Welcome, readers, to the second annual No Mercy rules challenge. Each year, I collect the hardest rules questions I can find into the most merciless article I can write. If you can answer even one or two of these questions confidently, rest easy knowing that you should be able to answer anything that comes up in a real tournament.
But that brings up an interesting point. What value is there in this? Are we really worried about someone breaking the Legacy metagame with the Sakashima the Impostor/Master of the Hunt deck? The answer is that there is essentially no practical value to be found here. Unlike the other questions found on this site, “No Mercy” questions test your knowledge not of the fundamentals, but of the exceptions, and it’s hard for me to consider rules knowledge of this level, impressive as it may be, a skill that judges should concern themselves with. Why write this article, then? One word: Fun. Because if you try to take judging too seriously, you’re just asking to burn out. So take this article as an annual reminder to have some fun judging, too. Don’t think of judging, improving, or even learning the rules as an onerous chore, because it doesn’t have to be. In the words of too many illustrious judges before me to count, If it’s not fun, you’re doing it wrong!
Contest rules:
- We are looking for interesting, stimulating, and difficult questions, answerable only by detailed knowledge of the CR. On the other hand, the difficulty should come from needing knowledge of obscure rules, precise wordings, and subtle interactions, not gratuitous complexity. To this end, each question may reference only three cards. Basic lands, creatures with no abilities, and creatures whose only ability is a single evergreen keyword are not counted towards this limit (Reference CR 702.2 through 702.20 for a list of evergreen keywords).
- The question must have a correct answer which can be determined from the Comprehensive Rules alone.
- Due to their general irrelevance in a competitive context, questions concerning any multiplayer or casual variant (except two-headed giant) will not be eligible.
- Each person may submit any number of entries. It’s possible I may not be able to use every question submitted to me. If you have favorites, I will take your preferences into account when making those decisions. Otherwise, I’ll just pick for you.
- Submissions may be presented in person at the Ft. Wayne area judge meeting on December 8th. If you will be unable to attend, please submit them to me (preferably by facebook or judgeapps message) by December 6th.
- Submissions may be edited for content. This may be done to make two similar submissions more distinct or to make a submission more straightforward and easier to parse.
- Each year, I will promote one question as the best, based on the criteria of originality, creativity, and difficulty. Really excellent questions may be considered even if they break one or more of these rules as long as they stay within the proper spirit.
Q: Amy attacks with Whippoorwill, and Nicole blocks with Grizzly Bears. Amy complains that this block is illegal because Whippoorwill can fly, but Grizzly Bears cannot. What do you rule?
A: Despite being clearly depicted in the art as flying, Whippoorwill does not have this ability in its text box. The illustration, while useful in distinguishing cards, has no effect on game play [CR 203.1]. Grizzly Bears can block.
Q: I found a typo in the CR. When I was reading the state-based actions, I noticed that it went from 704.5k to 704.5m. Who do I tell?
A: This situation is covered in the introduction to the CR. The omission of 704.5l is intentional; because Roman letter “l” and Arabic numeral “1” look similar, “l” is skipped in the CR. In the same way, letter “o” is skipped for looking like the number “0.”
Q: Amy is scouting during the top 8 and notices that her next opponent is running 4x City in a Bottle in her sideboard. She asks you if she can switch out her Arabian Nights Mountains for Mountains from another set. Can she?
A: There’s no specific rule against changing out cards for different versions of the same card. After all, decklists generally don’t ask for what set the cards are in. The judge may disallow Amy’s request if he or she believes it will cause an undue delay, but otherwise, there is no problem.
Note: City in a Bottle has received errata so that it now refers to cards “originally printed” in Arabian Nights (Golgothian Sylex and Apocalypse Chime have received similar errata). There’s even a rule in the CR that spells out exactly what cards that includes [CR 700.6]. Because Mountain (which was originally printed in Alpha) is not on that list, Amy’s gratuitously expensive Arabian Nights Mountains are safe even if she doesn’t change them out.
Q: Amy controls Mirror Gallery and two Sakashima the Impostors, one is a copy of her Master of the Hunt; the other is copying her token that the Master generated. She attacks with all four creatures. Which creatures can be in a band? Which other creatures can be in those bands?
