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Summon powerful creatures. Cast hundreds of spells as magical energies fill your body. Dominate schools of magic with various effects and powers. Choose your movements carefully to maximize defense and/or attack, but don't forget your opponents will do the same!
This article introduces a magic system for Fudge based on Magic: the Gathering™ cards. Use it as a way to define and handle magic in any fantasy game while introducing great deal of strategy and randomness.
First appeared in Fudge Factor, probably the most important Fudge online magazine.
ABOUT FUDGE
Fudge is a role-playing game written by Steffan O'Sullivan, with extensive input from the Usenet community of rec.games.design. The basic rules of Fudge are available on the internet at http://www.fudgerpg.com and in book form from Grey Ghost Games, P.O. Box 838, Randolph, MA 02368. They may be used with any gaming genre. While an individual work derived from Fudge may specify certain attributes and skills, many more are possible with Fudge. Every Game Master using Fudge is encouraged to add or ignore any character traits. Anyone who wishes to distribute such material for free may do so - merely include this ABOUT FUDGE notice and disclaimer (complete with Fudge copyright notice). If you wish to charge a fee for such material, other than as an article in a magazine or other periodical, you must first obtain a royalty-free license from the author of Fudge, Steffan O'Sullivan, P.O. Box 465, Plymouth, NH 03264.
DISCLAIMER
The following materials based on Fudge, entitled Fudge: the Gathering, are created by, made available by, and Copyright (C) 2005-2006 by Jorge Arredondo, and are not necessarily endorsed in any way by Steffan O'Sullivan or any publisher of other Fudge materials. Neither Steffan O'Sullivan nor any publisher of other Fudge materials is in any way responsible for the content of these materials unless specifically credited. Original Fudge materials Copyright (C)1992-1995 by Steffan O'Sullivan, All Rights Reserved.
This article will let you see your old Magic: the Gathering™ cards with an entirely different point of view: as a complete magic system for your Fudge roleplaying sessions!
So dust off your cards, write down a few skills and gifts on your character sheet and soon you'll be ready to cast powerful spells and summon awesome creatures!
The play of the magic system is very similar to playing the original Magic: The Gathering game with a few adaptations for a roleplaying setting. The main aspects which are handled differently than Magic: The Gathering is drawing cards, interpreting creature attributes, and the added roleplaying mechanics of actually casting the spells.
In that this approach creates five different magic schools, standard fantasy games should provide at least one gift for each specific school. Each school of magic from the original card game is used (i.e. White, Black, Blue, Red and Green magic). The description of each specific variation of magic is intentionally left out of this article as you can read it in the original instructions or online.
Like many magic systems based on Fudge, a wizard must have at least one Gift or Supernormal power to do any magic at all. A magical Gift of a given colour is required to use spells of that colour (e.g.: Gift - Blue Magic Caster). A wizard that doesn't have a Gift to cast spells of a specific colour must immediately discard any card she draws of that color, but that drawn card will still count as a validly drawn card. That is, she can't draw another card to replace that unusable one. Cards without cost, mainly lands, are always valid cards to draw because they can be used to generate generic mana. Each specific gift will also have a related skill which is Very Hard to learn (the first level, at Terrible, will cost one skill level). Of course, the gamemaster can choose to make it cheaper.
Only one deck of cards is used, which is shuffled before each use. All wizards, both PCs and NPCs, will draw cards from this deck (through the gamemaster) in order, and act accordingly. This allows the gamemaster to introduce as much or as little powerful magic as he wishes by tooling with the cards in the deck.
The cards are kept by each player (hidden in his or her hand) until they're used, at which point they are revealed.
Each wizard keeps her own pile of cards she has discarded, called her graveyard. Once all the cards have been drawn from the deck and none are left, all the graveyards are shuffled together to create a new deck. Each wizard's graveyard must remain set apart until that moment because there are cards whose conditions depend on the amount of cards and/or specific cards buried there.
