Crossword: 43:59
Google Searches: 0



I don''t always think I'm always right, except when I'm sure that I am. I've been playing Magic a long time. A very long time. I remember interrupts, spell batches, banding, and all that other stuff. And I was deep into Standard (I still call it Type II now and then) and Extended even in the bad old days.

So, anyway.

I was drafting Unstable at a friend's house. I had drafted Spike, Tournament Grinder. Through three rounds, I only drew it once, but when I did, I used it to get Umezawa's Jitte. My opponent cloned Spike, to try and get an answer or comparable card, but couldn't come up with anything close for his RWG deck. Artifact removal just has never been powerful enough to get the banhammer. In the post-mortem, (of course I won. What part of Umezawa's Jitte didn't you understand?) we got into discussions of banned cards (eventually, I thought of an answer - Burning Wish for artifact removal). In the course of the discussion, my friend's friend said that these cards had been banned/restricted:

Force of Will (in Extended)
Lightning Bolt (in Standard)
Armageddon, or possibly Ravages of War (in Commander)

None of these are true, of course. I know. I played all those cards. The wrong guy had been playing for a while as well, but not on the tournament scene. I don't know or remember everything, (for that, you need Mike Flores) but I remember enough. It is often a fool's errand to challenge me on Magic history and trivia. I can get pretty passionate when I know I'm right, and it was confounding to me that he couldn't acknowledge that I just know this stuff and he doesn't. (Lightning Bolt? Come on!) Before parting, he turned to me and "Y'know, you're a real cocksucker." I haven't had that one thrown at me since grade school. I responded "So are you," and he agreed. What's worse? Pointing out that someone is wrong, or refusing to admit that it's you who is wrong?