MTG Magic The Gathering Ask A Judge -「 F R I D A Y I ' M I N L O V E 」

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How viable is an enchantment monster deck?

I'm not sure what you mean by 'enchantment monster deck'.

Slow day!

So with all the stuff in Aether Revolt that let you cast stuff without paying their mana costs coming up I have to ask how they interact with the Ravnica type split cards. Does this mean you can cast either or both sides if Fuse capable?

Yes! When you're doing a comparison check like that, the card is gonna ask Beck//Call "Is your mana cost less than N?" and get back two answers, one for Beck and one for Call. If EITHER of those answers is 'yes', then the card gives the thumbs-up and you can cast the spell. Since you're casting your Split card, the normal rules apply: You can cast either half, and the Expertise is footing the bill... even if you're casting the expensive half! Even better, since you're casting this spell from your hand thanks to Expertise, you can Fuse it (Because Fuse, hilariously, is not an alternate cost). So you could cast Yahenni's Expertise and fuse Breaking//Entering for free from your hand.

Oh boy...this is gonna break some stuff in Modern. Thanks for the answer!

Eh, you can already cascade into those spells by the same metric, and Dark Dwellers -> Bust is a thing. This will just make it a little more... reliable? To set up.

Well Dwellers is really mostly used with the Boom//Bust combo and playing entirely around Cascade sort of limits what other spells you can play with the deck, there's no deck in Modern where you can just Cascade into a random pile of good cards easily like Shardless BUG in Legacy. However certain decks like Living End can now play some of these cards to just cast Living End directly from hand if they draw into it.

Though I guess this same alternative cost principle works with Brain in a Jar I guess.

Can a myriad token be sacrificed after the damage step but before it gets exiled?

yes it can

So the TO at my local shop said I'm banned from magic because of some shit that happened last month. I don't remember anything being that bad, but according to him he can't put me in any events for 2 years.

Is this bullshit? Should I have heard something or gotten an email about this? Where can I go to check and/or get it reversed?

Did he say what exactly you did or the reason? Because that's very very important information here.

according to him, sexual harassment. Because I bitched at some girl who brought a SOI intro deck to the competitive modern event. She was harrassed and a difference sex, so it's sexual harassment.

Getting the feeling we're missing 'bout all the story here.

What's this about infinite combos with wandering fumarole?

The new artifact creature thing that can be pumped indefinitely using the Fumarole.

Can I cast a spell by tapping lands, announce that I'm floating mana, then put my spell onto the table?
What if I tap some amount of U, announce that I'm floating it, then put cheatyface onto the table? would you count that? or did I cast it?
What if the whole game I say 'cast spell X' and just say 'cheatyface' when I do cheatyface

Crackdown Construct

Wandering Fumarole

Activating Fumarole to become a creature doesn't trigger Crackdown Construct unless Fumarole is already a creature.

Activating Fumarole to swap P/T will put Constructs ability on the stack.

You can continuously activate Fumarole to swap P/T but you need to let Construct resolve.

Disallow doesn't stop this because Fumarole can be activated again and Construct can trigger again. Disallow doesn't destroy.

Disallow can counter Fumarole becoming a creature, but they keep their Fumarole as a land, presumably untapped, although tapped lands can activate their abilities as long as they don't require tapping. The ZEN/BFZ/OGW man lands can activate while tapped.

I've activated my opponents tapped hissing quagmires during emrakul turns to ruinous path them

forgot pic
I assume you knew. Is an FYI for everyone else coming to ask this.

How does it feel to know that Veeky Forums is now so bad at Magic it no longer asks its resident Judge for help?

>harassing a scrub for being a scrub
>harassing anyone
>gets banned for it and then whines about it
i'm not seeing a problem

what else is new

>You can continuously activate Fumarole to swap P/T but you need to let Construct resolve.
you can just say "pay 0, switch p/t of fumarole, repeat x amount of times" where x is ludicrous

Sure! It's not exiled until the End of Combat step. After damage (but still in the Damage Step) everyone gets priority at least once, so you can sac it to something there if you want to.

