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Published on 06/25/2012

Summertime!

And the livin' is easy

By Eli Shiffrin, Carsten Haese, and James Bennett
This Article from: Carsten Haese

Cranial Translation
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Note: This article is over two years old. Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes. Proceed with caution.

Hello! Welcome back to another episode of Cranial Insertion. Last week marked the summer solstice, which means that it's now officially summer in the northern hemisphere. In addition to rising temperatures and vacations at the beach, this means that the new core set of Magic is nearing its release, which is only a few short weeks away. In the meantime, we still have plenty of questions from our mailbox and twitter feed to talk about. If you'd like us to answer your questions, send them in by clicking the Email Us button, emailing them to moko@cranialinsertion.com , or tweeting them at @CranialTweet. If you're currently at the beach, you could try to submit your question in a bottle, but the other methods are probably more reliable.

Now, let's get comfortable with a cool refreshing drink and dive into this week's selection of questions!

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Q: Suppose I control a Driver of the Dead and a Phantasmal Image that's a copy of that. If I sacrifice the Image to something like Viscera Seer, can I recur the Image arbitrarily often for great justice and profit?

A: Sure, that works. When the Image dies, it did so as a copy of Driver of the Dead, which triggers its death trigger. The Image is in the graveyard when you choose the target for the trigger, and it's now a creature card with converted mana cost 2 or less, so it can be returned to the battlefield where it can become a copy of Driver of the Dead again. Lather, rinse, repeat as needed!

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Q: I control Tamiyo, the Moon Sage with 8 counters. If I activate her -8 ability to make an emblem, does the emblem bring her back to my hand?

A: Sadly, no. After you activate the ability by removing all 8 counters from Tamiyo, state-based actions are checked and see a planeswalker without any loyalty counters on it, so Tamiyo is put into your graveyard. Then, the ability resolves and makes the emblem, but it's too late to save Tamiyo since the emblem wasn't around when Tamiyo went to the graveyard.

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Q: I have a Geist of Saint Traft with a Hyena Umbra on it. If my opponent plays a Geist of Saint Traft of his own, does the Umbra save my Geist from legendary death?

A: Nope. When two or more legendary permanents with the same name are on the battlefield, the legend rule simply puts them into their owners' graveyards. This is not destruction, so totem armor or anything else that messes with destruction is completely powerless here.

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Q: I control Nether Void and a Cavern of Souls naming Zombie. If I cast a Grisly Bear with black mana from the Cavern, do I have to pay the to prevent Nether Void from countering it?

A: You can, but you don't have to. The Cavern mana you spent makes it impossible for your spell to be countered, so if you don't pay for Nether Void's ability, Nether Void will attempt to counter your Zombie spell and fail miserably.

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Q: If I control Cavern of Souls naming Zombie and I use it to cast a Phantasmal Image to copy Gravecrawler, can the Image still be countered?

A: Yup. The Image won't even know what to become until your opponent chooses not to counter it and it resolves. Until then, it is an Illusion spell on the stack, so you'd have to name Illusion for Cavern of Souls if you want to protect it from countermagic.

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Q: I attack my opponent with Soul Seizer and before damage my opponent hits it with a non-morbid Tragic Slip. Does Soul Seizer's ability still go off?

A: Sorry, no such luck. Soul Seizer's power is 0 now, and a creature that would assign 0 or less combat damage doesn't assign damage at all, so Soul Seizer's ability won't trigger.

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Q: My opponent controls two Delvers of Secrets and he is revealing an instant card in his upkeep. Do both Delvers transform at the same time, or can I Thought Scour my opponent in between them in hopes of not getting the second Delver to transform?

A: They don't transform simultaneously. Each Delver has its own trigger, and both players get to act between both triggers. Normally, the second Delver will reveal the same card that the first Delver reveals, but you can certainly alter that by changing the top of your opponent's library with a Thought Scour in between the two triggers.

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Q: My opponent is targeting me with Inquisition of Kozilek. What happens if I use Misdirection to make it target him?

A: Your opponent will be the victim of an unexpected Inquisition! He is now both the target and the controller of Inquisition of Kozilek, so he has to reveal his hand and choose a nonland card with converted mana cost 3 or less from it to discard. The choice and discard is not optional, so if he has a matching card in his hand, he must discard something.

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Q: We're playing a Planechase game on Jund and I cast Ulasht, the Hate Seed, which now has devour 5. If I feed it a bunch of red Goblin tokens, does it get six counters per Goblin?

A: Yes, it does. Ulasht has two replacement effects that modify how it enters the battlefield, and you apply both replacement effects before the modified event happens. In other words, you count how many red creatures you control before Ulasht devours any of them, so any devoured red creatures will contribute a total of six counters each.

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Q: If I use Crown of Empires together with the Scepter and Throne to steal one of my opponent's Thatcher Revolt tokens, do I have to sacrifice the token at the end of the turn? What about an Angel token from Geist of Saint Traft?

