The Planeswalking Peddler

Magic: The Gathering - Tutorial Week 7

ome of you have probably made your New Year resolutions already. As for me, I don’t know if I can even hold on to them, let alone make them.

But enough of this. Today we’re going directly into last week’s artifact battlefield and see examples of how they can be used in a game. Prepare for artifacts, artifacts, and more artifacts.

Last week’s battlefield position:

It is Green’s turn. Considering how cluttered the battlefield is, we should do some power/toughness calculations to see if Green can safely attack and force through enough damage to defeat Blue.

A 3/5 creature, a 4/3, and a 1/1 on Green’s side. The first gives life upon its demise, the second gives cards, while the third does nothing relevant to this battlefield position.

Blue has a massive 6/4 (though it’s tapped), a commendable 4/2 that can shoot 2 damage when it dies, a pretty large 4/4, and a 3/4. Considering that Green has the lesser life, an attack here perhaps isn’t the best choice.

Green passes the turn to Blue who untaps his tapped cards (the 4 Islands and the 6/4 Razorfield Thresher) and draws a card from the top of his library. He casts a spell that allows him to draw another three cards

and then thinks. He has the advantage in terms of how many creatures are under his command and how big they are, but perhaps not so much in terms of versatility. Two of his creatures have no abilities while all of Green’s creatures can do at least something. There’s always a chance of surprise, especially when both players have cards in hand. (Although it’s not shown, both players do have cards in hand.)

Blue decides to attack with only three of his four creatures. Entering the combat zone is the Razorfield Thresher, the Perilous Myr, and the Soliton. The Stone Golem will hang back just in case.

Now Green definitely has a trick or two. He contemplates his options against this group of attackers and proceeds to block. Thus the combat zone becomes this:

The 6/4 Thresher grapples with the 4/3 Runed Servitor. The 4/2 walking bomb faces off with the 3/5 Golem. And the solitary Soliton faces no opposition.

If no player chooses to cast any spells before damage happens, then the Thresher, the Servitor, and the Myr are confirmed dead creatures and the Soliton will swing home for 3 damage to Green’s life total. But Green indeed chooses to cast something. He taps two lands for two Green mana and casts a Green spell.

Since the Soliton is an artifact, Naturalize hits it hard and destroys it. And because this is a Green spells, that little artifact on far right of the battlefield becomes relevant.

Wurm’s Tooth allows you to gain life whenever someone casts a Green-coloured spell. It doesn’t matter who casts it and doesn’t matter whether it is an instant or sorcery, creature or enchantment. Any Green spell will net you a life point.

All right. Now that both players don’t feel like playing any other cards, combat damage takes place. The three aforementioned creatures die, leaving the Enatu Golem as the sole survivor of combat this turn. But the Myr does 2 damage to anything when it dies, which means that the Blue player may do this:

Remember, all damage remains on a creature and vanishes only at the end of each turn. Even though combat happens in the middle of the turn, combat damage still lasts all the way until a turn ends.

The Golem had taken 4 damage from the Myr in combat. The Myr’s dying ability allows it to deal 2 more, which totals to 6 damage compared to the Golem’s 5 toughness. The Golem is history and Green gains 4 life with its death. Also, both players draw one card from the ability of the Runed Servitor.

After combat, Blue decides to cast one creature before passing the turn to Green, the creature being a second Perilous Myr. This is the revised battlefield:

Blue still has more creatures than Green, but Green has more life and will surely be casting as much as he can this turn. With 9 mana at his disposal (8 from the lands and 1 from his creature), that’s a harbinger of some very big monsters.

Green taps seven of his lands for 7 mana and casts what could be a game-defining creature. Platinum Angel has two abilities, and they happen as long as the Angel lives. As long as it remains on the battlefield, the Angel prevents you from losing and prevents the opponent from winning. Oh, and it flies, too.

Green has one land untapped at this point. He taps it and his mana-generating Myr creature to gain 2 mana, and spends those resources to equip the Trusty Machete to the Angel.

That’s all he chooses to do before passing the turn. As long as he can protect his Angel, the game is a sealed deal.

Blue doesn’t seem to be worried. He has the cards he needs in hand. On his turn, Blue puts down a land and then enchants the Angel with Mind Control, effectively turning the tide of battle. The enchantment causes the Angel to switch allegiance, but gaining control of a creature doesn’t mean you gain control of anything else attached to the creature. This means although the Angel still carries the Machete, Green still controls the equipment so Green can shift it away from the Angel during his turn.

But Green doesn’t want to do that. Still on Blue’s turn, Green plays a second Naturalize to destroy Mind Control, and with a grin and a pat on the back he waits for Blue to understand who’s boss.

Before the second Naturalize happens (while its still on the stack) Blue plays a card called Cancel.

The card may feel complex, but here’s a watered-down phrasing of the card:

“Destroy target spell.”

When you counter something, it’s similar to destroying the thing. The difference between “destroy” and “counter” is that you can only destroy something that is already on the battlefield. As for counter, you can only counter something while it’s on the stack, waiting to happen.

Counter (verb): to cancel out a spell on the stack. A spell that has been cancelled out is put directly into the graveyard without the spell happening.

Though it may seem that cards that counter spells are narrow because they only work when the opponent puts a spell on the stack, they are actually quite helpful. “Counter target spell” means the opponent’s card doesn’t even get a chance to happen. The opponent gets no benefit whatsoever from a countered spell.

Seems like we have gone far enough for today. Next week I’ll touch on more “counter” terminology and some we haven’t seen before. Until then, take care and good day.