MTG Ask a Judge

Do you take questions about silver-bordered cards?

L1 here. Signed up for my first GP (Santa Clara) but I was put on standby. My L2 mentor suggested I shadow a judge to get some experience.
How should I go about this (what should I do, wear, etc.) and how do I balance shadowing with enjoying myself at side events?

>Opponent flashes back lingering souls
>My Spell Queller exiles it
>The Queller later dies, what happens.

There’s a card in Unstable that says ‘Spells you cast that refer to Artifacts in their rules text cost 1 less to cast’.

Does the little Artifact stamp in Pic Related’s text box count as rules text?

It's in the type line on gatherer

Sure do. Of course, I'm not guaranteed to get them right. I'm not trained for that shit.

Honestly man you probably have more experience than me. I've only been a judge for about four months and I only just moved to a town with an LGS yesterday. Probably best to ask your mentor about it, or create a topic on JudgeApps. I'm hoping to sign up for my first GP later this year (Sydney).

Alright, once their Queller trigger resolves, both Queller and LS want to send LS to exile. They're both happy with that. When Queller leaves, you cast your spell, then it goes to the graveyard. This is because flashback, in part, means "If the flashback cost was paid, exile this card instead of putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack". You paid the additional cost of "nothing", so you certainly didn't pay it's flashback cost, therefore it goes to the yard.

I'm gonna go with it's part of the type line. It just, you know, fell off.

Ah damn. I haven't been able to get a solid answer from anyone, so I figured I'd ask.
If I have any advice to give in return, it's to get your shirt and/or badge ASAP from your Regional Coordinator. Also, sign up to judge competitive events as often as you can to get in good with your local shops, as well as writing review on judges you work with. It helps with finding work.

Cheers, will do. There's only one store within town and they're happy to have me judge events, but I'm about an hour and a half from a major city where there's loads of stores. I'll try to get in to as many comp events as I can.

If I manifest the top card of my library and it is rancor, it then dies and goes to the graveyard, does it return to my hand or remain in the graveyard?

I'm not 100% on this one, but I'm pretty confident in my answer.

When a face down card hits the bin, or any zone other than the battlefield, you reveal it to all players. It hits the bin facedown, but since cards can't exist facedown in the graveyard, it turns faceup. Since it was facedown when it got into the graveyard, it's ability never triggered, so it stays there.

It's a good question, I'll come back to you if I find out I'm wrong.

thank you for the reply, I tried it with lands and Gitrog Monster and apparently it should trigger the effect, I would love to hear your revised feedback

I think I was right in the ruling (it doesn't come back), but wrong in my reasoning.

From a bit of googling around, it looks like the reason it doesn't work is because it dies with no abilities. Gitrog works because Gitrog always has the ability, and Gitrog doesn't care that it wasn't a land when it hits the grave.

This feels like one of those things that, while there's not much official documentation on it, if it worked the other way around there would be loads. There were plenty of "dies" triggers back in Kahns block and it would have been mentioned a lot if there was an interaction between it and manifest.

I feel like an idiot not remembering this but: If a creature with counters on it (in this case +1/+1) dies and I regenerate it with Yavimaya Hollow, it retains the counters on it right?

I attack with a dragon with The Ur Dragon in play. I put Atarka, World Render in play with The Ur Dragon trigger. Does the attacking dragon gain double strike or not?

Regenerate simply removes the permanant from combat, taps it, and removes all damage marked on it as a replacement to whatever would kill it upon the next instance of it's death this turn.
So, yeah all the counters stay on it. This is why regenerate does not protect from -1/-1 effects.

This is correct. Regeneration is a replacement effect so your guy never leaves the field.

It does not. By the time Atarka is on the field, your dragons have already attacked and it's too late to trigger Atarka.

And with that I'm going to bed. If the thread dies during the night I'll answer any questions on it with next week's thread.

Nope, the "attack" trigger is only when the creature becomes attacking from choosing to attack with it in the declare attackers step.

I'll try to answer questions throughout the day here in 'merica. But mind I'm not actually a judge, just someone who reads rulings and the comp rules for fun.

since dies literally means "enters the graveyard from the battlefield," wasn't your initial reasoning correct?

