Cascade and split cards are a fun little combination, both in Modern and in Commander. The reason it can be fun is that when Cascade asks a split card what its CMC is, you get two answers; one for each side. As long as ONE of those answers is ‘low enough’ for that Cascade, you […]
Category: Characteristics
Rootborn Defenses’ interaction with creatures changing control or entering later.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: This article has been updated as of the prerelease of Magic 2014 on July 13; Please refer to the revisions below. is a nifty common from Return to Ravnica that was made famous when it was (allegedly) accidentally included in a booster pack of Magic 2013. For us, it’s also interesting due to […]
Pack Rat tokens won’t get any counters or P/T boosts the original has.
I control a . Then I target it with 4 s and 4 s. Then I put a +1/+1 counter on it and turn it blue somehow. You know, for good measure. Now I use ’s ability (don’t ask me how I cast 8 spells and still had another card to discard along with the […]
Wild Beastmaster can kill your other creatures if it has negative power when its ability resolves.
This question has come up a few times recently, because the answer doesn’t seem to make sense to everyone. What happens when you attack with a and your opponent responds to the trigger by casting or targeting the Beastmaster? Well the first thing to realize is that the Beastmaster’s power is only checked as its […]
You can search for Temple Garden with Farseek, but it will be tapped even if you pay 2 life.
Fun fact: The reprinting of led many people to (correctly) believe the ‘shocklands’ were coming back. Now, onto how they interact: Farseek nabs any Plains, Island, Mountain, or Swamp card you want out of your library and puts it onto the battlefield tapped. Prior to us Returning to Ravnica, you were only going to find […]
Mutilate’s -X/-X won’t apply to creatures that enter later in the same turn.
When a resolving effect modifies the characteristics of objects on the battlefield (such as power/toughness), the permanents that will be affected are “locked in” as the spell/ability resolves. So when you cast , it applies -X/-X to all creatures currently on the battlefield as the spell resolves, and that effect will last until the end […]
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 […]
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, […]
What is and isn’t copied with your clone-style creatures.
So what happens when you copy something with , or , or ? Does it copy counters? Does it copy abilities the card gained? Whenever you use something to get a copy of something else, what it copies are the copiable values. These things, and only these things, are what get copied. The copiable values […]