Q: Amy has cast no spells yet this turn. How much does she have to pay to cast Conduit of Ruin?
A: She pays 6. A creature’s abilities generally only work when it’s on the battlefield [CR 112.6]. On the stack, Conduit of Ruin’s ability does not apply, so you pay the full mana cost.
Q: Wait a minute! If that’s the case, then how do things like affinity and Ghoultree work?
A: These are similar abilities, yet they’re treated in a different way because they only affect the cost of the spell that they appear on. If abilities like these didn’t have this exception, permanent spells could never be printed with additional costs, cost reducers, alternate costs, or abilities that allow them to be cast from other zones. For reference, the applicable CR passage is
112.6. Abilities of an instant or sorcery spell usually function only while that object is on the stack. Abilities of all other objects usually function only while that object is on the battlefield. The exceptions are as follows:
…
112.6c An object’s ability that allows a player to pay an alternative cost rather than its mana cost functions in any zone in which its mana cost can be paid (which, in general, means it functions on the stack). An object’s ability that otherwise modifies what that particular object costs to cast functions on the stack.
Q: Can I cast Grave Birthing if my opponent has no cards in her graveyard? Do I still get a token/draw a card?
A: First, you can cast it. The only requirements to cast this spell are to choose a legal target and pay the costs. The target is “an opponent,” not “an opponent with a card in his or her graveyard,” so there’s no reason you can’t cast the spell here. When the spell resolves, it will tell the opponent to exile a card, but there’s no problem if that doesn’t happen. The spell will continue to resolve, doing as much as it can [CR 608.2b].
Note: This isn’t a terribly difficult question, but it’s one that I’ve had players bring up a few times already. It’s confusing primarily because there are similar cards that are so worded as to make the answer different. For example, Forgotten Harvest predicates the effect upon actually removing the card (or, more accurately, choosing to remove the card) [CR 117.12]. Vile Rebirth targets the card in the graveyard, so it can’t be cast without a card there to target, and it will be countered if that card is removed before Vile Rebirth resolves.
Q: Amy casts Bloodbond Vampire, then attacks with two Lantern Scouts. Amy’s opponent lets both creatures through unblocked. How many counters are placed on Bloodbond Vampire?
A: Bloodbond Vampire gets 2 counters. An ability that’s worded “whenever you gain life” triggers whenever a source causes you to gain life [CR 118.9]. In this case, Amy is gaining life from two sources, so she will get two triggers. The fact that each of these sources has two instances of lifelink (one from each Lantern Scout’s triggers) is immaterial; because of the way lifelink is worded in the CR, multiple instances of lifelink are redundant [CR 702.15e].
Note: This last point is something that has changed. Lifelink was originally a triggered ability that made you gain life whenever the creature dealt damage. That would have made each Scout gain Amy life twice, for a total of four counters.
Note: Suppose that the power of Amy’s attacking creatures is reduced to 0 or less before they deal damage. In this case 0 life will be gained. This does not count as “gaining life”; Bloodbond Vampire does not trigger [CR 118.9].
Q: Amy attacks with Alpine Grizzly, and Nicole blocks with Balduvian Bears. Amy casts Gideon’s Reproach on Balduvian Bears, and Nicole responds by casting Turn Against on Alpine Grizzly. What happens?
A: There are a set of specific things that cause a creature to be removed from combat: leaving the battlefield, changing controllers, phasing out, regenerating, ceasing to be a creature, and having an effect specifically say that it’s removed from combat [CR 506.4]. Balduvian Bears was legally declared as a blocker; that means it will be considered a blocking creature until it’s removed from combat or the combat phase ends [CR 509.1g]. Perusing the list of conditions, we can see that Alpine Grizzly is removed from combat because it changed controllers. Not having an attacking creature to block anymore is not one of the things that can cause a creature to be removed from combat, so Balduvian Bears is still considered a blocking creature when Gideon’s Reproach resolves. That means it’s still a legal target, so it takes 4 damage and dies.
Q: Nicole controls Void Winnower. Can Amy cast Deathmist Raptor face down?