To cast spells using this system you need to gather the magical energies of the world. This energy, called mana, is generated by land cards and other special cards. The total mana that you can generate from these cards is called your 'available mana pool'. Anytime you draw one such card you may play it and accumulate one mana of the appropriate color to your pool. You may also choose to hold the card in your hand for later use. Generic mana can be gathered from any source.
As mana has different sources it also has different colors. In most cases you'll need X points of a specific color mana and Y points of any other (generic) color mana, so it's easy to see how you can choose your mana sources to be able to cast the specific spell you want. When the type of mana required is not specified (colourless), any generic mana will suffice.
Depending on the effective power of magic the gamemaster wants to achieve, and the strategic way in which he wants to establish its foundations, he can choose one of the two following options:
Mana-on-the-fly: a wizard holds her mana-source cards until she has enough of them in her hand to cast the spell she wants, at which point, she can play them at once and cast the spell or summon the creature she wants from her hand. The mana cards are then discarded to the graveyard once they're used. This way her opponent can't affect her mana cards with cards of his own. This provides a quicker and less strategic feel to the magic system.
Example: A wizard who has six points of mana ready to use in her hand, between red mana and generic mana cards, plays the six appropriate land cards all at once and casts a fireball to her opponent. Her opponent may also play cards (islands, or similar) in response to this spell, in an attempt to gather enough blue mana to dispel the spell before it strikes him.
Resource gathering: you can't play more than one mana card per round (see Speed of Magic below) but you can keep mana cards in front of you to use as you need, as per standard Magic: The Gathering. Mana sources replenish themselves (untap) on your next round, no matter how many drawing turns we're using per round, so don't waste all your mana too quickly. You might need some later in the same round! This allows an wizards to use their own cards to destroy their opponent's mana sources, use creatures which receive bonuses for specific lands, etc. It also makes magic much more strategic (almost as much as in the original game) but might slow roleplaying down. So think carefully if you want that in your game!
Example: After six drawing rounds, the above mentioned wizard has already played three mountains and two other mana cards. In this moment she can play another land and use the six mana points thus gathered to cast a fireball at her opponent. If her opponent doesn't have enough cards in play he risks not being able to stop the spell! On the other hand, she might have already unleashed havoc over her foe's mana sources, destroying some of them so that no countering spell could have been cast.
Most spells you cast will have a color. When casting a spell, you have to roll your magic skill for that specific color against an ease factor which will depend on the total amount of mana needed to cast the spell, regardless of colour:
| Mana cost | Ease factor |
| 1 | Automatic |
| 2 | Poor |
| 3 | Mediocre |
| 4 | Fair |
| 5 | Good |
| 6 | Great |
| 7 | Superb |
| 8+ | Legendary |
Colorless cards, such as artifacts, count as color cards of the color of the most numerous kind of mana used to cast it. In case of a tie, you choose the colour you want.
Example: Summoning an artifact with a cost of four generic mana points by using two red, one blue and one white mana points would cause us to roll against our Red Magic skill for Fair or better (as if all four points were red). If we had used two red and two blue mana points we could choose either our Red Magic or our Blue Magic skills, probably choosing the one we have a better score in.
Some Gifts allows you to cast spells with a higher mana cost to strengthen your creatures or make them swifter. When this is the case, ensure that the extra cost is counted when seeing if you can cast the spell!
Remember than in the Mana-on-the-fly system each card used to generate mana is discarded as soon as it is used.
If a wizard fails the roll to cast a spell, usually nothing bad happens. The spell fizzles, the creature being summoned fails to materialize, etc. However, the mana spent is lost (and the cards buried or can't be used till the next round, depending on the variant).
Only if the wizards botches the attempt should something worse happen, which should be decided according to the specific circumstances.
Examples: Bury or remove some or all the lands the player had played, or destroy one of his creatures. Perhaps some of his own creatures attack him, or the spell strikes him instead of the chosen target, etc.
While a wizard is casting spells, she can't offer an active defense. She is not a sitting duck however, and hitting her isn't automatic. If a wizard is hurt, the wound penalties apply to the next roll she has to make, which may make it fail. Thus it's pretty obvious that beating wizards to a pulp is a good way to avoid being turned into a frog, and that's a strong reason why wizards prefer casting spells at long range.
