Published on 05/23/2016
Modern Artistry
By Carsten Haese, James Bennett, Callum Milne, and Nathan Long
This Article from: James Bennett
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 Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes.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.
This dodge challenges the viewer to...
hey, where'd it go?
hey, where'd it go?
Joking aside, the SF MOMA did reopen this weekend, just in time for a pair of big events: Grand Prix Charlotte and Grand Prix Los Angeles, which both ran this weekend and featured the Modern format. In honor of which, this week we'll be looking at some Modern-themed rules questions!
Meanwhile, f you've got a rules question (about any cards, not just those legal in Modern) burning a hole in your brain, feel free to ask us by using the handy "Email Us" button, by sending an email to moko@cranialinsertion.com , or by tweeting at @CranialTweet.
Q: My opponent has a Slippery Bogle enchanted with Rancor, and now she's casting Daybreak Coronet on it. Can I activate Spellskite on the Coronet?
A: This is a trick question, and it's very important to learn why! In competitive tournament play, judges are required to answer the question you asked, without interjecting any additional advice or trying to interpret the question to answer what you meant. And that's why the answer to this question will almost always be "yes" (it would be "no" if, for example, there were a Pithing Needle naming Spellskite), because as long as there's a spell or ability on the stack it's almost always legal to activate Spellskite's ability.
However, activating Spellskite won't do anything useful in this case unless your Spellskite already has another Aura on it, since otherwise Spellskite won't be a legal target for the Coronet and will fail to change the target.
Q: My opponent cast Electrolyze, choosing to deal 1 damage to my Spellskite and 1 to my Signal Pest. Can I use Spellskite's ability to have it take all the damage?
A: No. A single thing can only be targeted by a single spell or ability once per instance of the word "target" in the spell or ability. Since Electrolyze only uses the word "target" once, Spellskite can't be targeted twice by it, and your Signal Pest will die.
Q: What if my opponent cast Kolaghan's Command choosing to destroy my Spellskite and deal damage to my Signal Pest? Same answer?
A: Same reasoning, but different result: this combination of modes uses the word "target" twice, so Spellskite can be targeted twice, and will be able to save your Signal Pest.
Q: Can I use Snapcaster Mage to flash back Ancestral Vision?
A: You can give Ancestral Vision flashback this way, but you won't be able to cast it. Its flashback cost is set to its mana cost, and its mana cost is... um... yeah, about that. Ancestral Vision (and its friends, like Living End and Hypergenesis) have no mana cost, which the rules define to be an unpayable cost. And it's just as unpayable when it's the flashback cost, so you won't be able to pay the cost to flash back your Ancestral Vision.
Q: My opponent attacked me with a Geist of Saint Traft equipped with Sword of War and Peace. Can I use the -2 of Nahiri, the Harbinger to exile the Sword?
A: No; although the Geist is tapped, Equipment attached to it doesn't become tapped when it attacks. And since Nahiri requires the artifact to be tapped, she won't be able to get rid of the Sword.
Q: If I don't want to discard a card, can I still just +2 Nahiri to get the extra loyalty on her?
A: You can; Nahiri's +2 ability says the discard is optional, so it's an easy way to get a free 2 loyalty (just remember you don't get to draw a card unless you discard).
This piece moves the audience,
questioning our idea of "maneuver".
questioning our idea of "maneuver".
A: You can. During the process of casting a spell, you generate mana before you pay costs, but state-based actions (which would kill a creature with 0 toughness) aren't checked until after you completely finish the process. So even though the Wall is a 0/0 after it produces mana, won't die until after you've finished paying all costs of Chord of Calling, which gives you the opportunity to also tap it for convoke.
Q: I'm at 16 life and my opponent just cast a Scapeshift for seven lands, fetching a Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and six basic Mountains. Unfortunately I didn't realize what was coming, so I didn't use Cryptic Command to counter it; can I save myself now by bouncing a land?
A: You can! Just bounce one of the Mountains. Valakut's ability has what's called an "intervening if" clause: it checks for the presence of five other Mountains both when it triggers, and when it starts to resolve. If you bounce one Mountain, then the trigger for the other five will all get to the point of resolving, notice you no longer control five other Mountains, and not deal damage (the trigger from the Mountain you bounced will still hit you for 3, but at least that's not lethal).
Q: Will Grafdigger's Cage stop Living End?
A: Unfortunately, no. Living End first exiles the creature cards in graveyards, then puts them onto the battlefield. Since they're entering from exile rather than the graveyard, Grafdigger's Cage doesn't prevent it.
Q: Would Grafdigger's Cage stop my opponent from casting Living End using cascade (say, from Violent Outburst)?
A: Also no: just as Living End exiles the creature cards, cascade exiles the cards it reveals, so Living End is being cast from exile rather than from the library.
Q: Can I Dismember to reduce some other creature's toughness in response to the bolster trigger of Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit, or is it too late since the target for the bolster is already chosen?
A: This works — bolster doesn't target, so the choice of a creature with the least toughness is made as the bolster ability resolves. Just make sure you don't leave your opponent with a choice (if multiple creatures they control are tied for least toughness, they get to pick which one to put the counter on).
