Published on 01/15/2018
Take Me Down To Orazca City
By Carsten Haese, Callum Milne, Nathan Long, and Charlotte Sable
This Article from: Carsten Haese
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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 Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes.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.
We are the champions, my friends
If you have Magic rules questions for us, please email them to moko@cranialinsertion.com or tweet short questions to @CranialTweet. One of our writers will send you an answer, and your question might appear in a future article to educate readers like yourself.
Now let us ascend the steps to Orazca and take a look at this week's selection of questions.
Q: So, how does getting the city's blessing work? If I have ten permanents do I just get the blessing, or do I need ten permanents and then also play a card with ascend to get the blessing?
A: Ascend can appear on permanents, too, so the answer depends on whether any of your ten permanents have ascend. If you control at least one permanent with ascend, then you get the city's blessing as soon as you control ten permanents. If none of your ten permanents have ascend, you won't automatically get the city's blessing. You'll have to cast some spell with ascend, which can be a permanent, sorcery, or instant, and when it resolves, you'll get the city's blessing.
Q: Do I have to use the City's Blessing token from a booster pack to indicate that I have the city's blessing?
A: No, that's not necessary. You can use any method for tracking that you have the city's blessing as long as it's clear, not offensive, and can't be confused for something else. It doesn't even have to be a token. If you're using a score pad for tracking life totals, which is a good idea anyway, you could simply make a note on your score pad for the current game that you've received the city's blessing.
Q: If I equip Dryad Arbor with Spy Kit, does that make Awakened Amalgam ridiculously big?
A: That would be awesome, but it doesn't work like that. Awakened Amalgam doesn't count the number of names among lands you control. It counts how many lands you control, not counting the ones that share a name with one that's already been counted. Each land you control counts at most once towards Awakened Amalgam's power and toughness, and giving it a bunch more names doesn't change that.
Q: If my opponent exiles my creature with Baffling End, do I get the creature back when Baffling End leaves the battlefield?
A: No. Baffling End does exactly what it says on the card. It doesn't say that the creature gets exiled until Baffling End leaves the battlefield like Angel of Sanctions does, and it doesn't say that the exiled card is returned like Oblivion Ring does. It simply exiles the creature indefinitely, and when Baffling End leaves the battlefield, it makes a Dinosaur token.
Q: If I equip a creature with two Captain's Hook, does my opponent need three creatures to block it?
A: No, that's not how menace works. Menace creates a blocking restriction stating that the creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures, and having two instances of menace simply creates two such restrictions. Obeying one of them by blocking the equipped creature with two creatures automatically obeys the second restriction as well.
Q: Let's say I control Deadeye Brawler and in total I control nine permanents. Deadeye Brawler attacks and deals damage to my opponent. Can I respond to the damage trigger by flashing in a tenth permanent to get the city's blessing and draw a card?
A: No, that's not possible. Deadeye Brawler's triggered ability has a so-called intervening if clause. Such if-clauses are checked both when the ability would trigger and when it resolves, and if the condition isn't true at the time the ability would trigger, it doesn't even trigger in the first place. This means that if you don't already have the city's blessing at the moment Deadeye Brawler deals combat damage, the ability doesn't trigger at all and there's nothing to respond to.
Q: I use Hadana's Climb to put a second +1/+1 counter onto one of my creatures, and in the second main phase I use Hunt the Weak to give it a third counter. Does Hadana's Climb transform now?
A: No. Transforming Hadana's Climb only happens as part of its triggered ability. While resolving the ability, you put a counter on the target creature, and then the game checks right away if there are three or more +1/+1 on that creature. If there are, great, Hadana's Climb transforms. Otherwise, the ability is done and nothing else happens.
Sunday always comes too late
A: That depends on the order in which things happen, so let's look at both cases. If Unclaimed Territory enters the battlefield first and Blood Sun shows up later, Unclaimed Territory is completely unaffected. A creature type was already chosen for it and it won't forget that choice, and its activated abilities are mana abilities that you still get to activate in the crimson light of the Blood Sun.
If it's the other way around, Unclaimed Territory becomes a bit less useful. Thanks to Blood Sun, it doesn't have the first ability as it enters the battlefield, so you don't get to choose a creature type. You can still activate both mana abilities, but you can't spend the mana from the second mana ability on anything because the restriction refers to an undefined choice. Even if Blood Sun leaves the battlefield later, Unclaimed Territory will remain only half useful because you don't get to choose a creature type retroactively once it regains its first ability.
Q: What does Evolving Wilds do when Blood Sun is out?
A: Very little. It sits on the battlefield and looks pretty, and that's basically it. The only ability it has is not a mana ability, so it loses that ability and is left with no abilities at all. It's still a permanent, though, so it can still help you get the city's blessing.
Q: If I control two Knights of the Stampede, how much does it cost to cast Ghalta, Primal Hunger?
