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In the future, please remember to hit the green “Mark as Answer” button to indicate your question is resolved and there are no follow-ups. Since this question has been answered for several days, I went ahead and marked an answer on your behalf.

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Lancers en-Kor does specifically say target in its ability. Under its oracle text - the official and controlling text uses by a card, regardless of what the physical copy might say, the ability reads:

“The next 1 damage that would be dealt to Lancers en-Kor this turn is dealt to target creature you control instead.”

Sinq_ - That is correct. It is a weird quirk of the rules. Only spells and abilities will target--an aura on the battlefield is neither a spell nor an ability, it is just a permanent. It still needs to exist on something, otherwise it would just go back to the graveyard, so the game rules allow its controller (not owner--controller; there is a big difference between those two words under the rules) to choose who the aura attaches to.

303.4a An Aura spell requires a target, which is defined by its enchant ability.

303.4f If an Aura is entering the battlefield under a player’s control by any means other than by resolving as an Aura spell, and the effect putting it onto the battlefield doesn’t specify the object or player the Aura will enchant, that player chooses what it will enchant as the Aura enters the battlefield. The player must choose a legal object or player according to the Aura’s enchant ability and any other applicable effects.

The above is correct, but I wanted to expand a bit on why that answer is correct, since, while it answers the primary question posed in your heading, it does not fully answer the secondary question of "I'm wondering what things hexproof actually works against" stated in the body of your question.

A spell or ability only targets if it specifically uses the word "target" in the rules text unless it falls into a very limited number of exceptions, none of which are implicated in the cards you cited.

Since you wanted to know what Hexproof generally would protect you from, I will note the other categories as well.

The first exception is keyword abilities where "target" appears in the reminder text. Something like Equip or Mutate might not say the word "target" on the card itself if it does not contain reminder text, but the abilities DO target. If you are ever curious as to whether an ability targets, just look up the reminder text for that ability--if it says "target" in the reminder text, the ability targets; if not, it does not target.

The other exception is aura spells, such as Curse of Opulence . By operation of rule, Aura spells on the stack always target. As such, if you have Hexproof, an opponent cannot cast an aura targeting you.

However, as a weird quirk of the rules, if an opponent cheats an aura into play, with something like Open the Vaults , the aura does not target, as the opponent "chooses" where to attach the aura. As such, if someone uses Open the Vaults to cheat a Curse of Opulence onto the battlefield from the graveyard, they can attach it to you, even if you have hexproof.

TLDR:

If a spell or ability says "target" in its rules text or reminder text, or if it is an aura spell, Hexproof will prevent you from being chosen as the target.

If a spell or ability does not say "target" in the rules or reminder text (often using words like "choose an opponent" or "each opponent") then Hexproof will NOT protect you from being chosen or from the effects of the spell.

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If not taking budget into account, you would want a number of fetch lands (4x Polluted Delta , then some other lands that can hit either Blue or Black; preferably blue to fetch islands, since you run more Blue mana spells and the blue can hit your Watery Grave anyway). Competitive mill wants to run heavy on Fetches, since each Fetch land basically reads "Pay 1 life: get the land you need and your opponent mills 6*X, where X is the number of crabs you control). Unfortunately, given Wizards' frankly untenable aversion to reprinting Fetches, despite the fact that they are a staple in every single format in which they are legal, running a full contingent of Fetches is quite pricey, and will tear through your budget rather quickly.

That said... I honestly think the Fetches may be a necessity to a competitive mill deck--a lot of your milling power comes from those crabs, and Fetches double the milling you get from any land drop. Fetches also allow you to bank milling--you can play a Fetch on one turn, then not crack it until you need the land it would provide--that means you can save up your Fetches lands until you have more crabs in play and will get more milling from the land you fetch .

A singular copy of Oboro, Palace in the Clouds is another great addition--you do not want to draw too many of them, but it gives you a repeatable "mill 3 * X" if you do not have any other lands in-hand. However, Oboro is well overdue for a reprint and is quite expensive right now--it helps the deck, but is not necessary.

I am not a fan of either Sunken Ruins or Sunken Hollow for mill. Mill is a lot like burn--you want to hit them hard and fast, and burn them down every single turn. On your first turn, you really want to be able to drop a Crab, so you can get the additional burn with your land drop each turn. Both the cards you named are not viable on turn 1 in mill--neither can be used for a turn 1 crab, and you do not want your mana base to be too heavy on lands that are worthless to you on turn one (especially since you already need to have 3 lands in your deck--those Field of Ruin s--which you do not want turn 1).