A: When copying the Wolf token that has “bands with other creatures named Wolves of the Hunt,” Sakashima keeps its original name. This means that the name in its new banding ability is treated as referring to Sakashima the Impostor [CR 201.4b]. Amy can declare that this Sakashima is attacking in a band with her other one [CR 702.21c]. She has no other creatures named “Wolves of the Hunt,” so her token will be unable to band with anything [CR 702.21c].
Note: Any [quality] creatures may join a band with a creature that has “bands with other [quality],” even if they don’t have any banding abilities themselves. If Amy plays a third Sakashima the Impostor and has it copy a Grizzly Bears, it can still band with her other two.
Note: After noticing that last year’s entries had not a single question about banding or phasing, I was overcome with a deep sense of shame in not living up to the “No Mercy” name. Rest assured, steps have been taken to decrease the level of mercy this year to all-time lows.
Q: Amy activates Mutavault, then enchants it with Darksteel Mutation. Afterwards, she casts Reality Ripple on Mutavault. What happens?
A: Mutavault’s status changes to “phased out” [CR 702.25b]. Being attached to Mutavault, Darksteel Mutation also phases out indirectly [CR 702.25f]. Before Amy untaps on her next turn, both permanents will phase back in. By this time, Mutavault’s effect will have worn off, so it won’t be making Mutavault a creature anymore [CR 702.25e]. On the other hand, Darksteel Mutation phases in attached to Mutavault, so that effect will be making Mutavault a creature [CR 702.25h]. In Amy’s upkeep, when state-based actions are performed, Darksteel Mutation will be attached to a creature, so it sticks around.
Note: Suppose that instead of casting Reality Ripple, Amy cast Flickerform and activated it. In this case, all three permanents would be exiled. At end of turn, Flickerform’s delayed trigger will return Mutavault. Since it changed zones, Mutavault is a new object; its ability’s effect is no longer making it a creature [CR 400.7]. Therefore, when Flickerform’s trigger tries to return the enchantments to the battlefield, it won’t be able to because they cannot legally enchant Mutavault. Both enchantments will remain exiled [CR 303.4i].
Q: Amy controls a Germ token that’s equipped with her Batterskull. Nicole controls two Teferi’s Curses, one on the Germ, the other on the Batterskull. During Amy’s untap, which permanents phase out? Which of these will phase back in?
A: All four permanents will phase out. When a permanent with phasing phases out, all other permanents attached to it phase out also. This is known as phasing out indirectly [702.25f]. This is in contrast to phasing out directly, which refers to phasing out because the object itself has phasing. So the Batterskull and both curses phase out indirectly. The Batterskull wants to phase out directly at the same time, since it has phasing, but if an object would phase out directly and indirectly, it just phases out indirectly [702.25g]. The next time state-based actions are performed, the Germ token will cease to exist [CR 704.5d]. During Amy’s next untap step, it will be time for everything to phase back in, but that won’t happen. Objects that phase out indirectly can’t phase back in by themselves. They only phase in along with the objects they were attached to [CR 702.25f]. The Batterskull and the Teferi’s Curses will never come back.
Thanks to Jacob Milicic for submitting this question.
Q: “Never” is kind of a strong word isn’t it? Let’s say that Amy has a Batterskull that’s permanently phased out as described above. Is it possible for her to ever have this Batterskull equipped to a creature again?
A: There are at least two ways to do this (bonus rules geek points to anyone who can point out one I missed). The first and “easiest” involves restarting the game with Karn Liberated. All cards involved in the original game, even ones that were phased out, are involved in the restarted game [CR 714.2].
The other way is to start a subgame with Shahrazad and use a card like Golden Wish, Death Wish, or Research to gain access to it in the subgame. After the subgame, all the objects that were in the subgame, including ones that were brought into it from outside the game, are shuffled into their owner’s library [CR 715.5].
Q: Amy and Nicole both cast Comeuppance. After they both resolve, Amy Lightning Bolts Nicole. What happens?