A: Thatcher Revolt tells its controller to sacrifice the tokens it made, so it's telling your opponent to sacrifice something that you now control. This is impossible, so nobody sacrifices that token and you get to keep it. The Angel is a different story because that token is exiled, not sacrificed. There is no rule that prevents players from exiling permanents their opponents control — if there were, Path to Exile would be a significantly worse card — so the Angel still goes away at the end of combat.

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Q: If I pay 1 life and sacrifice Marsh Flats to get a Godless Shrine, do I still have to pay 2 life to have the Shrine come in untapped?

A: Yup, you'll have to Shock yourself to get an untapped Shrine. Marsh Flats doesn't say that the land enters the battlefield tapped or untapped, so the land just enters the battlefield how it normally enters the battlefield. For Godless Shrine, normally means tapped unless you pay 2 life.

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Q: If I cast Cabal Ritual with threshold and I have Mirari, can I pay to make a copy of Cabal Ritual, let the copy resolve, pay to make another copy, and so on until I have obscene amounts of mana?

A: No, that doesn't work. Mirari has a triggered ability that triggers exactly once when you cast Cabal Ritual, and when that ability resolves you get exactly one opportunity to pay to get one copy of the spell. If it were an activated ability written as ": Copy target instant or sorcery spell," this would work, but it's not.

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Q: I control two paired Wolfir Silverhearts and Wild Defiance. If I cast Joint Assault on my paired Wolfirs, do both get +3/+3 from Wild Defiance?

A: Nope. Joint Assault will affect two creatures when it resolves, but only one of those creatures is the target of Joint Assault. Only that one creature gets the bonus from Wild Defiance.

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Q: My opponent controls a Vault of Whispers. Will it get bounced to his hand if I cast Devastation Tide?

A: Nope. Devastation Tide only bounces nonland permanents. To be nonland doesn't mean to have a card type other than land; it means not having the card type land. Since Vault of Whispers is a land, it's not a nonland even though it is also an artifact.

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Q: My opponent casts Show and Tell, and he chooses to put Humility onto the battlefield while I choose Indrik Stomphowler. Can I destroy Humility with Stomphowler's ability?

A: There is no ability. Or, to put it less obliquely, no you can't. Indrik Stomphowler and Humility are put onto the battlefield simultaneously, and Humility's effect applies immediately, so Indrik Stomphowler doesn't have its ability for even a nanosecond while being on the battlefield. After Humility and Indrik Stomphowler enter the battlefield, the game checks for any enter-the-battlefield abilities that might have triggered, doesn't see any, and life goes on.

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Q: How does Humility affect creatures with conditional power/toughness bonuses like Wild Nacatl? I know that the creature loses the ability in layer 6 and becomes 1/1 in layer 7b, but does it still get its bonus in layer 7c?

A: No, it'll just be a humble 1/1 kitten. An effect can only apply in its appropriate layer if the ability that creates the effect is still there, or if another part of the same effect already applied in an earlier layer. The ability that creates the effect is taken away in layer 6, so it doesn't exist in layer 7c and there's nothing to apply.

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Q: If I drop a Sudden Disappearance with seven lands and an Avenger of Zendikar, will I be able to produce seven 7/8 Plant tokens at end of turn?

A: You will produce seven tokens, but they'll be 0/1 weaklings instead of 7/8 monsters. Sudden Disappearance only exiles and returns nonland permanents, so you only get the Avenger's own enter-the-battlefield ability, not the landfall ability.

If you do get an Avenger of Zendikar and a bunch of lands onto the battlefield simultaneously, such as with Genesis Wave or Warp World, then you do get monstrous Plants if you stack the triggers correctly. Permanents that enter the battlefield at the same time see each other, so you'll get both the Avenger's enter-the-battlefield ability and a bunch of landfall abilities.

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Q: Let's say I have a Phantasmal Image that's copying some random creature, for example a Squire. Then I cast another Phantasmal Image and copy the other Image. What do I get?

A: Copy effects are copiable by other copy effects, so the new Image copies everything about the first Image, plus another instance of the "sac me when I get targeted" ability. This means that it'll be an illusionary Squire with two instances of that triggered ability, so if you wanted to save it with Stifle from being sacrificed, you'd need two Stifles to get the job done.

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Q: If I use Goryo's Vengeance to bring back Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, is there any way I can stack the end of turn triggers so that I get to draw seven cards?

A: Absolutely! In fact, there is no way to stack the triggers such that you won't get to draw. Jin-Gitaxias' ability triggers at the beginning of your end step, and this ability goes on the stack as an object that's independent from Jin-Gitaxias. Even if you exile Jin-Gitaxias first, the card drawing trigger will still resolve.

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Q: I'm playing a Commander game and my opponent steals my commander with something like Mind Control and starts bashing me with it. Do I get dealt commander damage from my own commander, or do I only have to worry about the 21 from my opponent's commander?

A: In Commander, you lose the game if you're dealt a total of 21 or more combat damage by the same commander over the course of the game. It doesn't matter if that's someone else's commander or your own, so it's a good idea to try to keep yours out of your opponent's hands.

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And that's all the time we have for this week. James will be back again next week to finish the countdown to Eli's big Magic 2013 special. Don't miss it!

- Carsten Haese

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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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