If you were suspended, you should have received some communication to that effect. You can also check this website, which lists all suspended player names and DCI numbers, and see if you're on it, or if he's just bullshitting you.

magic.wizards.com/en/content/suspended-dci-memberships

If you believe you've been suspended incorrectly (perhaps from someone using your DCI number and getting DQed), contact Wizards Customer Support and they'll help.

Crackdown Construct. Activate Fumarole, then activate the 0 as many times as you want for a huge Construct.

It's fine to cast a spell by floating the mana first- in fact, that's how most people do it.

Eh, it comes and goes. Some days are slow. Also, I was gone for like half the day.

So I'm not on that list. Can I print it off or something to be allowed in, or do I need an email from someone at DCI?

Is the TO the store owner?

So if you Panharmonicon for two triggers of Mesmeric Fiend, how does it work when the Fiend leaves the field? There's still only one trigger to return a card, so they only get one card back; would Fiends' controller choose which one to give back and the other is gone forever?

Can you kill a wandering fumarole with a bolt?
Say fumarole is a 4/1 and I target it with a lightning bolt. Can its controller activate its ability to have it survive as a 1/1?
Followup question: after the bolt resolves, can the controller activate its ability again? If so, would it become a 4/1 or a 1/1 or what would happen?
Thanks!

There will be 2 ltb trigger because those are linked abilities. When the etb one is copied, so does the ltb one.

Damage does not decrease toughness.
The Fumarole will be a 1/4 with 3 damage. If it's controller activate the ability again, it will be a 4/1 with 3 damage and it will die.

If it's currently a 4/1 and targeted by a Bolt, switching its p/t will save it, and it will be a 1/4 with 3 damage marked on it. Damage dealt does NOT reduce its toughness, it's just marked until the end step. If you switch it again, it's now a 4/1 with 3 damage, so it dies.

Printing that off and bringing it in should be enough, but the store owner could still just say you're not allowed into -his- store. What I'd do is go in and ask him when it was that you got suspended and what for, and tell him you couldn't find your name or number on the suspended players list.

Most likely he was either funning with you, or wanted to boot you from his events but not from the store, which is not a thing you can do.

The LTB is linked to both of the ETB triggers. It'll pull both cards back.

Damage does not reduce toughness. If you go to Bolt a 4/1 Fumarole, they can toggle it back in response and it'll be a 1/4 with 3 damage on it. If they toggle it back again that same turn, it'll be a 4/1 with 3 damage on it, and will die.

>There will be 2 ltb trigger because those are linked abilities. When the etb one is copied, so does the ltb one.
This is incorrect.

oh there's only one ltb trigger but it will get both?

Aye.

607.3. If, within a pair of linked abilities, one ability refers to a single object as "the exiled card," "a card exiled with [this card]," or a similar phrase, and the other ability has exiled multiple cards (usually because it was copied), the ability refers to each of the exiled cards. If that ability asks for any information about the exiled card, such as a characteristic or converted mana cost, it gets multiple answers. If these answers are used to determine the value of a variable, the sum of the answers is used. If that ability performs any actions on the exiled card, it performs that action on each exiled card.

I have skithyrix in my graveyard and my opponent sepulchral primordial my skithryix. Next turn I insurrection and kill my opponent with the sepulchral primordial. What happens to skithryix?

With the newer O-Ring effects that exile "until ~ leaves the battlefield" Consulate Crackdown for example. If the permanent is removed before it has a chance to exile anything, do they still get flickered?

Checked the oracle for Aligned Hedron Network, says they never get exiled and this is probably always the case

During the cleanup step, the control-change effect that gave you back your Skittles will end. As soon as it ends, it TRIES to go back to who should control it without that effect in place (your opponent), but it can't because they're no longer in the game. So it gets exiled.

Nope! Those things exile for a set duration. If a duration ends before it would begin (like blowing up Banishing Light in response to the trigger), the effect never starts in the first place.

He made it sound pretty clear that he wasn't banning me, the system was banning me.