A: No. Following the process of casting a spell, Amy will first turn Deathmist Raptor face down and move it to the stack [CR 601.2a]. As long as it’s face down, it doesn’t have a mana cost, so its converted mana cost is 0 [CR 202.3a]. When the game checks to see if Amy is allowed to cast this spell, Void Winnower will veto it [CR 601.2e].
Q: Amy casts a Radiant Flames by tapping Pyromancer’s Goggles, an Island, and a Forest. How much damage will the copy deal to each creature?
A: The copy will deal no damage. X is the number of colors of mana spent to cast Radiant Flames, but the copy isn’t cast; it’s just put onto the stack [CR 706.10]. No mana was spent to cast the copy, so it deals 0 damage.
Note: A similar situation with a different answer involves Rolling Thunder. The process of copying a spell copies all the choices that were made as part of casting the spell [CR 706.2]. Therefore, the copied Rolling Thunder has the same targets, same value of X, and same division of damage. The reason for the difference is a subtle one. If X is 5, you didn’t choose to pay 5 mana. You chose to have the value of X be 5, then paid the cost of the spell, which was fixed by what you chose for X.
Q: So how would that work if you cast Rolling Thunder with Pyromancer’s Goggles? Because you get to change the copy’s targets.
A: Changing the targets works exactly the same as it does for any other spell. There’s a slight complication with Rolling Thunder in that it affects its targets in different ways. You can’t change the damage distribution or the number of targets, just which creatures will take each chunk of damage, and you can’t make it target the same creature or player twice because Rolling Thunder only uses the word “target” once [CR 601.2c].
Q: Amy casts Quarantine Field and responds to its “exile stuff” ability by activating Viral Drake. If she adds another isolation counter, will she get to exile another permanent?
A: No. This sort of trick would ordinarily work, since if an effect needs information from the game (like how many counters are on Quarantine field), that information is checked when the effect is applied [CR 608.2g]. Unfortunately, Quarantine Field targets. The targets for Quarantine Field’s ability are chosen as part of the process of putting that ability onto the stack [CR 603.3d]. To get another target, you would need to somehow get the extra counter before targets were chosen (which could be done, for instance, with Doubling Season).
Q: Amy controls Anafenza, the Foremost and casts Wasteland Strangler. Can she return an exiled creature card owned by her opponent? What will happen?
A: When Wasteland Strangler’s ability resolves, Amy will have the option of whether to return a creature to an opponent’s graveyard or not. Her choice of whether to do so is what the game looks for when deciding whether to give the targeted creature -3/-3, regardless of what actually happens as a result of that choice [CR 117.12].
Note: If this happens, even though the creature doesn’t change zones, it still becomes a new object that’s just been exiled [CR 400.8]. This can be significant if any effects are acting on the exiled card. For example, if the card was a creature exiled by Stasis Snare, the creature would not return if Stasis Snare left the battlefield because it isn’t considered the same creature that was exiled with it.
Advanced note: Choosing to return an exiled card here is considered a cost [CR 117.12]. Therefore, this situation is analogous to the question, discussed in a previous article, of whether it’s possible to alt-cast an Invigorate with a Sulfuric Vortex out.
Q: Nicole has her hand exiled due to Bottled Cloister. Amy knows that Nicole had a Grizzly Bears in her hand because she Peeked last turn. Amy casts Ulamog’s Reclaimer. When it enters the battlefield, she wants to put Nicole’s Grizzly Bears into her graveyard and return her Peek. Can she? How would that work?
A: Even if Amy knows the entire contents of Nicole’s hand, the cards are all exiled face down, so she cannot look at them [CR 406.3]. The cards are exiled, and Nicole owns them, so they are valid choices to be returned with Ulamog’s Reclaimer, but being indistinguishable from each other, she will have to pick one at random [CR 406.4].
Note: The game can distinguish between cards that were exiled at different times (for example, if Amy controlled two hideaway lands), even if they are face down [CR 406.4]. Of course, this is not applicable here, since Nicole’s entire hand was exiled at the same time.
Q: Can you Ultimate Price a Benthic Infiltrator?
