MTG Magic The Gathering Ask A Judge - 「 T H U R S D A Y ' S C H I L D 」

You, and each player attacking the Cursed player, should only get one of whatever trigger, regardless of how many creatures are attacking, unless they change some stuff.

702.28e. Typecycling is a variant of the cycling ability. "[Type]cycling [cost]" means "[Cost], Discard this card: Search your library for a [type] card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library." This type is usually a subtype (as in "mountaincycling") but can be any card type, subtype, supertype, or combination thereof (as in "basic landcycling").
It should replace the "Sliver" in Slivercycling with Vampire just fine.

And yes.

What is the DCI-approved dimensions and/or volume for my Cup O' Phasing?

You might need a Bucket o' Phasing depending on the deck.

If Silent Arbiter is out in a multiplayer game, and someone attacks with Blade of Selves, how do you decide who gets to block?

I'll need to do a touch of research on that, because I'm not sure off-hand.

That was easy enough-

Multiplayer blocks are declared in turn order. So the next player in the turn order has the first shot at blocking. If they block, that's it for the turn- C and D won't be allowed to declare a block. If they decline, or cannot block, then C gets the chance. If C doesn't block, D can block, etc.

Of course, being multiplayer, it's also fine for them to just discuss and come to consensus on who 'gets' to block, should they choose to. But by the rules, if they're in a "fuck you, I'm protecting myself!" stand-off, then whoever's turn is next will get first crack at the block.

I control a Nightsteel Citadel and City of Traitors. I tap them both and pay 2 life to play Phyrexian metamorph and choose to copy Citadel. Do I get to keep the City of Traitors?

Assuming you mean Darksteel, yes

Metamorph enters as a Citadel, but City of Traitors doesn't care about anything but you taking the special action of PLAYING a land. putting one onto the battlefield in any other way is fine.

Whoops, lost the name.

Thank you.

I want to start playing more seriously. Where should I start with theory? I want to get a good grasp on basic stuff like tempo, card advantage, board control, etc.

I'm unfortunately not your best resource for that. I'm not a very skilled player, nor do I keep up with most of t he theory stuff. All I can suggest is hitting up the archives on the big sites like CFB and Starcity and reading through old articles.

Thanks. I bet some pro has written a for dummies book at some point too.

Oh, there's several books about How To Git Gud, I just couldn't tell you which ones are worth a damn.

Mairsil the pretender with a reassembling skeleton exiled. Can she use the ability while in the yard?

Unless things get changed up, Mairsil's "I have those activated abilities!" ability doesn't work anywhere but the battlefield.

Also he's a guy.

Watch youtube videos / twitch streams of pro / good players playing mtgo.
I can say i got kinda gud playing drafts watching LSV's draft videos several years ago. Not competitive level gud, but at least i go from a lost every match scrub on 8 player draft FNM to placing 3rd or 4th mostly and sometimes winning the pod.

T1: Hope of Girapur
T2: Collective brutality, escalate discarding Bridge to below, Duress and +2/-2 mode; hold priority, sac hope of giraphur

CB is uncounterable and I get a 2/2 zombie yes?

Not quite. First, unless you actually hit them with Hope of Ghirapur during combat that turn, you can't even activate the ability because you have no legal target.

Assuming you have hit them with Hope, you can indeed cast the spell as you described, hold priority, and pop Ghirapur to trigger Bridge, but CB will still be counterable- they can just cast a counter in response to Ghirapur's ability, for example.

Though, why wouldn't you just choose the mode of them losing 2 and you gaining 2, instead of wasting a discard on a mode you aren't even using?

So fraying sanity states cards put into that graveyard. Would tokens count as cards in this case? I know they go to the graveyard and then vanish.

Tokens, by definition, are not cards.

They do go to the graveyard, but they aren't cards.

than why does necrotic ooze have the "
As long as Necrotic Ooze is on the battlefield" clause.

Why would I want bridge from below in my hand?

So if I put 4 tokens and 4 cards in the graveyard, Fraying Sanity's X is 4?

My guess is to just cut that question off at the pass. From everything I know about static abilities, that one should not function in any zone but the battlefield, regardless of if that "only on the battlefield" line is there.

Maybe they'll change it for Mairsil, but as far as I know, it shouldn't work anywhere but the field.

Ah, right, you're only doing one extra mode.

Still, you could just do the "you lose 2, I gain 2". Picking the -2/-2 mode is an odd choice, but a legal one.

Right, because only 4 CARDS were put into that graveyard.

Theres a new lgs in my city and they just started getting the event merch and are just beginning to get some players and firing up some fnms and such.

Last weekend it was gameday and they got the gameday merch and everything. Thing is that the players werent completely ready at all for the gameday. They all had draft decks and some planeswalker decks.