How does Glissa the Traitor work?
If I damnation, and she dies at the same time, do I still get artifacts back (from opponents creatures dying)
What about if I use an artifact to kill creatures (including Glissa) can I get that artifact back using her trigger?
(Eg boompile)

>Damnation
Yes, you get an artifact for each opponents creature. If multiple creatures would enter or leave the battlefield at the same time, all triggered abilities can "see" everything else dying/entering.
>Boompile/other artifacts
Kinda, Boompile does not work. Any artifact that sacrifices as part of the cost would. So go ahead and run Executioner's Capsule. Basically you need the artifact to already be in the grave when the ability that kills the creature resolves.

Actually boompile and the like do work, because the trigger happens after the kill effect resolves. My bad.

Thank you very much!

What happens when a Shaharazad game ends in a draw. (Like, say, via Divine Intervention?)

Oracle text makes it pretty clear. Both players lose half their life rounded up.

I destroy my opponent's activated Treetop Village. Can I resurrect it with Lim-Dul the Necromancer?

If yes, is it a creature when it returns? When it stops being a creature, does it stay a Land - Zombie? If it is a Land - Zombie, can I regenerate with Lim-Dul's ability if it is destroyed via Armageddon?

Yes, no. You will reanimate it, but it is like treetop village just entered, and lim-dul says that it only becomes a zombie if it is a creature.

Just for fun, better question;

What if it is a forest animated with Life and Limb instead of treetop, then Life and Limb is destroyed? It would be a saproling when it returns, no doubt, and thus become a Saproling Zombie according to Lim Dul. If Life and Limb is destroyed, does it stay a Basic Land - Forest Zombie?

...can I regenerate my forest zombie?

Yep!

Nice!

I'm not a judge but a thing that doesn't have the type Creature cannot have a creature subtype. Even if a creature subtype is printed on the card
This is true of every type with subtypes

Fun speculation time? My intuition says that if a vehicle loses its artifact type, and is now no longer a vehicle, it doesn't necessarily lose the ability to crew. In fact, creatures that "can't crew Vehicles" can now crew that permanent! But now triggered abilities that trigger when a creature "crews a Vehicle" will no longer trigger

So what if you crew the non-artifact, non-vehicle? Does it become an artifact creature or a non-artifact creature (assuming that it's something like Transmuter that removed the artifact type)? If so, does it automatically regain the Vehicle subtype? If so, do "when a creature crews a vehicle" triggered abilities trigger? I know layers are involved in this but I'm too lazy to figure it out

This guy is right, the land would stop being a zombie until it becomes a tribal or a creature again.

Can I do the following:

Tap this card because of its tap symbol
Not pay the discard a card cost
Not use the ability

If, for instance, I had no cards in my hand but wanted to use its second ability to draw a card when it untaps next turn?

No. You have to pay all costs of an ability. You can't just pay part of the cost and choose to not activate it. It's a binary thing: you activate the ability (paying all costs) or you don't (and don't).

The "discard a card" is part of the cost, that would be like not paying a mana cost for an activated ability. You must have a card to discard.
You do not, however need to make a creature unlockable. Up to one target creature includes zero.

Can you pay for a soda with a dollar you don't have?

Let's say you have a soldier token made from raise the alarm and you play conspiracy naming zombie. Would you have a Creature - Zombie named Soldier? Or does the name of a token change with the types.

Bit of a basic question here:

You have an Angel of Invention in play (giving your creatures +1/+1) and you then play a Champion of Wits. Does the +1/+1 apply before or after its ETB checks its power?

Champion entrers the battlefield never having not had the buff, drawing you the bonus card as it checks the power.

You could even giant growth before the trigger resolves to draw an extra 3 cards.

I figured as much, but some rules and interactions are still something of a mystery for me.
Like just last week I learned that after first strike damage you can do things before normal damage.

Though I may as well ask since I reminded myself, how does priority and damage work?
Like, let's say an opponent attacks with a creature and I don't block. There's a step after blockers are declared (or not declared, in this case) where he can cast pump spells and such. If he does and it goes back to me, and then 'to damage,' it's now too late for him to do anything, correct? Do these actions have to be explicitly stated, or is him asking if I'm going to do anything and me declining the same as moving to damage?
Hope that made sense.

