MTG Magic The Gathering Ask A Judge - Monday Funday Edition

It does, my bad. But even if it was just "Whenever an artifact is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, return it" it wouldn't bring tokens back.

In the scenario described, 0/20.

In THIS scenario, 0/16. The "I have 16 toughness now" effect you just used is 'newer' than "I have 1 toughness" from Turn to Frog, so it overrides it. When Turn to Frog's effect ends later in the turn nothing changes, because you still have an effect saying it's got 16 toughness.

Like both hit by a "destroy all nonland permanents" thing? Yeah, Gift still 'sees' it die and sets up the delayed triggers.

Great, thanks judge!

Is there any particular reason all instances of "his or her" isn't just replaced with "their"?

Their can be plural. Avoids confusion.

Not that I'm immediately aware of. I would guess is a reason, but my guess is just as good as yours.

So apparently this was actually asked of MaRo some time ago, and the official response he gave is that putting "they" on a card means they can't put "she" on a card (as with 'he or she'), and they care more about making female identified persons feel included than about making nonbinary persons feel included.

I...is this a serious answer that Maro gave? I don't want to believe this.

From what I've heard. I'd have to check his tumblr.

Just expanding upon what was said here:
Things that happen simultaneously "see" eachother.
Simultaneously is essentially: "the order of the active player's choice, with 'later' things seeing 'earlier' things"
If two things enter simultaneously, they see eachother.
If two things exit simultaneously, they see eachother.
etc.

Maro has answered this a few times, usually pretty dismissively.
But his most recent answer was pretty informative. c +while "his" is acceptable as gender neutral it miffs a vocal minority.

Evening bump. I'll be headed home shortly.

sup mtg. I'm looking for a ruling on something. I run magus of the disk, and boros charm in a casual deck with some friends, and i've heard different rulings on something. If I tap magus of the disk for it's effect, and then play boros charm for its indestructible effect, does that protect my permanents from being destroyed or does magus negate the boros charm since it's a global effect?

I don't know who's been lying to you, but that's not how it works. A "global effect" has no bearing on indestructible, and vice versa; they may be thinking of it like Damnation vs Doom Blade for pro-black or Shroud creatures, where the wrath spell dodges the protections because it doesn't target, but that's not how Indestructible works.

tl;dr Boros Charm + Mago de Disco = Combo

>global effect
You're confusing "indestructible" with "protecton from X".

Thanx anons. good to know this combo works.

>anons

And home.

>2 hour commute

More like "errands and chores before I can sit down to enjoy my evening".

>enjoying Veeky Forums

Hey, the only other explanation for me doing this 5 years later is masochism.

I've heard that Voidmage Apprentice can beat split second because turning cards face-up is a special action.
What exactly is that?

A special action is something you can do when you have priority, which happens immediately and does not use the stack. Playing a land is a special action, for example.

Also note that most special actions can be taken whenever you have priority, but some have timing restrictions baked in, like the aforementioned playing of a land.

I get that your deck isn't padded with lands, but...
Sovereign’s Realm seems loads worse than Worldknit.

I draft a second Noble Bannaret and note it with the first.
If I have a single Noble Bannaret in play, does it give itself +1/+1 twice?

once

Nah.

>As long as you control one or more creatures with a name you noted for cards named Noble Banneret, Noble Banneret and those creatures get +1/+1 and have lifelink

It'll boost anything you named for any Noble, and also itself, but that's all one ability. Now, if you play both Bannerets, they'll each get +1/+1, and the named dudes get +2/+2, but each Banneret only gets +1/+1 from how I kennit.

he mean he named noble banneret as the named creature

Ah, my bad! In that case, no. Each Flagface will boost itself, and any creatures you have named for Flagfaces. So Flagface 1 boosts itself and Flagface 2, and Flagface 2 boosts itself and whatever it named. So, Flagface 1 is only getting +1/+1 from its own ability, while Flagface 2 gets a boost from itself AND Flagface 1.

Incidentally, anything you named for Flagface 2 also gets +2/+2 in this scenario.

I remember you play a lot of EDH and... Limited?
What else do you play?

How firm a grasp of the rules does the rest of your playgroup have?

>When Turn to Frog's effect ends later in the turn nothing changes
It stops being a Frog, stops being blue, loses 1 power, becomes a Plant, becomes black, gains Defender, and gains its activated ability.

