In Magic: The Gathering’s judging system, combat-based rules questions are considered especially heinous. On this blog, the dedicated judges who investigate these tricky interactions are members of an elite squad known as the Special Cards Unit. These are their stories. “Captain! I’m so glad you’re here; it’s a bad one.” “What’s the situation, Sergeant?” “Well, […]
Category: Effects
Rakdos Charm can never result in damage to a planeswalker.
Today we’ll be taking a look at Rakdos Charm’s third mode, or specifically, what it means for a creature to deal damage to its controller. While it’s unusual for a source you control to deal damage to yourself, it does happen, and in most respects it’ll be treated like any other source of damage; a […]
Corpsejack Menace and Master Biomancer.
From the research notes of Gulistan, Master Biomancer: A strange, filth-covered creature crawled up from the plumbing today. Our laboratory assistants noted a strange aura about it, which responded well to many forms of magic and was especially noted to accelerate the pace of evolution. Naturally, I had to summon one for myself. Imagine my […]
Leyline Phantom can block Armored Transport without bouncing.
does funny things in combat. Well, funny as in if it’s blocked by a creature, that creature does nothing at all! Preventing the damage dealt to it in combat means things such as lifelink and deathtouch won’t apply for the blocking creature (Note that prevention effects are a kind of replacement effect, it’s not that […]
Gisela will prevent all instances of 1 damage
We already did a general overview of the legendary angel a while back when she was first released. But that general overview didn’t cover probably the most common question about her, especially in my Commander group: Whether or not she prevents 1 damage. Good old Gisela has two abilities (both are replacement effects) that make […]
Simic Charm and Planeswalkers
That’s right, we’re still hot on this Simic trend for the week! I promise, last Simic topic this week is a neat new card from Gatecrash with a lot of uses; you can pump a creature a la , you can bounce a creature, or you can make everything you control Hexproof to mess with […]
Master Biomancer and Evolve.
Welcome to the lab, initiates. I am Gulistan, , and today we will learn about replacement effects. Observe as I invoke the summoning spell for a basic . How many counters does it enter the battlefield with? If you were paying attention last week, this should be a no-brainer. Cloudfin Raptor normally enters with zero […]
The Gatecrash Guildmage cycle: Part 2
Duskmantle Guildmage’s 1st ability functions the same as Vizkopa Guildmage’s 2nd ability, as far as multiple activations are concerned. Since they set up a delayed trigger, each will resolve individually. Do note that it says Card, so once again, tokens won’t work, and it says from anywhere, not just the library or battlefield. Get inventive! […]
It That Betrays and Commanders
Om nom nom! is coming to get you — and your commander! For today’s tip, I want to talk about a cool interaction in Commander, the hugely-popular multiplayer format where each player chooses a legendary creature, called a “commander,” to lead his or her deck. In this format, each player’s commander is subject to a […]