Every new set has its challenges. With Fate Reforged, the biggest such challenge comes from the new mechanic, manifest. Still, there are plenty of other things to talk about. Here are some questions and answers to get you ready for them.
Q: Amy manifests a Mistcutter Hydra. What happens when she turns it face up?
A: Mistcutter Hydra already entered the battlefield, so it won’t get any counters [CR 707.8]. Being a 0/0, it will be put into Amy’s graveyard the next time state-based actions are performed [CR 704.5f].
Q: Amy manifests a Brainstorm. Nicole casts Break Open targeting it. What happens?
A: Break Open resolves. The instruction to flip Brainstorm face up cannot be carried out because instants cannot exist on the battlefield. Amy will reveal her Brainstorm to Nicole to verify that it is an instant, but it will remain on the battlefield face down [CR 701.31e].
Note: If Amy has a Secret Plans, it will not trigger because Brainstorm was not actually turned face up [CR 701.31e]. This is similar to the reason why you won’t draw any cards if you cast Overwhelming Forces and the only creatures your opponent controls are indestructible.
Q: Amy manifests a Brainstorm. Nicole casts Skybind and targets Amy’s face down Brainstorm with its ability. What happens?
A: Brainstorm is exiled. Skybind does not specify that it is exiled face down, so Brainstorm is exiled face up [CR 406.3]. At end of turn, Skybind’s delayed trigger will attempt to return it to the battlefield, but Brainstorm is an instant. Because instants can’t enter the battlefield, Brainstorm will remain exiled [CR 400.4a].
Q: Amy manifests a Hooded Hydra. How much will it cost to turn it face up?
A: Amy has two options. Morph does not distinguish how a creature entered the battlefield face down, so Amy can pay 3GG to turn it face up using its morph ability [CR 701.31c]. Manifest also allows her to turn Hooded Hydra face up by paying its mana cost because it’s a creature [CR 701.31b]. Amy doesn’t get to pick a value for X; because she’s paying the mana cost of an object that isn’t a spell on the stack, the X is treated as 0 [CR 107.3g]. Hooded Hydra won’t get X counters anyway because it already entered the battlefield [CR 707.8]. Either way, the game sees Hooded Hydra being turned face up, so its “As Hooded Hydra is turned face up” ability kicks in and causes 5 counters to be put on it.
Q: Amy casts Soul Summons. The top card of her library is Delver of Secrets. What happens?
A: Before FRF, this would have been a major problem, because double faced cards couldn’t have the face down status. The rules have now changed to allow this. Delver of Secrets is moved from Amy’s library to the battlefield face down [CR 711.8]. Because delver’s front face is a creature, Amy may pay its mana cost as a special action to turn it face up into Delver of Secrets. While Delver’s status is face down, it can’t transform [CR 711.8a].
Note: This only works because delver’s front face is a creature. If it were not, for instance, as with Elbrus, the Binding Blade, it could not be turned face up this way.
Q: Amy has a manifested Highland Game that trades in combat with a Grizzly Bears. What happens?
A: Highland Game is put into the graveyard. Its ability doesn’t trigger because, being face down, it did not have this ability just before it was put into the graveyard. After any event, the game “looks back in time” to see if any leaves the battlefield triggered abilities, such as Highland Game’s would trigger [CR 603.6d].
Note: Suppose Amy had manifested an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. In this case, its ability would trigger when it dies. That’s because Emrakul’s ability triggers when it is put into a graveyard “from anywhere”. These magic words exclude this triggered ability from being treated as a leaves the battlefield trigger [CR 603.6c]. This means that the game checks to see if it should trigger immediately after the event happens, without “looking back in time” [CR 603.6d].
Q: Amy controls a manifested Bringer of the Blue Dawn. Can she turn it face up for WUBRG?
A: She can! To turn a manifested card face up, show all players that the card representing that permanent is a creature card and what that card’s mana cost is, pay that cost, then turn the permanent face up [CR 701.31b]. Because you’re paying the mana cost, the bringer’s ability that allows you to pay an alternate cost will function [CR 112.6c].
Note: This works because unmanifesting a card involves paying the card’s mana cost, not some other cost that happens to be based on the mana cost. For example, if you had a Varolz you couldn’t scavenge a Bringer of the Blue Dawn by paying WUBRG because there’s no ability telling you that you can pay WUBRG rather than pay its scavenge cost.
