New rules with M10

[Dan Barrett]

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feat...


Summary:

- Mulligans now simultaneous

- Battlefield, Cast, Exile

- No mana burn

- Combat damage no longer uses the stack

- Multiple instances of lifelink no longer cumulative

- Deathtouch now a static ability


What the fuck is this shit?

[Thomas David Baker]

I lost the sledge mirror a few weeks ago because I neglected to think clearly about Lifelink stacking (I got him to zero but let him "simultaneously" gain 10 - in actual fact he would have been dead). The fact that some old cards have "gain life" and others have the new lifelink is a bit daft though.

We should start playing with the new rules right away at Games Club, or would that not be allowed?

[Dan Barrett]

I'm getting used to this a bit now.

TBH, i think what we really need to do is sit down and test out these new rules some and see how they actually are in practise, rather than just hypothesising.

Hypocritical i know.

End of the day, starting at M10 pre-re we have to use these rules, so might as well get good at them now.

[Ben Titmarsh]

You miss the point Jason. It's not the change to a static ability that is dislike, this is definitely an improvement. Its the decision they've made to make "lifelink" and "when this deals damage you gain that much life" different things. One is static, one is triggered, so the latter won't save you from lethal. The fact that these were previously equivalent, and are now significantly different will cause much confusion (especially as the latter received errata to be the former which is now getting reversed). On top of all of this Mirrodin and 9th Loxodon Warhammer now behave differently. This is going to cause confusion, something that they were trying to avoid.

Jason Howlett said:

Surely being able to stay alive with your Lifelink dude is will be whole load better than dying because Lifelink used to trigger and you had to still be alive to receive the life when the trigger resolved.

I've been thinking about this a bit recently. It basically means you play all your tricks before combat damage and you do still get to block and sacrifice - you just don't get to kill their guy at the same time.

Ben Titmarsh said:

The combat stuff will take some getting used to, but I think its more in keeping with the flavour of the game.

The biggest annoyance out of all of it for me is this lifelink stuff. The fact that "lifelink" and "when [this] deals damage you gain that much life" used to be identical, and the latter errata-ed to the former. Now they are different and the errata has all been unpicked and they have a significantly different meaning, except for one notable exception Mirrodin Loxodon Warhammer which does receive the errata. Thats bullshit. Just errata everything and it will be a lot clearer.

[Thomas David Baker]

Agreed Ben but let me just nitpick and say that Mirrordin and other Loxodon Warhammers /must/ behave the same as they have the same English card name. So one or the other will be errata-ed to act like the other. If you see what I mean :)

[Ben Titmarsh]

Yeah sorry, just getting slightly confused here. What I meant is that Mirrodin Loxodon will be erratad, but everything else wont be, so if Mirrodin Warhammer comes up against something that says "when this deals damage you gain life", it be strange to the non-warhammer play that he has just died to lethal, but the warhammer player gained life simultaneously!

Thomas David Baker said:

Agreed Ben but let me just nitpick and say that Mirrordin and other Loxodon Warhammers /must/ behave the same as they have the same English card name. So one or the other will be errata-ed to act like the other. If you see what I mean :)

[Nathan Gotlib]

i dont really like the changes to the damage stack and all...
those were kind of the things that defined magic and made it more 'exciting' then the other card-games.

the only rule-changes that truly bother me are the combat stack and mana burn really..