You’re down to two cards in your hand: a Dragonlord Ojutai and a Silumgar’s Scorn. You figure it’s time to drop your Dragonlord, so you cast it! However, to your surprise, your opponent casts Dissolve on it. You cast your Scorn, thinking that you’re going to outright counter their Dissolve, but to your further surprise, you find out that you don’t get the bonus effect. Why is that?
To get the bonus effect of the Scorn, you need to do one of two things: you either need to reveal a Dragon card from your hand as you cast the Scorn, or you need to control a Dragon as you cast the Scorn. You can’t reveal the Dragonlord in this case, since it’s on the stack, not in your hand when you cast the Scorn. And because the Scorn doesn’t say otherwise, the Scorn looks to see if you control a Dragon permanent on the battlefield. You control a Dragon spell on the stack, but that doesn’t count – you need to control a Dragon permanent on the battlefield. So, sadly for you, since neither condition is fulfilled for the Scorn, your opponent can just pay 1 to not have their spell countered.
That’s it for today! Join me here again tomorrow, where we’ll talk about Foul-Tongue Invocation.
Today’s Rules Tip was written by Nathan Long