MTG Magic The Gathering Ask A Judge - Bored At Lunch Edition

Afternoon, kids! Who's got rules questions?

Massacre Wurm on the battlefield with damnation about to clear from the stack; since all creatures die at the same time does Massacre Wurm's second ability see them and trigger? I imagine it'd work similarly to Blood Artist?

Yes to both. Things that enter or leave the battlefield together "see" each other do so; a Massacre Wurm dying to Damnation will "see" all the other creatures dying, and trigger appropriatley.

How do you feel about Chinese cards

Not a rules question

What is your take on some European store losing WPN status?

Chinese cards, or chinese counterfeits? The cards, you do you booboo. I have a few Russian cards, and I know a friend who exclusively uses German foils. Counterfeits? Not a fan.

It seems fucky. I understand the WPN rules and the logic behind them, but I think in some areas they need to consider not forcing the same rules that work in America on everyone, and try to find a solution that works.

This can probably be found elsewhere, but since you're here...
If I am attacking with a creature and a blocker is declared, if I instant speed give it protection from the blocker's color does the attack go through, or would I have to had given it protection before the blocker was declared?

It's still blocked, and damage won't get to the player.
you'd needed to give it protection before blockers was declared . Once blocked it remains blocked. Your guy won't take damage from the blocking creature though.

Same way that if you give a creature flying after its been blocked by a non-flyer, it will still remain blocked.

Ah, I figured as much, but just wanted to be sure. Thanks!

L1 from Cincy hoping you can give a bit of insight here. I was a floor judge for a GPT and got called by a player in top8 accusing his opponent of cheating, the conversation went something like this.

>Me: why do you think this is cheating?
>AP: all his sideboard cards are non-foil, all his mainboard cards are! They're marked.
>Me: NAP, is this true?
>NAP: Yeah, but but it's only for ease of boarding. They're all double sleeved and you can't differentiate them.

I take 3 foils and 3 non-foils, shuffle them and go 2-for-6 in identifying which is which while face-down. I repeat this and go 3-for-6 with 6 different cards. At this point I'm satisfied that there's no advantage to be gained and rule they play on.

AP appeals my ruling to the head judge, who as soon as he hears the explanation issues a DQ to NAP and amidst his chewing out threatens to DQ me as well, up to the point of asking if I'd been bribed.

Who was right here? Did the head judge overstep, or should I have tossed him first?

Player A swings with a 4/4 .

Player B Deflecting Palm's the 4/4 before damage.

Player A casts Fog in response.

Palm does no damage, right?

Incorrect. When multiple replacement effects try to replace the same thing, the player affected (or the controller of the permanent affected) gets to choose which to apply.

This means player B can choose to use Deflecting Palm's damage prevention instead of Fog's damage prevention. Player A is going to be taking 4 damage.

So if someone deflecting palms your creature you can't fog it, basically.

You can fog it. They just have the option to use deflecting palm to prevent the damage instead of fog. Applying fog's damage prevention is still legal, so if they just go "okay, no damage" then you don't have to correct them.

Well you can try to cast it anyway in case the other guy doesn't know the ruling and doesn't call a judge.

can I just say I hate how some people phrase it like this. It makes it sound like you're cheating or doing something scummy, and it really isn't that bad.

Riding on your opponent's ignorance instead of winning through optimal play is pretty scummy.

You'd need to give it protection first. Making a block illegal POST block does nothing- once your guy gets blocked, he stays blocked.

I'm curious how the HJ planned on DQing you when you weren't a player. Technically, the Head Judge's ruling is final, and with the standard "I wasn't there" clause I'm not gonna dispute it, but you did the right thing in doing a quick check to see if the cards are marked, and his snap DQ is a bit odd.

His BEHAVIOR towards you is also total bullshit, and should be reported to the JCC people. And no, you shouldn't have tossed him first- you actually don't have the power to do that anyway. Only the HJ can DQ.

Fog and Palm are both trying to prevent the same damage event, so the affected player (the guy getting domed in this case) chooses the order to apply them. Since that's Player B, he can choose to apply Palm before Fog and still smack A for 4.

To be fair, superior knowledge of the rules is a skill that we're supposed to encourage and reward. LYING is shitty, but throwing out a legal-but-stupid bluff and hoping your opponent makes a legal-but-stupid misplay isn't scummy.

If I buy someone's card they own while it's on the field mid-game does it come under my control during the upkeep?

