Published on 03/24/2025
Happy Platinum Anniversary!
By Carsten Haese, Nathan Long, and Justin Hovdenes
This Article from: Nathan Long
Cranial Translation
Deutsch
We won't lose with this thing around.
And if you have a question of your own about any card in Magic's past (or upcoming future), feel free to send it in. We'll send you an answer back, and we may use your question in a future article. If you have a short question, reach out to us at @CranialTweet, and if you have a longer question, you can send us an e-mail at moko@cranialinsertion.com .
Q: If I cast Escape Velocity for its escape cost, how many times does Quintorius, Field Historian's ability trigger? - 2024
A: You get a total of two triggers. You get one trigger when you begin announcement of Escape Velocity and move the Velocity from your graveyard to the stack. You get a second trigger when you pay the costs to cast the Velocity and exile two cards from your graveyard. So Quintorius will give you a total of two tokens.
Q: My opponent is trying to cast Fatal Push using the last chapter of Founding the Third Path. We aren't sure if her Fatal Push will have Revolt or not. Will Fatal Push resolve before or after Founding the Third Path is put into the graveyard? - 2023
A: After. When the chapter III trigger resolves, you exile and cast the copy of Fatal Push, but we won't resolve it until after the chapter III trigger is done resolving (and the Saga has gone to the graveyard). Revolt isn't checked until the Push goes to resolve, and since the Saga went to the graveyard after the Push was cast, but before it resolves, it will enable Revolt for the Push and you can destroy a creature with a mana value 4 or less.
Q: I control an Imposter Mech that's currently a copy of Esper Sentinel. If my opponent casts a noncreature spell, how much mana do they have to pay to stop me from drawing a card? - 2022
A: They'll pay zero mana. Noncreature permanents can't have a power or toughness, so if you don't crew the Mech before the Sentinel's trigger resolves, since it has no power, we use 0 instead, and your opponent can pay
to prevent you from drawing a card.Q: My opponent activates Goblin Welder's ability, targeting an artifact they control and an artifact card in their graveyard. Can I use Spellskite's ability to change the first target to Spellskite to make the ability fail? - 2021
A: You cannot. While you can target the ability, the ability has to target an artifact in play and an artifact in that same player's graveyard. Since your opponent is targeting an artifact they control and artifact card in their graveyard, your Spellskite isn't a legal target for the Welder's ability, so you will not be able to use Spellskite to change the target to your Spellskite.
Q: I control Infernal Darkness and Thrull Parasite. On my next upkeep when I put Infernal Darkness's cumulative upkeep trigger on the stack, can I use Thrull Parasite's tap ability to remove the age counter from it and avoid ever paying the cumulative upkeep cost? - 2020
A: You can turn it into an upkeep cost instead of a cumulative upkeep cost, but you can't dodge the cost entirely. When the cumulative upkeep trigger resolves, you add an age counter on Infernal Darkness, then you immediately choose if you want to pay for each age counter or sacrifice it. You don't get the chance to interact in the middle of the trigger resolving. You'll be able to activate Thrull Parasite's ability once the cumulative upkeep trigger is done resolving to remove the age counter, but you still have to pay
and 1 life before you can do that to keep Infernal Darkness around.Q: My opponent's Assassin's Trophy resolves, and I don't want to search for a basic land, but I want to shuffle my library, so I pick up my library, look through it, pretend that there aren't any basic lands left, and shuffle it. A few turns later my opponent notices that there are basic lands left in my library after all and calls a judge. What happens? - 2019
A: Not much. You can always "fail to find" if you're searching your library for a card with a certain characteristic, like a basic land card. You can choose to search if you want the free shuffle, but there's no penalty if you choose not to find a basic land to put onto the battlefield when the Trophy resolves. Even if your opponent discovers that you do have basic lands in your library later on, there's no penalty since you didn't have to find a basic land if you didn't want to at the time.
Q: I ultimate Angrath, Minotaur Pirate—if my opponent's creatures had -1/-1 counters on them, do they still take full damage? - 2018
A: No. Angrath cares about the power of the creatures when they were last on the battlefield, not the power of the creature cards in the graveyard. If your opponent controls a 5/5 that has two -1/-1 counters on it, its power was 3 when it's destroyed, so Angrath will deal 3 damage to its controller, not 5 damage.
Life totals can't change, but the
rules certainly can.
rules certainly can.
Q: I have a Preeminent Captain, a Windbrisk Heights, and another creature in play. If I attack with both creatures and use the Captain to put another Soldier into play, can I activate Windbrisk Heights afterwards? - 2017
A: You can tap it for mana, but you can't activate the hideaway ability. The hideaway ability requires you to declare an attack with three or more creatures - creatures that are put onto the battlefield attacking do not count. The Soldier creature that you put onto the battlefield with the Captain's ability is an attacking creature, but since you didn't declare it as an attacker, it won't enable the hideaway ability of the Heights.
Q: I want to play Kolaghan's Command targeting my Big Game Hunter in my graveyard with the first ability and myself with the second. Can I discard the creature I just returned to my hand and then cast it via madness? - 2016
A: Sure, you can do that. We follow the instructions in the order they're listed on the Command. You return the creature card to your hand first, then the targeted player discards, so you'll be able to return the Hunter to your hand, then discard the Hunter (and trigger its madness ability) to the second part of the Command's effect.
Q: In a Standard tournament, can I name Tarmogoyf with Runed Halo? - 2015
A: Sure! You can name any card you want with Runed Halo. There's no requirement that the card you named has to be legal in the format you're playing, so choose whatever Magic card name you want!
Back in 2015, when this question was originally published, the rules were a little different - you could only name a card that was legal in the format you're playing, but in those intervening years, they removed that restriction for choosing a card name, and now you're free to name whatever card you want.
