When a copy of a creature with the undying ability dies, the undying ability will trigger and return it to play. This is due to the last known information when the card was in play, which is what leaves-the-battlefield abilities (like undying) look for to determine whether they should trigger. When it returns to the […]
Category: Abilities
What Grafdigger’s Cage does and doesn’t stop.
prevents players from casting spells from the graveyard or library, as well as creatures from entering the battlefield from a graveyard or library. This is a static ability that changes the rules of the game for as long as the Cage is in play. This means that it stops a lot of things in standard, […]
What first strike and double strike mean for the combat phase.
First Strike and Double Strike: Fun abilities that make creatures scary good in combat. But what exactly ARE they? How do they work? How does my deal damage ‘first’? Normally, during the Combat Phase, there’s only one step where damage is dealt. Immediately after the Declare Blockers step, but before the End of Combat step, […]
You can cast Viridian Corrupter even with no artifacts in play.
When you cast a creature spell, you are never required to choose targets for it, because creature spells never target anything. Some creatures have enters-the-battlefield (“ETB”) abilities that require targets, and you must choose one only when the creature hits the board (even if the only legal target is your own permanent that you’d rather […]
One creature entering play can trigger two Blood Seekers.
A creature entering the battlefield can trigger multiple abilities, as long as they are all looking for a creature entering the battlefield. Say you control two s and your opponent casts . Each Blood Seeker would “see” two creatures enter the battlefield and trigger twice, for a total of four triggers. Those 1/1 Human tokens […]
Undying creatures hit the graveyard before they come back.
When a creature with undying dies, the creature goes to the graveyard, and the undying trigger brings them back into play when the ability resolves. This means that because creatures go to the graveyard, both leaves-the-battlefield abilities and enters-the-battlefield abilities will trigger. For example, if you cast on a before it dies, two abilities trigger […]
What “Protection from [something]” really means.
Today we’re going over an old favorite: Protection! It’s a fairly common mechanic in Standard lately, between all the Swords kicking around and the Crusaders and what-have-you. So what does protection ‘stop’? A lot of people wonder why it is that can kill a , but can’t. Some people think protection from white will mean […]
Havengul Lich doesn’t let you cast creatures when you normally couldn’t.
Dark Ascension added two new cards that allow you to do some odd things having to do with casting spells. One allows you to cast creatures from an unusual zone, and one lets you cast a spell at an unusual time. The first one is , which has an activated ability that lets you cast […]
When creatures “fight,” some abilities matter, and others don’t.
When a creature “fights” another creature, that means each of those creatures deals damage equal to its power to the other creature. It’s important to know that fighting isn’t considered combat damage and won’t trigger any abilities that look for combat damage being dealt. However, the creatures are still dealing the damage directly, so fighting […]