When you sacrifice Solemn Simulacrum to Birthing Pod, you always draw BEFORE you search.

There is a common confusion that comes up when you activate an ability that requires a sacrifice as a payment, and the sacrificed creature has an ability that triggers when it dies. Many people (mistakenly) think you can stack the order of the abilities so the activated ability resolves before the triggered ability. This is […]

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You can use “good” spells on your opponent’s creatures (when it’s actually bad for them).

For the most part, players don’t need to read the Comprehensive Rules in order to figure out how to play their cards, especially at common and uncommon. If a card says “Enchant creature,” for example, it’s not a great leap of intuition to suppose that the card becomes attached to a creature, and from there […]

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What you can do when you have two Dangerous Wagers in hand.

Two in han…: seems pretty useless, right? Well, not necessarily. Dangerous Wager is an instant, so you can cast it in response to an opponent’s spell; but what many players don’t realize is that you can cast spells in response to your own spells as well! After a player casts a spell, priority is given […]

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Redirect can’t change the target of Oblivion Ring.

Oblivion. Such a fun word. I use to send your permanent into OBLIVION! It’s only natural to want to protect your permanents from this very popular enchantment. While there are lots of -style ways to get your toys back, wouldn’t it be more fun to simply use and send THEIR permanent into OBLIVION? Let’s look […]

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You can animate your Inkmoth Nexus in time to cast a miraculous Revenge of the Hunted on it.

More Miracles! A frequent question about Miracles with targets is WHEN they target. For today’s question, more specifically, we’ll look at and . I’ve heard a few people think that if you top-deck Revenge, you won’t have ‘time’ to animate Nexus to get the buff. However, this is incorrect. You don’t pick a target for […]

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How your Consecrated Sphinx interacts with your opponent’s Miracle.

What happens when your opponent draws a card with miracle while control a ? If he or she chooses to reveal it, a couple things happen. Both the miracle ability and Consecrated Sphinx’s ability trigger, and they’re put on the stack in active player/nonactive player order (meaning the nonactive player’s ability goes on the stack […]

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Mental Misstep won’t stop a Miracle.

So, I’ve had some interesting questions come up regarding Miracles, but one that I’ve heard more than the others is what their converted mana cost (CMC) is. Usually it’s because of someone windmill slamming a topdecked , or , or for their Miracle cost, and someone else trying to stop it with . After all, […]

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A spell that can’t be countered can still be targeted by a counterspell.

This was already something that came up now and then with , and in days past with , but it’s popping up more because of and all the fun it entails. The question: “Can you aim a counterspell at one of these things? It doesn’t do anything!” Well, ‘can’t be countered’ doesn’t mean you can’t […]

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Alchemist’s Refuge has no interaction with Birthing Pod.

has a nifty ability that changes the timing restrictions on when you can cast spells. For example, it lets you cast sorcery spells on your opponent’s turn, or in response to another spell. However, Alchemist’s Refuge doesn’t change the timing restrictions on when you can activate abilities. This can get confusing if you have a […]

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