Today we’ll be examining Humble Defector, Magic’s latest attempt to expand red’s share of the world of card drawing. Humble Defector can draw you two cards for the simple cost of a tap — but at a price: he gives himself to your opponent afterward! Luckily, if we look carefully at the ability, we’ll see that the control-changing, like the card draw, is an effect of the ability that doesn’t happen until it resolves. That means we can play cards in response to activating the Defector… and pull off some pretty sweet combos.

The first is with another Jeskai card, Refocus. Not only does Refocus draw you a card, it also untaps the Defector. Do this in response to activating Defector, and you can re-activate it with the original ability still on the stack. As the first ability resolves, you’ll draw two cards and hand over control of Defector. As the second ability resolves… you don’t control Defector anymore, but you still control the ability, so you’ll draw two more cards and the second control change won’t have any effect. That’s a total of five extra cards (Refocus also draws you a card) drawn in a single turn — not too shabby at all!

If you don’t want your opponent getting to untap with Defector next turn, though, you can pair the Defector with Standard’s latest almost-strictly worse Lightning Bolt, Collateral Damage. In this case, “strictly worse” is actually quite good for you, since you can cast Collateral Damage with Defector’s ability on the stack, sacrificing Defector to pay its cost. After your burn spell resolves, Defector will let you draw two cards, but he’ll be too dead to defect to your opponent’s side.

And one last very important thing about Defector’s ability that many people miss: You can’t activate it on any other player’s turn!

Today’s Rules Tip written by Jen Wong