Published on 08/26/2013
World Enchantment
or, Enchant All the Things
By Eli Shiffrin, Carsten Haese, James Bennett, and Callum Milne
This Article from: Eli Shiffrin
Cranial Translation
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Note: This article is over two years old. Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes. Proceed with caution.
"Oy, stop walking on me!"
So sit, back, relax, scream "whee!" if you're so inclined. If you've got more questions, send 'em all in to moko@cranialinsertion.com or fire a short question to @CranialTweet for a short answer.
Let's start off this week with a couple nice, simple, Twitter-worthy rules questions!
Q: What does banding do? :(
A: Banding, like many old, old keywords, does two unrelated but flavorful things.
First, while attacking, and only while attacking, a creature with banding can ask another creature to join a band with it. Not the kind that plays polka music. The kind that forms a defensive pact, pledging that aggression towards one is aggression towards both. If you remember your World War I history, a chain of these can link together - A signs such a pact with B, B signs one with C, C signs one with D... and then they are all separate entities but when a creature blocks one of those creatures, they all get pulled in together and are all blocked.
While attacking and also while blocking, banding does something else later on in the combat damage step. If a creature's damage needs to be assigned and a creature anywhere in its damage assignment order has banding, that banding creature's controller gets to assign the damage however he or she likes with blatant disregard for what the opponent wants and for the combat damage order chosen.
Banding is strange.
Yes, I've actually answered this in 140 characters in the past. It was along the lines of:
Band w/1 dude on attk. Block one=block both. On attk/block dmg assign, assign to bander = bander controller assign instead.
Q: What does phasing do? :(
A: Phasing is strange.
As your untap step begins, before anything untaps, everything that has phasing gets phased out like 1990's fashion. While it's phased out, it simply doesn't exist. At the same time, everything that you controlled while it phased out phases back in, like 1890's fashion. It didn't enter the battlefield since it never left; the game just remembered that it exists.
Q: If Elite Arcanist exiles Cyclonic Rift, can I overload it every turn?
A: Nope. Overload and "without paying its mana cost" are both alternative costs. They're like coupons, and the store you're buying at does not allow multiple price-setting coupons to be used on one item. One coupon says "Cast the copy FREE!!!" (with three exclamation points, a sign that this store's advertising agency has problems), while another says "Get five 4 teh price of 3" (because its editorial department is on drugs), and neither helps with our jet aspirations. Unfortunately for you, only one of those coupons applies and gives you permission to cast the copy at all, so that's the one you'll have to apply.
Q: Is Snapcaster Mage and Cyclonic Rift in my graveyard a combo or a nonbo?
A: It's a nonbo. The situation is actually exactly the same as the previous one, even though it looks different (other than Cyclonic Rift showing up again). Flashback is a third coupon that says "Cast this from your graveyard for the specified amount of mana, good sir." Classy! You still can't mix coupons, and this is the only one that lets you cast it from a graveyard, so it's the only one that you can possibly apply.
Rock on!
A: You'll get to draw! Your Notion Thief will be sitting on the battlefield battered and smoking until state-based actions come around and see its charred body and haul it off. They don't come around in the middle of resolving a spell, though, so first Electrolyze finishes doing all of its things, including having your opponent draw. That gets replaced, so you draw, and then state-based actions finally get there and take away your crispy-fried thief.
Q: Do I have to find the tenth Gate to win with Maze's End, or wait until the end of turn after doing that, or what?
A: Maze's End checks your Gates at exactly one time: While its ability is resolving. Controlling ten different Gates at any other time doesn't do anything, and it doesn't matter how you came to control ten different Gates when the check is made.
Q: Someone said that Think Twice lets you cast sorcery miracles like Bonfire of the Damned on my opponent's turn. How does that work?
A: It's all about permissions. The game of Magic contains very few restrictions - rules that say that you can't do something. For the most part, the rules define what you can do, and if nothing says that you can do something, you can't. No rule says that you can't win the game by dropping your opponent into a pit trap, and no rule says that you can't cast Runeclaw Bear by doing the chicken dance. You can't do either of those things because no rule says that you can.
Why does that matter? Because no rule says that you can't cast a sorcery during your opponent's turn. You can't normally do that because no rule says that you can, but the resolving miracle trigger gives you permission to cast the sorcery right then and there, during a time where you can't normally take any voluntary actions at all.
Q: Can I save my tokens from Izzet Staticaster by Murdering it in response to its ability?
A: Don't you know that violence isn't the answer? Well, actually, history strongly disagrees with that, and most games are won through gratuitous creature-on-player violence... but Murder isn't the answer here, at least! Removing the source of an ability never counters it. In some circumstances, removing the source may make the ability less than useful (see Arcbound Ravager and Nightfall Predator), but simply dealing damage isn't one of those circumstances. The Staticaster as it last existed on the battlefield will be the source of damage, and damage it will deal.
Q: Can I choose colorless for Brave the Elements?
A: Colorless is not a color anymore than the Pacific Ocean is a country (shush, Aquaman, no one loves you). You have to name a single color that is actually a color, meaning white, blue, black, red, or green.
Q: Can my colorless Sliver tokens from Hive Stirrings block Academy Raider?
A: This question is turning out to be a big one for M14 Limited! While most artifacts are colorless, and most colorless creatures are artifacts, the two are not at all connected by the rules. These little Slivers are colorless nonartifact creatures, so they're terribly intimidated by the little red Raider.