A: Lightning Bolt creates an event in the game: [Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to Nicole]. Nicole’s Comeuppance sees this and modifies the event to [Nicole’s Comeuppance deals 3 damage to Amy]. Amy’s Comeuppance then modifies this to [Amy’s Comeuppance deals 3 damage to Nicole]. At this point, Nicole’s Comeuppance and Amy’s Comeuppance will continue to prevent the damage and deal damage to the other player. Lightning Bolt can never finish resolving, and the game is a draw [CR 104.4b].
Q: Amy attacks with Pristine Angel. While the angel is tapped, Nicole activates Cephalid Snitch‘s ability targeting it. After that resolves, Amy casts a spell and untaps Pristine Angel. Can Nicole now target the (untapped) angel with a Doom Blade?
A: Yes. Protection from all colors is shorthand for “Protection from white, protection from blue, etc.” [CR 702.16h]. For this reason, even though “protection from black” does not appear in Pristine Angel’s Oracle text, it still is considered to have that ability, and the snitch’s effect makes the angel lose it.
Q: Amy and Nicole both control Laboratory Maniacs. Amy’s library has 2 cards in it, and Nicole’s has one. Amy casts Burning Inquiry. What happens?
A: You probably already knew that an instruction to draw N cards is actually carried out by drawing a card N times [CR 120.2]. What’s less well known, but relevant here, is that if an effect instructs multiple players to draw cards at the same time, the active player will draw all of her cards first, then the non-active player [CR 120.2a]. Amy will draw two cards normally, then she will be instructed to draw from an empty library, which her Lab Maniac will replace with winning the game. At this point, the game ends immediately, without Nicole getting a chance to perform her card draws [CR 104.1].
Q: Amy wants to cast Grizzly Bears from the top of her library using Garruk’s Horde. She moves it from there to the stack, then activates her Selvala, Explorer Returned. Amy reveals Elvish Spirit Guide, and her opponent reveals an Island. Amy has no other sources of mana. Can she use the spirit guide to help cast her bear? If not, what happens?
A: She will not be able to cast the bear using mana from the spirit guide because “If a spell or ability causes a card to be drawn while another spell is being cast, the drawn card is kept face down until that spell becomes cast. While face down, it’s considered to have no characteristics.” [CR 401.5]. Since Amy does not have the mana to cast Grizzly Bears, the action of casting it is undone, and the bear is returned to Amy’s library [CR 717.1]. Ordinarily, Amy would be able to reverse any mana abilities she activated to pay for the illegally cast spell, but Selvala’s cannot be undone because it moved cards from players’ libraries into their hands [CR 717.1].
Note: Even though Garruk’s Horde reveals the top card of Amy’s library continuously, the card in Amy’s library underneath the Elvish Spirit Guide will not be revealed. That’s because if the top card of a player’s library changes while a spell is being cast, the new top card won’t be revealed until the process of casting the spell is completed [CR 401.6].
Q: Amy casts Gurmag Angler delving Wind Drake and Thraben Valiant. Then, she casts Soulflayer delving Anaba Bodyguard and Sedge Scorpion. Nicole processes Wind Drake and Anaba Bodyguard with Blight Herder. If Gurmag Angler now becomes a copy of Soulflayer (say, with Cytoshape), what abilities will it have?
A: Gurmag Angler now has the ability “If a creature card with flying was exiled with Soulflayer’s delve ability, Soulflayer has flying…” The references to “Soulflayer” mean only Gurmag Angler-Soulflayer, not the normal one [CR 201.4]. Regardless of what happened to them afterward, a creature card with flying and a creature card with vigilance were exiled with its delve ability, so those are the abilities it has now.
Note: Thanks to Jacob Milicic for this question.
Q: In a two-headed giant game, Amy casts Grizzly Bears while she controls Doubling Season and Hardened Scales. After it resolves, she then casts Tempt with Glory. Both of Amy’s opponents accept her tempting offer and choose to put a +1/+1 counter on each creature they control. What is the bear’s p/t after Tempt with Glory resolves?
