Judge's Den: The First Layer

Welcome to Wizardden.com 's new seven week series on layers. This week's Judge's Den will explain what layers are, why the matter to you, and will cover the first layer.

Layers are how continuous effects are applied. If you have ever heard the phrase "time-stamp" in a game, it was in reference to a layer. "Time-stamp" refers to what the last effect of a certain type to happen, this helps you determine which one is still in effect if they contradict each other. For example you make a creature blue then you turn it green. It was made green last so that time stamp says that is is just green. Understanding how layers work will greatly expand your ability to identify exactly what is happening when multiple contradicting effects are happening all a once.

There are seven layers in total, each with it's own article link here:

Copy Layer

Control Layer

Text Layer

Type Layer

Color Layer

Ability Layer

Power/ Toughness Layer

Today we are going to cover the copy, aka clone layer. The copy layer is extremely important to understand, because it is easily the most misunderstood layer among FNM goers and all other layers build on top of this one. Every aspect of a card or token has a starting value depicted by the printed text of the card or the text that created the token. This is your default for the copy layer. If you Clone an object this default is what you will clone. You will not copy other effects such as the +3/+3 of a Giant Growth or type changing effect of an active Mutavualt. You will copy exactly what the printed text of the original object is. In the case of an activated Mutavualt your Clone will be a nonactive Mutavualt.

There is an exception to that rule however. If some other copy effect is active on that layer then subsequent copies will take on those qualities. For example our cloned Mutavualt would give you a Mutavualt when cloned instead of a 0/0 blue shapeshifter creature named Clone. Where things get sticky is when you have multiple cloning effects, some of which may add additional abilities such as Phantasmal Image or Progenitor Mimic. These get super tricky because they not only copy, but they add qualities to that copy. Since these additions are part of the copying effect they will also be copied if another Clone effect chooses the Image or Mimic. In some cases, such as Progenitor Mimic, you can end up with multiple additional abilities for example making multiple tokens every turn.
Thank you for joining us here at Wizardden.com and look forward to the up coming Judge's Den articles on the other six layers.

Modern Master 2015 event schedule

We've had several people ask about our event schedule and pre-release prices for modern masters 2015 edition, so, you wanted it, you got it!

Release Draft: $35

Thursday, May 21st @ 11:59 PM

Modern Masters 2015 Sealed: $75

Sunday, May 24th @ 12:00PM

(Sponsored by Wizard Den and Phoenix Fire Games)

Booster Box Pre-order

$249.99

Booster Case Pre-order

$999.99

Pre-orders are while supplies last and they're going fast. Be sure to get your order in soon. We're already almost out! 

Order Here!

Wizard Den: Trinisphere

Trinisphere is worth dedicating the entirety of this week's Judge's Den to. Last week I covered the importance of maintaining the order of your graveyard in preparation for Wizardden.com 's Vintage League. Had I thought it through a little more, I would have realized that I should have also discussed the oddest card ever when it comes to casting spells, Trinisphere.

First off in order to understand this card you must first understand how to cast a spell. Sounds easy sure, but truth is most magic players do not know how to properly cast a spell.

Announce- Reveal it and announce the spell

Choose Modes- Choose a mode or modes (Crux of Fate, Dromoka's Command)

Target- Choose any necessary targets

How to Distribute-Determine how to distribute if necessary. (Arc Lightning) Once this choice has been made you can not change your mind on the distribution at a later point.

Total Cost-First determine the cost, then apply any cost increases, next apply any cost decreases, finally apply any cost setting effects (Trinisphere).

Mana Abilities- Activate any mana abilities

Pay All Costs- Pay any remaining costs of the spell or ability

We are going to focus on the total cost step. Notice the Trinisphere is the last step, this means that it catches any and all spells as long as they are being cast. Force of Will, Windbrisk Heights, and Omniscience all get caught by the all powerful Trinisphere. For more clarification here are the rulings on Trinisphere.