A: No. Even though it’s monocolored if you just look at its mana cost, Benthic Infiltrator has devoid, which makes it colorless. That is, it has no colors. Having no colors is not the same as having one color (monocolored), so it’s not a legal target [CR 105.2a].
Note: This ruling also applies to other colorless creatures, notably including awakened lands and face down creatures like morphs and manifests.
Q: Can you Glittering Wish for Brood Butcher?
A: No. Devoid is a characteristic-defining ability [CR 703.113a]. This means that it applies everywhere: on the battlefield, in your hand, in your library, even outside the game [CR 703.113a]. Glittering Wish will see it as a colorless card.
Note: Astute readers may have surmised that devoid, too, must therefore fall under the list of abilities that can function off the battlefield. This is true of all characteristic-defining abilities [CR 112.6a].
Q: If I reveal two Horribly Awry with Sphinx’s Tutelage, do I keep going?
A: No. As stated in the last question, devoid works in any zone, so your Horribly Awrys are both colorless. This being the case, there is no color they share, so you don’t mill again.
Q: Amy casts Humble on her opponent’s Culling Drone. What color is it now?
A: It’s still colorless. Humble removes all abilities from Culling Drone in layer 6, but by this time, devoid, a color-changing ability, will have already applied in layer 5 [CR$ 613.1e, 613.1f]. Removing devoid after the fact doesn’t retroactively give Culling Drone its color back, so it stays colorless.
Note: I couldn’t use the co-standard legal Turn to Frog for this question because Turn to Frog also makes the creature blue. In fact, every recently printed card of this sort also sets the targeted creature’s color, creature types, and p/t. I have to suspect that the reasoning for this is to gracefully answer any questions that come up from creatures with abilities that set these attributes.
Q: Nicole’s Dread Slaver blocks and kills Amy’s Ruination Guide. What color will it be when it comes back?
A: Ruination Guide will be black. There are two color-changing effects that are acting on Ruination Guide: its own devoid ability and Dread Slaver’s ability that wants it to be black. These both want to apply in layer 5, and there are no dependencies. These cases are usually decided by timestamps, but not here. In this case, devoid is a characteristic-defining ability, but Dread Slaver’s ability is not. This means that devoid is applied first; timestamps are not considered [CR 613.2].
Q: Amy casts Coastal Discovery to animate her Tundra. Nicole responds by Wastelanding Tundra. What happens?
A: By the time Coastal Discovery tries to resolve, Wasteland will have already destroyed Tundra. Awaken targets the land, so Coastal Discovery will be countered because all its targets are now illegal [CR 608.2b]. Amy doesn’t draw 2 cards.
Q: Amy uses Coastal Discovery to awaken her already-animated Lumbering Falls. What is its p/t?
A: There are three continuous effects acting on Lumbering Falls’ p/t: one from awaken that sets it to 0/0, one from its own ability that sets it to 3/3, and one from the four +1/+1 counters on it. The counters are always evaluated after p/t setting effects, so they will be last [CR 613.3d]. The remaining two apply in the same layer and sublayer, so we must go by timestamps to determine which wins [CR 613.6]. Lumbering Falls’ ability started first, so it applies first, making it a 3/3, which is modified to 0/0 before finally becoming a 4/4.
Note: If it is later animated again, Lumbering Falls will still have the awaken effect making it 0/0, but now that will have an earlier timestamp than the p/t setting effect from its own ability. Lumbering Falls will start at 0/0, then become 3/3 before the counters make it 7/7.
Q: Who scries first if we both mulligan?
A: The scries take place in turn order after all players keep [CR 103.4]. The player who is playing first is the the first to scry.
Q: If my opponent forgets to scry 1 after taking a mulligan, am I obligated to remind her?
A: No. The description in the CR process uses the word “may” when describing this action [CR 103.4]. It’s legal to not scry, so there’s no problem with ignoring it if your opponent forgets.
Q: If I take a Serum Powder mulligan, do I get to scry 1?
A: No. The new mulligan rule only lets you scry if you keep a hand that has less cards than your starting hand size [CR 103.4].
Note: This also means that you will not get to scry if you mulligan once in two-headed giant, since in that format the first mulligan does not cost you a card [CR 103.4c].
