MTG Magic The Gathering Ask A Judge - 「 R U B Y T U E S D A Y 」

Good morning and welcome back!

How important is it not to talk about the draft during a draft?

Depends on the event, really. At Day 2 of a GP? Extremely. Nobody talks at all, other than the Judge calling the draft.

At an FNM type event? Still important, but less ruthless in 'dissuading'. If people were talking about "Oh my god who is feeding me all this green" at an FNM draft, I'd probably just chip in with "Guys, no strategic discussion, remember?". Focus is on learning and fun. It's still not something you should do, but you won't be beheaded for it. At first, anyway.

Can you explain how the stack works?

Player A casts spell 1
Spell 1 goes on the stack
Player B responds with spell 2
Spell 2 goes on the stack on top of spell 1
The stack then resolves, starting with spell 2.

Sure!

The Stack is a game zone, just like the battlefield, your graveyard, your library, etc. Specifically, it's where things go to wait to resolve. Triggered and Activated abilities (other than mana abilities) go here; so do spells. Once an object is added to the stack, it hangs out for a bit, because everyone's gonna get priority to respond (even the person who ADDED the object, though the default tournament shortcut is that you're passing priority after adding an object to the stack unless you say otherwise). Everyone gets their chance to respond, and if nobody has a response, that object resolves.

If someone DOES have a response, that new object goes on the stack above the first one, and people can respond to -it-. The Stack works last-in, first-out; the most recently-added object (so the 'top' of the stack) will be the first to resolve. So, here's a practical example.

I cast a Bristling Hydra. You have no response, so my spell resolves; it moves from the stack to the battlefield. Hydra triggers; I put that trigger on the stack. You have a response here- you want to hit it with Grasp of Darkness before I get the Energy. So you respond to my trigger. Well I want my thing to live, so I respond with Blossoming Defense. You finally respond with a Negate, on my Defense. The stack looks like:

Negate
Blossoming Defense
Grasp of Darkness
Hydra Trigger

I have no response to Negate, so it resolves, and counters my Defense. This removes it from the stack, so now Grasp is the top object. Neither of us have any responses after Negate resolves, so we pass priority again, and Grasp resolves, killing my Hydra. Neither of us have responses after that, so we pass priority again, and my trigger resolves, giving me 3 Energy.

The stack does not resolve, because the stack is a game zone. OBJECTS on the stack resolve, one at a time, and all players receive priority after each object resolves.

Picture a stack of pancakes. Whenever someone activates or triggers an ability, or casts a spell, they're putting another pancake on the stack. Every time someone puts a pancake on, the game asks everyone if they've got any more pancakes to add. If everybody says no, the game eats the top pancake, resolving that spell or ability, then asks again. When you run out of pancakes the game moves on to the next plate (phase).

There are more intricacies to it than that, but that was a handy visual when I was starting out.

Now I want waffles.

This is why playing magic always makes me hungry

Ok thx. On a side note, Anyone running mono red burn? Coukd use some suggestions.

Count to 7.

In modern? If it's competitive is really helpful. Eidolon of the Great Revel is your friend when everyone else needs to use shocklands and always run as many 1 mana = 3 damage cards as you can. If it's just for casual invest in a playset of lightning bolts (it's worth it) and load up on whatever other 1-2 mana red spells you can get your hands on.

What about skullcrack or Flamesof the bloodhand?

3 mana is pushing it in burn. Skullcrack is great, though meta-dependent. I would sideboard it unless you're almost always up against decks with lifegain. And again,

Is it wise to get Isochron Scepter? An imprinted lightning bolt every turn sounds pretty good. Also managed to get a sort of volt charge/shrine of burning rage "combo" going.

If i cast the elder deep-fiend during my opponent's main phase because I'm desperate for some reason and I intend to tap his lands, Can he respond by tapping those lands and adding mana to his pool?

yes they can. Do it on his upkeep/attack phase so the mana bleeds out before his main phases where he can cast his slow spells.