Mostly that. EDH is the only constructed format I play; I don't keep up with Standard because I'd never play it (though I may build a cheapo deck to play/judge at FNMs soon), Legacy is super neat but my playgroup is broke AF so it'd be a waste of money, and Modern is a garbage fire.

I play EDH because it's common in my group, I can take it to any big event and get in games, and my decks don't rotate. Plus it's fun. Limited is mostly "sometimes I draft, and also prereleases exist".

My group's grasp on the rules ranges from "shaky but servicable" to "nonexistent".

I meant regarding layer 7c, specifically. Should have clarified, mea culpa.

For Standard, that mono-green Werewolves shit look amusing, not sure how viable it would really be though, but absolutely covers the "cheap" base.

It's gonna drive me nuts that I had an actual rules question for you this morning, maybe while looking at Conspiracy 2 spoilers, but I never wrote it down and have totally forgotten now. Oh well!

Oh, it doesn't need to be good. I can't win games of Magic with GOOD cards, so why try? I just want something to 'justify' showing up to get paid free entry and maybe some tacos to help out with rules questions while I'm playing.

So how do omniscence and thalia/sphere effects interact? Are they still free or do you have to pay 1 or more for every non creature spell?

Modifying the total cost doesn't hinder you when you aren't paying the cost.

Take base or alternate cost. in this case, "free" is the alternate cost.

Apply cost increases (thalia, Sphere of Resistance)

Apply cost reductions (Etherium Sculptor)

Apply 3sphere.

So Thalia makes you have to pay "Free, plus one mana". So, one mana.

Incorrect.

Hey gA, question about Spell Queller and blink spells. An opponent casts Essence Flux on their Spell Queller, which is exiling a spell of mine (say a Declaration in Stone). Essence Flux resolves, so Spell Queller is exiled. Does the LTB trigger go on the stack after Queller comes back into play, meaning he can't re-target the same Declaration in Stone it was previously exiling?

The LTB trigger can't go onto the stack until Essence Flux has fully resolved- meaning Queller has come back, and there's also an ETB trigger. No matter how he stacks those, the ETB trigger needs a target the second it goes on the stack; it cannot possibly 'eat' the same spell that the Queller originally had under it. If there's a spell on the stack, he has to target that; if there's no spell, he just loses that ETB trigger, effectively, and gives you back your spell that Queller had... quelled.

Thanks, appreciate it.

What is your source?

My source is that I was wrong.
>117.9. Some spells have alternative costs. An alternative cost is a cost listed in a spell's text, or applied to it from another effect, that its controller may pay rather than paying the spell's mana cost. Alternative costs are usually phrased, "You may [action] rather than pay [this object's] mana cost," or "You may cast [this object] without paying its mana cost." Note that some alternative costs are listed in keywords; see rule 702.

Lifelink question.

If I have say a fatty with Lifelink which gets blocked by a 0/1, does it still do its full power in damage and therefore Lifelink?

The best source!

Full power. Creatures deal damage equal to their power (or toughness, with Doran and friends); it's not "deal until lethal and stop". Otherwise, Stuffy Doll would be a really, really bad card.

ANyway- I'm hitting the sack. More thread tomorrow gang!

Yes. Creatures deal damage equal to their power.

I was fairly sure of that, I just wanted to be wrong so I didn't have to plough through 50 life

>I was fairly sure of that, I just wanted to be wrong
Welcome to "85% of all appeals I have ever gotten". Most appeals are "I'm almost entirely sure this works how you say it does, but I really, really hope it doesn't, so can I appeal?"

An interesting sidenote here is that you *don't* gain life from "prevented" damage.
So, if the 0/1 had "Protection from fatties" or whatever, you wouldn't gain any life.

On the other hand, if your fatty had trample you could dome them for all but 1 of the lifelink (since trample cares about assigning damage, not dealing it).

Or, lets say you have a 4/4 lifelink trample and you opponent had a vanilla 0/1 and targeting themselves for prevention with Healing Salve (who knows why),
you could assign 1 damage to the 0/1, then choose to assign the remaining 3 damage to the 0/1 (because trample is weird) to get the lifelink.

Does the new Selvala ability check all creatures on the battlefield or just the ones you control?

It triggers for any creature entering, and upon resolution checks to see if it has greater power than anything else. It checks everything; if your opponent has a 5/5, you need to play a 6/x to get the draw, even if all your creatures top out at 3 power right now.

