---

Published on 01/18/2016

And Now My Gatewatch Begins

By Carsten Haese, James Bennett, Callum Milne, and Nathan Long
This Article from: Carsten Haese

Cranial Translation
简体中文 Deutsch Español Français Italiano Pусский

---

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 Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes.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.

Greetings, and welcome back to another episode of Cranial Insertion! The Oath of the Gatewatch prerelease was last weekend, which means it's time to take a look at all the fun interactions that this new set has to offer. Kozilek is back, and with him comes a new kind of basic land and many other cards that are sure to melt brains, but don't despair — we're still here to answer all your questions!

If you have questions for us, please email them to moko@cranialinsertion.com or tweet short questions to @CranialTweet. Your question will be answered by one of our writers, and your question might appear in a future article to educate readers like yourself.

And now, without further ado, let's see what Oath of the Gatewatch has in store for us!

---

Q: Can I control both Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Kozilek, the Great Distortion at the same time?

A: Yes, that works. Unlike the planeswalker uniqueness rule, which looks at planeswalker types, the legend rule looks at the full name of the card. The two versions of Kozilek have different full names, so they can coexist as peacefully as two reality-bending Eldrazi Titans can manage.

---

Q: Does Herald of Kozilek make Kozilek, the Great Distortion cheaper to cast?

A: Yes, but probably not in the way you're hoping. Herald of Kozilek doesn't reduce the colorless part of the cost. It only reduces the generic part of the cost, so Kozilek ends up costing .

---

Q: Can Birds of Paradise make ?

A: No. is colorless mana, and colorless is not a color. Colorlessness is the absence of color. Birds of Paradise can still only make white, blue, black, red, or green mana.

---

Q: Can I get a Skyrider Elf with six counters on it by choosing X=4 and paying the cost by tapping a Plains, an Island, a Swamp, a Mountain, a Forest, and a Wastes?

A: No. Tapping Wastes makes colorless mana, and as in the previous question, colorless is not a color. You spent five colors of mana to cast the Elf, so it gets five +1/+1 counters.

---

Q: If I use Snapcaster Mage to give Crush of Tentacles flashback, can I flash it back for its surge cost?

A: No, that's not possible. Both surge and flashback are alternative costs, and you can only use one alternative cost to cast a spell. Since the flashback cost is the one that's allowing you to cast the card from the graveyard in the first place, that's the cost you'll have to pay to cast it from your graveyard.

---

Q: So, can I surge Crush of Tentacles from my graveyard with Jace, Telepath Unbound's -3 ability?

A: Assuming that you or a teammate of yours have cast another spell that turn, sure! Jace's effect allows you to cast the card from the graveyard without imposing a particular cost, so you're free to cast it for the surge cost if you fulfill the condition for doing so.

---

Q: If I cast Shoulder to Shoulder on two of my creatures, and in response my opponent destroys one of them, what happens?

A: You cast Shoulder to Shoulder with two targets, and your opponent made one of those targets illegal, but Shoulder to Shoulder still has one legal target, so it doesn't get countered by the game rules. It resolves and does as much as it can, which means it puts a +1/+1 counter on the remaining target and you draw a card.

---

Q: Can I tutor for Jace, Telepath Unbound with Call the Gatewatch?

A: You'd think so, with Jace being part of the Gatewatch, but no, that doesn't work. Jace, Telepath Unbound is the back face of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, and the back face is not considered while the card is in the library. In the library, this version of Jace is just a creature and therefore not eligible to be called.

---

Q: Can I search for two Wastes with Myriad Landscape?

A: No. While Wastes are basic lands, they don't have a land type at all, so they can't share a land type. The two lands have the same name, but that doesn't matter to Myriad Landscape. Also note that even a single Wastes doesn't share a land type with itself, so Myriad Landscape isn't even able to get a single Wastes.

---

Q: My opponent attacks me with an animated Needle Spires, and rather than block it, I hit it with Dazzling Reflection. What happens?

A: First, you'll gain 2 life when Dazzling Reflection resolves. Then, the game moves on to combat damage. Since Needle Spires has double strike, there will be two combat damage steps, and Needle Spires will try to deal 2 damage to you in each combat damage step. The damage prevention effect from Dazzling Reflection applies to the first combat damage step, so that damage is prevented, but the damage from the second combat damage step goes through normally, so you'll lose the 2 life you just gained.

---

Q: I cast Eldrazi Obligator to steal one of my opponent's creatures, and she counters it. Do I still get her creature?

A: Absolutely! The creature-stealing ability triggers off of casting Eldrazi Obligator, not off of it entering the battlefield. By the time your opponent can respond, Eldrazi Obligator's ability is already on the stack waiting to resolve, and countering Eldrazi Obligator doesn't "untrigger" the ability.

---

Q: If I activate Kozilek's Shrieker twice, does my opponent need three creatures to block it?

A: Nope, just two will be enough to block it. Kozilek's Shrieker gets a second instance of menace, but that second instance isn't doing anything that the first instance isn't already doing. There are now two restrictions in place stating that Kozilek's Shrieker can't be blocked except by two or more creatures, and fulfilling one of those restrictions automatically fulfills the second as well.

