Published on 02/24/2025
The Greatest Snowman
Did we really need another pun about snow?
By Carsten Haese, Nathan Long, and Justin Hovdenes
This Article from: Carsten Haese
Cranial Translation
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Don't fight it, it's comin' for you, runnin' at ya
While we wait for spring, let's take a look at some of the rules questions from our inbox. As always, you can email your questions to moko@cranialinsertion.com , or tweet short questions to us at @CranialTweet. One of our writers will reply to you with an answer, and your question might appear in a future article, possibly alongside a pun or a pop culture reference.
Q: I control a monstrous Hundred-Handed One and it's blocking twenty 2/2 attackers. Since it can only survive the damage from four of those attackers, do the remaining 16 attackers get through to me?
A: Not unless the attackers have trample. Ordinarily, those twenty attackers all assign their damage to Hundred-Handed One, and all that damage gets dealt to it even though 40 damage is more than enough to kill it. Hundred-Handed One will be well and truly dead after that damage, but you won't take any of that damage.
Q: Suppose I control a Delver of Secrets that has been transformed into Insectile Aberration. I cast Cackling Counterpart to copy the Aberration. If I then want to sacrifice the token copy to emerge a Wretched Gryff, by how much does the token reduce the cost?
A: I have good news for you, you get a discount of
, so you get the Gryff for 
. A token copy of a transforming double-faced card copies both faces, and both faces get considered when you calculate the mana value of the token, so the mana value is 1.Q: Your recent question about Ketramose, the New Dawn triggering on itself getting exiled got me thinking about zone-change triggers. When an object moves from zone A to B, some triggers such as Ketramose's trigger trigger from zone A, while other triggers, such as Crawling Infestation's triggered ability, trigger from zone B. Why is that?
A: In short, it's primarily because of rule 603.10. If you've ever heard of triggers looking back in time, that's the rule that's responsible for this. Most triggered abilities trigger based on the game state that exists after the trigger event, so a zone-change trigger will by default trigger from zone B. Rule 603.10 lists the exceptions to that rule, and the important exception for us is that leave-the-battlefield abilities look back in time, so they trigger from zone A. Ketramose's ability is a leave-the-battlefield ability, so it triggers from the battlefield. Crawling Infestation's ability is not a leave-the-battlefield ability, so it doesn't look back in time and it triggers from the graveyard. The rationale for this is that we wouldn't want the ability to behave differently depending on whether the card came from the battlefield or from a library, for example. This rationale is written into rule 603.6c which states that a "from anywhere" zone-change trigger is never treated as a leave-the-battlefield ability.
Q: If I control Ketramose, the New Dawn and activate Hanged Executioner's ability, does Ketramose's ability trigger once or twice?
A: It triggers twice. You exile one card to activate the ability, and later on you exile another card when the ability resolves, so Ketramose's ability sees two separate trigger events.
Q: I control Ketramose, the New Dawn and Currency Converter, I have eight cards in hand, and I'm discarding down to seven cards in my cleanup step. If I choose to exile the discarded card to trigger Ketramose and draw another card, do I get to keep eight cards in my hand?
A: No, that doesn't work. If any state-based actions or triggered abilities happen during a cleanup step, the game starts another cleanup step after the triggered abilities have been dealt with, and this repeats until a "clean" cleanup step without state-based actions or triggered abilities has completed. You could draw an eighth card, but you'll just have to discard down to seven pretty much right away. You could exile that discarded card as well and repeat the cycle, but you'll have to stop the loop at some point because the loop is driven by a choice you make. Also, you'll run out of cards or out of life eventually, so you'll want to stop before that happens.
Q: Can I play the cards that Gonti, Night Minister exiled even after it leaves the battlefield?
A: Absolutely. The permission to play the card is created with a duration of "as long as it remains exiled", so that permission sticks around even if Gonti itself goes away.
Q: Can Saheeli, Radiant Creator's beginning-of-combat ability be paid for twice to make two tokens? I don't think so, but my friends say yes.
A: Your friends are incorrect. Saheeli has a triggered ability that triggers and resolves once at the beginning of combat. When it resolves, it asks its controller if they wish to pay
. This is a yes-or-no question; the option to pay this cost multiple times is not on the table.The trees in my yard looked
like that last week.
like that last week.
A: Just once. The trigger event is "Whenever you attack", so it just triggers on the declaration of attackers as a whole without paying attention to how many creatures are attacking, or who or what they are attacking.
Q: If I use Leonardo da Vinci to make a 0/2 Thopter copy of The Aetherspark, is it still a planeswalker, and can I activate its +1 ability to attach it to a creature?
A: Yes, it'll still be a planeswalker. To be precise, its type line is Legendary Artifact Planeswalker Creature — Equipment Thopter, its power/toughness is 0/2, it has flying and all of The Aetherspark's abilities. You can activate its +1 ability and target a creature, but the "Thopterspark" refuses to attach itself to that creature because a creature can't be attached to anything. The targeted creature still gets a +1/+1 counter, though.
Q: I control Archangel Avacyn that's equipped with Basilisk Collar. When it transforms into Avacyn, the Purifier, does it still have deathtouch from the Collar so that its damage ability becomes a board wipe?