Am I misreading Flash McClone, or is it priced the same as Clone?

It's priced the same. They did the same thing with Gigantoplasm- same exact cost as Clone, but with an upside.

Does Gigantoplasm not have its upside if it enters as itself?
Say I play it a la. Force of Savagery while no creatures are in play, then want to boost it's toughness in response to losing my toughness booster?

It does not. The one-man Biomantic Mastery is part of the copy effect; if you don't copy something, it will just come in as a 0/0.

Let's say for grins that you played a 'blank' Gigantoplasm (or any other 0/0 clone) and then copied it with another Gigantoplasm. In that case, you would have a 0/0 Gigantoplasm with the boost ability. If it were only alive due to something like a Glorious Anthem, you could respond to a Disenchant aimed at same by activating it for X=not 0 to save it. You would have to do so before the boosting effect stopped though.

BED NOW

When you say an effect is newer than another, does that mean it's resolved more recently, or was put on the stack more recently?

resolved

I remembered my question! Will post now, either another user will answer it or you hopefully do tomorrow.

It's about phasing, your favorite, and Sneak Attack/Through the Breach/etc. effects. Let's say I decide to be silly and throw a Vanishing onto it. I pay the cost, it phases out and goes under the good old Cup 'o Phasing. Am I still forced to pay the piper and sacrifice it at end of turn? Or does the Cup prevent me from worrying about this?

You can use Final Fortune imprinted on Isochron's Scepter and Sundial of the Infinite to take infinite turns, right?

Just use the Sundial to clear the delayed "Lose the game at the end of your next turn" trigger before the end of that turn, right?

>the good old Cup 'o Phasing
That analogy works for your question's purposes, but it's not a great analogy.

Here's a better one:
Pretend every single rule and effect that doesn't mention "phased-out" permanents somewhere,
actually says "phased in" before every mention of any permanents.

>Wrath of God
>Destroy all phased in creatures. They can't be regenerated.

>Lightning Bolt
>Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to target phased in creature or player.

>105.3. Effects may change a phased in object's color or give a color to a phased in colorless object. If an effect gives a phased in object a new color, the new color replaces all previous colors the object had (unless the effect said the object became that color "in addition" to its other colors). Effects may also make a phased in colored object become colorless.

>Stitcher's Apprentice
>1U, T: Put a 2/2 blue Homunculus creature token onto the battlefield, then sacrifice a phased in creature.

>119.3d. Damage dealt to a phased in creature by a phased in source with wither and/or infect causes that many -1/-1 counters to be put on that creature.

and so on...

This is a good analogy because it's essentially what's actually happening:
>702.25b. If a permanent phases out, its status changes to "phased out." Except for rules and effects that specifically mention phased-out permanents, a phased-out permanent is treated as though it does not exist. It can't affect or be affected by anything else in the game. A permanent that phases out is removed from combat. (See rule 506.4.)
Now, you have to imagine cleaner wording changes than that (to differentiate between non-permanent objects and permanent objects, but still)
That is a working combo.

>From Maro's silver bordered FAQTIWCAWCC: (Frequently Asked Questions That If We Didn't Answer Would Cause Chaos)

>Turn #1 -- You play Old Fogey.
>Turn #2 -- During your untap step before you untap, Old Fogey phases out.
>Turn #3 -- During your untap step before you untap, Old Fogey phases in. Cumulative upkeep says, "Hey, pay {1}." (This assumes your abilities have the ability to speak -- mine do). Echo says, "Pay {GG} or sacrifice Old Fogey." And finally fading says "Take off one of my three fading counters."
>Turn #4 -- During your untap step before you untap, Old Fogey phases out.
>Turn #5 -- During your untap step before you untap, Old Fogey phases in. Cumulative upkeep says, "Hey, pay {2}." Echo says, "I'm good." And fading says "Take off another fading counter. I'm down to one."
>Turn #6 -- During your untap step before you untap, Old Fogey phases out.
>Turn #7 -- During your untap step before you untap, Old Fogey phases in. Cumulative upkeep says, "Hey, pay {3}." Echo says, "I'm still good." And fading says "Take off my last fading counter."
>Turn #8 -- During your untap step before you untap, Old Fogey phases out.
>Turn #9 -- During your untap step before you untap, Old Fogey phases in. Cumulative upkeep says, "Hey, pay {4}." Fading then chimes in and says, "You know, I'm going to make you sacrifice Old Fogey. Do you really want to pay {4}?" Then cumulative upkeep says, "Maybe I will. What are you going to do about it?" And then echo says, "Guys, can't we just all get along? Can't we all just get along? Get along? Along?" A fight then ensues which ends with Old Fogey's death.