Yea he can tap for mana. Do it at his upkeep after stuff Untaps and before draw. Floated mana goes away after changing from one phase to another so he can't use it even if he tapped at upkeep (unless he uses it for an instant)

They absolutely can. The best you can do with flashing in Deep Friend on their turn is forcing a "use it or lose it" in an awkward part of the turn, like Beginning of Combat, or their upkeep.

I control Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder and deal combat dmg, afterwards I cast a spell from my hand with CMC 7, cascade triggers and I reveal pic related. Which part does the cascade trigger and/or do I get a choice between either?

Cascade asks "Do you have a CMC lower than 7?" and gets back two 'yes' answers, because that has a CMC of "5 and 2", both of which are less than 7. You'd be able to cast that card, and be able to cast either half of it as you like.

The super fun part is all of that's true as long as Cascade gets back ONE yes. If you'd cast a 3 mana spell and wheeled into this, you'd stop here because it gets back "yes" and "no" when asking Flesh//Blood "Do you have a CMC lower than 3?". So you stop there, and you can cast either half of the card- meaning you could wheel Krosan Grip into Flesh and laugh your way to the bank.

Thanks for the answers.

I have another question.
If i were to turn a land into a creature like Ghitu Encampment, can that creature that is a land attack the turn it becomes a creature or does it need to have haste?

>does it need to have haste
Yes it does, both for attacking and tapping for mana

A creature cannot attack, or activate any abilities with the Tap or Untap symbols in their costs, unless you have controlled it continuously since the beginning of your most recent turn. If you animated a land the turn you played it, not only would it be unable to attack, it'd be unable to generate mana.

A friend of mine is convinced he can exile X spells with Kaho, Minamo Historian and then use Kaho's effect to cast them with whatever he wants as X.
I'm absolutely certain he's dead wrong, but Gatherer isn't offering any insight and Google is letting me down. Is there a specific entry in the CR I can use here?

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."

Basically Kaho's letting you cast the spell for an alternate cost without explicitly defining what X is (compare to say, Conflagrate's flashback having you discard X cards), X is 0.

Forgive me if this is a dumb question.
Can you use removal on creatures that are on the stack?
For example, say I have a spell queller on the battlefield and the opponent paths it. In response, I flash in rattlechains targeting the queller. Would the opponent then be able to cast an instant-speed removal card (like stp or something) on the rattlechains while it is still on the stack?
Thanks!

Pretty much no. When something says "target creature" or "target artifact" what it means is target creature *permanent*. A spell is not a permanent, so it's not a legal target for that spell.

If a white card is giving me hexproof and a card with protection from white tries to do something to me, does it get through?

Depends on what it's doing. "Protection from White" does not mean "cannot be affected by anything white at all ever", it means that the thing in question cannot be:

D amaged by white creatures, white spells, or abilities from white sources

E nchanted by White auras, Equipped by white Equipment, or Fortified by White Fortifications

B locked by White creatures

T argeted by white spells, or abilities from white sources

DEBT. That's all that protection stops. Your Leyline of Sanctity isn't attempting to damage, enchant/equip/fortify, block, or target their thing, so protection doesn't matter. Their creature with pro-white can't target you with an ability, etc.

game: DOES YA GOT ANY MORE PANCAKES TO ADD?

goddammit man why did I giggle like a bitch

I asked this last thread, but it died before you got back

#
If someone asks this at an event, how do you deal with it? Obviously answering the way you did on here would be considered outside assistance. Do you just say "yes" and step in again after the spell isn't countered?

Hi judge. Is mtg dying? I always see people on /tcg/ complaining all the stupid stuff wotc does and how modern and standard are shit formats

When it comes to things like that, there's basically two schools of thought. The first is to answer the question asked, and absolutely nothing else- just say "Yes." and wait for them to do it.

The other is to word the answer in such a way as to tip them that they're asking the wrong thing. It's more common with Pithing Needle, where sometimes you'll hear "You can name any Magic card with Pithing Needle".

Personally for this I just say 'yes' and standby. I can only answer what you actually ask me, and knowing the rules (and what questions to ask) is a skill.

