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Greetings and welcome back to another issue of Cranial Insertion! Last week was Thanksgiving here in the United States, and I'm thankful for our readers who read our articles and send rules questions to us. As my thanks to you, this week's issue is a quiz where you can test your knowledge.
As always, if you have questions for us, you can email them to moko@cranialinsertion.com or send short questions to us on X at @CranialTweet if you're still there. One of our writers will reply to you, and your question might appear in a future article to educate and entertain readers like yourself, possibly accompanied by some pun or pop-culture reference.
A: Colorless
B: White
C: Blue
D: White and blue
E: On Wednesdays it is pink
The answer is
D.
To determine the color identity of a double-faced card, you look at both faces of the card. Because of the mana symbol on its front face and the mana symbol on its back face, the card's color identity is white and blue.
Q: My opponent has given me control of their Demonic Pact that only has the "you lose the game" mode left. In response to its upkeep trigger, I use Scrollshift on it. What happens?
A: The choices are...
A: Your opponent loses the game.
B: You lose the game.
C: The game ends in a draw.
D: Nothing happens.
E: Everything happens.
The answer is
B.
Unfortunately, you'll still lose the game. While Demonic Pact comes back to the battlefield as a new permanent under your opponent's control, the triggered ability on the stack is independent from its source, so the ability still resolves and makes you lose the game.
Q: My opponent is about to attack with a whole bunch of creatures I won't be able to block, but I have a Herald of Eternal Dawn in my hand and enough mana to cast it. What's the latest possible moment for me to cast it to keep me from losing the game?
A: The choices are...
A: The declare attackers step
B: The declare blockers step
C: The combat damage step
D: The state-based actions step
E: Just before your opponent takes the match result to the scorekeeper
The answer is
B.
Herald of Eternal Dawn must already be on the battlefield at the moment you would lose the game in order to keep you from losing the game. In this situation, you would lose the game during the combat damage step, after combat damage has been dealt and state-based actions see that your life total is 0 or less. You need priority to flash in the Herald, and the latest point in time you get priority before this happens is in the declare blockers step, after you declare blockers.
As to the state-based actions step, there is no such thing. State-based actions happen throughout the entire turn, immediately before a player would get priority. They don't use the stack, and nobody can respond to them.
Adric's ability needs to target an activated or triggered ability on the stack. Activated abilities are written in the form "[cost]:[effect]", and the loyalty abilities of planeswalkers are examples of activated abilities. Triggered abilities are written in the form "When/Whenever/At [event], [effect]", and Howling Mine has such an ability. Doubling Season's abilities are not triggered abilities. They are static abilities that create replacement effects. Call to the Feast is a spell, and it has a spell ability that describes what happens when the spell resolves. There are abilities that can copy spells on the stack, but Adric doesn't do that.
A: It stays on the battlefield face-up.
B: It transforms into Jace, Telepath Unbound.
C: It turns face-down and becomes a 2/2 creature.
D: It gets exiled.
E: There's no way of knowing.
The answer is
D.
The ability instructs you to exile Phyrexian Metamorph and to return it to the battlefield transformed. Exiling it is not a problem, so you exile it, but it can't be returned to the battlefield transformed since it's not a double-faced card, let alone a transforming double-faced card. Since the instruction to return it to the battlefield transformed is impossible, it just stays exiled.
A: Just one green mana
B: One green mana and one colorless mana.
C: One green mana and one blue mana.
D: One green, one blue, and one colorless mana.
E: Moko bursts into the room and sings "Mana-mana, do-doo-do-do-do..."
The answer is
A.
Bloom Tender doesn't care about what colors or types of mana your permanents could produce. It looks at what colors your permanents are, and for each of the five colors in Magic, you get one mana of that color if you control a permanent of that color. The only permanent you control that has a color is Bloom Tender itself, which is green, so you get one green mana. You won't get blue mana because you don't control a blue permanent, and you won't get colorless mana because colorless is not a color.
Q: I attack my opponent with a Prosperous Thief and three Rogue tokens that all go unblocked. How many Treasure tokens do I get?
A: The choices are...
A: 1
B: 4
E: Choices C and D are off on Thanksgiving break.
The answer is
A.
Prosperous Thief's triggered ability does not trigger for each creature that deals damage to your player. It triggers whenever one or more creatures of a particular type deal damage to a player. The "one or more" here tells you that the ability only triggers once regardless of how many creatures are dealing damage to your opponent.
Zimone isn't picky about the kind of counters that get doubled by her ability, so anything that's described as a "[thing] counter" gets doubled by her. Even the indestructible counter on Arwen gets doubled even though the effect from the second counter is redundant. You could use the redundant counter to activate her activated ability and she'll still have an indestructible counter left over for herself.
Zimone would also double loyalty counters, but she is picky about what kinds of permanents you can target with her ability. She only works on creatures and artifacts, and while some in-Karn-ations are artifact creatures, Karn Liberated is neither.
Q: I control Ocelot Pride and Delney, Streetwise Lookout, I have gained life this turn and I have the city's blessing. How many Cat tokens am I making in my end step?
A: The choices are...
A: 2
B: 3
C: 4
D: 6
E: 42
The answer is
D.
Delney makes Ocelot Pride's ability trigger twice, and each instance resolves separately. The first one to resolve makes one Cat token because you gained life this turn, and then it makes a copy of that Cat token because you have the city's blessing. The second one to resolve makes another Cat token because you gained life this turn, and now you control three tokens that entered this turn, so the second half of the ability makes three more tokens, for a total of six Cats.
Q: What happens to the cards I have exiled with Rev, Tithe Extractor when she dies?
A: The choices are...
A: They remain exiled, and you may still cast them.
B: They remain exiled, but you can't cast them for the rest of the game.
C: They remain exiled, but you can't cast them until you cast another copy of Rev.
D: They get turned face up.
E: They get returned to the top of your opponent's library.
The answer is
A.
The permission to cast the exiled cards gets created by the resolution of the triggered ability that exiled the card face-down. This permission is established by a continuous effect with a duration, and the duration is "for as long as it remains exiled." This duration doesn't end when Rev leaves the battlefield, so you may still cast the exiled cards.
And that's the end of today's quiz! Congratulations on making it through. If you got all ten questions right, reward yourself with some Thanksgiving leftovers. If you got some answers wrong, reward yourself with some Thanksgiving leftovers anyway because you did your best! Either way, please come back next week for some more Magic rules Q&A.
-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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mana symbol on its front face and the 
mana symbol on its back face, the card's color identity is white and blue.
