Welcome back to your ask a judge thread.
This thread is for all questions related to Magic rules, tournaments and policy.
Question of the day:
You're on twenty life and you control an Eidolon of the Great Revel. You cast a Vampire's Bite on it, kicking it, then attack with the Eidolon. Whats your life total at the end of the damage step?
18
+5 so 23
Assuming no blocking shenanigans and it deals its combat damage.
20
Lose 2 gain 5, so 23? Unless lifelink happens after damage step or something.
Judge question: Is Teferi + Knowledge Pool as degenerate of a lock as I've heard?
Care to explain?
23
Sure is! Teferi's second ability extrapolates into "can only cast spells during their own main phases, while the stack is empty". Since Knowledge Pool casts spells as part of resolution, it's ability is still on the stack, and therefore the stack isn't empty and your opponents can't resolve spells.
The controller of Teferi still has to go through the whole song and dance of Knowledge Pool though which is probably a factor as to why it's never seen competitive play.
We'll see if we have any more answers before the answer will be revealed to my question.
>You're on twenty life and you control an Eidolon of the Great Revel. You cast a Vampire's Bite on it, kicking it, then attack with the Eidolon. Whats your life total at the end of the damage step?
23. The Eidolon trigger goes on the stack over the spell and thus it doesn't have lifelink when it shocks your face. And even though you paid 4 mana the CMC is still 1
crewed vehicles can crew other vehicles, but can a vehicle crew itself once crewed?
And the answer is 23!
details the two tricks to the question, the Eidolon trigger resolves before it gains lifelink and even though you pay four mana, the CMC of Vampire's Bite is still one.
Absolutely! Your Helicopter can jump into itself and turn the key.
It probably comes second in the "most ridiculous use of game mechanics" competition, narrowing losing out to "attaching four swords and some platemail to a pidgeon" and beating "fatal pushing looter scooters"
Okay, Firesong Battle Cattle.
I just want this settled, once and for all.
I got a Firesong and Sunspeaker in play. I cast Spiritualize on empty stack. Then I cast Healing Salve on empty stack. Does the Spiritualize trigger count as an instant for Firesong? The healing causes Firesong to deal damage, which sets off Spiritualize to heal the same damage, and nuke the table.
People cite
>603.7d. If a spell creates a delayed triggered ability, the source of that delayed triggered ability is that spell. The controller of that delayed triggered ability is the player who controlled that spell as it resolved.
I have a question regarding putting creatures into the battlefield. I remember a white enchantment which Say: "Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control pit a +1/+1 counter on each other creature. "
So I was wondering, if i had Krenko mob boss a put 4 goblins, would they all come into play at the same time and trigger the enchantment once, or each of these token trigger it?
Hey, thanks for doing this
I cast Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. My opponent has 4 mana up (3B 1W) which he is going to use to play Cast Out (I know he has it in his hand because I played a Thought Knot Seer at the beginning of the game). I'm planning on exiling his Plains in order for him not to be able to play it. Is my opponent allowed to tap his lands in response to me casting Ulamog, so that even if I exile his Plains he's still able to exile Ulamog afterwards since he has the necessary mana in his reserve ? (Sorry for the bad wording english isn't my first language)
That's a weird one. I'm 90% on this answer.
I'm going to say yes. The source of the lifegain is Spiritualize, as per 603.7d. But not just any Spiritualize, the source is the Spiritualize that was cast earlier in the turn. This is strange because the only physical copy of Spiritualize is in the yard and there's no copy on the stack or anything, but FireSun wants to know "is this from an instant or sorcery spell" and the trigger says "it's an old spell, but it checks out".
Compare it to Quenchable Fire. The two have very different wording, but both result in a triggered ability later. Quenchable Fire makes it clearer that IT'S dealing the damage, and so should Spiritualize.
I assume you're talking about Cathar's Crusade, otherwise known as "the card that makes you want to jump off a bridge rather than continue to track the counters". It puts counters on all creatures, though, not all other creatures.
