Published on 04/01/2024
April's Hidden Joke
By Carsten Haese, Nathan Long, and Justin Hovdenes
This Article from: Nathan Long
Cranial Translation
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I'm going to hide the joke, and you try to find it.
And if you have a question about Magic cards you've seen, feel free to send it in. We may even use your question in a future article. If you have a shorter question, you can find us at @CranialTweet, but if you have a longer question, you can e-mail us at moko@cranialinsertion.com .
Q: I control a Wispdrinker Vampire and a Legion Lieutenant. If I cast Child of Night, will I get a Wispdrinker Vampire trigger?
A: You will not. Because of the Lieutenant, the Child enters as a 3/2 creature. Since its power is not 2 or less, Wispdrinker Vampire will not trigger. It doesn't matter that its base power is 2, because of the Lieutenant, there's never a point where it's on the battlefield with a power of 2, so Wispdrinker Vampire will not trigger.
Q: I have three Plains and a Delney, Streetwise Lookout in play, while my opponent controls four lands. If I cast Knight of the White Orchid, will its ability trigger twice and let me search for two Plains?
A: Well, you do get two Knight triggers, but you can only search for one land. The Knight has an "intervening if" trigger, meaning that it will check again when it goes to resolve to make sure its condition is still true. If the condition is no longer true, the trigger does nothing when it resolves. So you do get two triggers because of Delney, and the first trigger to resolve will work like normal. But when the second trigger goes to resolve, your opponent doesn't control more lands than you, so the second trigger does nothing and you don't get to search for a second land.
Q: I'm at 20 life, and so is my opponent. If I attack them with my Preacher of the Schism, which trigger do I get?
A: You get both triggers! Since you're attacking the player tied for the most life, the first ability will trigger and you'll create the 1/1 Vampire token. But since you are also tied for the most life, you'll also get the second trigger, and you'll draw a card and lose 1 life. It's not one trigger or the other, if you and your opponent have the same life total, you'll get both of the Preacher's triggers.
Q: I control Spelunking and have zero Islands in play. If I play Mystic Sanctuary, do I get the Sanctuary's triggered ability?
A: You do! Normally, you get the Sanctuary's triggered ability by playing it when you have three or more Islands in play. But Spelunking can also cause the Sanctuary to enter the battlefield untapped, and since the Sanctuary doesn't care why it entered the battlefield untapped, you will get the Sanctuary's triggered ability.
Q: I have my combo of Amalia Benavides Aguirre and Wildgrowth Walker in play, and my Amalia currently has a power of 19. In response to Amalia's trigger, my opponent casts Boulder Rush targeting Amalia, making her power 21. What happens?
A: Barring anything else happening, the game will be a draw. Amalia's trigger will only destroy other creatures (including Wildgrowth Walker to end the combo) if her power is exactly 20 after exploring when the trigger resolves. You won't destroy other creatures if her power is 21 or more. Since Amalia won't destroy the Walker, they will keep triggering each other, and without some other way to break the loop (like removing Amalia or the Walker), the game won't be able to advance and the game will be a draw.
Q: I control a Dauthi Voidwalker, and one of the cards in exile owned by an opponent is a Living End. Can I effectively cast that same Living End every turn with my Voidwalker's ability?
A: Effectively, yes. Each turn, you can sacrifice the Voidwalker and cast the opponent's Living End without paying its mana cost. When the End resolves, one of the things it will do is return the Voidwalker that you just sacrificed to the battlefield. When the End finishes resolving, since you once again have a Dauthi Voidwalker in play, the End will be exiled with a void counter on it again. The Voidwalker has "summoning sickness", so you can't immediately activate its ability again, but once it gets around to your next turn, you'll be able to sacrifice the Voidwalker and cast Living End again.
Q: If I proliferate, can I add counters to a card in exile like an opponent's suspended Sol Talisman?
A: You cannot. Proliferate only lets you add counters to permanents on the battlefield or players. "Permanents" only exist on the battlefield - the suspended Talisman is a "permanent card" in exile. So you won't be able to add counters to your opponent's suspended card in exile, only to a permanent on the battlefield or to a player.
Have you discovered the odd question out?
Q: I made an enchantment token copy of Gyre Sage with Myrkul, Lord of Bones. Since Gyre Sage isn't a creature, how will its evolve ability work?
A: It doesn't. Gyre Sage is a noncreature enchantment, which mean it doesn't have a power or toughness. A creature can't have a greater power or toughness than a noncreature permanent, so evolve won't trigger at all for the Sage. You can still get +1/+1 counters on the enchantment Sage in other ways, but its evolve ability effectively doesn't work since it's not a creature.
Q: I control a Call for Unity and I had eight creatures die during my turn. Will Call for Unity get one counter during my end step or eight counters?
A: It only gets a single counter. Call for Unity only cares if one or more permanents under your control left the battlefield that turn. It doesn't care if multiple permanents left the battlefield. While you did have eight permanents leave the battlefield that turn, Call for Unity only gets a single counter during your end step, not a counter for each permanent that left the battlefield that turn.
Q: My commander is Kokusho, the Evening Star, and my opponent controls a Compost. If my commander is destroyed and moved to the command zone, will my opponent's Compost trigger?
A: Yes, it will trigger. Your Kokusho will briefly go to the graveyard before you get a chance to move it to the command zone. Since your commander spends a brief period of time in the graveyard, your opponent's Compost will trigger and they'll draw a card from your commander dying.