Q: In that case, do I get to scry if I keep my opening 7, but start the game with Gemstone Caverns in play? If so, do I scry before or after deciding which card to exile?
A: The scry takes place before players take any game actions with their opening hands, such as putting Gemstone Caverns into play or revealing Chancellors [CR 103.5].
Note: Players can’t (and shouldn’t) be expected to play precisely every time, or even know the technical details of how things like this work. It’s entirely plausible that you’ll see a situation come up where one player mulligans, puts a Leyline into play, then wants to scry, but the opponent wants to disallow the scry on the basis that it should have already happened by this point. If you determine that the player forgot to scry, and now wants a chance to remember it (which would be signaled, for instance, by a substantial pause between the two actions), that’s fine. On the other hand, “rules lawyering” a player out of taking an action that they legitimately could have taken isn’t a behavior that should be encouraged. Fortunately, the MTR gives us a policy basis for siding with the Leyline player. It’s legal to do both these actions, and the potential for abuse from doing them in the wrong order is negligible, so we can consider this a case of Out-of-Order Sequencing [MTR 4.3]. The opponent may request that Leyline player perform these actions in the proper order, but there will be no penalty, and the scry still happens.
Q: Amy restarts the game with a Karn Liberated that had previously exiled a Flamespeaker Adept. Amy mulligans in the restarted game. Does she still scry? Will that cause Flamespeaker Adept to trigger?
A: Restarting the game follows all the same pregame procedures as normal, with the exception of deciding who goes first [CR 714.1]. Since Amy mulliganed, she also scries. Getting the trigger doesn’t work because Karn doesn’t put the creatures into play until after the game restarts, so that doesn’t happen.
Note: There’s another reason why it doesn’t work. The “scry” that happens after mulliganing isn’t a real scry. The CR definition lets you “look at the top card” and decide whether to “put it on the bottom,” but it doesn’t use the word “scry” [CR 103.4]. Similar to Opt and Darksteel Pendant before they received errata, it isn’t an official scry unless it specifically uses that word, so it wouldn’t work anyway.
Note: In case you were wondering, the player who restarted the game plays first in the restarted game [CR 714.1a].
Q: Amy casts a spell in her first main phase which Nicole Calculated Dismissals. Nicole is a spell master, but she forgets to scry. In the postcombat main phase, Nicole notices this and calls a judge. After talking to both players, you believe that Amy noticed that Nicole forgot to scry but said nothing because she was salty about getting her spell countered. What do you do?
A: With the new MTR, we have a new shortcut that applies here: “A player who does not scry when instructed to is assumed to have chosen to leave the cards in the same order” [MTR 4.2]. With this, all scries are now essentially optional. This being the case, Nicole has not committed an infraction. She is assumed to have scried and kept on top. Because Nicole didn’t commit an infraction, there is no problem with Amy seeing Nicole’s (in)action and not saying anything.
Q: Nicole controls Gruul Ragebeast. In Amy’s upkeep, Nicole flashes in Mistbind Clique and taps down all Amy’s lands, but forgets to have it fight something. That turn, Amy attacks with Dragonlord Ojutai and Dragonlord Silumgar. Amy starts to block with Mistbind Clique, but then realizes that it never fought anything and calls a judge. Does the fight happen? Can Nicole fight either creature?
A: This is a triggered ability that was missed and does not fall under one of the four exceptions listed in [IPG 2.1 A]. The remedy in this case is the default remedy: Amy chooses whether this triggered ability is put on the stack immediately or missed.
If it is put onto the stack, can Nicole choose to target Ojutai? This is the point that has changed with the new IPG. Previously, when putting a triggered ability onto the stack this way, only the zone the object was in was taken into account when determining if a choice involving that object was valid or not. Now, the appropriate line reads ” No player may make choices involving objects that would not have been legal choices when the ability should have triggered” [IPG 2.1 A]. This makes it clear that Ojutai is not a valid choice of target, since it had hexproof when the ability should have triggered. If the ability is put on the stack, Nicole must have Mistbind Clique fight Silumgar.