• 12/1/2004-Trinisphere's ability affects the total cost of the spell. It is applied *after* any other cost increases or cost reducers are applied: First apply any cost increases. Next apply any cost reducers. Finally look at the amount of mana you have to pay. If it's less than three mana, you'll pay three mana.
• 12/1/2004-Even with a cost reducer on the battlefield, spells can't cost less than three mana to cast.
• 12/1/2004-If a spell costs at least three mana due to additional costs, such as kicker costs, that's fine.
• 12/1/2004-You still need to pay any additional nonmana costs the spell has, such as sacrificing a creature or discarding cards.
• 12/1/2004-Casting a creature with morph face down already costs three mana, even though the converted mana cost of the face-down spell is zero, so Trinisphere normally doesn't modify the total cost of a face-down creature spell. However, if Dream Chisel is reducing that cost while Trinisphere is on the battlefield, you'll still have to pay three mana for the spell.

Moral of the story is everything must cost at least three mana to cast. This does not change the converted mana cost of the spell, it simply makes you pay additional mana. I will also add that delve and convoke will not get trapped by the sphere. Phyrexian mana on the other hand is currently subject to the sphere. Trinisphere asks you to pay three mana even if you paid life to meet the cost of the symbol. I say currently because convoke used to also be restricted by the sphere, but in 2015 the changed the wording on the ability, a similar change for phyrexian mana would make sense. Each of those are alternate ways to pay for the spell, but don't reduce to cost. Since they do not reduce the cost Trinisphere will not make them cost more. This has been Ariel with Wizardden.com, thank you for reading and look forward to next week's edition of Judge's Den.

Thug life at the "Real" Idaho State Championship and other true stories I didn't make up...

Hey guys's and gal's. I'm back again to talk about my favorite standard archetype; Mono-Black Aggro(MBA, Thug life, etc). I Know I've touched on this subject a few times before but some big things have been happening regarding the deck and I really wanted to get this out there while it's still relevant and I'm still experiencing some success with the deck.

So, as you know I put the deck back together for the first week of standard after the release of Dragons of Tarkir. The reason for that is because I felt it regained a solid foothold after Tomaharu Saito's near top 8 finish at GP memphis with a tribal iteration of the deck and showed us non-believers that the tools are still there for those willing to use them. So I heeded the call and built Saito's deck on magic online and started grinding. This of course being the version with obelisk of Urd. After testing the deck and reading some primers and reviews I started to make some changes. As some of you know, this list was featured in Starcity Game's CVM VS BBD versus video. BBD piloted it to a staggering 4-1 victory over CVM playing his revered G/R aggro, which was and is still a very popular archetype. After the match BBD stated; The Obelisk of Urd were awkward in his opening hands and he feels the slot in the deck would have been better served being a brutal hordechief. So, that's what I did. I replaced the playset of obilesk and played the chief and that's what I sleeved for the first FNM of the new format.

Obelisk V.S. Hordechief

Okay, I tried both ways. On paper and online and had success with both. One thing about Hordechief is; you don't have to take a turn off to cast him. With Obelisk, the most powerful use of this card is to convoke it out on turn three after starting 1drop on turn one into double 1drop on turn two and turn three convoke into a team of 4/3's and 3/3's to swing on turn four. Sounds great right? Well, not really and let me break it down.

The deck ran 14-16 one drops. The team of choice being:
Bloodsoaked Champion
Mardu Shadowspear
Ruthless Ripper
Tormented Hero

So, this crew is a deadly one. Bloodsoaked and Tormented hero being 2/1 for 1b(One black mana), Shadowspear being pseudo 2/1 with the life loss trigger and Ripper being the weakest as a 1/1 deathtouch but can drain life for two in a pinch late game. So let's assume you have a prime Obelisk hand.
 Bloodsoaked Champion, Bloodsoaked Champion, Ripper, Obelisk, Swamp, Swamp, bile blight.
This is an average but good hand and would be sequenced like this:
Turn One:
Swamp into bloodsoaked Champion. Pass turn.
Turn Two:
Attack with Champion, Second Main phase: Swamp into Bloodsoaked + Ripper)Or other 2/1 if drawn).
Turn Three: assume we draw a swamp
Play swamp, Convoke team into Obelisk naming Humans. Pass turn

We now have two 4/3's and 3/3. Which is great but, if you break down the damage here
Turn Two 2dmg with Champion
Turn 3 would have been 5 damage if we attack or 7 damage with a marauder or 5dmg plus putting additional threats in play.

