Q: If your opponent casts a Smallpox, can you sacrifice a Loxodon Smiter that you discarded into play with it?
A: Yes. Loxodon Smiter’s “discard into play” ability uses the word “instead”, indicating that it is a replacement effect [CR 614.1a]. This means that it applies as Loxodon Smiter is discarded, replacing that event with putting it onto the battlefield [CR 614.1]. The instructions on Smallpox are performed in the order written, so the discard happens before the sacrifice [CR 608.2c]. Because it isn’t targeted, the choice of which creature to sacrifice is not locked in ahead of time, and is made as Smallpox resolves [CR 608.2d]. The creature doesn’t need to be on the battlefield when Smallpox starts resolving, just when that choice is made.
Q: Amy’s graveyard contains only Dread Return and Golgari Grave-Troll. She flashes back Dread Return targeting the troll by sacrificing three Narcomoebas. What is Golgari Grave-Troll’s P/T after it is on the battlefield?
A: Golgari Grave-Troll’s counter-putting ability is a replacement effect that modifies how it enters the battlefield [CR 614.1c]. This means that ability must apply before the troll enters the battlefield. At this point, Golgari Grave-Troll is still in Amy’s graveyard, so it will count itself, along with the Narcomoebas that were put there as part of casting Dread Return, for a total of 4 +1/+1 counters.
Note: This situation is analogous to the question, addressed in a previous judge meeting, of whether a player who plays a Temple Garden from her library using Courser of Kruphix will know what the next card down is before deciding whether to pay 2 life. Because the Temple Garden’s ability modifies how it enters the battlefield, the choice is made before it enters – while Temple Garden is still in the library, so courser will not reveal a new card until after the choice is made.
Q: Amy casts a True-Name Nemesis and passes the turn after it resolves. Several turns later, she uses the True-Name Nemesis to block one of Nicole’s creatures. Nicole argues that because Amy did not name a player when True-Name Nemesis resolved, it does not have protection from anything. How do you rule?
A: The templating “As…enters the battlefield,” indicates that this is a replacement effect that modifies how True-Name Nemesis enters the battlefield [CR 614.1c]. Amy gets a Game Rules Violation for not naming a player, and Nicole gets a Failure to Maintain Game State for not catching the mistake. Both infractions carry a Warning. Failing to make a required choice for a permanent on the battlefield is one of the situations in which a partial fix is employed, so Amy chooses a player now [IPG 2.5 A].
Note: True-Name Nemesis would be much worse if used a triggered ability to name a player. This would allow an opponent to use a targeted instant-speed removal spell to kill it with the trigger on the stack.
Note: Amy can prevent herself from getting future Warnings by proposing a shortcut where she will name her opponent for all future True-Name Nemesises that she plays unless she says otherwise.
Note: It’s illegal for a player to intentionally not point out an opponent’s GRV in the hopes of gaining an advantage from it or bringing it up at a more strategically opportune time. If the judge believes that this has happened, an investigation for Cheating is in order.
Q: If there’s a Sulfuric Vortex in play, can you cast an Invigorate for its alternate cost?
A: Yes. Sulfuric Vortex replaces any life gain with no life gain, but it doesn’t prevent players from trying to gain life. Even though when you pay the cost, it will be replaced by something much less useful, the game will still see that and count the cost as being paid [CR 117.11].
Note: If it was Havoc Festival instead of Sulfuric Vortex, the situation changes. Festival’s ability creates a continuous effect that modifies the rules of the game so that it’s not possible for players to gain life. This will prohibit you from attempting to pay the cost of “making an opponent gain 3”, so you wouldn’t be able to cast it that way.
Q: Amy activates her Words of War while her library is empty, then casts a Preordain. What happens?
A: After she scries (which won’t do anything perceptible), Amy drawing a card will be replaced by Words of War dealing 2 damage to whatever Amy targeted. The fact that Amy wouldn’t actually be able to draw a card makes no difference here because a rule (CR 614.11) specifically states that effects can replace draws that wouldn’t happen because a library is empty.
