Published on 10/11/2021
Fall Colors
By Carsten Haese, Nathan Long, Justin Hovdenes, and Andrew Villarrubia
This Article from: Nathan Long
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 Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes.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.
Also known as Guardians of Fall.
Hiya everyone, and welcome back to Cranial Insertion! It's October, and we all know what that means - the leaves are changing (assuming you're reading this in the northern hemisphere. The days are getting shorter, it's starting to get cooler, and that's ok with me. There's nothing better to me than putting on a hoodie and going for an afternoon walk and looking at all of the trees changing colors. Really, fall might be my favorite time of year.
But you're not here for my wistful thoughts of fall days, you're here for rules questions and answers, so let's dive right in. If you have a question that you don't see answered here, feel free to send it to us, and we may even use it in a future article. If you have a short question, you can Tweet it to us via our Twitter account at @CranialTweet, and you can send us longer questions to our e-mail at moko@cranialinsertion.com .
Q: I control a Treefolk token made by Wrenn and Seven that's currently a 6/6 since I control six lands. I cast Croaking Counterpart targeting the token. How big is my token?
A: Your Counterpart token is a mere 1/1 token. Since the Counterpart defines what the power and toughness of the token is, the copy made by the Counterpart won't even copy the ability of the original token that sets its power and toughness. Casting the Counterpart on your Treefolk token means you have a 1/1 token, not a token that will grow as you play more lands.
Q: I control a Wrenn and Seven with 8 loyalty counters on it. If I activate the -8 ability, will I end up returning Wrenn and Seven to my hand?
A: Yep, you'll get it back. After you've activated the loyalty ability, but before it resolves, state-based actions are checked. The game sees a planeswalker with zero loyalty counters on it, so Wrenn and Seven go to your graveyard. When the loyalty ability resolves, Wrenn and Seven are in your graveyard, so it will be among the permanent cards that are returned to your hand.
Q: I attack and damage my opponent with Vampire Interloper. After combat, I cast Stromkirk Bloodthief. Will I get the Bloodthief trigger at the end of turn?
A: Yep, you'll get your counter. The Bloodthief doesn't need to be on the battlefield when the opponent loses life for it to trigger. When we get to the end step, the Bloodthief will know about the life they lost in combat, and the Bloodthief's ability will trigger.
Q: I control a 1/1 Elemental token from an earlier Seize the Storm. If I flashback Seize the Storm, will my original token survive?
A: The original token will die. The token will only look for instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard and in exile. When you flashback the Storm, it leaves the graveyard and goes on the stack, and the token stops counting it since it's not in the graveyard or exile. The token becomes a 0/0 and dies. When the Storm resolves, you'll get a new token that will survive as a 1/1 since the flashbacked Storm moves to exile before we check state-based actions. So be careful - flashing back a spell can briefly shrink your Elemental tokens and potentially leave them in danger of dying.
Q: I have exactly five cards in my graveyard, so I cast Locked in the Cemetery targeting my opponent's creature. In response, my opponent casts Rotten Reunion to exile a card from my graveyard. Will the Cemetery still tap the opponent's creature?
A: No it will not. It doesn't matter how many cards you had in your graveyard when you cast Locked in the Cemetery, what matters is how many cards are in your graveyard when it enters the battlefield (to see if the enter the battlefield ability should trigger in the first place, due to its "intervening if" clause) and, if the ability triggered, again when the trigger goes to resolve to make sure its condition is still true. By removing a card from your graveyard, you're down to four cards in your graveyard, so Locked in the Cemetery won't tap the opponent's creature.
Q: I control a Bereaved Survivor and two human tokens. My opponent attacks me, and I block with both of my tokens and they both die. Does the Survivor transform to Dauntless Avenger, then back to the Survivor?
A: Nope, it'll flip to the Avenger and stay there. If a triggered ability that would transform a double-faced card is on the stack, but the creature transforms before that trigger resolves, the instruction to transform it for the original trigger is ignored. In this case, since two creatures died, the Survivor's ability will trigger twice. The first trigger to resolve will transform the Survivor into the Avenger. The second trigger does nothing, since the creature has transformed already since the trigger was put on the stack, and it will stay as the Avenger.
