Q; With Sphinx’s Tutelage, do I see what cards are going into my opponent’s graveyard before I decide what to discard?
A: No. When you draw a card, that causes Sphinx’s Tutelage to trigger, but that trigger doesn’t get put onto the stack right away [CR 603.2]. Rather, it waits until the next time a player would get priority [CR 603.3]. So you have to discard first, then the trigger will go onto the stack, and when it resolves, your opponent will mill.
Q: Amy casts Tragic Arrogance while Nicole controls two Boon Satyrs. Can Amy pick permanents so only one of them will live?
A: Yes. Boon Satyr is an enchantment, so she can choose it as the enchantment on Nicole’s side that gets saved. It’s also a creature, so she can choose the same one she chose earlier as the creature that gets saved. If Tragic Arrogance targeted, Amy would only be able to pick the same object once per instance of the word target [CR 601.2c]. It doesn’t, so Amy can choose any permanent that fits the description, regardless of whether it’s been chosen already.
Q: Amy Clones her opponent’s Honored Hierarch, which is renowned. Is Clone also renowned?
A: No. Much like being monstrous, being renowned is simply a designation that has no special rules meaning other than to serve as a marker for other effects to use; it isn’t part of an object’s copiable information [CR 702.111b].
Note: While the counter is a nice memory aid, it isn’t tied mechanically to the creature being renowned or not [CR 702.111a]. That means that if the counter is, for example, Fate Transfered from a renowned creature to another one, the original creature is still renowned, and the creature that now has the counter on it still isn’t.
Q: Amy casts Calculated Dismissal on her Preordain while the only card in her graveyard is a Condescend. What happens?
A: Amy chooses whether to pay the 3 or not when Calculated Dismissal resolves. If she doesn’t pay, her Preordain will be countered, and thus put into the graveyard [CR 701.5a]. When the spell mastery check is performed, Amy will have two instants in her graveyard, so she will get to scry 2. If she does pay, Preordain won’t be countered, but she won’t get to scry 2 with Calculated Dismissal either.
Note: If she had another instant or sorcery in her graveyard, she would be able to scry 2 even if she paid for Preordain not to be countered. The scry is a separate ability; it isn’t contingent on actually countering the spell.
Q: Amy controls Leyline of the Void and her Erebos’s Titan trades in combat with another creature. What happens?
A: Nothing interesting. Leyline of the Void has a replacement effect, which means that her opponent’s creature is never put into the graveyard at all [CR 614.6]. Rather, it goes directly from the battlefield to exile. Her Titan doesn’t trigger.
Note: Suppose it was Planar Void instead of Leyline of the Void. This is worded as a triggered ability rather than a replacement effect, so the cards actually go to the graveyard and are then exiled [CR 603.1]. Planar Void would trigger twice in the scenerio described above, once for Erebos’ Titan, and once for the creature it traded with. Amy, as the controller of both triggers, gets to choose what order they go onto the stack [CR 603.3b]. She can choose to put her Titan’s trigger on the stack first, and the one for her opponent’s trigger on top of it. That way, when the other creature is exiled, her Titan’s “return me” ability will trigger, and Amy will be able to discard a card to save it.
Q: Amy controls Starfield of Nyx and 3 other enchantments when she casts Lightform. What happens?
A: Lightform enters the battlefield as the enchantment Amy controls. Because there’s no time when Lightform is on the battlefield and Amy doesn’t control five enchantments, Lightform enters the battlefield as a 3/3 creature [CR 611.3c]. Because Lightform entered the battlefield, its ability will trigger, and when that trigger resolves, Lightform will become an Aura, at which point Starfield of Nyx’s effect will stop applying to it, then Amy will manifest the top card of her library and attach Lightform to it. Amy still controls the requisite number of enchantments, so her other ones will still be creatures.
Q: Amy controls Starfield of Nyx, Heliod, and three Claustrophobias. What are Heliod’s characteristics?