Q: Amy casts a Doubling Season, then a Garruk Wildspeaker (which normally starts with 3 loyalty). Then she activates Garruk’s +1 ability. How many loyalty counters does Garruk have on it now?
A: Doubling Season doubles counters placed on your permanents by effects. A planeswalker enters the battlefield with loyalty counters on it equal to its loyalty number. This is a replacement effect, so Doubling Season interacts with it [CR 306.5b, 121.6]. Activating the +1 ability will also put a loyalty counter on Garruk, but this is a cost, not an effect, so Doubling Season will not apply here. Garruk ends up with (2*3) + 1 = 7 loyalty counters on it.
Q: Amy controls a Furnace of Rath and attacks with a 3/3 creature with trample. Nicole blocks with a Samite Healer. Amy announces that she will assign 1 damage to Samite Healer and 2 to Nicole. After this, Nicole activates Samite Healer’s ability to prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to it. What happens?
A: The damage event starts as [2 damage to Nicole, 1 damage to Samite Healer]. Both of Samite Healer and Furnace of Rath want to apply to this. Nicole, as the affected player, is the one who decides what order these are applied [CR 616.1]. Suppose that she chooses to apply Furnace of Rath first. In this case, the damage event becomes [4 damage to Nicole, 2 damage to Samite Healer], and then [4 damage to Nicole, 1 damage to Samite Healer]. She will probably want to apply them in the other order, in which case the damage event would end up as [4 damage to Nicole], with no damage dealt to Samite Healer at all.
Q: Amy controls Furnace of Rath and attacks Nicole with 2 3/3 beast tokens. Nicole controls Worship, Boon Reflection, and a 1/1 creature with lifelink, which she uses to block one of Amy’s creatures. Nicole is currently at 3 life. What happens?
A: Damage is processed in a three-part sequence [CR 119.4]. Replacement effects that interact with any part of a damage event take place at the appropriate place in that sequence [CR 119.4a et seq.]. When the damage is dealt, the damage event starts out as [3 damage to Nicole, 3 damage to Nicole’s creature, 1 damage to Amy’s beast]. Furnace of Rath applies and doubles everything, so that we now have [6 damage to Nicole, 6 damage to Nicole’s creature, 2 damage to Amy’s beast]. Then, this is processed into its results, so the event becomes [Nicole loses 6 life, 6 damage is marked on Nicole’s creature, 2 damage is marked on Amy’s creature, Nicole gains 2 life]. Boon Reflection interacts with these results, to make Nicole gain 4 life rather than 2. Worship’s effect would apply in the final step, when the damage event occurs, but the game sees that this damage event would not reduce Nicole’s life to less than 1, so the Worship’s effect does not apply.
Note: Suppose that Nicole were at 2 life. Worship would modify the damage event so that it reduced Nicole to 1 life in that case. The fact that her only creature is being dealt lethal damage as part of the same damage event is immaterial because she only needs to control a creature at the time that Worship’s replacement effect would apply.
Q: Nicole has a Grizzly Bears, which Amy targets with a Debt of Loyalty. Then Amy plays Anger of the gods. Can Nicole choose to exile her creature rather than having it regenerate?
A: After damage is dealt, this will cause Grizzly Bears to be destroyed. Debt of Loyalty wants to modify this event by regenerating the bear. Anger’s effect also wants to modify this event by changing what zone the bear is put into. Since two replacement effects want to modify the way this event affects Grizzly Bears, Nicole, the bear’s controller will decide what order they apply in [CR 616.1].
Unfortunately, this choice won’t make much of a difference. If she applies Anger first, that will replace the part of destroying the bear that puts in in the graveyard with exiling it. The bear is still being destroyed, though, so the regeneration is still applicable. This will replace the entire destruction event with regenerating the bear, giving Amy control of it. If she applies the regeneration first, it will still replace the entire destruction event, so Anger won’t even get a chance to apply.