The lgs was kinda scared that older players from other lgses would come up with fully decked out tier decks and hog up all the prizes from the newbies so the lgs owner decided to ask around and someone linked to wizards told him that if he wanted he could do a standard sealed event instead of constructed to have everyone in equal footing.

My question here is if its possible to do that. He told me that someone suggested him that he could change up the gameday in this case to some other format as long as it was still standard.

Asking here because the lgs is just starting up and theres some people that could maybe see this as dishonest or incorrect and try to report them out to wizards to ban the store which would really suck for my city because there isnt even that many players anyways.

afaik, you can't. Game Day is specifically a standard event. You can just not run it and do a sealed event, can't call it Game Day though.
Also don't know whether you're allowed to give Game Day prizes on other event or not.

So a buddy of mine was saying something about a possible rules change (specifically in EDH/Commander) regarding tokens and phasing, and them actually phasing out and back in again instead of just disappearing.

Is there any truth to that, or should I bust his balls about believing fake news?

Should Exotic Orchard produce any colour of mana with cascading cataracts on board?

Well, the rules manager said it, so...bust your own balls?

If the Cataract is your opponent's, sure.
The Orchard still can't produce colorless though.

To my knowledge, Game Day MUST be Standard, and has a specific set of rules for distributing the promo prizes.

If your LGS has questions like that in the future, advise them to call their WPN rep!

Tabak confirmed that as of the 25th, tokens will phase in and out as normal, and won't stop existing when they phase out.

Yes, because what Orchard asks is "Hey, what colors of mana could you theoretically make with your abilities right now?", and the answer it gets back is "all five?", even if that's their only land. Whether or not they are ABLE to activate the ability is irrelevant. A Vivid with no counters will enable an Orchard just fine.

I thought as much, but it didn't work on xmage so I was uncertain

>Bucket O' Phasing
You know not the forces you toy with.

What if my opponent has a command tower with a grixis commander. Does that mean that i can only produce RBU because thats the only colors the CT can produce on this instance.

Correct. Their Command Tower can only ever make RBU in the situation described, so that's all your Orchard can make.

That's right.

iIRC it's basically the same ruling for what mana you can make if both you and your opponent control an orchid, and you control a mountain.

Very general question here but it's caused some headaches for me and my brother. What cards that dont specify Planeswalkers, can target then. For example, can lighting bolt or other burn spells target them? Or is it just attacks and cards that specify Planeswalkers

None, technically. Other than "target permanent" or "nonland/noncreature permanent" things, where the Planeswalker is obviously included in the broad targeting restriction.

What you CAN do is cast a Lightning Bolt targeting your opponent. Any time a source you control would deal non-combat damage to an opponent, you can choose (on resolution) to have 100% of that damage be dealt to one planeswalker that opponent controls, instead. So you cast Bolt on your opponent, and on resolution, redirect the 3 damage to their Jace. "Bolt your Jace" is a common shortcut for that, but at no point are you actually targeting the planeswalker with the burn spell (With the exception of 'target planeswalker' burn spells like Fated Conflagration)

You cant really target planeswalkers unless the card specifies it with "deal 5 damage to target player or planeswalker"

When you lightning bolt a planeswalker you are actually hitting the opponent in the face and the redirecting the damage to the planeswalker. So if they have hexproof you cannot target them and thus you cant redirect the dmg to the planeswalker.

I'm not picking the -2/-2 usually but I was wondering if the option worked in case I had a second bridge in hand. to clarify, if i sac it before i cast CB stops the counterspell but i can't sac it in response to a spell. Either way the escalate is already paid for on CB and i could sac it after you counter brutality for the zombie(s) anyways?

>Stops the counterspell
I'm not sure what you're asking, here. You cannot use Ghirapur as a counterspell, and nothing about what you're doing renders your spell uncounterable.

If you cast Brutality with those two modes, targeting your opponent and your Hope, and they respond with a counterspell, you can pop Hope to still get the Zombie, yes. Assuming you have hit them with Hope that turn.

I have a question about Sylvan Library.

If I don't want the two extra cards can I arrange them however I want when I return them back to the top?

Correct. You draw your card for the turn, and then as the trigger resolves, you can draw 2 more if you'd like, making sure to keep all 3 of those cards clearly distinct from the rest of your hand. If you decide to only keep one of the three, you put the other two back how you like.

Thanks!

What's your favourite drink?

Answers my badly worded question thanks.

Iced tea with honey and blackberries.

>If ~ enters the battlefield during the declare attackers step, you may reselect the player or planeswalker that the target attacking creature attacks
An opponent throws an Emrakul my way, and i cast this creature while the annihilator trigger on the stack to make it attack an opponent. Who has to sacrifice to the annihilator ability?

You're gonna need to post that shit in english, mate. I have no clue what the fuck that is or does.

