May 2011 Oracle Update! Announcement

"In the first versions of the Magic Rules, the static abilities of Artifacts turned off if the artifact was tapped. When this rule changed, three cards (Winter Orb, Static Orb and Howling Mine) were issued errata to maintain this functionality. Since then Static Orb and Howling Mine have been reprinted with this erratum, but Winter Orb never was (except Online). If you pick this card up somewhere and you understand modern Magic rules, you'd never guess it would have to be untapped to function, and the once-common "tap my own Winter Orb at the end of your turn so I get to untap my lands" play would be utterly baffling. Well, we can't have that.

New wording: Players can't untap more than one land during their untap steps."

So, yes, that simply makes the Winter Orb to be played as printed. Still, it's wise to post this for the sake of completeness.
The reason is that I think the old functionality is not guaranteed to be known by everybody, or simply forgotten. 

Once again Chaos Orb created weird scenarios last saturday. Most people will advocate cutting this weird little card, but I think that's a tad harsh. There must be a way to fix it without neutering it or making it lame. The most common way for fixing Orb is turning it into a colorless (sometimes untargeted) Vindicate, while keeping the 1 mana actication cost (Voidslime cares!).

I think this is a lame fix. It removes the flipping aspect and nullifies Orb's ability to hit more that one permanent and the ability to miss. Let's sum up what I like and dislike about Chaos Orb in general:

Like:
-While the flipping of the card can lead to debate (Was it high enough? Did it rotate enough? etc.) I think most people will agree that the actual flipping is what makes the card fun.
-It's possible to miss your target, or even hit your own stuff instead.
-You can hit Shroud guys. Agreed, Shroud is there for a reason, but there should be non-WoG answers in colors that don't have Edicts.

Dislike:
-Armageddon your opponent. 'Nuff said.
-Debates about what is acceptable in playing around your opponent's Chaos Orb.

The biggest problem with the things I dislike is the usual close laying or piling of lands that players do. While you can easily hit more than one card, bottom ones are usually safe. This is both fair and unfair at the same time. You should always be able to see how much mana (or land) your opponent has, so straight up piling should always be frowned upon, but that visibility also creates more room to hit with Orb. However when this is done with Equipment, once again this is how we tend to play, I perceive that as fun as an Orb thrower. 

I wish to propose two possible fixes that we can choose from: One with and one without flipping.

1) I believe the actual legroom for fixing Chaos Orb lays in the 'not being allowed to move your permanents when Chaos Orb is announced' ruling. As such a fix could be that the 'receiving' player is allowed to re-arrange his lands next to eachother in such a fashion as he would his creatures, without moving a land from the actual spot the pile was on.

2) Chaos Orb could also be fixed to have the opponent sacrifice two non-land permanents. The three strikes against this fix are: the weilder will almost never hit what he most wants to hit, the weilder doesn't get to flip and receivers that remember to play around the Orb get no reward. The good part is its ability to hit shrouded permanents. This second option doesn't have my vote of confidence, but I believe that I cannot merely propose one fix.

What do you guys think about these options? Or do you have a third option?

Update #30 will feature the addition of Phyrexian Processor from Urza's Saga. You might wonder why that is a problem... Well as you can see above Phyrexian Processor has been reworded in the Phyrexia versus Coalition duel deck version: The life payment part of the card is no longer a triggered ability and thus cannot be Voidslimed, or Stifled or Trickbinded. Admitted, this is a niche interaction that will hardly occur, if ever. But I still think it's probably a good thing to highlight.

For reference the Lignify rulings from Gatherer:

Wizards of the Coast has provided a lot of errata and clarifications to this wonderfully quirky card, but since the emergence of competitive play, it has become a distant memory. The reality is that it is too hard to adjudicate how exactly the artifact’s ability resolves. Its unfeasible for a judge to be present during the casting and resolution of a Chaos Orb to make sure the card's instructions are followed as written. So to alleviate the problem, the DCI banned Chaos Orb in 1995, and it has not seen tournament play since.

Oracle Text, for reference:
1,T: If Chaos Orb is on the battlefield, flip Chaos Orb onto the battlefield from a height of at least one foot. If Chaos Orb turns over completely at least once during the flip, destroy all permanents it touches. Then destroy Chaos Orb.

