Published on 05/20/2024
Question and Answer Roundup
By Carsten Haese, Nathan Long, and Justin Hovdenes
This Article from: Justin Hovdenes
Cranial Translation
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With my trusty steed,
hopefully I'll gather them all.
hopefully I'll gather them all.
The questions have all escaped and I have to gather them from all sorts of places, some from my local store, some from IRC, and some from Ask-the-Judge on Facebook. If we are lucky we can get them all back to the barn before nightfall!
And as usual, if you have any questions about Magic cards don't hesitate to send us a tweet @CranialTweet, or for the more in-depth questions, an email to moko@cranialinsertion.com .
Q: If I target Fathom Mage with Dragonscale Boon, do I draw one card or two after it resolves?
A: Fathom Mage triggers once for each counter placed on it, even if those counters are put on it simultaneously.
This like many questions can be easily answered by checking Gatherer. If you have a question concerning how two cards interact, you can check Gatherer and see if any of the rulings under it are relevant to your question. This question was answered in the second ruling under Fathom Mage.
Q: My commander is Urza, Lord Protector and is currently melded into Urza, Planeswalker. If I control Vexilus Praetor, does it give protection from everything to my Urza, Planeswalker?
A: Yes, Urza gets protection from everything. A melded permanent that is one half your commander is fully considered your commander.
Q: Can I use Spell Snare to counter a dashed Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer?
A: No, you can't. Paying alternative costs like dash does not change the mana value of a spell.
Q: If I Beast Within my opponent's Anointed Procession, do they get one or two Beast tokens?
A: They only get one. We follow the instructions of the card in the order they are written. First the enchantment gets destroyed, then the opponent creates a Beast token. By the time the Beast token is created, the opponent no longer has an Anointed Procession.
Q: My opponent controls Chatterfang, Squirrel General and Doubling Season. If they cast Chatter of the Squirrel, how many Squirrel tokens do they get?
A: The opponent gets to choose to make three or four Squirrels. Two different replacement effects are trying to change how Chatter of the Squirrel affects your opponent. As the affected player, your opponent chooses which replacement effect happens first, then they apply the second if its still relevant. Once a replacement effect has changed an event, it can't change it again.
Chatter -> Doubling Season -> Chatterfang =
1 token -> 2x1 token -> 2+1 = 3 tokens
Chatter -> Chatterfang -> Doubling Season =
1 token -> 1+1 tokens -> 2x2 tokens = 4 tokens
This is an important one to wrangle up.
Q: I control both Asmodeus the Archfiend and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. If I use Asmodeus's
activated ability to draw seven cards do I gain any life?A: You won't gain any life, because the drawing seven cards gets replaced with exiling seven cards instead.
Q: I control Fate Unraveler and Gisa, the Hellraiser. During my opponent's turn when they draw a card and my Unraveler triggers, does that in turn count as a crime and trigger my Gisa?
A: Fate Unraveler's trigger is not a crime and will not trigger Gisa. It's not a crime because it doesn't target the opponent, an opponent's permanent, an opponent's spell, or a card in an opponent's graveyard.
Q: If I sacrifice my Treasure Vault to make Treasure tokens, can I pay the
to copy the Vault with my Esoteric Duplicator?A: Yes, you can. Treasure Vault is an artifact and it is being sacrificed. That fact that it's also a land doesn't stop the Duplicator from doing its thing.
It's important to note that you do have to pay the
before you get the Treasure tokens.Q: My opponent controls Impulsive Maneuvers and I attack with Mist-Cloaked Herald. After my opponent wins the flip (doubling damage) and doesn't block, if I ninjutsu the Herald with Dokuchi Shadow-Walker, will the Shadow-Walker deal double damage?
A: It will not. Impulsive Maneuvers triggers when a creature "becomes" an attacking creature during the declare attackers step. It doesn't trigger at all for creatures that are put onto the battlefield attacking. The Dokuchi Shadow-Walker has no relation to the Mist-Cloaked Herald, and doesn't gain its double damage benefit.
Q: I control Baneslayer Angel and Akroma, Vision of Ixidor. Does my Baneslayer gain +4/+4 or +5/+5 from Akroma's ability?
A: It only gains +4/+4 from Akroma's ability. Akroma will give a creature +1/+1 at most once no matter how many different protection abilities it has. This is no different than how it will give at most +1/+1 even if a creature has vigilance three times. This means since Akroma only checks for 14 different keywords, that no matter how many copies of the same ability and how many variants of the same keyword they have, Akroma can only hand out +14/+14 if a creature has all of them multiple times and ways.
Q: If I pay
to cast Clone and have it copy Court Hussar as it enters the battlefield, do I still have to sacrifice it?A: You will not sacrifice it, as the Clone remembers what kinds of mana were used to cast it. Had you paid no
mana to cast the Clone, then you would have to sacrifice it.Q: I'm currently playing a three-player game versus my friends Alex and Nancy. During my last turn I goaded Alex's 6/6 Wurm token by casting Jeering Homunculus, and Nancy controls a Ghostly Prison. Now that its Alex's turn, is he forced to pay for the Ghostly Prison tax so he can attack with his Wurm token?
