Hello and welcome back to the one, the only, Rules Tips Blog! It's been a hot-and-spicy minute since we've had any Rules Tips for you folks, but we're back on track and hitting the ground running with Izzet Week- all your Rules Tips this week will involve cards from the bombastic and eccentric chemisters from the Izzet League (specifically, new cards from Guilds of Ravnica). To start with, we'll be talking about Ionize.
Category: Static Abilities
Abilities, Effects, Prevention and Replacement Effects, Resolving spells and abilities, Source, Static Abilities
Soul-Scar Mage Doesn’t Stack
The Lorwyn block was one of my favorites, and Wither was one of the neater abilities to come out of that mega-block; damage from a source with Wither is dealt as -1/-1 counters, rather than marking damage onto a creature. It was like damage that never wore off! We have a sort of throwback to […]
Abilities, Effects, Prevention and Replacement Effects, Resolving spells and abilities, Static Abilities
Fumigate and Kalitas
Yesterday, we talked a bit about Kalitas (and it was somewhat complicated!), and we’re still talking about that Zombie-making Vampire everyone loves, but it’ll be a bit simpler. blasts the board like many other Wraths, and gains you some life for everything it destroys- but what, specifically, does that mean? It has to actually destroy […]
Tournament Tuesday: Kalitas and Anointed Procession
EDIT: With the release of Ixalan, the rules regarding this interaction have changed. As of that set’s release, effects like Anointed Procession will also apply if a replacement effect (such as Kalitas’ effect) is creating tokens, no matter why. Even if Kalitas’ ability is replacing a state-based action rather than the effect of a spell or […]
Magma Spray And Later Deaths
Many people rejoiced when they saw in the Amonkhet spoilers, as a way to deal with pesky little things like , and to deal with the new threat of Embalm creatures- as the flavor text says, you can’t embalm ashes, after all. Magma Spray does 2 damage to a target creature, and exiles it if […]
Hapatra and Wither: Who’s Putting These Counters?
Welcome back! Today’s topic will be the new card, and how she works. On the surface, pretty simply: Whenever you put some -1/-1 counters on a creature, you get a 1/1 deathtouching Snake as a bonus. That’s fairly simple with effects like or , which are effects that you control telling you “Hey, put a […]
Abilities, Continuous Effects, Effects, Resolving spells and abilities, State-Based Actions, Static Abilities, Tournament Rules
Tournament Tuesday: The Rules vs. Can’t Lose Effects
Welcome back to the Rules Blog! Today we’ll be going over something that’s occasionally misunderstood: effects that prevent you from losing the game. The ur-example of this is good old , but there’s been others- most recently, the emblem from . So long as you have that Emblem, and a Planeswalker with the “Gideon” subtype, […]
Threatened Exertion
Welcome back to the Rules Blog! Today we’ll be covering the interaction between effects (such as or ) and Exert. As you may know, many creatures in Amokhet can be Exerted as you attack with them, which makes it so they won’t untap normally next turn, but in exchange get some kind of boost or […]
Prophecy and You: How As Foretold Foretells!
Welcome back to the Rules Tips Blog! Today we’ll be going over a particularly spicy card from Amonkhet: . On the surface, it’s a pretty simple enchantment; every turn it gets a Time Counter, and every turn you can free-cast a spell with converted mana cost equal to or less than the number of Time […]