Ouch! Nobody wants to be at the wrong end of a LARGE Rakdos’s Return, so try not to let it resolve targeting you! Jason and Eddie are playing in a two player game. Jason casts targeting Eddie, and laughs. Eddie casts , declaring that Rakdos’s Return will be targeting Jason instead. After Eddie gets down […]
Category: Casting / playing a spell or ability
Responding to Deathrite Shaman with Snapcaster Mage
Ahhh, the classic “Me firs- NO ME FIRST!” scenario in Magic. Remember folks, those who respond last, get to resolve first; a concept that NONE of the people in busy lines seem to grasp at my local amusement park. Following that principal in Magic, Deathrite Shaman’s ability states that, “Hey, pay {B} and tap me, […]
Understanding Possibility Storm
Oh, the possibilities! is already a favorite of mine because of the sheer hilarity and chaos it can cause. It’s also seeing play in several EDH decks for that same reason, and even made an appearance at the most recent Pro Tour due to its ability to blank in some matchups. So with the possibility […]
Scavenge can’t target creatures with Protection.
Scavenge is a fairly flavorful ability for green and black, since they love dead creatures. Having the ability to turn your dead creatures into counters for your living creatures seems like a pretty good trade off. However, protection won’t help you with your scavenge creatures very much The scavenge ability targets, and one of the […]
You can’t tap a Cluestone for mana to activate its own “draw a card” ability.
There’s a small caveat in Magic: you can only pay any given cost for one ability or spell; you can’t use the same cost to pay for two separate abilities. That’s just not how life (or Magic) works. Very simple here with the Cluestones. Since the Cluestone’s abilities require it to tap for both the […]
Goblin Test Pilot only chooses randomly among legal targets.
Because of this card, I’m going to have to start carrying a random number generator (I also suggest all judges do so as well!). ‘s ability says that it deals damage to “target creature or player chosen at random”. A target creature, while activating this ability, can only be chosen if it can be legally […]
Melek doesn’t let you cast spells for free.
can do many things. One of the things that you might not realize is that it doesn’t let you play the top card of the deck for free. In Magic, we often combine “You may cast this card” with the second sweetest phrase, “without paying its mana cost” (the first sweetest phrase being “Draw a […]
Plasm Capture vs. X spells
Let me tell you a little secret. X, if it’s not on the stack, is treated as 0. While an X spell is ON the stack, X stops being a variable and starts being a number (Note: the quality of the spell being considered an X spell doesn’t change; it’s still an X spell on […]
Rot Farm Skeleton’s ability can only be activated from the graveyard.
Generally, a permanent’s abilities only work while the card is on the battlefield, not in any other zone. There are some exceptions. One is if the ability only makes sense in another zone. For instance, has an ability that says it can’t be countered. While it doesn’t explicitly say that it only works while it’s […]