A: Yes. Avacyn doesn't leave the battlefield and re-enter transformed. It remains the same permanent and just turns over to its back face, so anything that's attached to it remains attached to it after it transforms.
Q: I'm in a commander game with three opponents, I control Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator, and I cycle Magmakin Artillerist. Do I get three Treasures because of the damage the Artillerist deals?
A: No. Malcolm's ability only triggers when a Pirate permanent deals damage. When Magmakin Artillerist deals damage due to its cycling trigger, it deals damage as a card in the graveyard, not as a permanent on the battlefield, so this doesn't trigger Malcolm's ability.
Q: Since "this turn" effects end in the cleanup step, does this reset the choices I made for Monument to Endurance during the turn? In other words, if Monument to Endurance already triggered three times this turn, but then I discard down to my hand size in the cleanup step, can I choose a mode again?
A: No, it doesn't work like that. The cleanup step ends continuous effects with a duration of "this turn" and "until end of turn", but Monument to Endurance doesn't have a continuous effect. It simply places restrictions on your choice of mode by asking the game which modes have been chosen already during the same turn, and any mode that has already been chosen is an illegal choice. Discarding a card in your cleanup step triggers the ability, but when it comes to putting the ability on the stack, the game concludes that none of the choices are legal, so the ability is removed from the stack right away, in the same way that a triggered ability is removed from the stack if no legal targets can be chosen for it.
Q: What happens if I hit Mox Tantalite with Amped Raptor's ability? Can I suspend it? Can I cast it?
A: You couldn't suspend it if you wanted to, because the card needs to be in your hand to be suspended, but it's in exile. The good news is that you can simply cast it right away. Mox Tantalite can't be cast for its normal mana cost because that's the unpayable empty cost, but Amped Raptor gives it an alternative cost. This alternative cost is "an amount of
equal to its mana value". Since Mox Tantalite's mana value is 0, that alternative cost is the quite affordable cost of "no energy at all." Artist's impression of my driveway
A: I'm afraid so. First off, for readers that don't know this combo, it starts by sacrificing any creature to activate Makeshift Munitions. This triggers Sadistic Glee, which gives Broodscale a +1/+1 counter, which triggers Broodscale's ability to make an Eldrazi Spawn token. Now they can go back and forth between sacrificing Spawn to make mana and to activate Makeshift Munitions to deal damage as often as they want because the loop keeps making new Eldrazi Spawn.
You'd think that Trespasser's Curse would get in the way by making them lose life each time a Spawn enters, but that ability uses the stack and they can respond to it by sacrificing the Spawn, either to itself or to Makeshift Munitions. The Glee trigger for the +1/+1 counter goes on the stack above the Curse trigger and resolves first, and then the Broodscale trigger to make a new Spawn also goes on the stack above the Curse trigger and resolves first. All those Spawn entering will build up a large number of Curse triggers on the stack, but they don't matter until they resolve, and your opponent can just keep the loop going to make sure that the Curse triggers never resolve. Eventually you'll go down to 0 life and you'll lose the game, and all your Curse triggers vanish into thin air along with your hopes of winning this game.
Q: Is there a name for the kind of ability that Muscle Sliver has?
A: Sure. There are four kinds of abilities: Activated ability, triggered ability, spell ability, and static ability. Activated abilities are written in the form "[cost]:[effect]." Triggered abilities are written in the form "When/Whenever/At [event], [effect]." Spell abilities are found on instants and sorceries and describe what happens when the spell resolves. Anything else is a static ability, and Muscle Sliver's ability finds itself in this catch-all bucket. Some static abilities just exist to be noticed by certain rules, like trample or indestructible, and some static abilities create continuous effects. Muscle Sliver's ability is a static ability that creates a continuous effect.
Q: Does Dreamtide Whale count towards itself if it's the second spell cast?
A: No. Dreamtide Whale's ability only works while it's on the battlefield. While it's being cast, it's on the stack, so it's not on the battlefield yet.
Q: Does Mr. Foxglove's ability get around the "can't cast creature or planeswalker spells" effect of Single Combat?
A: Certainly. Mr. Foxglove allows you to put a creature card from your hand directly onto the battlefield. The process of casting a creature spell is an entirely different process that involves putting a creature spell onto the stack, and the spell may eventually resolve and move from the stack to the battlefield. The process looks similar in reality because players rarely maintain a clear physical separation between the stack and the battlefield, but it is a different process nevertheless.
Q: I control Karmic Justice and a creature that's enchanted with three Auras. If my opponent Murders the creature, does this trigger Karmic Justice three times because of the Auras getting destroyed?
A: No. Murder does not destroy the Auras. It only destroys the creature. Then, state-based actions notice that the Auras are not attached to anything and move the Auras to the graveyard. This is not destruction, and it's not being done by a spell or ability your opponent controls, so that's two reasons why Karmic Justice doesn't trigger.
And that's all the time we have for this week. Thanks for reading, and please come back next week for another selection of Magic rules questions and answers.
- 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.
toolsmax
Regarding the question about Basking Broodscale, I think the broodscale player actually cannot win, and if they perform the loop they will eventually lose. Because the Munitions activations and the curse triggers interlace on the stack, I believe the opponent would end up taking 0-1 damage when the broodscale player is drained to death.
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• Date: 2025-02-24 • Time: 15:54:57 •
