How does Mage's Contest work?

Asked by BlueMageBrandon 7 years ago

As the title says, how does Mages' Contest work? Or more specifically, who bids life? In a game of Commander, do only the spell's controller and I bid life or since it says in turn order, does it mean all players may bid life?

Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1

It means just the Mages' Contest caster and the targeted spell's controller go back and forth bidding life. It's a little ambiguous, and I'm surprised the Oracle text hasn't been updated to be more clear. The first sentence of Mages' Contest's effect defines which players are doing the bidding. The "in turn order" part lays out the process for how to take turns making bids.

Only 3 cards in the game have players bid life in this way to determine the results of an effect (Mages' Contest, Illicit Auction, Pain's Reward), and Mages' Contest is the only one that only goes between two players. It just happens to use the same "in turn order" templating as the other two instead of something that might make more sense for its specific process.

February 18, 2017 11:31 p.m. Edited.