Pump after the Block

I swing with Beetleform Mage:

Matt blocks with Young Pyromancer:

I pay the two to pump the Human Insect Wizard and hit for four taking none. 

Matt argues that I can pump after blocks are announced; however, the flying effect does not override the fact that I was already in blocked state.

Guardians of Meletis gets Frisky!

Another great morning of Magic with the Tuesday Crew. Lisa made amazing cinnamon rolls.

Jack went undefeated again. He is really playing well.

Derek's deck RW Deck has really started to turn the corner after we tuned it last week.

Evan went 1-1, he is using his little brothers deck & when he goes big he goes VERY BIG!

Alexander has not worked much on his deck & really needs to lower the mana curve of his RW Aggro deck. Liam is playing Esper and having fun, but needs better cards to really make the deck work.

Dylan is playing Dimir and loosing everytime--at this point I think he may be just sandbagging until Prerelease where he kills everyone.

Dylan also laid out the worlds greatest card of all time

and then enchanged it with Ordeal of Thassa, which is funny but does not really work!

I can think of no time in which this would be a useful play--am I missing something?

Exile vs. Dies

Another great morning of Tuesday Morning with Magic--Jack's Junior High magic fight. We had Seven boys--Derek, Alexander, Andrew, Matt, Evan, and Dylan. Jack went 4-0.

Derek was playing UR when he had a Elspeth in his hand, so I spent some time moving him to RW.

We only had one real rules question--the boys are getting much better & faster at playing.

Andrew cast Curse of the Swine:

On Evan's Pitchburn Devils:

Does the 3 damage to Andrew happen?

I ruled it did not because Death & Exile are not the same thing--dead cards go to the graveyard & exile is something different.

Death Saves

So this week in D&D Encounters we had a player drop to negative 10 Hit Points--yes, I am that much of a Bad Ass DM!

I am not sure exactly what the death & dying rules are for D&D Next? In 4E, Negative bloodied was dead dead--is that true in D&D Next? 

If a player is negative hit points do they still make death saves during their turn in Next?

Any tips on how this works would be helpful.

Minmaxing in D&D Next

I have a player at my table who is playing a death cleric. He is using a scythe as a polearm which we have agreed is doing a d10. He has some class feature that allows him to do an extra d8 three times a day for the entire combat. When he hits a target he is able to make a second swift attack. Finally, he has some kind of polearm feat that gives him threatening reach.

So while my other players are doing like a d6 per round this guy is often doing 2d10+2d8+2 which just seems completely broken.

My first question is am I missing something--I am fairly new to D&D Next and some of this character optimization may not be legal--can anyone validate that what this player is doing is actually possible RAW?

My second question is, does D&D Next support 'system mastery' in the same was a 3.0? Do 'advanced' players have significantly more powerful PC's simply because of rule mastery? 

I remember in 3.0 building encounters to just shut down certain PC's & prevent them from doing their 'tricks', I did not find I had to do that as much in 4.0 and I am curious if we are returning to those types of encounters?

Here is video of Thor's PC in action

Actual Play Legacy of the Crystal Shard--D&D Encounters S16 S1

Single Shot Gruul Key Rune

Another great week of Tuesday Morning with Magic--Evan's mom sent over tangerines & Lisa made banana chocolate chip muffins.

The Boys all rolled in right around 8:00 AM--at this point they all have their own decks & we are looking to create a tournament pool going foreword.

Andrew, Evan, and Dylan all had winning records.

Derek [who cracked a fantastic Planeswalker], Matt, and Jack did not fair as well--actually, I think Jack was undefeated--but Derek struggled and Matt got crushed.

We had more questions on Double Strike and blocking--still something that confuses the boys--we think Double Strike deals damage two times [once during first strike, once during normal combat], even when it is blocking.

The First Strike vs Deathtouch also came up again--we think First Strike damage is applied before Deathtouch & if the creature dies during First Strike Phase Deathtouch does not come into play.

And finally we had a question about the Grull Keyrune

can the Rug Cutter be summoned and turned into a creature in one turn for 3RG? We voted that it could--Artifacts do not have summoning sickness.

Actual Play Legacy of the Crystal Shard--D&D Encounters S16 S0

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!