---

Q: Can I just tap Vampire Envoy for no reason to gain life?

A: No. Vampire Envoy doesn't have an activated ability that you activate by tapping it. It has a triggered ability that triggers whenever Vampire Envoy somehow becomes tapped, but that doesn't give you permission to tap it at will. You'll need some rule, cost, or effect to tell you to tap Vampire Envoy in order to gain life with its ability. Two obvious ways of making that happen are to attack with it or to use it to activate a cohort ability.

---

Q: If I use Goblin Dark-Dwellers to cast Devour in Flames out of my graveyard, do I need to return a land to my hand?

A: Yup. Goblin Dark-Dwellers' effect only waives the mana cost of Devour in Flames. The additional cost of bouncing a land you control must still be paid.

---

Q: I attack with Kor Sky Climber and my opponent blocks it with a ground creature. If I give Kor Sky Climber flying, what happens?

A: Nothing at all, I'm afraid. Blocking restrictions are only checked at the time blockers are declared, and that time has already passed. Giving a creature an evasion ability after that point won't affect the established block at all. If you want your Kor to go unblocked past your opponent's ground creatures, you have to give it flying before your opponent declares blockers.

---

Q: Let's say I control Mina and Denn, Wildborn. I play two lands, and then I use Eldrazi Displacer to blink Mina and Denn. Can I play a third land now?

A: No. This trick would have worked some time ago, but it no longer works under current rules. Under the current rules, the game simply compares the number of lands you've played to the number of land plays you're allowed. When you blinked Mina and Denn, the number of lands your allowed to play briefly went down to one and then back up to two. Since you've already played two lands, you're not allowed to play another land that turn.

---

Q: Can I play two creatures and equip Strider Harness to one and then the other in order to attack with both of them?

A: Nope. Strider Harness only gives haste to the creature it's currently attached to. When you move the Harness from the first creature to the second creature, the first creature loses haste, so you won't be able to attack with it.

---

Q: Let's say I'm at 19 life and my opponent is at 20 life. I cast Linvala, the Preserver, and in response to her enter-the-battlefield ability I blink her with Eldrazi Displacer. Do I gain 10 life?

A: No, you'll only gain 5 life. Linvala's enter-the-battlefield ability has an intervening-if clause, which means that the condition is checked both when the ability would trigger and when the ability resolves. You'll gain 5 life when the first ability resolves, but then the condition is no longer true for the second ability, so the second ability does nothing.

---

Q: Suppose I control Dread Defiler and Ashnod's Altar. Can I sacrifice Dread Defiler to make mana with Ashnod's Altar and then exile the Defiler from my graveyard to pay the cost for its ability?

A: Yes, that works, if you do it right. You start by announcing that you're activating Dread Defiler's ability, which puts the ability on the stack. You then choose the target and determine the activation cost, which is ", Exile a creature card from your graveyard" since nothing is affecting the cost. Before you pay that cost, the game gives you the chance to activate mana abilities, and that's when you sacrifice the Defiler which gives you and you presumably get two more from unspecified sources. Finally, you proceed to pay the total cost by exiling the Defiler that just arrived in your graveyard and by taking the mana you just made out of your mana pool. Phew!

---

Q: How does Cliffhaven Vampire work in Two-Headed Giant?

A: To answer that question, recall that there are four individual players in a game of Two-Headed Giant, and each player has one teammate and two opponents. Losing and gaining life happens to individual players, but the players don't have individual life totals. Each team has a shared life total that works much like a joint bank account, and each player's life gain or loss is applied to their team's shared life total. Your Cliffhaven Vampire only triggers when you gain life, not when your teammate gains life. However, when it triggers, both of your opponents will lose 1 life each, so their shared life total goes down by 2.

---

Q: Does anything rotate out of Standard when Oath of the Gatewatch comes out?

A: Nope. The next rotation happens with the release of Shadows over Innistrad. Oath of the Gatewatch simply gets added to the current Standard environment, so Standard will consist of the full Khans block, Magic Origins, Battle for Zendikar, and Oath of the Gatewatch.

---

Q: How many Wastes can I play in my deck?

A: That kind of depends on what kind of tournament you're in. Since Wastes are basic lands, there is no four-of limit to worry about. In Constructed tournaments you can have as many Wastes in your deck as you want, provided you own enough Wastes. In Limited tournaments, so Draft or Sealed Deck tournaments, you're limited to how many Wastes are in your draft picks or sealed pool. Unlike Plains, Islands, Swamps, Mountains, and Forests, Wastes can't be added to your deck in unlimited quantities.

---

And that's all the time we have for now. I hope Kozilek hasn't distorted your reality too much, and I hope you'll be back next week for another round of Magic rules questions and answers.

- Carsten Haese

---

About the Author:
Carsten Haese is a former Level 2 judge based in Toledo, OH. He is retired from active judging, but he still writes for Cranial Insertion and helps organize an annual charity Magic tournament that benefits the National MS Society.

---