Shut up and read
January 8th 2010 02:04
“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign,
Blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind.
Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?”
-- Five Man Electrical Band
I think the card Troll Ascetic is pretty cool, but it’s probably a good thing it’s no longer legal in Standard. As little as I understand some of Wizards of the Coast’s game design decisions, I do understand what the noted Magic writer Brian Moorhead was talking about when he commented that Zendikar’s Day of Judgment is even better than Wrath of God when you play your own regenerating creatures. Can you imagine how obnoxious a card like Troll Ascetic would be if even the resident four-mana white sorcery couldn’t get rid of it?
I have a more interesting Troll Ascetic story, though. The last time I played against one, the guy who controlled it blocked and activated its regeneration. As we moved to the end of combat, he picked up the Troll and set it aside, near his deck.
“Wait,” I protested, “I thought you regenerated?”
“Yeah,” he replied, “but when it does, you remove it from the game and then bring it back.”
“No, you remove it from combat.”
“. . . Really?”
“Yes!” I said. I peered over at his card, a copy of the Mirrodin version. Playing a hunch, I asked, “Do you have a Tenth Edition version? Look at the reminder text.”
The guy wasn’t dumb. He wasn’t a terrible player. But he was relatively new to the game, and had learned how regeneration works from reading reminder text. When the text wasn’t in front of him, he tried to remember what it said, and accidentally conflated one phrase with a similar (and common) one. This is the inevitable consequence of the dreadfully detailed reminder text used in modern Magic: instead of actually learning what abilities do, players can come to rely on always having the ability written out in front of them, and stumble when they don’t.
(And of course, there are situations where even having the reminder text in front of you doesn’t help.)
Give a man a fish and he eats for a week; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. By writing reminder text on cards, Wizards of the Coast is not only cutting off opportunities for flavor exploration. They’re giving us a fish. To build a community of players who are interested in the game, appreciative of its strategic nuances, and unlikely to reach overload after less than two years, they should be teaching us to fish – by taking the reminder text off the cards.
Answer to rules question
If you have Teferi, you can suspend the Aeon Chronicler (or any creature with the ability) whenever you could play an instant. The suspend ability replaces playing the creature normally, and can be done any time you could play the creature normally, which is modified by Teferi . . . but this isn’t written on either of the cards.
Blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind.
Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?”
-- Five Man Electrical Band
I think the card Troll Ascetic is pretty cool, but it’s probably a good thing it’s no longer legal in Standard. As little as I understand some of Wizards of the Coast’s game design decisions, I do understand what the noted Magic writer Brian Moorhead was talking about when he commented that Zendikar’s Day of Judgment is even better than Wrath of God when you play your own regenerating creatures. Can you imagine how obnoxious a card like Troll Ascetic would be if even the resident four-mana white sorcery couldn’t get rid of it?
I have a more interesting Troll Ascetic story, though. The last time I played against one, the guy who controlled it blocked and activated its regeneration. As we moved to the end of combat, he picked up the Troll and set it aside, near his deck.
“Wait,” I protested, “I thought you regenerated?”
“Yeah,” he replied, “but when it does, you remove it from the game and then bring it back.”
“. . . Really?”
“Yes!” I said. I peered over at his card, a copy of the Mirrodin version. Playing a hunch, I asked, “Do you have a Tenth Edition version? Look at the reminder text.”
The guy wasn’t dumb. He wasn’t a terrible player. But he was relatively new to the game, and had learned how regeneration works from reading reminder text. When the text wasn’t in front of him, he tried to remember what it said, and accidentally conflated one phrase with a similar (and common) one. This is the inevitable consequence of the dreadfully detailed reminder text used in modern Magic: instead of actually learning what abilities do, players can come to rely on always having the ability written out in front of them, and stumble when they don’t.
(And of course, there are situations where even having the reminder text in front of you doesn’t help.)
When can you suspend an Aeon Chronicler if you control Teferi? Answer at the end.
Give a man a fish and he eats for a week; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. By writing reminder text on cards, Wizards of the Coast is not only cutting off opportunities for flavor exploration. They’re giving us a fish. To build a community of players who are interested in the game, appreciative of its strategic nuances, and unlikely to reach overload after less than two years, they should be teaching us to fish – by taking the reminder text off the cards.
Answer to rules question
If you have Teferi, you can suspend the Aeon Chronicler (or any creature with the ability) whenever you could play an instant. The suspend ability replaces playing the creature normally, and can be done any time you could play the creature normally, which is modified by Teferi . . . but this isn’t written on either of the cards.
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