A: Both Heliod’s “devotion – not a creature” and Starfield’s “enchantments – yes a creature” effects apply in layer 4 [CR 613.1d]. Which one applies last (and therefore “wins”) is dependent upon which one has a later timestamp [CR 613.6]. If Heliod entered the battlefield before Starfield, Starfield will make Heliod a creature after its ability says it isn’t one. Conversely, if Starfield entered the battlefield first, Heliod’s “not a creature” ability will apply last and it’ll just be an enchantment.
Note: If your devotion to W is 5 or more, then Heliod will always be a creature, because its own “not a creature” ability won’t apply.
Note: No matter what the timestamps, if Heliod is a creature while Starfield is active, it will always be 4/4. That’s because to find a creature’s p/t, you start with the values printed on it, then apply any applicable continuous effects [CR 613.1]. The only way to make Heliod be a 5/6 would be to get your devotion to white up to 5 without having 5 or more enchantments in play.
Q: Amy manifests a Heliod, then casts Starfield of Nyx, then casts three Claustrophobias, then turns Heliod face up. Is Heliod a creature?
A: If you read the previous question, the only thing we need to determine this is which effect has a later timestamp, Heliod’s “devotion – not a creature” effect, or Starfield’s “enchantments – yes a creature” effect. The timestamp for Starfield’s effect is simply when Starfield entered the battlefield [CR 613.6a]. For Heliod’s effect, the timestamp is a bit more complex. Like Starfield’s effect, it inherits its timestamp from the permanent it’s on, but unlike Starfield, Heliod got a new timestamp when it turned face up [CR 613.6e]. This means that the “devotion – not a creature” ability will have a later timestamp.
Note: This ruling is actually a change from previous rules because the rule that gives objects a new timestamp when they turn face up is brand new. Along with it is another new rule that gives objects a new timestamp when they transform [CR 613.6f].
Note: It’s legal to unmanifest Heliod even if you don’t have the requisite devotion to W (or number of enchantments, in this case) to make it a creature. That’s because the process of turning a manifested card face up involves showing “that the card representing that permanent is a creature card,” which Heliod always is [CR 701.31b].
Q: Amy dashes Zurgo and then casts Day’s Undoing in her postcombat main phase. What happens?
A: Part of ending the turn is skipping straight to the cleanup step [CR 713.1d]. This means that the end of turn step in which Zurgo was supposed to be returned is skipped and the dash “return to hand” ability won’t trigger [CR 713.3]. Zurgo will remain on the battlefield until its ability triggers during the the next end of turn step to actually happen, which will probably be on Amy’s opponent’s turn [614.10a].
Q: Amy casts Last Chance, then casts Day’s Undoing during her extra turn. What happens?
A: Day’s Undoing causes the game to skip immediately to the cleanup step, so the end of turn step in which Last Chance was supposed to trigger is skipped [CR 713.1d, 713.3]. Unlike the previous question, Last Chance’s trigger will not occur in any subsequent end of turn steps because it specifically triggers during the end of turn step of the extra turn it creates.
Q: Amy controls Sphinx’s Tutelage and casts Day’s Undoing. What happens?
A: Amy drawing cards for Day’s Undoing causes Sphinx’s Tutelage to trigger 7 times. These triggers are not put onto the stack immediately, though; normally, the game would do that the next time a player would get priority [CR 602.2, 602.3]. In this case, though, because the turn ends, these triggers never make it onto the stack. The first step in the process of ending the turn is to kill all such triggered abilities that have triggered but aren’t on the stack yet [CR 713.1a].
Note: Triggered abilities that trigger during the process of ending the turn still happen [CR 713.2]. The rule cited above only preempts triggered abilities that trigger before the action of ending the turn starts.
Q: Can I bestow a Hopeful Eidolon onto my Steel Golem?