If you are not going to go heavy on shocks, a full set of Watery Grave will be helpful--two life isn't that big to ask. Underground River is an okay budget land, though it is going to be disproportionately bad in mill since a large number of your spells have no generic mana requirements.

In the future, please remember to hit the green "Mark as Answer" button to indicate your question has been resolved. Since this question has been answered for a few days and there are no pending follow-up questions, I have gone ahead and marked an answer on your behalf.

In the future, please remember to hit the green "Mark as Answer" button to indicate your question has been resolved. Since this question has been answered for a few days and there are no pending follow-up questions, I have gone ahead and marked an answer on your behalf.

Also, I will note that you seem to have posted two different threads on the subject.

In the future, please remember to hit the green "Mark as Answer" button to indicate your question has been resolved. Since this question has been answered for a few days and there are no pending follow-up questions, I have gone ahead and marked an answer on your behalf.

Sinq_'s post has a number of inaccuracies, so I wanted to provide a more clear response.

The biggest problem with Sinq_'s post comes from their incorrectly categorizing various effects as triggered abilities, when, in fact, the OP references three distinct effects--triggered abilities, activated abilities, and replacement effects.

Let's break down the three different types of ability referenced in the OP.

A replacement effect modifies how an in-game event occurs--they do not "trigger" and do not use the stack; they simply change how the rules work with regards to whatever it is they are replacing. (See Rule 614) These effects will use the words "instead" and "if" to indicate they are a replacement effect. Yarok, the Desecrated 's ability is a Replacement Effect--it changes how ETB triggered ability functions so, instead of getting one instance of the ability, you get two of them. Doubling season is also a replacement effect--instead of getting X counters, you get 2X counters; and instead of getting Y tokens, you get 2Y tokens.

A triggered ability is triggered by a defined event, placing the ability on the stack. The ability must resolve before any effect occurs. (See Rule 603). A triggered ability will use the words "when", "whenever", or "at" followed by the triggering event, followed by the effect that will occur on resolution.

An activated ability is an ability which must be activated by paying a cost. (See Rule 602) It will always have a cost, followed by a colon, followed by the effect that happens on resolution.

Yarok only adds an additional instance of triggered abilities. It will not add any additional instances of any replacement effects. As such, Yarok does not interact with Doubling Season .

For the same reason, neither Doubling Season nor Yarok can be copied by Strionic Resonator --Resonator only can copy triggered abilities, and these are both replacement effects. Resonator can copy whatever triggered ability is being replaced with two triggered abilities. So, if you have Basalt Ravager enter the battlefield, you would get two triggers of its ability due to Yarok, then could use Resonator to copy one of those triggers, netting you three triggers on the stack.

Rings of Brighthearth has no direct interaction with Yarok or Doubling season, as they are both replacement effects. Further, Rings has no direct interaction with whatever triggered abilities Yarok replaces, as Rings copies activated abilities, and Yarok increases the number of triggered abilities.

The only real interaction you have of the cards listed in the OP is between Rings and Resonator.

Rings is a triggered ability--the trigger is an activated ability being activated. Upon resolution of the Rings Trigger, you can pay mana to add another copy of the underlying activated ability.

Resonator is an activated ability that can target a triggered ability.

So, here is where they intersect:

1. When a something triggers an ability, you can activate Resonator and put Resonator's ability on the stack.

2. Rings will trigger due to the activation of Resonator.

3. Rings resolves, and you get another instance of Resonator put on the stack. You can choose a new triggered ability to copy. Hypothetically you could target the same Rings ability that is in the process of resolving... but that would be silly. By the time the Resonator ability resolves, there would be no Rings trigger to copy, so the copy effect would fail due to lack of valid target.

4. So, with a single creature ETBing, your Yarok will result in two triggers, your Resonator's ability will result in one copy, and your Rings' copy of Resonator will result in a second copy, resulting in 4 copies of the ETB triggered ability being on the stack.

I think we can conclusively say that there will not be a vampire playable race--we just got the Dhamphir lineage with Van Richten's, and that pretty much covers playable vampire. I would guess we will get two or three new playable races--that is in-line with the two we received in Theros. Ravnica's five new races mostly served to get iconic Magic races into the game--likely because they were not sure if they were going to do more Magic-based rulebooks.