I asked for more information on Monday after he'd had sunday to chill. His logic was that marked cards are marked cards, and that my inability to tell whether or not it was foil from holding it was suspicious. As for DQing me, I assumed he would do the same thing a judge does to a spectator who fucks up - add them to the tourney so they can be DQ'd.

I will talk to the JCC though.

No.

So, cards aren't actually MARKED unless you can tell them apart without looking at the face. That's just a regular Warning, and needs to be fixed. Cards that are Marked in such a way that a player could gain an advantage if they noticed the pattern (for example, all their sideboard cards are foil) can have that penalty upgraded to a Game Loss at the HJ's discretion. If the HJ believes that the pattern was done on purpose, that's DQable.

I can understand him being leery of that very obvious pattern, but the pattern has to exist alongside the cards -actually being marked-. If you couldn't tell the foils apart from the nonfoils, then they aren't marked and there's not an inherent problem. A snap DQ because "foils = marked cards" is really ignorant on his part, and even if he made the 'right' ruling, his behavior is inexcusable.

I'm not beholden to tell my opponent how they should play the game. If they don't take advantage of a situation because they haven't studied the rules, then I shouldn't be punished for that.

Be that as it may, what's to keep someone (or a lot of someones) from calling you a scumbag who deserves pitchforks and torches? The borborygmos/pithing needle incident STILL has people calling for Huang's head, saying he should have been DQd for unsportsmanlike conduct.

No. In the sense of the game, a card's "owner" is whoever had it in their deck or command zone when the game began.

>then I shouldn't be punished for that
I never said you should, but it's scummy nonetheless.
>mwahaha I top8'd because my opponent doesn't know fog palm interactions and didn't call a judge

According to the judge, and I quote, "my 3-year old daughter can pick out a foil from a non-foil. If you can't, then you have problems."

Really kind of thankful that I'm moving soon.

Isn't Player A's creature getting affected, though?

So Player A would just choose Fog?

How does torpor orb work vs Arcbound ravager?

Also, if a Viscera Seer sacrifices a Kitchen Finks with Melira/Anifanza on the board, can you respond to the sacrifice with removal on the Seer? Or could he, in response to the removal, declare the sacrifice again?

Ty in advance

Is this tournament legal?

>what's to keep someone (or a lot of someones) from calling you a scumbag
Either "nothing" or "The IPG's section on Unsporting Conduct". If you're more concerned with your general reputation and possible backlash than you are with winning a game, by all means let them know. You're not expected to, but it'd be really nice of you. But I think it's silly to fault someone for making a 100% legal play that is either worthless or super-tech depending on which COMPLETELY LEGAL choice their opponent makes based on their rules knowledge, or lack thereof.

You do you booboo.

So, here's the way a lot of us Judges break things down. There's three kinds of behavior:

The first is Unsporting; things that are covered in the IPG as Unsporting Conduct. Calling your opponent a slur, insulting someone, threatening someone, trying to angle-shoot with illegal shit, etc.

The second is Sporting. This is stuff that's generally considered to be above-and-beyond; letting your opponent take back a play (especially one that might punt the game), conceding a game you feel you shouldn't have won, scooping to a kid at a prerelease so he gets more prizes and has a good experience, etc. All of this is really nice of you, but nobody expects it of you, and nobody will bat an eye if you DON'T do it.

The rest falls under "Not Sporting". It's not UNSPORTING, but it's not Sporting either. It's not illegal, but it might come across as scummy, or make you look like a dick. An example of this would be using legal loopholes to fuck someone over.

Personally I don't think it's scummy. Any 100% legal gambit that can get completely fucked over by your opponent just calling a judge to ask "how does this interaction work?" isn't scummy.

Report to the JCC. Period. That bullshit is not okay.

The event being modified is "damage being dealt to Player B", not "The damage of Player A's creature".

Not a judge, but the wording on ravager is "Enters the battlefield with" and not "When it enters the battlefield" so I assume torpor orb does not instantly kill it.

>Orb
It doesn't. Modular 1 is two abilities; the first is a replacement effect that modifies how Ravager enters the battlefield (and that's not stopped by Orb). The second is a triggered ability that fires when Ravager dies, which is not stopped by Orb.

>Seer
You can. The activated ability uses the stack and can be responded to; you can't aim removal at the Finks, since it's already dead, but you can pop the Seer with the Persist trigger on the stack to bust the combo.

HJ's discretion. I wouldn't allow it.

