Q: Balance & Anti-Magic
Kartherma
writes:
It's my understanding that they only protect from spells that specifically
target specific creatures, but are still effected by spells that effect
all creatures. (e.g. Wrath of God).
Aaron
> What happens if you have an Anti-Magic Auraed creature, or an untapped
> Spectral Cloaked one and someone casts Balance. Assume they have no
> creatures. By the same reasoning that Black Knights cannot be balanced,
> shoulded the Cloaked or Auraed creatures survive the Balance?
>
> Thanks,
> Warren
Balance does not directly target a creature; therefore, any creature that
is in play can be effected by it even the ones that have protection
white(including the black knight) or any other protection against spells
directly targeting them. It's in the instrution manual if you want to read
more about it.
Aaron
RICHARD KENAN
: In article <Cxo2y...@metronet.com>, ww...@metronet.com (Warren Wang)
: wrote:
: > What happens if you have an Anti-Magic Auraed creature, or an untapped
: > Spectral Cloaked one and someone casts Balance. Assume they have no
: > creatures. By the same reasoning that Black Knights cannot be balanced,
: > shoulded the Cloaked or Auraed creatures survive the Balance?
: >
: Balance does not directly target a creature; therefore, any creature that
: is in play can be effected by it even the ones that have protection
: white(including the black knight) or any other protection against spells
: directly targeting them. It's in the instrution manual if you want to read
: more about it.
Actually, by the most recent rulings I've found, Balance is considered
to be targetted, because the controller of a creature has to decide
which creatures get buried. Thus, he would have to say "You there.
Yes, you, the Black Knight. Time to die," and the Knight would say
"No I don't, you can't point that Balance at me, it's white, and I'm
protected from white."
Balance actually ignores the existence of invalid targets, so if you
have only black knights, white warded creatures, and (I'd assume)
Anti-magic Aura'd and Spectral Cloaked creatures, your opponent would
have to bury all his creatures, which would be very painful.
Yes, this is all from the rules team, as silly as it sounds. There
really isn't a clearly better way to rule on this, as far as I can
tell.
Just me.
--
Richard Kenan
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!eefacdk
Internet: eef...@prism.gatech.edu
Mark A. Havener
>> What happens if you have an Anti-Magic Auraed creature, or an untapped
>> Spectral Cloaked one and someone casts Balance. Assume they have no
>> creatures. By the same reasoning that Black Knights cannot be balanced,
>> shoulded the Cloaked or Auraed creatures survive the Balance?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Warren
>Balance does not directly target a creature; therefore, any creature that
>is in play can be effected by it even the ones that have protection
>white(including the black knight) or any other protection against spells
>directly targeting them. It's in the instrution manual if you want to read
>more about it.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>Aaron
Jeez Aaron, sarcasm doesn't become you, especially when your WRONG! The
current ruling is that Balance is a "semi-targeted" effect (ie someone has
to choose what's affected). Therefore the Black Knight is protected. As
far as I can see, Anti-Magic Aura should protect from Balance in a similar
fashion, though I'm not Tom. Tom?
Mark
"Real Men Play Black"
hav...@ecst.csuchico.edu
Tom Wylie
lands and creatures are effectively targetted by it, since you're
choosing what gets equalizied, and therefore effects such as protection
from white and Spectral Cloak will make a creature immune to it.
For simplicity's sake, such lands and creatures aren't even counted
by the Balance when it checks to see how many lands/creatures everyone has.
Creatures with Anti-Magic Auras would be ignored by Balance completely,
since they cannot be targetted by Sorceries.
Tom Wylie rec.games.deckmaster Network Representative for
aa...@hal.com Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
Warren Wang
Maybe I'm crazy, but it's crazy and it's true...
Actually, Balance does *not* affect creatures that either are White
Warded or have Protection from White (as in the case of the Black Knight).
I'm not sure WHAT the specific ruling was from WotC, BUT I think it has
to do with the fact that the spell TARGETS each creature as you count them,
and it CAN'T target a White Warded creature.
Mark
Dennis G Parslow
>FROM: Maybe I'm crazy, but it's crazy and it's true... <00mast...@bsuvc.bsu.edu>
The phone support staff is currently telling people that Balance *does*
affect White Warded creatures and creatures with protection from black.
I was shocked when a co-worker called to prove me wrong on this point.
Dennis Parslow Psycho chicks are the BEST!
Troy, NY 12180 (from Hardball)
p00...@psilink.com
Please! A number of you are crashing my e-mail with large headers.
I must ask that anyone either use an alias for the to: and cc: or else
just don't put me on some mailing list at all.
Thanks.
Tom Wylie
There are two ways Balance could be approached. One is that because
you are deciding what lands and creatures to get rid of, it's essentially
a targetted effect, and therefore should ignored protected creatures.
The other approach is that you simply count up lands/creatures and get
rid of any excess, so you're essentially sacrificing them, and thus
protection and so forth should be irrelevant.
The original design team ruling was in favor of the first option: Balance
is targetted, so ignores protected creatures, and (to avoid paradox) doesn't
even count them at all. Some of the newer customer service folks seem to
have been unaware of the ruling, and in fact lean towards the sacrifice
approach to Balance. The matter is going to be taken up with the design
team again so that everyone is in synch.
Joseph William Dixon
: Having just gotten off the phone with customer service...
[description of the difference in opinion between newer CustServ reps
and the design team deleted for brevity]
Personally, I lean towards non-targetted... Balance mentions *nothing*
about target creatures, lands or cards, so... But, my opinion hardly
counts... :)