Then he's probably funning you, or he found a similar name to yours, or something. I'd say go into the shop and ask what's up, show him the page, explain, and try to figure out what happened.

Can you target tokens with 'put target X on the bottom of its owner's library' type abilities?

As long as the token's otherwise a legal target, yes (IE, if it said "nontoken permanent" it wouldn't work). The token will technically be put on the bottom of the library, where it will promptly stop existing as soon as SBAs are checked.

So the new 1G instant that buries an artifact on the bottom instead of destroys is basically an equivalent to Naturalize.

Fantastic!

Better, because it can fuck up indestructible things! When Theros came out my EDH groups started running tons of Gods, so I started running Deglamer in my green decks.

Finally, I can tear my Appetite for the Unnaturals to confetti.

Does the Saheeli Rai/Feldar Guardian combo actually work? Did WotC actualy put splinter twin into modern?

>doesn't hit enchantments
not an upgrade to naturalise

It does. -2 Saheeli to make a copy of the cat; copy blinks Saheeli, activate her again, get a cat, repeat until you have a million 1/4s with haste.

Shit.

Well, I already decided to rip those stupid cards, and I'd hate to be called a liar.

nevermind modern bucky, that's standard legal

Holy crap how did WotC miss that

yeah I know, tired and drunk so I said the wrong one, like holy fuck that shit is gonna be banned before the set even releases

Compare this to deglamer or unravel the aether

Hello fellows, I want to build a casual infect deck around crumbling ashes and blowfly infestation. How many of each enchantment do you think I should put in the deck and what are some other good (but cheap to buy) cards to look at?

alternatively if I wanted to specialize in one or two kinds of creature what kind would you pick? I was also looking at flourishing defenses. Sorry if this is not the thread to post in.

>that shit is gonna be banned before the set even releases
nah it won't see tournament play so it's probably fine
it is a 2-card combo turn 4 kill though it's too fringe to be banned

The better plan for an infect deck is to use proactive removal to clear away potential blockers, using evasive creatures like Blighted Agent, or just trying to blitz down by throwing as many Giant Growth effects onto a Glistener Elf as you can.

The Blowfly/Ashes idea is cute, but it literally requires them to be blocking with creatures that aren't already killed by your infect thing, so you're either running things like Blight Mamba and Priests of Norn (to survive the attack) for slow removal, or straight up losing little dinky 1/1s to their blockers so you can kill one next turn.

Also, your thing of "Specialize in one or two kinds of creature" tells me that you're a very casual player- that's fine, but you're gonna have a hard time finding deckbuilding advice because you're intentionally hamstringing yourself with themes, and people aren't gonna take the time to help you figure out the strongest thing you can do with your theme/budget/available cards.

It'll probably kill on turn 6 more often. Tap 4 lands to cast the cat, blink one of the lands you used, play a sixth land, cast Saheeli, win. Playing Saheeli on 3 and the cat on 4 gives your opponent more chances to disrupt the combo.

Also, "2 card turn 4 kill" is acceptable for Modern, but is probably above the power level they want for Standard. The biggest thing holding it back is that it's in 3 colors, where Twin was in 2.

Ok I should have phrased my questions better. are there any "infect tribes" besides elves? What are the best black infect cards? And you are right about me being very casual, just pulling off a combo with blowfly infestation and crumbling ashes is guaranteed to impress my friends, thats why I want to do it haha.

There's really not a lot of 'tribes' outside of sets where that's a theme. Like, there's a lot of Dwarves and Vedalken in Kaladesh, but zero Dwarf or Vedalken 'tribal' support. Compare that to Lorwyn, where creature types mattering was a whole big part of that set.

There's not a 'tribe' for infect for the same reason: There was never intended to be. You'll find it on Goblins and Snakes and Elves and Horrors and Golems and Myr. If you want to build an elf deck, do that. If you want to build an infect deck, do that. Don't try to do both at the same time; it'd be like building a washing machine that also does your taxes. It will do two things poorly instead of one thing well.

Oath of Nissa and Channel is supposed to work together to cast planeswalker spells right?

