MTG Magic The Gathering Ask A Judge - Long Live The Thread Edition

I am- have been for a little over a year now.

Grats, dude.
So, can I use this information to try to find your real name on JudgeApps?

Better men than you have tried and succeeded, I've never really tried that hard to keep my identity secret

If my opponent plays Sculpting Steel to copy a duplicant does the copy of the duplicant get to use duplicant's ability?

Yep! Sculpting Steel has a replacement effect that modifies the way it enters the battlefield. As it enters, you choose something for it to copy, and it enters AS that thing- like you'd just played that card, pretty much.

So your Steel enters the board AS a Duplicant, and triggers appropriately, eating whatever creature you'd like it to eat.

If I use a disciple of Bolas and sacrifice a Mindslicer do I draw my cards before or after I have to discard my hand?

You sac nd draw as one effect, then the discard trigger resolves.

You'll sacrifice the Mindslicer as part of resolving Disciple's trigger. That'll trigger Mindslicer, but the trigger can't go onto the stack while an ability is resolving, so it just waits.

You finish resolving Bolas' trigger by gaining 4 life and drawing 4, cards, THEN the Mindslicer's trigger goes on the stack. When said trigger resolves, you'll discard your hand.

tl;dr discard after you draw.

fug, there goes that idea

Will doubling season work for doubling planswalker tokens when you play one?

It will. Planeswalkers are treated as having an ability of "This permanent enters the battlefield with a number of loyalty counters on it equal to its printed loyalty number". That's a replacement EFFECT that changes the way it enters the battlefield, and since it's an effect putting counters on your shit, Doubling Season doubles it.

It won't work for activating their Loyalty abilities, because adding the counters is a COST there, not part of the effect.

Nasty stuff. Thanks!

can you upload a vocaroo of you spelling Scherzo Magico?

this is why Doubling Season will never be reprinted in Standard legal set

You so do not want to hear me talk.

Indeed.

Or it'll just be a 'fixed' version that only fucks with +1/+1 counters.

I want to hear you talk.

Meh. My group uses whatever. No limits. Stupid ass decks.

Good old Kitchen Table Magic.

Just imagine I sound like Gilbert Gottfried, or Ricardo Montalban.

Please?

gA no questions, gettin gud or something

thanks for doing these, and thanks for that one thread where you posted judge elesh norn or something and turned on your trip after someone asked you if you were a judge

First, you're very welcome. I love doing these threads, and they help keep me sharp and keep the fire going during the lulls where I have no events to do.

Second, that was fun. Was that the time that I put my trip on and people blew up with reaction images? I recall doing that once or twice before.

How does Urborg work?

Are all lands now only swamps?

Can they be tapped for two mana?

>Each land is a Swamp in addition to its other land types.
>in addition

They are now themselves + swamp, can tap for black mana and have all their old abilities.

It won't add "add B to your mana pool" to their abilities so no, it won't make two mana if it used to make one.

>How does Urborg work?
It can be tapped for black mana, or to make target creature lose First Strike or Swampwalk until end of turn.

As for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, it tacks on the subtype "SWAMP" onto all your lands (and the inherent ability to tap for black mana that comes with it) without fucking up what they can already do.

They can do the same stuff as before, retain existing types (a Cloudpost is now a Land - Locus Swamp, a Tundra is now a Land - Plains Island Swamp, a Maze of Ith can still fuck with attackers), they just now are ALSO swamps.

You can't tap them for 2 mana, because what it's doing is just giving them a new ability to tap for B. It doesn't merge with existing abilities. For example, a Forest with UTOY out would have two activated abilities: one that's "T: Add G to your mana pool" and one that's "T: Add B to your mana pool". You can activate either one, but you can only activate one at a time.

>Each land is a Swamp in addition to their other types

>Are all lands now only swamps
in addition to their other types

>can they be tapped for two mana
can a scrubland be tapped for 2 mana because it's a plains and a swamp?

if i have my glistener elf delcared a blocker by say a tarmogoyf, and i cast a protection spell giving it pro green before damage, because protection means it cant be blocked by that color, does it become un-blocked?

No. Blocking legality is only checked when blockers are declared. If something gains evasion afterwards, nothing changes in regards to the block.

Nope. A blocked creature stays blocked for the whole of combat, even if everything blocking it leaves the board or it gains evasion after the fact.

Various forms of evasion only render it illegal to DECLARE certain blockers- once you're past that point, it's moot. Your Elf won't take damage, but it is still blocked. You'd have to throw out protection prior to the attack if you want to make it effectively unblockable.

Well, time to leave the office- I'm gonna stop by the supermarket on my way home, so I should be ready to answer questions again in an hour, tops!

thanks. i hate protection and i never fully understand it. probably the only thing i dont understand..

