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

Ah ok, thank you for clarification. I guess untap step is one of those "untouchable" factors like mana abilities.

Thanks! Wish I had known that at my prerelease last week. Had a card that was functionally Tunneler and assumed I was using a SBA.

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Not a Judge question, but when did the legacy general die permanently and where did everyone go?

At the prerelease, an opponent of mine used Supernatural Stamina on a bomb I was trying to kill. Once it died, I wanted to Crook it out of his graveyard with the trigger on the stack, which he and the people sitting next to him didn't think was kosher. We called the judge and at first he was agreeing with them. After a couple minutes, someone realized that this works basically just like Persist/Undying and there was finally agreement and realization among everyone. This almost cost me the game.

On a scale of 0 - 10, how mad should I have been?

11

About an 8. "The people sitting next to him" should not have been involved, at all. As soon as there was disagreement between you two a Judge should have been called, and that judge should have politely asked the nearby spectators to stay out of it, because they just need to give a simple ruling.

It would've been frustrating if they got the ruling wrong, but it's even more frustrating that random bystanders were trying to sway things.

>After a couple minutes, someone realized that this works basically just like Persist/Undying and there was finally agreement and realization among everyone.
Could you explain this bit? It was my understanding that you could respond to an undying or persist trigger. Why did that realization make people think your crook wasn't kosher?

Your understanding is correct, and my guess would be that them realizing it's just a "When this dies, it comes back" trigger like Persist means that it can be responded to like Persist.

Good morning!

This may be a dumb question but, can you use Benefaction of Rhonas and Shadow of the Grave right after? I have one person that says you can and one that says that you can't.

Ah. I thought user was implying the judge got the ruling wrong, but that makes more sense. Thanks.

Unfortunately, that's a non-bo. The cards from Benefaction go from your library directly to your graveyard. The only one that ever touches your actual hand is the creature or enchantment you choose to keep. The rest were neither cycled nor discarded, so Shadow won't get them back.

If you Exert a creature but an ability or sorcery says to untap the target creature, do you? If you do does it completely nullify the Exert ability and ready to use again?

Yes and no.
A spell or ability that untaps the exerted creature will just untap the exerted creature. Nothing special happens there.
However, it still won't untap during your next untap step if it becomes tapped again before that point.

Exert just means not to untap that creature during your next untap step- that's it. If something else would untap it for whatever reason, it still untaps, and you still get whatever effect you got from exerting it.

Hell, it doesn't even need to be tapped to exert (except the ones with tapping and exerting as an ACTIVATED ability cost from HOU). If you give Glory-Bound Initiate Vigilance, you can be swinging with it as a 4/4 lifelinker, untappedness be damned.

And I'm unfortunately tapping out for most of the weekend! I'll be without proper internet for tonight and all of tomorrow, as well as most of Sunday. More thread Sunday night possibly, and Monday morning for sure.

Follow up question, just to confirm. If I just untap it and attack (but don't Exert) will it still not untap during my next untap phase?

I have Omnath, Locus Rage on the battlefield, and I use the -7 ability of Nissa, Worldwaker:
When I put 10 lands on the battlefield from my library, do I really get 10 4/4 and 10 5/5 elementals?

Yes, its still exerted, even after untapping it

Does a creature targeted by Ice Floe still deal damage that turn?

Yes.

What about inspire triggers?

Do triggers from triggered abilities resolve even if the card is a creature with said ability and dies on damage step. I'm looking at Obelisk Spider here, does the creature it applies damage to still get a -1-1 counter and you still get to drain 1 life after the spider is put on a graveyard?

Yup. Nissa turns all the lands into 4/4's and Angry Omnath sees ten lands enter and calls up ten homies to start the party

Ice floe doesnt remove the creature from combat or prevent damage, so combat goes through like normal

Inspired triggers trigger during the untap step, but since no one receives priority then, they don't get put on the stack till the upkeep.

If they are on the field when the ability would trigger, yes. So if The Amazing Obelisk Spider blocks a 4/4, it's ability triggers but doesnt go onto the stack yet. SBA's are checked and your spider dies, then it's trigger goes on the stack. If nobody has a response, you put a counter on their dude, but ol' spidey is already dead so can't trigger.

