MTG Ask a Judge thread

Welcome back to your weekly ask a judge thread.

This thread is a place to ask rulings, policy questions, etc.

In other news, I've been contracted to work at my first GP!

Does Phyrexian Metamorph exit the battlefield as the cloned permanent? More specifically: Does Phyrexian Metamorph enter the graveyard as a copy of another permanent or does he lose that ability?

Can I use Phyrexian Metamorph as an extra Myr Retriever?

Yes. "Dies" triggered abilities trigger from the battlefield, so that works. The old combo is cloning a persist/undying creature, killing it and bringing it back as something else.

Strangely enough I was just looking at Yixlid Jailer's rulings where this is mentioned.

Please explain ninjutsu

Gratz on your contract

at what point does a clone stop being whatever it is that it cloned? this came up in recent game where a player wanted his Lazav to copy clone that died that had copied Sheoldred

Alright, so when you attack with some dudes, after your opponent blocks, but before the damage step, you can activate the Ninjitsu ability of the creature in your hand and swap any unblocked creature with it, by which point it's too late for them to change their blockers, so your ninja will get through unblocked. It's not too late to, say, Doom Blade it, though.

Technically you can activate Ninjitsu after the damage step as well, if you're into that kind of thing. It just won't get to deal any damage.

Basically, you swing with a Spellstutter Sprite and a Delver of Secrets, they block your delver and your Sprite pulls off a mask and says "Ahah! It was me, Ninja of the Deep Hours, all along!". Then your sprite is in your hand.


Thanks!
It stops being a copy as soon as it hits the bin. It was never a Sheoldred in the graveyard. The difference is, while both Lazav and, say Persist, trigger on the field and resolve in the grave, Lazav looks at what the card in the graveyard is apon resolution, while Persist doesn't care. Lazav see's a 0/0 clone and probably doesn't turn into it, but Persist just says "hey, you didn't have any counters on you, lets come back for a second round".

I keep forgetting to put my name back on after shitposting in other threads.

Chalice of the void. What are all the penalties for missing triggers on both sides of the chalice at all the different rules enforcement levels? I mostly just want to know at what point,if any, do i get away with running into my own triggers and "forgetting." Thanks in advance!

If you run into your own triggers and "forget", you're cheating and will be disqualified if caught, at any REL.

If you legitimately forget at Regular we're gonna have a conversation about how you managed to do that. If we're at a higher REL, you're gonna have to do a lot more work to convince me it was an accident. Also comes with a warninig (missed detrimental trigger) at a higher REL.

alright now what about playing against an opponent's chalice. are there penalties for running into my opponent's and "forgerting."

Speaking of GPs, do you have any insight on how WotC's background check policy is being handled at that level? I'm not even sure if it's being enforced yet, and if it is, how that is going.

As said, that's cheating.

Remembering triggers is the SOLE responsibility of the owner of the triggering object. In this case, that means the person who controls the Chalice. If your opponent casts a two drop into your Chalice with two charge counters on it, it's your responsibility to indicate Chalice's trigger. Your opponent can use this to their advantage by "testing" you to see if you've forgotten about Chalice. They can also remind you of your triggers if they want, though they are not obliged to.

Generally, missing your triggers is a "sorry, too bad, pay more attention next time" thing, with the exception of detrimental triggers. You forget your Soul Warden? Catch it next time. But you forget your Moroii? That's a warning and an investigation. If we find it was intentional, thats a disqualification. Same with Chalice.

tl;dr: Your opponent can sneak things through chalice if you forget, but you can't.

I don't know whats up with my name today

I seem to remember seeing something about getting a sex offender check on the registration page for one of the US GP's, but I can't seem to find it. Otherwise I haven't heard anything. It'll be CFB's responsibility to do it, assuming it needs to be done at all.

Can you do unstable rules advice?

Sure! I can't say it'll be 100% correct.

I know exile no longer counts as outside the game, but what about the absolutely-removed-from-the-freaking-game-forever zone?

wait can i activate ninjitsu AFTER damage but before the 2nd main step?

Creatures that attacked are still considered attacking during the end of combat step, and ones that weren't blocked are still considered unblocked. So yes.

You can also use Maze of Ith to untap one of your creatures after it dealt combat damage.

Suppose two copies of More or Less are cast on a Fact or Fiction on the stack, each one reducing the number word on "two piles." When Fact or Fiction resolves and a player is instructed to divide something into zero piles, does the game explode and end in a draw because someone tried to divide by zero? Do all five cards just get put back in the same order because none of them were in a pile? Or is the second More or Less not even allowed to reduce a divisor to zero in the first place?

That's definitely one to ask your playgroup. I would say yes, if it's been removed from the game, well, it can't be in the game, can it?

The game's definition of "attacking" and "blocking" (or in this case "unblocked") lasts until the end of combat. Weird, right?

Jesus christ you cant just ask questions like that. I know you gave me warning but a graphic content warning or something would be nice.