Wait, did you specifically mean "can phasing dodge the vanishing sac trigger"?
No. Vanishing and Phasing happen during separate phases (Upkeep and Untap),

*if they happened in the same phase (which they don't) you still couldn't dodge the sac trigger.
But you would be able to avoid removing counters in that particular bizarro world.

outdated question
If Foe-Razer Regent fights twice in a turn does it receive two or four counters at the next end step? One example is if it enters the battlefield while Frontier Siege is set to Dragons and it fights two bears on entry.

Four.

Technically I mean "existed". Continuous effects in the layers system can just exist because of a static effect (think Elesh Norn, or Glorious Anthem), or they can be created by the resolution of a one-shot effect (think Jump or Turn to Frog). When two or more continuous effects apply in the same layer, we look at whichever 'existed' most recently; the continuous effects from a static ability have a timestamp of "as soon as they started" (so for Norn or Anthem, once the permanent entered the battlefield), and the one-shots begin as the effect resolves.

Sacrifice what? It doesn't exist. Trigger comes, resolves, and does nothing because it can't find the thing you cheated out.

Yes. Whether you use the Sundial to skip past the delayed trigger or to exile it while it's on the stack, both work to let you keep doing it over and over.

But I like my analogy.

He was asking about Vanishing, the Aura (which can be used to phase the enchanted creature out), not Vanishing the triggered ability.

The question was "Can I cheat something in with a delayed 'sac at end of turn' trigger, and phase it out during that turn via Vanishing to dodge the sac trigger that turn", which you can. You're (correctly) answering a question nobody asked.

Four. Each time a creature you control fights, Foe-Razer sets up a delayed trigger that fires at the beginning of the next end step. If it fought twice, it'll have two triggers each giving 2 counters.

no way to have avacyn flip during the same turn something dies huh? Someone was saying you could sac selfless during the upkeep or untap or some shit to have it flip with indestructible

...

fugg

well my other question regarding her would be the legend rulings on her back side and front side

Technically you could enchant yourself (or an opponent, I guess) with Paradox Haze and kill something during Upkeep 1. Then she'd transform during Upkeep 2.

Archangel Avacyn is not named Avacyn the Purifier.

if a Foe-Razer fights on entry and then gets blinked through Essence Flux or whatever and fights a second time, does the first delayed trigger happen or does the dragon not recognise that first trigger and only gib counters from the second instance of Fight?
>cast FRR
>fights a nigga
>Essence Flux FRR
>fight another nigga
>how many counters?

yes, you can control both Avacyn's backside and her frontside at the same time. however, if the second flips you'll need to delete one as they'll share a name

The first delayed trigger HAPPENS, it just doesn't do anything. It'll trigger at the appropriate time, and resolve, but the object it's looking to put counters on no longer exists, so the ability just resolves without accomplishing anything..

>Someone was saying you could sac selfless during ... untap or some shit to have it flip with indestructible

Wait why wouldn't this work? Sac Spirit before upkeep which triggers Avacyn and then she transforms in upkeep.

If I have multiple replacement effects for the same effect, which happens?
>Enchantment that causes you to gain life instead of losing life and lose the game at 20 hp
>Worship makes it so that if I would take damage that sets me below 1 hp I go to 1 instead.
Which one do I use?

you cant activate abilities in the untap can you?

Mostly because there is no "before upkeep". Nobody has priority during a turn before the upkeep.

The affected player (or if it's an object being affected, that object's controller) chooses which replacement effect to apply first. After that, if any can still apply, they choose from those.

Worship has a replacement effect, but Transcendence is not; it's a trigger. If you take a hit that would put you below 1, Worship has you take that hit, but it doesn't reduce you below 1. So say you're at 5, and take 10 damage. Worship says you still take 10 (so if it was a lifelink creature, your opponent would gain 10), but it only reduces your life total by 4. Transcendence triggers and gains you 8 life, putting you at 9.

You cannot.

So the turn order goes as such?
>Untap: no spells or abilities or anything can happen during this step besides untapping
>Upkeep: yadda
>Main Phase 1
>Declare attackers: Effects and abilities and spells can't happen until AFTER all attackers are declares.
>Declare Defenders: as above.
>M phase 2
>End step: clean up damage and "until end of turn" effects.