A: Alex's gets to chose who to attack with his Wurm, but the Wurm must attack this turn. If Alex wants to attack Nancy, he will have to pay the
to do so. If Alex doesn't want to pay for Ghostly Prison or can't (maybe he doesn't have enough mana), then he must attack you with the Wurm.Q: I have a 2/2 Zombie token with decayed, created by Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia. If I attack with the decayed Zombie, can I sacrifice it to Village Rites after it deals combat damage but before it dies to its decayed trigger?
A: Yes, you can. After the combat damage step, there is one last step during the combat phase. This last step is the end of combat step. During this step is when the decayed trigger is placed on the stack and you can respond to the trigger before it resolves by casting instants or activating abilities. This gives you just enough time to cast Village Rites and sacrifice the decayed Zombie before it gets sacrificed to its own decayed trigger.
Well there we go, we caught
the last of those varmints.
the last of those varmints.
Q: My opponent's commander is Sivitri Scarzam and it has Resurrection Orb attached to it. Sivitri just died in combat, and my opponent left Sivitri in the graveyard so it will 'reanimate' at end of turn. If I Disenchant the Resurrection Orb during the post-combat main phase, will this strand my opponent's commander in their graveyard?
A: Sivitri Scarzam will get reanimated at end of turn even though the Resurrection Orb was destroyed. The delayed trigger was already set up and will trigger to reanimate Sivitri at the beginning of the next end step.
Q: If I ultimate Sorin, Lord of Innistrad to kill my opponent's commander, can I "steal" their commander from the graveyard before it goes to the command zone?
A: You can. When a commander dies or gets exiled, there is a state based action that lets its owner move it to the command zone, but state based actions are not checked in the middle of spell or ability resolving. Because Sorin's ultimate destroys creatures and/or planeswalkers and then reanimates them as part of the same ability, state based actions are not checked before the enemy commander is reanimated.
Q: If I cast Trash the Town paying for all three spree modes and then target Blanka, Ferocious Friend with all three modes, does Blanka see itself being targeted once or three times?
A: It will only see itself being targeted once. Although it's targeted by three modes, it's only being targeted by one spell.
Q: My Blightsteel Colossus has been Imprisoned in the Moon. If I target it with Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi will it become a creature or stay a land?
A: Blightsteel Colossus will be a creature and can attack. This is a layers question. If two different effects happen in the same layer, they are usually applied in timestamp order (older effect first to newest effect last). In this case, in layer 4, first we turn Blightsteel Colossus into a land and no other types (because of Moon), then it becomes a legendary creature land Elemental (because of Vitu-Ghazi). Its name will be Vitu-Ghazi and it will be a 0/0 with nine +1/+1 counters, and its only abilities will be haste and the ability to make colorless mana.
Q: My only legendary creature is Karn, Legacy Reforged. If I cast Ringsight, can I find The One Ring from my library and put it into my hand?
A: You can't find any card in this situation, let alone The One Ring. Colorless is not a color, therefore no two cards can share the color of "colorless".
Q: How does the Amalia Benavides Aguirre // Wildgrowth Walker combo work?
A: Having both in play doesn't by itself do anything. However, as soon as you gain life or you explore, it immediately starts a semi-infinite combo. If you gain 1 life to start the combo (say from casting Wildgrowth Walker into Lunarch Veteran) then you will gain 1 life, which will cause Amalia to explore (whether this draws you a land or surveils a nonland and puts a +1/+1 counter onto her). This will trigger Wildgrowth Walker to gain you 3 life and put a +1/+1 counter on itself. This will then repeat, one triggering the other, until either 18 +1/+1 counters get placed on Amalia, someone chooses to break the combo (usually by killing either Amalia or Wildgrowth), or the game ends in draw. You can force Amalia to get to 18 +1/+1 counters quickly by just leaving the same nonland card on top of your library over and over again. This will then end the combo as Amalia kills the Wildgrowth Walker by destroying all other creatures.
Q: Bryan Prillaman asks "If I start up the Amalia // Wildgrowth Walker combo when Amalia is already over 20 power, do I have to mill myself out before the game ends in a draw?"
A: If you have no other way to break the combo, then yes, you must draw every land in your deck while milling every nonland card in your library.
When you have an infinite combo but can make a choice that changes it to have a different outcome, you must choose a finite number of repeats (do those as a shortcut), then make the other choice.
In this case you reveal a nonland card and leave it on top, you now have to choose a number of times to repeat this (this can by 0 or a million times). You then shortcut it to add the appropriate life gain and +1/+1 counters gained and now you must choose to put that nonland card in your graveyard. You then proceed to draw each revealed land, then choose to repeat revealing each nonland card some number of times as above, but end the shortcut with milling the nonland card. This then has to be shortcut to draw all lands and mill all nonlands, with some arbitrary number of life gain and +1/+1 counters gained. Then, once your library is empty, you can try to declare the game a draw. Your opponent gets a chance to destroy either Amalia or Wildgrowth Walker, which ends the combo with you having an empty library. If they don't break the loop, the game ends in a draw.
Well, I think we have all the questions corralled in the barn. Time to call it a night.
- Justin Hovdenes AKA Hovey
Level 2 Magic Judge
Rapid City, SD
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