The number of cards each wizard draws per roleplaying round determines the speed and potency of magic. There are a few alternatives to measure speed in this style of magic. You can either pick up a single magic card each round, get a fixed amount of them, get a number of cards depending on an appropriate skill or pick cards till you can cast at least one spell. Regardless of the variant used, there is no specific maximum to the number of cards a wizard may have on her hand.
We'll try to see the advantages and disadvantages of each option, so you can fine tune the speed of magic to your taste.
Note: no matter the system chosen, there are some common points. The wizards involved draw cards in turn (called a Drawing Turn), according to an Initiative roll. Each time they draw a card they may play a land or cast spells and summon creatures if they have the required mana. If a wizard has more drawing turns (can draw more cards during a round than his foe can), he will draw one at a time and his opponent will only be able to react to spells cast at him with the cards she currently holds. Also, if casting spells outside of combat, the length of time it takes to complete an entire round of Drawing Turns is up the gamemaster.
Draw one single card per round. This method might be good for a low magic world, as it makes each spell hard to cast and easily disrupted (by distractions or physical harm). For a high magic world, this might be useful for areas in which magic energy is scarce.
Draw a fixed number (GM's choice) of cards per round. This might be a good alternative because it lets you choose the specific amount of magic energy available in your world. A good amount could be five cards per round.
If you prefer an amount which depends on your skills, a fast and simple rule would be to draw cards per round equal to two plus the number of magic schools in which you have gifts.
Example: A wizard with the Red Magic, White Magic and Blue Magic gifts could draw 2+3 cards each round.
If we want to link the number of cards to skills instead, it's a bit harder because there are at least five different skills. We might use either the best skill score or an average value, rounding down, using the following table in both cases:
| Best Magic skill or average value | Cards per round |
| Terrible | 1 |
| Poor | 2 |
| Mediocre | 3 |
| Fair | 4 |
| Good | 5 |
| Great | 6 |
| Superb | 7 |
With this approach, the better you are, the faster you can handle magic.
Example: A wizard has a Red Magic skill of Good, a White Magic skill of Good and a Blue Magic skill of Mediocre. Using the average value, which would be +1+1-1 / 3 = 1/3, rounded down is Fair, would allow us to draw four cards per round. This can also be calculated by using the above table: five cards (Good Red) + five cards (Good White) + three cards (Mediocre Blue) / three skills = four cards drawn (rounded down). On the other hand, if we use our best magic, skill we would draw five cards a round. Which to use (average/best) is up to GM discretion.
Note that in the example we've divided the average skill level, not by all the skills available (five, one per school) but by the number of Gifts possessed. A wizard is already penalized if she doesn't have a gift in each colour magic because there are cards she can't use, which slow her magic down quite significantly.
Each wizard draw cards in turn until any wizard can (and wants to) cast a full spell. This alternative is very useful for wizard duels. It's also a good alternative for magic-filled worlds, as wizards would be quite able to finish their enchantments as quickly as a warrior swings his sword. In fact, with this alternative, all spells need only one round to be cast no matter the amount of cards drawn.
Unless obviously stated on the card, most spells will only affect one target. There are too many cards to give a hard and fast rule, so you'll have to fudge things a bit when determining number of targets. Most cards should be obvious in their number of targets.
Example: A fireball spell can obviously have multiple targets, while a lightning bolt has only a single target.
Many magic cards summon creatures invoked to fight against the wizards' foes. In this system, that concept will still be used without many changes. We should just think about the origin of such beings. Are they invoked from another plane? Are they paradigmatic creatures from the myth of perfect ideas? Perhaps they're just summoned from another place in the same world and forced to fight for a wizard? Whatever you choose, those incredible beings usually won't be seen in your games except through magic. It's likely that most weird creatures you find in Magic will be beings rarely seen in the wilds, or perhaps never seen at all.
