Published on 04/16/2012
Thanks for All the Questions
By Eli Shiffrin, Brian Paskoff, and Carsten Haese
This Article from: Brian Paskoff
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 Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes.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.
So long, so long so long,
And thanks for all the fish!
And thanks for all the fish!
[Three additional notes from Eli:
1) This week's article is somewhat shorter than usual due to making plans revolving around something cool and entirely unrelated that ended up not happening. :( Apologies from all of us for the article being a quarter shorter than normal.
2) We've decided on the new writer since this was written: It will be James Bennett, Ubernostrum on our comment boards. Welcome aboard, James!
3) Aside from myself, Paskoff has been the second longest-writing member of Cranial Insertion, and the Eli-Paskoff-Carsten team has been the longest together. We'll all miss the Paskoff!]
Q: Is Wild Ricochet as good against Cruel Ultimatum as I think it is? Will it turn the Ultimatum on my opponent, then copy it and hit them again, making them wish for the sweet release of the "scoop phase"?
A: While Wild Ricochet works against the Cruelest (and most playable) of the Ultimatums, it's nowhere near that good. Wild Ricochet lets you change the target of a spell, but Cruel Ultimatum says "target opponent." And while you're changing the target, your opponent still controls the spell itself, and they're not their own opponent (no matter how many bad plays they make), so you can't change the target to Cruel Ultimatum's controller.
You made the copy though, so you control it and can make that copy target Cruel Ultimatum's original controller. But it'll go onto the stack on top of the original one, so yours will go off first, then your opponent's - so you'll just about break even, except he'll probably have more cards in hand than you. On second thought, maybe Wild Ricochet isn't the best choice. Unless you're playing a multiplayer game where Cruel Ultimatum's controller has multiple opponents.
Q: What happens if Aegis Angel and the creature it's making indestructible are destroyed at the same time, such as a Wrath of God effect?
A: Then only Aegis Angel will be destroyed. When Wrath of God resolves, it tries to destroy all creatures at once. At that time, the creature the Angel is protecting is indestructible, so it'll survive the destruction.
Q: I was toying around with an idea for a Chorus of the Conclave commander deck. Will I be able to pay the Chorus' additional cost on cards coming out of suspend, or does the "without paying it's mana cost" clause of suspend not allow me to do that?
A: Yep, you can do that! Even when casting a spell without paying its mana cost, you're still allowed to pay any additional costs, whether they're optional or required.
Q: What exactly happens when someone's general is imprinted on something in Commander? For instance, with specific situations:
My friend is using Tetsuo Umezawa as his general. Someone else kills it with Chill to the Bone because we're that cool, and he wants it to go to Mimic Vat. If Mimic Vat imprints it, does Tetsuo still get to go to the Command Zone? If he does go to the Command Zone, can Mimic Vat still make copies of him for easy general killing shenanigans?
A: First thing's first: Mimic Vat won't even get to trigger if Tetsuo's owner chooses to put it back in the command zone instead of the graveyard. And even if they want it to go to the graveyard for some reason, they can just choose to put it into the command zone when Mimic Vat tries to exile it. Mimic Vat will look for the imprinted card in the exile zone, so if it's not there, then there's nothing for the Vat to make tokens of.
Farewell to questions!
A: To prevent the creature from attacking, you'd have to turn it into a Frog before the declare attackers step. As the declare attackers step begins, the attacking player chooses which creatures they control that will attack. This doesn't use the stack and can't be responded to, so giving a creature defender or otherwise creating an effect that says it can't attack won't do anything.
Q: Can Grand Architect mana be used to pay for the triggered abilities of things like Rings of Brighthearth or Mirrorworks?
A: No, it can't. Those are aren't artifact spells or activated abilities, they're payments requested during the resolution of an artifact's triggered ability.
Q: My opponent controls a Beguiler of Wills and I take control of it with Act of Aggression. Can I use Beguiler's ability on herself so I keep control of her at the end of turn?
