Good morning and welcome back to Ask A Judge!
Spoiler-season reminder: I'll do my best to answer questions about spoiled cards, but take those answers with a grain of salt. We don't have the full details on new mechanics yet, and even straightforward-seeming cards might work differently today than they will in 3 weeks.
What's your opinion on the new gods?
Do they feel more or less godly to you?
Given that questions come in threes, what's your favorite three godly but not god type cards?
I think, thematically, they capture the difference between the gods of Space Egypt and the gods of Theros well. They're "Around", they walk among the people (by always being creatures) regardless of devotion, but they won't join the battle unless you're committed to their cause (Solidarity being 'dudes', Knowledge being 'lots of hand', Ambition being 'ready to sacrifice anything for power', Zeal being "FUCK IT GOING ALL IN", and Strength being 'big dudes').
I guess they feel 'smaller', in the sense that they're embodiments of a narrower concept, rather than "the sun", "Death", "Agriculture", etc, but it fits the theism of an Egypt-tinged culture, where Theros gods fit the theism of a Greco-Roman culture.
Divine Verdict, Demigod of Revenge, Deus of Calamity.
Could you explain Gilded Drake to me? I don't get why the "can't be countered" clause is so strange.
Normally, two things can counter a spell or ability on the stack: Something that explicitly counters it (Counterspell, Stifle), or the rules of the game (because the spell/ability has no legal targets). This is why creatures like Loxodon Smiter will say "Can't be countered", but NONCREATURES will say "Can't be countered by spells or abilities"; a creature spell never targets, so the rules of the game won't ever try to counter it. A noncreature spell CAN target, so it needs to clarify 'by spells or abilities' so that the rules of the game can still counter it.
Gilded Drake is intentionally the opposite of that. It can -only- be countered by spells or abilities; the rules of the game that normally counter a targeted ability for having no legal target won't counter this, because the ability says it's exempt from them. This is so you can't play Gilded Drake onto an empty board on turn 2 and have the game rules just eat the trigger due to no targets; or giving the target Shroud or Pro-Blue in response to your own trigger to 'keep' your Drake.
Can I cycle in response to something?
Most things, yes! Cycling is a regular activated ability. It can be done any time you have priority- so the same as any other activated ability, or casting an instant. You could Cycle something in response to a spell or ability (barring Split Second), but not in response to a special action or a mana ability, since those don't use the stack and can't be responded to.
How would you feel if they reprinted Camel and Desert for this new egypt thing set?
My opponent yesterday cast gifts ungiven and just threw two cards into the graveyard, shuffled and continued with his turn. Doesn't he need 4 cards to use it? Why did the judge not throw him out for cheating?
Mite b cool but wizards has said Desert is "too strong" for standard and will not be printed.
He's on the level.
Gifts says "up to" four cards with different names. He grabs two. Two is less than four, so he can do that. (He could also do it even if it didn't say "up to", but GA's got a better explanation for that than I do so ask him if you care.)
Then you have to choose two of those two cards to go to the 'yard. You choose both, no other choice.
Then he shuffles and Gifts is done resolving.
Surprised. I can't see them bringing back Banding, even on just one card, since it's a 10 on the Storm Scale. Desert's probably not something they'd bring back either.
It says "up to" four cards. Even if it didn't, since he's searching for cards of a stated quality ("cards with different names"), he can fail-to-find as many of them as he wants, even if his deck is nothing but cards of different names. So, he can just find two, then you 'choose' two of those two cards to put into his graveyard, and all none of 'the rest' into his hand.
Oh hey, gA. Long time no see.
If someone Act of Treason's my Runeclaw Bear wearing my Captain's Claws, the token that enters tapped and attacking is under whose control if that Runeclaw Bear attacks me?
Mine, correct? Even though it is still tapped and attacking me?
Nope! It enters tapped and attacking nobody, because it enters under your control, but it can't be attacking anyone since it's not your turn.
What do you think is going to confuse people with this new set?
I'm training to be an L1 judge so I'm helping with prereleases when I can, and I'd like to know your opinion on what you expect to be the most common things?
Bounty of Luxa and Exert probably, right?
Remembering something was Exerted will mess people up, but the biggest problem is going to be people using Embalm creatures to represent the tokens, and brain-farting that they're Zombies and putting them back in the graveyard when they die seven turns later
Okay cool, the whole "creatures you control can't be attacking you" rule is a lot more strict than I realized. Thanks.
Can you Fling a Phyrexian Dreadnought before it self sacrifices? The 12/12 for (1).
You can! It won't eat itself until the trigger resolves (and you fail to feed it enough bodies). Until that trigger resolves, it's right there on the battlefield, and can be fed to something else.
