Published on 08/09/2021
Partly Cloudy With a Chance of Meaty Oars
By Carsten Haese, Nathan Long, Justin Hovdenes, and Andrew Villarrubia
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 Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes.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.
I'm hoping the meteors I see
won't be as close as these.
won't be as close as these.
While I get to enjoy dazzling meteor showers, you get to enjoy a dazzling display of rules questions from our mailbox. As always, if you have rules questions for us, email us at moko@cranialinsertion.com or tweet short questions to @CranialTweet. One of our authors will reply to you, and your question might even appear in a future article!
Q: I took a bunch of creatures with Nihiloor and then I phase out all my permanents with Teferi's Protection. Do I retain control of the creatures when they phase in?
A: No. Nihiloor's control-changing effect only lasts as long as you control Nihiloor. While you technically still control Nihiloor while it's phased out, the game can't see it, so the effect ends when Nihiloor phases out. The creatures phase in during your next untap step because you controlled them when they phased out, but they phase in under the control of their original controllers.
Q: I control Bard Class and my devotion to red and green is currently six. If I cast Klothys, God of Destiny, does it get a +1/+1 counter from Bard Class?
A: It does not. To determine whether Bard Class's replacement effect applies to Klothys entering the battlefield, the game looks at what Klothys would look like if it were on the battlefield, but without it actually being on the battlefield. What this means is that the game considers Klothys's static ability, but Klothys isn't on the battlefield yet to count towards your devotion. Even though it will be a creature once it's actually on the battlefield, for the purpose of checking whether Bard Class applies to it, Klothys is not a creature as it's entering the battlefield, so it doesn't get the additional counter.
Q: If I control Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and copy it with Phantasmal Image, will my opponent's creatures get -4/-4 long enough to kill my opponent's Serra Angel?
A: Yup! Phantasmal Image enters the battlefield as a copy of Elesh Norn, and its static ability starts working immediately. State-based actions are checked and see two things that need to be addressed: You control two Elesh Norns in violation of the legend rule, and there's a 0/0 Serra Angel on the battlefield. To fix this, one of the Elesh Norns and the Serra Angel get put into their owners' graveyards, and both of those things happen at the same time.
Q: My commander is Kytheon, Hero of Akros, and he's on the battlefield, but I transformed him into Gideon, Battle-Forged. Can I still cast Flawless Maneuver for free?
A: Absolutely! Flawless Maneuver checks if you control your commander, and the "commanderness" of your commander is baked into the card that represents it. You control your commander even if its back face is up, so Flawless Maneuver's alternative cost is applicable.
Q: I used The Book of Exalted Deeds to put an enlightened counter on my Serra Angel. If my opponent uses Fate Transfer to move the counter to a creature they control, does their creature get the "you can't lose the game" ability?
A: Nope. Your opponent's creature will just have an enlightened counter that does absolutely nothing, and your Angel still has the "you can't lose the game" ability. The counter is not like a flying counter that grants an ability to the creature it's on. The ability is granted by the continuous effect that was created by The Book's activated ability, and that effect is locked in to your Angel. The counter is merely a memory aid that helps you remember which Angel was given this ability.
Q: I cast Dragon's Fire and choose a Dragon I control as an additional cost. If my opponent destroys this Dragon in response, does Dragon's Fire still deal damage?
A: Yup! When Dragon's Fire resolves, it uses the chosen Dragon's last-known information from when it was on the battlefield if it is no longer on the battlefield. Unless your opponent killed the Dragon with a morbid Tragic Slip, you'll still deal some damage here.
She has the right to bear arms
A: I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the answer is no. The ability still resolves and does as much as it can because it has a legal target, but "as much as it can" turns out to be a whole lot of nothing. Since one of the targets is illegal, neither of the two creatures fight. Ayula just looks around angry and confused, and that's not enough to trigger Foe-Razer Regent's ability.
Q: Can the companion creatures, such as Zirda, the Dawnwaker be my commander? If so, can I use the companion ability to put it into my hand from the command zone?
A: Yes and no. The companions are legendary creatures, so they are allowed to be your commander for a Commander deck. However, the companion starts outside the game, while your commander starts in the command zone, so the same card can't be your commander and your companion.
Q: If I play Vesuva as a copy of Lotus Vale, do I still have to sacrifice two untapped lands for it?
A: Yup. After you apply Vesuva's replacement effect, it acquires Lotus Vale's replacement effect, which now applies to the event of it entering the battlefield, so you have to sacrifice two lands in order to put it onto the battlefield.