Q: I control a Leeching Lurker that's enchanted with my opponent's Strangling Grasp. On my latest turn, I cast two spells, so I can flip night back to day on my opponent's turn. Do I still have to worry about the Grasp's triggered ability?
A: Oddly enough, you still have to deal with that trigger. Since you cast two spells on your turn, during your opponent's untap step, night turns to day, and the Lurker transforms into Curse of Leeches and attaches to your opponent. However, state-based actions are not checked during the untap step - they won't be checked until the upkeep step. That means that your opponent's Grasp is still on the battlefield when we move to the upkeep, and its ability will trigger. The Grasp goes to the graveyard as a state-based action since it's attached to a non-creature non-planeswalker permanent, but it did make it to the upkeep, so its ability will trigger. And since it was last attached to a permanent you control, you will be the player affected by the trigger, and you'll still have to sacrifice a nonland permanent and lose 1 life.
You need to be able to see the creature
through the trees.
through the trees.
Q: I control a Sigarda's Splendor that noted my life total at 15. However, during my next upkeep, I'm only at 10 life. Am I stuck not being able to draw until I get myself back up to 15 life?
A: You'll miss out this turn, but you're not completely out of luck. Even if you don't draw when the upkeep trigger resolves, the Splendor will still note your current life total. After the trigger has resolved, it notes that your life total is 10, so next turn, you'll need to have 10 or more life to draw. You won't need to get your life total back up to 15 so it can note your life total again.
Q: I resolve a Galvanic Iteration, then I cast Memory Deluge from my hand, but my opponent says I don't get any cards from my copy of the Deluge. Is that correct?
A: That is (unfortunately for you) the correct interaction. How much mana you used to cast a spell isn't part of the spell's copiable characteristics. The copy made by the Iteration is put on the stack, not cast, and you're not paying any mana for the copy. When the copy of the Deluge resolves, it sees that you didn't spend any mana to cast the copy, so you won't look at or put any cards in your hand. Copying a Memory Deluge is generally not a good game plan, since you won't get to put any cards into your hand from the copy.
Q: I cast Faithful Mending from my graveyard for its flashback cost. My opponent responds by casting Divide By Zero on the Mending. Where does my Mending end up?
A: It ends up in exile. If a spell cast for its flashback cost would leave the stack for any reason, it's exiled instead of going anywhere else. Divide by Zero would try to return the Mending to your hand, but since you cast it via flashback, the Mending ends up in exile and not in your hand.
Q: I control a Gisa, Glorious Resurrector and a Rest in Peace, and one of my opponent's creatures would die. How do we determine which effect exiles my opponent's creature?
A: Unfortunately, this doesn't work out how you want it to. If multiple replacement effects want to apply to an event, the controller of the affected object chooses the order those replacement effects are applied in. That means that your opponent will choose which replacement effect to apply first. Assuming they don't want your Gisa to return their creature under your control, they'll choose to apply Rest in Peace, and since Gisa's replacement effect did not exile the creature, it won't return to the battlefield on your next turn.
Q: I cast Dire-Strain Rampage targeting my own Darksteel Citadel. Do I get to search for two lands or one land?
A: Only one land. In order to search for two lands, the land must be destroyed by the Rampage. Since the Citadel is indestructible, it won't be destroyed when the Rampage resolves. Since it wasn't destroyed, we skip over the first instruction to the second instruction, and you'll only search for one land, not two lands.
Q: I have an emblem from Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset and a Fatespinner. If my opponent chooses to skip their draw step, will that also stop me from drawing a card/?
A: You won't be drawing either. You would draw a card during your opponent's draw step, but thanks to them choosing to skip their draw step, their turn doesn't have a draw step. And since they don't have a draw step, they won't draw, and you won't draw either.