Dryad would be my bet for one of the new races. We had a hamadryad playable race in 4e, but have not received something similar in 5e yet. Furthermore, the Unearthed Arcana for the upcoming Feywild book does not reference a dryad playable race, so we can be pretty sure they would not be released there.

I think Rhox is a decent bet--though it is a bit duplicative of Loxodon from a flavor stance. Bear-folk is another one that is a good prediction as well, particularly since Magic seems to enjoy making a meme of bear cards.

Otherwise, I would not be surprised if we got subraces of existing races. A more magically-inclined subrace of Orc would fit well with Wizards' current goal of giving more diverse character options to traditionally linear races. We probably will also see some reprint classes, since Theros did that as well.

Both Theros and Ravnica only introduces two new subclasses, so I think we can predict the same here. The design goal in Theros and Ravnica was to patch holes in the game design. Ravnica gave us the Law Cleric and the Circle of Spores druid because existing classes did not fit the Azorius and Golgari guilds respectively. Theros gave us the College of Eloquence to fill in the lack of classical philosopher class, and the Oath of Glory Paladin because Greek legends focus more on winning glory for one's god, rather than the traditional paladin path of serving one's god.

I think it is a good bet that we will receive a Silverquill Warlock. Existing Warlocks in D&D receive their power through a patron, not hard study. Thus, despite their having Warlocks like Killian, Ink Duelist , the existing Warlock classes fail to capture the essence of the Silverquill, and no other class really fits the bill. That is exactly the kind of hole Wizards likes to patch with these books.

Then, for every college, we will probably get a new background, some fun items, and a few monsters, including high-level monsters like the school deans and some of the Elder Dragons.

legendofa - That's part of the reason I am excited for the book. Best case scenario, we get a bunch of fascinating information about the plane of Arcavios as a whole, and a bunch of fun magic school parts that can easily be transplanted into any homebrew. After all, who doesn't want a big magical school somewhere in their world?

Worst case scenario, we just get some transplantable parts. Either way, I am happy.

You are incorrect. "At any time they could cast a sorcery" does not mean "when a player can legally cast a sorcery spell." That particular phrase more accurately should read "Each opponent can cast spells only during their main phase when the stack is empty and they have priority."

So, While Azor prevents the opponents from casting instants and sorceries, they can still cast Artifacts, Enchantments, and Creatures at sorcery-speed.

Correct--it will also suffer from summoning sickness. That is why cards like Act of Treason specifically note that they are untapping the creature and giving it haste; otherwise you would not be able to get much use out of taking a tapped creature.

D&D's next Magic-themed rulebook comes out on November 16, 2021, exploring the exciting world Strixhaven. Following on the heels of the excellent Ravnica and Theros books, Strixhaven has a lot to live up to--quite the challenge for a plane that is rather new to the multiverse.

Frankly, I am a bit surprised we are going to Arcavios rather than a more established plane like Zendikar (Innistrad would have been redundant with Van Richten's), but not unpleasantly so. Arcavios has some fascinating mysteries to explore, a number of fun subclasses Wizards could choose from (here's hoping for an ink mage subclass), and gives access to a number of races Wizards could introduce.

Most importantly, though the rulebook will be focused on Arcavios and Strixhaven, a magical school is something that can easily be slid into any campaign. I was quite pleased with Candlekeep Mystery's design goal of "sure, this is Candlekeep, but you could change the name and have it be any library"--I expect Strixhaven will have similar elements that could easily be lifted and transplanted to any plane.

You’re certainly not alone - I’d say about once or twice a year, someone on TappedOut makes a thread on this very subject.

Arena is a card that scales poorly. In very casual games that last a while, it’s fine and likely will net you a bunch of cards. But it’s return on investment drops drastically as power level goes up - not only are there fewer turns during which to draw, tapping out and getting no instant value becomes increasingly problematic.

If you are looking for a replacement that draws cards, the instant gratification of Sign in Blood is generally superior. Plus, there might be the rare situation where you can burn someone to death with it, and that’s worth laughing over.

Please use this thread to suggest new hubs.

In the future, please remember to hit the green "Mark as Answer" button to indicate your question has been resolved. Since this question has been answered for several days, I have gone ahead and marked an answer on your behalf.

In the future, please remember to hit the green "Mark as Answer" button to indicate your question has been resolved. Since this question has been answered for several days, I have gone ahead and marked an answer on your behalf.