A: Yep! Beguiler's ability last indefinitely, so it'll persist even after Act of Aggression's effect wears off.
Q: With an active Bloodchief Ascension out, I control a permanent an opponent owns. That permanent is destroyed, does that count as going to my opponents graveyard?
A: It doesn't just "count as", it actually is; a permanent a player owns can never enter another player's graveyard, hand, or library. It'll go to his graveyard and trigger Bloodchief Ascension.
Q: With a Knowledge Pool and Planar Chaos out, can both the in and out spell be countered, or just the outspell?
A: That depends on the order in which Knowledge Pool's and Planar Chaos' abilities resolve, which depends on who controls KP and PC and whose turn it is. If both are controlled by the same player, that player chooses the order. Otherwise, the triggers go on the stack in turn order (starting with the active player), and they resolve in the reverse order.
If Planar Chaos' ability resolves first, the spell is countered and Knowledge Pool's ability will be unable to exile it (because it looks for the spell on the stack and can't find it), so there won't be an "out spell" at all.
If Knowledge Pool's ability resolved first, it exiles the spell and Planar Chaos will be unable to counter it. The player then casts an "out spell" from Knowledge Pool, and Planar Chaos gets a crack at countering that.
Thanks for three years and
the longest CI team, Paskoff! -Staff
the longest CI team, Paskoff! -Staff
A: Sure - all printings of a currently legal card are legal in that format, so even though they've got an expansion symbol from a non-tournament legal set, they can still be used.
Q: Can you stack the triggers of Blood Funnel and Mishra, Artificer Prodigy to essentially get a two mana discount on noncreature artifacts by allowing the spell to be countered and then returning it to the battlefield with Mishra?
A: Sure! Just stack the triggers so that Blood Funnel resolves first. Don't sacrifice a creature and it'll counter your artifact spell, so it'll be in your graveyard for Mishra to find when his trigger resolves.
Q: A ruling has been moving around my town that permanents exiled via one Karn Liberated will come back via a second Karn Liberated's ultimate ability. So Karn #1 does his -3 twice and dies. Karn #2 comes in and ends up restarting the game. Do Karn # 1's exiled permanents come into play on your side of the field when you restart the game? This doesn't seem right because when cards refer to themselves by name they mean this specific instance of the card.
A: You're right, your town's got it backwards. When a card refers to its own name, it really means "this card". When Karn's controller restarts the game, they won't get the permanents exiled with the first Karn's abilities.
Q: I was wondering about how Volrath's Curse worked. Is it possible to sacrifice multiple permanents to it during a single turn? My friend seems to think that you can only do it once per turn.
A: Being able to sacrifice a permanent to ignore the effect is actually part of the Curse's effect, so once it's ignored, they can no longer sacrifice permanents to it. This is a special action that doesn't use the stack at all, so they can't even sacrifice another permanent "in response".
Q: If my opponent has a Wurmcoil Engine held back as a blocker, but I have several guys, let's say four, and I alpha strike, how does combat damage work? Even if he blocks one of my dudes with the Wurmcoil Engine, my other three dudes will deal lethal damage. However, combat-damage happens simultaneously, and I'm not sure exactly when state-based actions are checked in this situation....
A: Lifelink is no longer a triggered ability; it happens at the same time damage is dealt. So even if he's at 6 and you attack with four 2/2 Wolf tokens, he'll gain 6 life at the same time he takes 6 damage and stay at 6 life.
Q: I just got seven Brimstone Volleys in a draft! Wowee! Can I use them all in my deck?
A: Sure! In a limited deck, you can use as many copies of a card as you have. It's rare to get more than four of a good card though, and you'd be right to call a judge over to show them you've gotten a lot of a single card so no one thinks you're cheating.
Well that's all for me... for a while at least. I'll still be around, just behind the scenes. It's been a great three and a half years writing about the game I love, but it's time for me to take a break.
Until next time!
