MTG Magic The Gathering Ask A Judge - Tuesday Bluesday Edition

Welcome back to Ask A Judge!

If you somehow deal combat damage to yourself as the monarch, do all your "become the monarch" and "stop being the monarch" triggers go off?

I don't know for sure; that's the sort of thing where I could give you a guess, but until I have the actual CR entry for Monarch, anything I give would be just that: a guess.

The cards in the new Conspiracy set will be legal in vintage, legacy and EDH like the old one, right?
If so, do i get the draw benefits if i play a card that says "you become the monarch" outside of a conspiracy draft?

Correct. Monarch will be 'a thing' even outside of Conspiracy, because there's no monarch in ANY format until someone plays a card that says "You are the Monarch". Unless they put something in the Comp Rules that says it only works in a Conspiracy draft, it should work in any format, and I don't see them doing that.

If you clone a flipped card does the clone come in as the base card or it's transformation?

ex:
Rite of Replication > Final Iteration > Final Iteration token

or

Rite of Replication > Final Iteration > Docent of Percetion

If you clone a flipped card, you get the currently-flipped side. So you'd get a Stabwhisker the Odious rather than a Nezumi Shortfang, assuming you were copying one that had flipped to Stabwhisker

For DFCs, which are not flip cards, you get whatever face is currently showing, because the other face does not exist as far as the game cares. If you throw a Rite of Replication at Final Iteration, you get a token copy of Final Iterations.

Note that if you copy a DFC that's sunny-side-up, your copy can't transform because it isn't a DFC.

gA, if I have to DQ a player from my tournament, what paperwork needs to happen?

How does melee interact with myriad? For examlpe, I control a 1/1 creature with melee that has blade of selves equipped, there's three opponents, how strong are my attackers?

You need to get a written statement from them, as well as their full name and DCI number. Email address too, if possible, and if they don't want to give a statement just accept that, don't press it.

Write your own statement, separate from theirs (ideally before they give theirs to you, so your statement isn't unintentionally influenced by theirs), and get statements from any witnesses you spoke with.

Once you have all that written up, make sure the DQ is entered into the reporting software, ask them to leave the venue if appropriate, and finish your event. When you're done, log into Judge Center, and there'll be an Investigations tab where you can put in the paperwork.

Myriad tokens never ATTACKED anything, they were put into play already attacking. I can't confirm 100% until I've got the actual CR entry for Melee, but based on the wording in the article, I'd say it's only gonna look at which opponents had attackers declared for them. So my current answer is "It doesn't, unless the CR entry says otherwise in a couple weeks".

>I play Lingering Souls from my graveyard or something else with using its Flashback cost
>It gets countered by Spell Queller
>Spell Queller dies
What happens and when does it happen? Does the spell get exiled?

Spell Queller eats the flashed-back spell, shunting it to exile. The "exile me if I would go anywhere from the stack" replacement effect DGAF because it's already going to exile. That replacement effect is now done.

When Spell Queller leaves the field, the trigger fires and you'll get to cast Lingering Souls for free from exile. Nothing's telling it to go to exile after it resolves, so it just goes to the graveyard. Your opponent played themselves.

If I cast a spell without paying its mana cost and that spell has x in its cost but I have abilities that cheapen the casting cost of a spell, can I cast a spell for x = the amount reduced?

Example:
I have Mixxiz of the Izmagnus on the field and I have 5 experience counters. I play Epic Experiment for 5 and reveal a Blue Sun's Zenith. Can I draw five cards off the BSZ? Could I draw less if I wanted to for some reason?

> 107.3b. If a player is casting a spell that has an {X} in its mana cost, the value of X isn't defined by the text of that spell, and an effect lets that player cast that spell while paying neither its mana cost nor an alternative cost that includes X, then the only legal choice for X is 0. This doesn't apply to effects that only reduce a cost, even if they reduce it to zero. See rule 601, "Casting Spells."

If you're casting a spell for the alternate cost of "Free", then X is automatically zero.

With exactly one weird-ass exception.

The weird-ass exception being what exactly?

Spoils of War. The literal only card that fits the exception lined out in 107.3b: the value of X is defined by the text of the spell.

If someone Armageddon's while I have Gitrog and Sylvan Advocate, is that ballin' or is it just value?

Not sure how Sylvan Advocate adds to this, but you only draw 1 card off of Gitrog.

you will have to sac the gitrog at your upkeep because >noland

Sylvan safekeeper, my bad. Where do all these new sylvans keep coming from anyway?

Sure, you could pop a land to activate Safekeeper, let Gitrog trigger, then respond to the trigger by saccing another, and daisy chain that for hella draws. You'll lose your frog on your upkeep though.

If I copy a Predict, do I get to name a second card, or does the copy remember the first card named? Also, if I am casting the Predict off the top of my library with Melek in play, can I see what the top card of my library is before I name the card?

The only 'copiable choices' for a spell on the stack are choices made as part of casting it. You don't name a card for Predict until it resolves, so the copy can name one thing and the original can name a different one.

In the case of Melek, you'll announce Predict, move it from your library to the stack, and target yourself with it. No other choices to be made, so your spell is now cast. The second Predict left the top of your library... well, it ceased to be the top card of your library, so Melek would reveal the NEW top card. So you have Predict on the stack with a target chosen, and the Melek trigger above that, and you know what the top card of your library is. So you can have the copy target you and name that card, mill it (and reveal a new top card), and then draw 2 (your opponent will see both because Melek). So your deck WAS

Predict
A
B
C
D
E

Predict is on the stack, A is in your graveyard, and B and C are in your hand. D is now the top card of your library, revealed to all. So you can name that card with your original Predict as it resolves, mill it, then draw E and F.

tl;dr Predict is good with Melek.

BEDTIME.

I asked this in another thread but only got one iffy response.

So I have a thermo alchemist in play. I want to get the most damage out of it this turn.

I tap alchemist, deal one. Then I cast tormenting voice discarding fiery temper for cost.

How do I get the most out of my alchemist (i.e. three pings not just two.)

Thanks.

>cast voice
you'll have two triggered abilities trying to go on the stack: one from Alchemist, one from Temper. You can choose which order you want to put them on the stack, although it doesn't matter. For simplicity's sake, stack Temper's the Alchemist's, so the stack is

Alchemist trigger
Temper trigger
Voice

Let the Alchemist trigger resolve, untapping it. Then, tap it again for damage. Let the Temper trigger resolve, and cast Temper. Alchemist triggers again. The stack is now

Alchemist trigger
Temper
Voice

Let the Alchemist trigger resolve, tap it for damage, and then let the rest of the stack resolve.

Now, this is assuming your opponent has no responses. If they do, it'll complicate things somewhat.