What counts as shuffling in tournament rules?
I have question for you, "Mr Judge", if you think you're so smart.
What the fuck was up with the end of Jojo Part 6? I mean, I get that Pucci used Made in Heaven to essentially cause the universe to reset by accelerating time kinda like that episode of Futurama, but his entire plan was to bring peace by having people experience their lives in full so they know what's going happen so they accept fate or whatever, yet he and Emporio are the only two to remember the old universe and Emporio only remembered because he managed to somehow travel down the singularity or whatever. And then after Emporio kills Pucci with Weather Report, he like jumps into an alternate universe where everybody is alive but they are only kinda the same people? I mean, that means nothing that happened in the entire Jojo series previously even mattered.
Seriously, what's up with that?
To clarify; if I have a deck that's completely randomized and no player has any info about it, and the game says to "shuffle" it, what is the bare minimum the rules require?
It just works
Rendering your deck randomized, such that no player is aware of the position (or relative position) of any given card.
I'm actually still working my way through Part 5 of Jojo!
You can just leave it as-is. If your deck is randomized, and nobody knows the position of anything (as in, you haven't Scried, you haven't put cards N from the top, you haven't put anything on bottom, etc), you can just leave it alone. For things like Cosi's Trickster, your deck will still be considered "shuffled", but you can just skip the physical action to save time. In fact, with things like Mind's Desire, we RECOMMEND it.
>I'm actually still working my way through Part 5 of Jojo!
Whups, sorry! I enjoyed Part 5, even Mista with his stupid hat.
So he's allowed to lie and go "lol I don't have any other cards with different names" and that's it?
Isn't that literally cheating? Or can I lie and say that I suddenly have a billion life and he loses because it's tuesday?
How do you know he's lying? You don't have access to that information. His deck could literally be nothing but basic lands of the same name.
And no, it's not literally cheating, because the rules explicitly allow it. Cheating requires three things: You need to be breaking a rule, you need to be doing it for advantage, and you need to know what you're doing is illegal.
701.17b. If a player is searching a hidden zone for cards with a stated quality, such as a card with a certain card type or color, that player isn't required to find some or all of those cards even if they're present in that zone.
Example: Splinter says "Exile target artifact. Search its controller's graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with the same name as that artifact and exile them. That player then shuffles his or her library." A player casts Splinter targeting Howling Mine (an artifact). Howling Mine's controller has another Howling Mine in her graveyard and two more in her library. Splinter's controller must find the Howling Mine in the graveyard, but may choose to find zero, one, or two of the Howling Mines in the library.
It's kinda hard for it to be cheating when there's a CR entry that explicitly tells you what you're doing is fine.
Why Scherzo Magico?
And are you flattered that the only comments on that particular language of that card on oracle are about you?
Brand Awareness.
But seriously- when I started doing Ask A Judge stuff, I was just using anything with "judge" or "Rule" or "Magic" in the name, and started running out pretty quick. I decided to just use the one I had used last as the image from then on (same logic as the Generals before they got booted from /v/, and Quests before they got banished to their own board). That way, someone sees Scherzo Magico, they know it's an AAJ thread.
And, a little! I didn't realize there were language-specific comments.
How is that rule allowed? How would i not be cheating if an opponent casts Extripate on my [insert card here], and I "fail to find" the other three cards in my deck? If my opponent calls a judge and accuses me of cheating, how would it be handled?
You don't do the search when your opponent casts Extirpate. They do.
>How would it not be cheating
Because it's explicitly allowed by the rules, and therefore by definition cannot be cheating
It's mostly in place for two things: One, for things like Extirpate, it makes it legal for your opponent to pass over a card by mistake without being penalized (Beyond "did not exile everything they intended to"); and Two, because when you're searching your OWN library, your opponent isn't privy to it, so if it WAS illegal to 'miss', your opponent would have to have a Judge verify it, and that's not logistically feasible.
Also, you're not the one searching your library if your opponent Extirpates you- they search it.
If I attack/block with Oketra and my opponent reduces my creatures down to only two before damage is done, is she removed from combat?
What can things that can exile a graveyard 'in response to' do to stuBlight/Darksteel Golem, the Eldrazi Titans, etc?
For example, could I exile original Ulamog with a Tormod's Crypt before it (and it's controller's graveyard) is shuffled back into the deck?
Yes you can. Ulamog does hit the graveyard, so if you exile it while its "shuffle everything back in" trigger is still on the stack it won't get shuffled back in because it's not in the GY (though everything else will)
Darksteel/Blightsteel, however, work differently. It's not a triggered effect that procs when the card touches the yard, it's a replacement effect that prevents it from ever giving the GY anything more than a passing wave. Tormod's crypt et al won't help there.