The thing being replaced is the damage that's being prevented. Since it's about to hit B, he gets to choose.
9/20/2014: If multiple prevention and/or replacement effects are trying to apply to the same damage, the player who would be dealt damage chooses the order in which to apply them. Notably, if noncombat damage would be dealt to you by a source controlled by an opponent, you choose the order in which to apply Deflecting Palm and the planeswalker redirection effect. If you apply Deflecting Palm first, the damage will be prevented (and damage will be dealt to the source’s controller) and the planeswalker redirection effect won’t apply.

Torpor orb will stop modular, and you're likely to have a dead ravager.

Sacrificing a creature is a cost for the effect. You can kill the seer in response but it won't stop the effect. They can also sac seer to itself to blank the kill spell but both of their creatures are still dying.

Judge's discretion. If it is deemed allowed, it is a Plains.

>Torpor orb will stop modular
What?

>Torpor Orb will stop modular
No it won't. The only portion of Modular that's a trigger doesn't involve creatures entering the battlefield, and the only part of Modular that involves a creature entering the battlefield isn't a trigger.

So I swing, he palms, I fog, and he calls a judge, at which point I admit "yeah I know he can have deflecting palm shoot me if he wants, but I wanted to see if he'd miss it"

You're saying that is 100% legal and no penalty should be applied?

Would I be able to copy Archanist's Exiled card with Kraj or would he somehow need his own exiled card?

my bad, guys. I thought "as this enters" abilities were stopped.

Absolutely. Nothing you did was illegal.

"I was hoping my opponent would make a legal misplay based on a flawed understanding of the rules" is not illegal. Would you expect to get in trouble for not correcting your opponent when he muses out loud "Oh no, this Damnation won't kill your guy, it has pro-black..."?

Cheating requires three things: It requires that you do something illegal, knowing that it is illegal, in an attempt to gain an advantage. If what you're doing isn't illegal, it literally cannot be cheating.

Arcanist has a linked ability. Kraj would HAVE the activated ability, but since there's no card associated with Kraj's version of it, the ability isn't good for much.

Nope! The three words that denote a trigger are "When", "Whenever", and "At". "As" is going to be a replacement effect in this context.

Kraj would need his own exiled cards. Elite arcanist has a "linked" ability, meaning its second ability is tied directly to the object his first ability. Copying it won't give you the same result because the copy isn't linked.

Thanks. Nice to know I can pop Viscera, I just assumed he could, in response, poop out a bazillion more triggers.

Wait though wouldn't that mean that all foils are essentially banned from the store then? Unless you literally have 100% of everything foiled.
Like, I have a playset of FNM Serums (same price as normal so I got the shinys), they're double sleeved and as far as I can tell I can't notice it in my deck. But technically I would get banned because it's 4/60 cards that are 'marked'?
What if someone had a single foil of a deck's mainstay? Or a handful of assorted foils? Where do you draw the line??

If my opponent has a permanent that deals damage to me at my upkeep and they forget about the trigger but I don't and say anything do I still take the damage?

>Would you expect to get in trouble for not correcting your opponent when he muses out loud "Oh no, this Damnation won't kill your guy, it has pro-black..."?

Absolutely, unless it's jsut in his hand.

I would think not. Apparently my HJ disagrees, because the cards are marked and you can gain advantage from that.
That said he's also rather skilled with assorted sleight of hand tricks, meaning he may be tilting at windmills.

Nah. If you respond right after he sacs his Finks, then Finks is in the graveyard with the Persist trigger on the stack. He can't keep the combo going 'in response' to your removal because the piece he needs to sacrifice is still dead. Killing Seer will break the combo, because when Finks comes back he has no sac outlet. Killing Melira/Banana will stop the combo, because the Finks comes back with a counter that it keeps, and he can't sac it infinitely. Heck, removing the Finks from the graveyard in response to the trigger stops it too.

As for the foils:

Foils have a tendency to warp. The material the foils are made of is a bit different than the rest of the card, so it can make them warp, especially in areas with high humidity. Just because foils have a higher CHANCE of warping does not mean they are all warped. It's just something to be careful of. If you cannot tell a foil apart from a nonfoil, you're fine; if you're worried, double-check with your HJ beforehand.

Also, getting suspended/banned is not the call of the judge. A judge can DQ you from an event, and then the Investigations Committee decides whether or not to suspend you. You'd ONLY be DQed (assuming a competent judge) if there was a pattern in your marked cards that the judge thought you were intentionally taking advantage of. Having 4x Serum Visions as your only foils would raise my eyebrow and I'd double-check that they're not warped, and if they aren't I would immediately stop caring.

Nope.You are under no obligation to remind your opponent of his own triggers.