The turn is broken up into phases, some of which are broken up into steps.

>BEGINNING PHASE
Untap Step **
Upkeep Step
Draw Step*
>PRECOMBAT MAIN PHASE
>COMBAT PHASE
Beginning of Combat Step
Declare Attackers Step*
Declare Blockers Step *
Combat Damage Step*
End of Combat Step
>POSTCOMBAT MAIN PHASE
>END PHASE
End Step
Cleanup Step ***

The Untap step, nobody ever, ever, ever gets priority, no matter what, under any circumstances. The Cleanup Step NORMALLY nobody gets priority, but it is possible in some situations; if that happens, the game creates another cleanup step after the current one in an attempt for one to happen 'normally'. It will keep daisy-chaining Cleanup Steps until one happens without anyone getting priority.

The steps marked with an asterisk begin with a Turn-Based Action that happens in full before anyone has priority to do things.

Hey, quick question, I'm toying around with my Brion Stoutarm commander deck, and I came across this situation.
I had a creature with Deathrender on it, and had sigil of the new dawn on the field.

Could I potentially sac the creature with the Deathrender, have sigil of the new dawn put it into my hand again and only then have deathrender's effect trigger and immediately put it onto the battlefield with deathrender attached again? My gut tells me I can, since I can decide the trigger order myself, but I wanted to be sure.

So, when the creature dies you have a trigger from Deathrender and a trigger from Sigil of the New Dawn. If you put the Deathrender trigger on the stack first, you can have the Sigil trigger return it to your hand, and then it's in your hand when you're choosing what creature to put from your hand onto the battlefield via Deathrender. So you can totally do that.

Thanks!

Happy to help!

Hey, what would you do after discovering someone has fakes? Is there anything you can do against the person, if they will deny they knew about the fakes?

Within a tournament setting in which I am acting as an officiant, I would begin an investigation to determine whether or not the player knew they were fakes. The vast, vast, VAST majority of the time this comes up, they bought or traded for what they genuinely thought were legit cards, and got ripped off. All that can be done in that case is to allow them a reasonable amount of time to secure replacements, or replace the cards with basic lands and update the decklist to reflect that. Depending on how bad that 'option' buttfucks their chances, I'll also suggest to the TO that they should be given the option to drop for a partial or full refund, because holy bad beats.

If I have reasonable suspicion that the player knowingly brought fake cards to my event, that's an easy DQ for Fraud.

If you draft 6+ conspiracies (so

That's how I kennit. You can't put basics in your deck with Sovereign's Realm, so your deck has to be 40 cards without basics. If you have enough Conspiracies that you can't present a 40 card deck without adding basic lands, then you can't use Sovereign's Realm.

I've heard equipping Endrehk Sahr with Assault Suit may cause a game draw if don't have a sac outlet for his Thrulls

Would you cause a similar game draw if you don't pay mana for Nicol Bolas' upkeep mana requirement whilst equipping him with the Suit?

Nah. Bolas' trigger says "Pay this or sac me", you don't pay, the trigger tries to make the controller sac him but can't, and the game shrugs and moves on.

The same thing happens with Endrek Sahr, but he has a STATE trigger- any time that trigger condition is true (and there's not already one of those triggers on the stack), the trigger will fire. So the trigger fires, tries to make the controller sac him, and fails because they can't. Then it fires again. And again. And again. Similar to the three O-Ring loop, there's no alternate choice anyone can take to break it; even if they had a 'free' sac outlet like Goblin Bombardment, they wouldn't be forced to use that to break the loop because it's outside the loop itself.

Figured I'd post it here too just cause. I made an EDH but I feel like it doesn't have enough draw or any good ways to get my stuff back from the graveyard other than Elixir of Immortality. What are some good artifacts or white cards that let me draw? Good ones that let me get stuff back from my graveyard? Link to deck here:

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/23-08-16-isamaru-voltron/

how would you write Endrek Sahr to fix that? Is there any other card that can end the game with a 'constantly checking' paradox?

>Is there any other card that can end the game with a 'constantly checking' paradox?
Yes. The vast majority of cards with state triggers.

>how would you write Endrek Sahr to fix that?
He wouldn't, because that's not his job.
The people who's job that is wouldn't, because they don't like imposing mechanical changes.