Now with that what is the pay off of Obelisk? It gives our team +2/+2. That is a total additional damage of 6 assuming nothing dies before we get to combat. So it evens out or is more which is great right? Sure, except you are an aggro deck. You have to kill quickly. Most games end  by turns 4-6 is everthing goes correct and that's a win percentage of 80ish % if ended by turn 6. Each turn after 4 we lose at least a 10% chance of victory as the deck does not have the tools to deal with mid game bombs like Siege Rhino, tasigur, Elspeth, Stormbreath dragon ETC.

So, Let's look at the math replacing Obelisk with Brutal Hordechief in our opener.
Turn One Swamp, Bloodsoaked champion
Turn two, Attack for 2dmg, play bloodsoaked+Ripper
Turn three Attack for 5dmg + play a pain seer let's say.
Turn four play Brutal Hordechief, Attack for 7dmg plus a life drain of four from horde chief. Total 11 Damage. That would have our opponent in the single digits and dead any unblocked creatures or the Hordechief drain if he lives. I descided this was better than obelisk and testing showed it to be the case as with this list I took down the following undefeated:

First FNM of new standard format (First Version)
The following Thursday Night Competitive standard. (First Version)
Four different 8-4 single elimination standard 8mans on MTGO (Split between Old and Current list)
4-0 Finish in a 100+ player standard on MTGO (Old Version)
Second FNM the Friday before The "Real" Idaho State Championships. (New Version)

Old Version (Pre-Dragons of Tarkir)
Creatures:28
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Mardu Shadowspear
4 Tormented Hero
4 Pain seer
4 Mogis's Marauder
4 Brutal Hordechief

Spells:10
4 Ulcerate
4 Bile Blight
2 Hero's Downfall

Lands:22
2 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
16 Swamp

That is the main 60 I ran for about 2-3 weeks before dragons released.
With dragons came some sweet new additions to the deck:

Duress was huge for the list. Control was already favorable but with access to eight total hand disruption spells against them, it kept the match favorable, despite the upgrades to the archetypes.




Ultimate Price was also a huge addition as well. The card is arguably narrow, sure. But it solved a huge problem for us as previously, we couldn't kill anything with higher than 3 toughness without stretching our mana to fit hero's downfall. Very welcome addition.

Then we have Foul-Tongue Shriek. Easily the most underrated card of all time in my opinion. This card is a brutal hordechief trigger at instant speed for B(One black mana). That is insane. One huge issue with the chief is he almost never lives to combat if our opponent has anything to say about it and from testing with him, one trigger ends the game on the spot more often than not and this is a "Spot removal-Proof" Hordechief in this our deck. It has it's weaknesses, sure. It requires we have a team on board to even function and against control decks or removal heavy midrange that can be an issue but I've ended over half of my games with "Combat with the team. Before damage, Foul-tongue shriek for X. Good Games." Or even Double foul-tongue shriek which isn't uncommon. Maybe it's not a four of but from experience, I'm never sad to see or draw it.

Last we have the big daddy Pitiless Horde. To be honest he is a glass Cannon. Dies to everything except Wild slash and magma jet, but, He has a specific role to play thanks to his dash mechanic.
He is Wrath of God insurance/Punishment. He never gets played on turn 3 and is dashed near 100% of the time and only when my opponent is tapped out and that's usually after playing a siege rhino or destroying the board with end hostilities or crux of fate. Five damage uncontested is big game and to be honest, after a turn 5 crux of end hostilities, ends the game on the spot. He also Forces your opponent to trade their rhino or lose 1/4 of their life (Which to this point I haven't seen an abzan player willing to do that).

