Published on 08/29/2016
Backstabbing, Scheming, and Intrigue
or, A Game of Thrones
By Carsten Haese, James Bennett, Callum Milne, and Nathan Long
This Article from: Carsten Haese
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 Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes.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.
Girl, you're such a backstabber!
If you have questions for us about Conspiracy: Take the Crown or anything else, please email us at moko@cranialinsertion.com or tweet short questions at @CranialTweet. One of our writers will respond to you directly, and your question might appear in a future episode to educate readers like yourself.
Now, let the intrigue begin!
Q: So, in which formats are Conspiracy: Take the Crown cards legal?
A: First off, Conspiracy: Take the Crown is not an expansion set, so appearing in Conspiracy: Take the Crown doesn't make a card legal in Standard or Modern. However, some cards in Conspiracy: Take the Crown are reprints of existing cards, and those cards are legal in whichever formats the original cards are already legal. For example, Murder is legal — and I chuckle at the thought of you reading this out loud without context — in Standard, so your Conspiracy: Take the Crown printing of Murder is perfectly legal in a sanctioned Standard tournament.
Conspiracy cards, by which I mean cards with the card type conspiracy, are too wacky for sanctioned tournaments, so they're not allowed in sanctioned Constructed tournaments. Your playgroup may decide to allow them in casual Constructed games, though. Ask your playgroup if playing with conspiracies is right for you. Side effects may include uncontrollable laughter and fun lasting longer than four hours.
Lastly, Conspiracy: Take the Crown includes non-conspiracy cards that aren't reprints of existing cards. Those cards are legal in Vintage, Legacy, and Commander. Go nuts!
Q: So, Regicide is legal in Legacy? What does it do in Legacy?
A: Yes, it's legal in Legacy, but don't expect to see it in competitive Legacy decks anytime soon, since it does a big bowl of nothing. In fact, you can't even cast it. Since you didn't draft the card, no colors were chosen as you drafted cards named Regicide, so no creature can ever be a legal target for Regicide.
Q: Does being the monarch mean anything in Legacy or Commander games?
A: Yup! The rules that define this player designation exist in all Magic games, even in formats where no cards that would make you the monarch are legal. Such cards are legal in Legacy and Commander, though, and once you are the monarch, you get the benefit of bearing the crown — i.e. the card draw at the end of the turn — as well as the risk of your opponent taking the crown from you by dealing combat damage to you. By the way, if you play with monarch cards in Constructed tournaments, you should totally bring a crown for the monarch to wear!
Q: Can the monarch card draw ability be Stifled?
A: Absolutely! The ability is a bit weird because it comes directly from the rules and doesn't have a source, but it's still a triggered ability that goes on the stack. As such, players can respond to it, and it can be countered with things like Stifle.
Q: If I draw my eighth card with the monarch card draw at the end of my turn, do I have to discard a card?
A: I'm afraid so. There are two steps in the ending phase: the end step and the cleanup step, in that order. The monarch card draw ability triggers at the beginning of the end step. Discarding down to your hand size happens in the cleanup step, after you've drawn that card.
Q: If I'm the monarch but for some reason I don't want to draw the card in the end step, do I have to draw it?
A: Yes. The ability is not optional, so you have to draw that card even if you don't want to. To avoid negative consequences from drawing the card, you could Stifle the ability or use a replacement effect that replaces the draw with something else, but you can't simply choose not to draw the card.
A bit more comfortable
than the Iron Throne
than the Iron Throne
A: No. To take the crown from the monarch, a creature you control has to deal combat damage to the monarch. Dealing combat damage to a planeswalker the monarch controls is not the same as dealing combat damage to the monarch. Look at it this way: Beating up the king's friend doesn't help you take the crown from the king.
Q: If I remove Wings of the Guard from the draft with Animus of Predation, does Animus of Predation gain melee?
A: No. Animus of Predation only gains the keyword abilities that are listed in its card text. Melee is not on that list, so Animus of Predation won't gain melee even if you remove a creature card with melee from the draft.
Q: Does removing Goblin Balloon Brigade from the draft give Animus of Predation flying?
A: No, that doesn't work, either. Animus of Predation only gains flying if you removed a creature card with flying from the draft, which means a creature card that actually has the ability "flying" printed on it. Goblin Balloon Brigade has an activated ability that can give it flying, but that's not enough for Animus of Predation.
Q: How often does Leovold, Emissary of Trest's ability trigger if my opponent targets it and another creature of mine with Into the Void?
A: The ability triggers twice. The event "a permanent you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls" happened to two different permanents at the same time when Into the Void was cast.
Q: Does Leovold, Emissary of Trest's ability trigger if my opponent targets me with my Scandalmonger's discard ability?
