Permanents that have the indestructible ability cannot be destroyed by effects that would destroy them or, if the permanent is a creature, by receiving lethal damage. However that does not make indestructible objects illegal targets. For example, a can stil be targeted by . When Shatter resolves, nothing will happen, but that does not mean […]
Author: krizriktr
Countered on resolution vs doing nothing.
As has been covered before, a spell or ability is countered on resolution if all of its targets are illegal when the spell tries to resolve. When a spell or ability is countered on resolution, no part of it will resolve. For example, if the target of a is removed from the battlefield before it […]
Cycling, landcycling and typecycling.
Cycling is a keyword ability first introduced in Urza’s Saga and brought back multiple times in a variety of ways. To cycle a card means to pay its cycling cost, discard that card and to draw a card. Initially all cards had the cams cycling cost of 2 generic mana. But that was changed when […]
Failing to find.
When instructed to search a non-public zone (hand or library) players can ‘fail to find’ what they are looking for if the card that is being searched for has a specific characteristic. This most often applies when searching through a library. For example, when a player resolves ‘s enters the battlefield ability he can choose […]
You can’t respond to the payment of costs.
When a player plays a spell or ability they pay all costs associated with casting or playing that ability. No player will receive priority until after the spell or ability is on the stack and paid for. For example you cannot use destroy a land that was just tapped for mana while casting a spell […]
What to do when your opponent doesn’t show up.
Often at events players intend to drop from the event but don’t actually let tournament officials know. There are often several ways to drop; by writing it on the match result slip, filing out a separate drop slip or just informing the scorekeeper. Not officially dropping from the event leads to players being paired for […]
Effects that apply to permanents only affect those in play when the effect is applied.
Many spells and abilities generate continuous effects that apply to permanents in the battlefield. Effects like these only apply to those permanents that were in play when the spell or ability resolved and the continuous effect was generated. For example, only affects those creatures controlled by when Turn the Tide resolves. If a creature were […]
Hellkite Igniter’s ability counts artifacts when it resolves.
‘s activated ability gives Hellkite Igniter +x/+0, where X is equal to the number of artifacts you control. Spells and abilities that ‘look’ at the game to get information do so when the spell or ability resolves. In this situation Hellkite Igniter’s ability needs to know how many artifacts are controlled by the controller of […]
How to perform simultaneous actions.
Sometimes when a spell or ability resolves more than one player is instructed to perform an action at the same time. When that happens choices of what to do are taken in APNAP order. This means that the active player chooses what he or she will do, then the nonactive player makes his or her […]