A: You'll get quite a discount. Each Knight takes off
from the cost, and because the total power of creatures you control is 4, Ghalta's own ability takes off 
from the cost. All those cost reductions are added together, so you take a total of 
off the cost, which means that the total cost to cast Ghalta is a measly 
. Q: I control Nezahal, Primal Tide and my opponent targets it with a destruction spell while I have two cards in my hand. Can I draw a card with Nezahal's ability and then blink it to dodge the destruction spell?
A: Yes, that works. The card draw ability goes on the stack above your opponent's destruction spell, and resolves first, so now you have three cards in your hand. After the ability resolves, each player gets priority again so they can cast spells or activate abilities before the next thing on the stack, i.e. your opponent's spell, resolves. This gives you the chance to activate Nezahal's last ability to save it from its demise.
Q: Release to the Wind has exiled a permanent and I cast it. My opponent counters it. Does it go into exile so I can try to cast it again?
A: Nope. Countering a spell moves it to the graveyard, and there is nothing particularly special about casting a spell from the exile zone apart from the fact that it's normally not allowed. The effect that allows you to cast the card from exile doesn't set up any effects for doing anything unusual after it has been cast, so it goes to the graveyard when it's countered.
Q: Can Crafty Cutpurse steal Treasure tokens?
A: Absolutely. Crafty Cutpurse's ability creates an effect that applies any time a token of any type would be created under an opponent's control. Most tokens are creature tokens, but Crafty Cutpurse isn't picky and happily takes other tokens such as artifact tokens.
Q: What about emblems, can Crafty Cutpurse steal those?
A: No, Crafty Cutpurse isn't that crafty. While emblems are often represented by token-like objects on the battlefield, they are not tokens and they aren't even on the battlefield. As such, a player getting an emblem is something completely different than creating a token, and Crafty Cutpurse's effect doesn't apply to it. For the same reason, Crafty Cutpurse can't steal a player getting the city's blessing either, even if the blessing is physically represented by a token-like object.
Q: Can I use Crafty Cutpurse to trick my opponents into giving me tokens with spells like Tempt with Vengeance or Alliance of Arms?
A: Not really. The decisions that drive whether and/or how many tokens are created happen during resolution of those spells. You can't flash in Crafty Curpurse during the other spell's resolution, so you'd have to cast Crafty Cutpurse before the other spell resolves. This means that your opponents know that they won't get the tokens they'd create, which they will most likely factor into their decision-making process in order to minimize the number of tokens you get.
Carry on my Wayward Swordtooth
A: Well, your opponent can't respond with a destruction spell while Wayward Swordtooth is on the stack. She has to let Wayward Swordtooth resolve so that she can target it with her destruction spell. However, after Wayward Swordtooth resolves, you get priority back first because it's your turn. You can use your priority to play that extra land, and there's nothing your opponent can do to stop you.
Q: Can I use Mastermind's Acquisition to retrieve a card from exile or to put my commander from the command zone into my hand?
A: No. Neither the exile zone nor the command zone are outside the game. In a tournament, "outside the game" refers to your sideboard, and in a casual game "outside the game" refers to your personal collection, possibly subject to restrictions imposed by your playgroup.
Q: If Forerunner of the Empire is destroyed in response to its damage dealing ability, does it still deal damage?
A: It does! Once an ability has triggered, it goes on the stack as an object that's independent from its source, and removing its source from the battlefield doesn't counter the ability. The ability will still resolve, so Forerunner of the Empire — or the ghost image of what it looked like on the battlefield — still deals 1 damage to each creature.
Q: I control Forerunner of the Empire and I cast Polyraptor. What happens?
A: Well, at first glance that looks like a big mess, but when you take a closer look, it's an even bigger mess. Let's take a closer look. First off, dealing damage with Forerunner's ability is optional, so for the sake of simplicity we'll assume that you choose to deal damage whenever possible.
You'll start with Forerunner and the original Polyraptor, and they each get dealt 1 damage, which triggers Polyraptor's enrage ability to make a copy of Polyraptor. That copy triggers Forerunner's ability to deal damage, which gets dealt to Forerunner itself and two Polyraptors. When the damage is dealt, two separate enrage abilities trigger and go on the stack, but they have to resolve one by one. When the first resolves, creating a third Polyraptor, that puts Forerunner's ability on the stack, on top of the second enrage ability that'll have to wait.
When this latest instance of the Forerunner's ability resolves, the Forerunner receives its third point of damage and dies, while the original Polyraptor gets its third point of damage, the second Polyraptor gets its second point of damage, and the third Polyraptor gets its first point of damage. This puts three more enrage abilities on the stack, above the one from earlier. Those four enrage abilities resolve and make four more Polyraptor copies, this time without any more damage from the Forerunner because it is dead.
When the dust settles, you have a dead Forerunner and seven Polyraptors, some of which have some damage marked on them, and you dealt 3 damage to everything else that was unfortunate enough to be on the battlefield.
Now you might wonder what happens when Forerunner of the Empire is indestructible somehow, or if you can get more Polyraptors by strategically declining to deal damage with Forerunner's ability. Both are excellent questions, and we'll leave their answers as an exercise for the reader.
Well, that question seems like a good place to stop. Thanks for reading, and please come back next week for more 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.
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