I was unclear- I meant that he decides NOT to cast it based on his flawed understanding. In this scenario, you're not silently permitting an illegal gamestate, you're simply not correcting a passive, incorrect assumption.

This has been hotly contested and changed a lot in recent years. I believe the current rule is "if your opponent misses a trigger and you don't want them to have it, you don't have to say anything."

Re:Foils - The Head Judge's contention is that it wasn't warping that marked them in this case, it's that they are significantly heavier than normal cards, making it easier to cut to them and stack them, something that double-sleeving does nothing to alleviate.

>Significantly heavier
Okay, so he's an idiot. Got it.

If I copy a spell with like, a wild ricochet or something similar, do I copy all "extra" things about it? Like if I copied a Tooth and Nail entwined, would the copy be entwined? What about a kicked rite of replication or an overloaded cyclonic rift? There's obviously a lot more but if you copy a spell do you copy the spell exactly? (Unless it targets obviously because you can usually select new targets)

"Choices made when casting a spell" are copiable things about about a spell. A copy of an overloaded spell is overloaded, a copy of an entwined spell is entwined, etc. Basically take the spell they cast as it exists right now, and CTRL+C CTRL+V.

Copies retain all choices made on the original copy. If the original was kicked or entwined, so is the copy.

With overloaded cyclonic rift, the original one will still sweep away everything its controller (not you) doesn't control - though your copy will wipe those off.

Does the reason I always get paired down have anything to do with my last name?

Doubtful. The person who gets paired down is the one with the worst tiebreakers among all players with that point total. (or chosen at random among players who are tied for worst breakers)
However, that means once you get paired down, you're playing against worse opponents than everyone else at your point total and your tiebreakers will continue to suffer, meaning you'll continue to be paired down every round until you you either lose a match, or the pairings work out evenly.

Interesting, so if I had cards that I want to say are the highlights of my deck and c only get foils of specifics, it can be argued I'm cheating because my entire deck is not foil?

I just can't find a relevant thread on this topic we just had at the LGS.

Situation: Multiplayer Commander.
Gitrog player has Gitrog Monster in play, Darkmoor Salvage in hand and enchants Monster with Oblivion Crown.

The basic combo for anyone interested:
>discard Darkmoor to Oblivion Crown
>Gitrog triggers a draw because Darkmoor goes to the yard
>dredge 2 instead of drawing
>Darkmoor returns to hand
>for every land that is dredged another card draw
>he can discard Darkmoor

so, this is the basic setup
now he just wanted to demonstrate the following: with one Lotus Petal in the deck and one Kozilek he said he could make infinite mana

I intervened and explained, that this was the same problem as with Four Horsemen

while it is true, that he could infinitely dredge through his deck until he hit Kozilek over and over again, he could not predict to hit Lotus Petal with a draw every iteration before he hit Kozilek
same goes for his win con ofc

a judge (not sure) who was participating in draft said that he wasn't familiar with the FH rulings, but for him the problem was basically, that the Gitrog player wanted to shortcut something that included an if-statement, like "I do X for n (while n is unknown) until state Y is reached. If Y is reached I do Z.

I know the whole thing is kinda confusing. In the end he had to go through his deck manually twice to hit a Skirge Familiar he could actually cast - generating a ton of mana and then cast an Exsanguinate he had in hand.

tl;dr: Gitrog+DarkmoorSalvage+Kozilek has no legal shortcut to "I draw my deck" or "I get card X." or "I get card X n times."?

If i sacrifice Carrier Thrall to Pious Evangel, do i gain the life from the Scion entering, or is Pious flipped before the scion entered the battlefield?

If someone casts Reiterate on a Time Warp, the guy who cast Time Warp has the extra turn first, right?

The most recently created turn will be taken first.

If I cast a cmc=3 spell like Putrefy with Maelstrom Nexus on the battlefield and reveal Supply // Demand, do I keep revealing? Do I cast Supply for 0? Can I choose to cast Demand?

It could be ARGUED that you're cheating, just like it could be ARGUED that the moon is made of cheese, or that I'm capable of winning a game of Magic. It doesn't make that statement true.

You're only cheating if you knowingly break a rule to gain advantage. Am I going to be a little suspicious if I see the only foils in your deck are the all-star finishers? Yes, I am. That doesn't mean you're a cheater, it means I'm going to carefully inspect them to see if they're marked. If they are, you and I will have a conversation that will end with a DQ or with me asking you to find replacements. If they aren't, I will give your deck back and proceed to not remotely care about it because you've done nothing wrong.

