David Given Schwarm

Married, Father, United

Tag: Rules

  • Legacy of the Crystal Shard–D&D Encounters S16 S0

    Everybody DANCE now!

    Yes! it is that time again! Week Zero–Character Creation Week! One of the best parts of the D&D Encounters concept of public play is that it brings wildly different people to the table–and at no time is this more fun than during Character Creation!


    I am a big believer in 4d6-the lowest for all stats. 


    This Season of Encounters we did this in a fun group way in which we went around the table taking turns rolling our stats in order–STR! DEX! CON! INT! WIS! CHA!

    Because of some truly horrible rolling I let the party decide if they wanted one bonus roll which they could use for any stat, but they would have to keep it no matter what. I made it one of those classic D&D Challenges in which the entire group had to agree & since their were 9 players and one DM I knew it would be a challenge to overcome the defiant ones…The party was able to convince even the most contrarian player to go for the reroll [a good sign for the coming season, as every DM knows]. The rolled the bonus stat & it worked out well for everyone.


    Jack, Jake, & Thor had a blast during character creation.


    Carlos was fairly new to the process–as were we all–we did not have a book just a mashed up collection of printouts and one tablet. Jake was using his phone. We really should have gone with Pathfinder or 4E that actually have books–using printouts is silly.


    Jack did do some great custom portraits for several players.

  • Three Headed Giant Is Slow

    The Tuesday Morning with Magic crew showed up after a three day weekend reseed and ready to play–Jack was up with his dice in a pile ready to run his new RU Deck–I have taken to calling it–Are You Serious? DRAGONS! But I am not sure what he calls it.




    Derek was there running the Schwarming Slivers deck which continues to do well against TMwM Crew decks that are still mostly Timmy.


    Dylan is playing a mostly Black deck that splashes some Blue for removal–I call Rule Review.



    Liam ran Kate’s Red White deck that I am not sure has been named. He did very well round one against the Slivers.



    After the first round of one on one play–Jack vs Matt, Me vs Dylan, Derek vs Liam–the boys went for some Three Headed Giant. The rules were similar to two headed giant but the started with 40 health and things went even slower.



    Jack scooped once the Sliver were +5/+5 First Strike & Vigilant. 

    Cody had a great time playing his DSi.


    We did have some Two Headed Giant type questions.

    Does the Whip of Erebos grant Lifelink for all the creatures on one side of the battle ground or only the player who controls it.



    we voted that it only effected the specific creatures that Dylan had cast.

    Can Niv do damage to both players in a Two Headed Giant match [or in our case all three players in a Three Headed Giant match] and draw two [or three] cards?


    We ruled that he could not, that the other players counted as one player–but I am pretty sure that the rules cover this with 810.7b but I may be missing something.

    In any event, Lisa made Cinnamon rolls which made a mess on the cards, we had some good trading, and the event was a huge success–again.

  • 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!

  • 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”?



  • 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.

  • Evan the Canadian, Slivers win Again, GW Two Headed Giant SMACK DOWN

    Another great morning of Magic for Jack and the South Lake crew. 

    Tuesday’s is late start day & we live across the street from the Junior High so the kids come over for a little Tuesday Morning with Magic. 

    And Lisa cooks muffins–this week it was pumpkin!


    we are in training for the Theros Game day, so Alexander made everyone these great labels for their deck boxes.


    Andrew forgot his deck box, so he wore his on his head.

    Alexander started his first match against Evan who was running my Sliver deck. Even standing at the table did not help him–Evan won easily.


    Jack started off against Matt–it was a great match which Matt actually won.


    After that we went into the Two Headed Giant match which is really what the boys come over to play–they love the head to head team action. Also, Matt & Evan were both undefeated, so having them on opposing teams set up a great match.



    The stage was set for a huge match.


    All possible tokens were found.


    The match started off fairly slowly.

    But Jack was quickly able to build up a 25/25 trample, life link creature.


    Alexander & Matt resigned at 15-90; but not because they were loosing–but because the boys needed to get back to school.

    This week we only had one rules question.

    Matt cast Riot Control to stop Jack from doing 22.


    The issue came when we tried to count the number of Creatures. 

    Jack had Bestowed three Creature Aura’s onto his Creature. 

    Does this count as four creatures or is it one creature with three auras?


    we ruled that it was four creatures, mostly because the game was over and we wanted everyone to have fun, but I thin that the correct answer is that they are bestowed as Aura’s and are not Creature’s and the correct ruling was that it was one creature.

  • Removing a Planeswalker

    Jack and I were playing Magic at the Pokemon X&Y release event. 



    Jack cast Ajani, Caller of the Pride


    I had reacted at Instant speed with two Spark Jolts


    and a Magma Jet



    assigning all damage to the Player Ajani.

    Jacked rightfully questioned this play. 

    We ruled that this was not legal since Ajani is not a creature & not a player.

    Is this the correct ruling?

    Is there a general guide to Planeswalker removal?