>t. An almost level one judge

Given that Sealed/Draft events that don't use deck registrations (such as FNM, generally) allow players to sideboard freely between games and matches without having to revert sideboard changes in time for subsequent rounds, do you think it's a dick move to see what colors other people at the draft table are playing and then swapping in and out relevant Defeat cycle cards before a match starts when playing against those players?

Seedborn Muse isn't a trigger its a static ability that changes the rules.

A player tried to float mana before untapping, (twice because clones) and dump it all into a blue sun zenith. I did not tell them no but I definitely think it was wrong.

You don't have priority on untap step.

Correct but anything that triggered on untap (which this isn't) goes on the stack once untap is done.

Been a long time what's up.

So I really want a judge's take on this, because I feel kind of conflicted.

between games two and three of a round at FNM, the following cinversation happened:
>P1: So all I need to do is swan dive your shit and win this.
>P2: Or I can just surgical your seismic assault and you can't do shit.
>P1: Bro, don't surgical seismic assault. I'll suck your dick to not surgical my seismic.

It was blatantly obvious from context that was not a genuine offer of bribery, and never intended to be.
Does a judge still need to apply the penalties for bribery and DQ both players, or is this something that can safely be said "No, this wasn't bribery, just shittalking between games. Clean up your language and play on"?

Basically, how do I make this without Earthcraft?

what snacks do you eat when you play

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If my opponent forces me to attack with a card like Bident of Thassa but has a pillowfort card like Ghostly Prison on the battlefield can I choose not to pay the mana so my creatures don't attack or do I have to pay mana to attack?

Your creatures must attack if able. If you don't pay, they're not able. You are not forced to pay.
Therefore, your creatures only attack if you want to pay.

There's nothing against the rules about it, I ain't gonna stop you. It's really up to you and your playgroup whether or not it's kosher.

I'm a judge-in-training (just got to do my exam, which is locked away in the down-for-maintenance judge center).
It's tricky. By all rights we HAVE to DQ them then feel really shitty about it all day. At an FNM I would give them a talk to make sure the players understand that talk like this at a serious event will get them DQ'd, and by the rules I should DQ them from this tournament. Kinda depends on how laid back your FNM and judge is.

Intruder alarm + Life and Limb? Mind over Matter + some buffs + Garruk's packleader? I can't think of any combos that only need one other card, but there might be some out there.

It's a bit of a nonbo for your opponent. You must satisfy as many conditions as possible (in this case, just Bident) without violating any restrictions (Prison). They can't force you to pay, so if you don't pay, there are no legal attacks.

So this one has never came up for me personally but after the dice roll when the winner calls they want first (player 1) and both draw initial hands who declares if they're keeping or not? I imagine it's player 1 right? or can some awkward standoff happen where neither player wants to mull unless their opponent does first

If I have a version of a card that's from an old expansion but is in standard, can I use it (i.e. Cancel from Tarkir)?

Yes.

Intruder alarm + imperious perfect works if perfect survives an untap step.

Intruder alarm+sprout swarm also gets there with enough dudes (3 mana and 3 creatures is enough to go infinite)

Once players draw their opening hand, Starting Player declares intent to mulligan first. Then each subsequent opponent in turn order declares, them resolve all mulligans at the same time.

Granted, if you're on the play and your opponent dry heaves and ships it before you can make a decision, that's them being hasty and you can use that. But you can't ask what they're going to do to try and angle shoot - most judges will say "if you ask if he's keeping or not, you're keeping"

Still better than the old system where player B can't even look at his hand until player A has finished all his mulligan decisions.

Hmmm

Theres plenty of two card combos that give you infinite dudes. I assumed he meant with Squirrel Nest specifically.

Presence of gond + Midnight guard AKA pauper twin

Suppose I have Yasova Dragonclaw and willbreaker on the field. If Yasova is at her base stats, can she target creature a creature that's higher power than her? If so, does willbreaker ability trigger first and take control of it before I pay the cost for Yasova?

Are you sick of people saying that Traumatize + Fraying Sanity puts the opponent's entire library into the graveyard too?

you mean if you had 2 combat phases? It would not untap if it got tapped a second time. But, if you exert it one turn and then untap it that turn so that your next untap step it's already untapped, the "does not untap" effect still clears on that upkeep, so you can attack without exerting and have it untap normally the next untap step.