You're spot on. After priority has been passed by both players you move from the blockers step to the combat damage step. As a turn based action during the combat damage step all creatures assign and deal their damage before any player receives priority. If you have priority and you ask if an opponent wants to do something, you are giving up your chance to do so in that phase or step. If your opponent does do something then you as the active player get another chance to activate abilities/cast spells.

Sorry to bother you again with an Unstable question, but Sunday I play an Edh tournament that allow them and I want to be prepared.

Now I know how Ordinary Pony received an errata and my question is, if I play something like Felidar Guardian\Restoration Angel targeting the pony, when it comes back can I target a creature that I had previously exiled with the pony?
Does the fact that the pony is a new object on the field affect it's ability in some way?

When a permanent leaves and enters the battlefield, it is a new object, so it would not remember what the old Pony exiled. Go nuts.

I Manifest the too card of my library. That card is a creature. My manifest creature gets song of the dryad. Can I unflipped it?

The card is still a "manifested" card even though it is a Land - Forest, so yes, you can flip it face up by paying it's mana cost. Although there isn't much reason to, due to the fact that it would continue to be a forest.

Thanks for that, and thanks everyone for keeping the thread alive! I'll go through any questions I think need further response.

My initial reasoning was "it's face down when it hits the grave, so it won't trigger", and my revised reasoning was "it's face down when it leaves the field, so doesn't have any ability to trigger". The triggers in question are worded as "when ... is sent from the field to the graveyard (dies)", if it didn't have that ability on the field, it won't have met it's trigger condition. I think. Either way it won't trigger.

The thing is, when objects change zones (from being reanimated, flickered, etc) they have no memory of what they were, so you always just use whats written on the card. Reanimating a Treetop Village gives you exactly what you'd get if you'd played it from your hand.

Long post coming through

>just for fun
>life and limb

You're lucky I'm not gA (RIP?) or I'd give you a stern talking to.
Lets go through this.
Forest is destroyed, Lim Dul triggers. It enters and now we have a continuous effect and a one shot effect trying to work their magic on this poor forest. Lets go through the layers.
Layer 1 - Copy: nothing
Layer 2 - Control: Lim Dul tells you you control the forest here
Layer 3 - Text: Nothing
Layer 4 - Type: Here's where things get funky. Since we have two effects, normally we apply them in timestamp order, BUT we have a dependency. A dependency happens when applying one effect first will alter the outcome of the other, the effect that will be altered is called dependant. If we apply Lim Dul first, he looks at the forest and says "thats not a dude, dude" and won't turn it into a zombie. If we apply Life and Limb first, the forest becomes a saproling creature, then Lim Dul comes along and says "hey, thats a creature, I'll make it a zombie". Therefore, Lim Dul is dependent on Life and Limb, and when we have a dependency, we always apply the dependent effect second. So we apply Life and Limb, the forest becomes a creature and a saproling, then Lim Dul, the forest creature saproling becomes a zombie.
There are more layers but nothing complicated happens in them this time around.

When your life and limb goes away, the forest loses it's type "creature". It can't hold on to any creature subtypes, so it goes back to a Basic Land - Forest.

You can regenerate it while Life and Limb is on the field.

Keep in mind, I'm only a level one judge and this question delved deeper into layers that I'm comfortable with.

You are right that if vehicles lose their artifact type they lose vehicle. While the reminder text on vehicles do specify "this vehicle", it doesn't actually care. From the CR, the definition of crew is “Crew N” means “Tap any number of untapped creatures you control with total power N or greater: This permanent becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.”

So crewing a non artifact non vehicle still does what it normally does, just without those types. So it's just a Creature with no subtypes. You're right in that things that mention crewing vehicles won't work. And layers are involved, but nothing special happens. Removing and adding the types happens in layer 4, giving it power and toughness happens in layer 7a.

Yep! It's still called Soldier. He's loyal to the cause.

Threads may be a bit less consistent for a few weeks as I'll be out of the country. I'll do my best to start one next Monday.

thank you for absorbing the machine spirit that is the comprehensive rules !gA, I enjoy these threads

No worries! Glad to hear!

So this is a thing, right?

Yep! As soon as the first one hits the stack you have cast a second sunrise. Doesn't matter what happens to it from that point.

Shooting burn players isnt against the rules right? I mean, technically, they arent even people.