Q: I control Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and my opponent controls Furnace of Rath. If my opponent targets me with their Prodigal Pyromancer, do I get dealt damage?
A: Only if you want to. There are two replacement/prevention effects that want to modify how the event of Prodigal Pyromancer dealing damage to you affects you. As the player that would be affected, you choose one to apply, apply it, and then the game rechecks what replacement/prevention effects are applicable to the event then. If you choose to apply the Furnace's effect first, the damage gets doubled to 2 and then Gisela's effect applies and prevents of 1 point of that damage. If you choose to apply Gisela's effect first, it prevents all of the damage and Furnace of Rath's effect is no longer applicable.
Q: Let's say I control a manifested instant card that's enchanted with Darksteel Mutation. If I turn it face-up with Ixidor, Reality Sculptor, what happens?
A: Nothing much happens. You reveal that the permanent is represented by an instant card, and the game refuses to turn it face-up. The fact that Darksteel Mutation changes it into an artifact creature doesn't change the fact that it's represented by a face-down instant card, and the game is really opposed to having face-up instant or sorcery cards on the battlefield.
Q: I control Battle Cry Goblin and attack with creatures whose total power is 6. If my opponent responds to the ability by lowering one of the attackers' power, does Battle Cry Goblin's ability still resolve?
A: It does! The pack tactics ability is a bit weird because it has an intervening-if clause, and the whole thing with intervening-if clauses is that they have to be true both on triggering and on resolution in order for the ability to work. However, the condition that's being checked here is "did you attack with creatures with total power 6 or greater this combat?" It's not asking about the current total power of your attackers. It is asking about a past event that was established when you declared attackers, so once the condition was true at the time the ability triggered, it will still be true when the ability resolves regardless of what your opponent does to your attackers.
Q: If I use Chromatic Orrery's ability to cast Bring to Light for
as if it were 
, do I get to search for a card with mana value 5? A: No. Chromatic Orrery allows you to spend the mana as it if were mana of each color, but it doesn't change the actual color of the mana you're spending. Bring to Light looks at the colors of the actual mana that was spent to cast it. Since the mana you spent was colorless, you only get to search for a card with mana value 0.
SQUIRREL!
A: Let's do some math! Each Chatterfang ability gets to apply independently to the event of "create two Soldier tokens", so we modify that event three times. The first one changes the event to "create two Soldier tokens and two Squirrel tokens." The next one adds four Squirrel tokens to that because now you'd be creating four tokens. At that point, you'd be creating eight tokens, so the third Chatterfang ability adds eight more Squirrel tokens to the event. Two plus four plus eight is fourteen, so in the end you create two Soldier tokens and fourteen Squirrel tokens.
Q: I've heard that when I resolve cascade, Laelia, the Blade Reforged gets one +1/+1 counter for each card that gets revealed during the cascade. Is that true?
A: Yes, it is, because the cards are actually exiled individually, not just revealed and exiled as a batch. Cascade instructs you to exile cards until you exile one with a lesser mana value. The game has to do this one card at a time so that it knows when to stop, and Laelia's ability triggers separately each time.
Q: I control three Barbarian Classes and attack with Hoarding Ogre, how many dice do I roll and how many of them count?
A: You'll roll four dice, but only the highest roll counts. The first Barbarian Class changes the event of "roll a d20" to "roll two d20 and ignore the lowest roll." The second Barbarian Class changes that to "roll three d20 and ignore the lowest roll, and ignore the lowest roll." Finally, the third Barbarian Class changes that to "roll four d20 and ignore the lowest roll three times", which is the same thing as rolling four d20 and taking the highest roll.
Q: If I cast Mulldrifter for its evoke cost and make a copy of it with Volo, Guide to Monsters, do I have to sacrifice the copy, too?
A: Yup. When a spell on the stack gets copied, the copy acquires all choices that were made when the original was cast. In the case of Mulldrifter, this includes the choice of paying the evoke cost, so the token was evoked and will have to be sacrificed.
Q: I attack with Vigor and some other creatures, and my opponent blocks them. If Vigor is blocked by enough creatures to kill it, do my attackers still get +1/+1 counters from Vigor?
A: Assuming that no first strike or double strike is involved, yes. All combat damage is dealt at the same time, so when the game determines how the combat damage should be dealt to your non-Vigor creatures, Vigor is still around to prevent the damage and turn it into +1/+1 counters.
And that's it for this week. Thanks for reading, and please come back next week for more 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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