Published on 06/13/2016
An Eternal Flame
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 Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes.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.
Eternal pilgrimage requires some dedication.
But with Eternal formats come eternal questions, and that's why we're here! If you've got a rules question (even if it's about a newer card) 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: I heard the rules changed and now a tapped artifact "turns off". Is that true?
A: No. While it's true that way back in the early days of Magic there was a rule that disabled continuous effects of tapped artifacts, that rule has been gone for a very long time, and the handful of cards for which it made a difference have mostly all received updated wording to preserve the way they worked. All that's changed recently is that updated wording being added to Winter Orb for its printing in Eternal Masters; it now explicitly says that it only does its thing while untapped.
Q: If the card I name is an instant, can my opponent respond to Cabal Therapy by casting the card I named in order to avoid discarding it?
A: You're not supposed to name a card for Cabal Therapy until it's resolving, which is a time when it's too late to respond. But if you jump the gun and name a card early, your opponent can respond (and if they do, you can make a different choice when Cabal Therapy resolves; you're only held to your original choice if they don't respond).
Q: If I just want to shuffle my library and not put anything in my graveyard, can I "fail to find" with Entomb?
A: No. You can only fail to find when a search effect tells you to look for cards with specific qualities or characteristics (such as "an enchantment card" or "a card with converted mana cost 3 or less"), and that rule is in place to avoid having to reveal your whole deck to everyone in order to prove you couldn't find something that matched the criteria. Any time you're instructed to search for just "a card" (or some number of "cards" with no other qualifications), you must find one if possible, since everybody can see whether you have cards in your library already.
Q: I've heard there's a trick with Pyroblast where you can cast it targeting anything, even if the target isn't blue. Is that true?
A: It is, and it's a key difference between Pyroblast/Hydroblast and their older cousins Red Elemental Blast and Blue Elemental Blast. Pyroblast, for example, can destroy "target permanent if it's blue", while Red Elemental Blast can destroy "target blue permanent". That little wording tweak makes all the difference: Pyroblast can target anything, but only does something to the target if the target is blue, while Red Elemental Blast can only be cast targeting something that's blue.
Q: Wrath of God destroys a Wildfire Emissary, right?
A: Yup! Protection stops only four things: damage, enchanting/equipping, blocking and targeting (which you can remember with the handy acronym "DEBT"). Wrath of God doesn't do any of those four things, so protection from white won't stop it.
Q: How do I play with Sylvan Library?
A: Very carefully! Sylvan Library cares about the complete set of cards you've drawn so far during the turn, regardless of why you drew them (in other words, your normal draw for turn is included in the set of cards Sylvan Library can affect, and so are any cards you draw through other means in your upkeep, or in your draw step before Sylvan Library's trigger has finished resolving). The best approach is to keep all cards drawn so far that turn in a pile separate from the rest of your hand, so you can prove you're only putting back cards you're allowed to put back.
Q: What if I have a Leyline of Anticipation, cast a Brainstorm in my upkeep, then flash in a Sylvan Library before my draw step?
A: Fortunately this never happens in real life. But if you ever decide to build a deck which could do this, get in the habit of conspicuously keeping the cards drawn from Brainstorm separate until you know whether you'll control a Sylvan Library in the following draw step. If you somehow manage to make it impossible to determine a large enough set of cards "drawn this turn" and return some of them, you'll be in a sticky situation!.
It tingles.
A: You can. Any time you're instructed to draw a card, if you have enough cards in your library for the dredge effect, you can dredge instead. And since dredge is an effect that replaces a draw, the card put into your hand by dredging isn't a card "drawn this turn". If this creates a situation where you've drawn only one card, Sylvan Library's "put it back or pay 4 life" only applies to that card. If you manage to replace your normal draw plus the two from Library somehow (and haven't drawn any cards through other means that turn), you don't have to pay any life or put any cards from your hand back on top of your library.
Q: Can I redirect the damage from Sulfuric Vortex to a planeswalker?
A: If you control Sulfuric Vortex, and it's your opponent's upkeep, you can redirect the damage to one of your opponent's planeswalkers.