Note: In light of this, you may be wondering whether cost increasers such as Sphere of Resistance would increase the cost to unmanifest a card. These effects are typically worded to affect how much mana the spell costs “to cast”. Since unmanifesting a permanent is not casting a spell, effects worded this way do not increase this cost. I am not aware of any way to change a card’s actual mana cost, which is what would be necessary to interact with manifest.
Q: Amy controls Essence of the Wild and she casts Soul Summons. What happens if the top card of her library is a Grizzly Bears? A Bow of Nylea?
A: The card that’s manifested will be a creature entering the battlefield, so Essence of the Wild’s ability will apply to it. A permanent’s characteristics are determined by looking at the card’s printed values, as modified by copy effects, by its face-down status, and by “as…enters the battlefield” and “as…is turned face up” abilities that set characteristics [CR 706.2]. So first, the manifested card will acquire the characteristics of Essence of the Wild, then its face down status will overwrite that information and make it a 2/2 creature with no name, subtypes, abilities, or mana cost.
The process of turning a manifested creature face up involves showing “that the card representing that permanent is a creature card,” which, of course, isn’t possible for a noncreature card like Bow of Nylea; if the manifested card is a creature, the process asks for the card’s mana cost, not the creature’s, so Grizzly Bears could be unmanifested for 1G, but not for 3GGG [CR 701.31b]. If turned face up this way, Grizzly Bears will still be a copy of Essence of the Wild, so it will have essence’s characteristics [CR 707.8]. This is also true for Bow of Nylea if it’s turned face up some other way, perhaps with Ixidor, Reality Sculptor.
Note: Suppose a creature with morph enters the battlefield face down under the control of someone who also has Essence of the Wild out (either by being cast face down or by being manifested). It will enter the battlefield as a copy of Essence of the Wild, but with its characteristics modified by its face down status (as described earlier). The process of turning a permanent face up using its morph cost involves showing all players “what the permanent’s morph cost would be if it were face up,” but as a copy of Essence of the Wild, it wouldn’t have a morph cost (because Essence of the Wild doesn’t have morph), so it can’t be turned face up this way [CR 702.36d]. If it was manifested, and if it’s a creature, it can still be unmanifested in the manner described above.
Q: Amy controls a Courser of Kruphix and casts an Ethereal Ambush. Will her opponent know what the second card that’s manifested is? Will she know which is which?
A: Yes. An instruction to manifest multiple cards from a library is performed by manifesting those cards one at a time [CR 701.31d]. Amy will manifest her top card, flip over her new top card, manifest that, then flip over her final top card. The opponent will know what order they entered the battlefield, so she will have all the same information about them as Amy.
Q: Can I use mana from the last ability of Crucible of the Spirit Dragon to plainscycle my Eternal Dragon?
A: That sure sounds like something that should work, but it doesn’t. Because the relevant part of that ability references the dragon subtype without using the word “card,” “spell,” “source,” or “scheme,” it means a dragon permanent on the battlefield [CR 109.2]. Cycling abilities (including plainscycling) can only be activated while the card is in your hand [CR 702.28a]. So you can’t use the mana to cycle Eternal Dragon because it isn’t a dragon in your hand (it’s a “dragon card”).
Note: For the same reason, you also can’t use this mana to activate Eternal Dragon’s “return to your hand” ability either.
Note: Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is not a “dragon spell,” so you can’t use mana from his crucible to cast him. Neither can you search for Ugin with his eye. For an all-powerful planeswalking dragon, Ugin sure doesn’t seem to be very well connected to his land (then again, based on his ultimate, it doesn’t seem like he needs that mana very much anyway).
Q: Amy controls a Frontier Siege, for which “Dragons” was chosen. If she casts a Cloudform, will she get to fight something?
A: No. The instructions on Cloudform are performed in the order written [CR 608.2c]. First Amy will manifest the top card of her library, then she will attach Cloudform to it. The manifested creature does not have flying until Cloudform is attached to it, so this event does not match the trigger condition of “a creature with flying enters the battlefield under your control”.
Q: Amy casts Act of Treason on Nicole’s Jeskai Infiltrator. Amy attacks with it, and it goes through unblocked. What happens?
A: The infiltrator deals combat damage to Nicole and triggers. Amy, the player who controled Jeskai Infiltrator, controls the trigger, and will be the one to carry out its instructions [CR 603.3a, 608.2c]. Amy will manifest the top card of her library and Jeskai Infiltrator. Because Amy is the one to do this, those cards both enter under her control [CR 110.2a].