It was wrong for several reasons but the easiest is that you can't cast spells during the untap step so even if he could make all that mana he'd have to wait until the upkeep to cast his spell, and by that time he'd not have the mana anymore. Also like you said it's not a trigger so having clones of the muse won't untap his lands multiple times. I'm also not sure you can even tap lands during the untap step because of priority.

I don't think you can target a creature with greater than or equal to power, "target creature an opponent controls with power less than Yasova Dragonclaw's power" is all one thing and the first gatherer ruling says "The powers of the target creature and Yasova Dragonclaw are checked as you put the ability on the stack" implying that you can't put it on the stack targeting a creature with the wrong power.

Does Confiscation Coup, if used on a tapped creature, untap it?
Because i know that creature is actually affected by summoning sickness

It doesn't untap it. The creature will have summoning sickness. A creature with summoning sickness can be tapped. A creature with summoning sickness can't attack nor activate abilities with the tap or untap symbol in its activation cost.

Does Metallic Mimic keep its chosen creature type while it is in the graveyard?

Nope

How does Knowledge Pool exactly work?
I guess what i am asking is if the cards exiled by Knowledge Pools imprint ability can run out or if the cards you cast when Knowledge pool is on the battlefield replace the cards you exiled with it's imprint ability.

I attack with a 3/3 Lifelink and my opponent blocks with a 2/2. Do I gain 3 life or 2 life?

what is the power of cards that have X power when they are in your hand or graveyard?

Doesn't it?

Abilities only work on the battlefield, unless they specifically say they work in other zones or it wouldn't make sense if they didn't. When a permanent changes zone, it loses all memory of what it was in it's last zone and reverts back to its base card text. So no on a few counts.

Ok, so in a two player game, this is what happens with knowledge pool:
Player A casts it, both players exile the top 3 cards, lets call them a, b, c, d, e, f. Then, player A casts spell z, which gets exiled under the pool and they choose spell b. Player B casts spell x, which gets exiled and they choose to cast spell f. So end result is cards a, c, d, e, z, x, under the pool. The pool doesn't whether the cards under it were exiled with imprint or its other ability, so under normal circumstances it never empties. Though, if it does empty (maybe with a bunch of Pull From Eternities), it'll still exile spells cast to restart the process.
Does that explain it?

Damage happens all at once, we don't pause between slaps to check whether anything should be dead. So assigning three damage to a 2/2 will gain your three life.

Best booster drafting set? I'd love to build a cube based on a plane/block. Waiting for Unstable to see if it's honestly a fun draft set like Conspiracy.

Creatures with */* power, like Tarmogoyf and Majestic Myriarch have abilities called Characteristic Defining Abilities, which are unique in that they function in ALL zones as well as outside the game. So a Tarmogoyf in your hand has the same power as a Goyf on the field, in your graveyard or in your deck. There are some weird ones, like Wood Elemental that set to a certain number once they enter the field or some other action happens. I'm not entirely sure what their power is in other zones. I want to say zero, but it could be

But if it comes up, serves you right for playing Wood Elemental.

hey Wood elemental can be useful in Titania EDH

If I make a zombie copy of a creature with */* P/T in a graveyard with The Scarab God, is the zombie a 4/4 or still a */*?

Fungus elemental before wood elemental unless you need all the lands to die at once for some reason.

>706.9d When applying a copy effect that doesn’t copy a certain characteristic, retains an original value for a certain characteristic, or modifies the final value of a certain characteristic, any characteristic-defining ability of the object being copied that defines that characteristic is not copied.

The god overrides */*, so it's a 4/4.

Thanks judge
>tfw getting a 4/4 Angel of Invetion in addition to its ETB

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My opponent attacks with Wretched Camel, which upon death has the ability to make target player discard a card if you control a desert or there is a desert card in your graveyard. I block with my Feral Prowler, which draws a card upon death. They kill each other. Do I discard the card I get from drawing with Feral or do I get to keep my card?

forgot to add: the desert camel has a +1/+0 on it so it has 3 power whoops

also second addendum: i have no cards in my hand before they trade kills

You're the NAP, so you draw first, then you discard.
If you're the AP (you attack, he blocks), then you discard first then draw.

I don't know what NAP and AP mean.