There's no legal shortcut for the Kozilek thing because he can't tell you how many iterations it will take to get to that point. That said, since it's a casual game, I'm 100% fine with him doing that if the table is fine with it. In a tournament, absolutely not, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. At a casual table? Go with the table. If everyone's fine, so am I. If they say "Haha no", then haha no.

The "transform me!" ability goes on the stack, and then the "get a baby" trigger goes on the stack above that. You'll get the baby and gain 1, THEN flip Evangel.

Correct. The Reiterate-made copy will resolve and create an extra turn after this one, and then the original Time Warp will resolve and make a new turn. You always do extra turns and steps in the order of "newest first".

You stop, because Supply // Demand has a CMC of "two and three", which is less than three. You can either cast Supply for 0, or cast Demand.

Yixlid Jailer doesn't remove CDA like Devoid or Lhurgoyfs ability, right?

CAN Butcher Orgg deal combat damage to its controller when it is blocking? I have been saying this bit of trivia for a while, but with Arcum's Sleigh showing me that Defending Player isn't always the person being attacked, I wanted to make sure.

You tell me; is a "Characteristic Defining Ability" an ability?

(Non-Socratic answer: it does remove them)

Unless there's some goofy exception I can't think of, yes. While being attacked, you are the defending player.

Stone-Tongue Basilisk effects no longer combo as well with Lure due to the waterfall-method of assigning damage? As in, they don't work like Deathtouch where you can assign one damage to each blocker?

Right. Since Stone-Tongue has a trigger instead of Deathtouch, you'll have to assign lethal damage to a blocker before you can move on to the next one. The game can't look far enough ahead to tell that just 1 damage from the Basilisk will end up killing that blocker.

So, if by some ridiculous reason I was run in Selfless Exorcist and Yixlid was on the field, his reminder text would suddenly be accurate again?

Cool. Butcher Orgg da beesssst.

Anyway, if someone cast something like Comet Storm targeting me and my buddy for X=4 and I have a Battletide Alchemist and no other clerics, what is the max possible amount of damage I can prevent?

What if it was a Comet Storm targeting my Level 1 Hedron Field Purists and myself for X=2? How much then?

Just to make sure I'm clear on this, that means you can't play a card in response to someone declaring a blocker? Or are you talking about giving it protection after the declare blockers step?

Noob here.
Can you have 4 of one legendary in your deck?
Example: I have a reanimator deck with 4x Griselbrand, and some other creatures

I'm a bit confused on that part due to Hearthstone, and not finding clear answers to it on google.

>Can you have 4 of one legendary in your deck?
Yes.

yeah, but you can only have one on your side of the battlefield at a time, if another were to enter play on your side you'd have to choose to sacrifice one.

I control Sedris, and have unearthed a creature with his ability. I also control a conjurer's closet. I stack the triggers such that closet will exile and then return the creature to the battlefield before the unearth exile trigger resolves. As I understand it I get to keep the creature, but I'm having trouble understanding why unearth doesn't replace the exile from Closet, due to the exile if it leaves play clause.

How does Pitchstone Wall interact with madness?

This also applies if you control a more than one copy of a legendary card at any point, like say if you cloned one or if your opponent did and then donated it to you for some reason. It only cares about your side of the battlefield though so you and your opponent can both have Griselbrand in play and it would be perfectly fine.

this is probably a simple layers question, but i might as well ask. are effects like those printed on ethersworn cannonist retroactive? say i cast preordain, then cast cannonist. can i cast ponder afterwards? Would the answer be any different if it were a rule of law style effect instead?

You can't activate stuff during cleanup, can you? I thought I had seen people activate Thawing Glaciers twice before it bounced itself, but now I can't figure out how they did it.

Thank you.

What color is the elemental this faggot produces? Gatherer says nothing.

Unearth says "when leaves play or EoT, exile me". Closet exiles it, so Unearth says "HEY I SAID EX-oh you're already there, okay" and doesn't bother any more.

No differently than anything else - the card ends up in your graveyard, so when pitchstone wall gets around to resolving, it can find the card just fine.

They do look back to see if you've met your quota, yes. Rule of law effects work the same.

Normally you don't get priority during cleanup step. But if something triggers during the cleanup step, THEN both players get priority because something got forced on the stack and you need to be allowed to respond to it. After that there's another cleanup step, and another until a cleanup step happens with nothing going on.

red/green

Colorless, unless the land was given a color by another effect.