Q: I control Grothama, All-Devouring and my opponent attacks with an 8/8 creature. Can I wait and see if their 8/8 will choose to fight my Grothama, then cast Unlikely Aid in response to save my Grothama?
A: No, you can't do that. The trigger that Grothama gives their 8/8 will trigger when the 8/8 attacks, but they won't choose whether or not their 8/8 will fight until that trigger is resolving. It's not a decision they make when the trigger is put on the stack. Since they choose whether or not to fight when the trigger resolves, you can't do anything in between your opponent choosing to have it fight and the fight happening. And if you cast the Aid before the trigger resolves, your opponent will likely choose to not have the fight happen so they don't lose their 8/8 for no reason.
Q: If my opponent cast Unfinished Business do I get a chance to respond after the creature has returned, but before the Auras and Equipment return attached to that creature?
A: You do not. You don't get priority in the middle of a spell or ability resolving to do anything. Your opponent will return the creature, then return the targeted Auras and/or Equipment attached to that creature, and then players will get priority once the Business is done resolving. So if your opponent is returning a Swiftfoot Boots, their creature will have hexproof and haste by the time you get a chance to interact.
Q: If I sacrifice a creature to Caesar, Legion's Emperor's attack trigger, can I choose the same mode twice?
A: No you cannot. You get to choose two modes, but since Caesar doesn't say you can choose the same mode multiple times (like Fiery Confluence), you have to choose two different modes, not the same mode twice.
Did anyone check the trees?
Q: I control a Fervent Charge and a Caesar, Legion's Emperor. If I attack and choose to make tokens with Caesar's triggered ability, will those tokens get +2/+2 from the Charge?
A: Unfortunately, this combo does not work. The Charge will only trigger for creatures that are declared as attackers. It won't trigger for creatures that are put onto the battlefield or created attacking. While the two 1/1 tokens will be attacking creatures, since they were not declared as attackers, they will not get the bonus from the Charge.
Q: How well do Academy Manufactor and Nuka-Cola Vending Machine work together?
A: They work very well together. The activated ability of the Vending Machine will create a Food, a Treasure, and a Clue token due to the Manufactor. If you sacrifice a Food, then you'll end up creating a tapped Food, Treasure, and Clue token (they are all created tapped, since the triggered ability of the Vending Machine creates the initial token tapped, and that applies to all of the tokens it ends up creating). Which means that if you have another way to sacrifice your Food token (like Krark-Clan Ironworks), you could keep sacrificing the Food token for mana, then get a replacement Food (as well as a bonus Treasure and Clue) token each time.
Q: How does Bruvac the Grandiloquent interact with rad counters? If my opponent has three rad counters, what happens when the trigger resolves?
A: Rad counters cause the opponent to mill cards equal to the number of rad counters they have. Since this is a mill, your Bruvac will apply to the mill and they'll mill twice as many cards. In this example, they would mill three cards, but instead, they mill six cards. The rest of the ability will look at all of the cards they just milled and they'll lose life and rad counters equal to the number of nonland cards they milled (even if it's more than the number of rad counters they have). If they milled four nonland cards, your opponent will lose 4 life and they'll lose all of their rad counters.
Q: Can you explain how the triggered ability of Rampaging Yao Guai works?
A: Sure. The X in the trigger and the X that you choose will be the same number. Let's say you picked 6. When the Yao Guai enters the battlefield, you choose any number of target artifacts or enchantments whose combined mana value is 6 or less to destroy. For example, you could destroy two permanents with a mana value of 3 each, since their combined mana value is 6. Or a permanent with a mana value of 4, a permanent with a mana value of 1, and all of your opponent's Treasure tokens, since their combined mana value is 5. But you couldn't destroy something with a mana value of 4 and a mana value of 3, since their combined mana value is 7, which is not 6 or less.
Q: Since Arcade Gannon is a Doctor, does that mean I could partner him with a Doctor's Companion like Donna Noble?
A: Nope, you can't do that. To be able to use Doctor's Companion to have a second commander, the other commander has to have the exact type line "Time Lord Doctor". Just being a Doctor isn't enough. While Arcade Gannon is a Doctor, he is a Human Doctor, not a Time Lord Doctor, which means he cannot partner with Donna Noble or any other legendary creature with Doctor's Companion.
Q: I'm in a game of Two-Headed Giant. If my teammate casts Savor the Moment, will I also skip the untap step on the extra turn, or just my teammate?
A: Your entire team skips the untap step. If one player on a team skips a step or phase, the entire team skips that step or phase. Since you're instructed to skip the untap step on the extra turn, your entire team skips the untap step, and neither one of you will untap on the extra turn from Savor the Moment.
Q: I'm playing in an RCQ, but we only have eight players. How many rounds do we run?
A: You're running three rounds of single elimination. Per the Magic Tournament Rules, since you only have eight players for the tournament, you don't do any of the normal swiss rounds and you effectively cut to a top 8 immediately. The loser of each round will be dropped from the tournament, and whoever is the remaining undefeated player after the third and final round will win the tournament.
Awwww, I can't do that to all of you. I can't give you incorrect information, even as a joke. Everything in this article was correct! I guess the fool in this article was me, thinking that I'd mislead you. Well, we'll see you all next week!
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