I am an old time magic player that stopped playing for quite a while and just recently begain playing again. Since I have come back I've noticed the reference of a Regeneration Shield... what is meant by that? How does it differ from just plain old regenerating?
Iryoolan
You can use it as a replacement effect. Much like circle of protections effect are prevention effect.
T.10.9 - Regeneration is a replacement effect. Regenerate means "The next time this turn the permanent would be destroyed, instead remove all damage from it, tap it, and (if it is in combat) remove it from combat." [CompRules 1999/11/01]
It acts like a shield that "prevent" (only once for each shield) your creature from being destroyed.
Hope it helps!
Luc
Well actually I'm still a bit confused... is this just a different wording for the same old regeneration... or a completely different ability? Because regeneration was always a prevention ability wasn't it? In other words... it prevents your creature from being sent to the grave yard.
Iryoolan
yes, it prevents the destruction of your creature.
The term "shield" appeared with the stack.
Before, you could only regenerate when the creature was about to die (for exemple, after a river boa receives a lightning bolt, you could use the regeneration).
But now, with the stack, you are allowed to activate the regeneration ability whenever you want. You don't have to wait for the creature to be about to die. And, each time you activate the ability, you create a "shield" that last until the end of the turn. That shields means that the next time the creature would die in the turn, instead the shield is used up, and the creature doesn't die.
it basically does the same thing
the way it's used is different...the old way (5th) had a damage prevention/redirection subphase after any damage was dealt...this is when you used regen
now (6th), these subphases have been eliminated and you have to activate the regen before the damage is dealt...it's called a shield because it's in place before the damage comes
As far as I know, it's the same ability, but you can now prevent until the end of turn.
Example: for some reasons, you have 4 colorless mana in your mana pool. You control a Masticore, and have nothing to do with the mana. You may put 2 regeneration shields on your Masticore, so it will prevent it from being destroyed up to two times until the end of turn.
Please somebody tell me if I'm wrong here.
Luc
Sorry for the last post, I'm so slow at writing!
Thanks for the clarification... I believe I understand now =)
Iryoolan
That's the major change, that regeneration is now a mana sink.