Using a card like Voyaging Satyr
Asked by ArachnidGoat 6 years ago
So I was watching Spellslingers, and I noticed something. I've never thought of how you could do it like such, but i noticed Day9 had Voyaging Satyr on the battlefield, and he had 2 forest, and 1 mountain.He then played a 2 mountain, 2 colorless creature. He tapped the mountain, used Voyaging Satyr to untap it, then he tapped it again.
I didn't know you could do that for a single spell. Is that right? I guess i just always assumed you could only untap for another spell, and not the same one, since the creature calls for 2 mountains.
If i understand this right, all he did was tap it the first time to add the red mana to the pool, its in the pool, untap, retap, and it put the second red in the pool. Right??
Sidenote to the sidenote - Did they really get KAry Byron from Mythbusters to actually play Magic? Now they just need Tory t ocomplete the trifecta!
December 7, 2018 3:51 a.m.
It's also worth noting that mana only "goes away" (leaves your mana pool) when you spend it, or when steps and phases end. So tapping the mountain for , then using Voyaging Satyr to untap it so you can tap it for another is fine.
And just for explanation, "to your mana pool" was removed from mana abilities because it apparently caused confusion among new players, in addition to being wordy when text box space was limited. One example I read was that some new players thought that the mana symbols referred to the lands themselves and that the "mana pool" was where their lands were, and so they thought that tapping Llanowar Elves meant putting a forest on the battlefield, when it really just means producing a green mana to use. Also according to the Dominaria rules change article, Wizards found that most players just pay directly for a spell rather than holding their mana temporarily in their mana pool, so simplifying the text was fine.
Boza says... Accepted answer #1
A card that costs does not require 2 mountain, nor 2 colorless. It requires 2 of any mana and 2 red mana. Lands are not required to cast spells, mana is - otherwise something like Llanowar Elves would be moot.
Cards like Llanowar Elves have been changed recently to say "Add ", instead of "Add to your mana pool", which I knew would create confusion. Your mana pool is where you store all mana you produce and you use throughout the current step or phase however you like.
What Day9 did is a bit of shorthand with creatures that just enable you to get more mana - before casting the spell, he tapped the mountain, then used the Voyaging Satyr ability to untap it and tapped it once more to get a total of into his mana pool before he even began casting the spell.
Sidenote: Llanowar Elves which I mentioned is even more awesome than Voyaging Satyr - it has a mana ability which can be activated at any time when the game requires you to make a mana payment, even while you are casting a spell or activating another ability. An activated ability is a mana ability if it meets all of the following criteria: it doesn’t have a target, it could add mana to a player’s mana pool when it resolves, and it’s not a loyalty ability.
Since Voyaging Satyr's ability targets, it is not considered a mana ability. But that does not stop you from activating it prior to casting a spell.
TLDR: Day9 did a common shortcut that is perfectly ok.
December 7, 2018 3:49 a.m.