Official Rulings from Gatherer:
- Chaos Orb can only affect permanents. Cards that are in the game but not on the battlefield, such as those in the Library and Graveyard, can't be affected.
- You can arrange your cards any time before the Orb is put onto the battlefield, but not after. In general, you should not stack cards or put them in places where your opponent can't read the names of all of them or count them. This is recommended good gaming practice.
- It must flip 360 degrees (that's what "flip" means). And this flip must be in the air and not in your hand.
- This is a not a targeted ability.
- If you have sleeves on cards, they count as the cards.
- You can't interfere in any physical way with the casting of this card.

How to flip a Chaos Orb & How to not flip a Chaos Orb

With so many cards in the cube, there are bound to be some strange interactions. One of these cornercases is "what happens when a Draining Whelk is played in response to a Volcanic Fallout?".

While Volcanic Fallout is still on the stack, the Whelk will come into play, and attempt to counter it. Fallout is uncounterable though. Draining Whelk's ability does more than just counter a spell, it also gives itself counters equal to the converted mana cost of the spell.

Rule 609.3. states that if an effect attempts to do something impossible, it does only as much as possible.

Therefore, in this scenario, the Whelk will try to counter the Fallout, which is impossible, and therefore that part of the ability is ignored. Then the last part of the ability is executed, and the Whelk will get 3 +1/+1 counters, making it a 4/4 creature. After that, Volcanic Fallout will resolve normally, although the Draining Whelk will survive the fire.

In case a card or ability is played and it's not just impossible to execute it, but it was also illegal to play to begin with, the entire action is reversed. For example, should Meddling Mage prevent cards named Draining Whelk from being played, and a player tries to play it anyway, he will have to take the card back into his hand.

This differs from the first example with Draining Whelk and Volcanic Fallout. Obviously in the Meddling Mage example the Whelk simply can't be played. It's perfectly legal to play Draining Whelk in the Fallout example, even though its ability will have no effect on the spell on the stack.

post written by Peter Florijn

Every other draft you can hear somebody shout: "Condemn? Power or Toughness?" You might think that question is easily answered... Just read the card. Well, that can be a tough feat to accomplish if a card is textless, which is the case with my Cube's Condemn. So here you have it to settle this once and for all: Swords to Plowshares checks Power, Condemn checks Toughness.

Oracle Wording: 1: The next time target unblocked creature would deal combat damage to you this turn, prevent all but 1 of that damage.

806.7f As the combat damage step begins, the active team announces how each attacking creature will assign its combat damage. If an attacking creature would assign combat damage to the defending team, the active team chooses only one of the defending players for that creature to assign its combat damage to. Then the defending team announces how each blocking creature will assign its combat damage. See rule 510.1.

In short: The attacking team will choose the player not controlling the Forcefield to assign combat damage to, if they're smart. That way the Forcefield doesn't work because its controller is not assigned combat damage.

With the launch of M10 Lifelink has become a static ability. Why do we care? Because now the lifegain doesn't stack anymore. Put more simply, a creature can have only one instance of Lifelink. So you don't gain double the life if your man has double Lifelink. This is relevant for the Cube because some cards aren't errata'd. So it is still possible to gain double amounts of life!

It's actually really simple. If a card has been reprinted using the term Lifelink, it obviously has Lifelink. But if it isn't reprinted with Lifelink it will still be a triggered abililty. The only card that will confuse people when using my Cube is Loxodon Warhammer. My Cube is running the Mirrodin version, with old wording.

Cards with Lifelink:
Baneslayer Angel, Felidar Sovereign, Vampire Nighthawk, Brion Stoutarm & Loxodon Warhammer.

Cards with old wording, and triggered ability by default:
Exalted Angel, Phantom Nishoba & Armadillo Cloak.

Armadillo Cloak on Baneslayer Angel is double lifegain. (one triggered, one static)
Loxodon Warhammer on Felidar Sovereign isn't. (two static)
Loxodon Warhammer on Phantom Nishoba is double lifegain. (one static, one triggered)
Armadillo Cloak on Exalted Angel is also double lifegain. (two triggered)

However, please keep in mind that you can still lose the game with an 'old-wording-trigger' on the stack!

806.6h. [...] If an effect causes a player to control another player's turn, the controller of that effect controls the affected player's team's turn.

Yes indeed, your eyes aren't deceiving you! Mindslaver went from utter 2HG trash to being a bonkers-nuts-high-five-giving-windmill-slammer! Great stuff...