Published on 12/09/2024
The Season of Gifting
By Carsten Haese, Nathan Long, and Justin Hovdenes
This Article from: Nathan Long
Cranial Translation
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You can't give her that! It's not safe!
IT'S A SWORD - IT'S NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE.
IT'S A SWORD - IT'S NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE.
And we're about to gift all of you this week's article, filled with Magic rules tips and answers. But if you have questions of your own, feel free to send them in to us. We'll gift an answer back, and maybe even use your question in the future. If you have a short question, you can reach out to us at @CranialTweet, but if you have a longer question, you can send us an e-mail at moko@cranialinsertion.com .
Q: My opponent is at 20 life and controls Elenda, Saint of Dusk. I attack with a Ball Lightning and my opponent blocks with Elenda. How should I assign combat damage so Elenda will die?
A: You'll need to assign 5 damage to Elenda, not 4, if you want Elenda to die.
Elenda has an ability that gives it +1/+1 as long as its controller's life total is greater than their starting life total. If you do the natural thing when assigning damage and assign 4 damage to Elenda and 2 damage to your opponent, your opponent will take 2 damage but also gain 4 life (since Elenda has lifelink), ending up at 22 life. Since their life total is greater than their starting life total, Elenda is a 5/5 when we check state-based actions, and with only 4 damage marked on it, Elenda survives. To make sure Elenda dies, you want to assign 5 damage to Elenda (and assign 1 damage to the defending player) to make sure that even though Elenda is bumped up to a 5/5 after damage is dealt, it still dies since it has 5 damage marked on it.
Q: I control an Ancient Cellarspawn and my life total is currently 7. If I cast Shadow of Mortality, how much life will my opponent lose?
A: They'll lose 13 life. The mana value of Shadow of Mortality is 15, but because of the Shadow's own cost reduction effect, you only paid two mana to cast it. Since you only spent two mana to cast a 15 mana value spell, the Cellarspawn will trigger and your opponent will lose 13 life.
Q: I control Karn, Scion of Urza, who has made one of its Construct tokens, along with four other artifacts, making my token a 5/5. If my opponent casts Maha, Its Feathers Night, what happens to my Construct token?
A: Your token actually becomes a little bit better. The token doesn't have a characteristic-defining ability that sets its power and toughness, the token is a base 0/0 that gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control. Its base power and toughness are still 0/0, so Maha actually improves the token by making its base toughness 1 instead of zero, so your Construct token is now a 5/6 creature.
Q: My graveyard has a land, sorcery, and instant card in it, and I control an Eldrazi Spawn token from a Spawning Breath I cast earlier. If I cast Bloodbraid Marauder, can I sacrifice my Eldrazi Spawn token and, since the token is still in the graveyard when the Marauder becomes cast, give my Marauder cascade from its delirium ability?
A: Ooooo, that's tricky, but that doesn't work. Delirium only counts card types among cards in your graveyard, and your Eldrazi Spawn is not a card. While the Eldrazi Spawn token is actually in your graveyard when the Marauder becomes cast, it doesn't count for delirium since it's not a card, so your Bloodbraid Marauder will not have cascade.
Q: I control Xenagos, God of Revels and Urabrask's Forge. Can I make the token first, then target it with Xenagos's trigger to pump the power and toughness of my Phyrexian Horror token?
A: You cannot. Both trigger at the beginning of combat on your turn, but Xenagos's trigger targets, which means you need to choose a legal target when it's put on the stack. There's no way to put the Forge trigger on the stack and resolve it before you put Xenagos's trigger on the stack, so you won't be able to target the token you created with the Forge's triggered ability.
Q: If I put slime counters on my opponent's creatures with Toxrill, the Corrosive, will that also trigger my Nest of Scarabs since those slime counters are giving my opponent's creatures -1/-1?
A: Nope, those cards don't interact at all. Nest of Scarabs only cares about -1/-1 counters, not other types of counters. While the slime counters behave like -1/-1 counters with Toxrill in play, they're not actually -1/-1 counters, so putting slime counters on your opponent's creatures with Toxrill in play won't give you Insect tokens from the Nest as well.
One man's trash is another man's gift.
Q: My opponent has a Solemnity in play. If I play Chronozoa, what happens?
A: Because of Solemnity, Chronozoa will enter with zero time counters. This doesn't do anything initially - to be sacrificed to vanishing, you have to remove the last time counter from Chronozoa, and that doesn't happen here since Chronozoa never had any time counters to begin with. But if Chronozoa dies later on, since it dies without any time counters on it, its ability will trigger and you'll get two Chronozoa tokens.
And if there's still a Solemnity in play, those tokens will also enter with zero time counters. Which means that, with a sacrifice outlet, you could end up with a lot of Chromozoas in play very quickly.
Q: If my opponent plays Smoldering Spires and targets my white creature with its triggered ability, can I respond by casting Brave the Elements naming "red" to counter the ability?
A: No, Brave the Elements won't do anything here. While Smoldering Spires taps for red mana, since it's a land, it's colorless. Giving your creatures protection from red won't save your creature from the Spire's trigger. You'd have to give it protection from colorless with a card like Giver of Runes to protect it from the trigger.
Q: I control High Fae Trickster, giving all of my spells flash. If I cast Day's Undoing on my opponent's turn, will I end the turn as well?
