I cast while you control . What happens? After a creature spell resolves, a player receives priority. But it’s not as simple as that. Before priority can be received, first the game has to check for state-based actions (SBAs) – things like creatures with lethal damage dying, or +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters canceling each other […]
Category: Abilities
Sigarda won’t save you from sacrificing your own Phantasmal Image, even if an opponent targets it.
‘s ability is pretty cool. If an effect an opponent controls says “sacrifice a creature” Sigarda says, “No, I’d rather not.” So she keeps you safe from things like and . But what if the opponent targets your Phantasmal Image (copying something other than Sigarda) with ? On the surface, it almost looks like the […]
Can you respond to the choice of what to copy with Phantasmal Image? It depends!
This is a very common question with any kind of copy creature. The most important thing to note is that the static ability that lets you choose to copy something is NOT a triggered ability (if it was, pretty much every Clone-type creature would die for being 0/0 before you could choose to copy something!). […]
Surgical Extraction vs. Miracles
Miracle causes lots of questions, as it’s a pretty complex mechanic. First, there’s the static ability that says “You may reveal this as you draw it if its the first card you drew this turn.” Then once you do that, there’s the triggered ability that say “When you do, you may cast this for its […]
Strategy Week: Using priority to your benefit.
Ah, the good old days of “Bolt your Jace as soon as he comes in”. See, priority is a funny thing, and it’s almost like magic (editor’s note: no pun intended?) to the people who aren’t well-versed in it. The short version of the story: Priority is the system of who can do what at […]
Strategy Week: Ordering Triggers for Fun and Profit!
While Triggered Abilities may seem confusing at first, there is profit to be made by understanding them! First, let’s review how to identify a triggered ability. Triggered abilities are identifiable using 3 key words: 1) When 2) Whenever 3) At If you see one of these words, you’re in trigger-town! If you can memorize these […]
Strategy Week: Wait to activate abilities until the end of your opponent’s turn.
When you play a card that has great potential, like , it’s sometimes tempting to activate its abilities right away. But remember the saying: “Patience is a virtue.” Or, in Magic terms, “Wait until the latest possible moment before playing anything.” There are a lot of steps and phases that can fly right by players […]
Stuffy Doll doesn’t target anything, but you can respond to its damage-triggered ability.
A very common misconception by MANY players is “implicit targeting”. It’s a belief that anything that directly affects something, targets it. This is not the case, as rule 114.9a tells us. Just because something is being affected by a spell or ability doesn’t mean that it’s being targeted! The word ‘target’ needs to be used […]
‘Summoning Sickness’ only applies to creatures.
Pretty much everyone knows what Summoning Sickness is, even though it’s not a technical game term. It’s a common phrase used to abbreviate a much more wordy rule: “A creature cannot attack or use activated abilities with the Tap or Untap symbol in the cost unless that object has been under the its controller’s control […]