Sorrow's Path - Oracle text functionally different from or..

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

In the Oracle text for the card so many of us love to hate, Sorrow's
Path, it looks like the pseudo-Pyroclasm effect is part of the activated
ability. This used to be a separate triggered ability, much like the
damaging ability of City of Brass. This means that the only deck idea
that wins with Sorrow's Path - giving it to the other player and
repeatedly tapping it - no longer works (to the extent that it ever
did). Why the change?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

On Sat, 04 Jun 2005 20:13:31 GMT, Jeff Heikkinen <no.way@jose.org> wrote:
>In the Oracle text for the card so many of us love to hate, Sorrow's
>Path, it looks like the pseudo-Pyroclasm effect is part of the activated
>ability.

It is part of the activated ability's effect; it is no longer what it was a
good long time ago, a separate triggered ability like...

>This used to be a separate triggered ability, much like the
>damaging ability of City of Brass.

....exactly. It is no longer "far and away the absolute worst card in Magic",
in other words.

>This means that the only deck idea
>that wins with Sorrow's Path - giving it to the other player and
>repeatedly tapping it - no longer works (to the extent that it ever
>did). Why the change?

Because it was possible to "fix" the problem with it by doing so. Now it is
another example of a Weird Bad-looking Rare - it's not automatically powerful
just for being rare, but needs some care and feeding from the deck it's in
to be usable.

Not all rares are designed to be cards that will win you the game with only
a little thought involved, or none at all, in other words...

Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

 

[Maz]

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

Even if you look at the original wording, the rules text for the
damaging effect is part of the activated ability, as it is printed after
the colon in the same line as the "exchange creatures" part of the effect.

I wouldn' t have interpreted it the way you did (however I don't know
how it was actually played before the wording changed).

Wordings, in general, are updated if a card doesn't do what it was
intended to do and/or if something is unclear under current rules as it
seems to be the case here.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

On Sun, 05 Jun 2005 00:49:49 +0200, Maz <nospamMazworld@gmx.de> wrote:
>Even if you look at the original wording, the rules text for the
>damaging effect is part of the activated ability, as it is printed after
>the colon in the same line as the "exchange creatures" part of the effect.

Yes, but it was Ruled as two abilities pretty much on release of the set
(the Ruling from Bethmo was dated 8/15/94). In the first Oracle, 5th
Edition's, its Oracle wording (and the notes with it) was

------
SORROW'S PATH Land
Whenever ~ becomes tapped, it deals 2 damage to you and each creature you
control. / T: Switch the blocking assignments of two target blocking
creatures. (All blocking assignments must still be legal.)

Note that the damage is dealt whenever Sorrow's Path becomes tapped,
regardless of the reason.

Note that you aren't assigning the creatures to block their new attackers,
just swapping them around.
------

It, _if_ I remember right, finally got concatenated and fixed some time
after the foofaraw with the 6E Oracle problems mostly got settled out.

>I wouldn' t have interpreted it the way you did (however I don't know
>how it was actually played before the wording changed).

I do, however. (As something of a packrat, I have some historical snapshots
of various Rulings files and Oracles squirreled away on my website...)

Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

One of the voices in my head - or was it David DeLaney? - just said...
>
> >This used to be a separate triggered ability, much like the
> >damaging ability of City of Brass.
>
> ...exactly. It is no longer "far and away the absolute worst card in Magic",
> in other words.

I would say the reason for that is the printing of One With Nothing, not
this change .

But thanks for the answer, at any rate.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

Jeff Heikkinen <no.way@jose.org> wrote:
>One of the voices in my head - or was it David DeLaney? - just said...
>>
>> >This used to be a separate triggered ability, much like the
>> >damaging ability of City of Brass.
>>
>> ...exactly. It is no longer "far and away the absolute worst card in Magic",
>> in other words.
>
>I would say the reason for that is the printing of One With Nothing, not
>this change .

One word: Threshold. No, make that two words: Ensnaring Bridge.

>But thanks for the answer, at any rate.

Dave "no problem, no extra charge" DeLaney
--
\/David DeLaney posting from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

"Jeff Heikkinen" <no.way@jose.org> wrote in message
news:MPG.1d0ead7e185e5d6398a172@news.easynews.com...
> One of the voices in my head - or was it David DeLaney? - just said...
>> Jeff Heikkinen <no.way@jose.org> wrote:
>> >One of the voices in my head - or was it David DeLaney? - just said...
> not deck ideas). At least previous candidates for "worst card of all
> time" like Pale Moon, Great Wall, Mudhole and Sorrow's Path do something
> few if any other cards do, they just have very narrow niches (and
> Mudhole in particular has the additional problem of not being the kind
> of niche you can build a deck around, since whether it does anything
> useful depends chiefly on your opponent's strategy, not yours).

One With Nothing I find has two uses: One is to counteract spells and
abilities your opponents play based on your hand size (for example,
Stormseeker), and the other is to get a specific card from your hand to your
graveyard for animation. That's still more use than what some previous
candidates could do; they were one-trick ponies, where this one has learned
one trick and performs it twice, the second with a twist.

Erich