A: The instructions on Tempt with Glory are performed in order. First, Amy puts one +1/+1 counter on her bear. Doubling Season and Hardened Scales both want to interact with that event, and Amy, as the affected player, gets to decide what order they apply. We’ll assume she chooses the rational order of Hardened Scales first, then Doubling Season to maximize her counters. So far, the bear has four counters on it. Next, both of Amy’s opponents put +1/+1 counters on their creatures. Amy then puts two +1/+1 counters on Grizzly Bears, which Hardened Scales and Doubling Season increase to six (It’s also legal for Amy to apply those in the “wrong” order here to end up with five). Her bear ends the turn as a 12/12.
Q: Amy manifests the top card of her library, a Delver of Secrets. Her opponent casts Moonmist. Amy uses Imagecrafter to turn the face down Delver into a Human in response. What happens?
A: While face down, a double-faced permanent can’t transform [CR 711.8a]. Moonmist will not do anything to Amy’s Delver because of this rule, nor to her Imagecrafter, because that creature isn’t double-faced [CR 701.25a].
Q: Nicole is at 3 life and has 7 poison counters. Amy casts Caress of Phyrexia targeting Nicole. Nicole responds by casting Word of Seizing targeting Amy’s Lich’s Mirror. What happens?
A: After Caress of Phyrexia resolves, the game checks for state-based actions, and sees that Nicole has 0 life and 10 poison counters, both of which mean that she loses the game [CR 704.5a, 704.5c]. Lich’s Mirror replaces this with having Nicole shuffling her hand, graveyard, and permanents into her library, drawing 7, and gaining 20 life. Even though two state-based actions are making Nicole lose the game, because they both want to do the same thing, a single replacement effect suffices to replace both of them [CR 704.6]. After this, the game will check for state-based actions again. Nicole still has 10 poison counters, so she loses the game again. She also still controls Lich’s Mirror. Because she doesn’t own it, it isn’t shuffled into her library like all her other permanents. The game enters an involuntary loop of state-based actions trying to make her lose the game, then Lich’s Mirror replacing that. This ends the game in a draw [CR 104.4c].
Note: Thanks to Marcos Sanchez for submitting this question.
Note: Suppose that Amy controlled a Telepathy. She would probably want to continue through a few iterations of this loop in order to see more cards in Nicole’s deck. The rules are against her, though. As soon as the game enters the loop, it is a draw. This ends the game immediately [CR 104.1].
Q: Amy’s only creature is Djinn Illuminatus. She wants to cast Altar’s Reap and pay to replicate it once. Can she? What will happen?
A: Following the process of casting a spell, she first moves Altar’s Reap onto the stack [CR 601.2a]. She then announces her intention to pay an additional 1B for replicate [CR 601.2b]. After this, the total cost of the spell is determined to be [2BB, sacrifice a creature]; the cost is locked in at this point and does not change [CR 601.2f]. She then activates mana abilities and pays this cost. Once it’s paid, the spell is officially cast; the game now checks to see if any triggered abilities should trigger [CR 601.2i]. Without Djinn Illuminatus in play, Altar’s Reap no longer has replicate, and there is no triggered ability to make the copies [CR 702.55a].
Note: Thanks to Mason Buonadonna for submitting this question.
Q: Amy casts Clone while Nicole controls Worms of the Earth. As Clone resolves, Amy chooses to copy Dryad Arbor. What happens?
A: This situation has its own rule [CR 608.3b]. If a permanent spell resolves, but can’t enter the battlefield, it’s put into its owner’s graveyard.
Q: Amy plays Conversion, then Blood Moon. What type(s) does her Volcanic Island (her only land) have? Amy then plays a Underground Sea. What types do her lands now have?
A: Both of Blood Moon and Conversion want to apply in layer 4 [CR 613.1d]. Ordinarily, they apply in timestamp order, so with just Volcanic Island out, Conversion applies first to make it a Plains, then Blood Moon makes it a Mountain [CR 613.6]. After Amy plays Underground Sea, applying Blood Moon first will change the number of objects that Conversion applies to. This means that Conversion is now dependent upon Blood Moon and so will be applied last [CR 613.7]. Underground Sea and Volcanic Island both will be Plains.