Q: My opponent attacks with Kaalia of the Vast and puts a creature into play under my control (thanks to an earlier Gather Specimens), should that creature still be attacking me? I'm pretty sure a creature can't be attacking its controller, but MTGO disagrees with me. - 2014
A: No, that creature shouldn't be attacking (and I assume the MTGO bug has been fixed in the last 11 years). If an effect would put a creature attacking but not under the attacking player's control, the creature enters, but isn't an attacking creature at all. Your opponent is free to put a creature onto the battlefield with Kaalia's attack trigger, and that creature will enter under your control instead of their control, but since you're not the attacking player, the creature will not be in combat and won't be an attacking creature.
Q: What happens if I cast Vanish into Memory targeting my Precursor Golem if I have only the two tokens it made as other Golems? - 2013
A: You'll draw a total of nine cards but only end up discarding three cards. You cast Vanish into Memory targeting your original Golem, which means you get two additional copies targeting your 3/3 Golem tokens. When each Vanish into Memory resolves, you exile the targeted Golem and draw three cards, so you end up drawing a total of nine cards.
But during your next upkeep, when the delayed trigger from each Vanish into Memory tries to return each Golem, only the original Precursor Golem returns - the two token copies have long since ceased to exist and will not return to the battlefield. You'll discard three cards when Precursor Golem returns to the battlefield, but not from the other two delayed triggered abilities, so you're still up six cards in this transaction.
Q: Someone told me I could flash in a Briarpack Alpha during the cleanup step and the creature it buffs would get +2/+2 all during the next turn, since the beginning of the end step where the buff would wear off already passed. Is this real? - 2012
A: No, that won't work. The Alpha's effect doesn't wear off during the end step, it wears off during the cleanup step, which is after the end step. And while players could get priority during the cleanup step (after "this turn" and "until end of turn" effects wear off), it's pretty rare - you need a triggered ability to trigger or a state-based action to occur to even get priority to during the cleanup step.
And even if you did get priority during the cleanup step, after that cleanup step, there is a second cleanup step, so if you flashed in the Alpha during the first cleanup step, the bonus would just wear off during the second cleanup step. There's no way to get the bonus to carry over to another turn.
Let's go back to the very beginning of
Cranial Insertion!
Cranial Insertion!
Q: When do Leylines enter the battlefield if they're in my opening hand? If I somehow get an Opalescence onto the battlefield in turn one, can I swing with my Leylines or do they have summoning sickness? - 2011
A: Your Leylines will be able to attack. Before the game begins, after you keep your opening hand but before the starting player begins their first turn, players get a chance to take pregame actions, like putting Leylines onto the battlefield. Since the Leylines start your first turn under your control, if you manage to turn them into creatures on your first turn, they won't be affected by "summoning sickness" and can attack.
Q: The Saviors of Kamigawa Player's Guide says that if you splice Evermind onto a Glacial Ray, the Ray is blue. But I read somewhere else that that's not true. Which is correct? - 2010
A: It is not blue. When Evermind was first printed, it had the line of text "Evermind is blue" on it, and that text would be added onto the Glacial Ray when you spliced its text onto the Ray, and thus Glacial Ray would become blue. But later on, they developed color indicators to indicate the color of a card with no mana cost, and Evermind lost the text "Evermind is blue" and gained a blue color indicator. And that means that when you splice Evermind onto Glacial Ray, it won't make the Ray blue anymore.
Q: If I put Followed Footsteps on a Chameleon Colossus, can I sacrifice the resulting token to Caribou Range? - 2009
A: This seems like a rather inefficient way of gaining life, but yes you can. The activated ability of Caribou Range requires you to sacrifice a Caribou token. The token Chameleon Colossus is all creature types, which includes Caribou, so if you'd rather have 1 life rather than a 4/4 with protection from black, you can sacrifice your Chameleon Colossus token to the Range's activated ability.
Q: If graveyards are empty, and I sacrifice my Tarmogoyf to Miren, the Moaning Well, how much life do I gain? - 2008
A: Unfortunately for you, you'll gain 1 life. Miren cares about the creature's toughness when it was last on the battlefield, not the toughness of the card that's in the graveyard. When Tarmogoyf was last on the battlefield, it was a 0/1, so Miren's ability will give you 1 life, not 2 life based on the 1/2 Tarmogoyf that's now in your graveyard.
Q: If I play Cerebral Vortex before I draw any cards and replace "draw draw" with "dredge dredge", will it still deal me damage? - 2007
A: Nope, you don't take any damage from the Vortex. As long as you have two cards with dredge in your graveyard, you can replace both draws from the Vortex with dredging. When the Vortex checks to see how many cards you've drawn this turn, you haven't actually drawn any cards, so the Vortex won't deal any damage to you.
Q: How do Goblin Warchief and Tin Street Hooligan interact? - 2006
A: Very poorly, if you wanted to destroy an artifact. The discount from the Warchief is not optional, so you can't opt out of it. The Warchief will reduce the cost of the Hooligan to
, which means you're not going to be able to spend green mana to cast the Hooligan and you won't be able to destroy an artifact when it enters.Q: I attack my opponent with my Thief of Hope, but he wants to block with a Samurai of the Pale Curtain. The Thief sure looks like it's flying through the clouds. Can he do that? - 2005
A: Unfortunately for you, that doesn't work. The art of the card is there for flavor, but it doesn't actually influence any abilities of the card itself. While Thief of Hope may look like a creature with flying, it doesn't have flying in its rules text, so your opponent can block it with their Samurai just fine.
And as an extra bit of bad news for you, because the Samurai exiles Thief of Hope instead of letting it go to the graveyard, you won't get the soulshift trigger from the Thief.
I hope you enjoyed a look back at our last 20 years. Let's hope for many more years of Cranial Insertion!
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