So each creature enters at the same time, and Crusade triggers four times. Then each trigger resolves one at a time (you choose the order but in this case they're all the same so it doesn't matter), each putting a counter on all your dudes, including the dude that triggered it. So yes, everything including all four of your new gobbos get four shiny new counters.
If there's some card I don't know of that just puts counters on each other creature, then each gobbo gets three counters, and the rest of your creatures get four each.
No problem!
Yes, he can. Lets go through it step by step.
You cast Ulamog, and he triggers. You target his Plains and pass priority.
At this point your opponent can respond. This is the point where they would want to cast, for example, a Stifle to stop the ability, and they can float mana here too, so they tap their plains to float a W.
The Plains gets exiled, then Ulamog resolves. Before you move phases, your opponent will get priority again and will be able to use their floating W to Cast Out your Ulamog.
Thank you ! I have another question if you don't mind.
I have a Matter Reshaper in play. My opponent destroys it with a removal spell. I therefore reveal the top card of my library which happens to be a Walking Ballista. What are my exact choices here ?
The way I understand it is that IF I get to put it on the battlefield, I can't choose it's mana cost. It'll therefore come in as a 0/0 and die as soon as the next "state based check" rolls in.
+ why would my opponent have to wait until the end of the phase I played Ulamog ? Can't he just cast the spell in response to him resolving ?
You're correct, X is always zero except when you're casting it. Your options are you can put it on the field as a 0/0, and it'll die (probably) or you can put it into your hand.
Also some interesting stuff about FireSun, according to it's rulings:
>A spell causes you to gain life if its cost or effect instructs you to gain life or if an instruction in its cost or effect is modified by a replacement effect and the modified event includes you gaining life. If a spell's cost or effect instructs a source with lifelink you control to deal damage, that spell causes that life gain as well.
So if you Prey Apon targeting your lifelinker, FireSun triggers. Pretty neat eh?
Sac Academy Rector, get an aura, try to put it on something, opponent kills the creature in response (do they even have priority here?). Does the aura target? It's not on the stack so I wouldn't think so. Does that imply that I could choose a new creature for it to attach to?
Now would it be possible for me to put it into play and immediately give it a +1/+1 by paying the 4 mana required to do so ? Or is there a state based check before I could do so ?
>So if you Prey Apon targeting your lifelinker, FireSun triggers. Pretty neat eh?
If prey upon would have been a white instant or sorcery I presume?
I was running out of space so I simplified it a little.
When a spell resolves, you maintain priority, which is why you can activate a planeswalker before your opponent can kill it. When you cast another spell or activate an ability, your opponent gets priority and cast Cast Out. If you don't want to do anything and just pass to the next phase, you can pass priority and your opponent can Cast Out then. They can't respond to Ulamog resolving, you always gain priority after your spells resolve.
When an aura enters the battlefield off Rector it just sorta snaps onto something as it enters. It never targets and no player has priority between it hitting the board and being attached to something. So they can't kill it in response. They can respond to the Rector trigger, but you haven't chosen an enchantment at that point.
Did I explain that well enough?
State based actions are checked whenever a player would gain priority, so nope, it's in the grave by the time you have the chance.
Wait, doesn't everyone run Mind Bend in all their decks?
RTFC judge
Thank you very much. Have a good day bud
You're welcome!
And I'm off to bed. I'll try to answer some questions before I head to uni tomorrow
consider
>heart-piercer manticore enters
>crews the aradara express
>immediately throws the train it is driving at your opponent
Doors of Night has been played on a previous turn. On my turn, I play Fog, and during the movement/hazard phase, my opponent plays Morgul Night. If I'm moving a party from Ithilien through Imlad Morgul to Gorgoroth, what are the terrain types I move through?
Should I treat myself to a Journey into Nyx fatpack?
a friend got me a Born of the Gods one for my birthday and my haul was an Ephara and Archetype of Endurance, I'm itching to open a fatpack and feel fulfilled