Published on 03/17/2025
A Very Green Day
By Carsten Haese, Nathan Long, and Justin Hovdenes
This Article from: Carsten Haese
Cranial Translation
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I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
The only one that I have ever known
As always, if you have questions for us, you can email them to us at moko@cranialinsertion.com , or tweet short questions to our X account @CranialTweet. One of our authors will reply to you, and your question might appear in a future article.
Q: Let's say I control Hardened Scales and I cast Bounty of the Hunt, assigning one counter to each of three target creatures. Because of Hardened Scales, this will result in two counters being put onto each target. Do I have to remove all six counters or just one counter per creature at the beginning of the cleanup step?
A: I'm afraid you'll have to remove all six counters. Bounty of the Hunt tracks how many counters each creature received "this way", which means how many counters it received due to following the instructions of Bounty of the Hunt as modified by any applicable replacement effects. Since each target creature received two counters this way, you'll have to remove two counters from each of them.
Q: If I control Spelunking and Titania, Gaea Incarnate enters, do the lands return from the graveyard tapped or untapped?
A: The lands will enter untapped unless the land itself has a replacement effect that says it enters tapped, in which case you get a choice between tapped and untapped. Titania's effect instructing you to return the lands to the battlefield tapped is not a replacement effect, it's just the effect of what the ability does. If the land doesn't have a replacement effect itself, then Spelunking's effect is the only replacement effect involved, and it replaces Titania's "tapped" with "untapped". If the land has a replacement effect along the lines of "this land enters tapped", then you choose the order in which to apply the land's replacement effect and Spelunking's effect, which results in a choice between tapped and untapped.
Q: If I control Ashaya, Soul of the Wild, can I put creatures onto the battlefield with Cultivator Colossus's ability because they're also lands?
A: No, that doesn't work. Ashaya's ability only affects nontoken creatures that are on the battlefield. It does not affect the creature cards that are in your hand.
Q: I control a Plaxcaster Frogling that still has a +1/+1 counter left on it and my opponent tries to Murder it. If I activate the Frogling's ability to give it shroud, does that make Murder fizzle?
A: Absolutely. Plaxcaster Frogling can target itself with its ability, and the ability resolves first, giving the Frogling shroud. When Murder tries to resolve, it finds that its only target has become an illegal target, so it doesn't resolve and just goes to the graveyard.
Q: If I use Biophagus's mana to cast Nylea, God of the Hunt but I don't have enough devotion to green for Nylea to be a creature, does it still get the +1/+1 counter?
A: Yup! Since Nylea is by default a creature and the ability that turns off its creature-ness only functions on the battlefield, you are in fact using Biophagus's mana to cast a creature spell, so Nylea gets the replacement effect "enters with an additional +1/+1 counter" stapled onto it. There is nothing stopping a noncreature permanent from entering with a +1/+1 counter, and there is no reason for a +1/+1 counter to fall off from a noncreature permanent. The counter will be placed on Nylea and stays there, it just won't have any effect until Nylea is a creature.
Q: If Displaced Dinosaurs makes a planeswalker creature and that planeswalker creature gets attacked, can it block the attacker?
A: Sure, that's perfectly legal and probably beneficial even though it does not change the type or amount of harm that's coming to the planeswalker. Whether you block the attacker or not, it will deal its combat damage to the planeswalker creature, and in either case this will cause the planeswalker creature to lose loyalty counters (because it's a planeswalker) and to have damage marked on it (because it's a creature). However, as a blocking creature the planeswalker creature gets to deal combat damage back to the attacker, and as a 7/7 Dinosaur it deals a pretty significant amount of damage.
Hear the dogs howling out of key
To a hymn called "Faith and Misery"
To a hymn called "Faith and Misery"
A: It does very little. One might think that a player on the team with the greater life total would gain control of the Dogs, but that's not how this works. The ability checks before it even goes on the stack whether an individual player has more life than each other individual player. When an effect in Two-Headed Giant asks for a player's life total, the answer is that player's team's shared life total, so it will always get the same number for the two players on the same team. This means that the condition the ability looks for can never be true in Two-Headed Giant, so the ability never goes on the stack.
Q: What are the card types that Winter, Cynical Opportunist looks for?