With those additions, here is the total 75 I brought to States and is as it sits, sleeved and in my deck box right now:

Current Version:

Creatures: 27
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Mardu Shadowspear
4 Tormented Hero
4 Pain Seer
4 Mogis's Marauder
3 Pitiless Horde

Spells: 11
4 Foul-Tongue Shriek
3 Bile Blight
2 Ultimate Price
2 Hero's Downfall

Land: 22
2 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
16 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Duress
2 Dark betrayal
2 Self-Inflicted Wound
4 Herald of Torment
3 Brutal Hordechief

As I stated I played this list at FNM the Night before the state championship. There was a last minute trial for the state championship being held at the same time as FNM. I would have played in that but I was working at the Wizard Den as Nick and Ariel were required to run the trial and played at the shop for that reason. I wasn't expecting high turn out and we had 10 people for 4 rounds of standard swiss. The crew consisted of a few Rogue T3ch members, Matthew Petro and William Lotz(Who had a top 4 finish the following day) and a few regulars who had to miss the Championships due to work or family obligations but all solid players, some I consider to be higher skilled players than myself so my 4-0 wasn't given to me by any stretch as I start the night against my worst matchup: Mono-red aggro, followed by Abzan Control. and then R/W aggro and capped off with a pseudo mirror with B/W warriors.

It's actually kind of funny, William Lotz was playing Abzan Control and because of being beaten by me 2-0 he chose to change decks to R/G aggro on the drive home to have a better game against me. We didn't get paired but it was the correct change given his finish and despite the popularity of the archetype, there were no copies of Abzan Midrange or control in the top 8 on saturday. (You're welcome Will. P.S. I love you).

My "Real" State Championship experience.
With my running success with the deck you must be asking yourself "If this is as good as he says it is, why did he only finish 25th going 3wins 3 loses on saturday?" Well, that is a great question and here's my best answer given my matches:

Round One
I am paired against Grae Gradzinski. A solid local player and a super sweet dude to say the least. He was playing Esper control (Esper Dragons as it's being called now, I guess). I knew this match-up very well as Teammate and Trial Winner William Pickett has been on the deck for a few weeks now. From the 100+ Games we jammed during the week I knew the match was very Play/Draw dependent as I was taxed with getting in enough damage that I could kill him in 1-2 turns following a turn 5 End hostilities. Of course I lost the die roll but thanks to some poor draws by my opponent and strong opening by me I was able to take game one. I opened Bloodsoaked champion into second Bloodsoaked + tormented hero backed by Marauder on 3 to finish him off turn 4 or 5 with an unanswered board. Phew, Through the fire but he was on the play and Had 4 drown in sorrows with my name on it. I boarded the following:

Out:
3 Bile Blight 2 Ultimate Price 2 Hero's downfall 2 foul-tongue shriek
In:
4 Duress 4 Herald of torment 1 Self-inflicted Wound

The Removal is dead except for after an attack with Ojutai so was an obvious cut. There are arguments for downfall but I don't care about Ashiok, so there's that. I Just wanted hand disruption and more threats to tax his removal, plus herald dodges drown in sorrow being a 3/3. The Self-inflicted wound was a gamble. If it hit the Ojutai, I was king for a day. If it didn't, It was a waste of space.  I was able to not over extend into drown in sorrow while developing the early game and Duress on turn 5 to confirm he didn't have a wrath and jam damage until he died. Sweet, starting the event 1-0 and the match 2-0 felt good. Let's keep doing that!

Round Two
I was not familiar with the player although he did know me by name, which was strange but cool. Overall courteous and respectful dude. He too was on Esper Dragons/Control and proceeded to crush me 2-0. There were some strong differences between His and Grae/Will Pickett's list. Mainly he had mainboard ashiok and jammed it on turn 3(He was on play). Also, he Mainboarded 4 Ojutai's command, which due to some early stumbling with a slower draw from me, he was able to counter my turn four play and gain four life, Followed by cycling 2 more copies on turns 5 and 6 to gain a total of 12 life over 3 turns followed by an Ojutai with counter/removal backups to close out game one. Game two was similar except instead of ashiok he utilized the playset of Surge of Righteousness he brought out of the board to shut out my early plays and Cycles Ojutai's command to take the game out of reach.

I'm now 1-1. Tough beats, But still in the game!