A: Yes. The process for casting a spell has changed so that this is now allowed. First you move the spell onto the stack, then you make choices for the spell (modes, intention to pay alternate or additional costs, value of X, targets, divisions/distributions, etc.), and only then does the game check to see if the proposed spell is legal to cast [CR 601.2a-e]. In this case, you would move the Eidolon onto the stack, declare you’re going to cast it using bestow, and target the Steel Golem. The instant you declare you’re using bestow, the Eidolon ceases to be a creature spell and becomes an aura [CR 702.102a]. There’s no effect preventing you from casting auras, so the spell passes the check and you can finish casting it.
Q: Double-faced cards? Again? Really?
A: Yes, this was my first reaction too. Wizards certainly has been rather unkind to judges in the last few blocks. I remember jokingly suggesting that people wait until split cards rotate out before certifying to save themselves from having to learn how they work. After devotion not-a-creature and bestow in Theros, I thought I had seen the worst of it, until morph came back in KTK. And now Origins has double-faced cards. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that savvy players now have a number of promising speculation targets in Humility, Shahrazad, and Sylvan Library, which are almost certain to be reprinted (perhaps as textless versions) in BFZ given the current trend.
Q: Amy controls Liliana, Heretical Healer and Liliana, Defiant Necromancer. What happens?
A: Nothing interesting. The legend rule doesn’t apply because Liliana, Defiant Necromancer isn’t legendary [CR 704.5k]. The planeswalker uniqueness rule doesn’t apply because Liliana, Heretical Healer isn’t a planeswalker [CR 704.5j].
Q: Amy controls Liliana, Heretical Healer and casts a second one. What happens?
A: After her second Liliana enters the battlefield, she will control two legendary permanents with the same name, so she’ll have to pick one and put the other in her graveyard [CR 704.5k]. When that happens, her surviving Liliana’s ability will trigger, and it will return flipped.
Q: Amy controls Liliana, Heretical Healer and casts Collected Company. If she hits two more Lilianas in her top 6, is there any way she can end up with one transformed, one untransformed, and one in her graveyard?
A: No. Amy can put both Lilianas onto the battlefield, but after Collected Company resolves, the game will apply the legend rule. It does this by having Amy choose one, and putting all the others into her graveyard [CR 704.5k]. The one she saves will see her fellows die and transform, but that will be two late for the other two.
Q: Amy controls a Tarmogoyf and the only card in a graveyard is a Nissa, Vastwood Seer. What is Tarmogoyf’s p/t?
A: Anywhere except the battlefield, the back face of a double-faced card is ignored when determining the card’s characteristics [CR 711.4a]. This means the game won’t be able to see that Nissa is a planeswalker if you turn the card over and Tarmogoyf is a 1/2.
Q: Amy controls Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy while Nicole casts Moonmist. What happens?
A: The instruction to “transform all humans” in Moonmist really means all humans, and Jace qualifies. Unfortunately for everyone’s favorite planeswalker, Moonmist doesn’t mention anything about giving those humans loyalty counters. Normally, the game gives planeswalkers loyalty counters as they enter the battlefield, but this doesn’t apply here because Jace is already on the battlefield [CR 306.5b]. This is similar to how if you unmanifest a Heroes’ Bane, it won’t get any +1/+1 counters. The next time state-based actions are performed, Jace will die.
Note: If you ever wondered why these planeswalkers were exiled and returned to the battlefield transformed rather than just transforming in place the way the old double-faced cards did, this is why.
Q: Amy animates her Gideon, Battle-Forged and attacks with it. Nicole casts Moonmist. What happens?
A: Transform doesn’t just refer to the act of turning a card from its front face to its back face, even though that’s the only way it’s used in Origins [CR 711.1]. Gideon is a human, and it’s double faced, so it transforms into its pre-spark form. In the previous question, there was no reason to put loyalty counters on Jace; in the same way, there’s nothing telling us to take them away here, so they remain, even though they don’t do anything now. Kytheon is still the same permanent, it still has the same controller, and it’s still a creature, so it’s still attacking (although, not being a wolf or werewolf, its combat damage will be prevented [CR 506.4]. Notably, Kytheon being the same permanent also means it is still affected by all the same effects that were applying to it earlier [CR 711.11]. This means that it’s still 4/4, it’s still indestructible, and all damage that would be dealt to it is still prevented. It isn’t still a planeswalker, though. That clause isn’t changing or adding card types; it just exists to let Gideon keep its old types after the ability changes its type to creature [CR 205.1b].