A couple of questions here. So I have a Forced Fruition in play and my opponent with 6 cards left in his library plays a Krosan Grip to try and destroy it.

Would Split Second make Forced Fruition's ability not activate?

If it does still activate, would that opponent lose before the spell resolves?

>Would Split Second make Forced Fruition's ability not activate?
No. Split second says you can't cast spells or activate abilities, but triggered abilities still trigger and replacement effects still replace.

>If it does still activate, would that opponent lose before the spell resolves?
Yes. The triggered ability would go on the stack above Krosan Grip and thus resolve first.

How many times do I have to play with Skulk until it becomes intuitive?

It's always inuitive:

>does your creature have less power than the creature blocking it?
If the answer is no, it's a regular block.

If the answer is yes, it can't be blocked by that creature.

If your opponent chooses a creature that can't block a creature with skulk to block it, that's an invalid play. You can let him re-play it, call a judge, or tell him to cut that shit out.

I mean, I get it, but I'm tired of always having to go over it in my head during combat. It just doesn't stick with me.

Protection from something means that the object in question can't be

Damaged
Enchanted/Equipped/Fortified
Blocked
Targeted

By anything it has protection from. DEBT. That is the full list of things protection stops.

Forced Fruition's ability never activates, because it doesn't have an activated ability. It has a TRIGGERED ability, and Split Second doesn't stop those. Your opponent would cast Grip, the trigger would fire, he'd draw 7 and die, and his Grip would be removed from the game with him (if it were a multiplayer game)

It feels intuitive enough to me. If you have more power than me, you can't block me.

You're "skulking" past the big scary guards. Things that skulk are small and shifty.

lets say i have a 3/3 pro black and red. anger of the gods doesnt kill it, but languish will still, correct?

Correct. Anger is trying to Damage it, which is stopped by Protection.

Languish is not doing anything protection stops- it isn't damaging, enchanting, equipping, fortifying, blocking, or targeting, so it doesn't get stopped.

Hi there I have been out of the game since Lorwyn block and apparently missed out on some stuff. I am looking to get back into limited (constructed is too expensive) and have some questions because it seems like I am out of the loop.

What happened to damage on the stack? I remember sacrificing Mogg Fanatics and Sakura-Tribe Elders with damage on the stack but I guess this isn't a thing now. How does combat work? When is damage assigned?

Can you please explain the colorless mana thing? Is the new colorless mana symbol basically another basic land type?

Has anything else in the rules drastically changed? I don't mean new one-off mechanics like bushido or scry, but game-changing rules like the damage on the stack thing.

Is magic still fun? Is drafting fun? Has Magic Online gotten any better to play?

What happened to the Magic books? I think I read every one from Brother's War up to Kamigawa and though they were really kitchsy they were fun. Were they just not selling enough copies?

Thanks for any help

>Damage on the stack
Removed in the summer of 2009. It didn't make much sense, and it was a real feel-bad for new players that felt like the more experienced ones were basically cheating. Damage is now assigned and dealt all at once in the Damage step- you can have your STE do damage, or you can feed it to your graveyard for a land, but not both.

>Colorless mana
So, we used to use numbers in grey circles to denote colorless mana (which is mana you can MAKE- from things like Sol Ring, or tapping a Bant Panorama) and generic mana COSTS (which are only ever in costs- the {1} for Tarmogoyf, for example). Generic mana could be paid with any kind of mana, and Colorless could only pay for Generic.

Now we have a symbol for colorless mana (so Sol Ring no longer taps for {2}, it taps for {C}{C}), and a small handful of cards that specifically require colorless mana as part of it. There's also a new basic land named "Wastes" which taps for colorless, but it has no subtype- there's still only 5 basic land subtypes, same as always.

>Rules change
Legend rule and Planeswalker rule is the big one. It now only looks at one player's side of the board (IE, we can both have a Legend of the same name), and if there's ever 2 or more under one player's control at once, they pick one and ditch the rest, rather than all of them dying.

Also, lifelink and deathtouch aren't triggers anymore, and lifelink doesn't stack.

>Fun
I still like it. I've been playing pretty much nonstop since 2003, and I think that Magic as a game is in probably the best position it's been in for a decade.

>Drafting
Depends on the format. There have been some "meh" Limited formats in the time since you left, and some amazing ones. People generally consider the original Innistrad set to be the single most perfect Draft environment ever created.

>Magic Online
No, it's still a dumpster fire.

>Books
Phased out after Lorwyn. They switched to comics for a bit, and now to stories on the WotCahS website.

>Is magic still fun? Is drafting fun?
Boy is it ever. Drafting is what Magic does best nowadays.

>Has Magic Online gotten any better to play?
Still a trainwreck.

>What happened to the Magic books? I think I read every one from Brother's War up to Kamigawa and though they were really kitchsy they were fun. Were they just not selling enough copies?
Not enough copies sold. They now have a weekly "Magic Story" column on the main site, which are basically a replacement of the books, in a serialized short story form.

