Welcome back! Eldritch Moon gave us a lot of scary colorless cards, the scariest of which is . Emrakul is the newest in the line of cards that let you control another player during their turn (colloquially called “” effects, after the first such card printed in Mirrodin block!). While it hasn’t been that long […]
Category: One-Shot Effects
All About Tree of Perdition
For today’s Rules Tips, we’ll be covering , the anti-backwards sibling of . Like Tree of Redemption, Perdition is a 0/13 Defender for 4 mana with a nifty ability that trades life totals for toughness. Where Redemption swapped its toughness with YOUR life total, Perdition (being black and spooky and all) swaps with an OPPONENT’S […]
Prerelease Primer Week: Bolster
Good morning, and Happy 2015! We’re beginning our blog posts this year with a Primer for this weekend’s Fate Reforged prereleases! Over the next few days we’ll be covering the new mechanics of the set, so you know what to expect at the prerelease. Today we’re starting with the Abzan’s new mechanic: Bolster. As you […]
Make it Count(ers): Why Not All +1/+1 Effects Are Counters
As we’ve probably learned over the years, cards generally do exactly what their Gatherer texts say. But some people still get confused. A major thing that I’ve seen trip people up is confusion about counters. Some people think that a static +1/+1 bonus (like from , or ) also counts as a counter. But that’s […]
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 […]
Aegis Angel and effects that are applied to multiple permanents.
has an enters the battlefield ability that will make another targeted permanent indestructible for as long as the Angel remains in play. Indestructible means that this permanent will not be destroyed by effects that say to destroy or if it is a creature by receiving lethal damage. In most cases, what happens is pretty simple; […]
What Domain is.
Domain was originally introduced in Invasion block, and the mechanic had the nickname of domain but did not officially have a keyword associated with it. This is because when originally introduced ability words did not exist, they were only used for specific abilities with associated rules in the comprehensive rules. Card that with a similar […]
Creatures can regenerate when destroyed by Phyrexian Rebirth.
As has been mentioned before, cards only do what they specifically state. does destroy all creatures in play, but it does not say that these creatures cannot be regenerated. Therefore, creatures can regenerate and end up ‘surviving’ the Rebirth. Creatures that do end up regenerating will not be counted as destroyed and will not factor […]