Unnofficial mtg Ask A Judge

There were still a few unanswered questions from the last thread so I'm putting this up again.

It doesn't come up all that often because the decks than ran it are dead/uncommon but Spellskiteing a Thoughseize or Mana Leak was always a feel bad. Still, its the kind of mistake you only make once.

Yes, they do. They have to follow as many instructions as possible, including shuffling. In a game of commander if everybody's decks are already randomized you could just shortcut and not shuffle as the deck isn't going to be nore or less random afterwards. But the game still sees a shuffle, so that Cosi's Trickster gon be big.

Thats correct, it only cares about the cards in your yard on activation so once its on the stack emptying the yard won't stop it.

>alters
The official rule, from MTR is "Artistic modifications also may not obstruct or change the mana cost or name of the card." Imagine a player had never seen the card before. If theres a vine over one letter they can still probably read it, so its not obscured (IMO), but your friend has changed the name of the card, there's no denying that. All I can say is don't expect to be able to walk into a GP with it.

If you want to give it a go, try the Duels of the Planeswalkers games. They're on steam, apple and android, I believe the last one is even free. Once you get the hang of it, ask your local store if they have any free decks. All registered stores get heaps of decks from WOTC that they are obliged to give away for free.

Can I return */* creatures with Reveillark?

*/* generally indicates that the power and toughness are set by a characteristic-defining ability. Those function in any zone. So... depends.

Ok, another question, can I play the card removed with pic related at the very instant I atack with 3 creatures?, I won a game playing armored ascension from exile at the very moment I atacked with my creatures, but I'm not sure if that is actually legal.

So pic related can't be returned from the graveyard with reveillark?

Absolutely. You have a few chance to use it, after attackers have been declared or after blockers have been declared (or anytime in the rest of the turn). Any activated ability can be used any time you could cast an instant, unless it specifies that you can't or its baked into the rules that you can't (like planeswalkers or the Equip ability).

It can, but only if you control two or less creatures. The Monk's power and toughness is defined by something we call a characteristic-defining ability, or a CDA. These are unique in that, unlike most abilities, these function in ALL zones, not just the battlefield. So with two dudes on the board you monk is a 2/2 in the grave, hand, library, etc.

I had this scenario come up recently and my friend and I were kind of confused about what actually happened.
I have marrow-gnawer, thornbite staff, a couple rats, and altar of the brood.
My opponent has ulamog, the infinite gyre in his deck.
How does someone interact with their library if it's in a constant state of being milled and brought back from the graveyard?

Altar of the Brood exiles cards user, it doesn't matter. I run it specifically to deck people with Ghave as an alternate wincon.

U wot

Are you serious? I ran it specifically because it exiled things, the fuck was I thinking?

Wait wait wait, I run it with rest in peace.

Anyways Ulamog is stupid, you shuffle the yard into the library as soon as you topdeck and yard Ulamog, then continue milling until Ulamog is drawn, exiled, or is milled again. If the form of mill you're using is a specific number instead of intervals, like 7 cards instead of each individual ETB, you mill all seven cards, then Ulamog's state-based effect kicks in regardless of where he was drawn and shuffles the whole pile back as soon as the action is completed.

Right, that much makes sense. So in this scenario, all the rats enter at once, so the number of cards he mills is equal to the number of rats that enter? So he could mill himself to death before ulamog hits the yard?

you can't mill yourself to death.

You lose on the draw, not by milling a large chunk. If you're milling a large enough interval, and you know ulamog is in there, you might as well just shuffle the library instead of moving the whole thing to the graveyard then back to the library.

But, if you mill one less card than their whole library, you need to actually mill all the cards to determine whether Ulamog was the very last card or not.

Aha, it always boils down to a semantics question
so altar says >top card of your library
but that doesn't mean you lose when you don't have a card in your library?

You only lose when trying to draw a card from an empty library, you can go on playing with an empty library as long as you don't draw any cards.

What an enlightening experience. Nobody in my playgroup knows how mill works. Cheers friend

No problem user. Just spreading the Dimir love. Run Lazav, tutor traumatize, and laugh your way to the bank if you get a fraying sanity out.

I'm really considering slotting RIP and altar into my Tana/Sidar saproling spam edh deck now, that's some spicy stuff

Firstly: you don't lose by having an empty library. You lose by trying to draw a card from an empty library. Once their deck gets to zero, altar still tries to mill them, can't, shrugs, and the game continues. Obviously with a titan this means as soon as they start they're turn and try to draw a card, they lose.

In this case we have an optional loop. In a tournament, you are eventually required to make a decision within the loop to stop it. here, this means you have to stop tapping your Marrow-Gnawer, because you're not progressing the game and that's slow play. You can propose a shortcut by demonstrating that it's a loop, then saying "I'll do this ten billion times and get loads of rats, you shuffle your deck"

TL;DR:
You get all the rats you want, you can't mill your opponent out.

*without a titan

in combat, if I block and ask if someone passes priority before using an effect, can the effect be answered before resolving?
On a sidenote, if before I decide blockers I ask if the attacking player passes priority, can he pull combat tricks?