She was declared as a blocker, it doesn't matter at this point
Attacking/Blocking only cares about actually being declared as one or the other. For instance, you can bring a Wall of Blood screaming back from the void when you attack with Alesha, since it never "attacked"
Oketra cannot block unless you meet her requirement, but once she is declared as a blocker, she will remain a legal blocker.
If I cast Yahenni's expertise, will the spell I cast with 3cmc for free resolve before or after the - 3/-3 effect?
Read the order.
Creatures get -3-3 then you cast something
So the board gets fucked and then whatever you chose to cast for free goes on the stack.
NOW
HERES MY QUESTION YOU JUDGE
IF I ACTIVATE GIDEON AND MAKE HIM A 5/5 CREATURE AND THEN DROP A CREATUR CLONER TARGETTING GIDEON
WHAT
DOES
HAPPEN?
Legend rule?
Clone stays as Gideon Indestructible impossible to receive damage?
Clone just fucking dissapears for no fucking reason?
WHAT
DOES
HAPPEN??
You sacrifice one you don't destroy it.
The clone will enter the battlefield as a non-creature version of Gideon. You'll then have to choose one of the two cards to put into the graveyard due to the Planeswalker Uniqueness rule. (Which is like the legend rule but stops you from having more than one planeswalker with the same subtype under your control at once.)
One is simply placed into the graveyard, not sacrificed. Things that care about sacrifices won't see it.
Not all versions of Gideon remain a Planeswalker while a creature. Then one would die due to the Legend Rule, instead.
Point out to me where it says gideon turns into a legendary soldier human creature on gideon jura
All 4 Gideons explicitly remain Planeswalkers. Furthermore, the legend role would only be relevant if he was legendary, which he isn't.
Does the activated ability on Firewild Borderpost allow you to return a land card destroyed by something like Tremble, causing asymmetric land destruction?
Sorry, forgot reference pic.
Not a judge, but that's not an active ability it's an alternative cost. Do you actually have something that gives flash to it?
i don't even understand what you're asking. The activated ability gives you mana, not returning lands.
>You may pay {1} and return a basic land you control to its owner's hand rather than ...
If you mean this part, then no, you can only return a land from your battlefield, not graveyard.
No, since you choose and sacrifice the land while the spell is resolving (and nothing can be done in the middle of resolving a spell/ability).
It would in theory work with stuff that targets like Boom, bouncing the land before the spell resolution, but now the problem is that the borderpost is a simple artifact without flash like said.
If it's on the field already does it need flash to bounce the land?
If the borderpost in on the field then you can't cast it, and so you can't pay it's alternative cost and bounce a land. The only thing the post does on the battlefield is tap for mana.
Nope! Her ability just stops you from declaring her as an attacker or blocker unless the condition is met. If you've already legally attacked, turning it 'off' afterwards doesn't make it retroactively kick back in. Same as giving Defender to something AFTER it attacks won't undo the attack.
Sure-ish. The Titans all have a trigger that uses the stack and can be responded to with something like Crypt. One-Shot the Robot and his older brother, Two-Fist O'hoolihan have replacement effects, though; those don't use the stack, so you can't respond to them. They never touch the graveyard at all.
After. You perform actions in the order written, so you'll do the -3/-3, then cast your free spell, then put Expertise in the bin, then resolve the free spell.
Most Clones don't target.
You'll get an unanimated Gideon as if you just played one from your hand. The game will then see that you have two Planeswalkers with the same subtype, and you have to pick one to keep and one to bin.
It's not even sacrifice, it's just "Put into graveyard"
Actually, that's wrong. The only Planeswalker that turns into JUST a creature is Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. All the Gideons retain their Planeswalker type and associated subtype. If they didn't (or if you cloned a Sarkhan) the Legend Rule would still not apply, because only one of the things in question is Legendary.
Not typically. You can't cast the Borderpost in response to a spell (without something giving your artifacts Flash). Even if you're able, it'd only work if it was a TARGETED thing, like Stone Rain; something like Tremble has you choose and sac a land as it resolves. You can't say "I pick this, then I bounce it" during the resolution of the spell, so your only option is to bounce it in response... at which point you will have to choose from among the lands you STILL control as it resolves.
Thanks!
>Two Fist O'hoolihan
I gotta remember that.
Yeah, my playgroup does really dumb names. Magister Sphinx, for example, is "Two Punch Steve", since it sets you to 10 life and is a 5/5.
Do you use spell snip in any deck you currently play? Is it a pet card for you and if not what card is?