A: No, you won't end their turn. Day's Undoing will only end the turn if you cast it on your own turn, not if you cast it on an opponent's turn. Since you're casting Day's Undoing on the opponent's turn, you'll each shuffle and draw seven cards, but the turn won't end and your opponent's turn will continue like normal.
Q: If I control Muldrotha, the Gravetide, can I cast Fetch Quest from my graveyard?
A: You cannot. While Bramble Familiar is a creature card, Fetch Quest is a sorcery while on the stack. Since Muldrotha only lets you cast permanent spells from your graveyard, not an instant or sorcery spell, you won't be able to use Muldrotha to cast an adventure spell from your graveyard.
Q: I have Bello, Bard of the Brambles and no other nonland permanents in play. If I cast Banner of Kinship and name "Elemental", will the Banner count itself and enter with one counter or will it enter with zero counters?
A: It will enter with zero counters. The Banner has a replacement effect that causes it to enter with fellowship counters based on the number of creatures you control of the chosen type. Since this is a replacement effect, this happens before the Banner enters the battlefield, not after. Since it's not on the battlefield yet, it won't count for its own ability (even though it would be an Elemental creature once it's on the battlefield) and it won't enter with any fellowship counters on it.
Q: Can I transmute my Tolaria West and search for a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx?
A: Yes you can. Tolaria West has no mana cost, and thus has a mana value of 0. Same thing with Nykthos. Since transmute lets you seach for a card with the same mana value as the card with transmute, you can search for Nykthos (or any other land) when you transmute Tolaria West.
Q: If I have a Ghostly Pilferer in play, will I draw a card when my opponent casts their commander?
A: Yep, you'll get to draw (assuming it's being cast from the command zone). The command zone isn't the hand, so if an opponent decides to cast their commander from the command zone, your Pilferer will trigger and you'll get to draw a card.
And sometimes, you receive more than you give.
Q: I control a Faerie Artisans, which currently has created a token copy of an opponent's Harmonic Prodigy. One of my opponents casts Archaeomancer. How many Archaeomancer trigger will I end up getting, one or two?
A: You will get two Archaeomancer triggers. When the Artisan's trigger resolves, you make a token of the creature that just entered under your opponent's control, then you get rid of the old Artisan token. When you created the Archaeomancer token, you still have the Prodigy token under your control, so it will cause the Archaeomancer's ability to trigger an additional time. You exile the Prodigy before you put those triggers on the stack, but that won't matter for those triggers - you'll still put two Archaeomancer triggers on the stack.
Q: I have a Reliquary Tower in play. My opponent plays Winter, Misanthropic Guide with five cards types in their graveyard. What's my maximum hand size?
A: Two. Since Winter entered the battlefield after the Tower, its effect sets your maximum hand size since it has a later timestamp. Had you played the Tower after Winter entered the battlefield, then you would have no maximum hand size, but since Winter entered after the Tower, you won't have an unlimited hand size.
Q: I control an Ophiomancer and a Harmonic Prodigy. Assuming I have no Snakes in play during my upkeep, what happens?
A: Since you control no Snakes, the condition is true for Ophiomancer's ability, so its ability will trigger. And because Ophiomancer is a Shaman, the Prodigy will cause the ability to trigger twice. However, since Ophiomancer has an intervening if clause, the trigger will check again when it goes to resolve to make sure its condition is still true at that time. When the first trigger resolves, you don't control a Snake, so you'll create a 1/1 Snake. But when the second trigger goes to resolve, it sees its condition is no longer true since you control a Snake, so the trigger does nothing and you don't get a second Snake.
If you had some sort of sacrifice outlet, like a Carrion Feeder, you could sacrifice the Snake after the first trigger resolves, before the second trigger resolves, and get a second Snake, but there's no way to end up with more than one Snake token at a time with the cards listed.
Q: I control two creatures - an Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos and Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate. My opponent casts Flare of Malice. What do I have to sacrifice?
A: You actually sacrifice nothing. The Flare has you sacrifice the creature or planeswalker with the greatest mana value among creatures or planeswalkers you control. Alexios can't be sacrificed since it has an ability that says it can't be sacrificed. And Alesha cannot be sacrificed because they don't have the highest mana value among your creatures and planeswalkers. Neither creature can be sacrificed, so you won't sacrifice anything at all.
Q: Will having a Nightscape Familiar reduce the cost to cast Sauron, the Dark Lord to
?A: No, the cost is reduced by
, not by 
. The Familiar has a single ability that reduces the cost of your blue and red spells. You don't get a double discount if the spell happens to be both blue and red. So Sauron would still cost to cast.Q: I cast Arcane Endeavor rolling a 7 and a 3. I choose to draw seven cards, then I choose to cast Twincast from my hand since it has a mana value of 3 or less. Can I target and copy the resolving Endeavor and repeat the process?
A: Target it? Yes. Copy it? No.
You cast Twincast while the Endeavor is resolving, but we finish resolving the Endeavor, and now just Twincast is on the stack. When Twincast goes to resolve, its only target is no longer legal, since the Endeavor isn't on the stack anymore because it finished resolving, so no copy will be made and you won't get a second Arcane Endeavor.
Q: How does Soul-Shackled Zombie work in a game of Two-Headed Giant?
A: Assuming you exile at least one creature card with the Zombie's triggered ability, since you have two opponents, they each lose 2 life, so the opposing team will lose a total of 4 life, and you will gain 2 life. That's a net life change of 6 life (4 life lost by the opposing team, 2 life gained by your team).
That's all we have for this week. See you again next week!
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