It's a card that just got got spoiled, the quoted text is the translation

Then the answer is the defending player.
Who's the defending player when the annihilator trigger resolves?
Your opponent.

Hey Judge, so Im playing a madness deck. I have stromkirk occultist as one of my creatures. When it deals damage to a player it sends the top card of library to exile and I can play it until end of turn. If I exile a card with madness this way, can I play it for its madness cost, or only its regular cost?

you didn't discard it, boy, so you can't madness it

Figured as much. Just wanted to double check. Thanks tho

Question about token creation and triggers:

You got Cathars' Crusade on the field, and cast Sram's expertise.

Create 3 tokens, triggers CC.

Do the tokens come in as 3x 1/1's with 3x +1/+1 counters or do they come in sequentially as token A (+3/+3), token B (+2/+2), and token C (+1/+1)

They get on the battlefield as 1/1 tokens, the crusade triggers 3 times and those triggers go on the stack. They resolve one by one, and in the end all your tokens het 3 +1/+1 counters

fatal push was a mistake
snap caster, while great, is also a fucking mistake

REEEEEEEEEEe

Sorry gang! Got really tied up after work.

The way I grok it, it should hit the person who Emrakul ORIGINALLY attacked, based on the timing of when you can even flash that in.

This is a unique effect though, so I may be wrong, due to lack of precedent. This is a "Wait for the FAQ" thing.

You can only do Madness if you discard, and you can't discard from your library.

They'll come in as three 1/1s, triggering Expertise 3 times total. All 3 exist as the triggers resolve, so all 3 will get three counters. But they don't ENTER with them.

If I have a goblin charbelcher and my opponent has a planeswalker, do I have to choose whether or not to redirect the damage before the ability resolves or after I see how many cards I reveal?

You make the choice as the damage would be dealt, so you can wait to see if you're plinking for just a few, or for "goddamn that's gonna hurt".

Thanks, though I wish I knew that last week when I lost with my opponent at 1 with a "wasted" activation on a jace earlier.

>fatal push was a mistake

Still does jack shit against Tron and Delve

What happens when I give a creature enough toughness until end of turn with a combat trick to survive a removal spell that deals direct damage to it? Does the damage get removed first before the buff fades away, or does the buff fade and kill the creature before the damage can be removed?

>Tabak confirmed that as of the 25th, tokens will phase in and out as normal, and won't stop existing when they phase out.
is phase out an actual thing or just another term for flickerwhisp or restorations angel effects?

both at the same time, your creature will survive or else there's no point in toughness adding effects.

Phasing is an ability from the mirage block

I'm making a cube, I got a decent amount of enchantment/artifact removal, I've also got a good amount of creature removal.

Destructive Revelry or Ground Assault?

Ground assault always

At least in my experience. Cube boils down with a heavier ratio of important creatures than important artifacts or enchantments. Though if you have enough of each removal, why add more?

Thanks

RG has a instant/sorcery slot open.

Lightning bolt ? duh

I had this problem during one of my kitchen table matches. It's probably silly. It was few weeks ago so I don't remember well, but here's the deal:

My opponent attacks with a 4/4 first strike, I block with a 3/3 lifelink.
Do I get 3 life points or not?

I guess not, but just wanted to double-check.

Creatures with first strike deal damage in the first strike damage step, then creatures without first strike deal damage in the normal step. Creatures can die between these steps, so your 3/3 will be dead before it deals any damage. You don't gain any life.

Marked damage and "until end of turn" effects are dealt with simultaneously in the cleanup step. Using Giant Growth to save your guy from Lightning Bolt works fine, it won't die at the end of the turn (from that, anyway)

Phasing is a real thing where you pretend cards don't exist every other turn.

You do not, because your 3/3 never does damage. In the First Strike damage step, your 3/3 takes 4. SBAs are checked, and your creature has lethal damage on it, so it dies. It isn't alive in the normal Combat Damage Step to -deal- 3 damage, so no life.

Opponent is cursed with Overwhelming Splendor. She activates UG Nissa's -6 on two lands. Are they 1/1 or 5/5 F,H?

5/5 with haste and flying. You have two effects working in layer 6 (the ability adding/removing layer) and 7b (setting P/T to a specific number), so we just go by timestamps. "These guys have flying and haste" has a newer timestamp than "These guys have no abilities", so that gets added on. "These guys are 5/5" has a newer timestamp than "these guys are 1/1", so that 'wins' too.

Funny enough, they won't have any abilities EXCEPT flying and haste, though, as soon as they're animated.

Does Thursday's child have far to go?

is Friday's Child loving and giving?

So now that release notes are out, whats the verdict on this? Looks to me like you can't swap annihilator to another player.

Yeah, it's seeming like it'll be 'aimed' at the original defending player.

Idk I was born bonnie and blithe, you'd have to ask them.