In game terms, you will need to gather enough mana of the appropriate colors to summon a creature. As soon as you have gathered it you can cast a summoning spell and bring a creature from your hand to the world. The round (or drawing turn, depending on the variant) you invoke the creature it is confused, so it can't attack (though it can defend itself if needed). After the duel is over, all creatures fade out and return to wherever they came from (and anything they brought with them, too).
No matter how many drawing turns we have in a round, a creature can attack only once per round except in special circumstances. So it's wise to keep some creatures ready to protect you physically against those of your foe, or to fight for you later in the round.
We could run creatures as full characters and keep all Wound levels for them, or, as the minions they are, we could use a reduced list of levels, like the usual Ok, Wounded, and Out of the Fight. The second option is good to keep the fight agile enough, but choose what you like the best.
The creature attributes will be as follows:
* See Gifts (section 6) below.
All other attributes are Fair unless they're clearly inappropriate for the creature in question. Keep in mind these creatures are intended mainly as fighters and thus are barely useful for anything else.
Large creatures might have Fair Strength, but use Mass scale equal to the card power. Also, if a card has power/toughness larger than 5 (Legendary Strength or Health in this case) we ought to move the extra points to Mass scale. In some case we might even move more than those points to Scale, decreasing Strength or Health to Great to keep the amount of points the same.
What is more interesting about summoning creatures is the special abilities they have. Just like in Magic: The Gathering, if a creature has to tap to use it's special ability, it can't attack the same round and vice-versa. Some creatures do not tap to attack, and they can use a special ability and still attack that round, so long as they attack first. If the special ability has a cost in mana you have to pay for it before it can be used.
Some creatures have specific types or subtypes which may have specific uses or effects in certain circumstances. Apply them as you see fit.
Many creatures have a special ability (or are affected by spells) that disallows others to interact with them either via choosing them as targets or blocking them, etc. In those cases, the summoner may choose the creature's opponent at will. Once the summoner chooses an opponent, the summoned creature can be then fought by it's opponent normally. Example: Shadow, Phase.
Creatures with the ability to create copies of themselves (clones or duplicates) are counted as two (or more) summoned creatures of the same type. If the base creature was summoned with magic bonuses, the copies do not receive those bonuses. If the bonuses were given with cards, the bonuses remain on the original creature, like the cards would in Magic: The Gathering.
Flanking creatures impose a -1 penalty to defense to creatures without this ability.
Flying creatures have a base flying skill of Fair. As expected, they can usually fight any flying or ground-based foe, while only opponents which fly or have some power (i.e. ranged attacks) are able to initiate a fight with the flyer.
Fortifiable creatures are able to grow stronger or tougher with magic or if other conditions are met. To simulate this effect, simply modify the creature's attributes to the new scores as soon as the power is used. The same should be done when creatures or spells make creatures grow weaker. Regardless of the effect, apply the new attributes as soon as possible. This includes instances where creatures have bonuses against other specific creatures or against specific subtypes (i.e. +1/+1 against Merfolk), usually reducing their opponent's Strength and/or Health or increasing their own attributes. Play these as described above.
Grouping (banding) creatures have enough leadership to coordinate the attacks of others. Usually X creatures can be grouped if X-1 of them have this special skill. Apply bonuses to their attack as you see fit, as flanking or swarming can be very advantageous. Generally any result is appropriate if it could come from acting as a highly cohesive team. Allowing one member of the group to take a hit for another member of the group at no penalty, or removing maximums and/or penalties for cooperative skill rolls are both good examples.
The Morph ability is used by paying the appropriate costs for the desired creature version and modifying the attributes of the creature to the new values it should have after the morph. This ability, in a nutshell, describes a creature with two different sets of attributes and/or abilities.
Regenerating creatures are able to heal all damage by paying an specific cost. If that includes mana, you have to pay for it with your own mana. In most cases the creature has to spend one or more rounds doing nothing for this effect to work, but can be regenerated even if killed outright. Even so, there are cards and powers which annihilate regenerating creatures (for example, Disintegrate), so this skill isn't too unbalanced.
