Published on 12/27/2021
It's The End Of The Year As We Know It
(and I feel fine)
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 Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes.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.
Please celebrate responsibly
While we eagerly await the new year, here's a fresh selection of questions from our inbox for you. As always, if you have questions for us, please email them to moko@cranialinsertion.com or tweet short questions to @CranialTweet. One of our writers will reply to you, and your question might even appear in a future article.
Q: My opponent takes control of my The Ozolith with In Bolas's Clutches. Do they get the counters?
A: Kind of. The counters stay on The Ozolith regardless of who controls it, so they're just along for the ride. When your opponent begins combat on their turn, The Ozolith's second ability triggers, and your opponent may move the counters onto a target creature of their choosing, probably a creature they control. Once the counters are on that creature, they'll stay there indefinitely, as counters do, even if you regain control of The Ozolith later.
Q: Can I activate Crown of Skemfar's return-to-hand ability on my opponent's turn?
A: As long as you have the mana to do so, absolutely! Crown of Skemfar's return-to-hand ability is a regular activated ability, which you can activate any time you could cast an instant. Any activation restrictions on a non-keyword ability would be spelled out in the ability, such as on Birthing Pod. For keyword abilities, it's possible that there's an activation restriction baked into the rules, but such abilities generally have reminder text mentioning the activation restriction, such as equip.
Q: I cast Tunnel Vision and name a card that's in my opponent's deck. My opponent responds with Deflecting Swat and claims they get to change the named card, while I say that it just reveals and shuffles my deck because the card I named isn't in my deck. Who is right?
A: You're right about the outcome, but you're glossing over a potentially important nuance. Tunnel Vision only asks about a card name once it resolves. By casting Tunnel Vision and immediately naming a card, you have proposed a shortcut to Tunnel Vision's resolution, which your opponent has rejected by responding with Deflecting Swat. Deflecting Swat resolves and allows your opponent to change Tunnel Vision's targets, but Tunnel Vision's only target is "target player", i.e. which player has to reveal cards etc. The choice of card name is not a target, so Deflecting Swat can't change that. Now Tunnel Vision resolves, and you (as the spell's controller) choose a card name, and you (as the spell's target) follow its instructions. You may stick with the card name you pre-announced, but since your opponent rejected the shortcut, you're allowed to name a different card if you want to.
Q: If I use Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar's last ability on my opponent's Phyrexian Obliterator, do they have to sacrifice six permanents?
A: Yup! Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar's ability makes the Phyrexian Obliterator deal 6 damage to itself, which means that Phyrexian Obliteratory is the source of the damage, and your opponent is the source's controller. It's also worth noting that Phyrexian Obliterator is destroyed by state-based actions before the sacrifice ability even goes on the stack, but that doesn't stop the ability from resolving. It only means that the mortally wounded Phyrexian Obliterator can't be one of the six permanents that your opponent has to sacrifice, since it's already gone by the time they have to choose which permanents to sacrifice.
Q: I attack with one of my creatures and my opponent plays Change of Heart on it. Does my creature get untapped?
A: No, it stays tapped, but it's still attacking, too. Playing Change of Heart after a creature has attacked is a lot like closing the barn door after the horse has run away. Change of Heart creates an attacking restriction, but attacking restrictions are only checked when attackers are declared, which has already happened.
Q: Yawgmoth's Will says that I get to play cards from my graveyard as though they were in my hand. If I control Omniscience, does Yawgmoth's Will allow me to cast spells from my graveyard for free?
A: Nope. The piece of cardboard in your possession might say what you're claiming it says, but the actual behavior of the card is governed by its official Oracle text in Gatherer. Yawgmoth's Will's Oracle text simply says "Until end of turn, you may play lands and cast spells from your graveyard," while Omniscience says "You may cast spells from your hand without paying their mana costs," so there is no interaction between those two effects.
Q: Does my Forgotten Creation's discard-and-draw ability kill my Psychosis Crawler?
A: Good news, your Psychosis Crawler lives! While it does become a 0/0 creature ever so briefly while Forgotten Creation's ability resolves, state-based actions are only checked after the ability has resolved completely. By that time, you'll have drawn new cards to replace the ones you've discarded, so Psychosis Crawler's toughness is greater than 0 by the time state-based actions are checked.
I want you to want me
I need you to knead me
I need you to knead me
A: Should I be worried that you want to eat all your creatures? Anyway, to answer your question, no, you can't do that. It is true that Gingerbrute is a creature that has the subtype Food, but that's because Gingerbrute is also an artifact. There is a list of creature types and a list of artifact types, and the two are distinct. An artifact creature such as Gingerbrute can have artifact types and creature types, but each subtype comes from its own list.
