David Given Schwarm

Married, Father, United

Tag: Magic: the Gathering

  • Essence Scatter & Bestow

    I have my Gladecover Scout out early–according to my plan!
     


    I bestow Cavern Lampad on the



    To which Jack responds with Essence Scatter

     
    Is the Lampad a creature when I cast it before it is bestowed or does the Creature keyword fall off as soon as I announce that I am casting it on the Gladescout?

    We ruled that Essence Scatter would counter the creature spell since creature is written on the card.

  • Exiling Hexproof Nonland Permanents

    Wednesday, I was playing a non standard white deck that Thor had built that was basically designed to make it impossible for me to attack him. It was beyond frustrating & I lost badly when he hit a win condition that if he had 40 life he won. I was at like 55 life [thanks to Devo] and he was at 46 or so when he cast the creature that gave him that attribute.

    In any event, before the game developed into old school magic silliness [something I am still struggling to learn to enjoy]  I had cast my Gladecover Scout

    And bestowed my Boon Satyr on her


    Thor cast Detention Sphere naming Boon Satyr.


    I argued that because the Boon Satyr was an enchantment on a hex proof creature it was immune. Thor laughed and I lost my Drizzt. 

    Was this the correct call?

  • Double Strike before School

    A big crew came by for Magic this morning before South Lake Middle School late start. We had Alexander, Matt, Jack, Dylan, Evan, Andrew, Derek, and Liam–just about as many as our table can hold


























    The boys come by and start games kind of in the order that they show up–we had some great match up this week.



    It was Liam’s first time at Tuesday Morning with Magic


    so he played the Sliver deck which is just a fun way to learn Magic–lots of ramp, different effects, and smashing in the face for 30!



























    The boys get fairly intense while playing.



    and today they were really into it–four matches going at the same time is loud & awesome.

    The boys play for an hour and the time goes by very very quickly.


    The boys want to spend time trading cards, but we only have one hour before school starts which is just about time for three matches–generally time runs out during a final Two Headed Giant match.

    Matt has a Whip of Erbos that he wants to trade

    Andrew is playing a very good GWAR Deck–Greeen, White, Agro Red named after the worlds greatest space band



    Which matches up nicely with Jack GW deck


     1. Blocking with Double Strike
    Jack attacked with a 5/5, Andrew blocked with a 3/3 doublstriker. Jack argued that it was a block, but that his creature did not die. Andrew asserted that Jack’s creature takes 3 first strike damage & then 3 more damage during normal damage and would die having taken 6. Jack’s position was that first strike was only when attacking and not when defending.

    Rule 510.5 does not seem to make a distinction between Attackers and Blocker and 702.4b seems to include blockers [“If at least one attacking or blocking creature’].

    I think that Jack is wrong and that a double striking blocker does assign damage two times

    2. .More Blocking with Double Strike
    After issue one was resolved with no one very happy, we moved to an issue that actually lead to a lot more player frustration–I need to get better and making quick well informed decisions, a skill for Level 1 Judges, perhaps because my converstaional style generally just leads to both players feeling gibbed.

    Here is what happened…Andrew had Gruul War Chant out



    And swung with 


    who was Monstrous & had been equipped with Battle Mastery


    So basically Andrew came over the top with a 20/20 Double Striker that could only be blocked by two creatures.

    Jack blocks with Deadly Recluse


    that has a Boon Satyr bestowed on it–arguing that it is two creatures

    I agreed that the bestowed creature should count as a creature for the Gruul War Chant and he could block. Andrew was also OK with this ruling.

    So, Jack takes 16 First Strike Damage from the Cake–the trample goes over the block. Andrew agrees.

    Jack then argues that he does not take the additional 20 from the Double Strike. I am not sure exactly what his argument was–he was fairly upset & convinced that he was right–basically, he argued that the second twenty was not applied–I think because the Cake had already killed the blocker? which me be the case–but I am not sure.

    The Glossary has:

     Double StrikeA keyword ability that lets a creature deal its combat damage twice. See rule 702.4, “Double Strike.”

    so I think Andrew’s CAKE would get to assign 20 during first strike & 20 during normal. 

    We agreed to disagree so that we could move to the Two Headed Giant & then time was up and the kids had to fly to school after another fun morning of Magic!

  • Ender’s Game Extra Life Fund Raiser

    As part of Extra Life, I tried to run a game of Numenera at the opening of Ender’s Game.

    Due to life, it did not really go as planned, but we did get in some great Magic. 

    Brian bought fifteen packs and we ran a three round draft with six people.

    Jack ended up coming in First Place! He beat me in the finals with his Mono Red Deck.


    My path to the finals went through Chase, who had not played paper magic in a long time & did not draft that well.

    And Scott, who had a strong deck that did not finish well against — he beat me like 28-4 and I won 5-3 and 6-2. In both of my wins he had me on the brink and just did not close. 

    I finally got to use my Game of Thrones kraken sleeves!

  • Two Headed Donuts!

    Special Halloween Edition of Tuesday Morning with Magic! Kate made this amazing decoration.
    Lisa made muffins & we had donuts for the boys


    The kids came charging into the house this week–they are starting to arrive earlier.


    The kids card storage tools are still poor. I need some generic cheap tips on how to store cards so that the kids can move out of mom’s Tupperware!

    The Go tokens we use for counters is working very well.
    Andrew, Matt, and Dylan had some one on one matches to start the morning


    Alexander, Jack, and Derek all won, I think–kitchen side continues to be the strong side.



