2.5 - High Stakes Explained by Mingy. First of all, props to Bryan for such amazing art work in such an amazingly cool strip. So far, this is my favorite out of all the FlopJocks strips. So in this strip we happen to be involved in a multiplayer game with three other players. The first three people you see in the strip are our opponents, and the next three you see are none other than the FlopJocks, who you ought to recognize from previous strips. Actually, my avatar seems to have been changed from how you saw it the first time, but I like the new way better. Slightly more sinister, and that scythe is just the icing on the cake...much cooler than a wimpy sword! But anyway, enough about that, on to the explanation! As you can see, we are involved in an ante battle. In other words, our ego and a victory are not the only thing at stake. When you play an ante game, you put some cards up. The winners get to keep their cards, plus the cards put up by the losers. Yeah, it's basically gambling, but sometimes it's fun to play this way. You'll notice that Bryan mentions something called "counter magic". Counter magic is simply the collective name for all cards that counter other spells. Some spells that I have explained that fall within this category are spells such as Counterspell, Absorb, and Undermine. Cal mentions something called "burn". Burn is another of these generalized card types. Burn spells are spells that deal an amount of damage directly to creatures and/or players. If the damage dealt is greater than or equal to a creatures toughness, then that creature dies. If a burn spell is directed towards a player, then that player will lose life equal to the amount of damage being dealt. Finally, we'll talk about some cards mentioned. First, Cal mentions the card "Reckless Assault". Reckless Assault is a red and black enchantment that allows its controller to expend two mana and two life to deal one damage to any target. This ability can be performed as many times as the controller's resources will allow each turn. Cal ends up sacrificing himself in this strip as a result of using all of his life to use Reckless Assault's ability as much as he can, to deal as much damage as he can to our opponents, putting them in range so that I can kill them with the spell that I mention, Urza's Guilt. Urza's Guilt itself is not a killing card. It is a blue and black sorcery that makes everyone draw two cards, then discard three cards, and then lose four life. While this does deal four damage to your opponents, the true power of Urza's Guilt comes when it is combined with the card Megrim. Megrim is a black enchantment that causes each of your opponents to lose two life every time they discard a card. Notice that Urza's Guilt causes your opponents to discard three cards. 3 cards discarded x 2 damage per discard via Megrim = 6 damage to your opponent. Add to this the loss of four life due to Urza's Guilt, and that makes 10 damage to your opponent. This means that two Urza's Guilts will cause a loss of 20 life to your opponents, and will give you the game. This is great in multiplayer because it does all this damage to ALL your opponents, and not to you (since Megrim doesn't affect you). I have won multiplayer games like this before. It's one thing to win a multiplayer game, but it's even better to kill all your opponents in ONE turn. The strip ends just as I am about to cast the Urza's Guilts that I have to defeat our opponents. Well, that's all I have for you today. If you still have any problems, feel free to contact me and ask. May the Force be with you! Make sense now? Go back to this comic. Legal Stuff Magic: The Gathering and all related trademarks and products mentioned belong to Wizards of the Coast. Any other trademarks and products mentioned are the property of the companies that produce them. Any card art is copyrighted by the artists and Wizards of the Coast. The use of these trademarks, products, and cards should not be construed as a challenge to those rights. All other content is © Copyright 2002 Burnham/Dominguez/Wacker/Yarrow. Contact Us Art: Bryan Yarrow (aftershock@tenchiclub.com) Scripts: Cal Wacker (reverend16@excite.com) Cooking: Andrew "Mingy" Dominguez (andominguez@fordham.edu) Website: Ted Burnham (tburnham@abacus.bates.edu) Come chat in the FlopJocks IRC Channel at irc.netfrag.com #flopjocks