[Article]Eternal Europe: Legen-dary

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Well, everybody is talking about the latest rules changes, but hopefully you'll still be interested in my point of view:

http://www.starcitygames.com/article...egen-dary.html

Enjoy!

[Mewens]

It's refreshing to see someone not predicting the end of gaming as we know it as a result of these rules changes. I've seen so much overhyped bellyaching that I'm surprised there hasn't been a run on Tums (note to self: Buy some playsets of Tums).

I have to disagree on the lands rule, though: I don't think it's a good thing for the game (at least from where I'm sitting). It feels like Wizards created a rule specifically to close a loophole that was intuitive to anyone with a decent grasp of the rules – a loophole that, generally speaking, only those kinds of advanced players would bump into. It feels really weird to create a rule to specifically address a fairly niche interaction. (I suppose it's possible that we'll be seeing more "play an additional land" rules in future sets, which would explain the change.)

I'm not ragequitting over the rule change or anything, but I'm not a fan of it.

[TsumiBand]

I'm surprised at the number of people who have expressed disdain over the reworked lands-per-turn rules. How often was this actually a thing? Or was it more along the lines of commiserating what might have been - "Aw there goes a cool but unplayable line of play. All that time I spent thinking about how I'd build TurboLand if it was good, and now I never got my shot at playing a combo I wasn't seriously considering."

But yeah, bring on the Champion Edition mirror matches. I'm all for it.

Good catch in the article regarding Flagstones of Trokair. It's a Plains and a fetchland now, I guess? Sorta kinda? I don't think I'd call it a strictly better Plains, but yes, it does indeed have potential to do neat things.

[Mewens]

It used to come up a lot for me, since U/G Enchantress was my first Legacy deck when I returned to the game, and it's possible that's colored my reaction to the change.

Still, I don't really get why they'd add a rule to specifically close a very narrow loophole that should be fairly intuitive to most people who'd see it. It's not about living in a world where I can Words of Wind my Exploration 18 times to play out my extra land drops; it's about understanding that not all rules have to be prime facie intuitive. Maybe I'm living in a fantasy world, but I think it's fair to say some interactions that are unintuitive on the surface would be intuitive by the time a player had enough games under his or her belt to actually run into them. This isn't combat damage; it's bouncing Exploration (and let's be honest, that's the only situation in which this rule comes up in any format).

tl;dr: It's my natural crankiness at fixing something that didn't seem broke.

[Koby]

I tend to agree that the land-drop rule change wasn't really needed, but in the effort to simply the rules understanding in order to increase rules comprehension and cohesiveness, it's in the right.

Wizards could have just as easily errata'd the rules to enable such land-drop effects to simply go +1. IMO, only allowing additional land drops if you still have one remaining is less intuitive. Adapt and learn I suppose, and as other have pointed out - this is a niche interaction that comes up very infrequently.

[HammafistRoob]

Good article I agree with most of your assessments.

However, I don't understand the arguement that the new uniqueness ruling ruined flavor. With the old rules, Planeswalkers/Legends just died upon somehow "being in two places at once". Could you please elaborate on why you think that was any better from a flavor standpoint?

I love that people will actually have to play answers to Jitte if they fear it. I predict cards like Vindicate/ Maelstrom Pulse/ Detention Sphere/ Oblivion Ring get more play once these rules start to settle in.

[[SLAYER]chaos]

However, I don't understand the arguement that the new uniqueness ruling ruined flavor. With the old rules, Planeswalkers/Legends just died upon somehow "being in two places at once". Could you please elaborate on why you think that was any better from a flavor standpoint?

I always imagined it was something like if you try to summon a legendary to two places at once their existence was torn and they died.

[TsumiBand]

I always imagined it was something like if you try to summon a legendary to two places at once their existence was torn and they died.

Eh yeah but it's kinda like, then why can Balthor the Defiled and Balthor the Stout be on opposite sides of the table? They're "supposed to be" the same guy. If Black Balthor fights and kills Red Balthor, then it's all kinds of paradox-style weirdness.

I'm sticking to my 'Champion Edition' theory. It's the only way this madness makes sense.



They just need to push out alternate costumes for every Planeswalker and Legendary permanent in the game. Even Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile.

[Amon Amarth]

Good article.

I wonder if there is a control shell for the Dark-Stage deck, something like a Counterbalance deck. Deals with all the hate for your combo as well as controlling the game so you can fire it off. Seems like an interesting option. I also really like jamming it in 43 Lands too, really sick there.

[Norm]

I don't typically respond to your article posts here but man that title is fantastic. Well done, sir.