How does Mana drain vs mana drain +x work?

[Morbidsoup]

As the topic states  how do these effects work out?I played my first game today and my opponent played a wizard and his staff (I don't remember the name) and we had no idea how this effect worked.Do you lose the amount of mana equal to the dice rolled or only what damages you?Also with the mana leech +1mana drain,does it work the same as above with an extra die,or you just lose an extra mana?


Thanks

[Drealin]

I believe you are referring to Staff of the Arcanum, which has Mana Drain 1 for both attacks.  I believe the exclusion of the '+' is a misprint, and it should say Mana Drain +1.

Mana Drain +X
If this attack damages an enemy creature, that creature's controller loses X mana from this mana supply (if he has any).  If the attack makes multiple attacks against the same or different objects, it gains this bonus only for the first attack it makes.

So in the case of the staff your opponent mage would lose 1 mana, if your dice get past any armor his creature may have and do at least 1 damage to the creature.  The same is true with the Mana Leech, however, since its full attack is Mana Drain +2, then your opponent mage would lose 2 mana.  Mana Drain does not allow you to roll any extra dice, it simply says how much mana your opponent mage loses if you damage your creature target.

I'm not sure if there's a reason that Mana Drain +X starts by saying the attack must be against a creature for the attack to work, but then at the end seems to indicate that it could work against any object, I'm assuming this is a misprint as well.  When I have played we went with that the effect only ever works against creatures and not any other kind of object.

[Morbidsoup]

Thanks for the answer.I totally played that wrong.

[Shad0w]

On the staff it is supposed to be mana drain +1 it does [strike]not [/strike]add extra drain and does allow you to use mana drain. Other than that you did well  

[Drealin]

So it's a different kind of mana drain then?  Because in the Codex it only talks about mana drain +X, and I can't think of any other mana drain card other than mana leech.  Does this mean that there will be enchantments that give the mana drain trait in future expansions?  That is only reason I can think of as to why the staff can't stack it's mana drain.

[Arcanus]

The Staff of the Arcanum says "Mana Drain 1", but it should say "Mana Drain +1".  This is a misprint and will be posted in our coming errata.

The Mana Drain trait stacks, so you can add the traits up should a creature acquire more than 1. As long as you deal any damage to the creature, then you get the full Mana Drain value.  For example, if the attack has "Mana Drain +3", and deals just one point of damage, then 3 mana are drained.

The trait never adds dice.  It just has a chance to drain mana.

The effect only works against creatures, not conjurations.

If the mage does not have enough mana in his supply, he just pays what he has, and does not "owe" any mana later.  A good way to help negate this trait is to spend your mana before getting attacked, so you have nothing to lose.

[Shad0w]

Byan replies while I am driving home like a stealthy ninja. Thank you for the full errata