Note: This error probably benefits Nicole, since if she had remembered the triggered ability, it would have meant that Silumgar would have eaten her Mistbind Clique. The judge taking this call should investigate to determine whether Nicole knew about the trigger and knew it was mandatory.
Q: Amy casts Burning Wish, but does not reveal the card she pulled from her sideboard before putting it into her hand. When you talk with her away from the table, you see that her hand contains Island, Ponder, and Past in Flames. Amy says she got the Past in Flames and forgot to reveal it, and you believe her. What do you do?
A: Amy has put a card into her hand without allowing her opponent to verify it was legal to do so. Before, this would have been a Game Rule Violation, but now it fits under Drawing Extra Cards [IPG 2.3 D]. As such, the penalty is no longer a Game Loss, but a Warning. Amy’s opponent will get to choose a card from Amy’s hand and shuffle it into the random portion of Amy’s library [IPG 2.3 A].
Q: Amy casts Read the Bones, and accidentally picks up 3 cards rather than 2 when she scries. What do you do?
A: In the past, this would have been Looking at Extra Cards, but now it’s handled as Drawing Extra Cards too [IPG 2.3 D]. Amy’s opponent will get to select one of the three cards Amy looked at, and that card will be shuffled into the random portion of Amy’s library [IPG 2.3 A].
Note: This is a big change from the previous IPG, probably the biggest one. That being the case, it’s worth examining closely the reasons why this case is treated this way. DEC is its own infraction because the hand is an unordered zone that the opponent cannot see. Once a card enters the hand, it becomes indistinguishable from the others, which makes fixing such errors problematic. The current additional remedy, shuffling cards chosen by the opponent back in seeks to minimize the potential for advantage from such an error. When you scry, you take cards from the top of your library. These cards are also an unordered set of cards that only you can see. It makes sense, therefore, that it would be treated the same way as Drawing Extra Cards.
Q: At the start of her match, Amy shuffles her library and draws 7 cards without giving her opponent a chance to shuffle it first. Amy seemed to have done a fine job shuffling herself, and when you talk to her, you’re convinced that she forgot to present. What do you do?
A: Failing to present is now Insufficient Shuffling [IPG 3.4 D]. The additional remedy is to shuffle the random portion of the deck. Have Amy shuffle her hand back in and draw a new opening hand of the same number of cards.
Q: Amy is playing a limited event, and her decklist indicates she is playing 7 Islands and 8 Swamps. However, her deck is UR, and doesn’t have any black cards in it. During a deck check, you discover that she is playing 7 Islands and 8 Mountains. What do you do?
A: It’s obvious what happened here: Amy wrote the 8 in the wrong box on her decklist sheet. The rules team determined that a Game Loss was too stiff a penalty for cases like this, where a simple clerical error is to blame. That’s why we now have discretion to not issue a Deck/Decklist Problem infraction in limited events where the player marked the wrong basic land box. I would give Amy a stern “don’t do this again” talk, but no penalty.
Note: This discretion exists only in limited events, and only for basic lands. Marking the wrong box somewhere else on the sheet, or reporting the wrong basic lands in a constructed event (where card names are written out rather than marked in boxes on a sheet) still merits a Game Loss.
Q: I opened an expedition in sealed. Guess I have to drop now, huh?
A: Nope! There’s a new sealed process now that avoids the “cruel dilemma” of forcing players to either pass a valuable card they opened or drop from an event. Full details are here, but the gist of it is that you open your pool; pass it to the player across the table, who registers it; then get your pool back and register their pool.
Q: Do basic lands count as a pick in draft?
A: Foil basic lands are drafted as part of the pack; non-foil basic lands are removed from the pack before any picks are made, and are kept by the player who opened the pack [MTR 7.7]. This isn’t a change from previous rules, but it does take on a special significance now that basic lands in the packs have a non-negligible value.
Note: Expeditions take the “foil slot” of a pack, and are therefore drafted as normal. If a player gets a pack with two valuable cards, say an expedition and a Gideon, Enemy of Wallets, that player can drop from the draft and keep all cards they correctly have at that time [MTR 2.10].