Note: Using a regeneration shield is not optional [CR 614.8], but Nicole can choose which regeneration shield to apply first if there are multiple ones (perhaps she plays a Mending Touch in response to the Anger). The other shields stay around until end of turn or until they are used up [CR 701.12a].
Q: Nicole controls a Rest in Peace when she uses a Lapse of Certainty to counter Amy’s Grizzly Bears. Where will the bear go when this happens?
A: It is put on top of Amy’s library. In this instance, the two replacement each want to replace putting the bear in Amy’s graveyard with putting it somewhere else, either the top of her library or exile. Amy doesn’t get a choice, though, because Lapse of Certainty has a self-replacement effect, a replacement effect that is tied not to a continuous effect but to a resolving spell or ability that replaces part of what that spell or ability does [CR 614.15]. These effects are applied first when determining what will happen when multiple replacement effects would interact [CR 614.15].
Q: So if that’s the case, why is it that when I Remand a card that’s being flashed back, it’s exiled instead of going to their hand?
A: It’s because of how flashback is worded. Flashback means, in part, “If the flashback cost was paid, exile this card instead of putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack” [CR 702.33a]. Remand’s self-replacement effect is applied first, replacing the event of putting the flashback card into its owner’s graveyard with putting it into their hand. Then flashback’s replacement effect applies and replaces putting it into their hand with exiling it.
Q: Amy casts Primal Clay, and Nicole responds with Gather Specimens. Who will decide what sort of creature Primal Clay will be?
A: Both of these are replacement effects that want to modify the way Primal Clay enters the battlefield. Amy controls the spell, but she doesn’t have a choice to make here. Effects that modify under whose control an object would enter the battlefield are also “high priority” replacement effects. They apply after self-replacement effects, but before other replacement effects [CR 616.1b]. After the Gather Specimens’ ability is processed, Nicole will be the player referred to by the “you” in Primal Clay’s ability, so she will be the one to make the choice for it [CR 109.5].
Q: Amy casts Clone while Nicole controls Imposing Sovereign and Heliod. She also controls three Banishing Lights. Amy wants her Clone to copy Heliod. Will it enter the battlefield tapped if Amy controls no white permanents?
A: No. Effects that cause a permanent to enter the battlefield as a copy of something else are the third type of “high priority” replacement effects, applying after control-modifying, but before ordinary replacement effects like Imposing Sovereign’s [CR 616.1c]. This means that Clone will first become a copy of Heliod. After this, the game will check to see if any other replacement effects are applicable to this event. At this point, the Clone/Heliod’s “not a creature” effect will be used in determining its characteristics [CR 614.12]. Since Amy’s devotion is less than 5, the game will not see Clone/Heliod as being a creature, and Imposing Sovereign will no longer apply to it.
Note: Suppose Amy’s devotion to white was 4 before she cast Clone. In this case, Amy’s devotion is still less than 5 while Imposing Sovereign’s ability is deciding whether or not to apply because Clone/Heliod is not yet on the battlefield. Thus, it still would enter untapped. Amy’s would need to have 5 devotion to white before she cast Clone for it to enter tapped as a copy of Heliod.
Q: Amy controls an Essence of the Wild and casts a Clone. Can she have the Clone enter the battlefield as a copy of Nicole’s Fusion Elemental?
A: No. Essence of the Wild and Clone both have replacement effects that want to modify how Clone enters the battlefield. Both want it to be a copy, so they both have the same priority [CR 616.1c]. Amy, as the affected player, may apply them in whatever order she wishes, but neither order will result in Clone entering as a copy of Fusion Elemental. If she applies Clone first, that ability will set Clone’s copiable values to those of Fusion Elemental. Then Essence of the Wild will set them to its own copiable values. If she applies Essence of the Wild first, that will set Clone’s copiable values to Essence’s. This overwrites Clone’s ability, so it will no longer apply.