MTG Magic The Gathering Ask A Judge - The Work of an Enemy 「 E D I T I O N 」

Good morning boys and girls, welcome back to Ask A Judge!

Do I get a clue token for the land that comes into play from activing evolving wilds if I have a tracker in play?

Sure. Tireless Tracker triggers every time a land enters the battlefield under your control, not just from you taking the special action of playing a land. It'll trigger from a land getting fetched out by Wilds, put onto the board with Rampant Growth, etc.

If my opponent uses Forked Bolt to hit two of my creatures while i have this in play, how many cards do i draw?

It'll trigger for each time a permanent you control (or a you) becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, so if their spell/ability targets multiple things of yours (or you and one of your things), it'll trigger multiple times. That's how I grok the wording, anyway.

if I have Leovold and a spellskite, can I use the spellskite 3 times to draw 3 cards?

No, because it's not "becoming" the target of the spell 3 times. It 'became' the target of the spell once, and then the other two activations did nothing. If you had a Spellskite and a CLONE of Spellskite (or Spellskite and a second Spellskite you stole from someone else), you could have them steal the spell from each other repeatedly to draw cards.

What's your favorite lower-powered eternal format?

I pretty much exclusively play Commander and Sealed, so Commander? Legacy's fun to watch though.

If I cast a spell with X in its cost without paying its mana cost and I have abilities that decrease the cost of the spell with X, can I cast the spell for X=the cost reduction?

For example: I have Mizzix of the Izmagnus on the field and I have 5 experience counters. I cast Epic Experiment for x=10 revealing a Blue Sun's Zenith. Can I cast Blue Sun's Zenith for X=5 as Mizzix reduces the cost by 5? Could I cast it for X=3 if I wanted to for some reason?

Answered this yesterday, friendo. If you're casting an X spell for free, X is automatically zero, with exactly one exception. If you hit a USZ in that scenario, then X is 0 regardless of how many experience counters you have.

I had to leave the pc and didn't come back before the thread 404'd, sorry

>X is automatically zero, with exactly one exception

Now I wanna know what the exception is though

If i gain control of a creature using pic related, then my opponent gains control of it back using his upkeep trigger, then can I gain control of that creature again when the denizen leaves play?

Spoils of War. The rule that tells us X must be 0 if you're casting the spell without paying its mana cost OR an alternate cost that includes X lists the exception: if X is defined by the card's text. which it is for Spoils. In that case, if you're casting Spoils without paying the mana cost, X is not 0.

No. As soon as Denizen leaves play, both of the control-changing effects it created end; the one that said YOU control the thing you stole, and the one that said your opponent controlled it (when they stole it back). With neither of those effects in place, it goes back to the player who it "should" be under the control of: your opponent who you stole it from in the first place.

casting means to pay the mana cost or if the text says so, correct? not the same as specifically putting a card into play?

Right. To cast a spell is to announce that you are doing so, and go through all the steps of casting a spell, with the 'end result' of it being a spell on the stack waiting to resolve.

Putting something directly onto the battlefield is not casting a spell.

Home from work bump

Doesn't OP auto-sage?

No clue!

What can you use as a token when you don't have the exact token card(s)? For example, if hanweir battlements attacks and I don't have any human tokens can I instead put a spirit token with a D6 on the 2 side tapped on the field?

> What can you use as a token when you don't have the exact token card(s)?
Absolutely any and everything. Just make sure it doesn't piss off your opponent or cause memory problems.
>100.2. To play, each player needs his or her own deck of traditional Magic cards, small items to represent any tokens and counters, and some way to clearly track life totals.

I know that if you use eldrazi dispacer on a token it doesn't come back, but does it actually count as dying for the purposes of zulaport cutthroat?

You can use anything that's not an actual Magic card, as long as everyone knows what it is and whether it's tapped or untapped. If all you have on you is a Spirit token, I'd prefer that you flip it so the advertisement side is showing rather than the Spirit side to avoid potential confusion.

Did anything go to the graveyard?