Q: I've stolen a Poppet Stitcher from my opponent's graveyard with Animate Dead. On my upkeep, since I control three tokens, I choose to transform the Stitcher into Poppet Factory. What happens to Animate Dead?
A: Animate Dead is no longer attached to a creature, since the permanent it was attached to is now an artifact, so Animate Dead goes to the graveyard. Since Animate Dead left play, its leave the battlefield ability triggers, and when that trigger resolves, you'll have to sacrifice the Factory. It doesn't matter that the Factory is not currently a creature, the delayed trigger refers to the permanent it was attached to when it was last on the battlefield, so by transforming the Stitcher into the Factory, you'll just end up losing the Factory.
Good thing Poppet Stitcher uses the word "may" so you don't have to transform it if you don't want to.
Leinore gets it - floating candles are
the key to autumn.
the key to autumn.
Q: I'm in a multiplayer game, and I use the ability of Field of Ruin to destroy one of my opponent's lands. Does everyone get to search, or just me and the controller of the land I targeted?
A: Everyone gets to search! Field of Ruin says that each player gets to search for a basic land. It's not restricted to you and the controller of the land you targeted, so everyone will get to benefit from your Field of Ruin (well, ok, the controller of the land you destroyed won't be as happy, but everyone will come out with something).
Q: I control Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor and a Copy Enchantment that's currently a copy of Curse of Surveillance. My opponent casts Disenchant on the Copy Curse. Will Copy Enchantment return to the battlefield at the end of turn?
A: Yep, it'll come back. When Copy Enchantment was put into the graveyard, it was a copy of Curse of Surveillance. Since it was a Curse when it left play, Lynde will trigger and Copy Enchantment will return at the end of turn. It doesn't matter that it's not a curse card in the graveyard. When Copy Enchantment returns to the battlefield, you'll get the chance to copy an enchantment.
Note that the enchantment will return attached to you, so your two main options are going to be an aura that can be attached to you (like a curse), or a non-aura enchantment (which will just unattach after it returns since it's not an aura). Copying an aura that can't be attached to a player means that Copy Enchantment won't return at all, since it can't return attached to you, and it stays in the graveyard.
Q: I have 10 creature cards in my graveyard, and I want to cast Gorex, the Tombshell from my hand. Can I choose to exile all 10 creature cards from my graveyard, or am I limited to just three of them?
A: You can exile as many creature cards as you want to. Anything past three creature here won't do anything to the cost of the spell (no matter how many cards you exile, you'll always have to pay at least
to cast it), but there's also nothing preventing you from exiling more creatures. If you're confidant that you can keep your Gorex around long enough to attack multiple times, feel free to exile as many cards as you want to it when you cast it.Q: I have an empty graveyard and a Moorland Rescuer in play, and it dies. Since I can't return anything to the battlefield, does my Rescuer stay in the graveyard?
A: It's still going to end up exiled. If you have no creature cards in your graveyard (or none with a low enough power), then the first part of the Rescuer's trigger won't do anything. However, the second part of the Rescuer's effect doesn't care if anything was returned. Even if you return nothing to the battlefield, you'll still end up exiling the Rescuer from your graveyard.
Q: I control Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth and a clue token. If I sacrifice my clue token to activate its ability, do I surveil before I draw?
A: Yep, you'll surveil first. Sacrificing the clue token will cause Eloise's second ability to trigger, and that trigger will go on the stack above the clue's activated ability. The trigger will resolve first, and you'll be able to surveil before you draw from the clue's ability.
Q: I control a zombie token with decayed and a Death Tyrant. I attack with my decayed token, and my opponent doesn't block it. At the end of combat, when I sacrifice the token, will the Tyrant trigger and give me a normal zombie token?
A: It will! A creature remains an attacking creature until the combat phase is over or something else removes it from combat. During the end of combat step, your decayed token is still an attacking creature, and when the delayed trigger from decayed resolved, your token will be sacrificed, and that sacrifice will cause the Tyrant's ability to trigger and it will replace that decaying zombie token with a normal zombie token.
That's it for this week. See you again next week!
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