Round 3
Round 3 is upon me and I'm paired against Casey Robbins. I Believe I won the die roll but it hardly mattered as he took a mulligan to 5 and played a shivan reef. He never saw a second land that game. Game two, I had no Idea what he was on so just boarded in 2-3 duress as I saw blue. He was on jeskai tokens and played a Brimaz on curve backed by an anger the gods and that's all she wrote. With that, I replaced some shriek's and Downfalls with Hordechief and Self-inflicted wound. I can't recall the game exactly but I know it was close. I drew runner-runner bile blights that closed out the game and knocked Casey out of top 8 contention (Sorry Bro, but had to be one of us).

Round 4
Paired against another unknown player and he was on Abzan control. Game one was unfortunate for him as he played four "Enters the battlefield tapped" lands and died before he could use them all. Game two I knew the match and sideboarded like this:

Out:
2 Ultimate Price 1 Gnarled Scarhide 1 Tormented hero 1 Bile Blight 1 Pain Seer 2 Foul-Tongue shriek
In: 4 Duress 2 Dark Betrayal 2 Self-Inflicted wound.

He was on the play and went Tapped land into caryatid. I Opened Scarhide into Self-Inflicted wound, swing for 2. He followed with a string of fleeceman lions. I got through with Mogis's Marauder untill we ended in a big board stall. I had 5 creatures totaling 10power on board and he had 3 Lions, caryatid and Satyr wayfinder at 6 life. I Have a foul-tongue shriek and dark betrayal in hand. I Draw a tormented hero. Swing and Shriek for 5 before blocks taking him to 1 life and lost my board. Followed by Tormented hero, target with dark betrayal for the win. Sick rip on my part and another win taking me to 3-1. Phew, almost there!

Round 5
I'm at one of the top tables and Paired against (Now State Champion) Ryan Courtouis. I know Ryan pretty well and had tested the Abzan Aggro matchup a little bit. I won the die roll and felt confident despite this being a bad matchup for my deck historically.  I Opened strong and had him at 2 life by turn 5. We were both hellbent and I had 2 power on board to his 0. He then draws Warden of the first three and makes it a 3/3. I draw land #5 and pass. He gives it lifelink and plays a land and passes. I draw land #6 and pass. He makes it an 8/8 lifelink and destroys me. Tough beats. On to sideboard.

Out:
4 Foul-tongue Shriek, 1 Pain seer, 2 ultimate price
In:
2 dark betrayal, 2 Self-inflicted wound, 3 duress

On the play I came out strong, Drew enough removal to clear a hole and deal with his threats and took it very quickly and we're in game 3. I Sideboard again.

Out:
1 Swamp 1 Duress
In:
2 Herald of torment

I wanted to lower the chance of Flood and up my threat count on the draw as he would have access to kill them before they can deal damage being on the play. I mulligan to 6 and keep a removal heavy hand, which, being on the draw seemed correct as he would most likely be the aggressor. We proceeded to trade 1-1 with everything eachother played untill we were both hellbent and top decking. He was low, at 3 life and I was still at 20 but I knew I was screwed as his top decks trump mine by a lot. I was drawing 2/1's that couldn't block and he had Siege rhino, Tasigur, Sorin etc in his deck. Like game one, he drew into a Warden of the First Tree and Gave it lifelink and counters almost immediately and beat me into oblivion. I ended with 9 swamp in play. Bummer. Flood happens but it's my fault for keeping a super-reactive 6 card hand. Bad beats and out of top 8 I go.

Round 6
My opponent and I didn't really play. I was on the draw and kept a bad hand. He kept a bad hand as well as we new we were out of top8 and wanted to have fun. He was on Jeskai tokens and didn't make a token 'till turn 8 or something. I had 13 swamp in play when I lost game one.
Neither of us sideboarded and neither mulliganed our terrible hands (6 lands and hero's downfall is what I kept LOL) Anyway, he beat me. We had some good laughs and ended the event on a good note. He took 13th and I fell to 25th but I didn't care about prize payout so I was fine.

Finished 3-3.
Played against:
Esper control - Esper Control- Jeskai Tokens- Abzan Control- Abzan Aggro- Jeskai Tokens
Beat 50% and lost 50% across the Archetypes. Had good beats and Bad. I don't regret any choices about my deck. Maybe should have taken a mulligan a few times when I didn't but overall I am satisfied with my finish and how we as team performed.

