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compiled by Urza Sorrow's Path I understand why you don't like Sorrow's Path, and by itself, it's a very sucky card. But, if combined with the right cards, it can be devastating. The most obvious deck to use it in would be white or black weenie. Why would you do that? Well, you need Crusades or Bad Moons. Sorrow Path does 2 damage to you and all your creatures and you can switch blockers. The "setback" can be turned into a great advantage if used correctly. The idea is to hurt your creatures without them dying. Why would that be useful? Well, if you have " large" weenies (Crusades), chances are you'll have a lot of creatures out. That's a LARGE amount of damage done by Sorrow's Path. So how can this damage be useful to you? Simple: Spirit Link. I know, I know, it's not a creature. But you can make it one. Cards like Living Lands, Living Plane, and Kormus Bell turn lands into creatures. However, none of these cards would be useful except maybe Living Plane. The idea is to use Mishra's Groundbreaker. It turns your Sorrow's Path into a 3/3 so it won't die from its own effect. After you turn it into creature, enchant it with a Spirit Link or two. Then when you activate it, you'll gain a lot of life! Plus you can do it again and again ( provided that it untaps)!You must make sure all your creatures have toughness greater than 3, of course. If you combine this with a card that forces your opponent to block, you can do it every turn! I admit it's not one of the best combos, but it shows that Sorrow's Path isn't TOTALLY useless. And the same should go for any other card in M:TG. Kyung Kim Landwalk Stopper (In response to the landwalk article, asking for tips to defend against Erhnam Djinn's upkeep of making an opponent's creature forestwalking) I play with Erhnams and I find that the best way around their pesky flaw is having a Hammerheim handy. Works every time. Matt Jordan That's a great idea, Matt! For anyone who doesn't know this card, Hammerheim is a Legendary Land from the Legends set which, by tapping, can either produce one red mana or remove all landwalking abilities from a creature until the end of the turn. I'd absolutely suggest this card for a red deck if you want to have a defense against landwalking and can find the card. Hammerheim, as you can see, works much better than the Staff of the Ages that I had mentioned in the article, although the Staff is artifact and easier to find at this point. The Staff, as you can obviously see, will remove landwalking from YOUR creatures as well, and that isn't good. The Hammerheim fixes that by being able to target. To Tap or Not to Tap This question came to me at the end of the month, and I was just able to get the response into this month's letters column. It comes from Thomas Korff, the same person who asked me the question about Protection. Dear Urza, once again I've got a rules question. There is a new very interesting card from the Weatherlight-Edition: Serra's Blessing Attacking does not cause creatures you control to tap. And here is my question: If you attack with an Infantry Veteran (from Visions) or a Tim or any other creature which has an ability usable by tapping the creature, is it possible to use the ability during attack by tapping the creature AND to deal combat damage to opponent/blocking creature ? For example: A Tim (Prodigal Sorcerer) (1/1) attacks WITHOUT tapping and can be blocked by a 1/1 creature. During the attacking phase he is tapped to deal 1 point of damage to the 1/1 creature. At the end of combat the unblocked Tim deals an additional point of combat damage to the opponent. A second example: An Infantry Veteran (1/1) attacks and is blocked by a 1/1 creature. During the blocking phase he use his ability by tapping to make himself +1/+1. The blocker dies and he lives. What is your opinion about this ? Thomas Korff Well, that's an easy question to answer, if you are asking what I think you are asking. Half of what you are saying is correct, half not. It is very much possible to attack with a creature, and if it doesn't tap, tap it for a special ability. The only problem with that is that it then deals no damage. In any case, the extra damage would never be able to go to the opponent unless the creature had trample. To answer your 2 example questions, the Prodigal Sorcerer would be able to attack, and if blocked by a 1/1 creature, it could tap to deal it one point of damage. The creature, according to 5th edition rules, dies right then from the Prodigal Sorcerers special ability. The opposing creature deals no damage, and the Tim gets none at the other side. The Blue Zapper will live to do this again the following turns. But as for your last part of that statement, no damage would go on to the player. The Tim would still be dealing damage to the creature as usual, only it isn't there! If Timmy had trample, that would be a different story, but as it is now, no damage goes on to the enemy. For the second example, everything goes right... up to a point. By tapping, the Infantry Veteran successfully makes himself a 2/2, but unable to deal combat damage. Nothing much would happen because of this. The 1 damage of the 1/1 creature would be sent to the Veteran, which would live now because it is a 2/2. Unfortunately, the Veteran can't deal his 2 damage and the opposing creature lives. Well, that's it for this month. Please, people, send me your letters! I appreciate tips, such as the Hammerheim one this month, questions, such as the second letter, and comments on anyone's article, which I had none of this month. Send them to me at z***u@m***i.com. See you next month. Oh, and by the way, I will, like this month, pick out one rules question for a full article, such as the Protection one this month. Correction I regret to say that I was incorrect in my answer to one of the letters. It is now fixed, but for a week I had it up wrong. I'm sorry for letting you down, everyone, and I will try to do a better job the following times. I hope your trust in me isn't totally shattered (and hey, everyone makes mistakes). The reason for the mistake was that the letter I answered wrong came to me very close to when my articles needed to be in, and I did not check my answer with anyone. I should have waited until next month. Again, sorry, and I hope you like the rest of the magazine. Urza, the semi-rules guru [ Back to July 1997 Table of Contents ] [ Back to Beyond Dominia ] Magic: the Gathering is a Registered Trademark of Wizards of the Coast