Note: If Kytheon’s “transform me” ability resolves sometime later, it will exile Kytheon, which means all the counters on it will cease to exist [CR 121.2]. It will return to the battlefield with only 3 loyalty counters on it.
Q: Amy steals Nicole’s Liliana, Heretical Healer with Dragonlord Silumgar. The next turn, Nicole Hero’s Downfalls Silumgar. What happens?
A: As soon as Silumgar is destroyed, the effect that gave Amy control of Liliana ends. Liliana immediately reverts back to Nicole’s control. After that event, the game checks to see if any triggered abilities have triggered and need to go onto the stack [CR 603.3]. Because Liliana’s ability is a leaves-the-battlefield ability, the game “looks back in time” to determine whether it should trigger, checking the game state immediately before the event occurred [CR 603.6d]. Liliana is exiled and returns transformed to the battlefield. Because Amy controlled Liliana when the ability triggered, she controls the triggered ability, so she is the one who performs its instructions, including putting a zombie token on the battlefield [CR 112.8]. Liliana is returned under Nicole’s control because Liliana specifies that it returns under its owner’s control.
Note: If Liliana’s “transform me” ability read exactly the same except with the word “exile” replaced with “sacrifice,” this answer would be different. Amy would be instructed to sacrifice Liliana, but couldn’t do so because by that time, Liliana would already be back under Nicole’s control [CR 701.14a]. None of the other effects of that ability would happen.
Note: If Liliana’s “transform me” ability read exactly the same except with the word “dies” replaced by “is put into a graveyard from anywhere,” the answer would again be different. An ability that triggers when a card is put into a certain zone “from anywhere” is never treated as a leaves-the-battlefield ability [CR 603.6c]. This means that the game would look at the game state immediately after the event to determine if Liliana should trigger [CR 603.6d]. Since a creature Nicole controls has not been put into a graveyard, the ability wouldn’t trigger at all.
Q: Amy activates the 0 ability of her Gideon, Battle-Forged, which has 4 loyalty counters on it. Nicole, who controls a Willbreaker then targets Gideon with Ephemeral Shields and gains control of it. Amy attacks Gideon with Hooting Mandrills, and Nicole declares that she will block that with Gideon. Before damage, Amy casts a Wild Slash and does 2 damage to Nicole. What happens?
A: Hooting Mandrils assigns 4 damage to Gideon, which assigns 4 damage to the Mandrils. Amy’s ferocious Wild Slash stops Gideon from preventing the damage that Hooting Mandrils would deal to it. Because Gideon is both a creature and a planeswalker, this damage has two results: 4 damage is marked on it, and 4 loyalty counters are removed from it [CR 119.3e, 119.3c]. Being indestructible from Ephemeral Shields keeps Gideon from dying as a result of the lethal damage marked on it, but does nothing to stop it from dying due to being a planeswalker with no loyalty counters [CR 704.5i]. Both Hooting Mandrils and Gideon will die the next time state-based actions are performed.
Note: If Amy had chosen to redirect the damage from Wild Slash to Gideon, she would have had the opportunity to assign 2 of Hooting Mandrils’ combat damage to the creature blocking it (Gideon), and have the remaining 2 trample over to the planeswalker it’s attacking (also Gideon).
Note: If Gideon survived combat, it would go back to being only a planeswalker and not a creature at the end of the turn. Nicole would still control Gideon because Willbreaker’s effect only checks to see what type of permanent something is when it first applies; after that, it will continue to apply no matter what happens to the affected permanent [CR 611.2c].
Q: Amy casts Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, which resolves, and then says “Go.” At this, Nicole begins her turn by drawing a card (she controls no untapped permanents). Amy calls a judge and tells you that she should be taking her extra turn, but Nicole drew her card before she could react. What do you do?
