of iterations of that sequence. The loop actions must be identical in each iteration and cannot include conditional actions ("If this, then that".)

...

If two or more players are involved in maintaining a loop within a turn, each player in turn order chooses a number of iterations to perform. The game advances through the lowest number of iterations chosen and the player who chose that number receives priority.

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So, Player 1 is the active player and controls a Spirit Mirror . Player 2 is the nonactive player and controls a Conspiracy naming Reflection, and a Frenetic Efreet .

Player 1 wants to destroy the Efreet before Player 2 gets the chance to resolve the Efreet's ability to potentially save itself. Both players can activate their abilities in response to the other player activating theirs, and wishes to keep on doing so. The modus is on the active player to not continue the loop. In this case, Player 2 gets a chance to save the Efreet before Player 1 can destroy it. Assuming we wait until Player 2's turn, if the same loop were to play out, then Player 1 (the nonactive player) would be able to destroy the Efreet before Player 2 gets the chance to save it.

Is this right?

Likewise, say Player 1 is has infinite damage in the form of an artifact that reads ": This permanent deals 1 damage to any target." And Player 2 has an artifact with ": You gain 1 life."

As long as Player 1 is the active player, they can't win the game. But when Player 2 becomes the active player, Player 1 can win the game because Player 2 is forced to decide how many iterations of the loop they're committing to before Player 1 does, and thusly 1 damage will get through when the loop resolves (and then it can be restarted)?

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And if I'm all correct so far, then let's assume that Player 1 instead has a more realistic infinite damage combo in the form of Experiment Kraj , Argothian Elder with a +1/+1 counter, Ashaya, Soul of the Wild , Pemmin's Aura enchanting Kraj, Island , Prodigal Sorcerer with a +1/+1 counter. (Tap Kraj using the Elder's ability to untap Kraj and an Island, tap Kraj to deal 1 damage to any target, pay the Island's to untap Kraj with the Aura.)

Player 2 still controls the nonsense artifact with ": You gain 1 life."

In this case, regardless of who the active player is, Player 1 is unable to win the game as, in the shortcutting of the loop, Player 2 is able to activate the lifegain ability as many times as they choose in response to any of the three steps that form Player 1's combo that only deals 1 damage.

Is this all correct?

Pellaeon on Customized Sneak Attack

2 days ago

Newest changes.

Out: Murder , Island , Swamp , Lazav, Dimir Mastermind , Faerie Vandal , Whispersteel Dagger

In: Pongify , Sword of the Animist , Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire , Ghostly Pilferer , Deathcult Rogue , Distant Melody

Yesterday on None

3 days ago

Player 1 is the active player and controls a Spirit Mirror . Player 2 is the nonactive player and controls a Conspiracy naming Reflection, and a Frenetic Efreet .

Player 1 wants to destroy the Efreet before Player 2 gets the chance to resolve the Efreet's ability to potentially save itself. Both players can activate their abilities in response to the other player activating theirs. This is a staggered infinite, which is only an infinite because it reaches the same game state* as long as neither player chooses do anything different. As I understand it, the rules specify that this can't result in a draw like with uninterruptable infinites, and that the modus is on the active player to not continue the loop. In this case, Player 2 gets a chance to phase out the Efreet before Player 1 can destroy it. Assuming we wait until Player 2's turn, if the same combo were to play out, then Player 1 (the nonactive player) would be able to destroy the Efreet before Player 2 gets the chance to save it.

At least, that's what I remember reading one time in a post dated from several years ago that I can't find. Firstly, is this still correct?

*Also, I'm confused about what exactly defines the "same game state" in a combo. It's not exactly the same, because each set of activations would result in the same outcome except that now the game has an additional set of abilities on the stack to resolve.

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Now let's assume Player 1 is has an infinite damage combo assembled with Experiment Kraj and, uh... Argothian Elder with a +1/+1 counter, Ashaya, Soul of the Wild , Pemmin's Aura enchanting Kraj, Island , Prodigal Sorcerer with a +1/+1 counter. Player 1 can deal an indefinite amount of damage to any number of targets, 1 at a time. (Tap Kraj using the Elder's ability to untap Kraj and an Island, tap Kraj to deal 1 damage to any target, pay the Island's to untap Kraj with the Aura.)

Player 2 somehow has an artifact that just reads ": You gain 1 life."

Assuming I'm correct in the first example, then if Player 1 is the active player in this example, then Player 2 is able to survive until their turn (in a 2-player game) regardless. But then if Player 2 is the active player, then they're the one who has to choose to not gain life in response to taking lethal damage?

As with the first example, I'm confused with if and how this qualifies as a repeated game state (as Player 2 could gain 1 life in response to taking the first instance of damage, then 200 for the next, then 5000, etc.).

