An indestructible God is a hard card to get rid of. Oddly enough, making it a creature actually makes your job easier! Removing its abilities and dealing lethal damage to it (e.g., Turn // Burn), giving it -X/-X, and forcing its controller to sacrifice it are just a few of these ways. However, do be careful with the last method: failing to realize exactly what you’re doing can have disastrous consequences!

Suppose your opponent controls Purphoros, God of the Forge, a Hammer of Purphoros, and an Ash Zealot. Not relishing the prospect of being hit for 8 points of hasty damage, you might want to cast Far // Away, bouncing the Zealot and forcing your opponent to sacrifice Purphoros. However, that would be a hasty mistake. You always follow the instructions on a fuse card in the order that they’re written, so the Zealot is returned to your opponent’s hand first, which reduces your opponent’s devotion to red to less than 5 and reverts Purphoros to being a non-creature quickly enough that when the Away part tries to take effect, it won’t do anything. (Better to instead choose Purphoros as the target of Far: since your opponent’s devotion to red is 5 at the time that Far // Away begins resolving, the God will be bounced just fine, but will lose sufficient devotion after your opponent is required to sacrifice the hapless Zealot.)

Today’s Rules Tip written by Jen Wong