A: Yup. It doesn't matter who controls the source of the ability. It matters who controls the ability. In the case of an activated ability, it's controlled by the player who activated it, so your opponent controls Scandalmonger's ability even though you control Scandalmonger.
Q: If I control two legendary creatures with different names and attach Spy Kit to each of them, does the legend rule kick in?
A: Yes. The legend rule asks the two creatures if they have the same name, and each creature has multiple names, so the answer is yes if they have at least one name in common. Their sets of names are different because they don't acquire each others' original names, but that doesn't matter. Their names are considered the same because they have names in common, so the legend rule makes you choose one to keep and throw away the other.
Q: I attack with Custodi Soulcaller and a bunch of other creatures. In total, I attack one opponent with two creatures and another opponent with three creatures. How big is X for Custodi Soulcaller's ability?
A: X is 2. Custodi Soulcaller counts opponents, not creatures. You attacked two opponents with a creature, and it doesn't matter how many creatures attacked each opponent.
Q: My opponent cast Expropriate and I voted money. I don't want him to gain control of the permanent he's choosing. Can I sacrifice it in response so he doesn't get it?
A: No, that's not possible. Everything that Expropriate does happens on resolution, in one string of actions: Players vote, extra turns are created, Expropriate's controller chooses permanents and gains control of them, and Expropriate is exiled. No player gets priority during this sequence to cast anything or activate any abilities.
Oh look, Paliano
has Dragons, too!
has Dragons, too!
A: In Two-Headed Giant, you have two opponents that share a life total, and you have one teammate with whom you share a life total. Kaya makes both your opponents lose 2 life, which gets taken out of their shared life total, so their shared life total is reduced by 4. The life gain only applies to you, not to your teammate. You gain 2 life, which gets added to your shared life total, so your shared life total is increased by 2.
Q: I control a Sanctum Prelate that's set to 1. Can I Momentary Blink it and choose 2 when it comes back to the battlefield in order to stop spells with converted mana costs 1 and 2?
A: No. The "can't cast" effect only applies while Sanctum Prelate is on the battlefield, and blinking the Prelate causes it to leave the battlefield and get replaced with a very similar looking but entirely different Sanctum Prelate. The new Sanctum Prelate only stops spells with converted mana cost 2 from being cast.
Q: I control Thought Reflection and play Messenger Jays. If I get two quill votes, how many cards do I discard after drawing four cards?
A: You'll have to discard four cards as well. Messenger Jays' ability doesn't tell you to discard as many cards as there were quill votes. It instructs you to discard as many cards as you drew this way, and you actually drew four cards.
Q: I control Protector of the Crown and my opponent attacks me with ten 1/1 flying Bird tokens that I can't block. What happens?
A: All combat damage is dealt at one, so one big packet of 10 points of combat damage is headed your way. The Protector's redirection effect applies and redirects all that damage to the Protector. In the end, 10 damage gets dealt to the Protector, who dies heroically in the line of duty.
Q: Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is on the battlefield, and I cast a small creature. Can I buff it in response to Selvala's ability to draw a card?
A: If you buff it enough so that its power is greater than any other creature's power, sure. The ability triggers regardless of the creature's power, and it only checks on resolution whether the creature's power is greater than each other creature's power. This means that you can respond to the ability to try to make that condition true, but keep in mind that your opponents also get the opportunity to try to make the condition false.
Q: I cast Subterranean Tremors for X=8 and I think I get all three effects, but my opponent claims that I only get the Lizard token. Who is right?
A: You are. Your opponent would be right if Subterranean Tremors were to use the word "instead" in the "if X is 4 or more" and "if X is 8 or more" cases, but it doesn't. This means that those two sentences describe additional effects, and if X is 8 or more, you get both additional effects.
Q: Let's say I have a Volatile Chimera in my deck and there's only one creature card I drafted that's not in
my deck. Can I reveal Volatile Chimera and exile that one creature card before I shuffle my deck?
A: No. In order to perform an optional action, you have to be able to perform all parts of it. Revealing the Chimera is possible, but exiling three or more creature cards you drafted that aren't in your deck is not possible, so the entire action is impossible. "Do as much as possible" only applies when you're told to do something. It doesn't apply when you're choosing to do something.
Q: I have an Arcane Savant in my deck and I exiled a card with it before I shuffled my deck to draw seven cards. If I take a mulligan and shuffle my hand into my deck, can I exile a second card with Arcane Savant?
A: Nice try, but that doesn't work. Arcane Savants first ability only applies when you shuffle your deck to start the game. After you do that, your deck becomes your library, and when you mulligan, you shuffle your hand into your library.
And that's all the time we have for today. Thanks for reading, and please come back next week for an all new selection of Magic rules questions.
- 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.
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