    The kids all have iPhone’s and have downloaded counters which is working very well.



    I do still use paper and pen, mostly just so the kids learn how to do it for when we take the show on Tour.





    Matt going Donut–in fact, all the kids went donut

    . 



    The kids had to wait until the one on one matches were complete before starting the Two Headed Giant match which was really what most of the kids are interested in. This is the reason that the come.



    Jack is leaping out of his chair during THG!




    But then Derek’s green deck started to go off


    And then Team J&M had to go back to the planning stages


  • Ruling on the Whip

    Brian

    and I


    Met for Lunch at Veggie Grill in Irvine for some Magic: The Gathering & some trash talking


    We also talked work & started gearing up for NaNoWriMo


    Brian has a lot of cards in his bag


    I am still running a very simple Rakdos deck



    Brian has been crushing me lately with a UW Deck–it Mills, it has Planeswalkers, & it has some white creature spamming





    We did have a tricky rules situation come up again. Brian was milling me and I had like 10 creatures in my graveyard so I attempted to use the Whip of Erbos


    to pull a Gray Merchant of Asphodel out of my Graveyard

    doing four to Brain. 

    He attempted to respond to the Whip with Cancel


    but I argued the Whip was using an Ability not a Spell. Brian agreed & took four–but I have no idea if this is the correct rulling.

    We then we had a discussion about if there was any way to prevent the Whip from returning the Gary and causing damage. So, this weeks question, is mostly about “is there a difference between ‘enter the battlefield’ effects when a creature is cast as opposed to manipulated by some other Ability”?



  • Face The Hydra



    As part of the Theros Game Day, Wizards of the Coast released the Face the Hydra deck. The Deck is this awesome play experience that Jack and I have been dying to try & we finally got a chance at Mercenary Market in Costa Mesa.

    WotC released this fantastic promo video that kind of explains what the deck is all about

    http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/3chASL9IjTI&source=uds



    Jack and I played against the Hydra together at the Normal level. He was playing his Green Heroic Deck, Voltron, and I was playing my Rakdos Minataur deck.



    Keeping score was simple–the instructions for playing the Hydra are very straight foreword. It was easy to simply sit down and play.


     Jack and I got were both playing Hero cards that we had earned at Prerelease & Release day events.


    We both got off to good starts. Jack had some deathtouch & I had some Lightning Strike so we were able to kill heads fairly quickly. Also, we never drew any replacement heads so we were able to charge through the beast in three fairly straightforeword turns. 

    It was great.



    The shop was selling the Hydra deck for 12 bucks which seems very affordable to me & a good way to encourage the Tuesday Morning with Magic crew to continue to play.


  • Lee’s Sandwich Show Down


    On Monday, Tuesday, & Thursday I take Jack to Water Polo practice at UCI. This week, while I was waiting for him Brian came by for some Magic.




    He has a ton of cards in this bag.


    We set up on a small table outside of Lee’s Sandwich’s which is sadly being turned into a Chicken restaurant [that one that all the Christians eat at because of some anti-gay stance they took a while back]. There is a Blaze Pizza and a Chipotle going in as well so it is not all bad.

    And we were right outside the Irvine Center for Peace–perfect place for a Planeswalker showdown

    I was ready to go from the moment I sat down.


    Brian had to drive there 


    and he took a rather odd route.


    In any event, once he sat down and we got shuffled up it was on! And he killed me–his mono blue deck prevented my Rakdos deck from doing anything and then milled me to death with Jace.

    The second game some UCI Business Major showed up. He was very experienced at Magic and coached me on how to better use my deck.


    Needless to say the second game went a very differently as I was able to use the Whip  of Erbos my Gray Merchant very successfully.


    Tonight we will play game three to decide the champion.

  • Time to Feed Attack



    So I guess the question here boils down to is “Fight” the same as the “Attack” Step. 

    During our Theros Game Day Draft, Briannah played Time to Feed and had her Polukranos, World Eater




    Fight Andrew’s Gray Merchant of Asphodel.


    Andrew Responded with Divine Verdict.


    Does this work? Is the Polukranos destroyed?

    I ruled that it was not. Attack only happens in the Combat phase–we were in Main Phase. This was a Fight not “Attacking or Blocking”

    This ruling was made with the understanding that Briannah was going to swing with The  P-U during Combat after she had killed Gary so it really did not matter all that much–Andrew could Divvy it up then. 

    However, in reflection, I thought this may be more relevant because if Divine Verdict ‘interrupts’ the Time To Feed [the “Target Creature You Control” dies, in this example], then Gray Merchant would not die & Briannah would not gain three life, I think…

    As Always, any advice would be fantastic.

  • Who Goes First

    At Theros Game Day we had an issue regarding who plays first.

    The players shuffled & cut and agreed to high roll. Evan, won the high roll decided to go first, then looked at his hand and mulliganed. Andrew decided to keep.

    Evan reshuffled, cut, and drew six cards. 

    When Evan looked at his hand the second time he wanted to go second. 

    Andrew did not think that this was fair–Evan had already decided to go first.

    My understanding is that you have to choose who is going first before you draw your cards, is that true?

    Once that decision is made, can it be changed?

    I ruled that Evan could go second, but mostly because I did not really understand why it mattered & wanted to keep things moving–I do not think that this would have been the Official Tournament ruling.