Note: A card’s owner is public knowledge, so Nicole will know which of the manifested cards is her infiltrator. If the players are using the same sort of sleeves, Amy will be responsible for making sure Nicole has access to this information.
Q: Amy attacks with an animated Mutavault and a Flamerush Rider. For the rider’s ability, she puts a token of Mutavault into play. What happens?
A: Copy effects don’t take into account counters on the thing they’re copying nor any other continuous effects acting on it (except other copy effects) [CR 706.2]. This means that the ability that animates the Mutavault isn’t copied, and the token Amy gets will be an unanimated Mutavault. That won’t do much good because an effect can’t put a noncreature permanent onto the battlefield attacking. It will still enter the battlefield, but it’s never considered to be an attacking permanent [CR 506.3a]. There’s no reason it can’t enter tapped, so that part of the effect still works.
Q: Three players are playing in a [sigh] free-for-all game. Suppose the attacking player and another player both activate Brutal Hordechief‘s ability to make the third player’s creatures block. Who decides how they block?
A: Anyone who knows me knows how much I love rules questions from casual multiplayer formats, but this one was too legitimate to pass up. The answer is fairly logical, too. Hordechief’s ability changes the rules for the declare blocker step so that a different person makes the choice of what blocks are. Each activation overwrites all the previous ones, so the player whose hordechief ability resolves last will make the call.
Q: Can you explain how the Worldgorger Dragon/Animate Dead interaction works?
A: Sure! It’s a little complicated, but that’s what makes it fun.
1) Cast Animate Dead on a Worldgorger Dragon in your graveyard.
2) Animate Dead enters the battlefield, which causes its first triggered ability to trigger.
3) Worldgorger Dragon enters the battlefield. Its first triggered ability triggers, exiling all other permanents you control, notably including lands and Animate Dead.
4) Because Animate Dead left the battlefield, its second triggered ability triggers, and Worldgorger Dragon is sacrificed.
5) Worldgorger Dragon’s second triggered ability triggers, returning all the permanents exiled with it (including lands and Animate Dead) to the battlefield. Note that the lands are returned untapped, and they can be tapped for mana here if desired.
6) At this point, the game state is exactly where it was in point (2), except possibly with mana in the reanimator player’s pool.
From here, winning can take any number of forms, such as controlling a permanent with an ETB ability while this is going on, which will trigger an arbitrary amount of times, having a permanent like Shivan Gorge with an activated ability that can be activated repeatedly while looping, or simply by using the infinite mana to hardcast some other nasty spell, such as Stroke of Genius.
Q: Amy casts Animate Dead on a Worldgorger Dragon in her graveyard. She controls no other permanents aside from basic lands, and has no other creatures in graveyards. What happens?
A: This is one reason why Worldgorger Dragon was originally banned. The game has entered a loop of triggered abilities continually exiling and returning Animate Dead. Because all the actions are mandatory, the game is a draw [CR 104.4b].
Note: Because Magic matches are played “first to two” rather than “best of three,” the players might have to play a four (or more, if there are additional draws) game match [MTR 2.1]. The player who decided whether to play or draw first in the drawn game also makes this choice in the next game [MTR 2.2].
Note: Suppose Amy had another creature in her graveyard, say a Hapless Researcher. In this case, not all actions in the loop are mandatory. Amy may choose to return the researcher with Animate Dead. Amy may repeat the loop of exiling and returning Animate Dead as many times as she chooses, but must eventually break the loop by reanimating Hapless Researcher.
Note: Suppose that Amy had a Hapless Researcher not in her graveyard, but on the battlefield. She is not required to sacrifice Hapless Researcher to break the loop because that card is not involved in the loop [CR 716.5]. This might seem a little strange to you, but consider the alternative. If we required cards that are not directly a part of the loop to be used in an attempt to break out, where would we stop? Would the players need to cast a Brainstorm to look for cards that could do it? Would it be legal to counter those cards?
Q: Amy exiles Nicole’s Torrent Elemental with Duplicant. Nicole then activates Torrent Elemental’s ability, but Amy responds by flashing in Containment Priest. What happens?
A: Containment Priest replaces the event of returning Torrent Elemental to the battlefield with exiling it. It’s already exiled, so this doesn’t physically do anything, but it does have one important consequence. Exiling an object that’s already exiled will cause it to become a new object that’s just been exiled [CR 400.8]. Becoming a new object means that it’s no longer considered to have been “exiled with Duplicant,” so Duplicant will go back to being a 2/4 Shapeshifter.