NAP, non active player. When two triggers gets put on top, AP's gets his put into the stack first, then NAP's.

ok, thanks, I see

so my effect of drawing a card is on top of the stack over the camel and gets proc'd first, so I draw, then the camel's effect procs and I discard it

NAP is Non-Active Player, AP is Active Player.
whoever's turn it is, that chump is the Active Player. in this scenario:
>Camel attacks you, your Cat is blocking
you draw, then discard. If it's an instant, you may play the card before Camel's effect resolves
>Cat attacks, Camel blocks
in this example it would be your turn, you are the AP. you will discard, then draw.

previous user did a bad job of explaining ap/nap. short answer is it depends on whose turn it is. because camel is attacking you yes you will draw then discard, because your opponent is the Active Player.

>Doesn't it?
The opponent having an odd number of card in his or her library is hardly a corner case situation. In this case the combo would leave the bottom card of the library in place.

I guess they're not technically right half the time but its nothing that isn't easily explained

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around cards that tap my opponent's lands.
When am I allowed to use them in a way that is useful? The way I see it if I use them during my turn they'd just untap unless I used another card to limit it, but I don't know when during their turn I can use them and what my opponent is allowed to do beforehand.

Prefer cultivator of blades for the straight beats myself.

How confused would i be off my last set was Kamigawa?

during your opponent's upkeep.

take it slow, read the cards and you'll be fine. if you're unsure about something, first read the card carefully then ask a trusted source like ga or a local judge.

Not much, they removes some things like damage on the stack and added the planeswalker permanents but other than that it's just a matter of knowing the cards in the current meta.

why is it that blocking and sacing a creature will still prevent damage being dealt to a players life total, but using removal on a blocker still allows for damage to go through?

or is my group playing incorrectly?

also, wheres a good place to read up on banding? a friend of mine told me its like the inverse of stack blocking?

how does trample and deathtouch work when a creature with protection is blocking. say, a typhoid rat being blocked by a pro black creature. i can only think of white knight atm, but the first strike would make the protection and deathtouch irrelevant.

if you regenerate a creature to keep it alive during combat, does it still do combat damage?

i have a thing in the ice on the field with 4 counters on it.

i cast 2 mutigenic growths, temir battle rage, and a gitaxian probe.

when the thing in the ice flips, does it still keep the +4/+4 double strike and trample?

>or is my group playing incorrectly?
yep.
once a block has been declared, even if the creature is removed (whether through sacrifice or a kill spell) the attacking creature will not deal damage to a player UNLESS it has trample.
however, removing that creature before blocks (in declare attackers step or sooner) makes it unable to block.

>if you regenerate a creature to keep it alive during combat, does it still do combat damage?
yes. if it would 'die' to combat damage and trigger the regeneration then logically it must also deal combat damage, as all combat damage (excluding 1st/2x strike) is dealt simultaneously. follow?

>how does trample and deathtouch work when a creature with protection is blocking
mostly the same as usual. trample creature assigns lethal damage which is 1 (one) to the blocker and the rest if you choose to can go to face. the game doesn't check to see whether the protection blocker will actually die.

>does awoken horror still keep the buffs from the spells that targeted titi
yes. it is still the same object. keep in mind that in this example it still doesn't have haste. also note that if someone casts doom blade targeting thing in the ice and you in response cast an instant to transform it into awoken horror that the removal spell will still be targeting that same object, even if has been flipped over.

>why is it that blocking and sacing a creature will still prevent damage being dealt to a players life total, but using removal on a blocker still allows for damage to go through?
Where did you pick this up?
If the attacking creature does not have trample, then it will only deal damage to its blockers. If all its blockers die, no matter HOW they died, then the creature deals no damage to anything (so its controller wouldn't gain life from lifelink etc.)
If the attacking creature DOES have trample, then it's forced to deal at least lethal damage to all its blockers before assigning the rest to the defending player. If all its blockers die, again no matter HOW they die, it will deal all its power as damage to the defending player.
>banding
To make it simple, you can create bands of creatures that attack together made up of dudes with banding and up to one creature without banding. If the defender wants to stop the attack, he's forced to block the whole group at once. An important thing is that the owner of the band decides how combat damage is assigned to his own creatures, so hypotetically you could attack with a band of a 0/3 and a 1/1 guys and have them both survive when blocked by a 2/2. You can also make bands when defending to use this to your advantage.