You can “flicker” a creature to save it from a removal spell.

Posted on May 18, 2012 by bimmerbot

I’m excited for Ghostly Flicker. Partially because it was a house at the prerelease, and partially because Momentary Blink is one of my favorite cards. But why are both of these things true? Among other things, it’s the fact that they can be used to dodge removal very easily.

Let’s use Cloudshift for our example. Ronny casts Oblivion Ring, and targets my Avacyn, Angel of Hope with the trigger. In response, I cast Cloudshift targeting Avacyn. My Avacyn stays. But why? It’s right there! The answer to that is the fun fact that whenever an object changes zones, it becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous self. Once Avacyn gets flickered, it looks exactly the same as it did earlier to you, but the game can’t link THIS Avacyn to the one that was just on the field. So, when Oblivion Ring’s trigger tries to resolve, it can’t find the object it originally targeted, shrugs, and fizzles. Your Avacyn is safe.

Note that this trick only really works for dodging targeted removal. If you try to Cloudshift your creature to save it from a mass-removal spell like Day of Judgment or a sufficiently large

, you won’t get your way. Cloudshift will exile it and bring it back before the mass-kill resolves, so it’ll still be there to die.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Trevor Nunez, Level 1 judge from Roswell, NM

Posted in Resolving spells and abilities, Zones | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

Killing Wave is shut down by Sigarda, Host of Herons (but not by Angel of Jubilation).

Posted on May 17, 2012 by bimmerbot

Sigarda, Host of Herons and Angel of Jubilation have abilities that at first glance look similar. However, they are actually quite different!

When your opponent’s Killing Wave resolves, it gives each player a choice to make for each creature that player controls: Pay X life, or don’t pay anything. If you don’t pay any life, Killing Wave says “sacrifice the creature.” If you control Sigarda, this means you can choose not to pay any life, and then you won’t have to sacrifice anything because that’s simply not possible. Of course, you could still choose to pay the life if you have strange desire to lower your life total (probably only makes sense if you’re trying to turn on Fateful Hour).

If you control Angel of Jubilation, there is no interaction with Killing Wave. Nobody is paying any life or sacrificing any creatures when casting the spell. Once the spell is resolving, anybody can pay life or sacrifice creatures, because the Angel doesn’t interact with resolving spells or abilities at all.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Josh Stansfield, Level 2 judge from Orange, CA

Posted in Casting / playing a spell or ability, Continuous Effects, Resolving spells and abilities | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Cathars’ Crusade triggers multiple times if multiple creatures enter at the same time.

Posted on May 16, 2012 by bimmerbot


Cathars’ Crusade has an ability that triggers “whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control.” Normally, this will be one creature entering the battlefield as a result of the creature spell resolving – “a creature.” However, some spells and abilities can cause multiple creatures to enter the battlefield at the same time. In this case, “a creature” refers to each individual creature separately, so Cathars’ Crusade will trigger that many separate times.

For example, let’s say that you control Cathars’ Crusade and you cast Gather the Townsfolk. Two Human creature tokens will enter the battlefield, and Cathars’ Crusade will trigger twice. Then, you’ll put both triggered abilities onto the stack, and each one gives both your Humans (and any other creatures you might control) a +1/+1 counter when it resolves, resulting in a pair of 3/3s. Now suppose you’ve got fateful hour active… That’s a grand total of five Cathars’ Crusade triggers, leaving you with five 6/6 human tokens!

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Jen Wong, Level 1 judge from Irvine, CA

Posted in Triggered Abilities | Tagged | Comments Off

The only requirement for arranging stuff on the battlefield is that the game state is clear to all players.

Posted on May 15, 2012 by bimmerbot

One of the biggest questions a lot of judges receive is the way people arrange their cards on the battlefield. Players may organize their cards on the battlefield in any way they see fit, provided it does not cause confusion. For example, some people place their Birds of Paradise where their lands are, and there is nothing inherently wrong with that. Players can even stack lands in piles without breaking any rules, and you’re always able to ask to count the number of lands that player controls.

If you’re not happy with the arrangement of your opponent’s permanents, you can always politely ask them to arrange them in a way that you find more clear. They’re aren’t necessarily obliged to accommodate your request, though most players are happy to do so. If you believe your opponent is simply refusing in order to obscure the game state, you should call a judge to sort it out.

Today’s Tournament Tip written by
Ronny Alvarado, Level 2 judge from Houston, TX

Posted in Tournament Rules | Comments Off

When Infinite Reflection leaves play, your creatures don’t stop being copies of what was enchanted.

Posted on May 14, 2012 by bimmerbot


When Infinite Reflection enters the battlefield, all your creatures become a copy of whatever it’s enchanting, and while it’s on the battlefield attached to a creature, each other creature that enters the battlefield under your control becomes a copy of that creature. If the enchanted creature or Infinite Reflection leaves the battlefield, the creatures that have become copies remain as copies. Notice that nothing on Infinite Reflection specifies a duration (e.g., “as long as Infinite Reflection is on the battlefield”), which means the copy effect will continue to apply to each creature until it leaves the battlefield or somehow becomes a copy of something else instead.

Of course, any new creatures will enter normally since Infinite Reflection is no longer around to change how they enter.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Ronny Alvarado, Level 2 judge from Houston, TX

Posted in Continuous Effects, Copies | Tagged | Comments Off

Once two creatures are paired via Soulbond, they’re stuck that way until one of them leaves the battlefield.