Q: If I control Oracle of Mul Daya, can I play the back face of Sejiri Shelter from the top of my library?
A: Yup. The general rule of thumb for taking an action with the back face of a modal double-faced card is that you mentally turn the card over and then you check whether the action is allowed. The back face of Sejiri Shelter is a land, which Oracle of Mul Daya allows you to play. The actual rule that allows you to do this is this one:
Quote:
|
712.8. A player playing a modal double-faced card as a land chooses one of its faces that's a land before putting it onto the battlefield. It enters the battlefield with that face up. |
Q: My Outpost Siege, naming Khans, exiles a Sol Talisman from the top of my library. Can I cast it from exile?
A: Nope. Outpost Siege really wants to allow you to cast it, but it doesn't offer an alternative cost for doing so. In order to cast Sol Talisman from exile with Outpost Siege's effect, you'd have to pay Sol Talisman's mana cost, which is the unpayable cost of "this space intentionally left blank." To make matters worse, you can't even suspend Sol Talisman from exile, since suspend only works from the hand. The only thing you can do with the exiled Sol Talisman is to marvel at how pretty it is.
Q: Can Timber Wolves band together with an Ornithopter to block a flying attacker?
A: No, that's not how banding works. Only attacking creatures, and creatures with musical talent, can form bands. Blocking creatures don't form bands. Banding on a blocking creature can still be useful, though. If multiple blockers block the same attacker, normally it's the attacker's controller who decides how its damage is divided between the blockers. If one of the blockers has banding, the defending player divides the damage instead, so they can pile all the damage onto one blocker to save all the others.
However, banding does not allow the blocker to block a creature it can't already block. Timber Wolves can't block a flying attacker, and the fact that it has banding doesn't change that.
Q: How does Sinister Waltz work if there are only two creature cards in my graveyard?
A: If there are only two creature cards in your graveyard when you cast Sinister Waltz, it doesn't work at all, since you're not even allowed to cast it in the first place without choosing the appropriate number of targets. If you did cast it with three targets and one of them became illegal — perhaps by being exiled out of the graveyard in response — then it resolves and does as much as it can, which means that both of the remaining targets are "randomly" returned to the battlefield, and no card is put on the bottom of your library.
Q: I cast Bloodbraid Elf and copy it with Double Major. Do I get two cascade triggers?
A: No. While the copy of Bloodbraid Elf has cascade just like the original, you didn't cast the copy. The copy was simply created on the stack, so its cascade ability never triggered.
That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
That's me in the spotlight
A: Nope. Glaring Spotlight's static ability only affects creatures with hexproof. Kalonian Behemoth has shroud, which is quite similar to hexproof, and one could argue that what hexproof does is "contained" in what shroud does, but none of that means that Kalonian Behemoth actually has hexproof.
Q: I control a Shocker that's enchanted with Fire Whip. Do I get the chance to Shocker my opponent's hand after they draw for the turn before they get the chance to play what they drew?
A: Mostly yes. After your opponent draws a card in their draw step, there's a round of priority before the game moves on to the main phase. Most of the time, your opponent will just pass priority to move on to the main phase, which then gives you the opportunity to activate Shocker's Fire Whip ability. However, note that your opponent can respond to the ability by casting instants from their hand. Also, if they want, they could cast instants before passing priority to you. This won't stop you from activating Shocker's Fire Whip ability, but it will reduce the number of cards they'll have to discard.
Q: I control Phenax, God of Deception that's equipped with some Equipment, and my devotion to blue and black goes below seven. What happens to the Equipment?
A: When state-based actions are checked after whatever happened that caused you to lose devotion, the game sees that an Equipment is attached to a permanent that's not a creature, and the Equipment becomes unattached. However, unlike an Aura in such a situation, which goes to the graveyard, the Equipment remains on the battlefield, ready to be attached to some other creature.
Q: My opponent is at 20 commander damage from my commander, and I attack them with my commander. They don't block, but they cast Teferi's Protection instead. Does my opponent lose the game due to accumulated commander damage?
A: Probably not. Part of Teferi's Protection is that your opponent gains protection from everything, which includes a damage prevention effect that prevents any damage that would be dealt to them by any source. If the combat damage is prevented, it's not dealt, so your opponent is still at 20 total commander damage and stays in the game. However, let's assume for the sake of making this question more interesting that you control a Leyline of Punishment. In that case, your commander deals its combat damage because damage can't be prevented. The damage fails to change your opponent's life total, but the damage is still dealt for the purpose of any effects or rules that care about damage being dealt, so it counts towards the 21-point damage total, causing your opponent to lose the game.
And that's it for this week, as well as for this year. I wish you a happy new year, and I hope you'll be back next week for our first article of 2022!
- 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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