Category Archives: State-Based Actions

A token that is “flickered” with Cloudshift is gone forever.

Yep: New Cards Week. If you haven’t guessed it by now, you don’t visit often enough! My fun card is Cloudshift. You can do a lot of fun things with it. You can chump block with a creature and blink … Continue reading

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Undying creatures and Black Sun’s Zenith.

Undying is a triggered ability that says “When this creature dies, if it didn’t have any +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter.” Most players know that +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters will cancel … Continue reading

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Damage lasts until the turn ends, something Scourge of Geier Reach knows very well.

Damage from spells, abilities or combat damage that is not lethal will remain marked on a creature until the cleanup step at the end of each turn. Creatures can be dealt damage and remain on the battlefield until it is … Continue reading

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When Solemn Simulacrum comes and goes at virtually the same time.

First seen in Mirrodin, Solemn Simulacrum is an invitational card based on a designed submitted by Jens Thorén. It was recently reprinted in the Magic 2012 Core Set. It has two different triggered abilities: one that triggers when it enters … Continue reading

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When you lose due to milling.

Winning a game by removing all of the cards in your opponent’s library is a strategy that appears in every format and can be effective at times. Winning via this method or causing cards to go from a library to … Continue reading

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State-based actions are checked when a player would receive priority.

Whenever a player receives priority to cast spells, play abilities or perform a special action the game will check to see if one of the 20 conditions for a states-based actions has been met. (Yes there are 20 now, a … Continue reading

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Planeswalker names and subtypes.

When one or more planeswalkers with the same subtype is in play, both will go to the graveyard when state-based actions are applied. How this works is different than the ‘legend rule’ as the name of the planesawlker does not … Continue reading

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Turn to Slag stops a Sylvok Lifestaff from Gaining Life

If you have a creature equipped with a Sylvok Lifestaff, and I cast a lethal Turn to Slag on it, you won’t gain any life. While the damage is dealt first, the creature doesn’t actually get destroyed until the spell … Continue reading

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Protection from Artifacts makes Equipment Fall Off

Giving a creature protection from artifacts will cause any equipment attached to it to fall off.  So with Tel-Jilad Defiance, be careful with your own equipment, but remember you can use it AGAINST your opponents equipped creatures as well!

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