Card of the Day - Blessings of the Sun, Scarfire Ritual, Dreamcraft

What scatter basically means is that each player plays the spell. It's slightly more complex than that, but that's mostly nitpicky rules issues that won't matter most of the time. Here's how it goes down:

You play a spell with scatter. The spell goes on the stack.
The scatter ability goes on the stack.
Each other player puts a copy of the spell on the stack. If there are two or more other players, the put the spells on the stack in turn order. Since these spells are copies, the scatter ability does not trigger.
The spells resolve. Because of the way the stack works, they should resolve in reverse turn order. Barring any (as of yet nonexistent) stack-order-manipulation, your spell will resolve last.




Scatter isn't a wuss mechanic like ripple or cascade. There is no "may" in the text. Each other player must play his or her copy. Mana production is my favorite thing to be even-handed with as the same amount of mana can seriously help you and seriously hurt your opponent. Unless, of course, Wizards gets rid of mana burn. That would be tragic.




Hey now! You remember reclaim? There's a whole lot of copying going on here, so let me clarify things:

Both reclaim and scatter are triggered at the same time, so I believe you get to choose how to stack them.
When the scatter ability resolves, each other player copies this spell. Since their versions are copies, their scatter abilities don't trigger. However, the reclaim abilities of these copies still trigger, so your opponents are given the option of reclaiming two lands to copy their Dreamcrafts.
When the reclaim ability resolves, if you reclaim two lands, you can copy your Dreamcraft.

Because of the way it works, scatter will only trigger once (on the original spell). I want reclaim to work so that it only triggers once for each scattered spell and once for the original. Unfortunately, I believe the current wording means that you can use reclaim on each of the copies created by reclaim abilities, which was not my intent. The easiest fix would be adding an "if it's not a copy" clause to reclaim, but that would change the way Dreamcraft functions. Currently (at least in my ideals), it makes each player draw a card and then gives each player the option of bouncing two of their lands to draw another. If I added a "not a copy" clause to reclaim, it would each player draw a card and then give only you the option of another.

Quite a conundrum.

Original Art - Blessings of the Sun
Original Art - Scarfire Ritual
Original Art - Dreamcraft

Card of the Day - Fell Banishing, Impromptu Revival, Worldmoss

Confession time. I did not create reclaim. I discovered it during a brief stint on the MTG Salvation forums. Someone else had created a fair few intelligent, well-designed cards with it and I thought, "this is just what I need for Chicken." Chicken, the codename of the first set in the Chicken block (followed by Noodle and Soup) had a land-matters theme. A mechanic that messed around with lands would be a welcome addition. So, being the well-mannered individual that I am, I politely sent the creator a message asking if I could use his mechanic. This was a nicety. I did not have to do it. Only Wizards of the Coast has copyrights for cards and mechanics. But I wanted to be thoughtful and to honor the collective illusion of control, and to give him a chance to feel good about graciously granting my request. The response I received was anything but polite. It informed me that I could use reclaim but that I was not to display any cards I created with it. Although it granted permission, it did so grudgingly. This guy seemed insulted that I should even notice this mechanic he had revealed in the public domain for all to see, let alone request to use it. Well, I'm violating his terms. I've been able to use reclaim since the second I laid eyes on it, permission or not. Reclaim's creator is a smart fella and a good designer. But that doesn't give him permission to be rude.

NOTA BENE: None of my cards or mechanics or names or what-have-you belong to me. Not reclaim, not fervor, not portend, not anything. Only the art has some ownership attached to it, and none of it's mine. Even if I did have control over these things, I would encourage people to use them. Collaboration (even when not actually working together) fosters creativity. Just look at growing (the mechanic Shenafu based on doublethink). And look at the new way I'm using reclaim:




Reclaim is one of those things that gives me difficulty when judging the power level. So I'm not sure if Fell Banishing is good or if it's terrible or if it's just mediocre. But I am sure that it's neat. And yes, the discard triggers for both spells if you reclaimed a swamp.




This is exactly the sort of card I railed against during Shadowmoor. Sure, white does get some zombify effects, and green does get some raise dead effects, but mono-green doesn't get zombify. Because of cards like Temple Garden and Hermit's Hovel, you can get 3 Plains in a mono-green deck. It is better than hybrid in that you HAVE to have some way to get white mana to get its white ability, but it irks me that you don't actually have to use that mana.

But I'm getting too serious about this. After all, Magic is just a game (and these cards aren't even real).




What do we do with games? We win them! Twice!

EDIT: The original version let you win the game without actually reclaiming any lands. While certainly amusing, it was slightly overpowered. The problem has been subdued.

I just lost the game.

Original Art - Fell Banishing
Original Art - Impromptu Revival
Original Art - Worldmoss

Card of the Day - Rage Infusion and Desmodu Raid

Reclaim is, like so many other mechanics, a form of kicker cost. Reclaim is functionally superfluous because any reclaim card can be made with kicker. Then again, so are entwine and evoke. It's not an issue.

When you play Rage Infusion, you chose whether or not to bounce the two lands. If you do, you copy Rage Infusion and chose a new target for the copy (although it can also target the same creature). The spell and the copy resolve separately, so countering will only affect one of them. You can only reclaim once per spell.




This card should be red. The only reason it's black is because of the art. The critters (called gremlins by the artist) look uncannily like desmodu, bat people in Dungeons and Dragons. They also look uncannily unlike goblins. And there has yet to be a bat printed that wasn't black. Who am I to break that cycle?

A terrible designer, that's who.

Original Art - Rage Infusion
Original Art - Desmodu Raid