Nope. Since there's no effect that sets a color, the land elemental retains its current color - meaning unless it's dryad arbor, it's a colorless creature.

Fairly certain it will be colorless

Can you Word of Command someone to cast a spell like Bone Splinters, i.e. Additional cost, not alternate, if they can play it?

If you make them cast a bolt targeting you, do you draw a card if you have an untapped Farsight Mask?

Should gatherer recognize the elemental as colorless? I think it's just too unclear to be set like that. Anyway, thanks for your answer.

If you word of command someone to play bone splinters, they need to have a creature to sac. You get to pick which of their creatures gets sacrificed.

Even though you're controlling them, they control the bolt. You will draw a card off farsight mask.

Nope. The game doesn't make the land colorless. It just doesn't set a color when animating the land, so it keeps the colors it had - that is to say, none, barring external factors.

But if something triggers during untap, you don't get priority until upkeep, right?

What about the Selfless Exorcist? I wasn't joking, genuinely curious. I'm still confused about the Jailer, given this ruling:

5/1/2007: If Mistform Ultimus is in the graveyard, the Ultimus will lose its ability that says "Mistform Ultimus is every creature type," but it will still *be* all creature types. The way continuous effects work, Mistform Ultimus's type-changing ability is applied before Yixlid Jailer's ability removes it.

Wouldn't other CDAs work the same way?

And as for Pitchstone, I am confused. Didn't you discard it into exile? What if you cast it? Permanent or nonpermanent.

Re - priority: Correct, no one can EVER get priority in untap. If something would trigger, it waits until upkeep. in cleanup, no one gets priority UNLESS something triggers - because if it didn't, it wouldn't go on the stack until the next turn's upkeep, and that's fucked up.

Re: Pitchstone - You discard it into exile, yes, but if it's an instant or sorcery it goes to the graveyard at the end of its resolution. If you choose not to cast a madness card, it goes into the graveyard. In both of those cases pitchstone wall will find it.

Obviously if you cast the madness card and it's a permanent, it won't be in the graveyard for pitchstone wall to find.

...And now I'm wondering what would happen if the madness spell gets countered. It still was discarded and still is in the graveyard, can pitchstone wall pick it up?

If I cast Minds Aglow for 1000 does the person with the fewest cards die first?

Similarly can you cast something after you drawn it but before the spell that made you draw it has finished resolving?

You can't do anything in the middle of a spell's resolution. If you cast minds aglow for 1000, everyone will try their damnedest to draw 1000 cards, all run out, and everyone will lose at the same time (unless someone has lab maniac in play)

I would not have guessed that. What if the Madness card got countered and put into the graveyard then? Is it just "card is discarded and ends up in a graveyard before this triggered ability resolves"? What if it is a creature but it is destroyed before Pitchstone's ability resolves?

Oh and a ruling on Gem Palm Incinerator says that the triggered ability can't target creatures with Protection from Crearures. Does this mean that a Beloved Chaplain can't be exiled by Ulamog, seeing as that also is a triggered ability from a creature card? I thought when a card referred to Crearures, it had to be on the battlefield.

protection from creatures means protection from creatures, creature cards, and creature spells - regardless of if they're in play, in hand, in the graveyard, or on the stack. Something with pro-creatures not a legal target for ulamog (either one).

I am fairly sure that if the discarded card hits play, it's a new object so that won't work. But the game does track some cards in some situations between zones, I'm asking people with much more experience on these matters than I about it.

Things that need Errata
>Grafdiggers works on Exile (Living End)
>Rain of Gore works on Lifelink
>Torpor Orb works on Modular

Am i wrong or am i wrong

People are fallible. They make mistakes. If you spent half as much time working to fix the mistakes as you do harping on them, they'd be a hell of a lot more rare.

If Gideon (any of them), turns into a creature that is still a planeswalker (as he does) would activating Ajani Steadfast's second ability put two counters on him?

yes, he will get a +1/+1 counter, and a loyalty counter. You will need to track these separately.

If someone gains control of my Sarpazzan Heir before its triggered ability resolves, it'll obviously be removed from combat. But does anyone get to draw the cards? Do I still control the triggered ability?

You still get to draw 3 if you want.

If I cast Bring to Light for 5, can I grab Flesh // Blood? What about Beck // Call? Can I cast either half?

you can grab either, and cast either half. When it asks "is your CMC 5 or less" it doesn't need to hear yes from both sides, only one. Once it does and says "okay, you can cast it" the game no longer cares.

Note that since you're not casting them from your hand, you can't fuse it.