Scars of Mirrodin Infect

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Good Day my MTG pickles,

Gather around - We have good (or bad) news for the lot of ya straight from the Wizards Arcana today - here's a hint - What would you get if you if you took the mechanics Poison and Wither, and spliced their genetics (by way of waaay too much punch at the prom) ? Yep - How did ya know ? You would get 'Infect' - a new Scars of Mirrodin keyword.

Players at gaming tables around the world either really loved or really hated poison (the latter we think were in the majority. The reminder text of Infect should read as such :
Infect (This creature deals damage in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)

The big question now is exactly how many creatures will be printed in Scars of Mirrodin with Infect? A minor number of cards ? Shadowmoor / Eventide had around 35. There were just under a dozen poison type critters way back and around 35 or so cards with 'wither'. Most reacently, there was around 40 landfall tech cards in Zendikar and Worldwake. We should probablly expect the number of cards with Infect to be around 20 in the first set which now that we think of it, kind of thats the shine of our new fav indestructible creature (looking at Knight Exemplar).

If you were not around for it poison works like this - a player with ten or more poison counters loses the game. Kind of simple but let's have a looky-see at the rules around both poison and wither . . .

Poisonous is a keyword ability that uses poison counters. It was introduced in Future Sight, though the concept of poison counters is as old as Legends.

From the Comprehensive Rules
* 502.69. Poisonous
o 502.69a Poisonous is a triggered ability. "Poisonous N" means "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player gets N poison counters." (For information about poison counters, see rule 102.3d.)
o 502.69b If a creature has multiple instances of poisonous, each triggers separately.
o 102.3d If a player has ten or more poison counters, he or she loses the game the next time a player would receive priority. (This is a state-based effect. See rule 420.)

Rulings
* If all damage that a poisonous creature would deal to a player is prevented, the poisonous ability won't trigger.
* The player will get the stated number of poison counters each time the poisonous creature deals combat damage to him or her, regardless of how much damage that creature dealt.
* If a player has ten poison counters, that player loses the game.
* Although several older cards give players poison counters, none of those cards have abilities that trigger on combat damage.

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Wither was introduced in Shadowmoor. Wither was featured as rules card 6 of 6 in the Shadowmoor set and 6 of 8 in the Eventide set.

From the Comprehensive Rules
* 502.80. Wither
o 502.80a Damage dealt to a creature by a source with wither doesn’t stay on that creature (see rule 212.3g). Rather, it causes that many -1/-1 counters to be put on that creature.
o 502.80b Multiple instances of wither on the same object are redundant.

Rulings
* The damage is still dealt as damage, and as such it can be prevented or redirected as normal. If not prevented or redirected, it turns into -1/-1 counters.
* Damage to a player or planeswalker is dealt normally.

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Wow - are you guys still looking forward to Scars of Mirrodin ? Do you think today's SoM spoiler will totally rock your game in October or will you be steering clear of that mechanic altogether (ignore it and it will go away)?
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Lastly . . .
What does Scars of Mirrodin Patinum Imperion and the movie Fifth Element have in common? This guy . . .










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MTG Potpourri

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Yep - "MTG Potpourri" a collection of unrelated nonsense from the dusty corners of my mind . . .

You may recall this POST about a month ago in which I had spoke onto the Jund Saproling token generators in Shards of Alara. I was so interested in just how well this may work, I started collecting and after a few weeks of trades was able to acquire the engine to this deck. I then promptly gave it to one of my kids who rose to the challenge and built a fairly solid deck around it. He now wins a good number of games with his so-called 'Mushroom' build against me.
Here again is the skinny on the Saproling generators. (For other Shards of Alara token generators, check out this previous POST).










Jund Battlemage ({G}, {T}: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play.)

Mycoloth (At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play for each +1/+1 counter on Mycoloth.)

Necrogenesis ({2}: Remove target creature card in a graveyard from the game. Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play.)

Sprouting Thrinax (When Sprouting Thrinax is put into a graveyard to play, put three 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens into play.)

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This is something I had posted in the forums some time ago and thought it may be worthy of a post here.

In some games, keeping track of wither may be something of a challenge. With 'wither' damage flying across the table as well as pumps from Lieges and other spells, a player is lucky to just have the +1/+1 and -1/-1 cancel eachother out as a state-based effect. Otherwise, one would have to resort to two different coloured counters or dice.

As I was rummaging through a closet, I came across an old Milton-Bradley game 'Othello'. This classic board game comes with a big bag of two-coloured, two-sided chips. Just perfect I thought for keeping tracks of positive and negative counters for my stable of critters. I had received some positive feed-back from opponents and other players on this and so I now share with you.

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And now for something completely different . . .

I am not sure why I had not seen these before today but just look at how very cool these Lorwyn Planeswalker life counters are.

These are WoTC-approved life counters from Takara Tomy, a Japanese outfit. Apparently these special promotional cards had been given out during FNMs and tournaments in Japan. If you actually own a set of these rarities, consider yourself blessed and receive my envy as well as the envy from other MTG geeks around the world.

Shadowmoor Rules Primer 2

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Some very good Shadowmoor Rules Primer material was provided by Brandon Bozzi (Creative Coordinator/Associate Developer at Wizards) who walks us through the key mechanics in the new MTG Shadowmoor set.

The material of which I speak of is in the form of 5 short videos for those attention deficit players such as myself. I would like to imagine that Wizards took this instructional video idea from Mike Lopez of Expert Village.

These videos were posted to YouTube on 4/15/2008 and on Wizards today.

1. Hybrid
2. Wither
3. Persist
4. Conspire, and
5. Untap

Throughout the videos, Brandon kindly lets us have a peek at some Shadowmoor cards not yet officially spoiled on Wizards . . .


Power of Fire 1{R}
Enchantment - Aura Common
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has "{T}: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature or player."


Giantbaiting 2{RG}
Sorcery Common
Put a 4/4 red and green Giant Warrior creature token with haste into play. Remove it from the game at end of turn.
Conspire


Safehold Elite 1{WG}
Creature - Elf Scout Common
Persist


Parapet Watchers 2U
Creature - Kithkin Soldier Common
{WU}: Parapet Watchers gets +0/+1 until end of turn.


Happy and Safe Gaming,
and don't forget to 'burn a trail' to the Prerelease.