A: This is an important update to the IPG, but probably not the one you were expecting. Before, this situation wasn’t handled very well by policy. Nicole is within her rights to assume that Amy has forgotten her triggered ability because Amy hasn’t done anything to indicate otherwise [IPG 2.1 P]. On the other hand, Amy doesn’t need to acknowledge this triggered ability until the first time it would visibly affect the game state, in this case at the start of the next turn [IPG 2.1 D]. A judge might reasonably rule that this should be a Missed Trigger for Amy or a Drawing Extra Cards for Nicole.
The new IPG spells out clearly what line we should take: “A player who makes a play that may or may not be legal depending on whether an uncommunicated trigger has been remembered has not committed an infraction; their play either succeeds, confirming that the trigger has been missed, or is rewound” [IPG 2.1 P]. Nicole’s card draw is rewound, Amy gets to take her extra turn, and there is no infraction for either player.
Note: Amy’s saying “Go” should not be construed as her missing her trigger by inviting her opponent to take a turn. Because it is a standard tournament shortcut, “Go” and its equivalents, has a specific Magic meaning that takes precedence over whatever other colloquial meanings might be applicable [MTR 4.2].
Note: If Nicole had untapped permanents and then drawn a card, Amy would have had more notice before the card was drawn. In this case, I would be less likely to allow Amy to take her extra turn (although it’s still possible depending on whether I believe she had enough time to “reasonably” intervene).
Q: Amy mumbles something indistinct, and Nicole mistakenly believes that she said “Go.” At this, Nicole begins her turn by drawing a card (she controls no untapped permanents). Amy calls a judge and tells you that she was not done with her turn, but Nicole drew her card before she could react. What do you do?
A: Nicole has moved a card from her library into her hand at a time when no game rule allowed her to. This is not a Communication Policy Violation because Amy has not misrepresented derived or free information [IPG 3.7 D]. Rather, outside circumstances have caused Nicole to misinterpret Amy’s communication.
Nicole’s action constitutes Drawing Extra Cards, but this isn’t a Game Loss anymore. Rather, Amy will look at Nicole’s hand and choose one card to shuffle into her library.
Q: Amy approaches you near the end of a round and tells you that she has lost a card from her deck, a Swords to Plowshares. None of the dealers have them, so she changes it to a Plains, and you update her decklist. Two rounds later, Amy approaches you and says her friend Alice is dropping from the event and has offered to let Amy borrow a Swords to Plowshares out of her deck. What do you say?
A: Up until this update, Amy would have been out of luck, but now we can revert her decklist back to what she originally had [IPG 3.5 A]. This change should still be noted on Amy’s decklist; be sure to reiterate the importance of telling a judge before changing back lest this situation come up in the future and she earn a penalty.
Note: Be aware that this policy change introduces the possibility for players to game this system. For example, against a deck with no creatures, Swords to Plowshares is a dead draw, and would be better as a basic land. Inform the head judge any time you make such a reversion to a player’s decklist like this so that repeated or suspicious requests can be caught. To go even further, you might also consider asking the scorekeeper to enter an “infraction” for tracking purposes, even though you won’t give it to the player (have the scorekeeper include the text “FOR TRACKING ONLY” or similar to indicate this).
Q: Amy has 2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy registered on her decklist. During a deck check, you find the 75 cards you were expecting to see in her deck and sideboard, including two actual copies of Jace (not represented by checklist cards). There are also two additional Jaces in her deckbox. Amy’s deck is sleeved in blue Dragon Shields, but the two additional Jaces are unsleeved. What do you do?
A: Issue a Game Loss for Marked Cards. Blue Dragon Shields are slightly translucent, and it is possible to distinguish between double faced cards and cards with the normal Magic back without looking at the front face. Because Amy could take advantage of the knowledge of this pattern, the penalty is upgraded from a Warning to a Game Loss [IPG 3.8 U]. Amy must either change sleeves or use checklist cards to resolve this issue.