Nah. People always bitch about Magic, even in environments that years later are looked back on with absolute fondness. I will admit that there's some general grumpiness about how the set design recently has been leading to not-so-fun Standards, and I've felt Modern is a garbagefire for years, but overall the game is selling well.

>"You can name any Magic card with Pithing Needle
erect

>knowing the rules is a skill
isn't it a knowledge? as far as i'm aware knowing things is not skillful

Sorry, I worded it poorly.

When it comes to Judge stances on things, there's things that we consider "skills to be tested and rewarded", and things that... aren't that. Knowledge of the game rules and tournament policies is considered a skill that we want to reward, whereas "ability to word bribes" is not. Basically we generally group things into "behaviors we want to reward" (or at least not punish) and "Behaviors we want to dissuade".

what about that one time where player A named 'Borborygmos' and player B said okay and later played Borborygmos Enraged and judge said it was a-okay because Borbor 1 was legal in the format? it's been a while since i've read that case but is everything above board in that scene?

That's something that there's some debate on, as well; some judges say "It's obvious what he meant", or that clarification should have been required because in other situations you could just say "Lavinia" and not need to clarify.

I'm not a fan of that. Does it suck that the player thought he was shortcutting by just naming "Borborygmos" and it bit him? Does it suck that if he'd said "The legendary Gruul guy that chucks lands" it'd have been interpreted as Borborygmos Enraged? Yes. But 'half-naming the card you meant to name FULLY names another card' is something that'd happen on literally so few examples I could count them on my fingers, and it can easily be avoided by just communicating more clearly. I don't like rewarding sloppy play.

so if player Barry is playing dragon stompy in frontier and player Adam Lost Legacy's naming 'Kolaghan' but Barry has both FRF and DTK cards in the deck, what is the correct response from player Barry?
If player Barry instead says 'okay' and lets Adam search the deck and player Adam then realises that they fucked up, do they have the right to choose either creature? If in this second scenario you are the judge observing this, at what point do you step in and what do you say? What if player Adam owns up to the 'i fucked up now what do i do' given that they now have full knowledge of Barry's deck?

The correct response from Barry is to call a Judge, because Adam has not uniquely identified a Magic card. See, the 'problem' with the Borborygmos thing is half-naming one card FULLY names another. It's fine to just name "Lavinia", because there's only one of those. You can't just say "Kolaghan", because there's two of those, and you need to UNIQUELY identify ONE of them. So the correct response here is to call a Judge, who will basically say "you need to uniquely identify a card" and Adam will narrow it down.

If I'm observing, I pretty much step in as soon as I overhear that so I can fix it. If it's not brought to my attention until after Adam has seen Barry's deck, that's not something I'm rewinding through, because Adam has new information he shouldn't have if we rewind. I'm going to basically have the Lost Legacy resolve finding nothing, issue a Warning for GPE-GRV to Adam for not resolving his spell correctly, issue a Warning for GPE-FTMGS to Barry, instruct them both to be more careful, and move on.

so in that last scenario Baz gets a failure to maintain game state for not stopping a judge and calling over the game when Adam misnames? it seems like FTMGS is easy to achieve then, is that so? when you answer questions, if not specified do you presume REL 'the one above FNM'?

Right. FTMGS basically happens any time your opponent gets a GRV that you didn't catch in a reasonable amount of time, because it's the responsibility of BOTH players to ensure the game is being played correctly. "You can't Doom Blade my guy, it has pro-black" will result in a GRV for the Doom Blader, but no penalty for the pro-black creature's controller, because they caught the error right away. Realizing halfway through that turn "Wait- you couldn't have Doom Bladed my guy!" will be a GRV for Doom Blade, and a FTMGS for the opponent.

If I'm talking about penalties and specific infractions, I'm talking Competitive REL. Regular REL is like 99% "fix it, educate, move on". If this happened at Regular it'd be 'You name nothing then, because it's not fair to let you name the card now that you know their whole deck. Be clearer when identifying cards in the future, and remember that you can always call a Judge if you're having trouble remembering the specific name.' Focus on education, community, and fun.