Q: I have Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Viscera Seer and Kitchen Finks, so I can gain any amount of life I want at instant speed. My opponent has Melira, Viscera Seer and Murderous Redcap, so she can deal any amount of damage she wants at instant speed. Assuming my opponent doesn't realize they can target my creatures, who wins?
A: The initial outcome depends on whose turn it is. When there's a "fragmented loop" — a repeating sequence of optional actions, involving choices made by multiple players — the rules state that the player whose turn it is will be required to be the first to make a different choice and end the loop. So if it's your turn, sooner or later you have to make a choice other than "in response to your damage combo, I gain life". If it's your opponent's turn, she will have to make a choice other than "in response to your life gain combo, I deal damage". So if it's your opponent's turn you have a temporary reprieve, and you'd better have a way to disrupt her combo before your turn rolls around!
Q: I control a Viscera Seer and Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit, and a creature with persist. Can I use that to just cut my deck to any card I want?
A: Yes. When you execute a loop of actions, the rules require it to be deterministic: you have to be able to say up-front how many times you'll execute the loop, and you need to be able to predict what the game state will be afterward. So you can announce you'll loop n times, where n is the number of cards in your library and you choose to put the card from the scry on the bottom each time. This leaves your library in the same order as before, but now you know the order (since you've seen every card). Then you can announce a second loop of scrying exactly the number of times you need to bring your chosen card to the top, since you know where that card is.
And as a time-saving measure, it's acceptable to simply explain the combo to your opponent (if necessary), and offer to shortcut it by picking up your deck and looking through to cut to the correct card, so long as you don't otherwise change the relative order of cards while you do so.
Q: I have a Restoration Angel and a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, so I can make as many hasty copies of the Angel as I like. But I'm afraid my opponent might have a Rakdos Charm which could kill me if I make too many Angels. Is there any way I can safely kill my opponent?
A: Although it's common to just announce a huge number for an unbounded combo like this, if you're worried your opponent might have a way to kill you for doing so your only option is to do it one iteration at a time, and stop at the minimum number of Angels that will kill your opponent. If that's enough for a Rakdos Charm to kill you first, you'll just be out of luck.
Note to self: do not commission
works from them again.
works from them again.
A: You do get a chance to use the Displacer. Ghost Quarter's ability will only resolve if all players, in order, pass without taking any other actions. If any player takes any action other than passing, everybody will get priority at least one more time. So because your opponent took an action — the special action of paying for the Arbiter — you'll get priority again before Ghost Quarter's ability resolves, and be able to use the Displacer.
Q: I've heard something about "holding priority" when using Tectonic Edge. What does that mean?
A: You can only take actions in Magic when you have priority — think of it like right-of-way at a road intersection. And the rules state that after you take an action which requires priority (like activating an ability to get it on the stack), you get priority again immediately after, but most of the time that's pointless: people don't respond to their own spells or abilities very often. So in tournament play, policy states that you're assumed to pass immediately after putting something on the stack, unless you say otherwise. This is what people mean by "holding priority" — it's just a way of announcing to your opponent that you want to respond to the thing you're doing.
This is important with Tectonic Edge because its second ability restricts when you can activate it. If your opponent has exactly four lands, two of them nonbasic, and you have two Tectonic Edges, the only way to use both is to activate one and respond by activating the second one (if you let the first one's ability resolve, your opponent will no longer control four lands). So you have to remember to announce that either before or as you're activating the first one, in order not to be caught by the tournament shortcut that causes you to automatically pass (and lose your chance to respond) after the first activation.
Q: I have an Aether Vial with 3 charge counters, and my opponent just cast a Lightning Bolt on my Lord of Atlantis. Can I Vial in a Kira, Great Glass-Spinner in response to save the Lord?
A: You can Vial in Kira, but it won't help; Kira needed to be on the battlefield already when the Lightning Bolt was cast. Putting Kira onto the battlefield afterward won't counter the Bolt.
Q: If I use Snapcaster Mage to give Wear // Tear flashback, can I fuse it to kill both an artifact and an enchantment?
A: Nope. Fuse is an ability that only works from your hand; when you cast Wear // Tear from any other zone, fuse won't do anything for you, and you'll have to choose just one half of it to cast.
Q: Can I use the -2 of Nahiri, the Harbinger to exile an untapped Eidolon of the Great Revel?
A: Yup! Nahiri just cares that the target meets one of her conditions: enchantment, tapped artifact, or tapped creature. Since the Eidolon is an enchantment in addition to being a creature, it's a legal target regardless of its tapped/untapped status.
Q: I heard something about a new policy that drafting Shadows over Innistrad requires putting the cards in sleeves before they get drafted. Is that true?
A: There's no new policy here; at the Pro Tour, as an experiment, the drafts were run with the packs pre-opened and already in sleeves to try a different approach to handling the information that gets revealed by the presence double-faced cards in a draft. But that was only used at the Pro Tour, and other drafts aren't allowed to use this. All other drafts using sets with double-faced cards should stick to these recommendations from the official Magic Judges rules blog.
That's all for this week, but be sure to check in again next week when we'll be back with another issue of Cranial Insertion!
- James Bennett
About the Author:
James Bennett is a Level 3 judge based out of Lawrence, Kansas. He pops up at events around Kansas City and all over the midwest, and has a car he can talk to.
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