Trampling creatures are so powerful that they can damage more than one foe at the same time. They roll at full bonus attack against the first enemy then with a -2 penalty to each adjacent foe. The damage bonus is the same against each opponent.
Landhoming creatures can't attack a foe if she hasn't used a land card of the appropriate type. Also, landhoming creatures dissipate if the wizard doesn't have at least one land card of required type, either in his hand each round (Mana-on-the-Fly variant), or played (Resource Gathering variant).
Landwalking creatures have a +1 bonus to attack and defense if your foe has used mana of the color of the specific land it can traverse (e.g. blue for islands). If we're using the Resource Gathering variant, this also applies if your foe has played a copy of the named land type.
Wall creatures can't attack but can defend others. They have a base defense skill of Great.
Many protection spells create unbeatable defenses against a specific color of magic or creatures of that color. When attacked by those sources, the being thus protected is usually unharmed or unaffected. These spells last one round or until dispelled, though they may require extra mana when attacked by the affected color more than once. There are too many specific cases which could generate confusion. When in doubt, use common sense.
All non permanent spells are one use only. Once you cast them, they're buried in your graveyard. Permanent spells can be played in front of you or associated to a creature and may last many rounds.
Many spells do damage to creatures or directly to wizards or both. The base damage in Fudge : The Gathering will be two plus the damage the effect does. You can fine tune this base damage to be less lethal (base damage +0) or very deadly (base damage +4).
Example: A fireball of four points of damage would cause a total damage of +6, which would cause (unless somehow reduced by armor, Health, Scale or appropriate gifts) a Serious wound to its target.
If you wish, you can take the degree of success you had in the magic roll and add it to damage. This can make magic even more deadly!
Card retrieving: some abilities allow you to retrieve a played card. That card returns to your hand as soon as the ability can be played.
Example: Some creatures can be played, fight for you, then return to safety to your hand.
Card theft: some effects let you steal cards from your opponent. Usually, you'll steal cards in play (lands, mana sources, creatures or artifacts), though in some cases you can take cards from your opponent's hand.
Discarding: in some cases you'll have to discard one or more cards. Do so when prompted.
Extra cards: in some cases you are allowed to draw a card if some conditions are met (discarding another, for example). Draw that card as soon as you are able to, even if you are out of turn. Conversely, if you're forced to discard one or more cards, do so when you're forced to.
Interruptions and /or fast effects: these can be played any time you want, as soon as you meet the prerequisites.
Prevention and Redirection of Damage: some attacks specify that damage can't be avoided nor redirected. Treat the appropriate damage the same way.
Tapped condition: we have to remember what is tapped because it disallows special abilities and other actions. Tapping occurs after a creature attacks, the card uses an ability that requires it to tap, or when the thing acts in a way which is inappropriate (such as a creature fumbling an attack roll). If the tapping of a creature is caused by a spell or another special ability, the creature can't attack or act that round. If an artifact or object causes them to become tapped, you can use them only once per round. So, just like in Magic: The Gathering, while an entity is tapped, it is unusable.
Cards which don't get tapped when they act, may roll for defense as often as needed, but only once for each specific foe.
Example: Usually a summoned creature can fight till dispelled or dies; it doesn't have to wait random pauses. However, if it had the special ability X which can't be used if tapped, it can't be used if the creature has done other important actions this round. On the other hand if a spell "tapped" the creature, it loses all remaining actions this round as if it were confused or slowed down, as interpreted by the spell.
Umbral condition: this applies with the same meaning as in the original game. If you don't know what this condition is, don't bother to look for it. It means that you don't have cards which are affected by it, so why bother? It's merely used as a triggering condition for some special abilities.
Now I'll introduce some specific gifts.
Adaptable magic: if you draw a card that you can't use because you don't have the appropriate Gift, you can discard it and draw another one in it's stead. Without this gift you are forced to bury the unusable card and wait until your next drawing turn to get a better one.
Black, Blue, Green, Red or White magic gifts: those gifts are bought individually, and they allow you to do magic of the specific type chosen and thus allow you to get levels of the related skills.