>People generally consider the original Innistrad set to be the single most perfect Draft environment ever created
But since that's not Khans of Tarkir, they are unfortunately wrong.

Thanks, very informative. The legend rule change seems silly but I'm excited that draft is still fun.

Pandering to new players aside, they thought it would increase strategic depth. With damage on the stack you could trade and get sac benefit - that was always the correct line of play. Now you have to choose whichever is better atm. And they wanted to print better sac effects or something. Just wanted to say that bc it makes more sense to me, not wanting to be a smartass or anything.

Also a question. I was playing mtgo and had words of worship, solitary confinement, angellic accord and bottled cloister. I think I may fucked up my triggers but its possible to discard a card from cloister to confinement and replace regular draw for lifegain and an angel? Thanks in advance.

Mainly they weren't liking how people could use clones (or their own Legends in mirror matches) as Vindicates.

Nah, that's also correct.

>Your question
Sure. Put the Confinement trigger on the stack first, then Cloister. Cloister's trigger resolves and gives you back your stuff, plus a draw. You can pay 1 to feed that draw to Words of Worship, gaining 5 life instead. Then, discard from the cards you DO have for Confinement, and at the end of the turn you get an Angel.

What are the dumbest things you can be dq'd for?

"Wanna roll a dice to see who wins?"

Most of the DQs are pretty clear-cut, but they have to be really harsh on improperly determining a winner.

So, since cascade says "you may cast" can I just search my entire library for a specific card that I want to cast, assuming the cascade still works?

Example:
>Cast Malestrom Wanderer
>start exiling cards
>some 1cmc vanilla creature pops up
Do I have to play the 1cmc creature, or can I choose to continue exiling, or if I choose not to cast the creature, does that mean the cascade does nothing but exile my own things?

You stop when you get to a card with a low enough CMC. You can cast that card. If you don't, you put it (and the rest of the things you exiled) on the bottom of your library.

sup g
I'm doing a seminar on Hidden Card Error in a few days. Do you have any spicy examples of new policy in action I can impress the crowd with? Practical or corner-casey, whichever.

You could always do HCE and The Card That Doesn't Exist.

Cool, that makes sense. Thanks!

Now, assuming I have an instant that draws a card, can I play it as an interrupt on top of the cascade to prevent it, or does cascade resolve independently of the stack?

>as an interrupt
>resolve independently of the stack
It seems like you have a very flawed understanding of how the stack works.

The stack does not resolve. The stack is a zone where spells and abilities are put, and wait to resolve one by one. The only things that can resolve without involving the stack are mana abilities- those just instantly resolve without ever going on the stack.

Cascade is a trigger that goes on the stack above the spell with Cascade. You can cast an instant in response to your Cascade trigger, but this will not "prevent" your trigger- the instant will resolve, then your Cascade trigger, then your spell.

Oh, I understand.

Cascade is a trigger, which means as soon as I'm in the process of exiling cards, that assumes people have stopped putting things on the stack, right? So as a result, I can draw a card before or after cascade does its thing, but not while it's doing its thing.

That really doesn't seem fair to them.

Maybe if I was in a trolling mood.

Meant to reply to

Right. For that trigger to begin resolving, everyone has to have said "no response" with it being on top of the stack. You can respond before you start digging, or after you finish digging and cast (or do not cast) a spell from it, but not inbetween.

When is the last moment I can respond to an opponent during the combat phase?

If a player has a bunch of colored creatures on the battlefield and one manifest creature and the opponent plays and rolls down ugin wiping his entire board and the player puts the manifest ceeature in exile and the mistake is realized the turn after how do you fix this. Since the manifest creature wasnt supposed to be revealed and was revealed by putting it into exile but I would think that you couldn't confirm that even if it was the only creature/land in exile. What about handling multiple instance of manifest in exile?

Technically? During the End of Combat Step.

You can respond during Beginning of Combat (before attacks, after Main Phase), Declare Attacks (after attacks, before blocks), Declare Blocks (after blocks, before damage), Combat Damage (after damage), and End of Combat Step (still in combat, not in main phase, post damage)

Same way we handle every GRV: I investigate, and make a decision of "what will fuck this game the most". If I feel like the least damaging option is to just leave it in exile, I do that. If I feel like the least damaging option is to put the manifested thing back on the board, I do that.

Do flip walkers come in with double counters with doubling season?

They do. They're entering the battlefield from exile with the number of counters printed, and that's all from an effect, so they will get doubled.

What happens if I play a worst fears on my opponent and then use the worst fears they have in hand to take control of my next turn. Who controls that turn?

Well, you control them during their next turn, and you cast their Worst Fears.

Then, their turn ends... and you are no longer controlling them.