1. Yes it can.
2. If you are at block phase and you ask that, it means you declare no blockers. Also, yes he can.

This guy's right. To elaborate:

The active player (whoever's turn it currently is) always has priority first. If they pass it to you, and you pass it back with no spells on the stack, we go to the next phase. If anyone has anything to do after being passed priority, it's passed around again while their spell/ability is on the stack, then again after the stack is empty.

Here's how combat works:

Beginning of combat step -
This is your last chance to do anything before attackers are declared.

Attackers step -
Attackers are declared as a turn-based action, afterwards, players get priority. This is your last chance to do anything before blockers are declared. If your opponent passes here, he can't, for example, cast Stun on one of your dudes to prevent it from blocking, unless after he passes, you put something on the stack.

Blockers step -
Blockers are declared, then players get priority again. This is your last chance to do anything before damage is dealt.

Damage step -
The active player declares what order they will deal damage to creatures, then assigns damage to those creatures in that order, then the non active player does the same. If a creature has first strike or double strike, they deal damage first, simultaneously, then creatures that didn't already deal damage, or have double strike, deal their damage simultaneously.

Capeesh?

My opponent fetches with a Grafdiggers Cage in play, and attempts to put a Dryad Arbor into play. Does he get to select a different card after being reminded of the Cage?

Nope. Their play was legal, they found a forest but when they tried to put it into play, the cage said "just leave that where you found it".

But how did they "find" it if the Cage was in play?

If fetch lands dont require revealing the card you're searching for until the card enters play, how can you reveal the card for the purposes of Cage stopping it from entering without it actually entering?

>Unnoficial mtg ask a cuck

how far are you willing to work for free as an intern for promos

That's a good point. I'm not totally sure but here's how I see it. If they put a card face down on the table and say "Wait, I can't get creatures" then you could argue they haven't finished their search. If they put a Dryad Arbor on the field, they've obviously searched for it. Sure, the game may not have told them to reveal it, but they did and it's pretty hard to claim "no thats not the card I searched for".

Well I'm an official judge, just not the one you're used to. Hell man, I don't even know how I get promos. I became a judge because my area needs them and I enjoy it. I've learned a lot, not just about magic, but about organizing people, about studying and exactly what kind of yelling will grab the attention of a herd of nerds.

>Sure, the game may not have told them to reveal it, but they did and it's pretty hard to claim "no thats not the card I searched for".

But that has nothing to do with it. How can it be revealed at all if it can't enter? And if that can't happen, how can they be denied the opportunity to find a different card if they haven't finished searching?

You might be right in that with the pure rules of the game they can't technically reveal it, honestly I don't think I'm experienced enough to say for certain how it should work in a tournament, but this is what I can see.

Compare it to cracking a Scalding Tarn and fetching an Overgrown Tomb. It's not a legal play, so if it happens we rewind to the last time the game state was legal, which was while that player was searching their library.

When you search for your Dryad Arbor and put it onto the field, it's not a legal play. So we rewind to the last legal gamestate, which was after you have selected your Arbor.

I'm gonna ask some more experienced judges and hopefully get back to you before the thread dies.

I've had a chat with an L2 friend, he said it's tough. His opinion was it depends on whether he specifically was searching for a Dryad Arbor or just any land he could fetch.

I think I'm going to give my final word:
Depends on the judge. If I got called to the table, it stays in the deck. If you get called, maybe they get to go again.

It's not illegal to flip over a card while you're searching your library and show it to your opponent. Wouldn't that essentially be what you're doing when you say "Ima put this dryad Arbor into play from my library with grafdigger's cage"?? Another example would be saying "in response, I cast this sorcery". You can't do that but the fact that you revealed a card in your hand isn't a game violation. In the same way it would make sense that you can "attempt" to choose dryad Arbor for the fetchland but succeed in doing nothing but show your opponent that dryad Arbor is in your library, and you would still need to finish resolving the fetchland

I agree. I would rule that the Arbor get shuffled back in and you've wasted a fetch.

However, since you don't reveal the card you picked until you put it onto the battlefield, and you can't put the Arbor onto the battlefield, there's an argument that flipping that Arbor while fetching is equivalent to flipping a Runeclaw Bear. Neither one of them can legally be put onto the battlefield within this sequence.

With jori en on the field, as I cast a spell and copy it twice with an ability, would I draw two cards?

no

This is a dumb one, but how do multiple "skip next untap step"s work? Say I hit someone with a Fireshrieking Shisato. Do they skip their next untap and the one after, or do all the skips get eaten at the first untap step? What if there are skips from multiple sources? thanks

Nope. Jori only cares about the second spell cast. If you cast a third one while the trigger is on the stack, the game still knows it wasn't the second.

The only dumb questions are the ones you don't ask.

As for the question, they skip the first one, then all the other triggers have nothing to skip, so they wait patiently for the next one. So yeah, doublestriking Shisato is gonna stop untaps for at least two turns. It doesn't matter if the skips are from multiple sources.

Stonehorn Dignitary has a similar effect and gatherer rulings about it.

Say my opponent casts some ridiculous game winning spell and I don't have counters in my hand but I have a gifts ungiven, I respond to the spell with gifts and grab 4 different counters, can I then counter the spell right after gifts finishes and I have cards in hand, like do I have a window to interact with the stack still?

Yes

Can Pithing Needle stop Lightning Storm's counters?

yes it can