I'm Mike, from The Mana Pool.

I first learned to play around the release of Ice Age (1995-ish) and was strongly involved with playing casually and at local events until early 2020, when I had to back off for obvious reasons. I got back into playing a little bit in 2022 with a few prereleases and casual meet-ups here and there and I still enjoy keeping up with Magic news and new sets.

As a general rule, my deckbuilding is influenced far more than it should be by what I think would be "interesting/fun/funny" instead of what's probably the better choice of cards. The friend who first taught me how to play had a very strong philosophy of "Not every card is good, but pretty much any card can be made good" and the casual groups I spent the most time playing with over the years were always keen on figuring out how to make effective game plans from odd ideas. It was all immensely fun and it's still a big influence on my approach to the game.

I also tend to design and build strictly from my existing collection. If there's a good card for a deck that I don't have in a list, there's a good chance I don't own any, but please suggest it anyway so that maybe I'll remember to go out and find it.

I was a DCI-certified Rules Advisor under older versions of the Magic Judge program and I still keep up with new mechanics and rules changes. I'm the "rules guy" of my casual play group and I like to hang out in the Rules Q&A area here on Tapped Out. If you notice a mistake in one of my responses, don't be shy about pointing it out because above all else, I want whatever question I'm responding to to be answered correctly!

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DocChamby: Answers to your question have been up for a while. Since there don't seem to be any follow-ups or corrections that need to be made, I marked one of them as the "Accepted answer" so this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future you can take care of this yourself using the "Mark as Answer button on the response that you feel is the most helpful answer to your question.

March 24, 2025 8:59 a.m.

DonaldFuck: Since it's clear you got a satisfactory answer to your question and there don't seem to be any more follow-ups or corrections that need to be made, I marked it as the "Accepted answer" so this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future you can take care of this yourself using the "Mark as Answer" button on the response that you feel is the most helpful answer to your question.

March 20, 2025 8:51 a.m.

If you're still looking for some nonbasics to remove, I recommend Horizon of Progress and Mirrorpool.

For the Horizon, it's the most overcosted version of the effect between itself and Terrain Generator, Walking Atlas and Scaretiller, and I don't think you need that level of redundancy given it doesn't feel like you have quite enough card draw to get that many excess lands in your hand in the first place.

For Mirrorpool, it's going to be awkward to activate and your selection of great targets is kind of limited.

March 17, 2025 12:13 p.m. Edited.

Monomanamaniac: An answer to your question has been up for a while. Since there don't seem to be any follow-ups or corrections that need to be made, I marked it as the "Accepted answer" so this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future you can take care of this yourself using the "Mark as Answer" button on the response that you feel is the most helpful answer to your question.

March 13, 2025 11:14 a.m.

Unfortunately no, that won't work. A copy of a spell is still a spell, so Emrakul's "protection from spells" ability means it can't be targeted by a copy of a spell.

To be clear, in case this is part of the question: Emrakul's protection ability that says "protection from spells and from permanents that were cast this turn" is a short way of writing "protection from spells and protection from permanents that were cast this turn". It doesn't mean "protection from spells that were cast this turn and protection from permanents that were cast this turn". If Emrakul only had protection from spells that were cast this turn, specifically, then this would work because Reverberate doesn't cast the copy of the spell, it just creates it directly on the stack.

March 10, 2025 9:11 a.m.

Said on What is the …...

#6

bjgivesbj: Since it's clear you got a satisfactory answer to your question and there don't seem to be any follow-ups or corrections that need to be made, I marked one of the responses as the "Accepted answer" so this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future you can take care of this yourself using the "Mark as Answer" button on the response that you feel is the most helpful answer to your question.

March 6, 2025 11:34 a.m.

Said on Donate Clone Shell...

#7

Yes, it works the same way. For both cards, the opponent will control the "when [this] dies" triggered ability, because "dies" and other "leaves the battlefield" triggers use information from the last moment something was on the battlefield to determine if and how they trigger. This means the part of the ability that says "put it onto the battlefield under your control" will be talking to the opponent as the ability resolves.

March 4, 2025 11:36 p.m.

It just counts the front face. A double-faced card only has the characteristics of the back face when it's either on the battlefield with the back face up or on the stack with the back face up. In any other situation, it just has the characteristics of the front face.

March 4, 2025 11:31 p.m.

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MTG Decks

Scion of the Ur-Dragon

Commander / EDH Rhadamanthus

SCORE: 72 | 131 COMMENTS | 168545 VIEWS | IN 74 FOLDERS

Muldrotha, the Gravetide

Commander / EDH Rhadamanthus

92 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer

Commander / EDH Rhadamanthus

SCORE: 4 | 7 COMMENTS | 1709 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Fumiko the Lowblood

Commander / EDH Rhadamanthus

SCORE: 64 | 47 COMMENTS | 25342 VIEWS | IN 20 FOLDERS

5-Color

Casual Rhadamanthus

SCORE: 12 | 30 COMMENTS | 40792 VIEWS | IN 6 FOLDERS

Dakkon Blackblade

Commander / EDH Rhadamanthus

SCORE: 9 | 33 COMMENTS | 8665 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS

Finished Decks 106
Prototype Decks 7
Drafts 2
Playing since Ice Age
Points 466
Avg. deck rating 10.63
T/O Rank 27
Helper Rank 91
Cards suggested / good suggestions 58 / 46
Venues Lucky's Card Shop, The Toy Factory
Cards Added/Fixed 9
Joined 14 years