Q: Can I feed creatures to Trading Post without an artifact card in my graveyard?
A: Nope. You can't start a hike down the "Activate Ze Ability" path unless you can make all of the steps to complete it. That includes selecting a legal target, making the lack of artifact cards in your graveyard an insurmountable obstacle.
Q: Can I Redirect a Clone?
A: Only if it's asking you for directions. You can always tell if a spell or ability targets by looking for the word "target" - it'll rarely be hidden inside a keyword ability, like equip or enchant, and it will always appear in the reminder text for a keyword if there is reminder text. Clone has no target, so if you cast Redirect targeting Clone, all that you'll accomplish is preventing him from reaching his family in time for their holiday dinner, leading to a divorce, drinking problems, and at-risk little Clonelings. You fiend.
Q: I asked my opponent if he wanted to do anything after he blocked, and he said no, then he said it was too late when I tried to bloodrush Ghor-Clan Rampager. Is he right?
A: He is right. When both players pass priority in succession, the game moves on to whatever comes next - resolving the top object of the stack, or moving on to the next step of the turn. When you asked your opponent if he was doing anything, that's passing priority; he passed, too, so the combat damage step begins and damage happens right away.
Q: After my opponent flashes in a blocker, can I kill it before he blocks?
A: You sure can! The game doesn't move on until both players do pass priority in succession with the stack empty. This means, in general, that the game doesn't advance until both players agree that they don't want to do anything right then, though as the previous answer shows that doesn't cover "I don't want to do something unless you don't want to do something."
In search of Eldritch Pasta.
A: Outside of 1890 Utah and a handful of African nations, a creature may only be paired with one other creature. Copying the soulbond trigger won't help, since its intervening "if" clause checks whether the new creature is still single when it resolves. If that creature's taken, it would be awful big of me to try to pair it with another creature.
Q: Banisher Priest is banishing Platinum Angel and Austere Command for both creature modes resolves. Does the Angel come back in time to die?
A: It does. Returning the exiled creature doesn't use the stack, and doesn't wait for state-based actions. The same thing that makes the Priest shuffle up this mortal coil returns the exiled creature immediately after, before anything else happens. Then Austere Command finishes resolving with its second verb, which verbs Platinum Angel right in the noun.
Q: Does casting Phage the Untouchable from my command zone kill me, or does that count as my hand?
A: In general, if you're wondering whether something counts as something else in Magic, the answer is a huge no. Things are, or they are not; they do not count as. The command zone is not your hand, so Phage's trigger will happily lop off your head if you cast it from there. I recommend not doing that. Your head likes being where it is.
Q: Can multiple Haunted Plate Mails get up and dance for me?
A: They can get up off their knees and party, for they are dancer! The "if you control no creatures" restriction is only an activation restriction, so you can activate them all before you resolve any of the activations and everything'll work out right.
Q: Does an unanimated Mutavault taken by Zealous Conscripts actually gain haste so I can attack with it, or can noncreatures not have haste?
A: Mutavault can have haste, and Plains can have haste, and Mount Keralia can have haste, everyone can have haste! Haste won't have any effect at all unless it's on a creature that's on the battlefield, but that doesn't mean that other things can't have it. Any object can have any ability, though that ability may be entirely pointless depending on the object's type and zone.
Q: If Kaalia of the Vast brings Master of Cruelties to the party, does its ability still trigger even though it didn't attack?
A: Master of Cruelties will trigger and bring the party right back to him. Even though they sound similar, "whenever this attacks" and "whenever this attacks and isn't blocked" are entirely unrelated trigger conditions, like how Latvia and Latveria are unrelated countries. "Whenever this attacks" does care, as you noted, only about whether the creature was declared as an attacker; "attacks and isn't blocked," on the other hand, cares only about whether or not a blocking creature was declared for it while it was an attacking creature.
Q: All of my creatures are black, and my opponent tried to cast Doom Blade on one of them. He has to target one of his own nonblack creatures now, right?
A: Nope! When a spell is cast illegally, you rewind the entire process, not just back up to the point of illegality. I'd make an analogy about illegal border crossings here, but that's probably invoke, detain, and/or indefinite suspension. Perhaps you can remember this by the fact that it actually stumped me on a good real-world analogy?
Q: I know that penalties at FNM are generally looser than at Competitive events. What's the penalty turned down to if my opponent's cheating a little, though?
A: Cheating is cheating. While "cheating a little" may not, in fact, be cheating (as some players have an interesting definition of "cheating" that includes topdecking a good card), if it's actually capital-C-Cheating as defined in the Infraction Procedure Guide, it's also listed as a Serious Problem in the Judging at Regular document. Because really, it's FNM. Cheating at a fun local tournament? :(
And here we go, touching down in Greece. I'm signing off for this week, but come back next week for more Cranial Insertion goodness, and I'll see you again in a month with fresh news from Theros!
Until next time, may you all be heroes, if just for one day.
- Eli Shiffrin
About the Author:
Eli Shiffrin is currently in Lowell, Massachusetts and discovering how dense the east coast MTG community is. Legend has it that the Comprehensive Rules are inscribed on the folds of his brain.
Q7: Murdering the targeted token can save the rest of them, though.