Q: Nicole targets Amy’s animated Gideon, Ally of Zendikar with the 1R ability of her Olivia Voldaren. The next turn, Amy uses the +1 ability of her Gideon again and attacks. Can Nicole steal Gideon with Olivia’s 3BB ability?
A: No. There are two continuous effects that apply in layer 4 here. Gideon wants to make itself a Creature and give it the subtypes Human Soldier Ally. Olivia wants to make it a Vampire. These effects apply in timestamp order [CR 613.6]. Olivia’s first tries to make Gideon a Vampire, but cannot because Planeswalkers can’t gain creature types [CR 205.3d]. Then, Gideon’s applies. In the end, it’s a Creature Planeswalker – Gideon Human Soldier Ally, and not a Vampire.
Note: The damage from Olivia’s 1R ability will be prevented, but Olivia isn’t worded in a way that makes the other effects of this ability contingent upon the damage actually being dealt (see Aggravate for a card that is worded that way). The damage will be prevented, but the other effects will still happen [CR 608.2b].
Note: There is no dependency in layer 4 with Gideon’s and Olivia’s type-changing effects. To be dependent on another effect, applying the other effect first must change the text or the existence of the first effect, what it applies to, or what it does to any of the things it applies to [CR 613.7a]. Olivia’s effect will still exist even if it’s not relevant. The object it applies to is still Gideon, whether or not it’s a creature, and the thing this effect tries to do (make that object a Vampire) is also the same either way. For examples of all three types of dependencies, check out my article on continuous effects.
Note: Olivia’s Vampire-making effect doesn’t have a duration, so it lasts indefinitely [CR 611.2a]. If Gideon stops being a Creature, the effect stops doing anything, but that doesn’t by itself mean that the effect ends. If Gideon becomes a Creature again, it can continue to apply to it [CR 205.1a].
Note: Often, effects that set creature types (such as Gideon’s making itself a Human Soldier Ally) overwrite all creature types that the object used to have. This is not applicable here because Gideon’s ability says that “it’s still a Planeswalker.” Effects that specify that an object retains a prior card type, subtype, or supertype allow the object to retain all prior types, subtypes, and supertypes, not just the one(s) specified [CR 205.1b].
Note: Thanks to Jacen Simon for this question and Abe Corson for helping with the explanation.
Q: Amy controls Humility and Wayward Angel, and she has 7 cards in her graveyard. What are Wayward Angel’s stats?
A: To begin, we parse each continuous effect into its appropriate layers:
Layer 5: Wayward Angel becomes black
Layer 6: Wayward Angel loses all abilities, Wayward Angel gains trample and “At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature.”
Layer 7b: Wayward Angel becomes 1/1
Layer 7c: Wayward Angel gets +3/+3
Now, we apply these in order. First, Wayward Angel becomes black in layer 5. Then, in layer 6, we apply the Humility “loses all abilities” and Wayward Angel’s “gains some abilities” in timestamp order. Wayward Angel loses all its normal abilities, and may have trample and the “sac a creature” ability, but only if it entered the battlefield after Humility. Because Wayward Angel’s threshold ability already started to apply in layer 5, it will continue to apply in each subsequent layer even if it’s removed [CR 613.5]. After this, Wayward Angel becomes 1/1 in layer 7b. Finally, its own ability will buff it to 4/4 in layer 7c, again, despite the fact that this ability was removed in the previous layer.
Note: The timestamp of Wayward Angel’s threshold ability is the time when Wayward Angel entered the battlefield, not the time when the 7th card entered the graveyard [CR 613.6a].
Note: Ordinarily, the effect that makes Wayward Angel gain abilities would be dependent upon Humility’s “loses all abilities” effect since both are applied in layer 6, and applying Humility first changes whether Wayward Angel has the ability that generates this effect [CR 613.7a]. In this case, though, the effect from Wayward Angel’s ability started to apply in layer 5. This means that even if it loses that ability, the effect will still apply [CR 613.5]. Dependencies exist between effects, not abilities; the effect will exist regardless of whether it or Humility’s is applied first, so there’s no dependency.
Note: Thanks to Kevin Binswanger for submitting this question, which was judged the best this year. Thanks also to Carsten Haese of cranialinsertion.com for helping with the explanation.