To those who took my list to the Event, Thank's for indulging me and following my articles.
To those seeing this, sorry for making it a novel but I love the deck and wanted to go in-depth for those who were curious or those looking for something to play in standard. I will continue to play the deck I already took down a standard 8-man today and it has yet to disappoint me.
So I'll continue to "Win fast or Die trying."

Until next time,
Christian

Grab Bag Sealed May 9th

Grab Bag Sealed! Wizardden.com is once again hosting a grab bag sealed event. This will run exactly like the last one, but we have some new goodies in the grab bags this time around. Here is a preview of what you can find in them, but this is not the final list.

Each of the cards in From The Vault: Annihilation
Tropical Island (rev)(LP)!!!!
Nissa Worldwaker (foil)
Ajani Steadfast (foil)
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker (foil)
Sorin, Solemn Visitor (foil)
Leyline of Sanctity
Polluted Delta (onslaught)
Demonic Tutor
Primeval Titan (foil)
Deathrite Shaman x2
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker (conflux foil)
Vindicate
Sen triplets
Glimmervoid (foil)
City of brass (foil)
Xenagos, the Reveler (foil)
Butcher of the Horde (foil)
Chord of Calling (foil)
And much much more!!!!!!!!


As a refresher the last event info can be found here. Prizes will be similar but different.

$20 entry, May 9th, noon, be there.

Vintage League Break Down

As you may have heard, Wizardden.com's Vintage League starts this Sunday. There have been plenty of questions about this event so here is the FAQ sheet on everything you need to know about the league.

• Cost: $15 one time fee for the four week period.
• Proxies? Yes, you may have every card in your deck proxied. These need to be printed proxies, black in white is fine however. Alternate art acceptable with approval.
• Prizes are a Tundra for the person with the most points at the end of the 4th Sunday and a Demonic Tutor for the person with the second most points.
• Can I change my deck? This league is not requiring you to stick to the same deck the entire time.
• What do we do? At 2pm on Sunday a structured tournament will be run that earns you points. This will have a minimum of 4 rounds for points sake. Before and after this tournament there is casual play that will also earn you points. (points seen below)
• Can I earn points on other days of the week? No, just on Sundays.

Points:

3 points for showing up on a Sunday (awarded each week, 12 points max)

3 points per tournament match win

1 point per tournament match loss

1 point per casual match win (max 10 per day, can be earned between noon and 5pm when the tournament is not happening)

1 point for each five cards not proxied in your 75 (awarded on the last league day)

Judge's Den: Otherwise Irrelevant

Ariel with Wizardden.com bringing you a very short Judge's Den article today a rule that in most most often otherwise irrelevant. Graveyard order. With our vintage league starting this weekend and legacy growing in the community now would be a good time to remind people about these rules. Here is the official rule on graveyards.

404. Graveyard
404.1. A player’s graveyard is his or her discard pile. Any object that’s countered, discarded, destroyed, or sacrificed is put on top of its owner’s graveyard, as is any instant or sorcery spell that’s finished resolving. Each player’s graveyard starts out empty.

404.2. Each graveyard is kept in a single face-up pile. A player can examine the cards in any graveyard at any time but normally can’t change their order. Additional rules applying to sanctioned tournaments may allow a player to change the order of cards in his or her graveyard.

404.3. If an effect or rule puts two or more cards into the same graveyard at the same time, the owner of those cards may arrange them in any order.

Prior to Urza's Saga there were cards that cared about the order of your graveyard, those cards fall into five categories based on how exactly they care.

While on the battlefield: Soldevi Digger, Volrath's Shapeshifter, Alms, Barrow Ghoul, Bosium Strip, Circling Vultures, Nature's Kiss, Necratog, Phyrexian Grimoire, Zombie Scavengers

 While in the graveyard: Ashen Ghoul, Death Spark, Krovikan Horror, Nether Shadow

 While in other zones: Corpse Dance, Shallow Grave, Spinning Darkness

 Care about your opponent's graveyard: Bone Dancer, Guiding Spirit, Phyrexian Furnace

 The odd ball (there's always at least one): Mistmoon Griffen

With that quick reminder we draw this week's Judge's Den to a close. Thank your for reading here at Wizardden.com.