Since FOF uses the word "seperates" and not "divides" (and also to prevent anyone travelling backwards in time), I'm gonna say if you can't seperate them into any piles the remaining cards stay were they are - the top of the deck.

Does Eidolon of Rhetoric stop Cascade?

Is "half" a number word? Could More or Less change Doomsday to make you lose negative one half of your life rounded up, so instead you gain that much life?

If I have a Caravan Escort and a Training Grounds, can I have it level up all the way to maximum for free? Or is level up not an activated ability?

Level up is an activated ability, but training grounds says it won’t reducd the cost to below 1, meaning you’d have to pay 1 at the minimum for each level up.

Yes. So does Rule of Law.
No it isn't, because it requires another number to mean anything

If I had Ghalta, Primal Hunger attacking into 2 Death Shadow's, can I assign damage to just 1 Death's Shadow and have the trample damage hit the opponent? Or do I have to go through both of the shadows first?

How many kids have you molested?

Just getting into Magic, sorry if this is too basic.

How would a 4/4 with doublestrike resolve against a 5/5 blocker? Both dead?

Both die; the 4/4 deals 4 damage to the 5/5 in the first strike damage step, then they both damage eachother in the "regular" damage step. Damage is only removed at the end of every turn

Do us all a favor and pop a tac nuke at the next comvention. Happy gaming

If a card existed that allowed you to reorder the stack however you choose, how much of a nightmare would that be for the judges?

what happens if my opponents keep cracking fetchlands and not waiting for me to respond
shouldnt they be getting warnings or something

I'm fairly new to MtG and haven't been able to find an answer to the following scenario, as simple as it may be.

How long are Kicker effects attached to creatures? The rules texts check for a kicker during casting, but apply said effects upon entering play.
For example: If I cast a Gatekeeper of Malakir with its kicker cost, if it was to re-enter play through a blink or revival effect, would it check for the Kicker I had cast it with, forcing target player to sacrifice another creature?

When a permanent leaves the battlefield and re-enters it, it becomes a completely new entity, which means that that permanent's kicker cost wasn't paid.
Same reason why you can flicker a creature to get it to survive a murder or something similar

Is a library animated with Animate Library a face-down creature? Is it affected by spells that might transform it or turn it face up? Can I look at the bottom card of my animated library to see if it has morph? If Animate Library is destroyed while it's face up, does it remain that way?

I'll get to these in a moment

Do cards like Invincible Hymn that set your life total to a certain amount count as lifegain for triggering cards like Boon Reflection?

Alas, no. You have to assign lethal damage to all blockers before you can assign damage to the player.

I've actually thought about this before. It would be perfect in an Un-set and probably my favourite card ever. There's just so much that can be done with it, and it's very knowledge testing.

But getting called over to that table would be the hell scenario. No thanks.

If you see them with a fetchland and plan on doing something when they crack it, just be proactive. As soon as they imply they're using it, try to stop them before they pick up their deck. If you really can't, or they just dump the fetch from their hand into the yard and grab their deck, sure, call a judge. If you have a legitimate thing you want to do in response to their fetch (say, Stifle) and they didn't give you a chance to respond, they will likely get a warning for looking at extra cards at comp or prof REL.

It's a tough one because in most games/matchups there's not much that needs to be done in response to a fetch, so players are very quick to resolve one and rarely pause to pass priority.

>is it face down
I would say yes. It's clear that the cards within it are all face down, therefore the conglomerate that they form is a face down entity.

>can you Break Open it
Of course. Now, technically the "top" of your library, where you draw cards from is on the bottom, and I'd be tempted to give a warning for looking at extra cards if either you or your opponent glanced at the now bared "bottom" card of your library.

>can i morph it up
I'm gonna go with no. If there's a morph on the bottom, well, that's not your library. Thats a card within it. Your library doesn't have first strike if you're playing with the top card revealed and there's a Thalia there, why should it have Morph?

>does it stay like that
I see no instruction to put it back the way it was.

Yes, they count as life gain or life loss. There's an old legacy deck where the wincon is to cast a False Cure (when a player gains life, they lose twice that much) and double their opponent's life total, instantly killing them.

Shameless self bump.

Anyone brewing anything weird in modern? I'm trying to make Jund Pyromancer Ponza work. Crack the Earth is a hell of a drug.

the hell is a ponza
did they release madoff from prison

Ponza is a R/G land destruction deck that aims to play stone rain/blood moon on turn two then ramp up to 4-6 drops by turn 3-4.

My version uses Young Pyromancer, Crack the Earth, Gurmag Angler, Bloodbraid Elf and it's hot garbage

If you have a creature with first strike, can you hit with it, ninjutsu out and then hit with the other creature?

Huh. I've never thought about that.

Yes, you can. After first strike damage has been dealt, you can activate Ninjitsu, then move to regular damage and smack em.

wew

Trample damage used to work how you suggest, the change was around 6th edition. Now you need to assign lethal to every blocker.

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