Most people when playing Show and Tell, put their chosen card face down, and flip them up at the same time. While this is acceptable, today I’m going to go through the actual process, also indicate some suggestions as to what will “work” and what won’t.
Say Eddie is playing a game against Jason. Jason, being the blue mage he his, resolves a Show and Tell against Eddie. We now follow the instructions on the card.
“Each player may put an artifact, creature, enchantment, or land card from his or her hand onto the battlefield.”
Player Tip: Since the card says “put”, the game will not consider any of these spells “cast”. Cast triggers and abilities that care whether you cast it from your hand will know that you didn’t (such as Phage the Untouchable’s downside… if you do Show and Tell it in, you’ll lose the game!).
Jason, being the active player, will have to choose the card first. He indicates the card he wants to put onto the battlefield. Note, this card will not yet be revealed; it’s just indicated and differentiated from the cards in his hand, usually by taking a card from the players hand and placed face down on the table. Once his decision is made, it’s final. Eddie would also do the same thing.
The spell does say may, so if a player does not have a card of the chosen type, or they don’t want to, they are not obligated to choose a card. They would indicate that they do not have a card to put onto the battlefield.
Here comes the tricky part. After the cards have been revealed, they will enter the battlefield at the same time. This might seem a little confusing, but it really isn’t.
First, we determine any replacement effects that might take place when these objects enter the battlefield, and any choices that need to be made will be made before the cards enter the battlefield.
Now, what if both players have a replacement effect? If Jason, the active player, had a Clone, and I had a Pithing Needle? Both of these permanents have a replacement effect, so who gets to choose first? Well, APNAP (Active player/Non-active player) order applies! The active player (Jason) would make his choices, before the nonactive player (Eddie) chooses!
Player Tip: In a case of a Clone, since both object comes into play at the same time, Clone’s replacement effect can NOT choose the object that the other player is choosing to Show and Tell in, no matter who is active player or who is non active player. e.g., a “Show and Telled” Clone cannot copy a “Show and Telled” Emrakul, since the replacement effect of Clone makes the choice before either has entered the battlefield.
Player Tip: The replacement effect takes place before either object has entered the battlefield, so a Pithing Needle vs. Griselbrand “show and telled” matchup will be in favour of the Pithing Needle (assuming the player names Griselbrand, Griselbrand will be unable to activate its ability when it enters the battlefield. There’s no time to “sneak” in an activation.)
After determining the replacement effects, both the objects enter the battlefield at the same time. Now, any triggered abilities will GO ON the stack in an APNAP order. Which means NAP’s trigger will resolve first, before AP’s trigger will resolve. A little confusing, but makes sense if you think about it properly.
Player Tip: A Sower of Temptation vs Emrakul WILL indeed work for the Sower player, once both objects enters the battlefield, Sower’s trigger will go on the stack, and since Emrakul will be on the battlefield at this time, it’s a legal target for the trigger.
Today’s Tournament/Rules Tip written by Eddie Cheung