I don't, actually. Closest thing I have to a "pet card" is Unexpected Results. I try to avoid using the same cards in lots of decks (I play almost exclusively EDH, so I like my decks to feel different), but Unexpected Results goes in any deck that can cast it.
So does this work with Madness?
See pic related just spoiled. Will it hit cards with madness that I discarded?
If you mean something like Fiery Temper, which you discarded to Madness, and then cast, and then it resolved, I'd lean towards "No", since the game will lose track of it as it moves between zones.
I'm not sure as far as a card with Madness that got discarded and NOT cast- that's a case of "Wait for the release notes", unfortunately.
Cards with madness go to exile no matter if i want to cast them or not right? If so they probably won't come back either unless there is an exception for this card
Right. They go to exile, and then as the trigger resolves you either pay or don't. If you pay, you cast the card from exile; if you don't, it goes to the graveyard.
The hinky thing is that discarding it to exile still -counts- as discarding it for things like Megrim, so it'll be a question of if Shadow can "track" it. I'd say probably not, but I might be wrong.
I feel like after a madness cast spell resolves and goes to the graveyard again it would be considered something other than discarded
I'm like 99% sure that you won't get back a Madness spell you actually cast, but not as certain on one you *don't*. I'm leaning towards "it went to a public zone, then a different one, so the effects can't keep track of it", but I could be wrong. This is fairly unique, and they may clarify or re-write some things to accomodate.
a card isn't under your control until you've played it, right?
Correct. You can 'control' a spell on the stack or a permanent on the battlefield, but not anything else.
And it resolves
Not sure what you mean by that.
Spells on the stack, as well as permanents on the battlefield, have both an owner and a controller (USUALLY the same player). In all other zones, objects only have an owner.
I was looking up some fun enchantment commander stuff, and was wondering about a certain interaction. What are the interactions between Opalescence and the theros block gods, assuming you don't have enough devotion to make the theros gods into creatures?
It'll come down to timestamps.
If the god (we'll go with Heliod) was out SECOND, you'll first apply "That's a dude" from Opal, then check devotion. If it's too low, Heliod stops being a creature, and the P/T setting from Opal does nothing. If your devotion is high enough to disable Heliod's "I'm not a creature", then it'll be a 4/4 from Opal.
If the god entered FIRST, you'd apply Heliod's devotion check first. No matter what, Heliod ends up a 4/4 here, because even if he turns himself off, Opalescence turns him right back on and sets him to 4/4.
Basically, Heliod will either be a 4/4, or a noncreature, depending on whether he entered first, but will never be a 5/6 with Opal out. Savvy?
I have a Mana Reflection out.
I tap a Forest and a City of Ass for five total mana and pay for Cataract's ability, which produces ten mana?
Thanks, I guess I wont put this in my god deck then
>Silver Bordered cards
But yeah, that'd work.
Sure, why not?
>Plays Gigantiform
>Spell Shrivel it
>he pays the 4 to negate it
Is the stack still open after he pays that 4 mana?
Can I still Counter the Gigantiform after he negates Shrivel?
Its probably super obvious.
Yes you can
Do you think you'll have to deal with someone trying to get the reanimation trigger (be it through lack of attention to detail or intentional cheating) of a Prized Amalgam from embalming a creature (maybe Oketra's attendant)?
If so, are you looking forward to it?
Why doesn't Glorious End's end the turn effect stop the second effect of the card?
Time stop exiles itself as a part of "end the turn" so the spell must still be on the stack as that action happens so Glorious End should exile itself before the "at the beginning of ..." action happens
After he pays for the shrivel the shrivel is finished resolving and goes to the graveyard but you can still respond to the gigantiform before it resolves
If I target a target, and that target's target is a target of a target, what is actually targeted by my targeter?
The target.
After Spell Shrivel resolves, all players will receive priority again. OBJECTS on the stack resolve, one at a time, with a round of priority between each one. It's not like YGO where you lock it in and resolve it all.
Yes and no, in that order.
608.2j. If an instant spell, sorcery spell, or ability that can legally resolve leaves the stack once it starts to resolve, it will continue to resolve fully.
That's why.
North Dakota.
Rainhulk let's you cast an instant from your graveyard. A bunch of the new split cards are instant and sorcery. Can it cast either side of them and does it matter which side was the instant?
Does this land keep
indestructible if it becomes a creature from this ability?
Yes
To the whole thing? Or does it just keep?
In all zones but the stack, Split cards will have the combined characteristics of both halves. So Destined//Lead in your graveyard is an Instant Sorcery with a CMC of 6. It's an Instant, so Gearhulk can hit it, and you can cast either half.
Yes. Is there a reason you think it wouldn't?