Welcome back to Kalitas Week! Today we’ll be looking at another interaction you’re likely to run into: Kalitas vs. other replacement effects. The most common two that you’re likely to find in Standard are going to be Flaying Tendrils and Anafenza, the Foremost; both of those cards are also going to replace the “dies” event with exile. The question is, which effect ‘wins’? Does it matter whose turn it is, or who controls which effect?

The answer is… no! If you ever have more than one replacement effect wanting to apply to the same event, the controller of the affected object (or owner, for objects with no controller) gets to choose which one to apply first. Sometimes applying one effect won’t stop the other (like with Doubling Season and Hardened Scales– no matter which you apply, the other can still apply after that!), but other times applying one WILL stop the other- that’s the case here. If you apply Kalitas’ effect first, then there’s no longer a “dies” event to replace, so the other effects do nothing, AND vice versa. For something like Anafenza vs. Flaying Tendrils that doesn’t really matter- same end result no matter what. But as we discussed yesterday, the “get a Zombie” effect on Kalitas is PART of the replacement effect, so Kalitas has to be the thing to exile the dying creature. And since it’s up to your opponent which to apply… they’re probably going to pick the one that doesn’t give you a zombie. It doesn’t matter whose Flaying Tendrils it was, it doesn’t matter whose turn it was- if there’s two or more effects wanting to exile your opponent’s dying creature, they get to choose whether or not you get your Zombie. On the plus side, that power extends to YOU if you’re facing down a Kalitas! Just remember that you decide if he gets a Zombie buddy or not.

Today’s Kalitas Rules Tip was written by Trevor Nunez