Note: If changing sleeves or using checklist cards are not possible (which could happen, for instance, if these are not available from the vendors on site), Amy may change the Jaces out for basic lands of her choice [IPG 3.8 A]. Reverting this change is specifically disallowed by the IPG, but according to this post from Scott Marshall, that is an oversight and will be changed in a future update.
Note: The additional Jaces in Amy’s deckbox do not constitute a Deck/Decklist Problem. Double faced cards used to represent the back face of double faced cards are exempted from the rule against having extra cards in the deckbox [IPG 3.5 P].
Note: For this exemption to apply, the cards used for the back face must not be sleeved the same way as the deck or sideboard. Suppose the two extra Jaces were sleeved in blue Dragon Shields along with the rest of the deck. In that case, Amy would have committed both Deck/Decklist Problem and Marked Cards infractions. These are not treated as a single infraction because their root cause is not the same [IPG 1.2]. The MC is caused by using translucent sleeves, and the D/DP is caused by using the same sleeves for the deck and for double faced cards used with it. This being the case, Amy will receive two Game Losses. If this is a midround deck check and Amy had lost game 1, the second Game Loss would be applied at the beginning of the next round.
Q: Amy casts Alhammarret, High Arbiter, but forgets to have Nicole reveal her hand when it enters the battlefield. Several turns later, Nicole realizes the error and calls a judge. What do you do?
A: Amy has broken a game rule by ignoring Alhammarret’s “enters the battlefield” replacement effect, so she gets a Game Rule Violation. Nicole will get a Failure to Maintain Game State because she didn’t notice in a reasonable amount of time. This situation is one where a partial fix is applicable: “If a player made an illegal choice (including no choice where required) for a static ability generating a continuous effect still on the battlefield, that player makes a legal choice” [IPG 2.5 A]. Unfortunately for Amy, applying this partial fix doesn’t help very much. Though Amy is instructed to make a legal choice, there is no basis in policy for compelling Nicole to take any auxiliary actions necessary to make that choice (in this case, revealing her hand). Have the players continue their game with no card named for Alhammarret.
Note: The appropriate infraction for Nicole is a FtMGS, not a GRV because a double GRV is assessed only when “a player takes an action called for by an effect controlled by his or her opponent, but does it incorrectly…” [IPG 2.5 A]. In this case, Nicole did not perform an action incorrectly; she performed no actions.
Q: Amy controls a face down creature, which Nicole Wild Slashes. Rather than putting it into her graveyard, Amy absentmindedly returns it to her hand without revealing it. Amy shows you her hand, which contains Glacial Stalker and Island. What do you do?
A: Amy has broken two rules here. She has put a card into her hand illegally, and she has moved her morph creature into a new zone without revealing it. The former is Drawing Extra Cards, while the latter is a Game Rule Violation. Since both infractions have the same root cause, they are considered a single infraction [IPG 1.2]. There is no further guidance in policy concerning which infraction should take “priority,” however online discussions of this scenario have concluded that DEC is the appropriate infraction to give, since it is more specific to what happened.
The fix for DEC is for Amy to reveal her hand to Nicole and shuffle one card of Nicole’s choice into her library. It’s odd that the card ends up in her library rather than the graveyard, and it’s odd that Nicole could have Amy keep the Glacial Stalker and shuffle the Island back, but these are artifacts of the truth that we need a finite policy document to apply to an endless number of things that could happen.
Note: Suppose Amy had already received two Warnings for GRV’s earlier in the event. Under the old IPG, we would apply the more severe penalty in cases where two infractions had the same root cause. This language has been removed from the IPG, so we now just apply the infraction that “fits” better. In general, the IPG is designed to be read “top down,” so that the infractions covered first should be prioritized ahead of those covered later (DEC appears before GRV, so DEC is given).
Note: In addition to the various complications that make it interesting, this scenario is noteworthy in that it would have meant a Game Loss for Amy for multiple reasons a mere six months ago, and is now only a Warning.