A triggered ability is controlled by the controller of the source of the ability when the ability triggers. Normally this is pretty straightforward. For example, with something like the controller of the trigger is whoever controlled the Blood Seeker when creature came into play under an opponent’s control. In most cases the controller of a […]
Category: Abilities
What being ‘poisoned’ means.
A few cards in Scars of Mirrodin block (, , ) refer to a player being poisoned. A player is considered to be poison if he or she has one or more poison counter. In a two-headed giant game an individual player is considered to be poisoned if any member of the team has a […]
You can’t spend life if your life total cannot change
a mythic card from Scars of Mirrodin has an ability that prevents your life total from changing. This ability prevents its controller from spending life as well. Because of this, you cannot spend life to play cards with Phyrexian mana in their mana cost via their alternate costs.
At the beginning of the end step vs until the end of turn.
There are a few things that happen at the end of every turn; players discard down to their maximum hand size, damage on creatures goes away etc. One area that often confuses players is the difference between effects that last until the turn ends and triggered abilities that trigger at the end of a turn. […]
Tokens do go to the graveyard when destroyed.
Token creatures are actual creatures and they will cause relevant abilities to trigger when they leave play. For example, ‘s ability will trigger when a token creature controlled by an opponent goes to the graveyard. This also applies if the source of the ability itself goes to the graveyard. If a token copy of a […]
Lifelink is not cumulative.
When initially introduced Lifelink was a triggered ability. If a permanent had multiple instances of lifelink, then each of these separate abilities would trigger independently ultimately causing the controller of of these abilities to gain more life than the damage dealt. However when the Magic 2010 base set was released how Lifelink works was changed. […]
Nested Ghoul’s ability triggers once per source of damage.
Some abilities in Magic care about specific amount of damage and others care about the sources of damage regardless of the amount. Abilities that prevent damage and redirect damage are obvious examples. For example, compare and . Shiledmate’s Blessing prevents a specific amount of damage and Auriok Replica’s ability prevents all damage from a specific […]
What Reflecting Pool can produce.
‘s ability allows it to produce any one mana of a type that another land that you control could produce. First of all, in order for this ability to produce any mana you must control at least one other land that is capable or producing mana. Controlling just another Reflecting Pool will not work, as […]
Who or what the Hero of Bladehold tokens are attacking.
In a previous tip it was pointed out that has two triggered abilities, the Battle Cry trigger and a trigger that puts two 1/1 white soldier tokens into play attacking. As mentioned in the previous tip, the order that these triggers go on the stack and therefore resolve matters. However Hero of Bladehold’s trigger that […]