Zendikar Sphinx of Lost Truths

[Nik]

I also gotta question on zendikar cards

this looks like cool card:

Sphinx of Lost Truths 3UU

Creature - Sphinx

Kicker 1U (You may pay an additional 1U as you cast this spell)
Flying
When Sphinx of Lost Truths enters the battlefield, draw three cards. Then if it wasn't kicked, discard three cards.

so if I dont have enough mana to pay kicker and I cast it without kicker and draw 3 cards, do I have to discard the same 3 cards I drew or can I choose different cards to discard?

[teletel]

It doesnt make sense that you would have to discard the same cards. Cuz then why did you draw them for, to admire their artwork

so yeah you draw 3 cards, and then you discard 3 cards of your choice they dont have to be the seme ones you drew (but they can be if you want)

[Nik]

It doesnt make sense that you would have to discard the same cards. Cuz then why did you draw them for, to admire their artwork

Well maybe I draw an instant and that way I cast it immediately before discarding and I dont have to discard it

[Nik]

or maybe its good for one of those black decks that need more cards in graveyard this way you get 3 quick cards to the graveyard

[teletel]

Well maybe I draw an instant and that way I cast it immediately before discarding and I dont have to discard it

I dont think youre allowed to cast instants in between the drawing and discarding since its part of the same card? But I could be wrong.

But anyway yeah you can choose whichever 3 cards you want to discard, you dont have to discard those that you drew it just says "discard 3 cards" it doesnt say which

[seba1983]

1. you draw 3 cards and then discard any 3 cards from your hand.

2. when a spell or effect is being deal with (resolves) you do everythink you are orderd to do starting at the top of the apropriate text and finishing at the bottom. untill you have done everything the effect tells you to do no player can do anything. neither play instants, uses ability not even tap land for mana. during a resolution no player recives priority and you resolve the ful effect befor the resolution is compleat.

[Nik]

but I thought you could play an instant any time

[seba1983]

do you know terry pratchett ? from one of his books i learned this phantastic phrase: "lyies for children". when growing up all of us have a lot of questions. the truth ( the compleat truth) however is too complicated because we are still missing all the basics to build up on. so that where "lies for children" come into play. the same is true for learning the rules of magic.

i bet most people were taught instants are spells you can play any time.

im sorry to tell you that was a lie. but any other explanation would not have been understanable at that point. now you are a bit further so we dont need that lie any more. now you have two options. simply belive me when i say you cant play anything between the sphinx letting you draw 3 and you having to discard 3 or you read the rest of the post and try to understand one of the most complex topics of the magic rules (well parts of it because i wanted to keep it simple).

you can not play instants at any time. you can play instants any time you have priority. but what is priority ? priority means you get to do something. its also the reason why you cant play an instant (or use an ability etc.) whilst a spell is still resolving. no player has priority whils a spell is resolving. when the spell is resolved. the active player (the one who's turn it is) recives priority. also playing a land does not affact who has priority. you cant react to a land beeing played or to a land beeing taped to make mana.

im sure this is still very confusing so lets take you through a turn of magic with our 2 pro-players player A and player B. note this walkthroug will leave out all things that have no direkt influance on priority or do not occure because there are no effect that causes them. i know this is incompleat but is done for skae of simplicity ... and it still wont be simple.

its player A's turn:

untap - player A untaps his cards. no player recives priority in this step.

upkeep - player A is the active player and recives priority. he can now take an action (play a spell, use an ability or take some special action) or choose to pass. if he passes player B will recive priority and can now take an action. if he chooses not to pass and as an example plays a spell. now player Ahas priority again and can choose to take another action and pass. this continues until player A chooses to pass. when he chooses to pass player B recives priority and can now take an action or pass (just like player A befor). if both choose to pass one of two things can happen:

1. the stack is empty - in that case the phase ends

2. there are spells or abilitys on the stack - the first ability/spell on the stack resolves (no player has priority during this time). after the ability/spell has resolved player A recives priority (because he is the active player). with that all of the above starts over but lets just say player A and player B choose to pass until the stack is empty.now that the stack is empty player A (active player) recives priority - see above.

when both players have passed priority when the stack was empty the step finaly end at this point no player can do anything.

drawstep - player A draws a card. after drawing the card player A then recives priority. what cvomes next ... see above ... finaly the draw step will end.

precombat mainphase - player A recives priorty (aktive player). he then chooses to play a land. after he played the land he still has priority without player B ever reciving priority so you cant react to a land being played. the rest is as above more or less.

there are still a lot of things that can make this even more complex, static and triggert abilitys, statbased and contiuous effect etc.

but i dont feel like going into detail *evilgrin*

so ther you have it.

[Twanos]

Nice rundown Seba...

in more general terms when you first start learngin magic you get the 10,000 ft overview from a plane. You get to see how cool the world of magic is and it looks great from up there.

Now you're looking at the same world but from an altitude of about 1,000 ft. At this height you start to see alot more details you couldn't see before. You see both the beautiful parks as well as the slightly more dirty parts of town.

Later you'll get to the mega tourney/pro tour level where you are walking the streets of the meanest town at night where any little mistep can cost you everything. The joys of looking ahead.

[seba1983]

i like that metaphor. the only step you can take from there to go "deeper" is becoming a judge ... then you not only walk the town at night but your the beatcop that knows all the bad, wierd and awful things that happen around every turn.

[Twanos]

then to cary it further you can get to level 3-5 judge where you paint a target on your back in neon colors and put the slogan of "I DARE YOU!!" under it.

[seba1983]

yeah thats for the realy hard boys ^^ ohh wait were magic players ... ohh well in that case as hard as we get ^^ :P