Creature Enhancers:
Enhance creature's attack: the summoned creature gets a +1 attack bonus for the cost of one extra mana.
Enhance creature's defense: the summoned creature gets a +1 dodge bonus for the cost of one extra mana.
Enhance creature's flight: the summoned creature gets a +1 bonus to its flying skill for the cost of one extra mana.
Enhance creature's initiative: the summoned creature gets a +1 bonus to its initiative for the cost of one extra mana.
Enhance grouping ability: allows the summoned creature with the Grouping (banding) ability to band with one extra creature which doesn't have it, for the cost of one extra mana.
Note that all creature enhancers can only be used when the creature is being summoned, because you have to calculate the total mana involved before rolling for it.
Hasty magic: for the cost some mana, you can tinker with magic more quickly. For each mana point spent on this gift each round, you get a +1 bonus on your Initiative roll for magical activities. Thus, as soon as you get mana generating cards in play, you can burn them to act before your foes. The drawback is that this boost has to be paid every round you want to keep it!
Land mastery (only for the Resource Gathering variant, see 2.1): you can play an extra land per round to boost a spell or finish it quicker. Also, very useful to counterspell magical attacks. Note: if you're in your drawing turn you can effectively play two lands at once, but only once per round. If you're counterspelling, it allows you to bring one extra mana point to your side.
Example: You have played three mountains and then drew and played a swamp. You need to play another land to cast a spell in your hand, so that you can defeat your foe. You can play another land in this moment and finish the spell quickly. If you didn't have this Gift, you would have to wait another round to play the other land you need.
Another example: Your foe casts a fireball at you and you can't dispel it with the few islands you've already played. Fortunately, this Gift allows you to play another island and gather enough mana to shield you from the the worst effects of the spell.
Now I'll show an example of a magical duel, using the Middle Ground rules for number of cards drawn per round and the Resource gathering variant. Degree of success in spell casting won't be added to damage in this fight.
In one corner we have Endria the Green - an elven sorceress with the gifts of Green, Blue and White Magic. In the other corner we have Ash the Black - a Black, Red and Blue goblin wizard.
Endria has a Great skill in Green Magic, and Good levels in Blue and White. Ash has a Superb skill in Black Magic, Good in Red magic and Fair in Blue.
This example uses the Resource gathering variant, and to see how many cards can the wizards draw each round, we'll use their gifts. In this case both wizards have three schools of magic each so they can draw 2+3 = 5 cards per round.
The duel starts with an initiative roll won by Endria. The deck is shuffled and she draws a Celestial Lion, a 3/1 white creature. Fortunately she has dabbled before with white magic so she can add it to her hand. It has a cost of two points of generic mana and one white mana, so she'll wait for now.
Then Ash draws a Ghostly Soldier, another white creature. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't have the gift of White Magic, so he has to bury this card and thus starting to his graveyard.
Endria draws another card and gets an artifact which she could use to make her creatures stronger, if she could summon any! As an artifact it is colorless but its cost is four points of mana, so she just keeps it in her hand.
Ash now draws a swamp, which he gleefully plays to get his first mana reservoir ready.
Endria gets lucky and draws an island, which she also plays.
Ash now draws a Mind Bolt, a blue spell which costs one blue and one generic point of mana, and which causes two points of damage. He adds it to his hand and waits to get an island.
As her fourth card Endria draws a Forest which she adds to her land pool.
Ash now draws Shadow Skeletons, a 1/1 black creature with regeneration and shadow consistence, with a cost of two points of black mana. He can't summon them yet.
Endria's last card this round is a Dire Lettuce, a 2/2 green creature costing 2 green mana points and one point of generic mana to summon. This creature can be made stronger with green mana, paid every round (+1/+1 per point).
Ash now draws an island, which he plays quickly. With it he casts Mind Bolt (tapping the swamp and the island) against Endria. With a cost of two mana, it is an easy spell, so he has to roll Poor or better, which he easily does with his Fair skill. The total damage would be 2+2 (the damage of the spell) but Endria is allowed to roll against Willpower to reduce damage against this mind spell. With an incredible Great roll she reduces damage to two and thus she is only scratched by the spell. The Mind Bolt card is now buried by Ash.