What happens if I make them cast worst fears on themselves

Similarly what happens if a player casts worst fears and I respond with wild ricochet, I redirect the spell to them and copy the spell targeting them

Then they will control themselves during their next turn.

If you use Ricochet, your copy will resolve first, then theirs will. Their effect is newer, so they control their own next turn.

Finally

If I play a wild ricochet and then cast another wild ricochet targeting my wild ricochet can I put infinite copies of wild Ricochet on the stack by targeting my first wild ricochet again and again.

If I can do this is there any way it would be useful?

So, let's say you cast... Lightning Bolt. Then you cast Ricochet targeting it, and hold priority to cast a second Ricochet.

The stack is now
>Ricochet B, targeting A
>Ricochet A, targeting Bolt
>Bolt

B resolves, and you can change the targets for Ricochet A if you want, and then you make a copy. You can have the copy target Ricochet A, and when that copy resolves, have the copy IT makes copy Ricochet A, etc, etc, for as long as you want.

I can't think of anytime this is useful, since none of the copies are cast.

Hey gA, I'm gonna be floor judging my first Comp REL event this Saturday at a PPTQ, and my question is what are the areas I am most likely to need to study in particular for this kind of tournament? I've been jamming policy practice and writing down the ones I get wrong into a notebook which I will have with me, but I figured I would ask you about your first event checklist.

As a FJ, the most important thing is to just keep an eye out for fuckery and look like you're having fun- in my experience, happiness is pretty infectious, and players prefer Judges who don't look like sullen hate-powered penalty dispensers.

As for IPG stuff, it's not too scary because damn near everything 'big' would need to go through your HJ. GRV Rewinds need to go through the HJ, GLs and higher (for anything besides Tardiness or D/DLP, though he should be checking decks with you) goes through him, etc.

Stay hydrated, make sure you have the IPG on your phone just in case, and if you're unsure of something, just talk it over with your HJ and learn a little something. Your HJ is a resource to you as much as you're a resource to them.

What are some good examples of fuckery worth stopping a game over that you see fairly often?

If people have light sleeves, I take a look at the top of their library as I walk around, see if I can see the back through the sleeve. If I can, I scan for DFCs, because that's an issue.

On occasion, stop at a table and watch for a bit- both to watch for Slow Play, and to just enjoy some Magic.

If you hear two players arguing about something, feel free to step in and just ask if they need help.

Basically, be around, and be aware.

At what point of sleeve damage should I be concerned about marked cards? I personally have some pretty effed up KMC's, but the damage is fairly uniform.

I too have not played mtg since Lorwyn was new, but I was thinking of making some sort of deck using these two cards. I looked over some of the current rules but I am looking for some clarification. How precisely do these two cards interact? My intent is to make all creatures besides her 0/0 base. Does the order I cast them in matter at all? I do not know how to work this into an effective deck but it amuses me enough to try.

Sorry if this question is super basic.

If you feel that there's a possibility they can tell the cards apart from the damage, you should step in. Marked Cards can just be a Warning and a "get new sleeves before next round", it can be a Game Loss and "resleeve, now", or it can be a DQ, depending on your investigation.

The order is irrelevant. Godhead of Awe sets P/T to a specific number, and "setting to a number" always happens before static changes like Night of Souls' Betrayal, regardless of the order played.

Nope, works exactly how you think it does. It will interact with other effects that modify power and toughness, but timestamp order (the order in which you play cards) only matter when the effects are applied in the same layer, like Godhead saying everything is 1/1, if you played a card later that said "Everything is 2/2" it would override it.

Do two creatures entering the battlefield via something like collected company "see" each other enter the battlefield? For purposes of cards like Thalia's Lieutenant and such.

One last question I suppose, gA, and forgive me if you've answered this before, but what's your region?

They do.

USA South.

>Wanna roll a dice
>a dice
>a
>singular
>dice
>plural

I don't need to hear the rest of the sentence to DQ someone.

what does the all knowing judge think of the new birthing pod sorcery?

Fake until proven otherwise.

If it's real, neat. If it's not, also neat.

Also, bedtime. I'll answer more questions in the AM.

You should use this for your pedantic rants in future threads, gA.

Does "protection from instants" protect a creature from being countered as it's being cast?

TLDR Can I Essence Scatter/any-other-counter the new Emrakrul?

Protection only functions on the battlefield

yes you can

If an effect, say Tragic Arrogance, causes me to sacrifice a bunch of clues as well as Graf Mole, would I still gain life for sacrificing them even though they are all sacrificed at the same time?

yes you will.
things that etb or ltb at the same time will see each other entering/leaving.

Sauce

Also thank you judgedude for making and monitoring these threads, I've learned alot from them.

Since you're a judge I bet you can answer these for me

>do you get paid for judging events?
>What is the first step to becoming a judge?