Also in this second example, Player 2 as the active player is able to gain an arbitrarily large amount of life in response to each one of the three individual steps that Player 1 has to take in order to deal 1 damage to Player 2. Player 2 can literally gain 99999 life in response to taking 1 damage from Player 1. Does this somehow... change it? IDK. It seems preposterous to me that Player 2 would be forced to lose in that game state.

nathanielhebert on Walls of Ire

1 week ago

The efficient land cards are what make this set more expensive, but the sturdy defender deck can afford to slow things down with cheaper mana alternatives. On the plus side, the guild-gates at our disposal look like we're building up more walls, and the scry from the various Temple of Mystery 's helps to put the combo pieces we need into our hands.

A slimmer version:

1x Botanical Sanctum , 3x Temple of Mystery

1x Fortified Village , 3x Temple of Plenty

1x Glacial Fortress , 2x Temple of Enlightenment

1x Hallowed Fountain , 3x Azorius Guildgate

1x Wooded Bastion , 3x Selesnya Guildgate

1x Island 1x Forest

Argy on Jeskai Dragon Control

2 weeks ago

This seems as though it is Izzet, not Jeskai.

It also feels slightly more like an Artifact deck, than a Dragon deck.

Although a lot of the spells reference Dragons, you only have six Dragons in the Mainboard.

This makes me think that there would be a lot of times where you don't have any in hand, to take advantage of some of your spells.

26 lands feels a little too many. I would ditch an Island or a Mountain

How do you want this deck to win? Through beat down?

If so, moving Glorybringer to the Mainboard might be a good idea.

Or other spells that can help you draw better, like Search for Azcanta  ^Flip (which also assists Dig Through Time )

Try to work out what exactly you want this deck to do. It feels a little unfocused, right now.

At this stage it is:

• Artifacts matter

• Scry and draw

• Play Dragons or show from hand

• Board wipe the Opponent

These are all good things but, they are pulling this deck in all different directions.

You can't be sure you will be able to do any one thing, when you most need to.

king-saproling on Pokemon EDH

3 weeks ago

4/16/2021 Update - completed Command Tower depicting the Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town. I also uploaded images of the energy cards that I'll be using for Forest , Island , and Swamp . There's a lot to say about the lands so prepare for the long rant that follows:

As you can probably tell from the Command Tower alter, I printed a screenshot from the TV show to use for the art. I decided to use printed images from the video games, show and movies and glue those to perfect-fit sleeves rather than alter the lands themselves. I'm doing this for a few reasons. One, some of these lands are expensive and I don't want to butcher their value with my horrible art "skills". Two, I'm not about to drop $1000+ on commissions for painted alters. Perhaps some day I'll try my hand at these and commission out the pricier lands, but for now I just wanted the lands to be on-theme without messing them up.

That said, I did paint the borders of the perfect-fit sleeve, which is WAY harder than painting on the card itself. For regular alters I was using scotch tape to protect the unpainted part of the card while painting the borders. This proved to be too adhesive when used on sleeves. Pulling off the tape pulled the paint along with it since the paint doesn't stick very well to the glossy plastic sleeve. I ended up using painter's tape which is less adhesive. Even with painter's tape it's a challenge. First, the tape should be cut to a quarter-inch width to reduce the surface area and thus allow for less pull when it comes time to remove the tape. When doing the last two borders, the tape must also be cut to slightly less than the precise length of the border, so that it does not overlap onto the previously-painted borders (very important - if the tape overlaps the paint, it will pull the paint off).

I painted two (opposite) borders at a time, letting them dry overnight. The next day I pull the tape off VERY SLOWLY, and there's a technique to it as well: you must pull the tape upward and angled away from the painted edge, while pressing on the paint where it meets the tape. This means you have to move your pressed thumb along the edge while peeling the tape in order to keep the paint from pulling up off the sleeve. Even with this method, countless touch-ups were necessary as some of the paint will inevitably peel off. No joke, it probably took as long to do the borders on this sleeve as it took to do a full alter on a card because of the number of times I had to redo the sleeve borders.

ThePuolimieli on Yes

1 month ago

This is an awesome deck! +1

I gotta say that I have couple suggestions though:

To make this more aggressive:
Swap 60 Forest to 60 Mountain and start aggroing their face off.

To make this more mind fuck and controlling:
Swap 60 Forest to 60 Island and watch the opponent struggle to play around counterspells.

Mochitoki on Zaxara's Infinite Death

1 month ago

BeeZak

Ok so the changes i made are-

Out- Birds of Paradise , Manaweft Sliver , Leyline Prowler , Yavimaya Elder , Capricopian , Seedborn Muse , Chromatic Lantern , Darksteel Ingot , Replicating Ring , Gilded Lotus , Opulent Palace , Winged Temple of Orazca

In- Forest , Island , Swamp , Farseek , Nature's Lore , Sakura-Tribe Elder , Dimir Signet , Golgari Signet , Simic Signet , Worldly Tutor , Parallel Lives , Assassin's Trophy

I forgot i wanted Worldly tutor and Parallel Lives in the deck.

Check the new build/stats and gimme yer thoughts.