Hello All!
Im a fellow player and huge fan of the game; I registered a few hours ago and this is my first post. Real quick, I just wanted to say to the collective, everyone participating on these forums - you guys are awesome!! I've found many an answer scouring these proud walls of text.
So.... that said, I am unclear about a few things regarding general upkeep as it refers to cards that have the keyword. I do understand that you pay in mana the amount outlined on the card to maintain the spell, my question is can you opt to not pay upkeep in order to cancel any given spell requiring upkeep?
More specifically, if I cast Mind Control on a level 4 creature it will cost me a total of 10 mana (2 to place and 8 [2(4)] to reveal). It then will cost me 4 per round to maintain. Do I have to maintain the spell until Im on mage mana food stamps or will I just have to purposely cast dispel on myself?
And lastly, Mind Control states that you need to be within one orthogonal zone of the creature you are prepping to mind probe in order for the play to be valid. Once the spell has legally been resolved, in addition to upkeep, do you also have to maintain the distance of one zone in order to keep control of the creature?
thx