I was playing Vintage cube and I couldn't cast an Ashiok with the mana from Channel. Working as intended or rules error?

That should work, yes. Channel lets you pay 1 life to generate a single colorless mana, and Oath of Nissa lets you spend mana as though it were any color for planeswalker spells; that's not strictly limited to spending COLOR as OTHER COLOR, it should work with colorless -> color as well. Sounds like a bug.

I thought as much thankyou. Still won since i channelled an Ugin on turn 2.

how does channel plus fireball win? doesn't there need to be a third piece for it to work? as far as i can see you can only set channel to 19 without killing yourself so in addition to the channel-provided colorless you would also need 1RGG to hit 20 damage and cover the colored portions of spell costs. where does the additional 4 mana come from (3 of that specific)?

The old combo was Lotus Channel Fireball. Play a Mountain, crack your Lotus for GG for Channel, Channel 19 points into it, tap your Mountain, you have 19 colorless, one red, and one green floating. 20R. Fireball for win.

Ok, let's say I have this on the field and my opponent has some morphed creatures of different card types on the field. (Like one creature, one land and an instant)

What happens if they die?

Well, they probably get in a lot of trouble for having a face-down Instant that they played as a Morph.

But assuming the things were manifested? When they die, Grave Betrayal sets up a delayed trigger to bring the thing back. That delayed trigger will pull back whatever card triggered it... except for the instant. Instants can't be put onto the battlefield, so the card will stay put. The creature and the land would come back with a +1/+1 counter, though.

Yeah manifested then, sorry it's late. So permanents come back, others don't. Pretty neat actually.

The other thing holding it back is twin almost happened at instant speed. Playing against twin ou could never tap out on turn 3, to at least hold up the illusion of having removal.

Right- they could (and would) flash in Pestermite or Exarch on turn 3, and then drop Twin on turn 4 and just win. You had to leave up enough mana to stop them, and possibly 1 more than that (depending on what your answer was).

why don't your parents love you?

Probably for the same reason your parents don't love you:

they actually do love you very much

you're too good for this world

time to die

What happens if you cast someone else's spell (such as through Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge) and it has buyback?

Interesting, i would have assumed eratta to make it "its owner's hand" but it still seems to be "your hand"

if you pay the buyback it goes back to it's owner's hand.

What is the cmc of a fused spell on the stack? Can i spell snare a beck//call?

The CMC of a split card on the stack is the CMC of each half - in beck/call's case the answer is "2 and 6" so spell snare can hit it.

You may pay the buyback if you'd like to. If you do, it'll go back to it's owner's hand as it resolves.

The CMC of Beck//Call is 8. Spell Snare can't hit it.

Not quite- the CMC of most split cards on the stack is whatever the CMC of the half you cast is (IE, Beck by itself has a CMC of 2 on the stack). All split cards have two CMCs outside the stack- if you flipped a Beck//Call off of cascade from a Shardless Agent, it'd ask "Is your CMC 2 or less?" and get back "Yes" from Beck and "No" from Call. Or if you flipped it for Dark Confidant, you'd lose "2 and 6" life, so 8.

But a fused split card on the stack has one CMC- the sum of the two halves.

Can you counter Emrakul, the Promised End?

Yes, but the on cast mindslaver effect is a separate trigger that will still happen (unless countered as well with stifle/disallow/dismissal etc).

On cards that have both numbered mana AND diamond mana (i.e. a card with a cost of 8CC), do I HAVE to pay C with ONLY colorless, or is it just generic mana?

Sure. Protection from Instants doesn't function until she's on the battlefield. As noted though, countering Emrakul won't stop the when-you-cast trigger. You'll still get mindslaved

There's no such thing as 'generic mana'. Something that costs 8CC needs 10 total mana, two of which MUST be colorless. Same as something costing 8RR costs 10 mana, two of which MUST be red; what you use to pay the generic portion of the cost is irrelevant.

What if i have two of these on the field, can i cast warping wail for free?

Thanks for clarifying.

No. Herald only reduces the generic portion of a cost; no matter how many Heralds you have, Warping Wail will still cost one colorless mana