> 700.4. The term dies means "is put into a graveyard from the battlefield."
>110.5f. A token that's phased out, or that's in a zone other than the battlefield, ceases to exist. This is a state-based action; see rule 704. (Note that if a token changes zones, applicable triggered abilities will trigger before the token ceases to exist.)

If I spell queller a flashback spell what happens?

...

Queller exiles it, flashback's replacement effect stops existing the second it gets there, and when Queller leaves the field later the exiled spell gets cast 'as normal' (so it'll end up where it ought to as it resolves/leaves the stack this time, instead of exile)

If I play a land, do I pass priority when it happens? lets say you have Azusa in play, and you got to play a land, can the opponent respond by terminate?

Playing a land for the turn is a special action that requires you HAVE priority to take, but does not involve the passing of priority in any way. If you resolve an Azusa and it doesn't trigger anything from entering, you can slam your 3 land drops (again, assuming this doesn't trigger anything) before your opponent has a chance to kill her.

Sweet, thanks judge

Alright, break my heart, gA. This card does fuck all with Spy Kit, right?

Yep. The trigger specifies "named Groffskithur", not "that shares a name with this creature".

Okay, thank you.

It is a surprisingly small list of cards that work with Spy Kit it seems. Hidden Agenda's not withstanding.

Ah well. Thanks.

I'm at two life and I have course of kruphix out and I reveal an overgrown tomb with my courser. I play the overgrown tomb from the top of my library and shock it in. Do I lose?

You do. Paying 2 life is part of the replacement effect for the Tomb, you go to 0 before Courser's trigger even hits the stack. Then the trigger goes onto the stack, SBAs are checked, and you die before the trigger resolves.

Not sure how to word this one but I'll give it a shot.

Do replacement effects constantly attempt to replace an effect or rather does the replacement effect only get one chance to do so? Such as if it replaces it, it replaces it, and if it does not replace it, it does not.

>cornered market
>mask of the mimic

There's some things you can do with it.

A replacement effect can only apply to any given event once. Otherwise many of them would just invoke themselves over and over again.

I have Gitrog monster out as my commander.
I have putrid imp out.
I have a dredge card in my graveyard.
As I pull this combo, I rely on pulling lands and slapping them in my graveyard to continue dredging.
If I dredge 3 cards and two of them are lands, does the additional land I drew stack when I continue dredging? Or is it lost? Can I accumulate draws?

?

If a Dredge 3 hits 2 lands, Gitrog only draws 1 card because they were both put there at the same time.

If I use Eldrich evolution on a Kitchen finks will the kitchen finks persist activate?

?

Trigger, not activate. And yes. The Finks will persist back before Evolution resolves.

Yep, that works.

Explain.
Near as I can tell, between 702.25b preventing continuous effects and 702.25f requiring a subtype it doesn't have to stop it, it should phase in normally.

702.25b doesn't "prevent continuous effects". It just means that a continuous effect that was messing with the phased-out thing (while it was phased in) can end while it's phased out. An example would be if I stole your creature with Merieke Ri Berit, and then phased your creature out, and then Merieke left the field. The continuous effect she generated doesn't "end" as soon as the thing phases out, but it did end WHILE it was phased out (for another reason). So, when it phases back in, that continuous effect isn't there. It'll phase back in under my control and then immediately default back to you because nothing actually says I control it.

702.25f also doesn't "require a subtype" except at the actual moment of phasing out. The token phases out, and all Auras and Equipment attached to it go with it, indirectly. SBAs are checked, and the token stops existing. Those permanents that WERE attached to it are still phased out, but they'll never phase back in because nothing tells them to. They don't just 'turn normal' while phased out, because to the game, they don't exist.

Spy Kit + Magnetic Theft + Eradicate
If I theft spykit on to an opponent's creature and eradicate it, do I exile all the creatures in their library, or just the ones matching the original name?

All creatures that share a name with the card that Eradicate hit.

Eradicate does not need to know things about the exiled card, so it asks what the card's name was when it last existed on the battlefield. At that time, it's name was "Yes".

So you will exile all cards that share a name with "yes", which would be 'every single creature in their deck'.

BEDTIME.

Every non-legendary creature, you mean. Spy kit doesn't copy legendary cards' names.