About the Author:
Brian Paskoff is a Level 2 judge based in Long Island, NY, and frequently judges in NY, NJ, and PA. You can often find him at Brothers Grim in Selden or Friendly Neighborhood Comics in West Islip. He runs a newsletter for Long Island Magic players called Islandhome, which can be signed up for by contacting him.
AluminumAngel
You guys forgot the spoiler buttons this week.
#1
• Date: 2012-04-17 • Time: 02:00:52 •
Eli
Zitat (AluminumAngel):
|
You guys forgot the spoiler buttons this week. |
#2
• Date: 2012-04-17 • Time: 12:09:51 •
In the Q: A while back we had a game going and one of the players cast Turn to Frog on a Human creature with Bonds of Faith as it attacked. Now would this creature be unable to attack anymore being a blue Frog or would it still attack just as a Frog?
I\'m a beginning player, and judges don\'t instruct. Read section 500 of the rules, specifically when Declare Blockers Begins, and read section 716, taking shortcuts. A lot of players go directly into the attack immediately after casting spells as they know the opponent (especially in a two player game) can\'t cast anything other than an instant, or trigger effects. If they see no triggers, they\'ll launch directly into the attack phase by declaring attackers. This can be a blunder on their part as they never passed priority to you. However, most players take the immediate declaration of attackers as a suggestion, and if they reveal who they are using, that is their mistake. Just say, if you didn\'t pass on priority, <Before you do that>, which means, you reject the action of going immediately into declaration, and take your priority. Here you may take advantage of the fact they tried to stonewall you into an missing your taking priority. Most judges, probably all \'sanctioned judges\' will allow this provided if there is any question, your let them know you rejected passing on priority and they skipped passing priority and declared blockers beginning the attack.
Then, the Answer that you have to do what you wanted before they attack makes sense.
For the longest time, until I started reading the rules, NO ONE, would point out why, when I tried to block the attack, like everyone else seemed to succeed, mine failed, but theirs didn\'t. It was because of the words, \"Before you do that, I will __________ (fill in the blank). In rule parlance, that means... \"I disagree to your suggestion to attack with those just declared attackers, and want to take my priority to take advantage of my priortiy by either doing what I wanted which, you tried to skip, or taking advantage that you revealed your intentions during your suggestion to skip my priority.
Anyone... please feel free to correct me, if I am incorrect.
Last edited on 2012-05-01 13:40:29 by CyberChip
I\'m a beginning player, and judges don\'t instruct. Read section 500 of the rules, specifically when Declare Blockers Begins, and read section 716, taking shortcuts. A lot of players go directly into the attack immediately after casting spells as they know the opponent (especially in a two player game) can\'t cast anything other than an instant, or trigger effects. If they see no triggers, they\'ll launch directly into the attack phase by declaring attackers. This can be a blunder on their part as they never passed priority to you. However, most players take the immediate declaration of attackers as a suggestion, and if they reveal who they are using, that is their mistake. Just say, if you didn\'t pass on priority, <Before you do that>, which means, you reject the action of going immediately into declaration, and take your priority. Here you may take advantage of the fact they tried to stonewall you into an missing your taking priority. Most judges, probably all \'sanctioned judges\' will allow this provided if there is any question, your let them know you rejected passing on priority and they skipped passing priority and declared blockers beginning the attack.
Then, the Answer that you have to do what you wanted before they attack makes sense.
For the longest time, until I started reading the rules, NO ONE, would point out why, when I tried to block the attack, like everyone else seemed to succeed, mine failed, but theirs didn\'t. It was because of the words, \"Before you do that, I will __________ (fill in the blank). In rule parlance, that means... \"I disagree to your suggestion to attack with those just declared attackers, and want to take my priority to take advantage of my priortiy by either doing what I wanted which, you tried to skip, or taking advantage that you revealed your intentions during your suggestion to skip my priority.
Anyone... please feel free to correct me, if I am incorrect.
Last edited on 2012-05-01 13:40:29 by CyberChip
#3
• Date: 2012-05-01 • Time: 13:30:59 •