Q: What if I'm at 2 life and have a planeswalker? Can I choose to have my planeswalker take the hit?
A: No; if it's your Sulfuric Vortex, the planeswalker redirection rule doesn't even apply (you can only redirect damage that would be dealt to your opponents), and if it's your opponent's Vortex they're the one who chooses whether to redirect. So you'll need to come up with some other way to save yourself.
Q: What happens if I use Snapcaster Mage to flash back Green Sun's Zenith?
A: You'll search your library for a creature card, put it onto the battlefield, shuffle your library... and exile Green Sun's Zenith.
Q: My opponent controls a Liliana of the Veil with 3 loyalty counters, and I cast Chain Lightning targeting my opponent, then choose to redirect the damage to Liliana. Can my opponent still pay to copy Chain Lightning?
A: Yes. Even though the damage was redirected somewhere else, your opponent was still its target and so is still the "that player" referred to in Chain Lightning's text.
Q: If my opponent and I each control a Deathrite Shaman and she activates hers to make mana from a land in my graveyard, can I respond by activating mine on the same land?
A: You can. Many mana-producing abilities can't be responded to, but that's because they're a special type of ability called a "mana ability": an activated ability is only a mana ability if 1) it can add mana to a player's mana pool, and 2) it has no targets, and 3) it isn't a loyalty ability of a planeswalker. Since Deathrite Shaman's ability has a target, it isn't one of these, does use the stack, and can be responded to. And this will cause your opponent's Deathrite activation to be countered, by removing its target before the ability resolves.
Q: What do I do if I control a Mana Crypt but can't find a coin?
A: You don't have to have an actual physical coin to flip; anything which lets you choose between two options with equal probability will work. So, for example, you could announce you'll roll a die and "lose" the flip on a 1, 2, or 3 but "win" on a 4, 5, or 6.
You wouldn't believe how thick their
history books are.
history books are.
A: As long as you controlled the Factory since the beginning of your last turn, yes (otherwise it will have "summoning sickness" when it becomes a creature, and be unable to tap for its second ability). You get an opportunity to cast spells and activate abilities after blockers are declared but before damage is dealt, and a blocking creature which becomes tapped after being declared blocking will still deal damage.
Q: Can I look at the cards I'm going to get from Necropotence?
A: No; when a card is exiled face-down, no player can look at it unless something explicitly gives permission to do so. Necropotence doesn't give that permission, so you won't know what the cards are until they move into your hand.
Q: I control a Young Pyromancer and cast a Brainstorm; if my opponent counters the Brainstorm, do I still get a token?
A: You do. Any time an ability is triggered by casting a spell, the only thing it cares about is the act of casting (which is how you get the spell onto the stack); it doesn't care about what happens afterward, and especially doesn't care if the spell resolves or not.
Q: I just cast Animate Dead targeting a Grave Titan in my graveyard, and my opponent immediately Naturalized it. Do I still get two Zombie tokens?
A: If your opponent casts the Naturalize at the right time, you won't. When Animate Dead enters the battlefield, its first ability triggers, but that ability has what's called an "intervening if" — it only puts the creature card onto the battlefield if Animate Dead is still around when the trigger resolves. So if your opponent casts Naturalize in response to that trigger, Grave Titan never enters the battlefield at all, and won't produce any tokens.
Q: If I control Odric, Lunarch Marshal enchanted with Armadillo Cloak, do all my creatures get lifelink?
A: Not unless you control some other creature that actually has lifelink, because Armadillo Cloak doesn't grant lifelink. Some old cards which had life-gain abilities got errata to turn them into lifelink when it became a keyword, but that would actually change Armadillo Cloak's functionality, so it was never changed (you can put an Armadillo Cloak on your opponent's creature to effectively negate damage it deals to you; if it were switched to granting lifelink, that trick wouldn't work anymore).
Q: Can I imprint a Dryad Arbor on a Chrome Mox, since Dryad Arbor is a creature?
A: No. Chrome Mox asks for a "nonartifact, nonland" card, and although Dryad Arbor has another type in addition to land, one of its types still is... "Land". And since something can't be both land and nonland, Dryad Arbor is not a nonland card.
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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