Italian Magic Judges

The oldest players will surely remember the archetype called Counter-Burn, a blue-red deck with no creatures, full of card drawing spells, counterspells and burn spells. At the beginning, burn spells are used to kill creatures; at the end, they have the goal to get the opponent to zero life points.

The Pyromancer-Combo, one of the strongest decks in the current Extended format, adds a couple of new ingredients to the original recipe:

• Pyromancer Ascension, that duplicates all the spells
• Call to Mind, which creates a recursion with an "active" Pyromancer Ascension on the battlefield and a second Call to Mind in the graveyard: "I cast Call to Mind, I copy it with Ascension, I return the second Call to Mind to my hand, and I return Time Warp to my hand… I get to play all the turns!"

This deck is relatively cheap to build and quite satisfying; winning with creatures is boring; winning with recursion is for geniuses only ^__^
This is probably why this deck has a good number of fans, even though we cannot consider it one of the favorite decks you will see at GPs and PTs.

Most of the rules questions about this deck are actually about Pyromancer Ascension; let's see its abilities in details.


The first ability

Adding the counter is not mandatory ("you may"). If the ability triggers, but you forget to put the counter, you won't be able to go back in time to fix the problem and put the counter.

The ability triggers when you cast an instant or sorcery spell, not when it resolves; this means that:

• The ability triggers on top of the spell, and it resolves before the spell.
• The ability will resolve even if the original spell doesn't resolve (because it gets countered).

The condition of having the same name as a card in your graveyard is checked only at the moment the spell is cast and the ability triggers, not when the ability resolves; the ability triggers when a spell finishes being cast, that is after announcing it, declaring targets and paying costs.

Let's have a look at two situations which look similar, but have an important difference:

• You have a Lightning Bolt in your graveyard, and you cast a second Lightning Bolt. After you finish casting it, the Ascension's ability sees a Lightning Bolt on the stack and a card in the graveyard with the same name. The ability triggers. If your opponent now removes your graveyard with a card like Relic of Progenitus, when the ability resolves you will be able to put a counter on your Pyromancer Ascension.
• You have a Firebolt in your graveyard and you cast it with Flashback. The Firebolt leaves the graveyard and is put on the stack as you cast it. After you finish casting the Firebolt, the Ascension's ability sees a Firebolt on the stack, but can't find any Firebolt in the graveyard. The ability doesn't trigger.

The second ability

Also the second ability has the words "you may"; once again, if the ability triggers but you fail to notice or you forget to resolve it, you won't be able to go back in time.

The ability triggers when you cast an instant or sorcery spell, not when it resolves. In details, assuming that you and your opponent don't do anything in response:

1. You cast the spell.
2. The ability triggers and is put on the stack on top of the spell.
3. The ability resolves and creates a copy of the spell on the stack. The ability leaves the stack.
4. The copy resolves and leaves the stack.
5. The original spell resolves and leaves the stack.
6. Note that the ability triggers before you and your opponent receive priority; your opponent can do something (like countering the spell) only after the ability is already on the stack.

If the original spell is countered before the copy is created, the copy will still be created (there is no way to "extirpate" the original spell so that the copy won't be created).
Countering the copy doesn't counter the original spell and vice versa.

The condition "while Pyromancer Ascension has two or more quest counters on it" has to be met only when the ability triggers. Once the ability triggered, it resolves even if the counters get removed and even if the Ascension gets destroyed in response (an ability on the stack exists independently of its source).

Copying a spell means putting an exact copy of it on the stack (that is different from casting it), without paying costs again and without making any choice (any choices done when casting the original spell are taken into account). Targets can be changed, but only because the ability says it.
Let's now have a look at what is allowed or not when copying a spell:

What you can do / positive aspects:

• If you paid the kicker for the original spell, the copy will have its effect as though you paid the kicker cost for it; for example, a copy of a kicked Burst Lightning deals 4 damage.
• If the text or mana cost of the original spell contains an X, the copy has the value that was chosen for X; for example, a copy of a Fireball for 10 is a Fireball for 10.
• If the original spell had additional costs, you don't need to pay them again; for example, a copy of a Reckless Abandon doesn't require sacrificing a second creature.

What you can't do / negative aspects:

• Any mode chosen for the original spell counts for the copy too; for example, a copy of a Cryptic Command which bounces and taps will bounce and tap (you can't choose to counter or draw).
• Any ability that triggers when a spell "is cast" doesn't trigger for the copy; for example, a copy of Bituminous Blast won't have its cascade trigger (the original will, the copy won't); same for Storm and Replicate, the triggered abilities of the copy won't trigger.
• When you cast a split card, only the half that was cast exists on the stack. For example, if you cast Fire from the card Fire / Ice, the copy will be a Fire; you won't be able to create an Ice.

Finally, let's have a look at a few tournament situations that can happen because of this deck.
This deck can create a situation where you can cast Time Warp infinite times in a row and allows you to play until you win the game, with your opponent unable to play any turns.

Gaining an infinite amount of life points is not a condition that means victory; even if winning is just a matter of time, your opponent is not required to concede the game; you really have to win the game by bringing him to zero life points or ten poison counters or having him draw his entire deck.

What you can do is to declare a shortcut like this one:
Your opponent is at 20 life points; you control a Pyromancer Ascension and you got to play ten extra turns. You have a Call to Mind in your hand, a second Call to Mind in your graveyard and a Lightning Bolt in your graveyard.


You will just need to keep four lands (one Blue, one Red and two others) tapped to indicate that you are going to use those lands in every turn to pay the two spells; then, you keep your hand on the table, and you just draw, say "you go to 17/14/11…" and put the drawn card into your graveyard.
Your opponent is allowed to interrupt your shortcut in any moment, if he has any spell to cast or ability to activate, in response to any of your actions.

If you "start your loop" during the additional turns, the number of additional turns will always be 5, independently on who plays them; it's very likely that you are going to play all additional turns, but you will need to win before the end of the last turn, otherwise the game will be a draw; in this case, you might try to convince your opponent to concede by saying "I would have won the game for sure; do you agree with me? I believe it would be very sporting if you conceded", but the actual result of the game is a draw and your opponent may choose not to concede.


You can read the original article in Italian here.
You can read the full article on Blackborder here.