is one of the key board control cards in Mono Blue Faeries (as of the time of this writing) … but how does it work? First, when you activate it, you have to choose a target, and that target can’t have power greater than the number of Islands you control at that time. Then your […]
Category: Control / Controller
All about Captivating Vampire.
I see a fair number of questions about this card, so I thought it couldn’t hurt to simply answer them all in one place! If the Vampire dies, do I lose the creatures I took control of with him? No. The effect doesn’t state a duration (e.g., “as long as you control Captivating Vampire”), so […]
Sigarda won’t save you from sacrificing your own Phantasmal Image, even if an opponent targets it.
‘s ability is pretty cool. If an effect an opponent controls says “sacrifice a creature” Sigarda says, “No, I’d rather not.” So she keeps you safe from things like and . But what if the opponent targets your Phantasmal Image (copying something other than Sigarda) with ? On the surface, it almost looks like the […]
When an undying creature dies, it returns under its owner’s control.
When a creature with undying dies (without any +1/+1 counters), it returns to the battlefield under its owner’s control, even if it changed controllers before it died. The “owner” of a card is the player who started the game with the card in his or her deck (the legal owner of the physical card is […]
You don’t control the equipment or auras attached to a creature you steal with Traitorous Blood.
When you gain control of a creature, you aren’t gaining control of anything that’s attached to it. This can be important to know when the equipment or aura has an ability, as opposed to when it give the creature an ability. For example, Nancy has a 1/1 creature that is equipped with , and Adam […]
A creature that changes control is not “entering the battlefield.”
In a game of Magic, there are normally seven zones: library, hand, battlefield, graveyard, stack, exile, and command. Each player has his or her own library, hand and graveyard. The rest of the zones are shared by all players. If you use to steal your opponent’s , you don’t get to remove any other creature […]
Fresh Meat counts only creatures that went to your graveyard.
puts a 3/3 Beast token into play for each creature that has gone to your graveyard prior to when Fresh Meat resolves. This ability will count token creatures that you own and control, as token creatures that are destroyed do go to the graveyard. However, it will not count any creatures that you have ‘stolen’ […]
When creatures change controller they become ‘sick’ again.
Unless you have controlled a creature continuously since the beginning of your most recent turn, you cannot attack with or use the ability of that creature that has the tap symbol as part of the cost. This is referred to by the informal term ‘summoning sickness.’ (See here.) It is important to keep in mind […]
Changing targets of a spell does not change its controller.
There are many effects that allow players to ‘edit’ what a spell targets. There are also may spells and abilities that cause objects to change controllers. These are two very different kinds of effects and something that allows you to change the target of a spell or ability does not change who controls the spell […]