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The five best rules questions that I overheard today:
#5 My opponent is at fifteen and I forgot to attack him with Juggernaut for the last three turns? Is he dead?
#4 Does Rushing River affect permanents?
#3 Can you Mystical Tutor for Forbidden Orchard?
#2 Is Dark Ritual an Interrupt or Mana Source?
and by far, the best rules question asked today (by a Fish player with Misdirections, obviously)
#1 Does Final Fortune target?
1:29pm
...and Jacob's Jitte just took down an Exalted Angel. Jacob now only needs to kill an Akroma to slay the hosts of heaven and take the Angel trifecta.
12:55pm
IM conversation from a month or two back:
lilsamoo: is umezawa's jitte played in type 1?
lilsamoo: because it is the most insane card that i have ever played with
jpmeyer: haven't seen it yet
This round, I did get to see one. Jacob Orlove was playing a U/G Fish variant and was paired against (who I assume was) a Gifts Belcher player. Jacob had hit him down to a fairly low life total, but he came back with a Tinker plus Force of Will to find himself Platinum Angel. After taking a hit or two from the Angel, Jacob managed to find a copy of Umezawa's Jitte, which completely turned the match around. He first put it on a Basking Rootwalla and attacked, and then re-equipped it to a flier to keep the Angel at bay. He had to waste a counter at one point stopping a Goblin Welder, but Angel went down the next turn, killing his negative-life opponent.
He also drew a second Jitte during this time, which would've gotten me so excited that I probably would've forgotten that whole Legendary thing and would've lost myself the game right there.
In Fish decks that choose Chalice of the Void over Null Rod, I can definitely see Jitte being a maindeck standout. It stops Goblin Welder, deals with painful artifact creatures like Angel, Triskelion, and Juggernaut, and totally dominates the mirror.
12:18 p.m.
After spending one round wandering the tables, Gifts Belcher (as well as some versions which eschew the Goblin Charbelcher/Mana Severance combo altogether) and Fish decks (both the traditional U/R ones as well as the newer builds which switch red for white) are by far the most prevalent decks. Below them are Mishra's Workshop prison decks (it looks like it significantly outnumbers the Workshop aggro decks here today) and Akroma, Angel of Wrath/Spirit of the Night Oath of Druids decks.
Like I said above, there is still quite a bit of variation in those two top decks. In the Gifts Ungiven combo decks, most are still running Goblin Charbelcher. It seems that many people have cut out the Goblin Welders and the Welder-supported tricks, like Pentavus/Mindslaver. Only a brave few are relying totally on Darksteel Colossus/Time Walk as their kill.
With regards to Fish, it appears to look almost evenly split between U/R and U/W. Most people are still running Null Rod rather than Chalice of the Void. The creature bases are also still pretty up in the air. If you're red, you have Grim Lavamancer and if you're white, you have Meddling Mage - but that's the only aggreement. Off the top of my head, I've seen Gorilla Shaman, Mogg Fanatic, Cloud of Faeries, Spiketail Hatchling, Voidmage Prodigy, Kami of Ancient Law, Waterfront Bouncer, Gilded Drake, Old Man of the Sea, and even Goblin Welder.
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