Pemmin's Aura

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature

: Untap enchanted creature.

: Enchanted creature gains flying until end of turn.

: Enchanted creature gains shroud until end of turn. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities.)

: Enchanted creature gets +1/-1 or -1/+1 until end of turn.

Discussion (44)

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?

Yesterday on None

4 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.

CamraMaan on Can Glorious Protector help Merieke …

3 weeks ago

I read recently that Merieke Ri Berit can stack stealing creatures with a series of untaps in the mix on the stack (say with Pemmin's Aura ), all before she officially untaps (on the stack) to destroy those creatures. Assuming this is true, can I also use Glorious Protector in this mix to exile all the stolen creatures before Merieke officially untaps, allowing me to permanently bring them all back under my control when Glorious Protector leave the battlefield...? I assume I can, but what would be the proper order of actions to successfully keep the creatures?

Also, all of this relies on the concept that I can untap Merieke before her tap ability resolves, then tap her to take another creature, untap her, tap to take another, etc. But my own logic thinks this has flaws in the process. If I tap her to take a creature, but untap her before it resolves, then I haven't taken possession of the creature yet, right? It must resolve in order for me to actually take possession of their creature, no? If untapping Merieke prevents her tap ability from resolving, and therefore her 'untap-to-destroy' from resolving, then it should also prevent her from taking possession of the creature until it resolves, right? It seems that if she gains control of the creature, and I take possession, then it naturally comes over with her untap trigger stuck to it. And then by untapping her to take another creature, that her untap trigger will then be on the stack, no?

I really want this to all work, but I know I can't explain it all correctly to my playgroup at the moment. Thanks in advance! :)

BeeZak on Zaxara's Infinite Death

1 month ago

All aboard the Selvala, Heart of the Wilds / Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy train! Choo choo!

Seriously though, this looks sweet as hell. The infinite mana angle seems nasty, but not overly pushed, which should lead to good gameplay. Freed from the Real tends to be a surprisingly loud threat and my guess is that it's likely going to be a bit too greedy, especially considering you have fairly limited protection. Pemmin's Aura is good enough because the protection is built-in, and the added evasion will help you close some games. I've also found that cards like this tend to suffer quite a bit to the Chaos Orb s in our meta but YMMV.

The first thing that stood out to me was that you have significantly less interaction than you typically play, and I'd bet that it'll feel a bit uncomfortable having to be so selective with your answers. I'd recommend adding Windgrace's Judgment and Assassin's Trophy to improve your flexible removal, and some number of Erebos's Intervention , Battle at the Bridge , Profane Command , and Black Sun's Zenith to up your creature removal and creature count (Hydra tokens) at the same time. Also, these do really well against indestructible threats (cough Blightsteel Colossus + Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger cough) like gods and such.

You could probably also use another counterspell or two, but if you don't want to lean too hard that direction, that's understandable.

The second main thing I noticed is your mana ramp package—I'd look at it fairly critically and consider your goals. For example, I'd keep all creatures that tap for 2 or more mana ( Bloom Tender , Incubation Druid , Selvala, Heart of the Wilds ) as they give you more paths to going infinite. I'd cut the ones that only make 1 mana ( Birds of Paradise , Manaweft Sliver , Leyline Prowler ) as they tend to be a bit of a liability compared to land fetch spells and you aren't inherently taking advantage of the fact that they are creatures.

I'd also focus on the curve of your mana ramp. I think you should prioritize 2 cost spells like the three on-color signets, and the land fetch spells Nature's Lore , Farseek , Rampant Growth , and Sakura-Tribe Elder . Swapping these for your 3-5 cost mana ramp will give you more chances to cast Zaxara on turn 3 and get the ball rolling on both bigger mana and generating hydras. The way I see it, you could have a signet + Zaxara to use on turn 5 or spend that same turn casting a Gilded Lotus which is the same mana output but a turn slower. Basalt Monolith is the exception here as it goes infinite.