This the first round is finished. If there were other players doing things, they could also have acted this round. Alternatively, someone could have sneaked up and stabbed any of them to break their concentration. Without external interferences, the turns only have meaning if a wizard can draw more cards than an opponent. For example, if Ash could only play four cards per round, he wouldn't have able to cast that spell in the first round and Endria still would have added the Dire Lettuce to her hand.
The next round starts and all mana sources become untapped again. Ash has his swamps ready again.
In the second round, Endria draws a Forest, which is quickly played in front of her player. With this second forest she can summon the Dire Lettuce. That card is played in front of her, but can't attack yet because it is confused by the summoning of the spell.
With a worried look, Ash draws another card. Fortunately for him, it's another swamp. He plays it and summons the Shadow Skeletons to existence, though they're also confused this round.
Endria draws another card, a plain, and plays it. She'd like to make the Dire Lettuce stronger but right now her Forests are depleted of mana until her next round. She can only order it to attack Ash, or his Skeletons - but they're shadowy creatures, so her veggie monster can't attack them. So, she commands it to attack Ash. As a 2/2 creature, the Dire Lettuce has Good Strength and Health, and a base Fair attack skill. The creature rolls its attack against Ash, but only scratches the tough goblin. Now that the Dire Lettuce has attacked, it can't use special abilities (if it had them) but can defend itself normally.
Note: if there were other foes, like Ash's bodyguards, Endria might order the Dire Lettuce to beat them to death. Conversely, the goblin pests might attack the plant monster out of turn.
Ash then draws a Fireball spell but can't use it until he gets two mountains to complement the two generic mana points he already has. He can, however, attack with his Shadow Skeletons. He orders them to attack. They could attack Endria because she has no creatures ready to protect her; and what's better for him, they might not be able to stop his shadowy minions! But he just wants to destroy the lettuce before Endria can make it stronger, so he chooses the greener target.
The Skeletons are 1/1 only so they have Fair Strength and Health. They hit the Lettuce but don't harm it.
Now Endria draws a Ray of Light, a white spell which causes two points of damage to undead. With her plain she's able to cast it with ease (it is an automatic spell) and she aims it at the skeletons. A Fudge damage of +4 is too much for the skeletons, so they're destroyed. Fortunately for Ash, they can be regenerated with generic mana. He taps his unused island and with its blue mana, the skeletons regenerate fully. Note that if the Skeletons hadn't already acted this round, they wouldn't be able to act until next round - like as if they were just summoned.
Ash now draws a Disaster card, which is able to destroy all islands if he pays a red mana point. Without a Mountain, he must wait for now.
Endria now draws a swamp, which she plays as a source of generic mana, and waits.
Ash draws finally a mountain, plays it. In a burst of self destructive behavior, he plays Disaster, burying all islands (including his own!)
Endria draws a Lovecraftian Horror, a very powerful black creature, but she has to bury it immediately since she can't use black cards.
Finally Ash draws a Sea Serpent, a 3/3 blue creature he can't summon for now (cost two Blue and two generic mana points).
The round finishes and all surviving lands are untapped. The third round begins.
Endria draws another card, another Forest! She then taps all her forests and makes the Dire Lettuce grow to humongous size (from now until the next round it is a 5/5 creature). Looking for a quick victory, she orders it to attack Ash. As a 5/5 creature it would have Legendary Strength and Health, but it is reduced to Superb Strength and Health, scale +1. Ash orders his skeletons to protect him, though the Lettuce is too strong for them and they are blown to pieces again.
Ash taps a swamp and the skeletons regenerate. No creatures are left, so unless either of the two wizards draw one, they won't be able to hurt each other except by spells until next round.
As a side note, if not fed with more green mana on the next round, the Dire Lettuce will become a 2/2 creature again. For now, it keeps its increased attributes. However, as it has already attacked, it can't use special abilities (if it had them) and can only defend itself normally if attacked later in the round.
And so on... hope this example was worth the effort!
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