Cranial Insertion: Tapped Creatures Deal Combat Damage

[BJPaskoff]

This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, Cranial Insertion: Tapped Creatures Deal Combat Damage. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.

[NightArcher]

There was an error in your article, in regards to putting demonic appetite on a creature you stole with traitorous instinct.

Demonic appetite says 'enchant creature you control', so when your opponent gets it back, it will fall off and be put into your graveyard.

[Alexander of Future Ruins]

Originally Posted by NightArcher

There was an error in your article, in regards to putting demonic appetite on a creature you stole with traitorous instinct.

Demonic appetite says 'enchant creature you control', so when your opponent gets it back, it will fall off and be put into your graveyard.

I, too, noticed this. I was about to post about it, but you beat me to it. SBEs will clean demonic appetite up when the end of turn effect ends.

[Plague Spitter]

I noticed that a lot of people have strange questions, and many new players think a tapped blocker deals no damage. I think it comes not from the old rules, but because people are migrating to magic from inferior card games, such as yugioh, and they don't realize that the rules of yugioh are wrong.

[Jiggy]

I've also noticed a large influx of returning players who last played pre-Sixth Edition. Similarly, new players are taught most often casually by a friend, without actually reading the rules. They would likely be told that a tapped creature can't block, but nothing more specific than that. So if all you know is "tapped guy can't block" and then you encounter the unanticipated "blocking guy gets tapped" situation, it kind of makes sense that they would be unsure of what to do.

Which is why everyone should be a nerd like me and teach newbies in a more formal fashion, with worksheets and quizzes.

....Right?

[frog_master]

Originally Posted by Jiggy

I've also noticed a large influx of returning players who last played pre-Sixth Edition. Similarly, new players are taught most often casually by a friend, without actually reading the rules. They would likely be told that a tapped creature can't block, but nothing more specific than that. So if all you know is "tapped guy can't block" and then you encounter the unanticipated "blocking guy gets tapped" situation, it kind of makes sense that they would be unsure of what to do.

Which is why everyone should be a nerd like me and teach newbies in a more formal fashion, with worksheets and quizzes.

....Right?

I remember the rule when creatures would become tapped during combat. Also I can understand that people have come back since before that changed. Using that rule is fine in casual, but it can mess you up once you start playing in tournaments. My advice to anyone is to read the rules before you even step into playing Magic even at a pre-release/fnm level.

I did enjoy the many Warp World references in the article since i'm in the stage of building one for Type 2. Won't say it'll be top tier material, but it'll be fun to play.

[MadMageQc]

116.7a. If a cost is reduced by an amount of colored mana, but its colored mana component doesn't contain mana of that color, the cost is reduced by that amount of generic mana.

116.7b. If a cost is reduced by an amount of colored mana that exceeds its mana component of that color, the cost's mana component of that color is reduced to nothing and the cost's generic mana component is reduced by the difference.

For a moment, I really thought Edgewalker just became broken. Up until I re-read the card and realized that it always had rules text (not reminder text) to say that its ability cannot reduce generic mana costs, and that it's keeping that rules text. I'm not sure if I'm disapointed or relieved about that, but one thing for sure, I am intrigued : if 116.7 is something entirely new, that means Edgewalker's rules text didn't contradict any rule at the time of its printing! I'm pretty sure there are no other pre-ROE cards that reduce costs by an amount of colored mana, so I understand that at the time of Edgewalker's printing, instead of creating a rule for the purpose of governing that single card, they provided the card's text with its own rule for its own unique effect, that didn't contradict any existing rule. But now it does supersede a rule. How funny! I wonder if the text they put on Edgewalker wouldn't have been the rule if they created it at the time of Scourge; if so, that may be a change of philosophy, but since Edgewalker has its own rules text that keeps the card balanced and working as intended, all falls into place perfectly without need of errata.

[aleksandr]

In EDH, you're out of luck totally since there's no sideboards.

Actually, according to the EDH rules site there is an optional rule allowing for a 10-card sideboard:

Rather than filling every deck with banal responses, it is preferable to allow some flexibility in the composition of a deck.

• Players may bring a 10 card sideboard in addition to their 99 cards and 1 General.
• After generals are announced, players have 3 minutes to make 1-for-1 substitutions to their deck.
• Any cards not played as part of the deck may be retrieved by "wishes".

Reasoning:
Highly tuned threats piloted by skilled opponents mandate efficient answers. The minimum number of response cards required to ensure they are available in the early turns can easily overwhelm the majority of an EDH deck's building space.
Sideboards allow players to respond to the "best" strategies in a timely fashion . They should be strongly considered as a necessary defense against brokenness and degeneracy in an EDH environment where no gentlemans agreement on style of play exists.

If playing with the 10-card sideboard rule, wouldn't Spawnsire be able to get Eldrazi from that board?

I wonder why this rule did not make it into the Comprehensive Rules when they added section 903 for EDH...

[cthulhu]

After reading the Echo Mage question, I realized there are a number of ways you could go infinite with him. Both Turnabout and Toils of Night and Day will get you infinite untaps (and taps for that matter) of permanents if you have two islands. Vitalize (or Turnabout for that matter) doesn't even need him leveled up fully if you have enough mana critters that can produce blue, and Toils works at one copy if you have a permanent that can produce UU plus something else.

Sounds like I must make a fun deck based on this. It'll definitely have Enclave Cryptologist and Venerated Teacher to help out.

[Dannemann]

Originally Posted by frog_master

I remember the rule when creatures would become tapped during combat.

When was this?
Even pre-sixth edition rules didn´t tap blockes in combat as far as I remember, as you could pump Mishra's Factory after blockers, even though it wouldn't deal combat damage