Posted on May 11, 2012 by bimmerbot

Soulbond is a fun new mechanic from Avacyn Restored that lets you pair 2 creatures together, and both get fun new effects. Soulbond says that when the Soulbond guy enters the battlefield under your control, or a different guy enters the battlefield under your control, you can pair the two together if they aren’t paired. But, the thing is, they STAY paired for as long as they’re both on the field under your control (and both of them are creatures). You can’t just break the two of them up because Wingcrafter would be happier in a relationship with Geist of Saint Traft; he’s already with that Delver of Secrets you played on turn 2, and they’re together until death [or exile, or bounce, or Mind Control] do them part.

The headline is slightly simplified, because the other way for creatures to “break up” is if one of them stops being a creature. So if your Inkmoth Nexus is animated, then you cast a Silverblade Paladin and pair them, that bond will only last until the cleanup step, when your Inkmoth goes back to being a plain old land. Now your Paladin is free to pursue other—perhaps longer-lasting—pairs.

Posted in Continuous Effects, Triggered Abilities | Tagged , , | Comments Off

You can’t do anything with your Vexing Devil between the opponent’s choice to take 4 damage and the sacrifice.

Posted on May 10, 2012 by bimmerbot


When Vexing Devil enters the battlefield, its ability triggers and gives the opponent the choice of either allowing it to stay on the battlefield, or taking 4 damage so its controller sacrifices it. If you allow the opponent to make a decision on whether or not they take 4 damage, you cannot cast Fling “in response” to that choice before the creature is sacrificed. That’s because when a spell or ability starts resolving, you have to wait until all parts of the spell or ability are complete before you get priority again.

  • If you cast Fling by sacrificing the Devil, it will be before the player makes a choice, and they won’t choose to take 4 from the ability because the Devil has already been sacrificed for Fling.
  • If you cast Undying Evil on the Devil, it will be before the player chooses whether to take 4 damage, and then they’re probably not going to take 4 damage only to have the Devil come back as a 5/4.
  • If you cast Cloudshift on the Devil, it will be before the first ability resolves, and the player will only have to worry about taking 4 damage for the new ability that triggers when the Devil returns from exile, and can gladly ignore the earlier ability on the stack by doing nothing as it resolves.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Ronny Alvarado, Level 2 judge from Houston, TX

(It seems this post didn’t appear in the twitter feed on April 30, so I’m publishing it again)

Posted in Resolving spells and abilities, Triggered Abilities | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

You can’t reveal a Miracle card after you’ve touched it to the other cards in your hand.

Posted on May 10, 2012 by bimmerbot

The new Miracle mechanic is very peculiar in the way that you might have to adapt your physical habits associated with drawing a card. If you’re playing Miracle cards in your deck, you have to make sure that the first card you draw each turn doesn’t touch the rest of your hand.  If that card has the Miracle ability and you want to cast it for the reduced cost, you will not be able to do it if you’ve already joined it to the rest of your hand, because the card isn’t uniquely identifiable anymore.

So what does “uniquely identifiable” mean? If the card you draw touches the rest of your hand, there’s no way for the judge or the opponent to verify whether you had the card with Miracle in your hand before you drew.  While most of you would never lie about something like that, blind trust can’t fit into policy, because there are those few people who might try to take advantage of this.

Today’s Tournament Tip written by
Jorge Pinto, Level 1 judge from Santiago, Chile

(It seems this post didn’t appear in the twitter feed on May 1, so I’m publishing it again)

Posted in Tournament Rules | Comments Off

Abundant Growth gives the land an extra ability, but doesn’t let it produce extra mana.

Posted on May 10, 2012 by bimmerbot


Green is never short of mana fixing when new sets are released, and Innistrad block hasn’t been the exception. When Innistrad came out, we had Caravan Vigil, then we got Dawntreader Elk in Dark Ascension. One of the cards that accomplishes this role in Avacyn Restored is Abundant Growth. It only costs one mana, fixes your manabase, and it lets you draw a card! Pretty good, huh?

But there’s a catch. Abundant Growth does not generate extra mana from your lands like Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger would; the added ability of the enchanted land allows its controller to add one mana of any color to his or her mana pool, but nothing else.

Let’s say you go turn 1 Forest, and you cast Abundant Growth. If it resolves, your Forest would have 2 abilities: one that lets you tap it for one green mana, and one that allows you to add one mana of any color. You can choose to activate either of these abilities, but you cannot use them simultaneously because each one requires you to tap the land to activate it, and like so many other things in life, you generally can’t pay for one thing and get two!

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Jorge Pinto, Level 1 judge from Santiago, Chile

Posted in Costs, Mana Abilities | Tagged | Comments Off

You can’t play a land after you reveal a Miracle card but before you cast it.

Posted on May 9, 2012 by bimmerbot

There seem to be a lot of questions about the new miracle mechanic lately. To repeat, here is how it works: When you draw the first card in a turn, if it has miracle, you may reveal it. When you do, its ability triggers. Upon the resolution of the miracle triggered ability, you may cast the spell right away for its miracle cost, ignoring all timing restrictions for that spell. However, something you can’t ignore is the timing restriction on playing a land.

You can only play a land when 1) it’s your turn 2) it’s the main phase and the stack is empty and 3) you haven’t used your land drop for this turn. This means that you can’t play a land in order to help you pay for a card’s miracle cost. Most of the time, you will be revealing a card with miracle during your draw step, not your main phase. In addition, you can’t play a land while the miracle ability is on the stack, and you can only play a card for its miracle cost immediately as the triggered ability resolves; if you keep it revealed until your main phase, then play a land, it’s too late and you can only cast that card for its normal mana cost.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Jen Wong, Level 1 judge from Irvine, CA (Welcome to the team, Jen!)

Posted in Casting / playing a spell or ability, Triggered Abilities, Turn Structure | Comments Off