A: The term "card type" refers to the "main" card type of a card, which includes things like artifact, creature, land, and so on. On the type line there may be a supertype such as legendary or basic in front of the card type; those are not card types, so Winter isn't interested in those. After the dash you'll find subtypes such as Elf, Forest, or Equipment. Those aren't card types either, so Winter isn't interested in those, either.
Q: Can Winter, Cynical Opportunist's ability put a battle's back face onto the battlefield? For example, can I put Invasion of Ikoria onto the battelfield as Zilortha, Apex of Ikoria?
A: No. When an effect puts a double-faced card onto the battlefield without specifying a face, it is put onto the battlefield with its front face up.
Q: Does Garruk's Packleader see itself entering?
A: A little bit yes, but mostly no. Every creature sees itself entering the battlefield, since enters abilities are checked after the event, when the creature is on the battlefield. However, Garruk's Packleader's ability only triggers whenever another creature with power 3 or greater enters, so it doesn't trigger its own enters ability.
Q: I'm in a game of Commander, my Ms. Bumbleflower's ability has triggered, but all my opponents have hexproof. Can I still give a creature a +1/+1 counter and flying?
A: No. In order to put Ms. Bumbleflower's ability on the stack, you have to choose legal targets for each required target. The ability needs a target opponent and a target creature, and since you can't legally target an opponent, the ability is immediately removed from the stack.
Q: I am casting Reborn Hope off of a Counterpoint that targeted a spell with mana value 2 or greater. Can Reborn Hope bring back this Counterpoint?
A: No. You have to choose the target for Reborn Hope at the moment you cast it, and you're casting Reborn Hope while Counterpoint is resolving. At that moment, Counterpoint is on the stack, not in the graveyard, so you can't target it with Reborn Hope.
I pledge allegiance to the underworld
A: Absolutely. The hybrid mana symbol has both of its colors, which means that the permanent is both of those colors. Deathrite Shaman is both black and green, and Judge's Familiar is both white and blue, so they each count towards Niv-Mizzet's X.
Q: If I copy Wildwood Scourge with X=5, does the copy also enter with five counters?
A: That depends on how you copy it. If you make a token copy of a Wildwood Scourge that's already on the battlefield, for example with Spitting Image, then no. The copy's X is 0, so it enters as a sad 0/0 without any +1/+1 counters on it. However, if Wildwood Scourge is a spell on the stack and you're copying it with Magus Lucea Kane's ability, then the copied spell has the same X as the original, and the resulting token will enter with the same number of counters.
Q: If Maze of Ith gets an everything counter from Omo, Queen of Vesuva, can I tap it for green mana?
A: Sure, as long as Omo sticks around. Omo's ability gives Maze of Ith every land type from Cave to Urza's and everything in between, including Forest. As a consequence of becoming a Forest, Maze of Ith gains the intrinsic ability to produce green mana.
Q: Does Choking Vines do anything against an attacker with trample such as Giant Warthog?
A: Not really. While the Warthog becomes blocked due to Choking Vines, there is no creature there that's blocking it when combat damage is assigned. As we've seen last week, this means that all its damage gets assigned to the thing it's attacking, which is exactly what would have happened if you hadn't cast Choking Vines.
Q: Is putting Bigger on the Inside on Pili-Pala as ridiculous as I think it is?
A: If you think that this gives you an arbitrary amount of mana and cascade triggers, you're exactly right! Because of Bigger on the Inside, you can tap Pili-Pala to create two mana and to give your next spell cascade. You can use those two mana to untap Pili-Pala for its own ability to make one mana, and now you're back to the same game state where you started except for an extra mana and an extra cascade ability on your next spell. Lather, rinse, repeat as needed.
Q: Does Insidious Roots's ability get triggered by Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth returning from the graveyard transformed? Or by Mosswood Dreadknight being cast from my graveyard as an adventure? Or by Enduring Vitality returning as an enchantment?
A: The answer is yes for all three scenarios. In each one, you have a creature card leaving your graveyard, and that's all that Insidious Roots cares about. It doesn't matter what zone the creature card goes to or whether it's still a creature by the time it gets there.
And that's all the time we have for today. Thanks for reading, I hope you have a safe and happy Saint Patrick's Day, and please come back next week for 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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