The final thing I'd encourage is to play more land. You really need to always hit Zaxara early for your deck to do it's thing, and maximizing your potential to consistently hit 4 mana on curve is going to pay dividends. At 34 I'd say you're 2-3 short of what I'd recommend for a mana-hungry deck like this, and you're actually at 33 right now because Winged Temple of Orazca starts as a Hadana's Climb  ^Flip and likely shouldn't be counted as a land.

Here are the baseline swaps I'd recommend:

Out - Birds of Paradise - Manaweft Sliver - Leyline Prowler - Yavimaya Elder - Freed from the Real - Capricopian - Seedborn Muse - Chromatic Lantern - Darksteel Ingot - Replicating Ring - Gilded Lotus - Opulent Palace

In + 2 Forest + 1 Island + 1 Swamp + Farseek + Nature's Lore + Sakura-Tribe Elder + Golgari Signet + Simic Signet + Dimir Signet + Profane Command / Erebos's Intervention + Windgrace's Judgment / Assassin's Trophy

These aren't super exciting changes but they'll massively help your initial consistency. I'd play the deck a buch before deciding what swaps would be best beyond this.

Stoked to see the deck in action!

king-saproling on Knock-Off Pirates

2 months ago

These too: Blades of Velis Vel , Wings of Velis Vel , Volatile Claws , Sakashima of a Thousand Faces , Sakashima the Impostor , Crab Umbra , Pemmin's Aura

Lanzo493 on Dealing with Kinnan

2 months ago

Kinnan is my cEDH deck. So I’ll divulge lots of the strategies. You’ll want to stop the infinite mana, but there’s a lot of ways that it does infinite mana. Mainly, just 2 categories. Storm off with Tidespout Tyrant or Isochron Scepter / Lithoform Engine with Dramatic Reversal and mana positive mana rocks or do infinite untaps with Freed from the Real , Pemmin's Aura or Basalt Monolith . With the introduction out of the way, let’s talk interaction. The best would be Null Rod type effects. You can’t run Cursed Totem sadly given your commander. Cheap enchantment or artifact removal is also good. Heartwood Storyteller prevents them from storming off easily. So would Damping Sphere . Grafdigger's Cage could work. Although it is narrow, if the only infinite mana outlet they have is Kinnan, they won’t be able to use his ability. It also stops Chord, Finale, and Green Sun’s Zenith.

DemMeowsephs on A CLAWsome SHELLebration of Crab

2 months ago

Hey there! Voltron is indeed a load of fun (check out my Voltron deck, yes shameless plugs), and I may just have some suggestions for you that I have found in my Voltron journey!

• Aqueous Form , Artful Dodge , Distortion Strike , Invisibility , and Thassa, God of the Sea . I see you already have Aether Tunnel, so if that's been working for you, you might like these too! They work very well for me quite often, especially the re-castable ones.

• Temporal Mastery , it works really well with mystical tutor which you have in the deck.

• Esior, Wardwing Familiar is really good since now any spell costs FIVE cmc, making it really hard to target him.
• Pemmin's Aura : Well it does a lot- it's pretty self-explanatory
• Kaho, Minamo Historian since you run a lot of instants this could be good especially if you use some unblockable spells from above
• Rapid Hybridization / Pongify Cheap blue removal
• Vanishing Lets you phase him out at the end of every turn at instant speed
• Ancient Tomb Great colorless land
• Sapphire Medallion Easy cost reduction

DadHumanPraetor on Kinnan Brings Us Together!

3 months ago

versus64 true, all the ones I named also go infinite with Vigean Graftmage as a 2 card combo for infinite mana, or with Pemmin's Aura or Freed from the Real as a 2 card infinite mana combo. But a bird, kinnan, and either aura is basically a win. Graftmage is a jankier line, but super fun card to play with. I suppose if I were going for straight up max power I would run the most efficient tutors and dorks to make inifinite mana as quickly as possible with Spellseeker and Finale of Devastation as the win-con. And of course Basalt Monolith