Rule anecdotes and a slight errata

As a general rule, we try to play with updated rules and Oracle errata. From time to time players mentions missing mana burn (Power Surge is pretty bad with new rules), not being able to turn of Winter Orb with Icy, or being able to win using the Mirror Universe/City of Brass combo. However, as most of you know, many of the old rules were pretty strange. To quote my Beta rulebook I got from Viktor "Oldschool" at BSK 2011:

"During the course of a game, a dispute that you cannot solve by referencing the rules may occur. If both players agree, you can resolve the difference for the current game with a coin toss. After the duel, you can come to a decision about how you want to play such a situation in the future. If the players don't agree to a coin toss, both players retrieve their ante and the duel is a draw."

It of course got better a few years later, in the era of the newfangled tap symbol and whatnot, but it was still far from intuitive. I lost a game in a tournament as late as 1998 against a deck that got infinite Dark Rituals by playing a Yawgmoth's Will, as the replacement effect of the Will was slower than the ability to play Dark Ritual from the graveyard (as the Ritual was a Mana Source). At one point in the game, there existed a place called "in-between turns" (where extra turns and skipping turns effects "stacked"), as well as a "before-the-untap-step step" (where Power Surge had effect). Most players agree that the rules got a great improvement when 6th edition came along with the stack and state-based effects (among other things). As it is very hard (and also not as fun) to play with old rules, we've always chosen to play with the latest comp rules. This is btw how you played a spell before 6th edition:

Note e.g. that if someone plays a spell, and you respond with Ancestral and draw a Counterspell, you can't use that to counter the first spell.

In this same vein, we usually stick with Oracle errata on cards; the only exception up until now has been Chaos Orb which has got errata to prevent people from spreading out cards (while still getting to flip it). This idea of using current errata has in particular made White Ward playable and Relic Bind worse (on the other hand, Basalt Monolith used to have power level errata that made it impossible to combo with the Relic Bind back then as well).

So, what's the new errata you ask? The card in question is City in a Bottle, and for all purposes concerning 93/94 magic, this is the new text on the card:

Whenever a nontoken permanent from the Arabian Nights expansion other than a basic land card or City in a Bottle is on the battlefield, its controller sacrifices it.
Players can't play cards from the Arabian Nights expansion other than basic land cards.

Welcome to 93/94, Mountain v78!

Pimping out the Goblin deck just got harder

I'll end today with a sample hand from BSK 2011:

Snap keep!