Note: Suppose that Amy had exiled Misthollow Griffin rather than Torrent Elemental. In this case, Containment Priest does not interact with this event because Misthollow Griffin is “cast,” albeit from an unusual zone, rather than simply being put onto the battlefield. Misthollow Griffin enters the battlefield, and Duplicant loses its imprint.
Q: Amy controls Warden of Evos Isle, and has another one in her graveyard. How many Swamps does she need to cast Soulflayer?
A: The total cost to cast a spell is determined and locked in before any of the costs are actually paid [CR 601.2e, 601.2g]. Delve offers an alternative way to pay the total cost, so the cost to cast Soulflayer will therefore be locked in at 4BB before a single card is delved [CR 702.65a].
Note: There’s another reason why this doesn’t work. See the next question for details.
Q: Amy casts Soulflayer and delves a Wind Drake while Nicole controls a Hidden Spider. What happens?
A: Hidden Spider does not trigger. Soulflayer has a static ability that (in this case) grants it flying. The ability isn’t a characterisic-defining ability, so it doesn’t function on the stack [CR 604.3a, 112.6]. Cairn Wanderer won’t have flying until it’s on the battlefield.
Q: Amy delves a True-Name Nemesis with Soulflayer. What happens?
A: The exiled True-Name Nemesis pays for 1 of the Soulflayer’s mana cost [CR 702.65a]. Other than that, nothing interesting. Strangely, Soulflayer doesn’t give itself protection the way similar effects like Death-Mask Duplicant, Cairn Wanderer, or Concerted Effort do.
Q: So now that you have our interest, are you going to tell us how those cards interact with TNN?
A: In the case of the first two, rather poorly. You see, True-Name Nemesis doesn’t actually have protection. Rather, it has an ability that grants it protection. This isn’t a characteristic-defining ability, so it doesn’t function outside of the battlefield, which is where the cards Death-Mask Duplicant and Cairn Wanderer look at are [CR 604.3a, 112.6]. Concerted Effort, though, is a bit more interesting. True-Name Nemesis does have protection from a player on the battlefield, so Concerted Effort will give all your creatures protection from the same player.
Q: Amy delves a Torrent Elemental with Soulflayer. Later, she returns Torrent Elemental to the battlefield with its ability. Does the Soulflayer still have flying?
A: Yes. Soulflayer’s ability asks for information about the choices made while it was a spell. This means that the rules specifically allow it access to that information, even though the Soulflayer was a different object on the stack [CR 400.7c]. There’s no question that, during the process of casting Soulflayer, a creature card with flying was exiled with delve to pay for it, so it has flying now because it sees that condition is satisfied.
Q: Amy uses Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to make a copy of her Humble Defector. Then she activates her token’s ability. What happens in the end step?
A: The delayed trigger from Kiki-Jiki goes on the stack. Amy is the controller of this ability because she controlled the ability that set it up [CR 603.7e]. The delayed triggered ability instructs Amy to sacrifice the Humble Defector token, but she is unable to do so because she no longer controls it [CR 701.14a]. The token will remain on the battlefield indefinitely; the delayed trigger asking for it to be sacrificed only happens once [CR 603.7b].
Note: If Amy somehow regains control of the token before the ability instructs her to sacrifice it (for instance, if her opponent untaps it and activates its ability), it will be sacrificed as normal. Even though it changes controllers, it’s still the same object, and the trigger can still find it.
Note: The similarly-worded card Splinter Twin works differently. If Amy uses Splinter Twin to put a Humble Defector token into play, then activates the token’s ability, when the end step rolls around, she will be instructed to exile the token, not sacrifice it. There’s no rule saying she can’t do this, so the token is exiled as normal.
Q: Amy is head judging a PPTQ and forgets to announce that the top 8 will have the modified play/draw rule. She still wants to run it that way. What are her options?
A: There was only one material change to the policy documents this time around (exepting the new handling of failure to reveal a morph as a Warning). All top 8’s now use the “modified” play/draw rule, so the higher seed after swiss will get to decide whether to play or draw in game 1 in the top 8 matches whether the judge mentions it or not [MTR 2.2].
Note: It is within the head judge’s discretion to repeal this rule and go back to the old way of rolling dice like in the swiss rounds, but they would have to announce this at the beginning of the event, and I’m not sure why someone would want to do this.